Little Girl's Cribsheet

Mum told me we might need another cribsheet for her little granddaughter and so I made one with Riley Blake's fabric. I'm not a fan of pink or anything girly. This fabric was sent to me by mistake and the store said I could keep it while they resend my order.

Glad it came in useful for our girl!

Bean sprout husks pillow

When my pregnant friend asked me if I could make a bean sprout husks pillow for her little one, I couldn't find any reason to reject.

A bean sprout husks pillow is made of dried bean sprout husks. The chinese believed that placing this pillow across a newborn's chest or tummy will provide a sense of comfort and security like a hand. It is very lightweight and porous so definitely safe for newborns.

I purchased a bag of bean sprout husks from the supermarket for 30cents. The biggest difficulty I faced was separating the bean sprouts from husks. The damp husks were stuck on my fingers all the time! So i tried placing the whole bag into the freezer before I started the separation process, which did the trick!

After that I wash the husks clean with cold and hot water. Spread it out thinly onto newspaper for 1-2 days to dry it and get rid of the smell. This was what I got!

Dried bean sprout husks

After that I proceeded to make the pillow and cases. Embroidered her baby's name at her request. :) Love it!

Bean Sprout Husks Pillow Set

The reason why I bought my machine - embroidery! Allows me to customise my items.

Machine embroidered name

Baby walker seat

Colin loved being placed in the walker before he started walking. He bounced a lot in excitement when he realised he could stand on something called 'legs'. A few weeks later, we removed the walker's base mat for him to run and glide around the house with his legs, which pretty much amused him and sent him into smiles and laughters.

Barely 2 months after getting him the walker, the fabric showed signs of fabric stress. I could see the loosening of fabric weaves near the groin area. A few days later, this was what it became. We had 2 options - (1) purchase another walker or (2) take up the challenge and sew a replacement. I told Boon, "Since we will have to get a new walker, then might as well let me try making one. We can get a new walker if I fail...".

So my challenge began... First, a picture of how the damaged seat looked like.

My plan was to do reverse engineering. Before I started taking it apart, I took many pictures of the seat. Front view, back view, inner view, side views,  bottom view. As many as I could so it is easy to see how it looked like before being disassembled. 

Then I started unpicking slowly.. and taking pictures as I went along.

Then I laid my 'pattern blocks' onto the new fabric (Michael Miller's) and batting, leaving 1.5cm seam allowance, and cut both fabric and batting together, then got started sew happy!

I could only sew after Colin goes to bed, with a bed light lamp and machine's light. This is the final product 2 weeks later. :) Much prettier and more durable than the previous seat. The only thing I reused was the light blue trim.

Inner view. Not the best sew lines... Reinforced the sides to prevent snapping of thread.

Top view. Noticed how I painstakingly matched the circles? Am happy with the result. :))

The greatest challenge was sewing the trims when it got to the top. I had to exert a lot of energy to compress the foam so that it could go under the needles. Glad it all worked out without any needle breaking incident.

A great experience!

Boy Shorts

I managed to sew a pair of shorts for Colin with that XXXL shirt my brother wanted to throw away.

It was simple. Just place a pair of his shorts (folded on half) on the shirt (line the bottom of the shorts to the bottom of the shirt to reuse the hem), outline the shorts on the shirt after determining the seam allowance and upsizing if any. Cut along and sew according to tutorial.

Add my label and it's done!

Crib sheets!

The baby cot was delivered last Sunday and I finally could get the measurements to make crib sheets for our little boy.

3 completed! I hope 4 crib sheets (1 came with the cot package) would be enough? :)


I've also sewn 4 pillow cases. Need to do cot bumper next! Hope I can finish before baby Colin greets this world. :)

Hankies

Advice #1
Have lotsa hankies/burp cloths, crib sheets and pillow cases.
Cut up my old comfy shirts and made 10 hankies! :)

Baby Hat

Peek a boo!

I see you!

Here's my back,

and the tag. :)

Made this cute baby hat some weeks back as a gift. I'll be making one for myself soon!

Toddler's Dress

Yet another first! A dress I made for Ee Hui's baby girl, Yun Xuan. 

I curved the front neckline cause square neckline seemed uncomfortable. 

I'm thankful for having an overlocker to finish the seams nicely. 

Close up on the armhole.

Fold the dress and put it into the re-useable 'wrapper' neatly.

Draw the string and all ready to visit its owner! :) 

Delivered! hehe

Pouch's fabric: Cotton from Spotlight

Dress's fabric: Double cloth cotton from fabrictales.com
Pattern from following book:

New book I bought from Taipei. Step by step pictorial guide helped me understand the instructions much better. 

More diaper cakes

I am addicted to diaper cakes! This cake is for Lynette Lau, whom just turn 1 month old not too long ago. :)

This 32 pieces diaper cake sits on a 10" cake base I bought from SKP.
Diameter of top tier: 6.5"
Diameter of bottom tier: 9"

Love how the fabric covers hold the diapers in place.

