Tag Archives: Theo

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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pretty green ebony, bibs, masks

04/07/2021 11:23 pm \ 3 Comments \

I’ve made lots of Closet Core patterns’ Ebony tees and dresses for others and this is the first one for me!  I finally used this absolutely beautiful, delicate grey/green wool knit that I bought in Tokyo, one of of our trips over there.  It’s beautiful stuff, with an almost lace-like texture to it, but unfortunately it had developed a few little moth holes over the years since I bought it.

So I fixed these up with some carefully invisible mending.  Yes, I know visible mending is all the rage nowadays but personally I like my mending to be of the other sort if possible.

See my ghost-like hand up there?! The knit is very sheer, so I fully lined my Ebony tee using the leftovers from my recent Forest Nettie, from two posts ago… I had just enough to squeeze the Ebony pieces on for a lining!

 I stitched the outer and lining together around the neckline, and under stitched using a wide, shallow zigzag stitch.  I also handstitched them together at the underarm points, just to anchor the lining inside secretly.

This is the latest thing in my use-12 challenge for the year, where I’m making a little capsule wardrobe from 12 pieces selected from my stash.

I’m also wearing this skirt from Vogue 8363, drastically modified, and self drafted tights

In the last week we had another mini lockdown, and I kept myself busy by making some much needed things for Theo…. bibs!

These are made using the piece from Butterick 5583, and the fabrics are all scraps and leftovers from other projects.  One of them is from one of Cassie’s old skirts, another two are from Craig’s old shirts, and one of the boys’.  The other cute prints are all from the leftovers from Craig’s surgical caps, fabric originally from Spotlight.  The backing is thin cotton towelling, that I already had in my stash too.

Some of them have completely useless, but also completely adorable little pockets.  What can I say, I couldn’t resist!

I made 10 in the end, and I also made a few masks for Cassie, just in case she wants to match her baby.  Masks are newly compulsory here again, after a few months without them, so it’s becoming more necessary to have a little supply on hand…

I’d made a few more for myself as well during me-made May, which fell on the tail end of our last period of compulsory masks; here are some of my favourites.  These are also from out of those cute surgical cap leftovers.  I have successfully and completely used up all these fabrics now, yay!  The pattern is from Trend Patterns…

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nighty night!

01/07/2021 4:03 pm \ 3 Comments \

Last month I also devoted some time to updating the pj situation in my life, and in little Theo’s life too!  It suddenly got really really cold overnight, and my fave old bunny pj’s, that I still LOVE btw are sadly too thin to really cut it any more…

I actually bought both the white and mustard, fluffy cotton flannelette at Spotlight very early out of our first lockdown last year… I panicked that we might have another lockdown and I would need new pj’s and that I didn’t have the fabric for a new pair, so rushed out and quickly bought some.  Then decided my bunny pj’s would be fine for another year after all.  Anyway, they’ve been made now and ooooo, they’re so fluffy and awesomely warm I’m in heaven as soon as I put them on..  😀

I used my namesake pattern, the Closet Core patterns Carolyn pj’s for the bottoms, and for the tops I used my now standby pj top pattern Burda 10-2009, 121; which is just so quick and easy and comfortable.  I jazzed up both pieces by incorporating a bit of faux piping in some horizontally placed seams.  I used the selvedge of both white and mustard flannelette in their opposite pieces’ nd found a piece of gorgeous raspberry cotton jersey in my stash in both to tie them both together.  The selvedges are just single thickness with the selvedge edge facing out, and the raspberry jersey is folded once with the folded edge facing out.  On the inside, all the raw edges are overlocked together to finish, and the seam allowances are stitched UP in all cases.

One of the best things is that I think they look great with my fluffy pink robe, that I made two years ago and that is still going strong.  It’s VERY IMPORTANT that one should look exceptionally well put together even in one’s pj’s, ahem…

Also, little Theo needed a sleeping bag… we had some very cold nights during June and Cassie had put in a request.  I already had both these pieces of fabric in my stash too… the red fleece, well I’d previously used most of it to make kangaroo pouches last year, when we had the bushfire wildlife care callouts.  I still had a few pieces big enough to cut out the sleeping bag, fortunately! I cut the collar and cuffs from striped cotton jersey, just to make it look more interesting and fun.  The only thing I needed to buy in all of this was the red zip… I feel like my stash busting efforts are going really well!

Oh of course, the pattern… this is Butterick 5583 and I added 18cm in length because he is apparently a very tall baby!

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of dots and bats…

13/03/2021 5:55 pm \ 13 Comments \

I made a swishy new skirt…

this beautiful rayon challis fabric was generously given to me by Minerva in the UK in return for a blog post for their site, which can be read here.. however because of course I am in the habit of documenting my makes here on my own personal blog too, then here we are!

