A life in lists

Oh baby

This is my first ever 24-hour quilt. I started it a few days after my closest friend finally (after the longest labour the world has ever seen, I swear) gave birth to a beautiful baby boy. I figured I had a couple of days to get it done before I'd be visiting, then suddenly both our weeks shifted and it needed to be done tomorrow. Of course.

Having started at lunchtime, I had the top laid out and pieced by about 5pm - it's only about 30"x40", so this isn't exactly an incredible feat. After a quick stop for dinner with my kids (apparently it's not ok to fail to feed them because you have a quilt to make), I got the backing cut (blue organic cotton from my stash) and spray basted it (love spray baste, especially for small quilts), leaving it to dry a bit while I made the binding. Then I quilted it with some straight lines following the outline of some of the crosses and sewed the binding down to the front. Which took until exactly 11:59pm. Phew.

Hand finishing the binding started at 5:50am the next day (there are some perks to being a lark rather than an owl, and a bit of peaceful hand sewing time is one of them) and was completed at 9:50am, about 8 minutes before I walked out of the door to drive to meet the new baby ( did stop to give my children breakfast in that time. Again with the needy kids). I can honestly say I have never constructed a quilt at such breakneck speed.

It is made mostly from Liberty prints - I used one of my blue charm packs, cutting each charm into four squares. The remaining orange/yellow prints are scraps I had kicking around, plus a few kona solids I ordered a while back when this quilt was first in my head (largely inspired by Susan's quilt, but I knew I didn't have the fancy pants binding in me). Simples.

And yes, I did take a blurry iphone snap of the finished quilt on their sofa. I didn't exactly have time to stage a beautiful sunshine-lit shot in the local nature reserve with this one...

Meet Bob

So I have about four yards of fabric with a cat border print on. I decided I wanted to use it up. And look, that there is one 2 1/4" square of cat fabric!

OK, so it's not the most efficient stash busting ever, but I was browsing Denyse Schmidt's patterns for design inspiration and came across the patchwork scottie dog freebie pattern. It seemed rude not to, frankly.

So, just another 3 and 99/100ths of a yard to go...

I was too lazy to iron the fabric before snapping. I don't imagine you'll lose any sleep over that, but apologies nonetheless.

Incidentally, the light is atrocious at the moment. Even when the sun comes out it is decidedly watery and sad. Our conservatory (which doubles up as the boys' playroom) is the only place with any decent light, hence today's photo shoot on one of the two gorgeous kid-sized Lloyd Loom chairs we were given by an incredibly generous aunty.

Here's the zoomed out view...

Bob's sole purpose in life is to brighten up my workroom a little bit (what, you didn't think I was giving him to my children, did you?). It's in the process of a bit of a sort out and freshen up - being the smallest room in the house by some margin, it needs all the cheering up it can get.

I was just scrolling through my old pictures to find a picture of Bob's namesake (who is a horse. I am not quite sure why I named the toy dog after a live horse, but there you go) and although I couldn't find a picture of the neighing Bob, I did find this picture of my smallest child from last year which made me smile.

Edited to add: I was just about to click publish on this post and realised I was one mis-typed letter in the title away from introducing you to a dog called Bib.

A play mat for camping

A couple of months ago during a trip to the Eternal Maker (not normally an outing that would fill either child with joy) I was somewhat surprised to hear a great big gasp of excitement from Teddy and a breathless, "Mummy, can I have that fabric?" Well, it would be rude not to, right? How often does your average three-year-old ask for fabric?

Never mind that it is possibly the ugliest fabric ever made (I have informed Rachel that they are forbidden from ordering anything so alarming again, in case Teddy spots it and I have to make a duvet set to go with this mat or something), he was just so excited that I felt obliged to set to work turning it into something that I could bear to have in my life.

And look, it even comes with its own little garage. Of sorts.

I'll be honest, the entire project was a bit of a bodge job - most of the seams are wonky, and I could have made life a hell of a lot easier for myself by not piecing the 'garage' pockets out of five different green fabrics.

BUT.

It is possibly the most well loved project of any I have ever completed. It was played with pretty much daily while we were camping, and often graces our sitting room floor (once Teddy stopped yelping, "but it's for camping" every time we offered to get it out. He's a bit funny like that). He really loves it. I'm calling that a success.

And besides, I backed it with pretty fabric, at least.

And, since it's a travelling mat, it rolls up and looks all pretty.

I was going to sew on the webbing as a proper strap, but ran out of time before we went camping. I might get round to it one day. Or not.

