(W: Here are a few things that Cheryl has made in previous months. Really enjoy watching day by day how she’s using her time as a mum to image her Redeemer by getting stuck into creativity that serves others. I asked her to describe a little bit about each item, since my knowledge of sewing and crafts is limited to opening my wallet and paying for craft materials.)

Cards

Baby girl card - For Kat in celebration of the birth of her baby girl! These were lyrics from the Gaithers’ “Because He Lives“, sent me by one of our close friends a couple of days before I went into labour with Eden, and so a year later I wanted to share them with Kat. Nothing very spectacular here, typed up in word and printed and glued together (in haste) (with love). We rushed to the birthing unit – I hadn’t even written anything in the card until we got there, and I think I finished it a minute or two before David came out to take us to see his newly expanded family.

5th birthday butterfly card – For Charis’s Disney princess birthday party. This would have been constructed in great haste in between hand-sewing a petticoat into the wee hours of the morning! The background butterflies were drawn on in pink pencil, with pink pencil behind the big butterflies too. I then stuck wings cut out of card over top of the pencil wings. I would have done the background butterflies a bit darker pink if I had time/pencils. Some brown ribbon to finish it off.

David’s “coffee” birthday card - I was admiring some coffee cup stain motifs on dribbble, and thought I’d attempt to do it for real. Actual coffee stains turned out too light on the paper, so I gave up on realism and mixed up purple acrylic instead. Incidentally, I was using a glass rim edge to make the stamp, and smashed the glass immediately afterwards (by accident). Ah, papercraft, a dangerous business.

Memory book - We gave this to our dear sister and bride-to-be last year during her Titus 2/hens’ night. It had a number of pages, some blank, some with a bunch of photos of Kat and her then-husband-to-be David.

Guests were invited to write in the captions (e.g. speech bubbles above photos) as well as leave messages for Kat before she entered the world of married life.

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(W: Here are a few things that Cheryl has made in previous months. Really enjoy watching day by day how she’s using her time as a mum to image her Redeemer by getting stuck into creativity that serves others. I asked her to describe a little bit about each item, since my knowledge of sewing so far is limited to opening my wallet and paying for craft materials.)

Nursing covers

Basically a wearable piece of seamed cloth to drape over the baby while she’s feeding and sleeping for some privacy.

This first one I made for our friend Sundeia (who lives in Hastings). It’s yellow and green with a yellow ruffle around the hem, and has a wide yellow pleat at the back for extra manoeuvrability.

I also crewelled a small floral monogram at the wearer’s bottom right on the green panel, using cream-coloured baby weight 3 ply yarn, with Sundeia’s name in narrow block letters underneath.

The next nursing cover I made for myself using some leftover pink fabric from another project. Later added a brown ribbon to the ruffle seam to make it a bit prettier.

I hadn’t realised how useful this was going to be until I realised that in combination with the stroller it meant I could now stay in church service (feed, sleep) instead of hiding out somewhere alone with a monitor. It was also terribly useful when we went to fishing camp. God is good!

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(W: Here are a few things that Cheryl has made in previous months. Really enjoy watching day by day how she’s using her time as a mum to image her Redeemer by getting stuck into creativity that serves others. I asked her to describe a little bit about each item, since my knowledge of sewing so far is limited to opening my wallet and paying for craft materials.)

Pouch slings

This was Eden’s first sling (she’s 4 days old in this photo). Fabric was a sage green floral-patterned synthetic.  She’s since outgrown it, but it was very helpful for those days my hands would be in pain just holding her head up.

Later I made a black pouch sling sized to fit William.  The fabric is black broderie anglais…with *hearts*.  It’s seamed (sub-ideally) in about 3 spots. It was certainly useful in earlier days, though now Eden’s getting a bit heavy for any length of time using a one-shouldered sling.

Mei tai

This was probably my first major sewing project (patterns, measurements, everything).

A mei tai (bei dai 背帶) is a baby carrier made from a square piece of fabric with straps on all four corners, and quite common in Asian cultures (“tie the baby on your back and keep working”).  Researched designs by searching online, reading reports from mums using it, and scanning through websites selling them.

It’s now become my primary soft-structured baby carrier, and many a dinner’s completion has pivoted on this being functional. These days we have other ways to dealing with a grumpy baby, but this remains a very helpful option. Love being able to carry her on trips out, and she’s comfortable enough in it to take naps too, which has been helpful.

The way it’s designed, you can use it to carry baby either on the front or back.

Onbuhimo / ring sling

An onbuhimo is the Japanese version of a baby carrier – the main difference between it and the mei tai is that it uses 2 rings instead of straps for the waist (like this website describes).

Not until after I’d made the mei tai did I realise the waist strap that worked fine for me was too narrow for William.  I had already started to make the onbuhimo (for myself – hence the slightly floral, foliage themed front), and fortunately, since there are no waist straps, only very long shoulder straps, that would (when finally finished) fit William just fine.

(W: If Cheryl makes another one for me, I’d like a bulletproof vest look…)

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 ”[My heart's desire is to] cling to Christ like a burr to a dress.” – Katharina von Bora