Play Kitchen Christmas Present

For E's Christmas present I decided to make her a play kitchen. They have the Ikea one at her nursery school and she loves it.
I took the measurements from the Ikea kitchen and reworked it so that one of our spare shelves from our oven would fit in her oven and made it no wider than the little bit of wall separating our kitchen and living room, so it would fit nicely in the corner and not get in the way.
I made my design using sketchup.
It's hard to say how long the actual project took as I did it before I started back at work but when E had just started nursery. They have a good system here where they break them in gently by going for half an hour one day, an hour the next etc. and then slowly building up to staying for lunch and then for nap time. This meant that I had various half an hour slots in the morning to have a quick tinker in the kitchen and just slowly worked on it over time.
I built the main kitchen using spruce wood. The units are painted white and the worktop is stained chestnut and then nicely buffed so it's super smooth to touch.

The tap is made out of 3 pieces of spare wood I had that are all loosely screwed together so you can still twizzle it round in all directions.

Added extras:

Kitchen mixing bowl for the sink
Door knobs for the taps and for the oven knobs (all attached loosely so they spin around)
Cork coasters painted black for the hob
Door handles left over from our kitchen for the cupboard and oven handle
Grill shelf from our oven
Battery LED light that turns on when you push it for the oven
Perspex for the oven window with a balsawood frame on the inside to protect it
Hinges painted black for both doors
Opening hinges for the oven door so it doesn't bang directly on the floor (These need to withstand a lot of wear and tear and E loves to lie on the door and generally mishandle it!)
Hook rack that I had lying about and some S hooks
Magnetic paint for one side
Chalkboard paint for the side and the cupboard door

E was ill with bronchitis and a fever over Christmas so it wasn't the lovely look of surprise I was hoping for when she saw her new kitchen... in fact, she didn't want to open any presents at all! Since then though, she has played with her kitchen every day so far and loves baking her cakes and making a cup of tea. The only thing missing for her is that no real water comes out of the tap!

Here are some snaps of the work in progress...

A door clamped in place to dry after gluing and screwing together

 

Painting in progress

And here's the big reveal Christmas morning!

Checking her cakes in the oven!

Reversible Fleece Hat & Blanket

I wanted to make a nice, personal present for my friend's baby's first birthday and came up with the idea of a reversible hat and blanket for these cold winter months.
I used purple fleece for one side and a nice green cotton material with foxes on for the other side.
I started by using my daughter's head as a starting point (she's 6 months older but they're about the same size)! I measured the circumference of her head and the height that I wanted the hat. The hat is essentially just 6 pieces of material (2 hats consisting of 3 pieces).
I started with the dome cap section of the hat. I cut out a rectangle the circumferance of E's head 48cm and 12cm for the height of the hat, folded it concertina style into 4 bits and then snipped off the top bits so they looked like curved triangles but were still connected together.
I then cut a band the same length but 5cm height and then the ear flap section was 3cm ear flaps that were 4cm deep.
I measured E's forehead (10cm) and made sure the middle section of the band was that length before I freehanded the ear covers.

I then started with the domed section. Right sides together, I stitched the adjoing sides to make an inside out hat.
I then sewed the band to this dome, right sides together. Then I sewed the ear cover section to the band.
I did the same with the fleece material, so essentially had two hats.
I then slipped one hat inside the other with wrong sides facing, pinned the ears sections together turning in a little seam as I went. I then sewed carefull round the whole bottom edge making sure my seam was close enough to the edge to catch the two folded in materials.
I decided I wanted a chin tie with the hat too, so I cut a piece of fleece (20 x 5 cm), then cut it into 3 tails almost the whole length and then plaited the fleece strands together and tied a simple knot at the bottom with a couple of cms of fleece left at the bottom.
When I got to the ear flap section I was sewing shut, I simply slipped the fleece plait inside and sewed it shut.

