Sweet As Dress

I am sewing a little dress for Baby Lucy who turns one at the end of September. I purchased a downloadable pattern on Etsy from Sew Sweet Patterns. The worst thing about downloadable patterns is having to cut all the bits out and join them together. But I dislike cutting patterns from that super easy to rip tissue paper even more. What made the process less annoying in this pattern, was the double dots for matching up the pieces.

I bought this lovely Made in Japan cotton at Spotlight, Sylvia Park. Made in Japan at Spotlight ... what's going on?

The dress is reversible. On the other side I am using a green spot and a green stripe. So far, so good. I will come back to it next weekend.

The Clothed Rabbit

It pays not to throw anything away. New(er) sewing machine is away being fixed. Fortunately, old sewing machine is still around so I whipped up Maggie the Rabbit's dress. The dress was the hardest part of the whole process ... too wide on the shoulders, elastic tricky to get around the sleeves and neck, blah. However, she's finished and the living on the bookshelf next to my Lucas and Lucy book collection until Baby Lucy's birthday.

Lucy's Coat

Finally, a new usb connection for the big camera so I can share pics of Lucy's pink and paisley wool coat.

I bought the flower on felt because I don't know how to crochet. Sandra made it the size and colour I wanted - great service. The buttons are for decoration only, I hid large domes behind them. I like the woven look of the buttons.

The pdf pattern came from Lisa at Big Little. It's a really easy pattern to use - everything came together really nicely. Lisa's own handmade coats feature beautiful hand embroidery. I look forward to making more of these coats for Baby Lucy - perhaps she will get a new one each winter.

(It does look a bit odd hanging on an adult's coat hanger. But that's the best I can offer!)

Rabbit Boots

Mmmm, snuggly. This part of the pattern was the hardest to visualise, so I had to read and re-read the instructions a couple of times. I stuffed the toes with rabbit stuffing since Maggie the Rabbit has no feet just legs.

PS Baby Lucy's pink wool coat has gone down a treat. She definitely has room to grow into it. I love sewing for people who don't sew - they think it's so much harder than it really is and consequently, think I am so much cleverer than I am!

A Rabbit in a Capelet!

I am working on a rabbit for baby Lucy. My sewing machine has packed a sad, so I am only able to do hand sewing projects at the moment ... I quite like hand sewing.

I bought the pdf pattern from Alicia Paulson and the wool mix grey felt from Spotlight. The ear lining is from in my stash and when the sewing machine is better, I will whip up her dress from this fabric also from the stash ... both are from my paisley phase.

I also managed to knit Maggie the Rabbit a capelet. It's been ages since I did any knitting, but it all came back. This is probably as sophisticated as my knitting gets. I have bought a pattern for a cool cardi for the rabbit with holes in the hood for her ears. I will take that home to Mum in the hols for her to knit!

Now onto her turquoise felt boots!

PS Still no sign of small camera or big camera's cord. I did find big camera's second battery though.

Pink Wool and Paisley for Baby Lucy

Baby Lucy is about one week off being 8 months old. She is long and round! I found a cute pattern recently and thought 'I can make that'. So I decided to cut up a pink wool skirt I made myself a few years ago and 're-purpose' it. Fortunately, I had another 1/2 metre of the wool folded up and put away. And I have had the lining in my stash for years - I did have a paisley phase.

It is a work in progress. I need to add the domes and buttons, and maybe a crocheted flower. By the look of it, it might fit her in about a year. Oops. Better too big, than too small though.

Finished Cushions and Quilting in Progress

Realised I hadn't posted pics of the finished Christmas cushions ...

I didn't find any nice white bobble trim though. I found some horrible synthetic bobbles that were unravelling. Yuk. I left them on the shelf and used the white cotton trim I bought at Designer Textiles in Otara instead. I left the trim off Jayden's blue cushion. I added feather inners to my sister in law's black and white flying geese cushions. I got the inners from Neptune's Linen (Mt Maunganui) online. They were about half the price I have paid for them elsewhere.

I have started quilting baby Lucy's quilt. She is now three months old and still quiltless. I am cross hatching (because I like the simplicity of it and it's relatively quick to do) using white thread in 3" squares - the same size as the windows. The blue line is from my marking pen. I am half done. It's not a big job.

When I get Lucy's one finished I have the blue and green baby quilt to quilt. Maybe I won't cross hatch it. Maybe I will do something with circles instead or wavy lines.

Here's one final photo. Mrs Quail and her babies. There were three quail families on the lawn over Christmas. One family with seven medium sized babies, another family with one big baby and this family with 11 tiny babies!

