Sam's Monkey

Recently I got back into some plushie making and it felt really good to get back in the saddle, I really enjoyed this little project monkey. Sam's Monkey was made for a little boys first birthday present, and I really hope he gets lots of love and cuddles in his new home and I hope you all like him too.

Being a new parent, completely clueless and with only a small few supportive friends with babies, I took to a forum of babies with a birthday close to Master Fox's for advice, support and generally someone else to talk to. All new parents will understand the desire to share every new thing their baby does, but also the worries about 'is this normal', 'am I doing it right' and 'help, I don't know what to do'. This group of mummies have been absolutely amazing (and slightly mad) but I am so proud we have come through a whole year together and it has been amazing to watch all the babies grow and share in their milestones (as well as the MANY sleepless nights!).

We decided to do a secret santa type thing for their first birthdays (I can't believe they are all 1 already, where has the time gone?). As well as buying a gift I couldn't resist the temptation to make something for my chosen baby. Rather than making clothes which are grown out of/risk not fitting, I decided to make a little cuddly toy. This is where Sam's Monkey was born.

I do like him a lot, he is very cute, and I love the long flimsy limbs which are perfect for dragging around and giving a good chew when little one is teething. I also love his big monkey ears, they are very characteristic. In hindsight the fleece fabric is a little dark for the black eyes and they are lost a little bit, especially in the pictures. I think they would have been better on the lighter fabric but I don't think is too much of an issue.

I'm sure this won't be the last plushie I make, they are one of my favourite things still. I think I am just a big kid at heart! Have you make your little ones soft toys before, or made one as a gift? I would love to see them all. I love a good plushie. Also, is it just me or does everyone else get a small glow of delight when they finally come to life!

 

Snuggly Baby Circus Blanket

So I am trying to ignore the little blip in posting that happened in August, but the truth is we were just so incredibly busy I don't think we had one weekend where we weren't off somewhere or had plans to do something. But one of the incredible things we did was to go and visit some friends over in Denmark.

Having played warcraft for such a long time its not really surprising we have got to know some of the people we play with really well after all these years (don't worry i'm not off on a tangent here, it will eventually link in to the post I promise!). We have been saying we should get ourselves to Denmark for years now, and what with the baby now on the way, and a couple of our friends having a newborn of their very own we decided it was now or never really. So off we went over bank holiday weekend for a few days in Copenhagen.

It was great to see our friends and even better to see their new little man Jamie. The one thing I really loved was, that in Denmark, you can buy quilts for baby's and they wrap up their little baby's like a sausage to get them to sleep, its so cute! But in Denmark they do leave their baby's outdoors to nap, even in their cold winters so they do need to be kept nice and snuggly.

This made me really want to make a cute little quilt cover for our little man when he arrives. Whilst on our free day out in Copenhagen being tourists Chris actually spotted one of their fabric shops and let me go in for a wander. It was amazing, they had so many good quility fabrics, I could have easily filled a suitcase and spent a fortune. However, as I could only really buy a little bit, I decided some fabric to make this quilt would be perfect and I should buy something I have never seen in the UK or on the internet... roll up, roll up this adorable circus print cotton (rabbits with mustaches, I mean why wouldn't you!).

I have managed to find the fabric shop online since, but sadly I don't understand a word of it so its very difficult to navigate. But I also haven't managed to find this fabric on the internet anywhere, which is sad as there were some seals with mustaches too and I want to try and get my hands on some of this as an afterthought (so if anyone has any clues PLEASE let me know).

Anyway on to the making of the blanket:

So coming back to the UK it turns out you can't buy quilts for babies younger than one year! We obviously have different regulations over here. This meant I had to rethink the whole idea so instead I decided to just make a nice soft snuggly blanket. Its made to pram blanket size (there is a great link on mothercare which tells you the standard measurements). I purchased some lovely soft spotted white minky fabric from ebay and cut out a piece of minky, a piece of the thinnest tog quilting batting and a piece of the cotton fabric to just bigger than 70x90cm.

The placing of the three layers to make sure they turned right side out boggled my brain a bit, it goes like this:
Batting
Cotton (pattern facing up)
Minky (outside facing down)

Then pin, and I mean pin! all the way around and sew a 3/4 seam around all 4 edges making sure you leave a gap big enough to turn the whole thing the right way out. Using a walking foot will make sewing the three layers significantly easier, but if you don't have one you can managed without just make sure you pin really well, sew slowly and make sure the foot is not down too tightly.

Turn the blanket right side out, poke out your corners, iron, pin down your opening seam and then sew a nice neat line all the way around the outer edge to keep the layers together and make the whole thing look pretty and neat.

There is a much better tutorial here: iCraft Minky Blanket Tutorial

It turned out really great. It's neat, I love the colours and best of all its so soft and comfy. I can't wait to wrap our little winter bundle up in it for a cuddle!

Lastly, to finish off this mammoth post you can have a token picture of that famous street in Copenhagen! There