My cousin is having a baby, so I got to sew and knit

TWO is very specific about the clothes she likes to wear now. She is particularly enamoured with stripes, blue and black. Which is great in one way because it means that our shopping trip yesterday to pick her up a few things for this autumn went well. There are a lot of stripes at the moment and she found some new bright blue pants that will see her through most of the autumn. 

The downside is that all my patterned fabric that I love is not considered worthy and she outright rejects so much of the cute stuff I have to offer her. 

Here comes the benefit, my cousin is about to have her second baby in a few weeks and I was able to use some of my new favourite elephant print fabric to make a pair of big butt baby pants. But I decided to change things up a bit and added a waistband and cuffs in ribbing. I'm really happy with how they turned out and hopefully they will look fantastic on the small person in the upcoming Australian summer. 

And due to my somewhat immobile status of late I've had a lot of time to knit. I bought some cotton/lyocell mix yarn in France and thought it would be perfect to make a facewasher. I found a gorgeous fish pattern on ravelry and sat and watched some Stephen Fry documentaries on youtube while knitting it up. It took almost no time at all and I'm really happy with how it came out. 

ravelled here

Crayon rolling

My newest go to gift for the toddler set has to be crayon/pencil rolls. I enjoy the process of choosing which of my scraps of fabric are going to be used. It's a bit like the principle I apply with the burp cloths I make for newborn babies. You don't need much fabric and end up with something functional and pretty. 

I made a whole bunch of them as gifts for three year olds on our trip back to Australia. But the one I wanted to show you today was for a friend's daughter, living in Seattle.

I bought the fabric initially as a remnant to make a wheat bag for my running buddy. I used what was left from that to make a knitting roll as part of a craft swap with my friend. There was just enough to make the matching crayon roll for her daughter. 



I really enjoyed this one because I added a layer of fleece in the middle and quilted it together with some turquoise thread. 



I am reliably informed that it gets a lot of use, especially when they are travelling. 

When clearing out your crap from your parents, you find the darndest things

When we left Australia in 2009, it was only intended to be a 2 year trip. Some five years later, we are still in Sweden. We have even been granted permanent residency and are allowed to stay indefinitely. 

So what do you do when you are only going to be away for two years? You leave some useful stuff behind that doesn't fit in a suitcase. Right? 

Exactly.


So amongst the pots, pans, crockery, cutlery and linen left in boxes in the shed, I found a lot of my old sewn items and sewing supplies. Including a little pin book I made and the pinking shears I used to make it. Score! Both items fit in my luggage on the way back and will get some good use in the coming months I'm sure. 

Here is the pin book:



It features an applique dog made from fabric I used to make a 1939 dress. And inside it uses the same fabric I used to make PJ pants from and then subsequently dribble cloths for TWO when the PJs got a huge hole in them. That fabric has done some amazing things in the last 9 years.


 

It even had needles and pins still inside and they were still sharp and useful. Winner, winner, chicken dinner! 

Running headband for running buddy - SQUIRREL!

I mentioned a while ago in my running post that I started running again with a friend last year. Said friend wanted a headband to wear while she was running to keep her ears warm. 

I happened to have a bit of knit fabric scraps from a pair of ottobre pants that I made for TWO and thought I could whip up a headband quickly. 

I was correct in my assumption and the headband came together really quickly. Just a tube sewn together really, a little bit smaller than her head measurement. To ensure that it was worn with enthusiasm, I added buttons with squirrels on them because she loves them as much as I do. 


Here I am, modelling the headband, back when my hair was pink. 

Roads and robots

Last summer we went to Munich for a week to visit my exchange partner and her family. I went on exchange to Germany when I was fifteen and we are still in contact now, some 18 years later. 

She had just given birth to her second child, a little boy. I wanted to make something for him that was appropriate for summertime. So I made a couple of pairs of newborn sized big butt baby pants, which have become a staple of TWO's wardrobe.

I like them because of the wide leg as well as the ample bum space for our once cloth nappied child. 

I had leftover fabric from a pair I had already made for TWO, a brown corduroy with cars and roads on it. I also had enough leftover from my first Geranium dress that I had made for TWO. 

I think they're cute, yeah?

