Tag Archives: Baby Clothes

little scrappy cardigan

29/02/2024 8:49 pm \ 5 Comments \

Phew!  My February knitting project was finished in the nick of time!  Honestly now, I’m not sure I’m going to be able to keep up with my resolution of one knitting project per month this year, my hands might not be able to cope… but I’m still going to give it my best shot!

This is a little cardigan destined for Theo; I bought this pattern online; the Sirda Denim Cardigan.  I made the second size and all yarns are scraps and leftovers from my still very large bag of scrap yarns.  The buttons are coconut shell buttons, also from stash.  I know, I know; sorry! the “stash” is becoming a tiresome mantra by now, but honestly I could keep working form my scraps and stash all year and may not still get through it!

I made this exactly to the pattern … except!  (there’s always an exception, hehe)  I knitted the body in one piece, as opposed to back, right front and left front; and then added in the sleeves and continued with the raglan seams in one piece; so essential it becomes a bottom-up, all-in-one knit.  The only seams are the sleeve seams and under the arms.  I felt rather clever about this. #undeservedSelfBackPat but have to admit that it made the underarms maybe a little looser than I would have liked, due to the natural stretching that occurs at this point when you join the body and two sleeves together to continue knitting above the underarms.  If I was going to do this again, which I most probably will, I will re-work the needle arrangement so as to alleviate the pressure on the underarm, and post some pictures. 🙂

I’m so pleased with how the colours and stripes worked out!!

Here are some fun links though; the yellow mustard is leftovers from my mustard cowl, here...

the navy blue is leftovers from my ghost horses jumper, here. It’s slightly frustrating that the navy blue looks so black in this photo, but I promise it does look more blue in real life!

all other yarns are inherited from my mother. A few were also featured in my January project for Gilbert, namely the mustard, and the deeper brown used in the borders of this cardigan.  Hehe, I know this all sounds rather pedantic to be documenting to this extent but it gives me joy to do so, so you know… 🙂

Oh! speaking of that, I finally have a picture of Gilbert wearing the baby jumper and beanie I made for his baby shower last year… how adorably cute is he?!!

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leftovers baby jacket and beanie

27/01/2024 1:22 pm \ 4 Comments \

Hello!  Long time no see!  Well, actually it hasn’t been that long, but you know… I’ve been making lots, but not really much that’s blog-able.  Lots of trials and tests of our new pattern, which should be coming up pretty soon, so please look forward to it!

I also had a bit of a horrible health issue in there as well, which hopefully has been cleared up now.  Nothing to really worry about.

But in the meantime I knitted this new cute little set for my littlest grandson Gilbert!  When he’s a bit older I can hopefully take a picture of him actually wearing it, but right now it’s over 30C so maybe not just yet!

So, in my end of year post, I mentioned I had a huge stash of wool that I was planning to pass onto a day care centre or something.  Well, while looking more closely at it I actually found an old needle in one of the balls of wool.  HORROR!  I immediately felt immense pre-guilt that I could have inadvertently exposed someone’s child to a potential injury… just imagine!  Anyway, the upshot was that I decided to make more of an effort to use a bit more of the wool myself.  I have tentative plans to produce a new thing every month but I admit that that is a lot, so I’ll just see how I go!

I used the same pattern I used for the previous knitted set for him from last October, the Naturally Yarns pamphlet K679.  That first one was for size 6-9 months, and this new one is for size 12 months.  It’s all leftover wool, and even the buttons are from my stash too.  The buttons don’t even match each other, but that’s ok!  you can hardly tell without looking closely. It was fun to choose wools and colours again, and to blend them all in in a way that would look intentional, and like a proper design.  I wonder if I could get away with making a few more sets?!

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Christmas dress! hot choccy treats and some cute little kiddie things

28/12/2023 3:39 pm \ 2 Comments \

I’ve made some new things…

… including a new Christmas Day dress for myself… the latest subtraction from ye good old stash.  So this new dress was made with a piece of lovely border print stuff bought in the closing days of 2019,  New York when I went there with Yoshimi… I’m pretty sure it was from Metro Textiles?

