Our little busy bee is 1.

First birthday.  Really?!  I'm still pinching myself that it's come around this quickly.  Didn't I just bring her home from hospital?  I think I'm feeling the sadness of babyhood passing more this time round.

Last weekend we had a little bee-themed family celebration for our Miss Violet, she had a ball and so did we.  After one failed attempt at cooking in a dolly varden tin,  I finally scraped in with the goods on the birthday cake.  Phew!  With 30 minutes to spare I was so glad to have it finished!

Despite my difficulties with cooking the cake, icing it really wasn't too hard.  It was literally rolling and laying pieces of tinted pre-made white icing onto the cake.  I didn't have time to make every roll absolutely perfect, but if you did have the time to fiddle with it you could get an even better result.  Overall it's a really forgiving cake, and the slight wonkiness of the layers just adds to the appeal I think.  Bees were made of more darkly tinted icing, black cake writing gel and milo duos for wings.

The instructions for this cake are found in this book (fantastic resource if you can get your hands on it).

The rest of the party decorations were kept pretty simple.  I made a few doily hangings and we had balloons and yellow/black/white nibbles.  We covered some drinks in brown paper & string and then served them with some yellow paper strawers.  

The birthday girl herself had a blast and her birthday top with it's honeycomb collar fit perfectly.  She approved of her cake as you can see.  My four year old has been asking for more cake with "yellow icing" all week, so it was a hit with the big kids too.

I'm still trying to come to grips with my newborn suddenly turning into a little girl overnight.  It's been a big week - first birthday, first steps and next week first day in childcare as I prepare for returning to work part time (not looking forward to that bit).   I have a feeling the next 17 years are going to fly.

My creative space :: Snappy Toddler Top

This week's been one of those weeks!  I've been going back and forth about whether to make something for my little Miss V's first birthday this weekend, and I had decided against it until I stumbled upon this pattern.  The Snappy Toddler Top by Prudent Baby. 

Sweet pattern, no?  My Miss 12 months is extremely small and narrow (she could fit size 6 months across the chest) so I took out some width and then shortened the collar a little....probably a little too much based on how high those clips are sitting.

Additionally I added some crochet lace trim to the bottom at the last minute just to lengthen the pattern a little.  Tried it on a grumpy V this morning with some resistance and it fits nicely, just won't fit for long, but it was such a quick and easy pattern another could be made up in a couple of hours.

A word of advice on the collar - I would definitely wait until you have finished sewing the garment before you add the snap clips.  The tutorial called for putting them in before sewing, but I did not like this, and had an awful time trying to sew around them when making the collar and also attaching it to the bodice ... not a good way to get a neat result.  I should have read ahead and realised that would happen, but launched into the instructions without thinking, so the end result isn't as nice as what I'd like but it'll do.  Don't think you can notice it.

Overall I definitely approve of this little design!  

Hope you're looking forward to your weekend - we're on the downhill run to Friday evening now!

More creative spaces here.

Wee Wonderfuls Sleepover Pals

Happy New Year everyone!  I hope you had a lovely holiday period with your loved ones.  I'm popping in today to share this little project I made last week.

I purchased the Wee Wonderfuls book by Hillary Lang some time ago when it was newly published and as yet haven't had a chance to make anything from it.  Finally the opportunity arose and I made my favourite project in the book - the 'Sleepover Pals', sewed quickly (and hopefully well!) for one of my beautiful nieces who turns 2 today (Happy Birthday lovely girl xx).

Aren't they cute?  I thought so too the moment I spotted them. I just love the way Hillary has made them each unique with their different hairstyles, the sweet little buns just got me right away.   The Sleepover Pals pattern includes dolls, and also the instructions for making the little sleeping bag that rolls up to make these little friends very portable.  I used stash fabric scraps, and though the pattern calls for ready made quilted fabric, I substituted it by quilting a piece of vintage sheet with some flannel to give a quilty soft kind of feel.

 Sleepover Pals weren't difficult to complete, but in my usual style, late on Friday night,  hours before the Saturday brunch party I realised there was a LOT of handsewing in this.  If you make them just give yourself a fair bit of time to sew every bun, arm and body by hand (not to mention the embroidered faces and any trim that you decide to use).  These babies were nearly armless I can tell you (the husband assures me it wouldn't have mattered, but I wasn't convinced so pressed on into the wee hours with a West Wing re-run marathon...).

I did undertake a few cheater processes - sewing vintage ribbon on by machine instead of handsewing lace collars, and not finishing them with a rounded bottom edge.  My other modification was to change the ribbon tie to a velcro band, so that Miss 2 was able to open and close it herself.  They still turned out nicely I think, and I have heard they are loved already - the most important thing of course!

So, the first project of 2012 is complete.   Now I'm off to look for a nice baby summer top pattern to attempt for V's first birthday - I have 6 days to sew, finish buying gifts, make a cake and plan/shop for a party.  Am I crazy?  Probably.  All pattern suggestions welcome. :)