Singlet tales. From candy canes to trains.

On Christmas eve I realised the Santa t-shirt I intended to dress my 22month old son in was going to be too hot.
As any sewist would, I set about making something suitable an hour before we are due to arrive LOL.

I've included a pic of the front and of the back,  with teensy little Christmas appliques.

That was very short lived due to being made within hours of Christmas. So yesterday I decided to unpick those appliques and replace them.
Recently I ruined a Chuggington shirt in a wash cycle too hot for the poor chuggers, but the patch on the sleeve was fine. So I used it on the singlet and prepared for my son to fall in love with it....
However, seeing as he can't read, he doesn't recognise it's Chuggington and was not at all excited lol. Oh well, one day the penny might drop!

Baby Harem pants sz1 made from adult blouse sleeves

Cute, huh? These were sleeves that were cut from a top my Mum liked but wanted in "sleeveless" version. I pinned a tutorial on Pinterest and when it came time to make a unique first birthday present for a baby of a friend whose little crawler doesn't like dresses, I simply had to make them.



Her version was made using a blouse with very "pouffy" wrist to arm ratio, but my sleeves were not like that. I just unpicked the wrist from the rest and cut a little off the end before sewing it back together and making it more gathered.

Thanks to my nephew CJ for holding the baby still, I honestly took TWENTY FOUR photos of him and there are only these 3 that aren't [that] blurry!
Apologies for the lack of related styling, he's a boy with a boyish tshirt on, it was either this or a picture of them lying on my olfa mat haha.

I bought ribbing to complete the top from Spotlight.
As the recycled sleeves were only 3/4 length, I put a little extra in the front and back to allow them to fit over a squirming toddler and unforgiving nappy.

I think I will need to put elastic in the ankle part to finish them. Hope Charlotte likes them!

If you missed the link above, the TUTORIAL is HERE from

I love upcycling. Using make up freebie bags for kids

It's been so long since I've posted, I've done so many projects but not loaded the pics. For now I'll share the gift I made for my nephew.

You may have accumulated some free make up toiletry bags when you bought cosmetics. I thought this orange one might be a good Nintendo DS carry bag to go with the other items I bought my nephew who turned 10.

Here's what the "before" shot looks like:


I appliqued the green initials *under* the green and blue fabric, using fusible thread. This is the first time I've used fusible thread this way, I have previously only used it for sewing binding, but after seeing these video tutorials from Punch with Judy where I bought the thread, I thought I'd stretch my skills once more. I love learning new sewing skills!

Then to get the nice square edges, I sewed interfacing over the top of my design and turned it through as she demonstrates in this video.

Then stitched around the edges with my twin needle for looks, and ironed it to the bag for hand sewing around the outside.

Then add an Itunes voucher and some sour iceblocks for what I hope is an ideal gift for a 10 year old!