Project notes - camping mat:

• Fabrics used are the Choo Choo You panel by Richard Neuman for Clothworks (look, there's a whole range available!), and a Kokka (I assume) robot print, both from the Eternal Maker. I can't see them up on the site at the moment, but give them a call if you want to track either fabric down. Pez prints and other scraps are from my stash.
• Cotton webbing was also from the Eternal Maker, find it here.
• I haven't measured the overall thing, but a quick google suggests that the panel is 36"x44", so I'm guessing the whole thing is around that size, plus the extra bit for the pockets, which is maybe 12" long by 8-10" wide.
• I made the pocket portion first - pockets were made by sewing two pieces of fabric right sides together along one edge, then turning and pressing and top stitching - then sewed it onto the main panel (with raw edges where the binding would cover it) and sewed over the top of the seams between fabrics to create the smaller pockets. I left one large pockets for bigger cars and trains. The snap press was used to put poppers on it.
• I basted it like a normal quilt, but added an extra square to the backing to account for the sticky out pocket section
• I quilted and bound it like a normal quilt. The inverted mitred corners where the pocket section meets the main mat are atrocious, I should have looked up a tutorial or something, but I was too lazy. Teddy doesn't seem to care.
• I hand finished the binding. If ever there was a time to learn machine finished quilt binding, it was on a kid's play mat, but I just couldn't face it, so I stuck on a film and finished it over a few evenings.

It's the first of a handful of things I'm hoping to make for our camping holidays. I actually had grand plans for a whole 'Project Camping' series with a bundle of handmade goodies for camping, but since I'm absolutely rushed off my feet with the shop at the moment (5" charm square assortments are proving more popular than I could have imagined!), I think maybe I'll leave that for a springtime series for next year. Because, you know, I like to sleep occasionally.

I can't get over what a hit this mat has been with Teddy. Have you ever made something for your kids that's been a huge hit? Was it as ugly as this mat? Did you rush through all the little details like adding pockets as much as I did? I bet you didn't.

Little houses to sew

Since I'm running with the theme of being totally out of kilter with the rest of the bloggy world, I thought I'd show you one of the Christmas presents I made.

These little house building bricks are from the fabulous Little Things to Sew, by Liesl Gibson. I could cheerfully start almost every project in this book, but thought this one was extra perfect for Jasper's first Christmas. I really enjoyed adding all the little details (mostly from Heather Ross prints and my Liberty fabrics), and the pattern and instructions were so clearly written (as they always are when Ms Gibson is involved) that the whole thing came together reasonably easily.

Project notes - Little Houses to Sew

• The pattern is from Little Things to Sew, by Liesl Gibson.
• The fabrics are a seleciton of Cloud9, Heather Ross (I have a handful of prints of hers that I promise I will actually properly use one day) and some of my Liberty fabrics, notably my favourite boy print), and some vintage cottons I had kicking around
• The filling is seat pad foam. My fabric store only had 2" thickness, so each of the houses has two layers of foam inside, cut and glued together with fabric glue (much easier than it sounds). I highly recommend a serrated bread knife for cutting foam, it was so much easier than I was expecting!
• Adding all the little details was the most fun part of this project. I kept getting really carried away with ideas, and wanting to make more houses just so I could add picket fences, herb borders, playing children etc.
• Actually putting the thing together and slip stitching the last seam was fiddly, but not difficult, as long as I was super careful with all the markings and seam allowances. In one of the houses I was a bit more rushed, and it was so much harder to finish off.
• I added a few baby-friendly touches - the garage door opens and closes with velcro, I sewed some crinkly sounding cellophane into the door and one wall of the shop (just added it as an extra layer of fabric and sewed so that it ended up on the inside. Lots of pins needed, but not difficult) and cut a hole in the middle of the foam and added bells in two of the houses
• Verdict? Wonderful project! I'm planning on making a couple more of these houses, and giving them to Jasper for his birthday too. If my enthusiasm continues he's going to end up with a whole village of these things.

ps: wow, I am out of the habit of writing! It has just taken me about 45 minutes to write the dozen or so sentences up there, and half of them still scarcely make sense. Whoops.

KCWC: Ready for kick off!

Another season, another pile of fabric and patterns. Yup, it's Kids Clothes Week time!

I love Kids Clothes Week Challenge (KCWC, to those in the know). It's one week, hosted by Meg, in which participants commit to sew for kids for one hour each day for a week. That's it. Nothing fancy. And no one to hunt you down and shout at you if you fail.

