For Mouse's Party we needed some jet packs to finish the boys Rocket Man Outfits.
I got this idea from many similar ones on Pinterest.
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For each of  the Jet packs I used

 -2x 750ml plastic drink bottles - for Tiggers one's they were about  
      300ml.

- Rectangle of cardboard cut from a vege box.

- elastic about 5mm wide and 50cm long cut into 2 pieces.

- Silver water based paint.

- Orange crepe paper

- glue


To make the jet packs I painted the bottles, cardboard and elastic silver.

I punched some holes on each corner of the cardboard with a hole punch.

I then threaded the elastic through the holes and tied them to make arm bands.

I then glued the bottles onto the cardboard. I used PVA which wasn't strong enough. Maybe a hot glue gun would be better or super glue?

I then cut flames into the crepe paper and rolled them up and glued them into the bottle mouth holes.

A bit of drying and they were finished and cost me only a few dollars for the paint as everything else w

You can see the finished birthday outfit below and Mouse and Tigger just loved them.

 
Its been awhile since I last blogged but I have been very busy creating a lot of things. More info to come on that in another blog post!!

One thing that kept us busy is that my big boy Mouse turned THREE!
He has wanted a space theme for some time so I thought I could make some rocket t-shirts for him and Tigger to wear to the party.

My wonderful in-laws have been digging out old shirts and tees for me to use and I happened to find an awesome grey t-shirt form 1998! It was XL and used to be mine. I must have got my brothers one by mistake I think!
So I turned One big shirt into two little ones with Rocket ship Appliques on them.
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Mum sent me this great pattern from the early 80s.

It has a shirt, pants, jersey and shorts all in one.

It is fantastic and so retro. I love it!!










I didn't want the print on the t-shirt so I used the inside non printed sides for cutting out my patterns.

I got enough material from the big tee to make a size 1 and a size 3 short sleeve shirts!


For Tiggers one I had to do the front and back pieces in halves but was able to sew the pieces together to make a whole front and back section.




Then I found alot of scrap material to make my rockets.

I used Blue t-shirt material fro the rocket body.

Red t-shirt material for the flames and white fluffy material for the rocket windows.

I then found some sticky transfer iron on paper to get all the bits to sew together.  This turned into a disaster as the white fluffy material melted onto the iron!!


So I ended up just pinning those bits on before sewing them.


I sewed the Rockets on just with a simple straight stitch. I have done it properly before with tiny zig zag stitch but I wanted this to be quick and simple.


Mouse had a fantastic party and a great time with his rocket t-shirt.

I think they turned out great and for my first t-shirts and will be making some more soon with all these shirts I have in my stash






 
I can't take credit for these coat hooks. They are all by Mr T. But I did help choose the hooks so I'm sure that was an integral part of the creative process.

We spent nothing on making this coat rack. For some reason there was a lovely piece of Rimu sitting in our garage that Mr T was able to take to his uncles and buzz saw into shape. Then a bit of sanding and oiling and the wood base was ready for hook attachment.

The hooks came from my Father in Laws garage. I'm not sure he knows where they came from but they could be from his father so from my children's Great Grandad!

I love that none of the hooks match and they are all different colours and shapes.
The only problem is that we use the hooks constantly so hardly get to appreciate them.
 
Tigger is a very messy eater. I think he just like to experiment on how much food he can get everywhere apart from his mouth. Therefore all his bibs were smeared and stained and I needed some new ones.
I had some left over toweling fabric and some waterproof material in my scrap pile that I thought could get used up.
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For this project I used....

Toweling fabric
Waterproof plastic fabric
Thread on overlocker
Metal snaps with hammer to attach
Old bib to use for shape

Firstly I traced around an old bib to get the right shape onto a piece of paper.

The bigger the better for Tigger!






I then cut out the shape and cut out one piece of the toweling fabric and one of the plastic fabric.














I then pinned them together.

Then over locked the edges together.













Then I used my hammer to attach the metal snaps to the neck of the bib.

This took me about 30 minutes to do and cost me nothing to make as the material was scrap left overs and my Nana had given me the metal snaps.

I could have done it neater and have matching overlocking thread but I needed these quickly and managed to get 3 bibs out of the material I had.

So really happy how these turned out and will be making some more when Tigger trashes these!



 
I had a whole lot of old work pants that were pretty worn in the knees. I am a trained Physiotherapist (now retired!) so was pretty tough on my clothes during treatments and in the gym.
So I wasn't wearing them much anymore.
Then Mouse got bigger and needed some more clothes.
I found this amazing pattern from Dana Made It.
Also it is FREE which is great.

I have used this pattern to make the above shorts for Mouse. I have also made him shorts out of some old polo shirts that his Granddad let me use. Then some jeans made out of some old maternity jeans, and then some smart pants out another pair of work pants. So about 5-6 pairs of shorts/long pants using old pants/shorts of mine that we don't mind him dirtying up!

It is such a great pattern and I intend to use it more over this next winter as Mouse's leg seem way too long already!!
 
