Of Sewing and Jigsaw Puzzles

I should have done this a long time ago... but I finally sewed a pair of pyjama pants for the little bugger. He's been wearing the old ones since he was 1 and they are now up to the middle of his calves! Whenever he has them on, he keeps bugging me pull them down to cover his ankles. After 5 times in a mere span of 5 minutes, I knew I had to drag that sewing machine out.

It was my first attempt at sewing a piece of clothing... and I must say it was really fun! Plus the fact that they actually fit is a real bonus!

And now that I have this prototype, I'm gonna make a bunch of pants for him! Good thing I have a roll of light cotton fabric from Children's Ikea. He's gonna love the bright colours.

By the way, Hubs is also eyeing a pair of adult-sized pyjama pants for himself. Can't wait to make matching pants for father and son. :)

So here's the the little bugger in his little blue pair of pants covering his little chubby ankles.










































Lately, Jeddy boy is into jigsaw puzzles. He now has 4 boxes of them, with four 3-piece to 6-piece puzzles in each. Every morning, before his breakfast, he'll bring a box to me and say, "Mummy, kai1!". And when I open it for him, he'll go "xie4 xie4", before proceeding to fix them. Awwww...... *pinch his cheeeeeeks*

He needed a little guiding when we started out with the first box. Now he's an expert on all the puzzles except for the 6-piece variety, where a little hint here and there is still appreciated.

It's fun watching him do puzzles. When he discovers that he has taken a wrong piece, he'll wag his little index finger at it and says "neooo" with a rising tone at the end in exactly the same way I say no to him when he's up to his mischiefs. Cracks me up no end.







































Oh, another Jeddy-style-obsessive-compulsive behaviour that comes with playing puzzles. As mentioned earlier, one box contains 4 puzzles right? Jeddy boy will complete all four of them, and then in one puff mess them all up. The key is he has to complete ALL the 4 puzzles before they can be messed up. Clueless mummy once tried to join in the fun and messed up the puzzles when he's only completed two. Little bugger threw a fit! I have since learned not to mess with Mr Jeddy when he's playing with his puzzles. *wipes brow*

Mess 'em up, mess 'em all up!






















While we're still not far from the topic of sewing, here is something else I made from a lovely piece of linen that I got on my last trip to Japan. A tissue-paper packet holder with a pocket for my ezlink card! Come to think of it, I can also put in loose change, since the button secures the holder quite well!

I'm lovin' it!
































Fancy one for yourself? ;)

Bible Cover - A Little Handmade Goodness

Sis requested for a fabric cover for her bible the other day... and I couldn't wait to get started!

I threw together some cotton and linen fabric, pretty cotton lace and one of my handcarved rubber stamps.

Abracadabra!

And here's how it turned out. :)
























The interior


















Sis' bible all cozy and snuggly in its new cover.























That sure was fun!

Yay! :)

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Craft Therapy

Got tired of carving stamps. Plus, it's wrecking havoc on my eyes....

So, riding on the momentum of Mr Caterpillar, I've decided to sew sew sew!

And these are the results of my nightly craft therapy sessions.

A bright bright tote for a mini grocery trip. The cloth is from Ikea (children's section). It turned out better than I thought and holds its shape well. Took me 4 hours. Feel like making another one already....



















And this is the Mother's Day gift for Mum (obviously ;P). A 2-in-1 case for tissue paper and loose change. Perfect for her daily lunch trips to the canteen. Hope you like it Moo!









































Ahh..... all in two nights' work... I sure don't mind giving up retail therapy for this instead! ;)

......

Eww

I seriously do not know what came over me. I fear all things creepy crawly (especially if they are squashed!). The mere thought of them makes the hair on my skin stand.

But I actually made this for Jeddy.

A felt caterpillar. With detachable body parts.

*shudder*

Somehow it didn't look so eww in the pattern and during the stitching up. But when I put the fella together......eeewwwww!!!!

*shudder somemore*

I haven't been making toys for Jeddy since Mr Jellyfish. So here it is, presenting to you the great bonding session of Jeddy with his new green pal. I call it er... Mr Caterpillar!

It's more a Jeddy initiation rite than bonding session actually... all toys go through the fling test, chew test, and of course, the twist test.

Haha! ;D
































































Mr Caterpillar took me 3 nights to finish with all his fancy spots and stripes and velcro bits. I must admit it was pretty fun to make though, and oh so very therapeutic!

At the moment, Jeddy can only fling poor Mr Caterpillar around like a lasso. But I'm actually glad. Cos when he's able to take the critter apart, I won't be hanging around when he plays with it!

