♥ Review:: Dana's Knee Pad Pants Tutorial

 I usually try to figure things out for myself, but I have such a collection of tutorials I have found along the way and saved, I should put it to good use! And make some cute stuff while I'm at it. And inform you guys of how I went with it.

The first tutorial I decided to follow, my first in a VERY long time, was Dana from Made's Knee Pad Pants Tutorial. Dana is amazing. She is so inspiring to me, and is doing very well for herself simply by blogging about her family and her craftiness!

She also has two gorgeous little kids, a boy + a girl, so there is plenty of kiddie crafting inspo for me there!

I know, I know, it's a pants tutorial, similar to the one I made! But I thought I'd give it a go. She really explains very well how to make a pattern from an existing pair of pants that fid the tyke well. She does things differently to what I do them, I take more shortcuts, but they both turn out the same.

The kneepads on the pants were a fun little twist, and it's cute that you keep the edges raw. You also do some basic decorative stitching that was fun to do also.

I made Vincent's pants from the black plaid I made his waistcoat out of. I used the sleeve of a men's Superman shirt for the kneepads. They went together SO WELL.

Overall, the tutorial is REALLY well written for people who are inexperienced sewers but also is great for those who already know what they are doing. This tutorial is also fantastic for people who are only just diving into the world of sewing for children.

♥You can see more variations other people have made using this tutorial at Dana's flickr pool, you MADE it.

Visit Dana's blog

I don't want to sound cocky, but...

Pretty sure I have a gifted child on my hands.

Ok, I know, go ahead and roll yoru eyes because every mum thinks that, and I'm sure every mum would justify to you their reasons why they think that way just like I'm about to.

I might research it a bit more afterwards, but first let's hear about my son Vincent.

Vincent, from the word go, was ever alert. You know how they reckon mama + baby have a bonding moment where the baby only stares at the mum or whatever when they are first born?

Vincent looked every else BUT me.

And he has always been like that. He always seems to be hyperactive. He's always go go go.

He could hold his head up by himself a few days after he was born. I didn't really give him much tummy time, but when I did he would always hold his head up for quite awhile and look around.

I hardly ever put Vincent on the ground, but I think if I did he would have learnt to roll over alot quicker. He finally did it when he was 4 months old.

He could sit up at 5 months. He started eating solids at 5 months ((I really didn't push him on that, he was trying to grab food out of my mouth for goodness sake!)).

He started to crawl at the end of 7 months, but was very close to crawling for SUCH a long time.

I had to wean him off breastmilk at 8 months, but a week or so before it seemed like he was doing it himself. He would fight me when I tried to feed him, he didn't want it anymore.

There were other things like when he started to laugh, when he started to pick things up with his thumb and forefinger, that were much more ahead of other babies his age. When he understood what NO meant, I mean, he started to chuck tantrums at 4 months old it seemed!! Or his equivalent of tantys!

Maybe he's like, athletically gifted ((like his father)), if that's even a genre of being gifted.

But certain things I've noticed lately. He's 10months old tomorrow ((I know, WHAT THE)) The last month he has started to pull his socks off, then hold them up to his toes again like he knows where they go and is trying to put them back on. I feed him from his baby food jar and he likes to play with the lid. He now puts the lid back onto the jarand takes it off again. He does the same with the lid on his bottles.

If he's playing with something and you take it away from him and hide it. He looks for it. He will not be distracted by anything else because he wants what he had! Vincent remembers.

He has the craziest sense of humour. Last night mum had the big plastic box out full of cat biscuits ((it's one of those big deep ones on wheels)). Vincent pulled himself up to it, and reached in and grabbed a handful of biscuits before we could blink. He popped a few in his mouth and when mum said, "He's got the cat biscuits!" he started to laugh and crawl away really fast with his little fist still full of catfood.

Vincent has a berocca tube tin that we blow or speak into sometimes to play with him, and it makes a funny noise. He'll often crawl around with it and talk into it too.

