Handmade Big Girl Coat! For Me!

(Thanks to my 2 year old for taking these photos!)

I just finished sewing up this new winter coat for myself! I've never taken on such a big sewing project!

I originally bought the navy corduroy to make a nice winter skirt, but decided that I could probably buy one for the same amount of money the fabric costs, so instead I perused Pattern Postie, an online pattern shop that'll post them to you, and hunted out the perfect coat pattern. Coats are pricey (and so is new fabric) so I thought it was a good challenging thing to make for myself to make the cost worth it.

I was SO happy with my Pattern Postie service! I had some questions about the pattern including a lining and they got back to me really quickly and included a photo of the back measurements and supplies. While I waited for it to arrive in the post I used that picture to go and get all the extra fabric I needed. Genius. 

I ended up going with this New Look 6153 pattern, hoping that the style was so generic it wouldn't fashion-age too much.  

I love the lining. Fun colours to brighten up a winter day!

It's really really baggy, but it suited perfectly this morning as I was layered up for a freezing winters morning! It's supposed to be full and baggy, but it feels a little weird to wear something so BIG, when most of my jackets have been tight fitting, and snug in the past. I hope it doesn't look ridiculous in real life. 

I ended up adding a button, but put it in the wrong place, only realising after I wore it for the first time today and the collar lapel bit didn't sit quite right. 

Also, my sleeves ended up gathered and a bit bunched. I'm sure to the untrained eye its not a big deal, but I can tell. I don't think I stretched out the sleeves properly when I sewed them in place, whoops. I may re do this, there's a 50/50 chance, but unpicking in chord is just so frustrating!!

I so love my new handmade coat, it's no Talia, but it'll do. 

OTHER RANDOM THOUGHTS:

Check out the new MooMooInn backyard now! All that green! Compared with this! Haha!

Thanks to MrMoo, always. I'd probably feel like I couldn't sew if you weren't so supportive. Money, time; It could seem so selfish, but you make it so its not.

Milla, thanks for being my photographer this morning ;)

Not a sponsored post.

Tea Trolley DIY 2.0

Our new friends Jared and Georgia sealed the relationship with love when they gave me a spare tea trolley they had laying around.

I spent last ANZAC weekend sanding and painting it, and finally attached the vinyl during the week.

I wish I had a before photo, but I don't. Needless to say she was in need of a lot of love and had 3 different paint colours showing through from her many years serving a primary school class room. "Library book returns" was painted on the top, probably explaining the slight bow in the top shelf.

I painted her Treefrog Green from Resene. Two test posts was enough to do two thick coats of paint, and half a meter of vinyl from Spotlight was enough to cover the two levels.

We did have a chunky dark brown shelving unit along this wall, but all it did was collect folded washing and an odd assortment of junk. It couldn't really be used properly. We sent the shelf out to the garage a few weekends ago and haven't regretted it for a second. 

Now our green trolley stands in it's place and I am mighty proud of her, shining away against a wall in our lounge, sending a bight burst of happiness into me when ever my eyes meet her. 

She was destined to hold Milla's "art supplies" (which I hope to get more of, our small collection is really rather pathetic) and our snuggly blankets that we use every single night on the couches. I do love snuggling under a warm blanket with my man! On Monday nights she'll serve drinks to our connect group as a tea and coffee station. LOVE.

Details:

Resene Treefrog Green (2 testpots) $8 (on sale anzac weekend)

Vinyl from Spotlight $10

Sandpaper $5

My happiness and functional space, $$Priceless.

Read More:

Tea Trolley makeover 1.0

Handmade Baby Gifts

Having my second daughter I really didn't expect any gifts. However, Katie and myself have been ridiculously blessed by so many people. Starting from the surprise baby shower, 2 weeks worth of delicious fresh meals and baking from our Church, and a whole lot of beautifully wrapped practical and lovely gifts! 

Most of all its so touching to me as a mother to know that people still love and want to make a big deal about my second. That really does mean a lot. 

I wanted to show off a few of the handmade gifts here to recognise the bloggers who gave them in secret. Each were such a surprise, from a colourful nappy and wipes carrier, handmade shoes, blankets and quilts and clothing. 

We received so much more than this from so many generous family and friends. Thank you to everyone for your love!!

 (Thank you cards have been written and are slowly making their way to you.)

Those featured here:

Holly, Treena, Miriam, Juliet, Cat

Baby Moon Bedroom

Welcome to the Baby Moon Bedroom!

At the weekend we swapped our bedrooms around and upgraded to biggest bedroom in our house! We're hoping that the extra space and distance from Millas bedroom would be suitable to house a crying newborn in the night. Our toddler is a light sleeper! (fun fact: Milla was born in this room!)

So far she's handled the change of bedrooms perfectly. As I've mentioned we put up fairy lights in the lounge that are set on a timer to be lit from 6-8am. This works perfectly, Milla wakes up and sees the light and heads towards the lounge. Eventually after a little play she will come down and see us at the other end of the hallway. Perfect! (I'm also hoping the fairy lights will create a nice atmosphere for birthing in the lounge)

With the addition of the made up basinet, newborn clothes all washed and folded in a box (currently perching inside the basinet), a Kindness Quilt, newborn - celebration bunting and brand new pillows for night time feeds, I am feeling very well set up in our bedroom for our baby moon! 

Happy Chevron Pillows

Happy Chevron, welcome to my lounge room. 

