Monday, April 26, 2010

My goodies are here

After weeks of harassments to Borderlinx, they’ve finally delivered my package. Of all days too. I was in KL when the DHL guy called. Luckily my trusty neighbour is around to accept my package. Feast your eyes on my goodies:



More yarns from Knitpicks. I haven’t decided on what to do with them but they might come in handy one day.


My first Amy Butler fab! Love the whole 5.5 yards of them! Planning to do Arwen’s and my own baju kurung for next raya. Better try on other fabric first before I cut this one. It’s so delicious!

Spiderman fabric for Danial. I plan to make a backpack for him with this fabby.

Danial looking very pleased with his Spiderman fabric. He’ll be on my case until the bag is finished. 

p/s: I’ve been bitten by the blog bug. The first thing I did after pick up the packages from my neighbour was to take pictures and upload them and blog about them. Sharing is caring, right?



Thursday, April 22, 2010

My first dress for Arwen

I was supposed to fixed the elastic on Arwen’s PJ but that’s no fun. I ended up clearing my sewing room and reorganizing my stash and my WIPs. I’ve found the pattern for a simple fun dress from Made by Petchy and everything I needed so I made this:


I think the biggest size is for 6-12 months old. It’s a bit short for Arwen but I like the part where it grows with the baby. I’m thinking of adding a pair of pants for it.


Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Wetbag

Since I got to nap with the kids yesterday, and spent the whole day on coffee diet (the whole pot of coffee for me) I managed to cut 2 more pieces of PUL for Arwen’s CDs and made a wetbag.


The 2 yards of PUL really stretched a long way. I’ve made 6 pairs of CDs, another 2 more already cut out, 1 wetbag and there’s enough to make one more and of course the scraps big enough to leak-proof my mamapads. Talk about stretching your dollar.

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

My early morning sewing session

I was too sleepy by 10pm to start any sewing so took my hubby advice and hit the sack with the kids. Arwen woke me up around 3am for her feed and I couldn’t go back to sleep after that. So, I sneaked out of the room and went into my ever messy sewing room.



Cut a few nappy liners from the flannel I bought from Kamdar and zig-zag stitched the edges. Made 9 pieces and there’s still quite a lot left from my 1 metre fabric. I dug out my mama-pad template I made sometime ago and traced out 2 sets to try them out. I’ve made pocket mama-pads before because they’re easy to wash and dry and if your flow is low, you can just use the shell. Otherwise, if your flow is heavy, you can add on to the inserts using old face towels, etc.

Anyway, this is the AIO version of mamapads. I cut out 4 pieces of white cotton knit from my old t’shirt. This is my first take on the mama-pad. I stack them up incorrectly so instead of having 2 flannels sandwiching the white cotton knits, i have one side flannel and the other side cotton knit. But it was a good mistake as it gives contrast to the mama-pad as I lay it on top of the winged base. I used scraped PUL from Arwen’s diaper sandwiched between the 2 flannel for the base for leak-proofing (I hope). Below is the finished prototype, minus the snaps on the wings.


I was surprised when I google seached about reusable sanitary pads about a year ago, there’s a growing interest in going back to cloth pads like these. You can find free patterns and blogs and even a business selling cloth pads like this. One in particular is lunapad. What I can summarized from my reading is

  1. Cloth pads are safer. They don’t contained bleach or dioxin that is linked to uterine infection and even cervical cancer.
  2. A mamapad user claimed that the nasty odour is from the disposable pad not from our period. You don’t get nasty odour when you wear clothpads.
  3. Some women noticed that their period flow is reduced from  7-10 days to 3-5 days. It’s because of the bleach or dioxin irritates the lining of your uterus. It’s the body’s way of dealing with the irritation. 
  4. It’s economical. Something right down my alley now that I’m a SAHM. Your stash of clothpads can last 3-5 years or even longer. Imagine the savings. I bet you, if you put aside the money you use to get disposable pads, after the same period could afford you a nice holiday.
  5. It’s earth-friendly. Not filling up a landfill is always a good thing in my book.
Stay tuned, I might come out with a range of mamapads for sale. But if you can’t wait, search around and make some for yourself. Look around the house, there’s lots of material you can use, old towels for soakers, old t’shirts, torn pelikat or batik, anything... Creativity knows no bounds. 






Monday, April 19, 2010

My bro got me these from Japan

I’ve persuaded, nagged, harassed, coerced, coaxed my steward brother to become my fabric hunter. He’s been going to the States, Europe, Australia and Japan and God knows where. Finally he succumbed to my persistent nagging.

In his recent trip to Japan, he happened to walk into a camera shop that has a fabric shop in it (only in Japan) and sms me what kind of fabric do I want him to get for me. I told him anything on clearance particularly cotton. So he got me these:


I went to pick them up at Ampang today. Best of all, not only I get these fabrics to add to my stash, I got them for FREE too :) Thank you lil’ bro.


