KCW make #1: Baby Dress

KCWC

 

Last week was Kids Clothes Week. I didn’t manage an hour of sewing every day but did more on some days so probably averaged an hour a day over the week. I knew that I wouldn’t get everything finished that I wanted to make but I did finish two items and make a start on two others (that will get finished eventually!)

My first make was a baby dress. I figured if I started with the smallest item on the list I was sure to at least finish something! This dress is a size 0-3 months and is made from a tie dye Diva pattern. I used this pink elephant fabric that was left over from making something else and so has been hanging about in the cupboard for a long time. It is lined in plain pink cotton and has pink snaps on the shoulder pieces for fastening.

I think it looks very cute!

I made a top!

I may have been cutting it a little close finishing the day before the Spring Top Sewalong on Made By Rae ends, but I did it! I made a top – hooray!

As I said in my previous post, technically it’s an Autumn top, because it’s getting on for winter, but actually it looks quite spring-like with it’s pink and flowers, so I’ll just go along and call it a Spring top!

Some time last year I picked up some fabric that looked like it would be the kind used to make clothes from the clearance table at Spotlight (i.e it was nice and cheap!) I bought it with the idea of trying out making something for me in mind, testing out some patterns before making some nicer things in more expensive fabric.

I used the Meghan Peasant pdf pattern from Sis Boom, choosing the top version rather than the dress. The pattern was pretty easy to follow, with lots of pictures to show you what to do.

Having never made a top before I didn’t really know what to expect. I got to this point, convinced that it was a total disaster and the only person it would ever fit would be a three headed ogre (the adult coathanger above it gives you an idea of size): A few pieces of elastic later however, and it actually resembled a top! Moreover, it even fits!!I am tempted to make another now that I know it fits, but in plain, dark colour. I shall wear this one, even is it’s only round the house, because I made it 🙂

I learnt lots making my top, mainly how not to make it!

  • thin fabrics are not as nice to sew with as normal cotton and thicker fabrics
  • make sure you check you’ve caught the fabric in all your seams, as thinking you’ve finished and then finding a hole = disappointing!
  • cutting a straight line across a piece of fabric = almost impossible (although I think this one might just be me)
  • folding and pressing curved seams and hems is very time consuming!
  • do not accidently sew the front and back of your top together when sewing a seam – this leads to lots of unpicking

Hopefully the next top I make will be even better!

Newborn Crochet Booties

Recently I offered to test a new pattern for some girly crochet baby booties. I thought they would be a good addition to the parcel I am sending for my new niece!

I chose pink to make them super girly and used cotton yarn to make them nice and sturdy (and washable!). I used some beads that were left from some item of clothing I don’t think I own any longer (they came in a little plastic envelope as spares, like you often get spare buttons in case one falls off).

Once I’d finished the first foot the second was easy! Unfortunately, this made the second foot stitches tighter and smaller than the first, so I ended up undoing half of the first and redoing so that they matched!

Here are my finished booties, ready to send in the post:

Baby Gifts

My most recent makes have been some new baby gifts for a friend. It’s been a while since I last made these, so it was nice to get back into making them.

I made an owl minky ribbon comforter: The last time I made comforters was before I had a walking foot. Wow-what a difference that makes! I knew it would be easier, but had no idea how much! I top-stiched around the edges after I’d turned it out, which I’d never done before as I knew it would look awful with it sliding around, and look how great it turned out. I was so pleased with this one: I also made some bibs. Since they don’t know whether it’s a boy or a girl they’re expecting I made one of each. A girly bib … … and a boy bib. A whole little newborn set for their soon to arrive little bundle 🙂

TSL Dolly Drive 2013

Back at the beginning of February I posted a photo of the mushroom rattles I made for the Dolly Drive (in this post here)

The Dolly Drive finished this weekend, and the final tally will go up on Tuesday (due to the Easter holiday weekend when there’s no post). But we already know that the target of 1000 toys has been exceeded, so that’s over 1000 poorly children around the country who’ll receive a gift to help brighten their days in hospital – isn’t that wonderful.

I made one more item to send in the last week of the Dolly Drive. A bedtime baby doll from the Funky Friends Factory pattern that Pauline kindly offered for free to those who wished to use it to make toys for the drive.

I made it using some dinosaur flannelette and pink cotton. I used the photo tutorial on the FFF website to follow the pattern which was really helpful.

This is my finished baby dolly:

Spring Top Sewalong

Thought it was about time I sew-ed something for me! So I’m taking part in the Spring Autumn Top Sewalong from Made by Rae.

Sew a top for you, by you, this Spring (or Autumn, in the case of this side of the world)!

Now for the all important question: What to make? Time to raid the fabric cupboard and ponder over my pattern folders on the computer to find something to make before the sewalong ends on 19 April 🙂

March Crochet-Along

Habitual Homebody

 

This month’s crochet along was a knotted headband, using the free pattern from All About Ami.

It was a nice quick my pattern, and I made mine using 8-ply (because I own no 10-ply at all) cotton (as I thought it would give it more shape) and a 5.5mm hook (tbh because that was the first hook I found, but I figured using a size bigger than the pattern would kind of even out the sizing since my yarn was thinner!). I picked black as I thought it would go with anything.

Here is my finished hairband 🙂

Mandala CAL – finished!

overlay

 

It’s the last week of the CAL and I finished mine just in time!

It think it looks pretty good 🙂

It is made with Panda 8-ply cotton and is pretty big, measuring 41cm in diameter!

This week the CAL finishes with a vote with prizes for the top 3. The link to go and vote is here. If you’d like to go and vote for me that would be great!

UPDATE: I came joint first place in the mandala voting – yay! Thank you to everyone who voted 🙂