He's not very advanced with his verbal skills though, his little friend Elliot is way ahead on that matter. He does go "Bab bab bab bab" when you do it to him first.

You wanna know something else creepy.

Today he stacked some blocks ontop of each other on the back of one of his big lego buses.

Four single blocks.

One

On Top

Of

The Other.

That's incredible.

Anyway, I'm off to google if Vincent is gifted. It could happen you know, Tim's older brother was saying Dog, Cat, Mum + Dad and pointing to them when he was Vincent's age. Tim's older brother is also a genius, and has a bachelor of psychology and a doctorate in law. And he just turned 30. That guy is amazing.

Please Vinnie be like Uncle Rob.

But like rock + roll instead of Indie.

Breastfeeding is NOT Obscene

Do I have your attention?

Good. As you can see I'm on my little soapbox, so you know I'm going to get into something quite juicy and appalling.

I've heard of it before, and I'm sure someone you know has posted a link to this entry in this frustrated mama's blog. We all have heard of the issues mummy's face breastfeeding, not only is it difficult to get the knack of, but I've heard of some mummy's being told absolute untruths by uneducated, old-fashioned people about breastfeeding ((ie - how do you know your baby is getting enough?)). And on the other side, if you absolutely cannot breastfeed, it is disappointing and difficult to mix up formula for your baby when you had your heart set on something that everyone seems to be doing so easily.

I know.

I breastfeed Vincent for 8 months. In the beginning it was SO hard. He didn't know what to do, I didn't know what to do. It seemed so easy at the breastfeeding class and in all the books, I thought I'd have it down pat no worries.

Well I didn't.

The first week was such a shock to the system, not only having this little baby, but trying to feed him. And it hurt so bad ((thankyou Lansinoh!)). And he'd latch onto anything, even if it wasn't a nipple. And that hurt even more! ((He had suction like a turbo vacuum cleaner)).

And then we had it great for 8 months. I could breastfeed him in my sleep, quite literally!

But then I had to go to hospital, and had to be put on medication that, while safe for Vincent to ingest, I just didn't like the idea of it at all. So I weaned him in January of this year. And he took to it like a duck to water. He loves formula, and is pretty easy, but I feel sad when I cuddle him and give him his bottle. It's just not the same as when I breastfed him.

Anyway, that was a complete and utter sidetrack, but now you know how important breastfeeding was to me. And how it is with some mothers.

The moment you have a baby, your breasts should not be viewed as sexual objects. They are just giant milk bottles. And I don't think it's terrible for people to breastfeed in public, ESPECIALLY if they are trying to make a point ((like the rebellious skank I am)). Heck I even breastfed Vincent on the bus 5 or 6 times because he was very upset.

What would people rather? A screaming baby, or a mama discreetly nursing? I'm sure the man next to me wasn't comfortable at all, but my boy had had enough of public transport, so I was trying to make him happy. And I doubt anyone saw anything - unless they were real skeeze-bags.

So back to the topic. FACEBOOK.

Argh, where do I start?

Facebook has this policy, which is great if they enforced it correctly, against sexually-explicit content. And I'm all for it. If I wanted to see porn I'd go to a porn site, right? But they don't enforce it properly. This is the whole point.

My friend is a porn star. And while she doesn't have actual porn photos on her facebook, you can kinda tell what she's up to. Ok, fine whatever. If you don't want to see it, don't go to her facebook. If you're a prude, report it. She'll just put them back up again.

But why on earth would facebook remove THIS PHOTO?

 It's April, the author of the blog i mentioned above, breastfeeding her twins. It's a triumphant moment when you can successfully get your baby to latch on. I can't imagine how amazing it would feel having your TWINS latch on AT THE SAME TIME!

You can see more boob if you look at the magazine rack at your local service station.

Ok, so maybe not everyone wants to see a woman with her legs spread breastfeeding her kids. SO WHY GO TO THE DAMN BREASTFEEDING FAN PAGE HUH??

