Easy PJ fix for Laith and Baby Pouch Sling for Bub

In my attempt to get the kids fitted out with PJ’s for the “winter” here I was fast running out of time so I decided to cheat a little and make the pants (Easy Fit Pants pattern again) but embroider some t-shirts to go with them. This is the second pair for Laith …

My Oliver + S pattern Bedtime Story Pajama pattern arrived and I can not wait to get some made but for now they will have to go on the back burner until I get back to the sewing table post baby.  I ordered this pattern from Oliver + S direct and it was here in about 10 days, beautifully presented, they have their stuff together over there!

 

Suddenly Saturday seems very close. It is wonderful to have my Mum here. She bought lots of goodies with her and I have so enjoyed having some Darrell Lea Licorice and two packs of Tim Tams – yummo! Still lots to be done before Saturday including the school Fall Festival which has a big Trick or Treat night on Wednesday. I finished Laith’s Jedi robe today and will take some pics and post them after Wednesday.

 

I did manage to make the baby pouch / sling this week. For the last two bubs I have used only ring slings but I wanted to try this style this time around for when he is in the first few months.  Using THIS tutorial from My Karma Baby I made this sling up in about 1.5 hours.

I used a cotton fabric that I felt was better doubled up so basically this is like a lined pouch. Very easy to make. The pocket was added as I intend to use it on the school runs and it  will fit my phone and keys nicely.  I know the flowers are not an exact match for the blue tie dye but I felt it needed something bright to pick it up.  It was hard to take a decent picture with that big tum but you get the gist I am sure … and thanks to Lulu for lending me her baby Franklin for the photo shoot!

 

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Journal Cover and Crayon Roll Gift Set

Lulu and Sami attended a 4th birthday party today for a little girl in Lulu’s class. I like to make the gifts for the kids just so they have something “different”.

This is my first attempt at a journal cover. I used a tutorial from the Moda Bake Shop which was good although I did need to alter it a little as it is too tight for the A5 size if you keep to their exact measurements and seam allowances.

The embroidery of the monkey is from Juju Designs and the Button Badge and Alphabet is from Bunnycup.

It has been a good year since I last made a crayon roll so I guessed at the dimensions a little and again next time I need to allow an extra 1/4” for the crayon placement so it doesn’t look so tight.

I hope she likes it.

The kids had a great time at the party and we all came home utterly exhausted at 6pm. The kids have a school free day tomorrow as it is parent – teacher conferences. I thought I would get a sleep in but my scheduled times ended up being 8.30, 9.00 and 9.30am – groan, oh well at least they are one after the other and not scattered through the day.

It is 8pm and again I find myself ready for bed ! A little surf and then it is nighty night for me.

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Laith’s PJ’s and Getting Ready for Baby

Poor Laith he often feels like the others get more clothes sewn for them which is probably true given that Laith wears a uniform and the Sami and Lulu do not. Recently after making pj’s for Sami and Lulu I was given the “how come you don’t sew for me” talk … eeeeek bad mummy!

Here is Laith in his new pajamas.

The pants are from the Easy Fit Pants pattern I have posted about before. I have found in the last few pairs I have made for Sami and Lulu that they run a little short in the rise for my kids so I added another 2 inches onto the top for Laiths and it has worked out a much better fit.

It was a bit hard to take a good picture, I never realised his legs are so long  

I had this t-shirt in the cupboard for Laith which he does not wear being white and all so I added a little space alien appliqué to make it a “set”.

The applique is from Designs by JuJu – Out Of This World set.

My great pal Laila is having her third baby in December and given that I am a good 6 weeks ahead of her I sat up and listened when she told me she had her hospital bag packed and had started to get the baby clothes washed etc. Hmmmm…Ok so she is about to move house and needs to have things ready but given that I have just over two weeks to go I guess I had better get organised too! This afternoon Sami and Lulu helped me sort through the baby clothes to get them ready for washing etc.

Maybe you catch a glimpse of my huge tummy in the mirror?

I was telling the kids that some of the items had been worn by Lulu or Sami and showed them the “coming home” outfit that they have all worn. Sami got fixated on a Thomas Onesie that I said he had worn once or twice before he quickly outgrew it. Well it hung on to it and tried several times to get it over his head. about an hour later he reluctantly gave it up for washing … bless him.

Later when Laith got home the kids sat down together and played Chutes and Ladders. 

I have felt recently that they spend more time arguing or winding each other up than being close siblings so this rare moment it was definitely camera worthy!

