New baby pants from old shorts!

When I last went shopping for new clothes for Aiden (which is quite a frequent occurrence since he is growing so fast!), I was disappointed in the lack of long pants that weren't trackies or jeans. The weather is warming up so trackies are a bit too hot now. I found a few tutorials on line that had patterns for pants for babies, so I decided to make Aiden a couple of pairs from some old shorts of Gus'.

Before, 1 pair of mens shorts:

First I took apart the shorts by cutting the seams & unpicking the pockets on the back. I used a pattern from danamadeit.com, the shorts were just the right size for small pants:

I cut the shorts a bit smaller than the pattern as the pattern was for a size 2-3, but when I sewed it together they were too small! So I unpicked the outside leg seams & added a strip about 2" wide then resewed the legs back together, after seams there is just over an inch of extra fabric in the legs :) a good fix, looks OK & fits well :) maybe a bit too baggy in the legs, but a good fit over a cloth nappy bum!

After:

Plenty of room in the length for growing!

I've been a busy bee sewing up a storm...

Since I've been at home I haven't done any baking, BUT, I have done alot of sewing.

The 1st thing I made was some new cushion covers. These were made from a spare curtain so match the new curtains we put up in the house. I made an envelope back so no need for a zip, just a couple of velcro tabs to stop the cushion trying to escape out the back.

I had a go at quilting as well. I plan on making Aiden a quilt for once he is out of the cot (probably far too soon), so thought I better practice on something smaller! I made a table runner for christmas. I quilted in simple straight lines, the binding was the tricky part so what you see here is the 2nd attempt at binding! Much better than the 1st :)

The back was a nice christmassy print too.

Over the last week or so I have been enjoying having the sewing machine set up in the office, so whenever I feel like sewing, and Aiden is asleep, it's all ready to go.

Last week I finished recycling (?) an old set of flannelette sheets from our bed (king size) into single sized ones for Aiden, no pics, but they're a lovely dark blue, perfect for a little boy :)

I made a pretty sewing machine cover too. This used some cute fat quarters & some leftover material from the sheets.

Who knew my sewing machine would get such a workout! So here is it's nice new cover to keep it happy :)

Breast Feeding Cover Up

When I was at Esra's baby shower last weekend, Carole gave her a clever breast feeding cover up that she had made. This inspired me to make one for myself in my free time I am enjoying before bubs arrives now that I have finished work....

a quick google search for a tutorial, a quick trip to spotlight (where I spent my $10 birthday voucher), less than $6 spent (so a huge $16 in total!) & I was ready to sew.

I found a couple of tutorials that were useful... this one & this one.

I wanted something nice & bright so I bought this bright green & white polka dot cotton.

There was enough fabric left over so I also made a wee carry bag for it too!

Now I just need bubs to arrive!

Baby Shower Cake

A friend had her baby shower back in August......  here is the cake I created for her.

It was chocolate with vanilla buttercream piped in ruffles all around. A cute baby blue teddy bear on top completed the cake :)

Rich Chocolate Cake

It was Gus' birthday last week & he wanted a cake that tasted like & was pretty much just chocolate ganache! A google search found me a recipe by David Lebovitz that sounded promising so I decided to try it out the week before just in case! Here is that recipe, with how I made the cake.

Ingredients:

290g dark  chocolate (I used Nestle cooking chocolate)
200 g butter
5 large eggs (room temperature)
1 cup sugar

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 175C.

2. Butter a springform pan then dust it with cocoa powder, tap out any excess. Wrap the outside with aluminum foil in case the pan isn't watertight.

3. Melt the LARGE amount of chocolate and butter, stirring occasionally, until smooth. Remove from heat.

4. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs and sugar, then whisk in the melted chocolate mixture until smooth.

5. Pour the batter into the pan and cover the top of the pan with foil. 

6. Put the springform pan into a large roasting pan, and add enough hot water to the baking pan to come about halfway up to the outside of the cake pan.

7. Bake for 1 hour & a half (check after 1 hour and a quarter).

8. The cake is done when it feels just set, if you gently touch the center, your finger should come away clean.

9. Remove the pan from the water bath and remove the foil. 

10. Let the cake cool completely on a cooling rack.

It was divine! Gus loved it! It was very rich & strongly flavoured.

And the girls at my new job enjoyed it too! I took in the leftovers as there was no way I was leaving the leftovers at home to tempt me!

But.... then Gus decided he wanted something else.... so see the next post!!

Jam Filled Vanilla Cupcakes

Friday was my last day working at Frucor. Traditionally in R&D the team does a big morning tea & farewell for people when they leave, but I decided to bake too.

I baked some vanilla mini cupcakes & filled them with raspberry jam for a tasty surprise.

  I baked my usual vanilla cupcakes, then once the cupcakes were cool I used a squeezy bottle with a small round tip filled with jam. To fill them I pushed the tip into each cupcake & squeezed some jam into each cupcake.

Then I iced each cupcake with the 1M Wilton tip with pale pink buttercream & added homemade purple fondant flowers.

Vanilla Cupcakes:

125g butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups flour
1 t baking powder
125mL milk
3 eggs
1 t vanilla essence

Cream the butter & sugar, add the remaining ingredients & beat with an electric mixer at low speed for 1 minute. The batter should be smooth & light.
Half fill paper cases (my mini cases use about 1T batter) & bake at 180C for about 13-15 minutes.
Remove from oven & cool on a wire rack.


Makes about 40 mini cupcakes.

Buttercream Frosting (from the Wilton decorating course I completed earlier this year):

190g vegetable shortening (I use Kremelta or Sno Creme from Milly's Kitchen)
1/2 t clear vanilla flavour (Wilton)
1/2 t clear butter flavour (Wilton)
7-8 t milk or water (I use water)
450g icing sugar, sifted
1T Wilton Meringue powder

Cream the shortening (you may need to soften in the microwave 1st), flavours & water.
Add the dry ingredients & mix on medium with an electric mixer. Once all mixed it will be quite dry.
Mix on high speed for another minute until light & fluffy.
Add more liqud until desired consistency & mix well. Note: I use Wilton gel colours so they don't water down the iciing, if using liquid colours you will need less liquid in the icing to start with.

YUM!

Boot Stuffers

A couple of weeks ago I bought some new black boots....
I was looking for some boot stuffers for them & also my other pair of brown boots. I hate how boots always end up flopping over & getting all creased so I wanted to keep my new boots nice & stop my old boots getting any worse.
I found this post by Craft Apple which inspired me... Happy Boots
I used an old pink dressing gown that didn't fit anymore & an old pair of Gus's jeans to create 2 pairs of boot stuffers.

Now they all stand up nice & straight & pretty. Love my boots!