Knitted Dress, Anyone?

I started this dress a year ago, if I remember correctly. I was going to make it for my new baby girl. Then I had that said baby and she did not sleep as much as I hoped she would. Then we went from London to Bulgaria and I forgot about the dress. Couple moves later I found the dress in my knitting basket. Finished but not blocked. The only problem was that my babe is not that tiny anymore. She is pretty much huge now.

The dress should be warm as it's made from wooly yarn. It is sized 3-6 months. And because Sonia cannot wear it I decided to give it away. I don't have any friends or relatives having babies right now. And the dress needs to be worn this winter as it's been waiting for so long.

So who wants it? Let me know in the comments and if it will be more than one person I'll randomly pick one. Let's say this Sunday is the deadline.

Baby Stripey Hat

Alyssa's teacher had a baby a month or so ago. I felt like I needed to make something for the baby as a gift. And as I am on the knitting kick right now, knitting a hat made perfect sense. I also got a little overall suit to go with it.

The hat turned out really cute. I made it and there was something missing. The pompom made it all better. I just love the splash of yellow on this boyish hat. The size is 3-6 months. Yarn - Plymouth Select DK Merino Superwash. It is very soft and perfect for a little baby.

This was a fast and easy project to make. Now I have to make 10 more hats for all my kids before we move to a cold country. Something's telling me I won't have enough time though. Eh.

Sanity Sewing

I've taken quite a break from this blog. I kept thinking about how I need to get back but at the same time had nothing to write about and nothing to show. I haven't sewn for quite a while. I kept thinking that 4 kids isn't a joke and I barely had time to take a shower let alone sew something. Though baby days are always like that, even if it's your first and only child. No time. At all.

Now when it's started to get a little better and I do have some time to spare here and there I have to clean, organize and get ready for the pack out. We are leaving Bulgaria in 6 weeks and the craziness that's called moving begins around now. So not much will change on this blog. Sadly. I will pop in here and there but mainly I will be absent until we get to DC and I get my sewing machine back, which will be in September.

I've made little things over these 6 months but I didn't really take any pictures and already forgot about most of them. Ha. You know those projects. I did take a picture of one that I finished couple of months ago. When Sonia started teething (and she started early) I made her some teething bunny rings.

They were very easy to make and fast. I literally made them in 10 minute breaks between feedings, cleaning, cooking and making everyone happy. As much as I like how cute they are, Sonia keeps untying them somehow with her mouth. The pattern and tutorial are from this blog. And the teething rings I ordered from here. Will definitely make again because they turn out very cute and make great baby shower gifts.

A couple of weeks ago I saw my friend's daughter's picture wearing this dress that I made her two years ago. She grew during these two years and the dress got shorter and you could tell it won't fit her for much longer. I was so happy to see her wear it that I had an urge to make her another one that fits her now. I had to make matching dress for her favorite American Girl doll as I did last time (though I forgot to show a picture on the blog).

I searched and searched for some cute and easy summer dresses and this big bow dress looked great. The pattern is called Aubrey Bow Dress. It is very easy to put together which I needed as I am still crunched for time. The shop had the same matching dress for the doll. So I made both. The dress is made in size 6. Fabric is from my never ending stash of quilting cottons.

After the first dress I was so happy to be sewing again that I quickly made another dress. This time I went with the pattern I know and love - Geranium by Rae. Again it did not disappoint and came together quickly and it felt like my fingers knew what they were doing. Matching doll's dress I made partly from this pattern, just changing the skirt and making a tiny signature Geranium's neck notch. Dress size is 6. Fabric from the stash. The only change I made was the skirt. It is supposed to be much fuller but I did not have enough of that fabric so I just gathered it from selvage to selvage. I also did snaps instead of buttons this time around.

This was such a welcome sewing time for me. I am not obsessed with sewing as I like doing other crafts too BUT I felt like I needed to escape and have my time and do something I enjoy. That was it. And so much needed.

I Am So Crafty

I make little humans.

I am especially good with making little girls. They come out so sweet and beautiful. I also think that I get better and better with each one. I keep telling my husband that we should see what our next one would look like as she will be just gorgeous but he is not buying it. He says he's done having kids. Ha.

I keep itching to make things but my hands are full for now and I don't have much time for big projects so I take on the little ones. I still need to finish K's Christmas gift that I started a month ago. Lazy me, couldn't finish it before the baby's arrival.

I do have a project to show you that I finished almost a month ago. It's a little knitted soaker I made as a cover for the diapers I showed you earlier.