For the blanket, I cut two pieces of material (1x1m), put right sides together and sewed it almost shut, apart from a little 5 cm gap. I then turned the material the right way and invisible stitch sewed up the gamp. To keep everything in place, I then sewed a seam around the entire edge of the blanket.
Here's some photos of the hat, the blanket and E modelling the hat!

Jelly Fish Baby Body

Ella really loved playing with the button on the elephant top that I made her, so thought she'd enjoy a top with even more going on that she can play with.

I cut out 2 pieces of material for the jelly fish body, turned them right sides facing, sewed round the shapes leaving the bottom section open. I then turned it the right way out.

I inserted a piece of thicker material in the middle so that the outer material won't go baggy like it did a bit with the elephant top I did. You can use anything really. I used a bit of old Ikea blind that we've got left over!

I then got 2 coordinating colours of ribbon, folded them in half and tucked them into the open body of the jelly fish. I then sewed round the entire body and sewed on some buttons for the eyes.

Ella likes to play with the buttons and the dangly legs!

Elephant Baby Top

Happy New Year everyone! Sorry for the sporadic positing, but then I don't have a lot of time with a 7 month old baby on my hands!!

I made this body for Ella using my new sewing machine that my mum bought me for Christmas ... thanks mummy!!

I basically free-handed an elephant onto a scrap piece of fabric that I had lying around and then sewed it to a body that I'd already bought. I used a simple single stitch to stitch it into place first and then I used an appliqué stitch over the top of that. I then sewed on a button as the eye.

Here's my beautifu Ella modelling it!

Nursery Reveal

Well, it's slightly ridiculous to show this now, as my baby girl is practically no longer a baby!! Haven't been posting for a while as I've been busy looking after little monkeys called Ella! She's 5 months old now. Can't believe how quickly the time has gone.
I had her nursery finished weeks before she was born but she doesn't even sleep in there yet.

I originally wanted to go with grey and yellow as a colour scheme as I was still half convinced that the doctors would have made a mistake and our 100% girl would turn out to be a bouncing boy! I didn't want to be one of those poor mothers who had to sell their story to the newspaper to try and make some money back on all the wasted pink stuff they had bought!
Here is my moodboard for that colour scheme:

When we got to the paint shop G had a panic that the grey looked too much like cement and a bit depressing for a baby's room, so we decided to go with a lilac colour instead.

I painted two walls lilac and we did a feature wall of owl and bird wallpaper.

I bought a butterfly punch and cut out butterflies in different coloured paper to stick on the wall. I also made a mobile for above her cot with butterflies on too.

I painted a grandfather clock on the wall and bought a clock set to use as the face. Still need to decide whether to paint mice running up it or not à la "hickory dickory dock" - what do you think? Yes or no?

I bought a plain white tripod lamp from Ikea and tied strips of fabric round the shade.

I used the same fabric to made a skirt for the cot.

 

The final touch is her name above the changing mat. Here's the monkey in question modelling it!

Here's the whole room:

Canvas Art

Whipped up a little present for my good friend Tim for his birthday and his lovely new flat ... so here it is for the blog world:

I saw a similar canvas behind Heston Blumenthal on one of his programmes and decided to steal the idea. I chose a nice font off Word, painted the canvas yellow, traced on the letters and then painted them on in black.

I sealed it with a protective covering so that it can hang in the kitchen and not be bothered by the moisture, but ... depending on where he wants a quote like this ... he could also hang it in the bedroom ;-)

Bun in the Oven T-Shirt!

Well, now that I have my own little bun in the oven, I thought I should get around to making some maternity t-shirts!

Bought a cheap plain white maternity t-shirt and used material, thread and fabric paint that I had on hand.

First of all I sketched the design of my oven on paper to check I liked it, then I drew it on the t-shirt.

I then used black fabric paint to paint it on and then washed and sealed it according to the instructions on the label.

For the bun I went for a cupcake design, as ... well, I don't know ... I thought it would just look better, OK?

I cut out my cupcake case with som blue material I had leftover and the pink icing topping was also from scraps. I then sewed them directly onto the t-shirt and there you have it ... my very own bun in the oven! Just need to get a bit more of a bump!