Hahahaha! Oh, Hubs thinks I'm nuts. Do you?

;P

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New Toy to Old in 2 Minutes

I sacrificed some two hours of sleep last night to make this soft felt rattle for Lil' Jeddy. It's hand-sewn, mind you. Couldn't wait to present it to him in the morning... :)




















Here Jeddy, look at what Mummy made for you last night! I'm the best mummy in the whole wide world right? :D
















*shake shake* *rattle rattle*















Hey! :S















Lesson Learnt: 3 month olds love their hands more than anything else in the world. They can stare at them for hours, chew some, and then stare somemore...

Well, since he doesn't appreciate it, I shall play with it myself!

*shake shake* *rattle rattle*

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Wanna Make a Rattle for Your Ungrateful 3 Month Old? ;D








1. Enlarge the above template to desired size.
2. Use the template to cut out 8 colourful felt pieces.
3. Sew along the sides of each piece together using simple whip stitch/ blanket stitch/ running stitch (whichever you're good at ;)), leaving a small opening for stuffing.
4. Stuff with polyfill (cotton wool will work too. Am sure you mummies have lots of it! ;D)
5. Stick a bell in among the stuffing.
6. Sew the opening shut.
7. Rattle it a few times to get the kick and satisfaction out of your masterpiece.
8. Cross your fingers and present it to your little one. ;)

Enjoy!!

...

DIY DIY

I'm in a sewing frenzy these days...

Made a bunch of these tissue paper holders to give away. There's one for everybody! ;D














Well, they are really easy to make... not to mention addictive!

Also, at the request of Sis (who happens to have many requests ;P), I made this elastic headband for her. The pattern is taken from Heather Bailey's site. An amazing designer and fellow mummy!















It's aptly called Hooray for Headbands! ;D I wanted Sis to pose for a pic but she shy (don't beat me! ;P) so I have no choice but to put up my spastic photo instead. Ha ! But just for the records, Sis looks reeeeeally pretty in it. Imagine her cascading long hair... *whistle*

Anyway, she came up with a term for me. The Hunchback of Pasir Ris! Yea, cos you can imagine me all hunched up over my sewing machine in the middle of the night pedaling away and snipping threads under the dim table light. Creepy! xD

...

And no entry is ever complete without Lil' Jeddy..... so here it is!

This is how he sleeps. Very relaaaaak... and without a care in the world.... oh well, maybe an occasional nightmare or two.... ;D














...

Endnote: Here's something the older folks believe in (they apparently swear by it).... Wanna know if your next kid's gonna be a boy or a girl? Two signs to look out for... Check your kid's chubby thigh. If it has one fold in it, it'll be a boy. Two folds, a girl! Next, check your kid's nipples. Inverted? A boy next. Protruding? Expect the next to be a girl.

Don't ask me what happens if one nipple inverts and the other protrudes. ;D

So far, Lil Jeddy has one fold and inverted nipples...... Hmm.....we shall see............

Recovering from a scary throat infection...

After my previous post, I went to bed...

I woke up a few hours later with a fever and an inflammed throat! Not again!

Went to school nevertheless since it was my paper and I gotta make sure that everything's ok... was shivering in the hall during invigilation.

Went to the doc in the afternoon and found that I was running a 38.6 degrees fever with a very red throat. I was given some medication and went home to rest.

It was really bad that night... The fever wouldn't go down and the pain in my throat got worse.
...

Saturday... had to miss Jap lesson and lunch with my teacher. Went to the doc. Got an antibiotics jab. My fever was still hovering at 38 degrees. I was so afraid that I won't get well in time for the trip.

Had a tough afternoon fighting the virus.

I won. The fever went down. Praise God! I must thank all those who prayed for me...

I felt well enough at night to start on my order from Mrs Pong (8 linen pencil cases, 3 blue pencil cases, 6 drawstring pouches and 3 handphone pouches). I figured I had better get started on them soon.

So here are the 3 pencil blue pencil cases...















And the eight linen pencil cases waiting to have their lining sewn on... sigh*















...

I have finally finished setting my two exam papers.

Imagine me with cool gel on my forehead, and a face mask over my face while I sat at my laptop typing out the answer. Quite a pathetic sight.

...

Today, I am going to formally get started on my marking... and when I get bored with that, I can get started on the pouches (or sew on the dreaded lining... ), AND if i get bored with that, I can surf the web for infor for my Japan trip...

I think I am going to have a very very busy week ahead...

横浜へ行きたいよ!!!!!