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Har Har Me Harties tis Pirate Day indeed…

It was the long awaited Pirate Day at the school today. It is part of the “book week” program to encourage children to read and love books and it has been a great week. Today was dress like a pirate day and the kids went on treasure hunts, read pirate stories etc.

Here are my three wee pirates…

 

Laith’s costume is courtesy of my sister Sharon who sent over a complete Pirates Of the Caribbean costume set a couple of years ago.

Lujayne is sporting this seasons latest in girly pirate ware.

We even blinged her hair a little with coloured clip-ins as she wanted to be a “nice” but fearful pirate LOL.

The skirt is from a tutorial by the wonderful Tracy over at Mad Quilter.

It is easy as pie and would make a great skirt for many occasions such as fairies etc. you can find the tutorial here.  Lulu wanted a bit of pink so I searched through the ribbon box and came up with some pink sequin trim.

Her vest was made using a great free pattern from Leila and Ben which can be found here. This is a great easy pattern. I found it is rather short and maybe I would add an inch next time.  The outer is black denim and the inner a fire print from Robert Kaufman I have had in my stash for a few years. Embroidery on the back is from  Designs by Juju  in the Jumbo Applique set.

The pirate on the front

is from Bunnycup ‘s Pirates Ahoy designs and the lettering is Love letters from Bunnycup however I have had a few problems with the alphabet stitch outs again so I might not use it in the future.

Of course a pirate gal must have a sword and hat.

Lulu made the hat at school and I blinged up an existing sword from the dress up box with the help of my trusty glue gun and a box of beads.

 

Sami’s vest is pretty much the same details as Lulu’s.

His shorts are a great pirate fabric that I no longer have, I think it was Robert Kaufman or maybe Timeless Treasures? 

These shorts were in fact Laiths that I made a long time ago using the Betsy and Joey Reversible Shorts pattern.

Off to school we went and it was great to see all the kids dressed in their Pirate’s Best. Here is Laith in his classroom with some rascal trying to shoot him.

 

A great day was had by all and I was very glad to get their costumes done in time.

Now onto Halloween … sigh.

 

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Sami’s PJ’s and Soldiers

Today I finished Sami’s flannel pj’s. Over the past week or so I have been searching for a pattern that I could make using flannel not knit fabric for pj’s without much success (I have ordered one now that will take a month or so to come so stayed tuned) and finally I decided to use an Ottobre pattern that was intended for a knit fabric but to just size it up a little and put a ribbed collar for a bit of flexibility around the head/neck.

The top is Ottobre 01/2009 #20 “Tiku” T-Shirt and the pants are my “go-to” Easy Fit Pants.

For the life of me I could not fully understand the instructions for the boatneck on the top so it ended up being more or less a regular collar just wider. It fits well on Sami and goes over his head easily however I would go up one more size all over in the future to try and get some extended ware out of them. The flannel I have had in my stash for a couple of years, it is so soft and lovely to feel.  I will use this pattern again although I am keen to see the Oliver + S pattern in the flannel so I might wait until it arrives to make some more.

 

My dear friend Laila came over for a short while this morning to get some sewing done. She brought over a present for Sami which I knew he would LOVE, it is a Bucket of Soldiers (from Toy Story). Sami was thrilled to receive them this afternoon and has carried them around ever since, in fact they are in bed with him now as he sleeps! This afternoon I was in and out of my sewing room doing stitch-outs on my embroidery machine and often when this is the case the kids bring a puzzle in and do it on the floor behind me. It is a bit squishy but we manage. Today it was “the soldiers”. Laila, my dear darling friend, let me tell you what is it like to walk over these little guys when you go from one side of the table to another … OUCH!!!!! Man they just seemed to fall out of no where and crunch my foot would go down on one. It was an obstacle course I tell you. I begged Sami to please play with them outside in the play area and finally he conceded that my big whopping feet were no match for his troop and he packed up and moved camp.

Today I worked on the pirate outfits for Wednesday “dress like a pirate” day. Lulu’s skirt is finished and the two pirate vests are cut and ready for stitching tomorrow.

“Sew” Much To Do … so little time!

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It is Book Week here!

The kids school is holding book week this week so there are lots of activities that need a little of Mom’s involvement ' 

But before I tell you about that just look at my cherubs all sleeping nicely in one room …

We had two of the kid’s cousins over on Thursday for a sleepover as they live a fair bit out of town. All was well until lunchtime Friday when one of them was feeling sick, poor thing. I can’t believe I forgot to take photos of all 5 kids playing nicely with each other. It was interesting to watch as my kids speak predominately English and they speak Arabic but amongst themselves and with a little help from Ali every now and then they managed to have a great time.  Well the little one who was sick had a nap and threw up on Laith’s bed pretty late in the day so by evening unfortunately the  room was still very stinky so I suggested a camp out in Lulu’s room. Bless them they are so loveable when they sleep!