Friday, April 16, 2010

Cloth Liner ver 1.0

Though it’s optional to use a liner with the CD, I find it very practical as the ‘big business’ don’t end up staining the inner part of the CD. I made some using cotton flannel I ordered from wazoodle.com. I used zig-zag stitch as I don’t have a serger. Looks pretty decent. After all, it’s going next to baby’s bum.



Tested it today. Arwen, like clockwork, did her business and the business just messed up the liner and not the microfleece.

When the baby is solely breastfeeding, the poo stain isn’t so stubborn and it wash off easily without needing pre-soak, etc. But now Arwen has started solids, the stains are a lot more stubborn and difficult to remove. Therefore, having the liner is a good thing. Another plus point, the flannel is so soft and very nice to have next to baby’s skin. I recommend adding a cloth liner to those who are cloth diapering their babies.



Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Cloth Diaper ver 1.1

Yesterday, I bought the downloadable CD pattern from Very Baby. Cut out and pasted the templates together before sending Danial to KUMON and impatiently waited for Azrai to finish his dinner to start cracking on the cloth diaper. The version 1.0 was exactly according to the instruction. I wasn’t too happy with the pocket opening which is just a slit. Surprisingly, it’s a quickie as I sewed my first CD in a couple of hours. Didn’t get the chance to take pictures of version 1.0 as we’ve put it on Arwen for quality testing early this morning. Below is version 1.1


This morning, it went for quality test where we put it on Arwen as her diaper from last night was very heavy. Even though the waist elastic was rather loose, it actually fits Arwen quite nicely, thanks to the overlap closure in front. Even the elastic around the thigh area is a bit loose but there wasn’t any leakage. Arwen also did her ‘big business’ and there wasn’t any accident. I’m happy to report that the cloth diaper ver 1.0 passed the quality test.

Having all these modifications in my head, I quickly cut out a second piece and made amendments to the pocket opening. This time, I adapted the pattern from Jalie for the elastic casing. You can check out the making of Jalie cloth diaper here and here.


I’ve also followed Jalie’s way of attaching the elastic to the thigh opening instead of the original instruction and top sticth all around.

Here’s Arwen protesting the diaper change. Model’s throwing tantrums...

In a better mood after the change and quick bf.


Back view. Couldn’t get her to stand up to take better pictures. Guess this’ll have to do.


I’m going to make another one with snaps instead of velcro closure later, I hope.

Note: Materials are from Wazoodle.com. PUL limited colour which was on yard sale for USD 5 something instead of USD 8.++ per yard. I thought that was a good deal.

Friday, April 9, 2010

A pleasant surprise-Project Diaper is back on

I was in the shower when the mailman knocked on the door with my package! Yeay! I got my package from Wazoodle.com. It’s been over 3 months that I’ve already assumed the package was lost and filed a complaint with them to get my refund back. I’ve already emailed them to say that my order has finally arrived. So excited to start making Arwen’s cloth diaper :)

Orange PUL x 2 yard, Baby animal blue flannel x 2 yards, white DiaperMaker lining jersey x 2 yards, Touch tape easy order combo (loads of them) and Diaper Maker Braided Elastic and a free Sharpie marker 








Thursday, April 8, 2010

Side tracked

I’ve been side-tracked with my knitting stuffed toys kit. I’ve completed the yellow checkered cab.


Instead of finishing off the pick up truck, I’ve used the scrap yarn and quickly knitted a ball for Arwen and Danial.

My poor pick up truck with only one wheel....

The ball I made in a few hours using the leftover yarn from the choo choo train and the blue from the sail boat. I used the blue to knit a pair of baby booties. Will show it later.





By the looks of it, have to make another one so each of them has one each...




Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Winners of my 1st Giveaway

That’s right! Instead of selecting one winner, I’ve decided to pick TWO!

1. vTec N girL - I hope you still have time to make your diaper bag

2. Afafififahfah - I hope your sister passed her SPM with flying colours, as colourful and vibrant as the fabric of your choice :)

To the rest of the participants of my giveaway, my heartiest gratitude for taking part. It was a tough process to select the winners. If only I could, I’d give everybody what they wished for. Maybe someday, I’ll do another giveaway with the first 50 winners or something like that. Thank you for being my new-found friends in the cyber world. Keep the creative juice flowing.

To the lucky winners, please get in touch with me via email and let me have your mailing particulars. Your gifts are coming your way!




Friday, April 2, 2010

Bringing spring into the house

I saw this curtain at IKEA at only RM59 and had to get them. After all, my old curtain needed replacing after being up for 2 years! (so embarassing!) So while Arwen took her morning nap, I managed to sew the bottom hem of the curtain and hang them up. It's amazing how small changes can transform a room. Love my spring curtains.

Thursday, April 1, 2010

End of my March 1st Giveaway

Yesterday, 31st March 2010 marked the end of my 1st Giveaway. Alhamdulillah, the response is wonderful. Thank you to those who’ve participated. I’ve read some of the entries and will read through ALL of them before making the decision on the lucky winner. If only I could, I would give each and everyone of you the prize of your choice, but I can’t, so I can only select the best entry. I will announce the winner in a few days. Stay tuned!



Nuffnang