I thought I’d make a simple, very plain shift dress and turned to a rather lovely little shift dress pattern I’ve made previously, Burda 07/2018; 118, which is exactly that, but with pockets!  Win!

As usual I hadn’t really bought enough fabric and cutting out the pieces was a tight squeeze!  I had to cut out those awkwardly shaped facing pieces from a different fabric.  I used a pale latte coloured, stiff cotton for this.

Fortunately I also had a zip of the appropriate length in my stash too, although it’s a less than ideal bright white instead of ivory; it’s a little more noticeable that in appears in this picture.

This picture is really just to show the selvedge being used for the centre back seam; I often do this if the selvedge is lying nice and flat, and it does save that little bit extra if fabric is short.

If I’m totally honest with myself I’m not 100% happy with how the print matched up along this back seam but again, I didn’t have enough fabric to do anything about this so c’est la vie.

wearing it here with my crocheted hat…

This really is such a lovely print! and I’m absolutely thrilled it has now become a cute little summer dress that I felt comfortable and very happy in, all day long.  I didn’t get any photos from Christmas Day because I was just rushed off my feet all day, but I wore it again today and took these pics. 🙂

Next up! for Christmas gifts, something I always like to do is to make some little edible treat for the whole family.  This year I thought I’d make hot chocolate bombs…  however, a lot of the recipes I found online were in the form of perfectly spherical, beautifully shiny chocolate shells that you fill with cocoa powder and maybe sugar and/or marshmallows… well such chocolatey artistry was completely beyond my skills!  I decided instead to just make hot chocolate “bricks” 😉

These little morsels might not be things of beauty but they do comprise everything that one needs for a mug of yummy hot chocolate.  My recipe:

Hot Chocolate Bricks

each brick contains:

  • 45g dark cooking chocolate
  • 1 heaped tsp cocoa powder
  • ¼ tsp sugar
  • 4 mini marshmallows

I used double the above mixture, which was an easy quantity to handle, to make two at a time.  Simply melt the chocolate in the microwave then quickly and thoroughly stir through the cocoa powder and sugar.  The mixture should be sticking together into a self-contained blob, picking up all the mixture off the sides of the bowl as you mix and leaving almost no residue.  If it wasn’t, I would add a little more cocoa powder until it did stick together.  Divide between two mini patty pans and gently push the marshmallows on top… this means people can remove them before melting the brick and pop them on top of their hot chocolate just before serving.

Each brick is designed to go in 100-150mL milk, depending on how strong you like it.  If you like it super rich then you can substitute a little cream for a portion of milk!  because they’re quite rock solid little things they actually need a LOT of stirring and occasional re-heating to mix in thoroughly enough.  But they are delicious!  I used one of the earlier, not-so-pretty ones to check out that they worked ok…

btw I also made a little instruction slip to put in with each pack, explaining the how-to stuff.  Actually, I can’t believe I didn’t take a picture of the final packages, obviously I got a bit stressed for time towards the end there!(Later edit: Mum took a picture of hers for me…  :). )

However, to describe; throughout the year I’d saved up those little plastic punnets mini tomatoes are sold in… I peeled off the labels and managed to squeeze 7 chocolate bricks in each punnet.  I popped the instructions in as well and finished off with tying up the punnets with coloured ribbons.

Finally, and possibly my very last makes for the year? there are just three days to go, so maybe!  I made three little garments, for my three little grandsons.  Two raglan sleeve T-shirts in different sizes and a little onesie for the newest and littlest, all self-drafted.  Each using a mix of white and vaguely Christmassy red plaid cotton jersey, although I didn’t actually make them for Christmas!  I bought the red plaid cotton jersey from (I think?) the Fabric Store in Melbourne during a past trip over there… it’s quite thin and was actually not much fun to sew with.   Doing the twin needle hems on the T-shirt sleeves was a hideous experience, each one unpicked and re-done multiple times each.  I don’t really know what the issue was but it only occurred on this particular fabric, not the white cotton body hems.

The white jersey was from old stash.  I think they turned out pretty cute, and if I get a picture of the little guys wearing their new things I will upload it here!