For sometime I’ve been wanting to make a maxi skirt, and just thought what the heck, no time like the present!  It’s very nearly zero waste, which I am quite proud of.  This is the very simple design:

I measured my waist and hips, and gave myself a bit of extra in the hips, and divided by six to get a rough dimensions for a six-gore skirt design, and the width at the bottom hem decided by subtracting my waist measurement from the total fabric width and then dividing by two, and the length of the skirt was determined by the length of fabric I had, divided by two obviously.  So first step was to draw up the one skirt piece.  Yes, I used the same pattern piece for all six gores!…  I planned to fit three of the gores onto each half of the fabric length I had, laid alternately up and down to make the most of the area.  This was possible because the print is non directional.  Actually, side note, but print-matching as a concept is actually the biggest fabric waster OF THEM ALL, I know, pretty controversial thing to say, huh?  Or not, it’s actually quite obvious of course, although no one wants to admit it!  🙂

Initially I thought I’d try to be clever and cut a waistband and pockets from that bit of scrap off the sides, but I quickly realised that pockets and/or a waistband were going to be, respectively; ugly and/or unnecessary.  So this skirt has neither in the end.

some progress shots…

when making a skirt of a delicate fabric and bias side seams, I’ve found it a good idea to hang the pieces up for a day or so to let some of that bias drop out before seaming.  Otherwise I’ve sometimes noticed that over time, the fabric can grow a slightly “gathered” look either side of that stable side seam stitching.

After under stitching the waist seam I didn’t feel like it was sitting very smooth and neat, so I topstitched around the top edge.  Hangs much nicer now I think!

I used a black invisible zip because that’s what I had!

  

Hemline before and after trimming…

  

I hemmed using the triple stitched skinny hem, as described here…

I gave it a half lining, because swishy skirts have a tendency to be clingy skirts if they do not have a lining, to disastrous effect. Fortunately I had some yellow lining fabric leftover from when I made my yellow Mundaring raincoat.  A lining doesn’t need to be super long to be effective for a main skirt, but now it’s done and I’ve worn it I’ve retrospectively decided I would prefer a big swishy lining too.  I may or may not add a doughnut shape to the bottom some time, to get one.

Anyway, it’s still gorgeously swishy!  I’m wearing it here with my little hand stitched Alabama Chanin tank top, which is my favourite tank top.  I really should make myself another, because I could literally wear this two hundred times a year, easily!  I mean, I don’t, but I could, I love it that much… Hmmm  *wanders off to the fabric room in search of white cotton jersey…*

this is how I wore it to bookclub…

In non sewing news; we are nicely settled into our house at last.  I still have a lot of cleaning out and sorting out to do to get our “family of five”possessions whittled down to be better suited to “empty nesters” state of things *sob* but you know… Work in progress, always!

Oh, one other, this time sewing related thing… Cassie needed a feeding cushion for baby Theo, so I made one using some batman themed cotton drill from spotlight and a European pillow insert.  It has a big border so as to use up the entire width of fabric #wastenotwantnot and I put snaps along the bottom to take the insert out for cleaning.  Look how cute he is on his cushion!  Yes, I made the “Tshirt” here which is actually a onesie, and the pants were a gift from another doting relative that happened to match perfectly  🙂

Until next time!

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Theo

25/01/2021 11:00 am \ 15 Comments \

… so first post for the year! the most exciting news of all for us is the arrival of our darling little grandson Theo; Cassie and Daniel’s baby boy.  He’s very little right now so he is extremely busy eating and sleeping… in fact, more sleeping than usual since he was a tad on the early side.  I’m so proud of Cassie how she has coped in difficult circumstances… Mum and baby were sent home from hospital only a couple of hours after birth, and coming from a generation that was typically spoilt with about five days in hospital for your first baby, this is pretty shocking to me.  She’s doing amazingly well!!

Anyway, I made little onesie for Theo, just before he was born; in fact I gave it to her at his baby shower which was held just barely a scant week before he arrived actually.  Man, things went so fast… anyway, here it is!

O course there is a little story behind this… a few years ago, Cassie made a few workout tank tops for Tim and Sam for Christmas pressies.  She drew the screen prints and printed them herself, and then sewed up the tank tops too.  She gave one each to Tim and Sam, and I’m not sure what was the story with this particular one but it has sat unworn in the fabric stash every since.  She can’t remember now either!  Maybe it was always an extra?  Anyway, I always thought it was such a thoughtful idea of hers, and it’s a pretty cute and clever print too.  Couldn’t possibly just let it continue sitting there!  So, I dug it out, and in the tradition of babies in this family; I made a little onesie for Theo out of it.  The pattern is my own, I just had to make this one a bit bigger, because the writing on the back would not fit on the smaller size I’d made previously for newborns.

Pretty cute, huh?!

I’ve also made a much-needed, new maternity dress for Cassie, the same design as the white one I’d made previously.   I had a few … issues… with this one, suffice to say stripes are always a nightmare and even when you think you’ve accounted for all stripe contingencies that may arise, a new one IS probably going to crop up and surprise you.  Ok, guess I may as well go into it… somehow, despite careful measuring and checking, I STILL somehow managed to hem the dress with an extra stripe along one side seam than the other.  Honestly thought I’d cut them the same, but well, turns out I had not.  I had to cut off the old hem and make a new one.

The other disaster was that I somehow managed to stitch the separate tank front INTO THE WAIST SEAM! thus rendering it useless for its intended purpose as a maternity dress.  DOH!  This required unpicking the seam plus the overlocking, because OF COURSE I overlocked it before I’d noticed!  in what is actually quite a delicate fabric, and well, fixing up the whole shemozzle.  So, for a simple little make it ended up taking most of my day, which I can ill afford right now, to be honest, but at least it got done.

And she looks lovely in it, so it was all worth it actually.

I’ve finally finished another very long-term thing recently too… for me! and am hoping to get it posted in between packing boxes and organising some minor work done for our new house as well as this, our old, one.  Oh, and of course our new pattern, which is far more challenging to finish now that I’m on my own with it, since my helper has her precious new baby to attend to.  Aaahgh, my head is going to explode…

Onwards and upwards!

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