Probably the quickest and easiest DIY project you'll ever see!

I harbour a disproportionate amount of rage towards all of the wires and cables that occupy my world. As per usual, I'm full of good intentions to solve the issue with a flurry of searching and pinning for neat little cable tidies and holders. For which I then lack the motivation, time or inclination to execute. But whilst sitting and thinking about how I want to get the job done but can't be bothered right now (not lazy by nature - just work, toddler, pregnancy-inflicted fatigue!) something occurred to me. All you need is velcro! And it need only cost pennies! Velcro is something I seem to have lots of and I'm not sure why. I think it's one of those items that's easy to overlook but can halt a project in it's tracks. So it is useful to always have some available - I would definitely recommend that you buy yourself a metre or two just to have around for occasions such as these. 

1. For headphones I cut a 3 inch length of velcro. For bigger/longer cables and wires just increase this length, e.g 6 inches for laptop cable.

2. Pull apart and refix with up to an inch of overhang at either end. You can adjust this once you've tried it out if it needs to be longer or shorter. 

3. Wrap and fix around annoying and disobedient wire. 

4. That's it. Done! Neat, tidy, quick and super cheap. Now sit back and feel smug about the task you've just completed!

Dinosaur Dudes

There has been a sudden influx of newborns in my life!  I'm trying to keep up and came up with this simple yet super effective idea for a toy having seen some examples on Pinterest...

1.  I found an appropriate dinosaur silhouette shape to copy from an image on the computer.  Once you've found the shape you want, draw and cut it out using suitable paper, being sure to add half an inch for seam allowance - this will be your pattern.  I will do my best to upload my shape once I get it in the right format!

2. Cut 2 dinosaur shapes in desired fabric.  I've chosen one plain and one patterned print.  And yes, I did iron my fabric but it didn't seem to make much difference!

3. On opposite sides of your cut out dinosaurs use embroidery thread to stitch crosses for eyes.  I prefer doing eyes like this rather than using buttons so that I'm not creating a choking hazard!  Make sure the eyes aren't on the same sides on both pieces!   

4. A little personalisation is always a nice touch too!  An initial or a name on the tail looks sweet on these.

5. Take one shape and lay it right side up (ie with the eye facing upwards).  Choose 8 ribbons and cut about 3 inches in length.  Fold each piece of ribbon in half and pin alongside the dinosaur's back like in this picture:

6. Place your other dinosaur shape on top, right side down (so the eyes are touching).  Pin in place.

7. Using a half inch seam allowance stitch around the outside of the pinned dinosaur shape, removing pins as you go.  Leave a two inch gap at the top of the leg arch.

8. Trim corners and clip edges.  This helps the fabric lie correctly when you turn it inside out, otherwise it'll pucker and pinch.

9. Turn the shape inside out by poking it all through the hole you left in your seam.

10. Stuff your toy with suitable toy stuffing.  I also like to put a little bell inside to make it jingle!

11. I've forgotten to take a picture here, but neatly stitch up the hole in the seam by hand using a blind stitch.

12. Your dinosaur should be done.  Here's one of mine prowling through the garden...

I hope you enjoy making yours!

New Mummy Gift Box

When I gave birth a couple of years ago we were inundated with beautiful and amazing gifts for our new daughter.  We were touched by people's generosity and thoughtfulness.

And then one friend in particular surprised me with a box of loveliness just for me!  I loved it, and who wouldn't...there were lotions and potions, wine, nail polish, bath bombs and other sweet little luxuries.  Since then it is something I have tried to do for friends when they've had their little ones, even if it's only been a couple of bottles of nail varnishes (and the 60 second quick dry stuff has been a revelation at this time in my life!).  

It's also a nice little reminder that just because you've had a baby doesn't mean that you shouldn't make time for yourself and the things you enjoy.  This is one that I recently gave a friend - little bits from Boots and a pretty box from Paperchase. I love a good box!

Easy Peasy Zippy Pouches

I had some left over fabric from the changing bag I made for my friend and I know she wants to use reusable nappies so using the scraps to make a waterproof pouch for transporting wet apparel seemed appropriate!  A useful idea for any of us with little ones, not just those with soggy bottoms!

We're also in the process of moving house, which reminded me that for months I've been planning on making some bags to store some of my daughter's toys.  