Crocadippo

My sister in law loves the colour purple. So when it was time to work out what to make my niece, her first daughter, something for her first birthday, I knew it had to be purple. 

I found this pattern for a crocodile at a fabric shop here in G-town. It is my go to place for new fabric and very lovely accessories like this, more on those beauties later. 

I also found some lovely corduroy, or what the Swedes refer to as Manchester, in a deep purple colour and set about making my first softy. 

I now need to explain, the instructions were in Swedish, and relatively brief. The tail construction was particularly difficult to follow. As a result, the crocodile didn't quite end up looking as much like a crocodile as it might otherwise have done. It was more of a crocodile/hippo cross breed. Hence the name crocadippo. 

The wee one loved it and was loath to give it away to her cousin. I had intended to make her one, but I haven't quite got onto it yet. One day. I'll add it to my ever extending list of projects. 

Scrap happy baby gifts

I love making gifts for people. It satisfies my creative self and stops my house being filled with things I've made that I can't use. I'm also a big fan of reusing/recycling or using up the last scraps of fabric from other projects. So when I saw that Dana had a tutorial for burp cloths I had a solution to a couple of problems. I have lots of scraps and babies to make gifts for. 

For example, from left to right in the picture below I have some remnant fabric I used to make a wheat bag for my running buddy, lining fabric for a dress I made for a friend, and spotty stuff from a dress I made for a friend's daughter. 
All made up into burp cloths and tied with that ribbon that you get on some ladies garments for hanging. I often cut those off to use for this kind of purpose because they make the cloths stay together and also because they look cute bundled up. 



At the end of last year, some more scraps helped me make a gift for my yet to be born niece in Queensland. My sister in law was expecting her second around Christmas last year so I sent a parcel for her older daughter and the yet to be born baby. My sister in law loves the colour purple, so I used a fair bit in the gifts for the girls. Here you can see the mooshy bunny (with tutorial) that I made from leftovers from other projects, including a bell inserted in that squishy belly.



And here are the cloths themselves with my knitted facewasher that I found the pattern for here. 

From left to right we have, floral fabric that I loved but had no specific project for, leftover dress fabric from a 2nd birthday dress for a friend's daughter, lining fabric as above, another love fabric without specific project and finally the green with the floral is a pair of my PJs that I had worn out the bum on and pulled apart to reuse in projects like these. 



I'm guessing you've worked out the niece's name started with a 'H' right?

I love that I can reuse old clothes and leftovers from other projects to make colourful gifts for friends and babies and friends' babies. I'm feeling the desire to get the rabbit pattern out again and make some more. They are easy to make and super cute.  

Fluffy pants for Bean

As I mentioned in a previous post, I made a number of things for my new niece, who I have referred to here as Bean, when my brother visited in the middle of this year.

Here is another of those things. I made her a pair of velour pants with striped waistband and cuffs. 

I bought the green velour a year or so ago at a craft fair, with the idea of using it for TWO in some capacity. But then never found exactly the right project for it. 

Then when we were looking for fabric for Bean's pants it suddenly seemed appropriate. I love fuzzy pants on babies. When TWO was in cloth nappies my favourites were the fuzzy ones. The fuzz feels fabulous when you spend a lot of time holding onto a small bottom and TWO had many pairs of fuzzy dacks.

I used an Ottobre pattern for these ones, #4, Summer Sea from the 3/2013 edition. My Ottobre enthusiasm is well known. TWO's birthday dress from this year was a mash up of two different Ottobre patterns. But more on that later. The shower calls, I've just finished my first run in a couple of weeks. 

Elmer dress and red puerperium cardi for Bean

My brother and his wife had their first baby in July this year. They had a little girl who I'm going to nickname Bean. My brother was here not too long before Bean was due because he needed to get his visa for Ethiopia renewed. His wife is Ethiopian and they were living there until quite recently. 

I sent him home with a number of different things for her, but these two stood out as my favourites. 

I made a Geranium dress from http://www.made-by-rae.com/, and the fabric I chose reminded me of Elmer the elephant. So I called it the Elmer dress. 

Here it is:



And I used three different buttons from TWO's stash of buttons that she plays with to put on the back. My brother helped me choose which ones to use. 