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an assortment of sewn things

11/12/2023 4:50 pm \ 6 Comments \

hello!  Once again I am presenting an odd assortment of disparate things made recently…

Items 1 and 2; two completely identical new Booragoon tops.  Both from a pink cotton jersey from stash, originally Spotlight from ages ago.  I’m wearing one above with my newly dyed Closet Clore patterns Mitchell trousers… the trousers used to be a paler pink and I felt like a colour change though I fear I overdid it a bit!  never mind…  the other pink Booragoon has gone to my niece T.  It really suits her!

Love this cute and yet chic little pattern!  I know it’s mine and I shouldn’t be too self-congratulatory, but I really really love it so I just have to gush occasionally.  I’ll stop now.

Items 3, 4 and 5, or should I just call this item 3?  I’m never quite sure…

anyway, I made a new set of one Watson bra plus two pairs of matching undies.  I used some of the leftover pink cotton jersey, from those aforementioned pink tops, and some striped jersey, that I’ve had for a long long time (actually made this striped shirt from it). And whipped up a mixed fabrics set… actually I want to make more things like this at the moment, mixing up different fabrics.

Fronts and back of the knickers are contrasting, the strap elastic, rings and sliders, and hook and eye closure are all recycled from an old bra.  The other elastics are all from the stash, by which I mean they’ve not been used before even if they’re not actually new.  A free set!  Yay!

Items 6 and 7 (or 4 and 5?). some matching clothes for Cassie’s two; T and G…  Oh, I’ve just realised I haven’t introduced my newest grandson here yet… I did over on instagram but this is his first appearance here…Cassie had baby Gilbert a few weeks ago, and here he is!

Isn’t he sweet!  This is the first thing I’ve made for him and I made a matching T-shirt for his older brother too.

I’m quite sad that this next one has zero hanger appeal, or should I say floor appeal, and even on the body it doesn’t look particularly chic; which is pity because the fabric is absolutely beautiful.

Mum wove this length of beautiful lilac/blue fabric with her own two hands many years ago, and had partially made a dress or tunic or something out of it.

I cut off the bottom, hemmed, and reattached the cut off portion as sleeves.  I’m wearing it as a summer dressing gown.  So that was item 8, for those keeping count, and now for number 9….

my new summer nightie!  So I really really love this and it feels so lovely to wear!  I used a short length of silk from Le Stash, originally from (I think) Tessuti fabrics of Melbourne, from years ago.  With some clever pattern placement I managed to cut a Closet Core Simone slip.  I French seamed the side seams, and was very careful to match stripes all around.  It feels incredibly luxe!  Why have I never made silk sleepwear before?!

 

 

Ok, I think that’s all for now!  See you later!

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pumpkin spice… plus some lovely sea-foamy green things

28/10/2023 5:19 pm \ 5 Comments \

Hello!  I’ve finished making a few new things, both from deep deep stash.  I can’t stress enough how happy it makes me feel to be methodically using up ye olde stash!  I feel so virtuous.  Particularly since such a lot of it was not even bought by me in the first place, but foisted upon me – and I must say here that I truly do appreciate everything that has been given to me, many many pieces have proved to be very lovely and beautiful quality, and very useful too when it comes to testing patterns and new designs!  It is also true though that I am at a stage in my life when I want to whittle it down, for good.  I have dreams of a more minimalist future, and I’m determined to see it through.

Firstly; a new dress for me, using a pattern that has become a favourite; the Deer and Doe Myosotis dress pattern.  Such a pretty and feminine design; I think I might have to always have one hanging in my wardrobe.  My blue and white gingham Myosotis is currently being worn by Cassie as a maternity dress, and quite successfully too!  quite telling as to how comfortable it is.

The fabric is a quite nice, soft-pumpkin silk crepe, very lightweight and floaty, almost translucent.  I’m definitely going to be wearing this with a slip, I think.

I honestly cannot remember where I bought this fabric, or even if I did buy it; and if not, who gave it to me?  Honestly a complete mystery!   Which makes me think it was most likely part of a stash that I inherited at some point.  No matter!  I do really like it and I think the colour suits me very well.