I found a couple of straightforward tutorials through my old friend Pinterest, such as this one on See Kate Sew.  I got a bit confused by the reference to folding the zip towards the lining when sewing the two sides of your pouch together.  It felt weird and bulky and not right.  I explored a bit further and found some instructions with pictures of what this step should look like, the most helpful of which was this one at Pink Stitches.  The pouches described on this last blog were a little more complicated on the whole (would make great gifts!), but the pictures simplified the process for me.  I also like the way she has secured and extended the zips with small pieces of fabric.  I used this idea for a couple of my pouches as the zips I had were all pretty small and I sometimes find my zip slipping when I sew it.  This is a great way of solving both problems!

Apologies for not creating any new tutorials recently, but I've mainly been using other people's so I'd rather direct you to them than try and come up with my own when I know they already exist.  

A Much Better Changing Bag

Changing bags are expensive!  Even the plain ones seem to cost a small fortune, as well as being a bit boring.  A friend who recently came to this conclusion asked if I could make one for her.  Suddenly the changing bag world expanded!  Naturally I spent some (read "a lot of") time on Pinterest and found one that met the criteria, which were a) that my friend liked it, and b) it was within my capability!  This tutorial by the Crafty Couple was clear and easy to follow, as well as being patternless - which is ideal as I don't have a printer and could just cut the fabric straight to size.

There were a couple of websites that we looked at for oilcloth fabric (so that the bag was waterproof inside and out).  These were Only Oilcloths and Norfolk Textiles, although I'm sure there are many others.  The fabrics we went for were Stampede Pastel Gloss and Lisbon Denim Matt from Only Oilcloths.  We opted for 135cm x 100cm of each, to ensure we had enough (and the cost was the same for this size or smaller).  The total cost of the bag was just under £30, which is pretty reasonable for a one-of-a-kind totally practical bag of this kind.

Before cutting out I worked out which pieces I wanted in the patterned fabric and which pieces were going to be plain.  

I had enough fabric to make a changing mat to fit neatly in the back pocket.  I did this by cutting two oilcloth rectangles 30cm x 60cm and one 30cm x 60cm in a lightweight wadding.  I arranged the pieces as follows: wadding, piece 1 right side up, piece 2 right side down (ie right sides together).  I pinned and sewed around three edges (starting with a long edge).  I then turned the piece right sides out, folded in the remaining seam and top stitched around the whole rectangle to close up the open edge and neaten it up.  Folded in three the mat fits just right!

I had a few left over scraps of the fabric so a few days later I made a waterproof zipper pouch, which I'll tell you about properly soon!

Rosi's Mobile Making Baby Shower

I love a crafty baby shower. It gives the event such a lovely feel; all making something for the new arrival. For mine we each made a flag for bunting and for my sister-in-law we all painted a little canvas for the nursery wall. So when it was my turn to organise the do for my wonderful friend Rosi I wanted to do something similar, but not something any of us had done before. Cue lots of pinning! As well as the above ideas there were some other good ones, like bib and babygro decorating.

Here's what we did...

A couple of us took along bits of card, paper, ribbons, buttons and anything else suitable for sticking together. I also took along a little kite shaped template. We then all made a kite to our own design to then hang together in a mobile. 

It was lots of fun, and still left us time to eat cake, drink tea and open presents within a couple of hours.

It then fell to me to put the mobile together! It was trickier than I expected as it became something of an exercise in engineering and balance! I made a large cloud using 6 pieces of white card cut in symmetrical cloud shapes, which I folded in half and glued together with prittstick. I then used the trusty glue gun to stick a long length of cotton to each kite. This was in a different position for each one in order to balance them in a good flying position (due to everyone's individual designs). I used a needle and thread to attach a kite to each arm of the cloud. I also made a couple of small clouds to use as additional balancing weights and give it a bit of visual balance too. 

And this is how it turned out:

JLW's New Bag

When Jola needed a new bag for nursery I tried really hard to find one on Etsy; I like supporting other people's handmade businesses.  I found one, but it was going to cost nearly $30 to ship, which made it much too pricey!  I had recently pinned a tutorial on Pinterest so decided to give it a go.  It's this one here by the Ribbon Retreat.  It's a really straightforward tutorial with easy to follow instructions and pictures.

As it's quite a simple design it was pretty easy to add some additional touches so I made a few changes:

- I added a couple of inches to the side panel pieces to make it wider.

- I added an elasticated front pocket, with velcro fastening and button decoration.

- I added piping to the main body seam.

- I machine stitched initials onto the front.

Changes I didn't make but should have done:

- I shouldn't have bothered with the piping; I'm not very good at it!

- I should have brought the straps closer together at the top as they currently sit too wide to stay on my toddler's shoulders.

I am definitely going to try another one in the future now that I've learnt some lessons for this one!