Plum Pudding Dress for Lucy

Finished in time for Christmas! This was a super easy pattern from Ginger Baby Patterns on Etsy. Again, a beginner sewer could cope with this. The hardest part was threading the elastic through the sleeves because my safety pin kept coming open. Grrr. The best part of this pattern was the big long seam up the side from the hem to the cuff. If I was to make this dress again, I would make the pocket a bit smaller.

Sewing for Lucy

Just to be clear, I do mean baby Lucy and not Lucy the Cat!

I was having an email conversation with my cousin Kell a couple of weeks ago and I said, I think I might make Lucy a dress for Christmas. Very briefly, she thought I was talking about Lucy the Cat. The only thing I have ever sewed for my cat has been a blanket!

I have made this 'Perfect A-Line' dress by TieDyeDiva on Etsy.

The choice of fabric was very deliberate. Lucy's Nana and Grandad grow apples for export and pears. Lucy lives on an apple and pear orchard. It was an easy dress to make. I learnt (after one million years of sewing) the difference between clipping and notching curves. I love that it is lined so all the seams are hidden.

Then I made some matching frilly pants also by TieDyeDiva.

They are as cute as anything! It's been a long time since I did gathering to fit and the leg holes barely fitted around the arm of my sewing machine, so that was a challenge.

I have started a Plum Pudding Pease dress by GingerBabyPatterns using the lovely Japanese lawn I used for the apron. (I feel like sewing myself something with it! I love the colours and I love paisley.)

I need to find the gold spot fabric for the sleeves so I can get it finished.

I hope the clothes are all big enough. I have made them in size 3 - 6 months - Lucy is almost 3 months. They look like dolls' clothes to me!

New but Old

I have a couple of old wool blankets in my stash. And everytime I go home to Hawkes Bay I have to go to my favourite traders to see what's new in the textile section. Calling it textiles really makes it sound a lot flasher than it is. It's not flash. It is just one over-flowing section in an over-flowing 'shed' with aisles about half a metre wide at the most. One shelf in the textile section is labelled 'Dog Blankets'. That's how flash it's not. My cousin, Kell, and I love it when the "old lady" is there because she gives great discounts - "just call it $20, dear" type discounts! We imagine buying it and charging Auckland prices for all the treasures to make our fortune ... which we would spend probably on travel.

Anyway ... I have been keen to experiment with using an old wool blanket for a baby blanket for a while. So I cut up one of my blankets, made some binding, and made some co-ordinating felt 'flowers' for it.

My inspiration for the flowers came from the stylishly wrapped thank you pressie I got from my cousin. Kell sent me a voucher from Fabricworm for making her Mum's birthday quilt - the wonky log cabin. Lucky me!

Ta da!

In terms of supplies, I used one quarter of a single bed blanket (I did mean to measure it before I gifted it! ), .3 metre of fabric for the binding which I cut 3" wide (I'd probably cut it maybe 1/4" skinnier next time), plus felt scraps. It's an economical, but still good-looking, project. I am not sure about the durability or safety of the flowers - but I figure the parents can worry about that and cut them off if they want to. It's got to look good at time of gifting.

This is a good 'weekend project'. And while the hand sewing down of the back of the binding takes a couple of hours, I think it achieves a nice tidy look compared to bindings that are totally machined.

I look forward to trying out some more blanket fabric combos. Oh, and buying more blankets next time I am in HB of course.

Progress on the Half Square Triangle Baby Quilt

I have made progress this afternoon. If I made a more concerted effort more often, it'd be done in a jiffy. It might be my project this week because I do want to see it finished.

Jacob's Cat

'Steve the Cat' is for the newest member of the extended family. My cousin Lisa's new son, Jacob. The cat is made from an old blue wool fabric and some left over cotton from Lucas' quilt. There seems to be a run of boy babies in our family at the moment: Lucas in December, cousin Darcy's son Jayden in the New Year and now cousin Lisa's Jacob. Good for maintaining surnames.

Done-o-rama

Meow

The cats have now gone to their new families - for the Kilpatrick and Salins sons. Might experiment with some bigger ones next year.

The top is done

Now all that is needed is about 6 weeks of hand quilting. Easy peasy.

Progress

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What’s Next?

Another baby quilt. This one for my first niece or nephew due mid November.

Fabric: Tweet Tweet by Keiki for Moda from Pink Chalk Fabrics

Heidi's Quilt

Fabric: The key floral came from Spotlight a few years ago. The rest came from

Cushla's Village Fabrics, Devonport.

Pattern: Adapted from Days in Provence by House on the Hill.

Stitcheries: Pattern by Revidevi bought from etsy.com

Finished: 15 August 2010

Melanie's Granddaughter's Quilt

Ally's Toys

Pattern: Kitty and Bunny by Kirsten Doran Design