Thursday, July 16, 2009

Tutorial - Replacing the Elastic in an Itti Bitti Modern Cloth Nappy

Ive had quite a few of my itti MCN un-usable due to the elastic going. Today I had a go at replacing it. I cant believe how easy this was, even with my limited sewing skills! To show you all how easy it was, I wrote this tutorial :) Hope its easy to follow, and all your unwell itti's are on the mend soon!



Replacing the Elastic in an Itti Bitti D'lish

As you can see the elastic in this nappy is stretched so much, it is no longer functional. This tutorial will show how to replace the elastic. Im very much a beginner sewer, so Im not sure if this is the 'right' way, but it works and its simple. Ive used elastic similar to the one that was already in there because its all I had here. Id would be preferable to use something like swimware elastic.


Step 1 - Start from the centre front of the nappy.



Carefully unpick the seam from the centre point out each way. You should be able to see when you reach the part of the nappy that has been overlocked - stop when you reach this point on either side. You will unpick a section about 9cm long (this was in a large nappy)



Step 2 - Once you have unpicked the section of seam, turn the nappy completely inside out through the unpicked section.

Step 3 - Cut three pieces of elastic about 3/4 of the length of the stretched elastic. This will be too long, but I found it easier to trim the excess later than try to judge the exact amount.

Step 4 - I have left the old elastic in the nappy and stitched the new over the top. You could unpick and remove the old elastic if you wanted. This is what the stretched leg elastic in the nappy looks like before putting the new piece in.

Hold one end of the elastic over the point that the old piece started. Using a zigzag, stitch back and forth several times to secure.

Step 5 - While stretching the elastic as much as possible, stitch along the full length with a zigzag stitch. Once you reach the other end stitch back and forth several times to secure. Trim off excess elastic.

The nappy should now look like this.

Step 6 - Repeat with the other leg elastic, and back elastic.

Once they are all done turn the nappy back in the right way.

Step 7 - Stitch the opening closed. You could hand stitch it, but I just ran a line of machine stitching across. You can see it a little, but the minky hides it pretty well, and it was much quicker than doing it by hand.

All finished, and the nappy is ready to put back into your stash!

9 days old

There is just something so precious about a new born baby. Yesterday I got to have a nice long visit with my gorgeous little nephew - Bailey Jack. We took LOTS of photos. The sweet little boy who has spent the first 8 days of his life sleeping was not going to give in and nod off for a snooze. No amount of feeding, patting, rocking could convince him! Probably didnt help that he was surrounded by the chaos of Isaac, Jacinta & Georgia !!!

He wan't at all upset, just didnt want to close is eyes and go into that deep, dreamy floppy newborn sleep so I could play around with posing him. Oh well, we still got some gorgeous shots of him - and I did manage to get him asleep just long enough to pose him for one sleepy curled up shot on the wooden bowl! Tell you what - the boy has no bladder control at all - LOL - I lost count of how many times we had to clean up after him !!!

So here are a few of my favourites....

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and my three most favourite of all.....

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Saturday, July 04, 2009

Re-Useable Shopping Bag

Since the banning of plastic supermarket bags here is SA we have gradually worked our way through the stash of them we had in the cupboard. Im really glad they were banned, they were an environmental nightmare, but they were also very handy. Nice and compact and a great size for so many things.

I have bought a few cheap little fold up shopping bags that live in my handbag. They fold up nice and compact and are much easier and nicer to use than the 'green bags'.
How hard could it be to whip one up out of some fabric I thought? A while back I got some end of bolts of fabric from spotlight. Great patterns for the older boys, I plan to make some summer PJ pants from it and maybe even new quilt covers (I got about 15 m of each one!) and it worked out to only about 50c/m. what did I have to loose? (Except my sanity maybe!!!!) All I had to do was unpick a bag ( I had one that was starting to come undone at the seam anyway), draft a pattern from it, cut out the fabric and sew it up! An hour or so I thought - no worries! More like two and a half !!!!I guess it wasnt really that hard. Ive never really used bias binding before and I hate pinning things before I sew. Note to self - when trying to use said binding always pin it first to avoid unpicking and having to fix!!!! I sewed, unpicked and re sewed two of the four sections before I finally admited defeat and pinned it first..LOL it was then still a little tricky, but so much quicker and easier! Its a little rough around the edges, and apart from having a bit of trouble getting the biding to sit nicely around the flap section, Im really happy with the way it turned out. Should be a handy bag for one of the boys...if Isaac will let anyone else near it!!!
I can see quite a few of these getting made. I also want to try and draft a pattern for the black "greenbag" that I tend to cart all the kids stuff around in. Its the perfect size, but its pretty ordinary to look at - just need to find some suitable fabric and I will have a go!

Thursday, July 02, 2009

mixed media - 3 year old syle


Isaac was playing around with a pen and paper while I was cleaning the other morning. Id handed him a couple of tazos and stones I found laying around. When I went around to the lounge I found this little treasure set up on the coffee table. It made me smile.

Sunday, June 28, 2009

photo challenge

remember the weekly photo challenge - well it went into hibernation for a few weeks, but its back again now.