But facebook has removed it due to it being offensive.

Unfortunately, my facebook has been acting like a big fat jerk ((har har)) on this computer, so I am unable to check to see how many facebook groups there are for tits + boobs. Actually I searched for "boobs" and it came up "Are you looking for BBOOBS or BOOBSS?" so people are getting around this enforcement anyway.

If you have such a problem against breastfeeding, why would you go to any groups or fan pages of breastfeeding you big fat jerks?

I am really really angry. Have you noticed?

Right, well, go read that link. Here it is again. Spread the word! Post her link on Facebook. Send emails to Facebook, and the local media. I am contacting every news show I can think of. I'm getting off my soap-box, but you can jump on now if you'd like.

Paint Swatch Notebook

Ok. I, Max California, have a severe addiction to paint swatches. I love just standing in front of them at the hardware and just staring at all the colours. Every shade imaginable. And all of them have the most delicious names - Cloudberry, Almond Bloom, Pink Dolly.

When we lived in Brisbane, I was going to paint a feature wall in each room, and I had a great time collecting paint swatches and trying to decide. Well we didn't end up staying there very long, and I was hardly at home to even think about any DIY projects. Now we've moved and we have theopportunity again to paint the walls in our new place, so now i have double the amount of paint swatches.

And I couldn't be happier.

Here's a little DIY project I came up with one day when I grabbed the nearest thing to write on, and it happened to be a paint swatch.

Paint Swatch Notebook

Aren't they cute?

Here's a quick guide on how to make your own::

First, grab all your materials. This includes scissors, your ribbon + lace box, a hole puncher, a pencil/pen, a lighter ((if you're using ribbon)) and your selected paint swatches.

 Punch as many or as few holes along one side of the paint swatch. Lay the first one over the next and with a pencil make a small mark through the hole. Punch the holes lining up with the marks. Repeat for as many litlte pages as you want. I go with about 3-5 pages.

Now thread your ribbon or lace or braid through the holes. Be as decorative as you like, or keep it plain and simple. Double back, cross-over, the floor is yours! If you're usiing ribbon, cut the ends off at an angle, and using the cigarette lighter - just melt the ends a tiny bit. This will stop it for fraying.

Tadaaaa

Mohawk for a cold day

So I made this adorable little tartan helmet thing for Vin for when it gets cold out. It's made out of op-shop-bought black wool tartan and lined in red broadcloth. Oh, did you notice the BRIGHT RED MOHAWK down the middle?

You did?

That's pretty cool too isn't it! I'm going to buy longer faux fur, so it will stick up higher. That's right.

This is the only decent shot I could get of the front. I still haven't put a snap on the chinstrap yet, so he pulls it off every second he can get. That's why his hands are full of things :D Yep. Clever mummy.

The Queensland Floods

I am so frustrated.

I have no idea where to look or who to call.

Not sure if many of you dear readers are aware, but in Queensland it's been raining very heavily the last few weeks. Living in Toowomba, which is at the top of the range ((and is actually in a dead volcano!)), there has been no thoughts of flooding at all. Just marvelous miserable weather. I have been giving my gumboots a great workout the last few weeks, and even though all my clothing is still packed away in boxes in my parent's shed, I've been able to wear my knee high socks or my leopard-print stockings and not die of over-heating ((Brisbane weather is much more humid!))

But it wasn't until I watched the news that I realised that other parts of Queensland are far worse off, and thereis flooding everywhere, with alotmore on the way. I really want to do somethin to help. I want to not only sort through my clothes to donate, and buy some canned goods, but I wantto actually go there with my damn gumboots on and help muck out the houses and clean things. My dad volunteered with the Charleville floods, and my mum donated alot of clothes she had handmade Betty + I.

Unfortunately, not even the Queensland Government website can point me to anyone I can contact to volunteer and help.

Tim is still on holidays, and I have two sets of grandparents and one of my good friends who could look after Vin for a few days.