The Flickr pool is always full of incredible inspiration, and Meg always writes or hosts amazing tutorials and ideas throughout the run up and week itself. My favourite so far this year is this unbeatable pintucks post by Sascha from Piccoli Piselli (she of the Pea Pod carrier).

I'm not entirely sure how much free time I'll have this week (my etsy store is eating up what little free time I have at the moment! Which I'm definitely not complaining about, it's great to be able to contribute a little bit to our family finances), but I figured I'll give it a go and join in where I can.

I have a list as long as my arm of things I want to sew for the boys (see my winter making lists, for Teddy and Jasper), but I'm prioritising (note: not actually aiming to finish, just prioritising):

1. Cosy lined winter trousers for Teddy
2. Ditto for Jasper
3. A fleece half zip top for Teddy
4. Some longies (knitted trousers to wear over cloth nappies) for Jasper

Oh, and thanks to everyone who commented on my polycotton/cotton debate last week. I'm still open to opinions and would love to hear what you think!

Winter sewing (and knitting) plans: Jasper

 

Jasper's clothing situation is a little less dire than Teddy's thanks to the magic of hand-me-downs (both from Teddy and various generous friends and relatives). However, being born in the opposite season to Teddy (he's a spring baby, Teddy was born in autumn) means there's a serious shortage of cosy winter clothes in the appropriate size for him. So Jasper's list is somewhat cold-weather focused and mainly knitting:

1. Two pairs of longies (long legged wool soakers for cloth nappies. More information here)
2. A chunky cardigan
3. Socks. Many socks
4. Some baby legs. We have a couple of pairs of shop bought ones, but I'd quite like to try making some of our own.
5. A couple of cosy pairs of trousers. Probably the eternally-useful and endlessly adaptable quick change trousers from Handmade Beginnings again, perhaps with flannel for the inside.
6. A warm hat or three
7. Mittens

I'm keeping fingers crossed that Jasper follows in Teddy's (lack of) footsteps and doesn't get on the go too early this winter, as having to keep a mobile baby warm and dry while they're crawling around in the mud is not something I'm enjoying figuring out! Teddy didn't even bother crawling till he was a year, so I figure there's hope.

Winter sewing (and knitting) plans: Teddy

Irrelevant photo. Teddy admiring Grumpa Rog's motorbike (one of several).

Planning my own winter wardrobe last week got me thinking about what the boys needed to bulk out their wardrobes this winter. Teddy's need is greater, due to the absence of hand me downs in his life. And so, I have created a list that bears absolutely no relation to the amount of free time I actually have.

This is what I'd like to make for Teddy before the cold season really hits:

1. Lined trousers. He had some lovely cosy ones last winter that he wore practically every day, but they now hover somewhere around mid-calf length. I'm thinking of adapting and sizing up the quick change trousers from Handmade Beginnings by Anna Maria Horner, but I'm open to other pattern suggestions.
2. Colourwork sweater. The one from This month's list.
3. T-shirts, a handful thereof. I'd love to make some in super cool colours, but am rather obliged by budget constraints (and the look on Adam's face when yet more fabric enters our house) to use up my stash of random jerseys and thrifted men's t-shirts first. Incidentally, does anyone have any top tips for hemming jersey without a coverstitch machine? I just can't settle on a good technique.
4. A waterproof hat, using (for the billionth time) the bucket hat pattern from Little Things to Sew and some laminate fabric.
5. Knitted socks. Lots of cosy knitted socks.
6. Pyjamas. I have a whole load of brushed cotton ready to go, and I'm holding out great hopes for the pyjama pattern in Sewing for Boys (which should be arriving any day now. Hooray!)
7. A dressing gown (robe) for staying cosy in winter. With fuel prices the way they ae I think I'm going to be insisting on a bare minimum of 14 layers before I'll agree to turn the heating on this winter.
8. Woolly hat, mittens and scarf. Although last year's scarf might actually still be up to the job.

And this is what else he needs to complete his wardrobe. I may need to admit defeat and buy some of these:

1. Another sweater. He currently has a whopping one sweater that fits (this one, as it happpens. Turns out my fit prediction was right, even though he's actually been wearing it all year). I'd like to knit one, but am aware that there's optimism and then there's just plain silly. And you haven't even seen Jasper's list yet.
2. Wellies. I am prepared to accept not making these. I have found the perfect ones online with pull on handles, just need to measure Teddy's feet again before ordering (the child just keeps growing)
3. Some heavy weight trousers, probably involving a synthetic fabric in some way, for nursery.  His (Montessori) nursery are big into being outdoors whenever possible, so he needs some warm but easy to care for clothes for nursery that won't wear out in one second flat
4. Proper winter waterproofs (trousers and coat). For aforementioned outdoorsy nursery, and for our own reasonably free range lifestyle. Any brand recommendations very welcome! I've heard that the various Scandinavian makes are best (if there's one thing they know about, it's cold winters!

