Let them sleep.

In May my sister is getting married. Of course she is over the moon, and so is the rest of the family. However, as most of you will know, there is a lot of stress involved as well. Being sisters you have to look out for each other and that's why I made her this eye mask. 

I hope she'll  put it to good use. That she will take a few extra hours of sleep and will have beautiful dreams about her big day. Beside the inevitable hours of worrying if everything will turn out o.k. ............

Looking at the final result I definitely should have gone with a darker kind of thread. Unfortunately,  now the text seems to disappear in the background. At least it turns out that it does its job very well. The dark green fabric at the back and the wadding I put inside make that it really doesn't let trough any light.

I made one for my friend as well. Soon she will become a mum. All the reason to rest extra during the day. Both, to enjoy the piece and quiet as long as it lasts, as to save energy to help the bay grow in her tummy right now.

Lets pray it will be many, many years before Marie her self becomes a mum! This, however, didn't stop her for trying the mask on, obviously..... 

TUTORIAL

To make these masks I used a boring black one of my own. I traced it on an old news paper to use as a pattern. For the inside and outside fabric I added 1,5cm for seem allowens. 

The wadding and the cross stitch linen I did cut the actual size. However, I gave the wadding a few hubs to be able to secure it without making it impossible to turn the mask inside out later in the process. 

I secured my linen on the back of the outer front fabric using fusible web. I wrote my text on the back of the linen. Which was not easy since it had to be done in the opposite direction to turn out correctly at the front.

Using an easy back stitch I traced my writing.

I covered a piece of elastic with fabric to be the strap.  The outer fabrics lying on top of each other with the nice sides touching, the wadding on top of the dark green fabric and the cross stitch linen on top of the flower fabric I sewed everything together. 

Leaving a big gap at the top and securing the elastic band and its cover between the different layers.  Now the only thing left was to turn the whole thing inside out, close the gap and press.

Twinkle, twinkle little star

This week I made Marie a nicely warm patted sleeping bag.

As we live in the Southern hemisphere, autumn has begun and temperatures are going down. In the Netherlands, where we are accustomed to the cold weather, I had bought a nicely thick sleeping bag. I never thought it would be needed here, but it's amazing how quickly you get used to the heat. Now, 14 degrees feels cold when compared to the 43 degrees a few weeks ago.

As we all know one suitable sleeping bag for your little one is hardly enough, since they need regular washing.

Thick, 100% cotton sleeping bags turn out to cost a fortune down here. Once again I praise my dear grandmother who gave me my sewing machine for my birthday a few years ago. Feeling good, saving some money and having loads of fun making my own design, I had a few very enjoyable hours creating Marie's new sleepwear.

It's really easy. A pattern is not even needed. Would you like to make one yourself ? Her's the tutorial:

Take a onesie you can do without. Detach one sleeve. 

Use the sleeve and the sleeveless upper quarter of the onesie to draw yourself a pattern. Lengthen it along as needed for your little one.

Using your pattern, cut out pieces for three sleeping bags. One outer sleeping bag, one cotton patting sleeping bag and one inner sleeping bag.

The next step is to put all these pieces together. However, if you want to add any applications, now is the best time to do this. Apply them on the outer sleeping bag. 

A you can see in the picture, the front of the cotton patting sleeping bag is only one piece unlike the fronts of the inner and outer sleeping bag.

It needs an opening for the zipper, though. Make a cut trough the middle, using the zipper to determine the length.

Using the zipper again to determine your distances, pin together the two front pieces of the inner and outer sleeping bag. Now, sew together.

Sew the shoulders together as well and apply the sleeve. Do this for the cotton patting sleeping bag as well.

When you put the back and the front on top of each other. It should look like this:

Sew all three sleeping bags together and slide into one another. The right side of the outer sleeping bag should face outward. The right side of the inner sleeping bag should face inward. For the cotton patting sleeping bag both is alright.

Insert the zipper. But before you do this, sew a little half circle which you turn inside out. Place the half circle over the top of the zipper to protect your little one from the sharp ends.

You can find instructions on how to insert the zipper on Make It and Love It, the great blog of Ashley who gives you such nice instructions!

Using bias tape you finish the neck line. Securing the three separate sleeping bags at ones at the top. 

Just fold the ends of the sleeves and sew together.

And you're done! Sleep tight.