Does anyone have any ideas of any other places I can look? Maybe I'm too early, maybe they'll send out the call after all the flooding has actually stopped.

Pumpkin + Kale Salad

Ok I've got to be honest with you, this one I was very hesitant to try. I'm an incredibly fussy eater, and I didn't like the idea of this thing called Kale ((which I totally thought was a type of seaweed...y'know, kelp...)) or teh idea of raw pumpkin. But I decided to give it a taste test, and then grabbed another helping!!

You could even eat this raw salad on a cold day because the dressing gives it a bit of zing!

Here's the recipe!

6 leaves of Kale - cut the backs of the leaf stem off and tear the leaf  into bite-sized pieces

1/2 cup Jap pumpkin - diced

1 tomato - chopped

4 slices red/spanish onion

1/2 cup mung bean sprouts

6 leaves sweet basil - chopped

Dressing

Juice of 1/2 lemon

Coconut Oil

Pinch Cayenne pepper

1/2 tsp celtic sea salt

Mix all the ingredients together and pour the dressing over the top. 

YUM MUM!

Ice Magic - The Raw Foods Way

I think I've touched on the subject of my mummy's raw foodism before.

Well instead of creating an entirely new blog for it, I'm going to publish her recipes here! These are delicious for everyone, and it's actually quite surprising how delicious and enjoyable raw food can be.

First off, I'm going to tempt your tastebuds with my mother's version of Ice Magic. She poured it over cold mango and strawberries and it hardened up straight away!

Delicious.

Well here is the recipe, in her words

I am eating a delicious dish of raw food - my very own first Rockmelon I have ever grown and some cut up Nectarine and Peach I got from my $3 box of fruit from my fav vegie store at Whyalla Plaza in Toowoomba. I then made a delicious raw chocolate Ice Magic - all natural products with no chemicals. So it doesn't prick my conscience to have it for dinner. That's what you get when you eat Raw Foodist style. It even got the lick of approval from Max California....
Here's the recipe:

Some raw organic Cacao (approx 2 heaped tsps)
A dash of raw organic Agave Nectar (approx 2 tblsps)
A heap of shredded organic Coconut (about 1/2 cup)
A big dash of organic Coconut Oil (approx 1/4 cup -excellent for weight loss!)

Now spoon or pour it over your fresh fruit salad from the fridge and magic! The chocolate solidifies into an Ice Magic crunch. 

 

You can get most ingredients from your local organic or health food store. It may be expensive to buy the ingredients initially, but they soon pay off as you use a little bit in everything!

Tutorial:: Waistcoat

I'd like to say this is his first ever waistcoat, but would you believe this is his FOURTH? Yeh, he hardly wears them, but I guess it's because we've been on the move, and I just forget he has them ((or I havn't packed them)). Anywho. I'm going to make a matching pair of pants for this, so he has a cute suit. Maybe a bow tie too. Man he looks so young in that photo.

I will eventually attach a pattern you can download and print out to this, but this tutorial will show you how to draft your own pattern from an existing shirt of your child's!

Let's get going! As always, click on the pictures to make them larger!

Pants + Tie-Shirt Reconstructions

So a little while ago I made Vin a pair of pants that were embarassingly too small for him ((like two inches above his ankles and tight all over)) from an old pair of my mother's pants. Well I grabbed another pair she had donated to me, and inspired by  this tutorial((I didn't actually read it, I just had a look at it, lol)) by This Mama Makes Stuff, I went about making another pair of pants for Vincent.

I used the crotch seam and the existing waistband of the original pants, and cut the legs shorter and alot thinner. It didn't take long and I got these adorable little pants.

Unfortunately Vincent cannot stand alone yet, so I couldn't get a very good picture of the front of them. They have a wide waistband and it overlaps right over to the left side of him with two big buttons.


