my creative space: a baby bouquet tutorial

I've always loved the baby bouquets you can buy to give as a gifts for a baby shower or a new baby- however they are pretty expensive and I wanted to choose what to put in the bouquet so I thought I would try making one myself. I found this Martha Stewart tutorial but it was a bit complicated so I just made one up myself! 

1. First I bought a merino nightie, a pair of merino socks and a bib from JK's (they have a sale on at the mo too BTW). 
2. Then I found a round cardboard box I had kept from a gift (it was one of those Kaloo boxes that had a teddy in it -Spotlight also has a good selection of boxes).  I rolled up the nightie, socks and bib tightly and tied a skinny ribbon around each one to keep it together.  
3. For the crepe paper flowers I used a couple I had made for my three year olds birthday party- there are lots of tutorials online like this one.
4. Then I scrunched up some green tissue paper in the box, popped in the clothing items and the flowers, then cut some leaves out of green felt and arranged them in the box. 
5. To finish I tied a ribbon around the outside of the box and gave to the mum of one very beautiful little baby girl ♥

And 'Our Creative Spaces' has moved  - Kirsty from Kootoyoo is still running it but it is now being hosted at the fab website Kidspot- check it out here

Megan x

my creative space: polka dot rabbits

One of my favourite magazines is NZ 'Your Home and Garden magazine' and I especially love the back page with it's "Four Ways With..." crafty ideas. Here's this months theme...

I decided last night to give the cute rabbit project a go. I used a soft fleece for the front of the rabbit and fabric for the back. Mine ended up with much skinnier ears, arms and legs than the one in the mag!

I made the grey one for our baby on the way and the red one is heading off to Australia for Monkeemoomoo's Queensland Flood Appeal Dolly Drive.

I made a little bag for the red one using one of my favourite tutorials again. I remember taking about two evenings to make my first little satchel bag when I was just learning to sew and now I can make this little bag in about 20 minutes!

Peek a boo

Hello world!

To see what other crafty people have been up to this week head over to Kirsty's at Kootoyoo.

Thank you for visiting - might see you tomorrow with my 'getting ready for baby' organised home challenge, it's a bit more successful than last week's!

Megan x

a bag and a bib for a baby boy

Been a bit quiet on the blog this week! I had a fun night in Auckland on Saturday taking Amelie to Disney on Ice. She was very excited and watching her quite gobsmacked by the whole thing was very entertaining. It was a great show :)

On the crafting front I made my first baby bib the other day. My friend Ange asked me to make one of my personalised kids toilet bags for a friends one year old baby boy and I had just enough fabric left over to make a bib too. I am really enjoying using bias binding- it looks so professional! I didn't even pin it on- I just pulled it around the edges as I sewed. I went through quite a few fasteners trying to attach them to the bib- I think I was hitting them a bit too hard with the hammer!
Megan x

my creative space: a baby snuggle rug

Today I'm making a start on a snuggly baby blanket/floor rug using this cute pink and red spotty fabric on the front and fur on the back.  I made one a few weeks ago for my cousin Vicki's baby shower and I really loved the result so I am going to make a few more.

Here's some pics of the snuggle rug I made for Vicki. 

I took the fabric up to show my crafty friend Anna before I started and she gave me the idea of putting some ribbon trim detail on the cotton side. She also found the beige colour ribbon in her stash- wasn't it the perfect match thanks Anna!  I used cotton batting between the two layers to make it nice and comfy. You would think it would be quite easy to sew three layers together but it ended up being a bit harder than I thought it would be- I think because the fur had a bit of stretch to it it was a little tricky to keep the layers together evenly when sewing. 

To go with the blanket I made one of my nappy wallets and put some wipes and flannels in and also a recipe for homemade baby wipes.

I've made up a few of these baby shower CD's in the past so I made one for Vicki as well with songs like "Waiting for that day", "Somebody to Love" "Good Morning Baby", "Never the Same" and "Welcome Home".

Right, time for some sewing now!
To see what's going on in other creative spaces today head over to Kirsty's here☞
Megan x

PS: there's a cute fabric giveaway over here...
http://everyspareminute.blogspot.com/2010/05/its-giveaway-time.html

baby gifts and a flower pin cushion

Baby Thomas received his little rabbit today so here is a pic of the finished toy and some other goodies I included in the pressie- one of my toilet bags with some baby bath wash and little flannels.  I ended up just stitching across the bottom instead of putting a circle at the bottom but I will try the circle shape next time when I'm feeling a bit braver!

And my swap partner from the Fox's Lane pin cushion swap, the lovely Selina from Selina's Vintage, received her pin cushion from me last week so I can put a few pics of it on now as well. I chose this pattern from here and it ended up being quite a bit trickier that I realised!  Luckily I think the nice bright fabrics detracted from the numerous mistakes in the pin cushion! I sent one of my little zip purses too in the same fabric.

Well, I need to put my feet up now - have had a mad day of cleaning...instead of just doing a bit of housework each day I leave it for ages and then go crazy cleaning for an entire day in between baby/toddler tending to. Does anyone else do this?! Dusting, mopping, cleaning windows, vacuuming the car even!! Had to take the girls out for a walk once I'd finished so my hubby could walk in and actually see a tidy house for once before Amelie and Stella messed it up again!

Megan x


PS: tomorrow is the last day to enter my giveaway- anyone can enter...good luck!


PPS: have just seen the most gorgeous pin cushions ever by Sarah at Red Gingham- she is so clever!!

a softie for Stella

It's Stella's first birthday tomorrow so I have just finished making her a little present - a cute softie from the Softies book.  I used the 'Polly' pattern by Carly Schwerdt of Nest Studio (what a gorgeous blog she has), and I just love it. I bought a tag a while back from a craft shop that says "Made with love by Mummy" so I sewed that on the side and I stitched Stella's name on the back too.  Still can't do ladder stitch so my stuffing seams are really obvious- need to work on that!

I think she will really like this- she hasn't been that rapt with some of my sewing efforts so far- everytime I give her the taggie to play with she throws it on the floor and likewise with the patchwork gonk so here's hoping I'm onto a winner with this one!
I also got her a little outfit from Cotton On Kids today- I love the apple tree print on the t-shirt and its nice to see her in an outfit that isn't her sister's hand me downs. As you can see it's a bit tricky trying to photograph a one year old hence some of the blurry pics!

And my bag arrived from France yesterday- j'adore le spotty bag! The bracelet was at Cotton On kids too and freakishly matches the bag- funny how I get drawn to childrens jewellery for myself.

and finally... some cute spotty mugs from ....Countdown Supermarket ($3 something each).... who would have thought!

Time for a cuppa now,

Megan