Dummy clips

With only a few weeks left before "B" day, it's fair to say hubby and I have gone a little baby mad lately.

We've spent a fair amount of time shopping for baby essentials and cute baby outfits. While the dad-to-be has been busy dismantling, painting and re-building the baby furniture we've inherited from our sisters (one of the perks of the being late starters of the family!), I've been washing and tidying away all the baby clothes, packing hospital bags and sewing curtains and crib linings. 

I'm pleased to say that, on target, the nursery was finished before I hit week 34. A post will follow soon once I've remembered to haul myself and the bump up those stairs to take pictures. 

There's been little time left for leisurely crafting. I'm putting the finishing touches to the knitted sleeping bag I started months ago, I still haven't printed all my baby grows and I'm still hoping I'll get to make and finish a bumper and a quilt for our playpen before the due date. 

I have been missing my crafting and my blogging more and more and was getting rather desperate for a quick and easy project. Then my friend Lorna posted a picture of homemade dummy clips on Facebook and I felt instantly inspired. There it was, my quick and easy project! 

I've been making a few of them in the past couple of weeks, improving my design with each one.

The first one was really simple, all that's required is a pretty ribbon, a dummy clip, a popper and basic sewing skills:

Inspired by Lorna's work, I took it a step further and started adding beads, held in place by knotting the ribbon at both ends:

But then I started thinking that it would be nice if the dummy clip had some elasticity to it. However, I didn't want to use an elastic that I would have to knot as I felt that would be too risky to a baby if it unravelled. After a bit of searching, I've found metal free hairbands that are thin enough for me to thread beads on but also sturdy enough to remove the risk of them snapping at the slightest tug. So here's what the design has evolved into:

I'll probably make a few more of those before Baby Goose arrives, one with her name would be nice but since we're keeping it secret, it won't appear on here for a little while ;-). Oh and should you wonder who Alana is, it's my neighbour's gorgeous baby girl and I still need to go and give her that clip!