Sorry for the break in Blogging but we have just come back from a lovely holiday visiting my family in the South Island. We had such a great time playing in Rivers, throwing stones in lakes, fires on the beach and biking around everywhere. Now we are back into reality and I'm back to blogging again!

I made this Button Monogram for my lovely niece for her birthday. She loves pink and I had been given all these buttons by my Mum so after seeing this on Pinterest I thought I could make one for her room.
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What you need for this -
Material of any colour,  I used a plain pink cotton fabiric.
Photo frame, I already had this one that had no glass that I got for $1.
Buttons
Thread that matches the buttons.
PVA glue.


Firstly I ironed the material to make it smooth.


Then I laid out the buttons in the shape I wanted. In this cas the letter J. 


I used different size ones to make it interesting


I tried to just sew them on but found I needed to glue them on first with a little PVA to stop them moving around so much while sewing.


I sewed the buttons on with matching thread. This took way longer than I thought but I'm pretty slow at hand sewing!


Then I attached the material to the base board of the photo frame with some glue and some extra tape as I was impatient.


Then Popped it in the frame and it was done!


My Niece seemed to like it so I think it was a successful project that took me an evening to do and ended up looking really good. 






 
I had a problem! My Performance Choir group (see our website) had decided that we needed to up the classiness of our outfits. Before we were just wearing Black t- shirts with our group logo on it. But now we had to all be wearing black long sleeves and be in dresses that we could wear to a wedding. Oh help!

I had no tops and no extra cash to go and get one for the performance that weekend. So luckily I came across this great tutorial to turn a simple top into a shrug. 

So I found a basic long sleeve Merino wool top that had stretched a bit from wearing when I was pregnant with Mouse and set to it.
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Basically you cut down the front of the top and then fold over the cut edge about 2cm and sew it down to make a tunnel you can thread ribbon through.

I was in such a rush to have this ready I just hand sewed the hem down, as it only had to last 20 minutes for the performance.

Afterwards I decided I liked the look so I unpicked my hand stitches and over locked the cut edge.

Then  I straight stitched the hem down with my sewing machine.


I used about 2 metres of 5mm black statin ribbon that I thread through the seam tunnel using a safety pin.

Tied it up in a bow in the front and I was set to go sing.

I used this for performing all winter and I think it looks much dressier than a plain top and shows off any nice dress I wear underneath.

Super quick and easy to do and I will try on other tops in the future too I think.

 
I found some what I thought were some lovely dresses online a few years ago. They fitted my top half fine but must have been made for people with no shame, as they hardly covered my nether regions. So they ended up in my wardrobe unloved.

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I loved the colour of this aqua strapless dress, and was wearing it as a skirt for a while until I noticed the frilly hem was falling off.


I think I could have sewed it back on but decided those frills had never been my style anyway.








So I unpicked them off with my trusty unpicker.














The edge of the unpicked seam was still in good overlocked condition so I just turned up the edge and sewed it down with matching thread.












Now I love wearing it as it is definitely a top length, not a dress, so hopefully will get some more wear out of it this hot summer!

 
When I had Mouse I splurged and got some great breastfeeding tops that I thought looked fantastic. Unfortunately I forgot that long sleeve tops tend to annoy me and I constantly end up pushing or pulling at the sleeve all day. So the sleeves of this top had to go. 
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I was being in a rush so instead of carefully un picking the sleeves I just chopped them off with my scissors.


I then overlocked the rough edges and folded them over and stitched them down with matching thread.



I love my new singlet and wear it all the time now.



Just have to find something to do with all the material left from  those pesky sleeves now

 
I love it when I find a few tops in my old clothes stash that colours match.
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 I have had this funky hooded green tunic for about five years and have worn it to death.


As you can see it had some really attractive holes right in the front, for all to see.

But the rest of it was in really good condition and I couldn't bear to throw it out.






I also found this great green t-shirt that my husband got years ago that had been given to his brother and came back to us with some interesting stains from darkest India.

Nothing dodgy apparently!

The colours were so good together I thought I should be able to fix my tunic up a bit.

I found this great tutorial on Pinterest that I thought could work by adding a pocket to the front

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I got a bit of A4 paper and folded it in half.

Then traced around the edge of a side plate to get a curve for  the pocket holes.








I then cut the curve out and it looked like the photo to the left.

You can see the couple of attempts it took me to get the shape I liked!

I then placed the shape onto my tunic top to see if I liked it and altered the pocket shape til it looked right.







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I then used the pocket pattern to cut out a double layer thickness on the green t-shirt.








I pinned the 2 pieces together and overlocked it together with a small gap at the top to turn it inside out to put the seams inside.

I made sure no stains were visible on the side that was going to be on the outside of the pocket!







I then stitched the pocket on along the top, making sure my turning hole was stitched as well.

Also along the sides and bottom making sure the hand holes were open.


I am so glad I got to reuse the old t-shirt into making my tunic wearable again. And the pocket had been great for putting my keys in when carrying the kids.