Item 2!  a little knitted jacket and beanie set for Cassie’s new baby… the last time I went down to stay with my parents I bought this little pattern pamphlet from a yarn and quilting shop in Bridgetown; Naturally Yarns K679. I wanted to get something for the baby, and also to support a local business, but honestly felt very conflicted about buying a finished something when I SHOULD be using up my own supplies….   anyway I did achieve kind of both.

This set is the 6-9 month size.  All yarns are from the very large yarn stash that I’ve inherited over time – and no; I am NOT accepting new submissions!  I really think I could have a lifetime of knitting ahead of me, no purchase necessary…  It was pretty fun though, to try to make the scraps that I had into some sort of design idea, and I’m very pleased with the outcome!  I literally used up the entirety of ALL these yarns, with the exception of a small amount of the lime green yarn used for the beanie and collar.  It’s the most thrilling thing to successfully use up yarn, and use it up even semi-aesthetically.  I know, right?!!  SO proud!!

Finally, item 3; and this is sadly not from my own stash, but from Cassie’s.  I volunteered to make up one of the fabrics she had bought for her summer/autumn breast-feeding friendly wardrobe.  What else to make but one of our own Yallingup designs?!  We both believe in this design so thoroughly and it’s a little sad that it has not been as popular as we were hoping.  I wonder if it’s not clear that the regular, and the breast-feeding friendly version are actually separate designs, even though they look the same from the outside?

 

Anyway, we both love it! and Cassie has made up quite a few more of the breast-feeding friendly versions herself for her time with this new baby.  And this is one that I made for her.

The fabric is a Nano Iro Air Time design in colour way B.. it’s so beautiful it would make literally anything look absolutely amazing.  Hey, I still believe that our Yallingup is independently beautiful too though!  I could not fit the pattern pieces onto the small piece of fabric in the traditional way, so the front and back are top to toe, and the wrap piece is cut on the cross, with the tail ends of the tie cut and pieced from the scraps.

 

I had to cut the facing from a separate piece of plain white cotton, through lack of fabric.  She’s modelling it here, 8+ months pregnant, sure it’s a little short but it’s not too bad for a non-maternity design!  It’s going to be even better once she’s out of the pregnant stage, and into the breast-feeding stage which is what it’s designed for.

That’s it for now!  I still have a few, unphotographed and yet to be blogged things up my sleeve!  Until then…  🙂

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a cute little outfit for the little guy…

23/10/2021 5:28 pm \ 5 Comments \

I made a new little outfit for the littlest guy in our family! isn’t he the cutest?!!  of course I am not in the least bit biased, hehe

The little romper is self-drafted, the same pattern I used for the bumblebee and the sloth rompers made previously.  And now he has a panda romper… hmmm, what animal should this sweet child become next, I wonder?

 

Yes I went to the trouble of changing between white and black thread because, of course…

Actually, there is a tiny design difference… Cassie requested that the romper be made even more clownsuit-y, if that was at all possible.  So I added a little pleat in the crotch area, this adds a bit of extra volume without ending up with a complete straight line at the bottom…

The panda patch is an iron-on from Spotlight; I ironed in on and the also stitched it on too, just because I don’t actually trust the long-term adhesive capability of these things to be honest.  Before stitching, I also pressed a layer of lightweight iron-on interfacing on the inside of the romper underneath it too, for stability.

I was really pleased with how neat the grandpa-placket closure turned out at the back!

The T-shirt is the same pattern I used for the ones I’d made previously for both T and A too, in this post here.

That little smile!!  Totally melting my heart!!

Striped fabric is leftover from a T-shirt I’d made for myself previously, I think originally from Fabulous Fabrics, and the green fabric and panda patch is from Spotlight.  Although they appear “new”since they are not leftover from anything I’ve made previously, they both are actually from stash, because I bought both of them quite a long time ago, seduced by one of those treacherous 40% off everything sales that Spotlight has periodically.  I’m not falling for those again, trust me! at least until I’ve used up my current stash.  I’m a changed woman, I promise!

oh, I also made some soap.. this is my favourite buttermilk recipe, outlined here; and I made a video

I hope you like it!

so pretty!  I almost can’t wait until it’s ready to use!