Last weeks challenge was flowers.
This weeks topic- favourite things. I choose Jacintas gorgeous little toes - there is just something cute about baby toes - they are still so soft and squidgy and cute. I took this shot for the challenge.

Taking this shot reminded me of a gorgeous photo I had seen on Katies photography blog recently (those of you who read my blog already know how much I love her photography...I only wish she lived closer!) I managed to snap this shot later during her 16 month photoshoot as she tried to escape LOL - Im thrilled with the way it turned out. I was amazed when I went back to look at the photo that it inspired me to take it, how similar it actually was.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

16 months

To my sweet little girl, As I looked through the photos I wanted to add to your letter this month I realised that you really are no longer a baby. You have become a gorgeous little toddler - even though you STILL havnt taken your first step! Im sure that in the next month we will be able to cross that milestone off as well. You have been practicing standing by yourself more and more in the last few days, and no longer need someone or something to get yourself up on. You just stand up - much to everyones excitement - and then plop down on your bottom with lots of giggles. Sometimes I think this is the part of the game that you think we are clapping for. You are wanting to stand more and more. You stand at the coffee table to play with the toys, you stand up to dance when you hear music playing and you stand up and plop down playing silly games with Isaac. You have started bum shuffling around as well so you can get where you want and carry things with you. You love walking along holding someones hands or pushing your pram around. Im sure its just a matter of time before you take those first tentative steps.

This month has seen some more changes. Our breastfeeding relationship has ended. I had hoped to keep you on a night time feed for a while longer, but once we went to just one feed I think it was all to much work for you. You much prefered the ease of drinking milk from your sipper cup and one day flatly refused to feed from me. Im really pleased that we managed to get this far though. I wanted to feed you for at least 12 months and we surpassed that goal easily.

I also turned your car seat to face forward. You still think it is really funny to be facing forwards and giggle each time I put you in the car. I had to leave your seat in the middle so that both yours and Isaacs seats would fit properly. Its much easier for him to climb past now and easier to get you strapped safely into your seat from his side.
You have become much more adventurous too. You love climbing on things - especially your little lounge chairs - actually I think you like climbing on Isaacs the best...you have already worked out how to stir him up!
You climb onto any low objects, turn yourself around and sit there looking very proud of yourself!You have also worked out how to slide open the doors on your robes and love climbing inside and peeping back out again.
You still have your Dummy although you are no where near as attatched to it as Isaac was to his. I try to keep it just for sleep times, although you sometimes go into your room and reach it through the bars of the cot and come out sucking on it and looking at me with a cheeky little grin. You have always slept with your blankie too. Its a small cradle blanket. It was only one favourite blanket - now it is two! I cut in in half after getting fed up with trying to get it washed and dryed between sleeps. You knew something was up with it - it was much smaller and didnt quite cuddle right. I trimmed the end of each piece with a nice soft flanellette piece to get it nearly back to its original size. Now you snuggle back into it like its always been like that. Im just waiting for you to get old enough to realise that only one of them has the princess applique on it! Hopefully by then you will be quite used to there being two of them!
Your favourite toys at 16 months, I would have to say, would be matchbox cars. What else could I expect with the influence of all these boys :) I can surround you with all the girliness in the world, but in the end the lure of the colouful hand sized little pieces of metal that seem to provide so much enjoyment for your brothers is what wins you over. Your play is complete with cute little brmmmm brmmmm noises as well.
You have three of your four eye teeth now and the last one is so close to cutting through. You are starting to get a real personality. You know how to shake your head when you dont want something, you 'sing' in your own little language, youe 'read' your books, you push Isaac away when he is annoying you and have even started to yell at him, you yell when you dont get what you want. I have seen you throw yourself on the ground when you dont get your way - its still cute and I still laugh, which in turn snaps you out of it and has you laughing along with me - Im pretty sure that stratagy wont be effective for much longer!Sometimes there is 'the look' - a brief glimpse into what might be laying in store for me as you get older? I was taking photos of you and you kept leaning to get off the box and crawl away - I had just said "sit down sweetie", you sat up nicely and then shot me this look - gotta admit it cracked me up at the time
which in turn cracked you up...
...cheeky monkey!
You really are a delight my little princess. I love you forever.
Mummy xxxx

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

waiting, waiting, waiting

As many of you know, Im soon to become an Auntie once again. The countdown is on, the little mans EDD is only one week away, so today I went and took some photos of my sister, Georgia and the 'bump' ! Here are my favourite shots...


Sunday, May 24, 2009

15 months

Dear Jazz, 'Round and round the garden, like a teddy bear, one step, two steps, tickle under there' - its one of your favourite songs. You crawl upto me and hold you chubby little hand out, your blue eyes pleading with me to play. You tense up in anticipation of the tickles and always collapse into laughter before I even get to that part. As soon as Im finished you push your hand back at me, fingers outstretched, your cheeky smile once again pleading for more. Ive even seen you sitting by yourself, gabbling away as you your own fingers goes round and round the palm of your other hand - so cute sweetie! The other song you love is Twinkle, twinkle little star. You 'sing' along with a sweet, gentle (unintelligable) little voice, twinkle your fingers, point to the sky, and even make a little diamond shape with both your hands. Its the song that can calm you when your cranky, distract you when you want to escape as your nappy is being changed or as we dry and dress you after your bath.

