Superman washbag and some selfish sewing

It feels like an age since I wrote a blog post, I think because I have been pretty good for a change at blogging in advance, where as this one is coming straight at you from my lap! 

So this week one of the projects on my sewing list was to make Master Fox a washing bag. Until I had a child I never even contemplated how much washing a baby creates! Our machine has been going non stop ever since his arrival. Because of the amount of clothes he goes through it felt like a sensible idea to make a washing bag which we can keep in his room to quickly dump everything into to make doing the washing with one hand a little easier! It's a very simple rectangular bag which includes a drawstring channel, a drawstring (of course) and a fabric loop to hang it up by.

Of course to make this I use a bit of the leftover superman fabric in a bit of a stash busting effort. I think there might be a slight chance we overdid the use of the superman fabric in his room! What do you think? Mr Fox would disagree though, apparently you can never get enough superman, at at least it all matches though right? Functionally the washing bag is working a treat, though the drawstring is a little thick making it a little hard to pull on. I will probably thin it out at some point but for now it serves it's purpose beautifully. 

So, what else have I been up too? Well despite me saying that I wasn't going to sew for myself until I had lost a bit of the baby weight I decided I'm also fed up of not actually fitting in any of my clothes and not having anything nice or flattering to wear (hello leggings and oversized cardigans). So I have started to make up a dress in some of the cheaper cotton sateen fabric which I got off eBay. This stuff was less than £5 per meter so one dress is not going to break the bank, and I can always repurpose the zip etc when I have finished. 

I will of course give you more details on this dress once I have it finished, though with only an odd hour here and there to spend it might take me a little while. I am really enjoying getting back on the horse and doing some selfish garment sewing. I was however a little shocked when I saw the size I needed to cut out to get this to fit! 

Finally, just because it's really cute, I did a print of Master Fox's tiny little feet! I used a non toxic ink pad, as paint can be a little too thick for something so delicate. It worked really well and I have this cute little print of his cute little toes to remember when he was so small. I would definitely say this is worth a go as a really cheap moments of your little ones. 

Adventures in Lino Printing - A Christmas Lino Print Workshop

As you may or may not be aware we are now at 38 weeks so this little man is going to make his mark any day now, scary or what! The problem is that I am, to be honest, completely knackared. This means that I am mostly sitting on the sofa under a blanket and a cat and not getting up. Nice for me yes, bad for getting all the things that are in my head done! But despite my lack of ability to move I actually have a few festive type blog posts to write up which is exciting, so expect a little bit of a flurry from me in the next couple of weeks, followed by what will likely be a complete silence for a while as we adjust to our new lives.

So following on from the lino printed baby grow... which wasn't a complete success, I went on a lino cutting Christmas workshop with a friend. Neither of us really needed to do this workshop, its something we have both done before, but it was a nice excuse to get out the house and do something a bit out of the ordinary. I also wanted to have a go at using the new type lino printing blocks, and some proper ink before I dived in and bought myself any more supplies.

The workshop was great and was run by Leanne Narewski who does some lovely prints. We all sat down for two hours, drew up a design, cut out the print and then made either some cards or some print pictures. It was incredible how well everyone's turned out, even for people with little or no experience. Each one was completely unique but just worked so perfectly, I wish I could find a link to show you pictures of more peoples work (you can see my friends on her facebook artist page). Ellen (who you should know by now as my boss) came along with another colleague from work as well and their prints were also gorgeous. I am secretly hoping she is reading this and will post you a picture in the comments!!

So I have now purchased a few more lino cutting supplies so I can make proper Christmas cards with my print block once they all arrive. I have also been making up some gift tags so will show these off to you in a couple of days.

In the grand scheme of things this is actually quiet a cheap hobby to take up, the supplies are really not that expensive to set up. The real issue I had was the cost of the ink, as you want more than one colour, but the bottles are actually huge, and you only need a really small amount so at the end of the day it doesn't end up costing the earth, as long as you are sensible about your colour choices.

 

I hope you like my little festive bears, I think he is adorable and I love how he can have either a hat or a crown depending on his mood! The hat is a separate mini block so this can be printed in any colour and added after the original print is dry.  

Below is one of Ellen's prints, see how different it is to mine, but still looks amazing! 

Lino Printed Baby Grows

Bears..... aaahhhhh! Run for the hills!

Seriously though, I have a real thing for bears at the moment, Polar bears of course being the hands down winner ever since seeing the handsome fella below in Copenhagen, but grizzlies are just as cute as well. I don't know if its becoming a trend, or if its the influence of having my own grizzly little bear on the way, but either way anything bears is win for me at the moment.

So I wanted to have a dabble at making a lino print for printing on some baby grows. I have had a small experiment into lino printing before, and actually have some good supplies (seriously not an expensive hobby unless you want to buy a lot of inks). So I drew up a handsome bear and transferred the drawing onto a lino cutting block. Then, using the lino cutting tools, I carved him out into this fabulous looking block.

Here comes my warning about lino print carving... keep your fingers out the way! Yes I did slip and push the blade full force into my thumb, not so great when you are using blades which were found at a car boot... so be wary of this.

Once you have cut out your print you use printing inks and a roller to cover the image and pop it only your printing surface. After applying a little bit of pressure to the back of the block you can carefully lift it off and you should be left with a lovely relief image. There are a couple of really simple tutorials on youtube for this so I seriously suggest you go check out how easy this is.

I do think I could do with a bit more practice though! I managed to get a bit too much ink on my roller and it has gone into all the grooves of the print. Because I was printing onto jersey the fabric has gone into the grooves and picked up all the paint which was there, giving me the kind of opposite effect to what I was after, but this really doesn't matter, I think this version worked out great and I am really happy with his little smiley grizzly face :)

I hope you liked this little idea into decorating your own baby grows/onesies. If you want to give this a go yourself then don't stop there... you can use block printing on cards, invitations, t-shirts, bags anything so give it a go yourself.

Edit: I have just booked onto a short lino printing class with a friend as well so hopefully I will be able to hone in my skills and make some even better prints, I will let you know what we make on the night!