Um. Optimistic? Definitely. Realistic? Not even a tiny bit. Never mind, the hand making police probably won't come and arrest me if I end up buying more than I make. It's nice to dream.

I've got something to show you tomorrow that I've been saving up all week, and I'll put my ever-so-slightly-optimistic list for Jasper up on Thursday.

A Handmade Wedding, part 4: Toddler outfit

Photos courtesy of various guests.

Right. The rest of the handmade stuff. I'm splitting this into a few posts for the sake of my (and your) sanity. First up, the toddler outfit (am I allowed to call him a toddler still? He'll be three in September. Preschooler maybe).

I was rather pleased with it. I only made it about 10 days before the wedding, as Teddy seems to have been in one long growth spurt since about March, so if I'd made it much more in advance there was some danger he'd have grown out of it before it was needed.

He got lots of compliments for his outfit, and I didn't get even slightly bored of saying, "oh, I made it" when people asked where it was from. I may actually never get bored of saying that, which probably makes me insufferably smug and irritating. But I'm cool with that.

Anyway, project notes.

Project notes - Teddy's wedding trousers

• The pattern is Dapper Dillingers (in my head they have become the Dappy Dillingers, for some reason) from Figgy's. If you're looking for a UK stockist I wholeheartedly recommend Backstitch - I had great service and speedy delivery. 
• I made a practise run in age 4-5 from some cream twill (which I bought about 18 months ago to make dungarees. Ahem) a few weeks before the wedding. It turned out rather enormous - Teddy is tall (and chubby), so I automatically make the next size up in most patterns, but in this case the age 2-3 size was big enough for him aged 2 and 7 months. Possibly the fact that the next size was intended to be suitable for five year olds should have given me a hint here. On the upside, the cream pair will fit for a year or so. The downside was having to re-trace the pattern in a smaller size
• I love love love this pattern. Lots of room even for bottoms still needing nappies, nice wide legs, and a thick waistband, so no digging in. They just look comfy. In fact, I rather like the look of most of the patterns at Figgy's, especially this pinafore dress (someone needs to have a girl!). There are a few versions of it in the Figgy's Flickr group.
• The pattern was also pretty easy to follow. I got a little confused on the trouser hems, and I'm not entirely sure I did them correctly, but they did the trick. Also I struggled both times with the waistband facing - the front panel of waistband facing was just a fraction of an inch short in both versions I made. However, I'm fairly lax about following instructions when sewing, so it's entirely possible that it's my fault.
• The fabric was the same neutral striped linen that I used for my handbag - I had some left over and got an extra metre on clearance at my local fabric shop. The bag is still going strong, so I'm hoping the trousers will last a while too. The waistband facing and pocket lining is made from Liberty print, the same as Adam's shirt (post on that coming soon, but there are pictures in yesterday's post to keep you going for now). The total cost of this outfit was about £14, most of which was on the Liberty print, which is nicely in keeping with our budget wedding.
• I can see this becoming my go-to trouser pattern for Teddy. Not least because I have it traced in two sizes and I know it fits. I can also see it working well in a few difference weights of fabric, although I guess I've missed the boat on using the nice grey striped linen I bought with another pair of summer trousers in mind. Maybe next year.

Project notes - Teddy's wedding waistcoat

• The pattern is an Ottobre one, issue 3/2010 (Summer). I'd like to take a moment to suggest that if you're ever planning on tracing one of those notoriously confusing Ottobre pattern sheets (scroll down for an image) that you do it on somewhat more than eight seconds sleep every night for the past three months. I managed it, but the language wasn't pretty.
• I should have trusted my measurements more. When I measured Teddy's upper body it came out as a larger measurement than would be expected for his height, if you know what I mean (in Ottobre terms, it meant the length corresponded to the 104cm height measurements, whereas the rest of his measurements corresponded to size 98cm). I should have trusted my measurement, but figured I must be being a bit generous, so didn't add as much length to the waistcoat as the measurement suggested (I did add a bit though). It was fine, but definitely would have benefited from an inch or two more length. I suppose it would have helped if we'd ever got round to tucking in his t-shirt too.
• I really liked this waistcoat, and was impressed with how straightforward the construction was. Ottobre patterns don't come with much in the way of instructions, but if you have some idea about garment construction and take care to think it through for a few moments before each step, their garments all seem to come together reasonably efficiently and very accurately.
• The linen was that striped linen again, and the back was made from a Liberty print called Eliza's Owls, which I love. it added a little fun kick to the outfit - I am always alarmed by kids in excessively formal clothes, and really didn't want Teddy looking so stiff and formal and smart that I didn't feel he could play with other kids. I think it worked out pretty well
• On the off chance I ever need to make another child's waistcoat, I'll definitely use this pattern. I love the little collar, somehow makes it all a bit more cool and casual.
• Oh, and the buttons were some vintage mother of pearl ones from my bottomless button jar. 