Added to the 'outfit' for bean I made a puerperium cardigan, which is perfect for newborns and a really fun knit. I have made many many of these as will become evident as I get them all up on the blog. 



And a closeup of the buttons that TWO helped to choose at her favourite shop at the local square, the wool shop with the wall of buttons.



I made it in 100% alpaca yarn from drops design. I love that yarn. It's so soft and warm. I have a pair of socks that sadly got felted in the wash that were made with that yarn and they were incredible to wear. Super soft and super warm. *drool*

I was lucky enough to see photos of Bean wearing said outfit after she was born and I'm so glad it suited her. Now I have to get busy and make her another one for when we visit them all in Australia early next year.

1st Birthday dress for TWO

The wee one (TWO) is two and a half now. But 18 months ago, I started what I hope will be a tradition of making her a dress for her birthday. She was born at the end of winter/start of spring and so I wanted something that can be layered with warmer stuff underneath but still functional later in the year. 

For her first birthday, I made a wrap around dress with a pattern from stoff och stil and fabric from the same place. It was a really fine corduroy with hot pink trees on it. I'm not a massive fan of pink, especially pale pink, on myself or the similarly coloured wee one. But I really liked the pattern on this fabric. 

She got some good wear out of it and I enjoyed having a sewing machine again to make it, rather than sewing by hand. 

My third Washi - a tale of a dress that has many iterations

I am an enthusiastic sewer of things. That is sew er, as opposed to sewer where the toilet waste goes. I didn't have a sewing machine here for a long time and it was only when TWO was almost 1 year old that I got one. 

I am also prone to my belly blowing up like a balloon due to eating the wrong foods. Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) has been the bane of my Swedish existence. Starting some six to eight months after I moved here, I had a stomach that would range from the normal "fitting into my clothes from the start of the day to the end" to "not fitting because I looked about six months pregnant" with all the contained gases. I would also regularly have horrible attacks which would leave me feeling incredibly sick and sorry for myself. The phrase 'peeing out of my arse while feeling like I want to vomit copiously' comes to mind. Really rather unpleasant.

As a result of the unpredictable (until recently) nature of the size of my gut, I have spent a goodly amount of time looking for clothing that compensates and allows for a variable gut size. The washi dress from made by rae is one such item that came to my attention as perfect for those days when I was blown up like the aforementioned balloon.

It is also a great "all you can eat" dress, which also compensates for overconsumption of delicious food.

I have made three washis in total thus far and have plans for at least four more. The first two followed the basic pattern appropriately and I made a size M which worked well. But I wanted a stretchy one for the summer. 

So here's what I did to alter it and how it ended up.

I made a S size rather than a M to allow for the extra ease/stretch in a knit fabric. I then lowered the neckline a bit and took up the shoulders about an inch. This is mostly because I am quite short between my shoulders and bustline and I had problems with the armholes being a bit low. I added a couple of rows of extra shirring on the back to avoid a puffy top section of the back of the dress. 

I also used some cheap remnant fabric that I picked up at my local fabric store, so I wasn't wasting expensive knit fabric on what was a (hopefully wearable) muslin. So the stripes aren't exactly straight everywhere, but I'm still pretty pleased with how it worked out. 

I hope you can see that I'm a bit happy with it and a couple of close ups to see the details of the neckline. I just finished the edges by folding them over and sewing them down. I think next time I might use some vliesofix to make it a bit more sturdy. 

Enjoy!

I made another quilt

I'm in the process of making a cot quilt for a friend of mine's baby. She's due, actually I'm not sure exactly when she's due, but sometime next year. We haven't got a clue about gender, but there is a clue about hair colour. My friend is a redhead and it's a fair chance that she'll produce another one. So with that in mind, I tried to choose colours that would complement a ranga. It's finally up to the quilting stage. I hand sewed the 'squares' together with no pattern in mind, just a whole bunch of different sizes that I hoped would fit together nicely. I had a few holes in there that I had to creatively patch. But I think it's worked out well. So now all that is left is to quilt it, and then bind the edges and she's all ready for the expectant family. They're such lovely people, I hope they like it.

So here's a photo of the sandwiched together quilt. I used a tablecloth that I got from the op-shop as a base, some bamboo batting for the middle and the top that I sewed. Go crafty me.