One of my main concerns throughout this pregnancy has been potential boredom. I’m lucky in the sense that being pregnant mostly over the cold, dark months has given me more of an excuse (on top of being pregnant) to go out less and hibernate. However, I’ve always been one of those people that has to be doing something, have plans or be going to the gym etc. So the prospect of having lots of free time, little energy and being restricted by pregnancy sickness was a bit concerning. How was I going to fill this free time and not die of boredom?!
I think like most mums-to-be I took to the internet and looked through all of the cute baby stuff out there that I could only dream of buying, and this inspired me to think about possibly replicating, designing and making my own baby bits-and-bobs. I’ve been lucky in the sense that I come from two creative parents, my mother who is a simply amazing wizard with a sewing machine (she used to run a business making and selling children’s clothes and also makes soft toys), and my father who built me a 4-storey doll’s house, complete with furniture. Toby’s mum Bab’s is also amazing with a sewing machine and so it’s been fun checking in with her for ideas and tips.
Sadly I’ve never been able to use a sewing machine or knit, so I sat down and figured out what exactly my craft skills were. I’m a pretty good hand-sewer so I started from there. One thing I am really keen on has been gender-neutral baby things. Although we know that Baby HD is a girl (we didn’t know this for a while), I wanted to raise a daughter that is inspired by a belief that she can dream and do whatever she aspires to do in this world . All of my friends know that I love a theme, and I set the theme of ‘adventure’ to run through Baby HD’s crib, and bed linen. My mother Marilyn and Toby’s mum Bab’s have worked some sewing wonders and have created the most amazing quilts for Baby HD as you can see below!
From left to right – Hungry Caterpillar Play-mat (My Mother), Sea themed quilt, Space themed Quilt (both by Babs)
I decided to start my crafting off by having a go at making my own solar system crib mobile, and wanted the planets to be spherical in felt rather than flat. So I read up on how to needle felt and wet felt and had a go myself. For the mobile I used a combination of a wet felting technique and dry needle felting coloured wool roving onto different sized polystyrene balls. I then strung them up with cotton thread and attached them to a pre-made wooden mobile hanger which I purchased off Etsy. I think in total the cost of the balls, roving and felting needle came just under £20, my biggest expense was the pre-made mobile hanger which cost me £13. I decided to purchase this rather than make my own as I didn’t feel that confident in making that bit. I’m really pleased with how it turned out – considering this was my first attempt at felting and at creating a mobile!
At the same time as making a mobile I had come across some of these gorgeous ‘adventure’ inspired cushions from the Spanish Brand Nobodinoz. I didn’t want to spend over £20 for a cushion so I decided to have a go at making one myself. I purchased some lovely soft, fleecy fabric and felt from our local shop and used cotton stuffing from an old cushion. Below are the results and comparison for the mountain cushion I made and a little grey cloud.
I then moved onto sewing a series of items for a homemade baby gym. The theme for this project was ‘The Hungry Caterpillar’ to go with the play mat that my mother had created. I decided to hand-sew little breakfast items and to hang them with ribbon from the main wooden frame. My husband Toby also got involved and cleverly put together a wooden-framed baby gym to hang these items from.
Growing up as children my sister and I were very fortunate to have a mother that could sew, and she would make us the most amazing children’s clothes, think little house on the prairie style floral dresses and pinafores! I asked my mother if she would be happy to have a go at making some similar things for Baby HD particularly for this coming summer, so we both headed on over to Fabric Land and chose a range of gorgeous floral prints and a lovely old-fashioned romper suit pattern. I couldn’t believe how quickly my mother was able to produce these lovely things (apologies for the poor quality photo):
I’m still working away at creating some other bits for the baby, which I’ll post up here when I’m finished. I would thoroughly recommend to anybody, not just pregnant ladies, about finding your inner creativity. It’s been so rewarding trying out and making things, and has done wonders for my own mental health and learning how joyful it can be to spend time by yourself!
Baby in HD 