I also made his little shirt. I've seen shirts with ties appliqued onto them, but after cutting up a tonne of my dad's old ties to make mini ties for Vin ((tute soon I promise!)), Ihad alot of ties left over. So instead of wasting them, I decided to stitch the front of an actual tie to a shirt. I made the shirt from scratch. I still had loads left over, so I added a stripe down each sleeve of the tie. I still have a tiny bit of the tie left over, like about 5 inches, so I'll have to think of something else to use it for!! Maybe a pocket stripe on something.



I gotta tell you, I didn't love the shirt when I finishe dmaking it. The only stretchknit I had thatwould match was this red and I just didn't like the shade. I made this shirt last week, but only put it on Vincent this morning, and it was instant love!

But he'd make a hessian sack look amazing.



WAAAAH I DON'T WANNA BE A MODEL ANYMORE!


Also a little side note. I will be making all my tutorials into PDFs that will be linked at the top of each tutorial I publish here. This will make it easier for you to download instead of having to cut + paste a dozen things :D

Vincent's Grown-Up Pyjamas

As in his first set of proper pyjamas! He won't sleep in these for a while yet I think, he keeps crawling out of the pants ((he could win the speed-crawling championship I'm sure)), but when he's a bit older they will be nice + snug and ready for him. As you can see they are too long in the legs and the sleeves I had to roll up, but man aren't they cute!

I used my basic pants pattern for the bottoms, and Enid Gilchrist's pattern for a beach coat for the shirt. I added this suede cord I had in my embellishments box as a trim around the collar and I added a patch pocket in black with a V appliqued onto it. It was my first applique in a long time and I had so much fun, I'm sure all of Vinnie's clothes now will be appliqued!

I used some red flannelette I bought off eBay that had black spiders and webs all over it.

Sleepy?

Tutorial:: How to Applique

When I was in highschool, my mum taught me to applique. I appliqued ALOT of things, mostly faces of Angelica from the Rugrats onto shirts + pencil cases.

Well I hadn't appliqued in forever, until I decided Vincent needed some cute new clothes. Well I'm on an applique-ing bender! You can applique anything, and use any graphic you'd like as an applique. Some that are fun are images from children's colouring-in books. You can get some cute pictures here. Just print them out, cut along the lines and then choose what fabrics you'd like each piece. I'll do a more in-depth applique tutorial for multiple pieces another day.

The following tutorial shows you how to applique. I use this product called Vliesofix, but if you don't have any, or can't afford it, regular interfacing will do. You'll just have to pin it to the item being appliqued instead of ironing it on.

1. Gather your materials. You'll need Scissors, an iron, what you want to applique, and what you want to applique onto. You'll also need a little pattern of what you are appliqueing. I'm going to applique a V onto some white fabric I can later turn into a pocket for Vincent. The fabric that will be the V is the fabric with the small red ants all over it.

The paper under the iron there is Vliesofix.

Vliesofix is a double sided glue paper. It is gluey on one side, and the other side is covered in paper. You can iron the gluey side down to something, peel off the paper and then iron that side onto something else. It sticks things together really well, but for relaly neat appliqueing, I zigzag around the edge.

2. Cut out of the fabric and the vliesofix your desired pattern.

Click on this next photo for a close-up of the texture of Vliesofix ((right))

3. With the right side of the fabric facing the ironing board, place the Vliesofix gluey side down. Cover with an old teatowel and iron. This melts the glue and bonds it to the fabric.

4. Flip the Applique over and place onto the fabric you are appliqueing. Make sure you have it positioned right, then cover with a teatowel and iron.

5. Some sewing machines have a stitch guide inside the lid. My mum's does, and it has a stitch guide for sewing appliques.

It recommends how wide the zig-zag should be ((3-5)), which stitch length I should choose ((0.5-1)), which stitch to set it to ((zigzag)) and which presser foot to use ((F - which on mum's machine is the regular foot))

So I set the Zig-zag width to 4 and the stitch length to 0.5. This makes tiny close together zig-zags like satinstitch.


6. Stitch

The Vliesofix has pretyt much glued the applique to the fabric so you don't need to pin it :)

7. All Done!