Cozy Baby

While putting off cutting out the Feliz Party Dress (I'm intimidated!), I realized Abigail needed something for fall/mild winter days. Googled around, asked questions as to what to use for outdoors that would also be carseat friendly - suddenly remembered - I SELL these lovely carseat/babywearing ponchos!

DUH. 

Even developed my own pattern. So I did a little stash diving and came up with this last evening:

 o

The outer layer is embossed minky in a plum colour, inner is arctic fleece. I cut the inners longer and rolled the hems to the outside, and did a white edging for the hood too. Closes in front and back with snaps (back can be open and out from behind in the carseat, or when babywearing facing out). Perfect length so she doesn't get frustrated with her hands stuck underneath. I will probably put a thin sweater underneath if it's cooler.

bitterSWEET

I've been putting off sorting through Abigail's outgrown baby clothes.  I had the time this week, and I now know why I was postponing it - it feels so final to go through all her things and put them away. Abigail is probably our last.  A lot of the clothes were tiny things I made her while I was pregnant and on bedrest, or while waiting for her to come home from the hospital.  It's hard to decide what to do with all of those, especially.

In the middle of it, as I was feeling a bit sad, my sweet husband had a good idea.

For her first birthday we gave Abigail a Bitty Baby doll.



 

And Bitty is very close to Abigail's birth size! Abigail was 4lbs 8oz so teeny tiny.

One day old here:



 

This was the coming home outfit I made for her during the wait to take her home from the hospital.



 

One week in one of her teeny preemie gowns:



 

And one of the tiny diapers a friend made for her:



 

I'm so happy all these little things can be loved some more!

Wedding!

My sister Julie's wedding was this past weekend.  I had such fun dressing my kids for this!

I made Abigail this dress. I love how it turned out!! The top is LionBrand Cotton-Ease, the skirt is satin brocade.



 

Not the best modeling shot - sorry!



 

Back detail:



 

A matching hairband for Abigail. I crocheted this flower and sewed it onto a piece of shiny fold-over elastic - nice & simple!



 

Matching bow ties for my boys. I used this tutorial from A Lemon Squeezy Home, and followed her suggestion to make it sturdier - I used fusible fleece inside. I did find the length of the strap was perfect for my 3-year-old, but not long enough for the 5-year-old. I just extended the velcro over the end to make it long enough.



 

The boys wore light blue oxford shirts with their bow ties, and black dress pants (sorry, no photos yet!). Last minute, I had a look at the pants, which they had never worn (too big), and realized Ian's had buttonhole elastic inside the waistband, but Benjamin's did not. There was no way they were going to stay up on his skinny hips, so I did a quick (ha!) fix. I removed the top-stitching on the waistband, cut slits on each side inside the waistband and hand-sewed buttonholes. There was a twitchy bit when I tried to remove the current elastic - it got caught and I tugged too hard and ripped the buttonhole further over the top edge of the waistband. That necessitated a little mending... I added a button on each side, then realized I was out of buttonhole elastic!  I ended up taking some non-roll elastic and cutting slits in it for a temporary fix. Worked great! Phew!

Paper explosion!

So... a while ago a friend hosted craft night at her place and showed us some card-making ideas - I was intrigued. (Repeating: Do. Not. Need. Another. Hobby.)  I came home with a few pretty cards, which I gave away very soon. Next time I "happened" to be at Michael's with a 40% off coupon, I bought a gorgeous pack of paper. They all coordinate and they're all double-sided which makes things easy!

And here's what I came up with:





I'm going to give them as a gift, so I included envelopes and made a sort of box for them out of paper from the same pack.





I may have just lost that one... I can see buying more packs of gorgeous papers like these, maybe more inks and some nice stamps... Thanks very much, Michelle!

Abigail's first birthday party!

Abigail's 1st birthday party was a success!! We had a dozen adults and 18 kids/babies in our backyard. I'm glad the play structure FIL built is done!

I made the Babies First Birthday Cake (Carrot Cake) here. Everyone loved it, though it was quite dense, more like a loaf than cake. Good thing I googled sodium-free baking soda before using the full amount they say in the recipe... I only had regular bk - the sodium-free you have to use 2x the amount! I did a 9x13" pan, cut it in half and did it two layers, then a large cupcake on top for her to smash. They had lemon buttercream and blueberries on top. The cupcake "wrapper" I just cut from a gift bag I had on hand that happened to be the perfect colour! :)

 

She was unhappy I didn't let her grab the candle.


 

"Really? I can grab? They never give me big stuff to eat!"


 

She didn't actually smash it, just got a little sticky and ate a bit of buttercream.


 

Sticky baby


 

Balloons!!