It's called Adaptation soaker from the Ottobre pattern. I've heard a lot of good things about it and decided to try it out. It was a very easy and fast project. Thanks to my pregnancy brain I had to undo almost the whole thing as I noticed I made a mistake. All in all it took me maybe two days to make these. More details on Ravelry (the link for the project).

Bunch of Stuff

I am waiting here. Waiting for something special to happen. My due date is here and no baby yet. I am getting antsy and instead of crafting I just sit here thinking of good ways to induce my labor. True story.

But I do still have something up my sleeve. Ha. I haven't shown you a couple of little things I made for the baby before I left. As I said before I was on fire before we left. So I will just show you everything I made and call it done for this year.

So the first thing I made was leggings. I picked an easy pattern from the Ottobre magazine. Good thing they have leggings in almost every issue.

The pattern is Ottobre #8 6/2012. The size is a little questionable. I started with a size 56cm, made one pair and decided they were too big. I needed some leggings for 0-3 months. So I decided to shorten them a little and took a little from the top too. So as you can see on the picture all the leggings are different sizes with gray ones being the smallest. The pattern was easy and very fast. I mostly used my serger for this project.

Next on my list was a top. Pattern - Ottobre #1 4/2013.

This top made me sweart. I blame it on my pregnancy brain. I had to re-do the whole gathering in front and on the sleeves over and over until I got it right. To be honest I considered to just chuck it and forget about it but then decided to try once more and it worked out. I am not sure if I will be making this shirt again. It does look very cute though. I made size 56cm as it was the smallest size they had.

And the week before we left I decided to be a little adventurous. I have a very cute and comfy Gap shirt (sweatshirt) for the baby and wanted to recreate it. I looked through some draft-your-own-pattern tutorials online and went to work. I liked making the pattern but the shirt turned out a little too big.

I used some very soft Japanese double knit (is there a thing like that?) which has been in my stash for a long long time waiting its turn. I am in love with the fabric. Sadly I do not remember where I got it from.
As for the shirt, I am not happy with how it turned out. It's big and the neck opening turned out too big/wide/deep. Have no idea how to fix that.

So I tweaked my pattern a little and thought it would turn out better. But the neckline is still awfully big and I just do not know what to do about it. And it's still kind of big even after I tried making it smaller.
I made the second shirt from an organic bamboo terry knit. It is very soft and nice to the touch. I was going to dye it some other color but at the last minute decided to just stencil it. So now I guess when I go back home I need to work on the pattern more as I really like this little sweatshirt idea but need to figure out how to make the neckline smaller. Any ideas?

That is all I made before I left. I was sewing it all pretty much a week and a half before the KCWC so I was kind of thinking that I was participating in it just a little earlier than everybody else. I am glad I made some things for the baby as it takes me awhile to get back to sewing after being gone for so long. I am having total sewing withdrawals already and cannot wait to get back to my sewing machine. But we will see how good my newborn will be with letting me sew or do anything.

Baby Jumpsuit

After making the diapers for two months and getting sick of the assembly line sewing I decided to make some kind of clothes for the coming baby. The thing is it's going to be my fourth girl and so I pretty much have everything. Not in a new condition as it all has been passed down so many times, but still. And at the same time I feel guilty about that same thing and always feel like making/buying new stuff. Am I the only one feeling that way?

So here's the jumpsuit I saw one day on Pinterest and really wanted to make it for some reason. I am glad I made it as it turned out so very cute. I think it's my favorite of all the things I made for this little one.

The pattern is a free pattern from this site. It's in Dutch I believe, but Google translations helped me with the instructions. I did not have any problems making this jumpsuit and it came together quite quickly. I used the serger for the most of it and thought how grateful I am to have a serger for projects like this. The only problem I had with it was installing the snaps in the crotch area. There are so many layers in there because of the binding that my snaps were not going through. It did not help that I used the prong type snaps instead of my usual plastic ones.
The fabric is some Japanese interlock knit that I bought from Etsy some time ago. I did not have much but I am glad I had enough for this project. I think this fabric is so very cute. And the quality is very good.
I made size 56cm. I believe it's supposed to go up to 3 months. But my pregnancy brain played a joke on me and I cut the pattern out without seam allowances. So it turned out smaller than supposed to. Hopefully it fits the babe for at least a month. I will make sure to post a picture in it when she comes out.

Two Months of Diaper Sewing

We've been using cloth diapers since A was 6 months old which makes it almost four and a half years. I am not a pro but I am pretty confident about using them. I've been lucky that Matt does it with me without complaining. I don't know if it has saved us any money but I am happy to think that I am saving the Earth at least trying to not throw away disposable diapers into the already full landfills.