Hubs came back tonight and said that he found free accomodation at Yokohama for two weeks starting from the 26th Aug... It's 5 star hotel Pan Pacific!!! Going at more than US$300 a night man.......

I WANT TO GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But it's term time and I don't think I can leave. Then again, the Prelims are until 11 Sept? But the N Levels are starting and my paper is the 9th Sept! The kids are gonna need me!

I'm so gonna check out my options tomorrow. Praying hard.

...

I made a prototype of a book cover using calico and cotton tape while watching Singapore Idol. It's so easy to make!!! I think the sewing took less than 10 mins. I can't wait to make the real thing!
















I made this cos I was so inspired by Tania Ho. You can find her blog under Links. Her book covers are simply amazing.

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ARRRGHHHH!!!! I can't get Yokohama out of my mind!!! But that means I have to finish marking my papers in one week! Is that even POSSIBLE???!?!?!

Lord, please help me. This is really a great and wonderful opportunity. I pray that You will help me work out my work plans and schedule for this trip... Amen.

...

Oh wow. I can't believe it's midnight again. And I haven't progressed much in terms of my exam papers.

Well, I AM the mad crafter after all.....

...

I need to sleep earlier....

I need to sleep. More. 6 hours each day is simply not enough for me.

I'm a pig.

Ever since I returned to teach, I have been struggling each morning to stay awake. It doesn't help that I have now less classes to teach, which means I am at my desk pretty often... zzzzz......

I resolved this morning to sleep before 11 every night... hmm....

It's almost midnight now. Heh.

...

Tomorrow is the beginning of the prelims. That means my 7 classes of marking is coming in. This Friday. And there's the two exam papers that I have yet to set!

Arrghhh!

Sigh... that's me. And I was doing anything but the above today...

I had a 2.5 hr nap... and promptly set off to put my newly bought lace to good use....















And made this simple pencil case for meself. Yay! I like how it turned out! Actually I tried to follow a pattern in a book (小さな布小物, p 35), but that didn't work too well...

Think I'm gonna make more for my mum and sis (if I can get around to that... ;D).

Used the linen from IKEA ($12/m) and the floral cotton from Arab Street ($11/m). It's pretty small and measures L20 cm by W7 cm. I used a 20 cm zip here.

...

Ok. I must sleep soon if I want to survive tomorrow. With invigilation going on, I will be even more sleepy!

I will work on my exam papers tomorrow...

Tomorrow.... yeah...

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Tuna Sandwich for Dinner...

Hubs' working late tonight.

You know I don't cook if I can help it... So I bought white bread and a can of Ayam Brand Tuna with Mayo on my way back from work. I'm eating it now as I type. Voila! Dinner's done.

...

Hubs and I sprang out of bed this morning. It was 7 am. And I was supposed to reach school by 7:20. Oh well, since I am now officially a relief teacher, I couldn't really care less. ;D

Reached school at 7:45 am.

I only had one period of lesson today... busied myself with the paperwork required for contract teaching. Feeling sorry for the trees...

Left the school at 1:30 pm sharp and felt pretty happy with myself! Last to come, first to go. Heh heh...

I dropped by the sewing supplies store and bought the following:

iron-on interfacing ($1.50 for a huge huge sheet! Cheap!)
a couple of zips (35 cents each)
red cotton binding tape ($1)
white lace (60 cents/yard, I bought two)















I was so hoping to find linen coloured lace and binding tape but they don't carry such cool stuff... ;P I'm just hoping that Spotlight carries them.

...

After I reached home, I put on a facial mask (peel off type) and had a 45 min nap. It was good! Plus the mask picked up lotsa clogged-pore gunk.

So that's what I call 'double the joy'.

Set off to put my interfacing to good use and made this little bank book holder though I'm sure I'll end up using it as a purse.















I had some problem sewing the zip on... at one point I didn't know how to position it so that it wouldn't sew onto other parts of the cloth... There's gotta be a way around that...

Anyway, I managed and here's the result. Dimensions L15 cm by W12.5 cm.

All you need is two pieces of cloth (outside and lining) and a piece of interfacing to make it stiff, all 27 cm by 19 cm, and a 16 cm zip. I got this Japanese pseudo-sashiko cotton at IKEA. They were having a sale and it only cost $5 a metre.

Ok... that's the story of my first project that involves a zip.

...

I have two exam papers due next Monday. I am so not going to make the deadline!

This is reality...

Oh well, heck.

Gonna watch some telly and make myself another (huge!) serving of the tuna sandwich. I may even play a round of Guitar Hero after that. ;D