My womb-baby reached 30 weeks gestation this week. That was kind of my mental marker to allow myself to begin preparing as it was also the marker where I would be finished with my Around The Table prep.

On Tuesday I crossed off everything on my to-do lists, remade some new ones and immediately felt the need to complete something on them.

I went out and bought this delicious fabric then and there - something ridiculously bright and happy for our lounge room, and practical for comfort and snuggling / feeding a little baby.

I still don't have a zipper foot for my machine (anyone know where I can find a Globe one??) so I decided to be brave and hand sew my zippers in. WELL. Let me tell you, I have never been more proud of my sewing skills! My zippers look A.maze.Zing! 

I totally recommend sewing in your zipper by hand. The first one took me forever, but the second was relatively fast and totally worth it. 

Green and orange zippers. Happy colours, happy Sophie.

How have we not had cushions until now??

MORE MAKINGS:
PAINT: Tea Trolley Makeover

FABRIC: Peplum Dress

CROCHET: Granny Circle Blanket

Linking in with Show n Tell 

Kids Table DIY

Last winter we bought this colourful table and chair set from TradeMe for $25. I had high hopes of turning it into something that would come from Mocka, a beautiful white set of furniture, but had no idea how to do it. 

As a result, the whole process has taken much longer than it needed to, but I am thrilled with the end result, 9 months later!

(BEFORE)

We borrowed an electric sander from MrMoos work and went to town on it one weekend. MrMoo was much better at using the tool than I was so he ended up doing most of the sanding, and redoing the parts that I had done that weren't good enough. Apparently an attention to detail isn't my strongest point. 

I applied 3 coats of undercoat and one of top coat and called it a day, after about 6 months, and gave it to Milla for Christmas, along with some crayons and colouring in books.

I have since repainted it with a high-gloss enamel paint because I really wanted it to be shiny and the previous paint wasn't. Because of that food was sticking to the table and foot prints were all over the chairs that I just couldn't budge.

The glossy enamel looks fab and I often give it a little love-rub when I walk past it to admire my work! 

(AFTER)

Milla loves her table, she can now get up and down from it with confidence and will draw and eat at it throughout the day. It is well used! I'm so glad we did it!

Since finishing the table I've decided I must get on to painting Camillas dresser, which we also bought from TradeMe with the desire to paint it one day. "One Day" being the key word here. 

Also, Deb gave me a delicious tea trolley that I want to use in our lounge to store nappies and other such baby paraphernalia on which needs a coat of paint as well - I've already sanded it!  

Yup, I'm hooked! The trouble is finding an overcast day! 

Here's a bonus pic of Millas favourite buddies right now, Duckie and Sophie the Tiger.  (They say Hi!)

THE DETAILS:

$25, 9 months to complete.

Linking in with Crafty Show & Tell

READ MORE RECENT DIYs:

Handmade Laundry Powder

Cardigan Restyle

Crochet Baby Wipes

DIY Homemade Laundry Powder

I was initially interested in making my own laundry powder when my husband, Mr Moo, started to break out in allergies each night before bed. I had recently bought a different powder in the groceries because the usual sensitive powder we got wasn't on special. Big mistake.

Suddenly I was aware of different ingredients and how really, I had no idea what was in the powder, but it made my husbands skin swell up where his clothes rubbed close to his skin.

Also, my 18 month old daughter has had eczema since she was born and I regularly sneeze whenever doing the washing. 

I did my research, so this blog post wont be reinventing the wheel, merely sharing my experience and hoping to encourage my own friends and family to make their own powder once they realise how simple (and cheap!) it is!

HOMEMADE LAUNDRY POWDER INGREDIENTS:

1 cup Borax 

1 cup Washing Soda

1 bar of soap

I found all of my ingredients at my local bin in and made approximately 500gm of powder for about $3.50

Notes on Borax:
Borax is a natural chemical that is found in laundry, hand soaps and tooth paste. It does your stain removing.

Notes on the Washing Soda:

Washing soda is a natural salt, and works as a natural water softener / odor remover.

Most online tutorials will tell you you need "washing soda powder" (a very fine powder), I found nothing of the sort in New Zealand, instead Washing Soda works just as fine in crystal form.

Notes on the soap:

I used an ordinary "lemon washing soap" from Binn Inn. You could use any soap, including baby soap if you want to go extra sensitive. This will do your degreasing.

Most online tutorials will tell you you need to grate then blend your soap up, but I found other tutorials saying this ruined their blenders and made their blades blunt. Instead I used the small, fine side of my grater and when that got clogged up with soap I just switched to the large side.

Put all of your ingredients in a sealed contained and give it a good shake to mix together. Shake your contained each time you use it so the large soap grates and soda crystals mix together well.

For a full load use 2 tablespoons of mixed up ingredients. Thats only HALF of one of the small "concentrated powder" scoops. Your 500gm batch of powder is going to last double that of a comercial batch.

And the verdict? Mr Moo hasn't had any reactions to this powder since we've started using it. Infact, when I said I was making my own powder he gave me a look of "yeah right, like that'll be good", and he hasn't even noticed a difference! 

I haven't sneezed, I dont even notice the powder when doing the washing, and Millas eczema has almost completely healed under her arms and in her elbow joints! 

Do you use your own washing powder, or any other thrifty do-it yourselfers around your home? Leave a comment and let me know! Its thrifty-cool!

Love, Sophie x