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made some stuff…

05/10/2021 3:05 pm \ Leave a Comment \

thank you so much everyone; all your kind words about Sophie mean so much more to me than I can say…

 

just a few more pictures:

Now:

I really should blog about these few things that got made, in some cases, weeks ago!… and just for something a little bit different I’m just going to go with short and sweet, bullet point kind of blogging.  Ready set go!

Item 1!

  • a new raspberry pink skirt…
  • piece 9 in my #make12 capsule wardrobe from my stash challenge that I proposed at the beginning of the year, hurrah!
  • self-drafted
  • upholstery fabric from Spotlight stores, and the leftovers from my fibremood Heaven dress that I made previously here
  • I bought absolutely zero new things for this skirt!
  • huge pockets
  • fully lined!
  • added a nice bias bound finish to the bottom edge before hemming
  • used the same wine-coloured cotton to line the waistband
  • actually very pleased with the lining to invisible zip attachment this time
  • LOVE IT and already worn it several times
  • am thinking of making this into a pattern and writing an accompanying tute for how to do the zip this nicely!

Item 2!

new onesie for little Theo!

  • own design, the same one as this one
  • cute sloth cotton jersey from Piermont fabrics in San Francisco… I bought this when I was out shopping with Shams, Beth and Yoshimi, during Yoshimi’s and my joint trip to USA together.  Wow, I wonder if we will EVER travel overseas, ever again?!
  • I did the back opening a little differently from the last time, and it is not as good.  Definitely sticking to the way I previously from now on
  • nonetheless this is a HUGE success and both he and I (and Cassie) all love it!

Items 3 & 4

little T-shirt and pants for Arthur…

I used some of Tim’s old trousers for the pants… I actually love doing this recycling old clothes/fabrics sort of thing and really want to get back to doing this more again.

  • self-drafted pattern, using a pair of his rtw leggings to gauge the size needed
  • I added pockets! so cute …
  • to line the pockets and make a kind of facing for the faux fly, I cut pieces from an old purple shirt of Tims… recycling/reusing for the win, or what
  • T-shirt based on one of his currently well-fitting T-shirts.
  • white cotton jersey thrown out from Mum’s stash, when she did her big cleanout
  • I bought absolutely zero new things for this cute little outfit too!

That’s it for now!  I’ll be more talkative next time, I promise!  🙂

 

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bumblebee baby

28/08/2021 9:52 pm \ 4 Comments \

Le Bebe needed some new outfits… so I made one!

The little clownsuit/jumpsuit is totally adorable in my opinion!!  it’s partly based upon two other different rtw ones Cassie already had for him for gauging the size and width, and I drew up my own pattern from those measurements…

For the little T-shirt, I used the cardigan pattern in Butterick 5583, just cutting it as a T-shirt instead of as a cardigan, and also accordingly making the neckline wider by about 1.5cm each side so his head can fit through the hole… the funny thing is that this size is the newborn size!   It’s very big and loose on him and actually he is NOT a small baby.  It just goes to show once again how strange the sizes are in baby patterns.

the fabrics are pretty cute, I think!  both are from my stash, originally bought from Spotlight.  I’m still virtuously using stash fabrics but have recently bought some new fabrics from Spoonflower, so that’s a bit of a setback in my use-stash only plans for the year, whoops! but actually I’m not going to get too down on myself because each of the fabrics I got is really cool and, you know what? Life is too short to be hard on yourself if you don’t have to be!

In random wardrobe news, Cassie came around last weekend and helped me to do a big closet cleanup, and we tossed out a huge garbage bag of my clothes… this felt SO GOOD! because I’d got into a bit of a rut with my winter wardrobe, basically forcing myself to wear shabby and old things that really were not doing me any favours.  Now I have a smaller collection of winter clothes that I really like and that also actually look good on me!  I’m not planning to make much more in the way of winter clothes to replace them though, but am revving up for spring and/or summer now.

So, wanna see a video of the making of this cute bumblebee baby outfit?  Because I made one!  It’s fun making videos and I enjoy it, but it does take quite a long time; so I’m not going to make one every time.  Maybe just for special or interesting things… we’ll see.  Anyway, I hope you enjoy it!

It can be seen here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbO0gTSl-WQ

 

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