A very pleasing time to satisfaction ratio

Does anyone else find it hard making gifts for non-hand-making people? I'm always worried that in my private, fabric obsessed little world, I've fallen in love with colour combinations or prints that no one in the real world would actually like.

Hopefully that isn't the case here, though. My friend seemed suitably touched with this blanket for her gorgeous baby boy, anyway.

Instead of making a teeny weeny baby blanket, I opted for a slightly larger (I think it was about 40" x 50" in the end) cot blanket, so hopefully will be useful when the little chap is a bit bigger and in a proper sized cot. Particularly important in this instance as the little chap in question is already about six weeks old (manic wedding preparations getting in the way of a more timely gift) and probably almost out of his moses basket already.

I absolutly love making baby blankets like this instead of basting and quilting them - I find the idea of labouring over the basting, quilting and binding of a very small quilt a bit counter-intuitive, as they'll most likely only be used for a year or two, tops. I piece the top, then place the vintage blanket I use as batting and backing fabric together, put the whole sandwich together right sides together, sew with a 1/2" seam (leaving a gap to turn through), turn and ladder stitch the opening closed, then top stitch 1/4" from the edge all the way round. They don't take too long, and are extremely pleasing when finished.

It wouldn't work with a much bigger quilt, but it's more than adequate for these simple little baby blankets. This is actually the second one I've made (apparently 2.5-3 years is a Good Age Gap, as all of my toddler group friends are either expecting or enjoying their second babies), but I don't think I ever blogged the last one.

The cars print is (I think) a Japanese one I found at my LQS a while back, and the solids are organics from Bishopston Trading, Kona solids and I think an essex linen by Robert Kaufman. All from the stash though, which was pleasing.

The last official finish of KCWC

This is the best I think it's possible to manage, photography-wise, with a small baby tucked under one arm and a toddler hanging off the camera strap.

Finished the top for this just before falling into bed last night, so it definitely counts as an official KCWC finish! It's the Oliver+ S sailboat pants and top. I had originally planned to make this top out of crazy monkey fabric, but I screwed up the knit attempting to top stitch it, and decided I might benefit from a practice run on a woven first. I've decided to make the monkey version again, but abandon the top stitching, and probably just use iron on hemming for cuffs and facings. Cheat? Totally, but I still think the monkey fabric would be a cool contrast to the little sailor outfit, which is just a bit contrived for my rough and tumble boy, much as I adore it (fingers crossed that Jasper grows up slightly more precious, so I can indulge this kind of sewing without seeing it covered in grass stains four minutes later. Actually, scrap that. I like my kids scruffy, saves laundry time).

Project notes:

• Pattern: Oliver + S sailboat pants and top, bought here.
• Size: Age 4, the smallest size in the age 4-8 pattern set. I didn't make any adjustments as I wanted to see how these fit straight out of the packet. I'm planning on making more...
• Fabrics: Organic denim and organic handloom cotton. The handloom is originally from Bishopston Trading (via Ebay). It is fairly light and fine, perfect for an airy summer cover up for my fair boy. It is, however, distinctly aqua, rather than the greyish-duck egg it appeared in my semi-dark studio the other day, making it rather less manly than might have been hoped. Never mind. Valuable lesson in choosing fabrics in natural light.
• I used some smallish grey vintage buttons I had kicking around my stash, as I didn't want anything too flamboyantly sailor-esque. I like them.
• I should have done the topstitching in lighter blue or grey. The navy I used is too dark, really.
• The fit looks great on these, although I haven't actually put them on Teddy yet. Planning that for the next vaguely warm day, will take some pics then.

I've got a couple more half started projects from last week, which you can expect to see popping up over the next week or so. If you're looking for more kids clothes inspiration, check out the amazing KCWC Flickr group - so many talented sewists out there creating for their kids, grandkids, godkids, friend's kids...