I also gave her the reversible kawaii kimono shoes made earlier.

Baby Pillow Cases

During lunar new year visiting, my cousin request for a baby pillow case cause she couldn't find a suitable one in stores. I made her 2 cases! One in cotton with tiger prints since her little girl was born in the year of the Tiger, and the other in fleece with rainbow prints. I also used this cloth for her burp cloth given last year. :) Both fabrics we bought from fabrics.com last March.

I realised that pillow cases are really easy to make! Shall briefly jot down the steps for easy reference in future.
1. Measure the existing pillow case. For the case I'm using-->
Exterior: Front-15" by 6.5", Back-14" by 6.5", Interior flap: 3".

2. Add 0.5" allowance on each side, mark and cut the fabric
3. Fold in 0.25" on side of the fabric (where the case flaps are), fold again so that raw seams are hidden nicely, pin and sew. This is how it should look like after sewing, great to prevent fraying.
4. Mark your sewing guideline using tailor's chalk or erasable marker (shown in pink!)

4. Place fabrics on wrong side together. Decide how deep the flap should be. I left mine 3" deep. Pin fabrics to prevent movement while sewing.

5. Sew along the sewing guideline you marked.

6. Serge (or zig zag) the seams to prevent it from fraying.

7. Flip it over. You're done~ :) 

The back view looks like this.. 

Did you notice the different overlapping for the case opening?  

Baby Diaper Cake

My 2nd diaper cake! This was an order for baby shower :)

It is smaller compared to the previous diaper cake I made. I used 32 (S sized) diapers and a 8 inch cake base for this, then sewed 2 diaper covers for both tiers. The diaper covers (fastened with elastic bands at the bottom) double up as a holder/bag after the cake is dismantled.

After packaging...

Awesome gifts, isn't it?

Diaper Cake Tutorial

Cracking your head for baby gift ideas? Try making a diaper cake! It's pretty, practical and can double up as a great display for the party!

How to make a Diaper Cake
Things you need: Diapers (of course!), 8 to 12 inch cake base depending on your cake size, ribbons, scortch tape, scissors. If you're planning to do a 2 tier cake, you'll need something strong such as cardboard roll or milk bottle for support.

I used 40 sized M diapers for this project.

Stack the diapers together until it fits the cake base nicely. This step can be a little tricky cause the diapers keep slipping away. Get a helper to hold it for you, or try what I did - hug it with one arm, then use a ribbon to secure the diapers with the other. Spread the diapers evenly.

Tape the support to the cake base to prevent it from moving when you wrap the diapers around it. 

Place the diaper over the support. There! You're done with the lower tier. :)

Now, the second tier. Repeat the stacking diapers process.

Decorate it as you wish! I made 2 fabric ribbons and topped it up with a bow!  The diaper cake is good to go! :)

Wrapping is important for the temperamental weather in Singapore. I used pink polka dots disco paper.

Diaper cake beautified!

Enjoy your diaper cake!

Diaper Cake for Lorraine

Today is J&K's Lorraine's 1st birthday party! :) Kelvin is a practical guy, so my gift choices were in some sense limited to vouchers, toys, clothes... Well, I chose diaper cake!

There are 2 methods to do diaper cakes - stacking or rolling. I preferred the stacking method cause it does lesser damage to the diapers when being tied together, and I think it's prettier. After bundling the diapers, I made 2 fabric ribbons and topped it off with bow. I was so engrossed it was 1.30am before I knew it! (-_-") Plastic wrapping was done this morning.

TK was home so I got him to snap a picture before I deliver the cake! ♥♥

The unwrapped cake

Lorraine playing with the cake :)

Interested to make one too? Check out the Diaper Cake Tutorial here. :) 

Burp Cloths

Take a peek at my fabric stash and you probably could tell that it's all girly! So it wasn't difficult to decide on the fabric I'll use for the burp cloth for my cousin's baby shower. Happy 1 month, Jingwen. Stay healthy and happy. :)

Both burp cloths have towel material on one side. One with muslin, and the other with flannel on the other side. The muslin was pretty thin, so I added cotton batting. Loved how the machine embroidered name turned out. Maybe I should do make hand towel for myself. Anyway, these took me less than an hour (with interruption) to complete.

It's really easy with the tutorial from Handmade by Jill.

Reversible Kimono Shoe

I couldn't resist purchasing the pattern for this pair of Reversible Kimono Shoe! Used 100% cotton with batting for more warmth and comfort. It looks a little bulky due to batting, but it's all right, comfort matters more. :)

Pattern used: Sweetpea's Baby Kawaii Kinomo Shoe, USD$4.50.

Baby Bib

My colleague is expecting his number 3, a little prince this time! I got his baby's name in advance and embroidered on the IKEA bib.

Cute? I love it!

Baby Burp Cloth

What's up recently? Sewing! :D

First gift, baby burp cloths for TK's primary school friend.

My wise HarB said "kAm's hobbies are expensive".

I don't deny, but the satisfaction I get from the process and final products can't be measured in $ and cents. (^_^).v