Home Sewing - Boys Cotton Summer Pyjamas

Another project by necessity, as my soon to be 6-year-old is growing taller by the minute. The Melbourne weather is warming up and we are preparing to wear our summer pyjama shorts. His current pyjama shorts are a bit tight and short for him so it was time to sew him some new pairs.

I used 2 rolls of cotton fabric in my stash, so this project is completely cost free for me. There was also enough for a one size up as well. So, I decided to go ahead and sew them too. 

The pattern of the small size pyjamas was a copy from his other shorts, I added a bit of length. The larger size shorts are Burda 9747 Pyjamas which I used previously for his winter pyjama pants with flanellete material.

There is still a bit of remnant left. I think I may have a project or two in mind for these.

Spring School Holiday Lockdown Activities - Cooking Salmon Slice for Lunch

Our next school holiday art activity is cooking our lunch. This is probably my most favourite type of activity as it means I'm multi tasking between entertaining, educating and also preparing meals 😆.

We follow this super simple and also frugal Salmon Slice recipe from bestrecipes.com.au. 

Spring School Holiday Lockdown Activities - Sharpie Tie Dye Bookmark

Spring School Holiday had officially arrived in our household and it arrived 2 days early. Melbourne is still under lockdown. Although the outdoor playgrounds are now open, we are still a bit uncertain about mingling with large numbers of people, so we're still trying to figure out the most ideal timing of our visit to the playground. With that in mind, I have prepared a few ideas to entertain my 5 year old (soon to be 6 year old) during this period. 

We do our usual light reading, writing and maths in the morning, as recommended by his teacher, and I added in some variation of arts educational activities for him in the afternoon. I'm hoping the activities are not only entertaining but also beneficial for training his concentration, creativity and fine motor skills.

Our first project is the tie dye Sharpie bookmark. The process is very simple to make and the equipment is available from Officeworks. Luckily, they deliver really really fast... all of them arrived just in time for the holiday. 

He loves the new set of Sharpie that I bought for him. Our old textas were probably from 7-8 years ago. They were mine before he was born and some of them already dried out. 

The first thing that we needed to do was to cut the milk jug into shape. I helped him round up the corners. 

He then proceeded to pick different combination of colour and just be creative on the shape of the drawing. It was similar to the doodle drawing that he did in school this term. 

The spraying with the Isopropyl Alcohol spray requires some assistance, but he managed to do it safely by himself after a few goes. 

After the bookmark had dried, I took the lot outdoor to spray the picture varnish. 

He was so into it and he asked to make some more to give to his classmates when they return to school next term.

Arts and Craft Afternoon - Origami Bugs, Drawing and Colouring

Another one of our Friyay Arts and Craft afternoon activity. This is a combination of origami, drawing and colouring. We bought an origami book from Daiso a few months ago and it's about little critters origami folding. 

I found this is a great opportunity to train fine motor skills, especially for my super active boy who likes sports so much. It's a good training for him to focus, be patience and follow instructions.

This time around, there was no complaint about drawing and colouring. Haha, how did that happen... It's a great outcome comparing to the start of this remote learning journey. 

We folded a few cicadas, nettles, grasshoppers and butterflies.

Repurpose Project - Altering My Work Pants Into Boys Pants

My boy is growing taller by the minute by the look of things. His pants are all too short for him, so I thought it would be an awesome experience to alter one of my work pants into his pants.

I have way to many work pants and one of them is the perfect colour for him.

I used another pants that fits him around the waist but a tad too short and adjusted the pattern to give an extra length.

This is probably one of the most frugal project I've done. The elastic band was from an old pair of pants that he had, which was converted to t-shirt yarn. I saved the elastic band for future projects, such as this. 😄

He's a happy boy. He tried jumping, squatting and leaping in them and approved the fitting. 

Now, what to do with the rest of the fabric.... Hmmmm....

Homemade Pretzel Bites - FriYay Activities!!

Sooo, Friday is now a Wellbeing Day for the Preps children in our school. That means no academic school work and the focus is on the mental health of the kids, doing fun but educational things with them. 

We've been wanting to try this Pretzel Bites recipe from KidsCookBest and the Wellbeing FriYay was a great opportunity.

A great practice of measuring with kitchen scale:

A bit of physical activity, dough kneading 😃:

Learning patience and reading time as we waited for the dough to settle before punching the gas out:

And finally some fine motor skills training:

And the best part, eating our afternoon snack:

Handknitted Baby Girl Vest Gift Set - Little Nicole

This baby girl gift set consists of an adorable vest, beanie and booties. Handcrafted with Australian Cotton yarn from Bendigo Woollen Mills. They are super soft and practical for everyday use and mild weather in Spring and Autumn.

Available in my Etsy store in custom order of sizes between 0000-0 (newborn/0 months - 9 months) and a range of beautiful shade of cotton.