Book Week. A week of book related activities to promote reading.  Today was Happy Hat day but I forgot to do any preparation so my kids went to school without book themed happy hats. Some of the creations I saw today were brilliant.

Tomorrow is a photo display of kids reading in their favourite or strange places. So we took a few quick snaps this morning and then I got them printed ready for tomorrows activity.

Monday they have a favourite book spine writing day which requires nothing from me – Yay. Tuesday they have a great swap at school where the kids can bring in 1 or 2 books and then swap them for other books there. A great way to recycle. Wednesday is dress as a pirate day (the theme of the week is books are treasures etc.). Lulu has decided she wants to dress as a pirate but not a boy one … think think think on the way home in the car today and I think I have come up with some ideas so I will get sewing tomorrow. To top off the week they have an Australian author – Ken Spillman visiting, so all in all a great week to promote reading.

 

A bit of sewing …

I had cut this pattern a while ago and forgot about it. When I was tidying up my Ottobre patterns I found it and decided to make it for Lulu for school. The materials were from my stash and in hindsight I am not sure why I purchased them, LOL. After making the dress Ottobre 03/2009 #18 Three Way Dress it was a little short so I made some Easy Fit Pants to match.

I love this pants pattern, after cutting out it takes about 15 minutes to sew them!

Sami was not happy that Lulu was having her picture taken without him so here he is …

Food Drive – The school is also holding a food drive so we raided the cupboards this morning and took in some canned and dried goods.

Fall Festival – The school Fall Festival is fast approaching and the kids are getting excited about Halloween (they are at an American School this year so you can imagine it is pretty big there!). Costumers are underway and I even remembered to drop off my bags of candy to the co-ordinator for the big Trick or Treat.  I just feel I have to be super organised at the moment, it must the “nesting” instincts because I am usually very disorganised!

The Hook – my caplet is finished I just have to sew on a button, take a snap and show you. Yay – still deciding what is next.

 

I feel like a vampire!

My c-section is scheduled for 30th October (21 days to go!!!!) and on my last doctor’s visit I was advised I need to find two donors to donate A- or O- blood to be kept at the hospital in case I need it. Urgh, it is awful to go around asking your friends for their blood! And they told me that blood only stores for 21 days so the donations need to be closer to the date BUT I am still stuck on the 21 day thing. Does that mean that all blood donated to the Blood Bank here is destroyed after 21 days??? Surely not?

 

Anyway thanks for stopping by to catch up with our daily lives …

The “Circus” is in town

Tonight we went to the circus in Qurum. We were joined by Laila, Noora and Abdulla and Aseya, Azzan and Terryam.

I am going to guess that it was a Russian performance but I am not sure. It was a very average performance but the kids enjoyed it and it was something different for us to do so all in all a good time was had. The kids enjoyed these two very lame clowns, it made me laugh at what they think is funny.

The knife thrower was not too bad.

I think there may have been a flame thrower to come but after 1 hour I had had enough and the kids were losing interest so we left. There were no animals just performers. I hope one day to be able to take them to a big top circus like they see on TV but I guess that will be one year when we are on holidays as that kind of circus will never come to Oman.

Earlier today I participated in the Crafty Mamas - Sew Up Wednesday (sew-a-long) and made Lujayne a nightie.

It is an Ottobre pattern from the 06/2009 issue #36 Mockingbird Nightdress. Lujayne picked out the embroidery this morning and I stitched it onto felt instead of the knit because I was a) lazy and b) worried it might pucker the knit. The nightie came together nice and easy and I will definitely make her more. I made the 110cm which is right for her height but it does swim a little on the rest of her. She loves it and as I type this post she is fast asleep with it on so mission completed! The embroidery is an applique from JuJu Designs which I machine embroidered.

This is the stitch out in process and my very hi-tech thread catcher (a sewing ham with masking tape sticky side up!).

Sorry my photos are such poor quality. I still do not seem to have mastered my new “point-and-shoot” camera which is frustrating because I keep missing shots because the auto is not right and my settings are not right either. Maybe I will take it along to the hospital with the manual and have a play.

Last night was my second last doctor’s appointment – woohoo! We are scheduled to have the c-section on Saturday 30th October all going well. My blood pressure is very low so it looks like I need more fluids and time with my big ol swollen feet up too. He is a very active bub in my tummy especially at night so I hope he kicks that habit by the time he is born and realises that night time is for sleeping

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