 

Piñata!


 

This thing was impossible to break open. Next time, must use masking tape instead of duct tape... I found the tutorial here! Of course, last minute (well, day before). I couldn't resist. It's so cute. Plus all the older kids had a great time with it.


 

Precious birthday girl! You may remember the ruffle skirt from a while ago. I had nothing to match it though, and couldn't find a plain blue tshirt anywhere in stores. So I grabbed an old cami of mine that was too short, used a tank dress of Abigail's to trace, and made her a new one during nap time yesterday. I reused the hems, cut 1.5" strips and folded for the neck/armhole edges, and used a piece of the skirt fabric for the 1.


 

 

Red & Aqua!

ETA - SHHHHH if you know her! I'm pretty sure she doesn't check my blog regularly...

ETA #2 - She likes them!

 

My sister is getting married in 10 days! She liked the coordinating kitchen stuff I made a while ago for a kitchen swap I was part of, so I promised I'd make her some things. We went fabric shopping together and she picked out Amy Hamberlin's "Genevieve" line.

Here's what she's getting tonight at her shower:


 

Potholders with InsulBrite inside. Both wonky log cabin blocks, one a full and one a quarter block.


 

Backs (just because I think they look interesting!) Ignore the somewhat bumpy binding. :/



 

Table runner, my own design based on the Dresden plate template. I don't have a walking foot, and I didn't want it to have a lot of loft, so I just did a layer of flannel in the centre instead of batting. Worked surprisingly well, as the flannel was grabby and kept the layers from shifting.





 

Two topped towels (loosely followed tutorial here)





 

Valance for the kitchen window. Pretty basic, except I tried an exciting new-to-me technique for the hems! I sandwiched the raw edge of the main fabric top between the two raw edges of the hem fabric, rolling the extra width of the main fabric up to fit between. Then sewed those three edges together, and turned the tube right side out! No pressing under and topstitching needed. Sort of hard to picture - next time I do it I'll take a photo.



 

And my friend Suzanne from Making More With Less used the smallest print along with some other coordinating fabrics to make an apron for her! So not matchy-matchy, but still goes together.

 

I can't stopppp!!

There are just too many ideas for pretty girly clothes churning around in my head! She currently has about a dozen handmade dresses/skirts/tops to wear in her size, but somehow I keep itching to make more. The last couple of items turned out a little large, so she already has stuff for the next couple of sizes too!

 

I made this dress during KCWC (post here). She fits it now, but I had to modify it a bit. I sewed some elastic into the seam allowance of the top tier to bring it in a bit. It was rather wide on her - now it's perfect! Should fit her for the rest of the summer/fall.



This little sweater is from the KnitPicks pattern Baby Ruched Cardigan and the yarn is Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool. I find it a touch boxy - I wish now that I'd added an extra two rows to each ruched section to make it a bit longer. If I ever do this one again, I think I'll also go down another needle size for the garter sections between each ruched part.

I made the skirt to match from fabrics in my stash (you may recognize the fabric!), but it's too big for now. I didn't follow a pattern, just cut and sewed till it looked right. I like the sort of paper-bag style waistband, but not so sure it works on a very little girl...



I don't know why, exactly - this next little dress reminds me of picking berries in the summer! I love it. It was kind of an experiment. I started with the Sweet Little Dress pattern in 12 months. I took the sleeve pattern and drafted a pattern piece following the top curve but about 2.5" top to bottom. Then I cut those and the dress front/back and sewed them together as per the first steps of the pattern. Then I sewed a 1" casing of the red floral all the way around the top of the dress, centering it over the sleeve pieces evenly around. I put the elastic through the casing, folded the armhole edges under, and then sewed up the side seams of the dress and hemmed it. Her neck is pretty short, so the ruffle looks a touch long there, but other than that I love the effect!

One thing I might change if I do it again is to make the elastic longer. I used the SLD length, but that's for closer to the neck.



 

ETA - I forgot to add this one! It was a bit fiddly to figure out the exact tension to get the "flowers" to form in the jacquard yarn, but it was worth it.  It's Bernat Baby Jacquards and knitted from their pattern. Here are my notes:

Tried as pattern, but wasn't happy with the messiness of sewing down the waistband, so I frogged it all. Started again, top-down, with an invisible cast-on over an extra cable needle. Knit an inch of ribbing flat, then joined in the round and worked one round purl for folding. Knit another inch of ribbing in the round, then folded the waistband and worked the provisional cast-on together with the live stitches. Knit skirt to 8" before starting pleats. Inserted elastic through opening inside waistband and stitched it closed.

Skirt length from top of waistband: 10.5". Hips unstretched: 24". Waist with elastic: 17"