Lucy's Nursery Art

Just before Lucy was born, Mum came down for a visit and brought a bag full of books and toys that were mine as a kid. Needless to say, some items had been very loved and had seen better days. Including this book:

Richard Scarry books were a big favourite of mine and my sister when we were little - such fun characters and books with so much detail you could pour over them for hours.

I didn't really want to pass this one on to Anna - she is not known for being gentle with books (yet) and this one already had a few pages that had detached from the spine.

I know many of you will have a sharp intake of breath when I say - I pulled the book completely apart - it was a delicate operation. I'm usually not a fan of deconstructing books for craft but this one was already falling apart. And now I get to see these lovely illustrations every day, hanging as wall art in Lucy's nursery.

I wanted something simple but pretty for her room, so I picked up some inexpensive white frames that fit the pages perfectly. Here are the close ups:

I love them all but the middle two are my favourite - I love the surprise of a letter or parcel arriving in the mail. I also love that the pictures connect something from my childhood to my girls in their childhood.

Linking up today over at Kootoyoo and some other great link parties, check out my link parties page!

Baby Season - Decorated Onesie Tutorial

It is baby season around here! My sister has three colleagues who are expecting babies in the next month, and I know a few people also waiting for an impending arrival! What better way to welcome them but with a cute handmade gift!

All you need is your scrap stash and a plain onesie (and of course your sewing machine).

Go through your stash and find a fabric that you want to use. If it's plain or patterned, you can turn it into some ruffles or yo-yos to embellish the onsie, or if it has a cute print, you can use the print as the feature, like I have with the owl onesie above.

I had some Zoology in Sea from the Cute Critters Collection by Michael Miller in my stash, so I chose that.

 I decided to make the hippo the feature, so I cut a small piece of adhesive bonding paper (I use vliesofix, but there are many types you can use) according to the size of the piece I fabric I wanted, then ironed it to the wrong side of the fabric.

I then used my pinking shears to cut the exact piece I wanted for my applique. You don't have to use pinking shears, but I like the neat and decorative look it gives the edges.

Once I had my piece nicely trimmed to size, I peeled off the backing paper and positioned it onto my onesie.

 

Once the fabric was in the desired position, I firmly ironed it into place. 

The next step is to stitch your applique. For this one, I chose a complementary teal thread that looked great against the grey background and matched the hippo, and I used a straight stitch. You can use any stitch or thread you like, zig zag is also a great choice.

  Once you have sewn neatly around the applique, pull your threads through to the wrong side, tie off and trim and you are done! A quick and cute addition that will make your baby gift unique.

For this onesie, there was also a frog on the scrap that I couldn't resist, so I added it to the back. Here is the finished product - the stitching doesn't show up in the photo, but it looks great!

Inspired by the Happy Dress, here is another one I did using some yellow polka dot scraps:

Hope this inspires you to use up those scraps and make some cute masterpieces! I would love to see yours - please share a picture over at my Flickr Group!

Just finally... we are celebrating Fathers' Day in Australia today.

Trev - thanks for being a wonderful husband and father - you are the best and we LOVE you!!