You are cruising the furniture and pushing your little pram around, but as yet have not taken any steps on your own. You will get there in your own time, you have only been crawling about 8 weeks. It would be nice if you walked soon though - its wet outside now, and it would be so much easier if you could hold my hand and walk alongside me! You still love the baby carriers,
and thankfully since you are quite petite, its still comfortable and practical to just pop you onto one of them. You much prefer being carried in a sling or the ergo to travelling in the pram.
You have cut two of your eye teeth, and the other two are really close. Lots of dribbling and yucky nappies, you have even needed the occasional dose of panadol and teething gel to help ease you through them cutting comfortably.

This month you had your first haircut. Just a little tidy up really, you were really good. Yet another one of those baby to toddler transitions ticked off the list! Time is going by far to quickly!

You have discovered that you can climb into your little lounge chair all by yourself. You love climbing in and out of it. You often sit perched right on the edge, your feet on the ground bouncing your weight from the chair to your legs, a big cheeky grin lighting up your face. You look so close to just standing up and walking away - it wont be long now!
I am about to wean you off your morning breastfeed. You dont seem all that interested any more, and I would love the occassional sleep in! You drink a sipper cup of milk at lunch time, so we will give you one of these in the morning as well. I would like to continue our night time feed as long as you want it though.

You love your food! This month you got treated to your first ever babychino! We went shopping with Auntie Vic and Georgia, Auntie Jode and Riley and you all got to have a play in the Mccafe playground and got a babychino and a mini muffin while we had coffee. You were very excited!

Somtime in about the next six weeks you will loose your place as the baby of the family. Vic, Mike & Georgia will welcome their little boy to the family - I cant wait to meet him, it will make you seem like such a big girl having a new born around again!

You still have two sleeps a day at the moment and this makes getting out of the house a little tricky. We tend to spend most of our time at home. We visit occassionally, and get to playgroup when we can. Since we are hear so much Ive been trying my hand at some baking and sewing. Ive made PJ pants for all of you, which were suprisingly easy. I want to have a go at making some little summer dresses for you as well. All four of you kids are happy about the baking! Ive been making a huge batch of cookies each week. Choc chip are a hit with every one, then I made dark choc chip with slivered almonds and apricots (YUMMO), plain sultana biscuits and milo cookies. Ive make a muslie slice and want to have a go at some point making my own pasta sauce to bottle.

Crawling has given you the ability to get where ever you want, and to explore at will. You follow Isaac around the house, trying to get right in the middle of what he is doing. You love unpacking bags and boxes. The boys school bags are fair game if they leave them sitting in the floor with the zips undone in the mornings, as is any other bag you find with in reach. You can unzip them too - that skill is well developed from all the practice you get unzipping every jacket I put on you ! You make a bee line for the remote controls, or the phone if it has been left with in your reach. You know just what to do with them too. Your fingers push the little buttons on the remote as soon as you get near it, and the phone goes straight to your ear. If there is something you shouldnt touch, a stern little ahhhh, is usually all it takes for you to move onto something else.

You still do the covering your ears thing! When ever you are uncomfortable with a situation, or upset, your hands cover your ears, and your eyes open up wide pleading with me to pick you up and return you to your comfort zone. Its a crack up. It happens if someone your not really familiar with walks in the room or picks you up, or if you take a tumble as you are climbing up on to your chair. It is just one of your little quirks!

You are not over interested in playing with toys. You think play is all about having a car in your hand and brooming it along. You love Isaacs cars - especially those that make a noise, or whizz away after you give them a shake. You like having little tea parties with Isaac, although the whole pretend concept is a little difficult for you to grasp. You pop one of the toy spoons into your mouth and look at me with a grin - you know that we dont play like that, you know that Mummy will screw up her face and say " out of your mouth, it Yucky". You just dont quite get why we would want to pretend to eat something that isnt even there!

Im still plodding my way through getting your nursery finished. I need to get your quilt quilted, make some little butterflys to flutter around the birdies on their branch, and make a couple more framed pieces to go in the collection above your cot. You love pointing out the birdies around your room, and love when I blow on the butterflys hanging from your light and they magically start fluttering around. Your room is my favourite room in the house right now. The winter sun streams in the window for a lot of the day, it is uncluttered (unless you open the end robe door, or look at the constant pile of clothes and nappies sitting on your change table waiting to be folded!) and the colours are cheerful but restful. I love that so much of it has been especially made for you by me. I drew the pictures, I took the photos, I made the flowers, the birdies, your name banner and the linen for you cot. There is a nursery rhyme - from a book that was mine as a little girl - framed on the wall, as well as framed vintage transfers, just like were in my childhood room. When ever Im in there I feel a sense of contentment - I hope you feel it to ! (photo courtesy of Isaac - as we try to capture lots more of the everyday moments) My darling little girl, you are such a sweet little thing and we all love you more than you could ever imagine.

With all my love
Mummy xxxx