With all the babes we would always start after they turned at least month and a half as we have to travel or be in an unfamiliar place until the babe is six weeks old. It's been easier to just use disposables for those first months. This time around though I decided to try to start from the very beginning. So when I went through my stash I noticed that I didn't have many small sized diapers. So with my pre-nesting feeling that hit me at the end of August I decided to make some fitted diapers. (Fitted diapers = diapers that are not waterproof and need a cover to not leak). I've heard good things about fitted diapers and wanted to try them. Plus they are easiest to make.

First I made fitteds from the Rainy Days pattern. I really liked the pattern as it was easy to sew the dipes and they went quite fast because I serged them. Size newborn/small. I used all the fabrics I've had in my stash, which are cotton knits as the outside layer and cotton velour as an inner layer. There's some kind of absorbent fabric in between but I don't remember which I put in which diapers.

Next I made five diapers from the Darling Diapers Unlimited pattern. I've had it for quite a while but never had time to tackle the diapers. The pattern was very detailed and not hard to make but I was a little overwhelmed by all the instructions and different options. So I kind of used the same process as with the Rainy Days diapers. Also all of them serged. I made three out of the minky fabric as I wanted some cute plushy ones, but hated sewing with it as it is very wiggly. Rest are from the cotton knits. Inner layer is made out of cotton velour as the other diapers. I think three or four diapers don't have a layer in between as I ran out of fabric but soakers are made out of super absorbent fabric (Zorb) which should help with absorbency (or at least I hope so).

It took me a couple of months to finish these. I did not have time to work on them every day so I sewed them a little at a time. I am glad I finished them all and they are ready to be used with the new baby. I just hope I like them as much as I liked my pocket FuzziBunz ones.

I also made some quick fleece soakers. As I said before fitteds are not waterproof so they need some kind of a cover. I made some fleece soakers and I am still planning to make some wool soakers. Plus I have some PUL covers.

These are made from this free pattern. They were very easy and fast to make. I also used my serger for most of it. Size small. Fabric - fleece I had laying around.

And to finish it off I also made a medium sized wet bag to hold all these diapers in.

I used this tutorial. I have made a large bag two years ago or so but I needed something more manageable in size. So medium it was and plus it is with a pocket. So I can stuff unused diapers in the pocket and used ones in the bag when we go out and about. Very happy how it turned out.
So here you have my long and boring post about diapers. I am sorry if I bored you and also for the awful lighting in the pictures. I made everything and then rushed through taking pictures so I could post about it later. Did not know the pictures turned out so horrible.

Nesting

So I've hit my nesting phase. And I've hit it hard. Or maybe it hit me. I think it happened couple of weeks ago when I picked so many sewing/knitting projects that I won't be able to finish them for at least a year. Especially after the baby comes I will be crazed without sleep and swamped by other things. So in this my nesting phase I keep thinking that I will be able to accomplish all the projects I've picked in the next three/four months. Or at least I hope I'll get half of them done. A little too ambitious, don't you think?

So my first thing to show off is a little cardigan from Phildar magazine. It's knitted by parts and then sewn together at seams. I think I now prefer things that are made top down without any seams in one piece. But I had this pattern and decided to just follow it to the T.

As usual I finished it quite fast. I think it took me two/three days to make all the parts. But then my lazy me put it away and did not want to deal with sewing it together. Ugh. That's my least favorite part.
I made size 0-3 months so my babe will be able to wear it pretty much all winter. Yarn is original Phildar yarn from some Parisian shop I stopped at from my trip to Paris.

You'll be seeing lots more knitted things these days on this blog. I've been sewing too, but mostly cloth diapers and diaper related things and I am sure it won't interest you as much as little tiny clothing.

Last of The Gift Sewing

Remember that season of gifts? Well, I have one more little thing to show. I had to make one more gift for a friend of mine who had her baby last winter and shamefully I got to the gift in June. Shame.

I loved this romper from the first sight. I am in love with little baby boy rompers for some odd reason. And no boy to make a cute boy romper for. The pattern is Little Goldfish from Ottobre 3/2012. I don't remember the size I made but I think it was 64cm, which should fit a 6-9 month old baby. Hopefully, it fit the baby boy I made it for.

The hardest part of the project for me was to pick fabric. I am so used to sewing for girls and as I noticed I only have girly fabric in my stash. I spent a couple of weeks deciding on which fabric to use. Decided on this light blue seersucker. I think it works very well with this pattern.

The pattern was easy to work with but I did have to re-read it in couple of places as I didn't get it right away. Such are Ottobre patterns. I think it turned out very cute and maybe wish a little I had a little boy running around in a romper like this.

