Things are getting a little hot in the kitchen

Hot indeed! *swoon*

When I saw the "Pin-Up" christmas fabric, I just had to have some. And while I was ordering, I just couldn't say no to some of the other easy-on-the-eye fabric either. Hence I have 2m of semi-naked firemen in my sewing room. What girl could say no?!

This wasn't just random purchasing though. Two of my friends have birthdays in the next couple of weeks, so the plan was to make aprons...

The first is a slightly off 1/4 circle (longer in the middle than the edges) with a ruffle around the bottom and a super long waist band that can be tied around the front.

For the other I got slightly more adventurous, with a more rounded shape, fat ties and a thick shaped waist band with interfacing to help keep its shape:

One recipient is spending her birthday in America, so it kind of ties in there, and the other is part of the volunteer rescue team, so I'm sure she will appreciate it!
I still have plenty of fabric, so I'm thinking I might need one...

Is there a baby boom on, or am I just getting old?!

So... 2 little boys born in the last few weeks, another due in the coming days, an other due in march and again in June. Crazy!

Instead of making clothes, I went down the toys route for these.

Mini patchwork platypi (platypusses?). Scrap cotton on top, and soft flannel on the underside. These are about 20cm long, and nice and light weight for small hands. 

And to add an extra dimension these have rattle discs inside the main body, and a squeaker in the beak. I bought a taster pack from ChasingJDandMia, which worked out quite good value for money as I can add them into many future creations. The rattle discs are especially hardcore looking- I think it would take a lot to bust them open to get at the bits that rattle, so I have no worries about giving these to small children. I tried to double stitch all potential weak points too, and replaced buttons with embroidery for the eyes.

When I was playing around with the pattern, I made another large one like the first, but less sausage-like by altering the belly piece. I realised that this would make a great "just because" gift for the baby who recieved the boy clothes. This one also has a squeaker in the beak and rattle in the body. And it has his name on the tail :D

I also made some potentially more useful gifts for the parents of the newborn boys- WeeWee Wigwams! Now, I don't think they will actually be very practical, as babies squirm and they will fall off, but the idea is that they contain the waterfall potential during nappy changes.

I used left over flannel for the outside, and terry towelling for the inside. There are a few tutorials for these around the web, but I can't find the one I like. These don't have any seams visible, but since they're used for catching wee I don't think a visible seam is too big a deal!

Fingers crossed they like them!