Meet Hendrik and Hilary

Hendrik and Hilary Have been made for my niece MissR for Christmas, Again using the Hector the Giraffe pattern from the book Softies. You should check out some of the amazing Softies on Flickr, that the creator of Hector has made..shes amazing! Check out her Blog too.
The fabric I used on Hilary's arms, legs, antenna and tail was left over from fabric my mum used to make dolls pram Sheets, pillows and mattress covers when My Sister was about 4 years old, now her little girl gets it on her Hilary...totally by accident..I only realised I'd done it, when I took this photo.
I love the striped Hendrik though! He's cute and aloof and I love the colours! Not long until Christmas, a few more to go!

Lady Hector Giraffe - I'll call Her Harriot. Oh and the Bibs

I made this today for a friends new baby. I've named her Harriot. She is from a pattern in the book Softies to make Hector the Giraffe. You can see more of the Hectors other people have created with a quick google search theres tonnes of them! I just need to starch her antenna  to make them stand up! 

I also made her new bub some bibs using a pattern from Chickpea Sewing Studio and started some for my sisters imminent End of January arrival - TWINS! The bibs take no time at all to make up and are backed with flannelette (See the backs on the side of the image above) to soak up the inevitable drool;)

Placemats for Mum

This week I made 6 heatproof place mats for Mum, they are heat proof because mum and dad like to heat their plates to keep the food warm - which is a great idea, if you don't use vinyl placemats, or have a laminated table, which they do. These took an awfully long time to make. But they are done now after a few sleepless nights, all they need is a good iron. I think they turned out pretty good! Making these frustrated the heck out of me though. Theres probably heaps of things I have learnt from this frustration, here's a few.

1. Don't buy rotary cutters whose brand you don't know - and don't believe the sales people when they don't have the one you want, but they say "this ones just as good!!" They aren't just as good - 6 cuts til the rotten thing went blunt in one part of the circular blade and then on made weird perforations and tore instead of cut. I wasted a whole heap of material thinking I was doing something wrong (I'd not used a rotary cutter before now) - Sorry I wont  say which brand in case I get sued.
2. Do buy Olfa Rotary cutters, they are awesome. Thankgod, after getting a refund for the first rotary cutter, that the other store had Olfa rotary cutters, which is a brand I knew from the snap-off blade cutters I'd used for paper Arts and crafts over the years.
3. Pins are sharp and they hurt. And the bigger they are the worse they hurt, thanks quilters pins! Have bandaids for the bad ones and the ones that get up under your finger nail, but nothing can prepare you for a big-arse scratch to the boob, through your clothes.
4. I hate unpicking. - That's it..theres no advice..theres nothing that makes unpicking better.
5. Probably should have thought about the mitred corners requiring a seam allowance when i measured and cut stuff..oh well they are all a bit smaller now...next time.
6. It's time to go to bed when: You can't cut straight, you scratch your boob, need to unpick and need to account for your own miss-measurements and theres no one else awake in the house to blame.

Goodnight.