Gifting Season

There is time in a year when everybody surrounding you more than a couple of my friends have babies. I try to make things in advance but this year everything seemed to roll on to me and I fell behind. By the time I sent off the gifts the babies were already 3-4 months old. I am getting slow and lazy.

My friend likes to dress up her boys into handsome things and so I made this Prudent Baby vest but just scaled it down a little. The tutorial was pretty straightforward and took me not more than an hour to make it. I paired it with the floppy tie onesie. Tutorial from here. I also made some bandana bibs but did not take a picture of those.

Then another friend had a baby and I started making another gift. This time I made the cardigan onesie. I saw them popping up on Pinterest and thought they were adorable. As I don't have any boys I decided to try my hand on one for a friend's baby boy. I used this tutorial. It was a great tutorial and the project went quite fast. To add to that onesie I made some interchangeable bow ties. I drafted my own pattern as I couldn't find a baby sized bow tie that kind of looks like it was tied.

Oh, and I threw some bandana bibs in there too. I really like how these bandana bibs look on baby boys. And they should be pretty practical when the baby starts drooling.
I am also finishing another baby boy gift for another friend of mine but cannot show it yet as she does read this blog. Masha, just so you know you will be getting some bandana bibs along with another thing. And I really hope I'm done before G turns 10 years old.

On The Roll

It is me who's on the roll. I keep sewing and knitting like a crazy person over here. Maybe winter is to blame. I get super crafty during winters. I was working on another Geranium Dress this time for Katelyn. For some reason in the middle of it I decide to sew another thing for her. So I made her a peasant shirt.

The pattern is from the book Intemporels Pour Bebe. This is my first thing made from the book. It is in French and good thing I took French in school, because the book lacks illustrations. And explanations too. The author just listed things that need to be done in numbered sequence.

I made size 2T but as always it seems a little short. I am telling you, my kids are gigantic. The fabric is from Ikea.

And now I need to go make that Geranium Dress that I started. :)

Last of 2012

My friend had a baby girl a couple of weeks ago and I just could not decide on what to make for her as a gift. I love making tiny little clothes as gifts. I have a lot of neat patterns for babies but I just wasn't excited about them. Then Rae announced her new Geranium Dress pattern. I was smitten. I bought it on a spot and have so many plans with it in mind. Each of my girls need a dress like this.

So with this dress came my inspiration to sew after a month of drought. I got to work and came out with this little cute dress.

Made in size 0-3 months. It was very easy to sew. The bodice part is lined so it would not be irritating for the baby. I also did french seams on the sides for the same reason. Too bad the neckline notch is hard to see on this picture but there is one and it adds a little charm to the dress.

At the back I decided to go with snaps so the baby wouldn't mind laying down in the dress as that's how babies spend their first months pretty much.

I think it turned out very cute. I am happy with the pattern and as I said before I will be making many more of these dresses for my girls and as gifts. The pattern has many options and very versatile.

Seashell Dress

It's this time of year again when each and every one of my friends is leaving to their new place of living and I am the one left behind. But let's not talk about this depressing part of my life and better talk about the darling dress I made.
One of my dear friends who left today is pregnant with her third baby and is expecting a girl. As usual I couldn't resist making something for the coming baby. They are moving to Hong Kong which means it's always pretty hot there so my choice fell on a cute dress.

The pattern is from Ottobre 3/2011. Fabric is Walk in the Woods from Moda Fabrics. Love those little birds sitting on their apples.
Last summer I made a little romper for my K from the same issue of Ottobre and it had the same upper part. So making it this time around wasn't new to me and came together very easy and fast. Considering the power outage that we had for more than three days, I had to finish the whole dress in two hours. So good thing I knew what I was doing.

And that's why I love making teeny tiny things. A lot of cuteness and not much time spent making it.

Baby Gifts

My friend just a had a beautiful little boy. There is nothing better than a new life coming here to Earth. I always get so excited when people close to me announce their pregnancy or birth of a child. The wheels in my head start turning as I think what I can make and give for a new baby. Making for babies is a pure bliss. Baby things are just so small and sweet that making them just makes me happy.

This time I asked my friend what would she want me to give her for her new baby. She asked me to make some appliquéd onesies for summer. I've never made anything for a boy other than knitting so I decided to find something cute for summery hot days on top of the onesies.

Pattern: Ottobre 2010-03 #3
Fabric: Linen blend from JoAnn's

I was asked to make size 3-6 months but Ottobre sizes are in cm. I have no idea how many cm is a baby boy at three months. I made size 74 and it was a little too big. I think it was more like for 6-9 months. So I had to make another one.

