Toddler Backpack - Nicole Mallalieu

Hello !

Few months ago, I've made a little backpack for my toddler Teo, and it turned out to be so cute, I decided to make another one for his friend, and then another one for another friend, and then, I decided that I also needed one for myself ! I've made 5 of them in total, talking about being compulsive ha !

The pattern came from Nicole Mallalieu's book : You Sew Girl !

And her explanations are excellent.

But, depending on the fabric you choose, you might need a Denim needle 100, and quite a powerful sewing machine to go through all the layers. My beginner Toyota would have given up close to 2 layers, even my Janome Memorycraft went though 8 layers of corduroy, with a bit of grizzling, I must admit. I ended up damaging a bit the needle plate, but it's only an aesthetism issue, and did not affect her performances. I guess that the thick layers deflated the needle which ended up scratching the needle plate.

Here under are some pictures of the finished products :

From her book :

And for the boys :

And that's mine :

I love backpacks, because it gives me my hands back, especially with 2 kids, you always need to carry something. So I wanted to make something small to carry all my wallets and girly stuffs, but also pretty and not too daggy, like backpacks can be. This toddler size was the perfect one. I just doubled the length of the straps.

Fabulous 50's Bib by Nicole Mallalieu

My fussy eater of 13 months old Maxime has decided to feed himself - *big sigh
* - and despite my attempts of redirecting the spoon, we always end up with some kind of artwork on the clothes.

So, browsing on the internet, I found this lovely bib pattern from Nicole Mallalieu : the Fabulous 50's Bib which I immediately fell for. It's got a terry cloth lining and an optional food-catching pocket, very handy indeed. The binding adds a very neat finish to the whole lot. $6.95 and one download later, I had it printed.

I thought it was a tad small for Maxime so I enlarged it by 25%, which I found a bit too large after trying it on him. I still made 2 of those so that he can grow into them, but the next one, I will try to enlarge it by only 10%.

Taaadaaaaa :

I used an old bath towel for the lining, 1 fat quarter ($2 at GJ's Discount Fabric) and 3m of 25mm bias ($6). It was a bit short of bias, so I had to patch up one of the sleeve (which you can see on the back picture of the bib).

Second version :

As you can see, the pocket is hanging a bit low on Maxi.

Next time, I'll post the steps and the 10% enlarged bib.

Little Red Riding Hood or Little Pink ?

To crafters of all sorts and passer-by, thanks for visiting my new born blog.

Warnings : pardon my grammatical errors, my misspelling and the basics features of my blog, as english is not my first language and my blogging skills are new.

My first topic is the handmade Little Red Doll, an adorable pattern from Ric-Rac, by Jodie Carleton that I bought in a patchwork shop in Geelong for $18.

I absolutely love the red cape but since the doll was to be a gift for a friend's daughter who is a pink-girl, I chose a solid salmon pink for my cape and a spotty baby pink for the lining. The dress is a springy floral green and pink patchwork fabric on one side and a red and pink starry pattern on the other side (see pictures below), all fabric come from GJ's Discount fabric, found in the $2 fat quarters baskets.
Since it was a toy which was going to be handled quite a lot, I preferred a wool felt as opposed to an acrylic felt (which disintegrates or is it because of the way my sons play with the felt balls I've made them, boys can be quite destructive sometimes, but more on that later) that I ordered from Bumblebee Designs. 

The pattern :

And Bella, my Little Pink Riding Hood on her way to her Granny through my veggie patch :

Notice the cape is embroidered with "Bella" on the left, and the hooks on the boots.

And for good measure, a selection of reversible dresses :

Back of the dress :

The reverse of the floral dress is lined with the pink and red stars pattern fabric :

And Bella is not shy to show you her underwears : 

And her Granny Basket - I must admit that I had fun making miniature strawberries and carrots and they are not as fiddly to make as I thought they'd be - you know being miniatures and things :) - .

The pattern was easy to follow but you'll have to have some few notions such as topstitching, hand sewing and hand embroidery. I am not a great embroiderer so I had to watch few youtube videos about satin stitches (for the eyes), backstitching (for the nose and mouth) and french knots (for the white iris of the eye, which I finally left out, but you can see it in the pattern). Apart from that, I made her in about a week, and that's juggling with house chores, taking care of a busy toddler and a fussy baby, so you too should be able to whip her up in a week or so ! 

Making Little Bella brought me back to my childhood and reminded me how much I loved dressing and hair combing my dolls. Such great memories.

I am making another one and will post the pictures as soon as I finish her.