Used the same pattern but different fabric and size is 68cm. At first I thought it was light linen blend but when I started sewing with it I changed my mind. I have no idea what it is but it was finicky to work with. It is light though so should be great for summer.
I also made this romper with snaps on top straps instead of buttons.

Honestly, I like the first one better. I think fabric looks much better and crisper. The second one is lighter and softer though.

Then came onesies. One of them is a stencil and the others are appliqué. Had a fun time making them and I think they make the fastest and easiest gifts.

I am in love with a tie onesie. Too bad I have girls only because I would totally make ten onesies with different little ties on them.
Yay for baby gifts!

Thank You :)

Gaylene, this goes to you. Thanks for checking this blog often and leaving comments. You make me feel like I do really accomplish something in this crazy life with three kids and not much time on my hands.

My sister-in-law Gaylene at Unwritten was nice enough to give me an award!! I feel so honored. I have nobody to give this award to but I will still give some fun facts about me.

1. When I was in school I had a music teacher bug me about going to her choir because she liked my singing voice. She even went to my mother asking her to make me join her choir.

2. Once for the New Year's my brother and I made my mom handmade gifts. My gift was a knitted scarf, my brother (whom I taught how to knit a day before that) decided that he did not have time for a scarf so he made her a knitted square with embroidered words on it. My mom still thinks the ugly and short scarf is from my brother and my talent of knitting came out when I made this beautiful "work of art" knitted square. I keep trying to prove her wrong.

3. I have a bad habit of twirling my hair in one spot and the patch of my hair in this spot has weird texture now being all coarse and curly. Weird, huh?

4. I cannot stand wearing socks inside if I am not wearing my shoes.

5. I went to Belgium when I was 15 years old with a student exchange program from my school. I spent a month and a half there going to school and living an 'ordinary' life with some stranger family I never met before.

So here you have it. Thanks again, Gaylene! You made my month! :)And here's a sneak peak of something I've been working on last week (or more like weekend). My friend is due on April 4th with a baby boy and I wanted to make her something. I will show the full thing when I ship it off and it's not a secret anymore.

On a Roll

I seem to be on a roll these days. I finished another little thing. It is a little knitted raglan tee. I made it for Katelyn this time. I used this Immie Tee pattern from Ravelry. I fell in love with it when I saw it on somebody else's blog. I had perfect yarn for this tee and started right away. The central part is so pretty that I cannot stop looking at it. I think Katelyn likes it.

Darling Clara Dress

I've been knitting. I haven't had much free time lately but when I do get a chance to sit down I have something on my knitting needles. Some time ago Suzy asked me to make her baby girl a Clara dress. I loved the dress so when Suzy's due date approached I started knitting. The pattern and yarn were a perfect match. Loved making this cute little dress. I also decided to make the same dress for Katelyn but Katelyn will grow up faster than I will be able to whip a new dress like this again.

Baby Steps

I made something again! You can tell I am very excited. I am making baby steps in getting back to sewing.

Katelyn was born at the wrong season because all the newborn clothes we have is for winter time. While we were in the US I got her some stuff for the first three months but then I did not have that much from 3-6 mos. So when she started growing out of her 0-3 stuff I had to do something. So I started sewing. This little romper is so cute. I loved making it and it was a pretty fast project. To make it cuter (or maybe I just did not have an already made bias tape) I made a polka dot bias tape. The pattern is from the Swedish magazine Ottobre 2011-3.

From the same magazine I made this sleeveless shirt. I used my old jersey shirt and cut it out with the original hem as the hem of a shirt. Another fast project. But took me a little longer than I would have liked it because it was my first time sewing with knits.

I was planning to make couple more rompers but the weather got so cold today that we had to wear jackets. So maybe I should start sewing for the fall already.

Orange Onesie

I totally forgot to show you this little number. I posted about it on Ravelry and forgot all about it. Are you familiar with Ravelry? It is an excellent web site for people who like to knit or crochet. You have to register there and then you get lost in all the projects. Every time before I make something I stop at Ravelry and look for inspiration. There are so many wonderful patterns there both free and the ones you have to pay for. So go check it out.

Enough of Ravelry and let's get to the pictures. Here's my little thing I made for Katelyn. I knitted it before she was born but it took me forever to finish it up. I was contemplating on how to make the neckline look better and also how to put the snaps in between the legs. Neither was in the pattern so I had to come up with it myself and that's why it took me a month. :)

While I was finishing it up my girl was growing like a weed. Then when it finally was done I put it on her and it fit her perfectly. And it's supposed to be for a 3 month old baby.

I have so many projects lined up waiting for me to make them. I am afraid it's not gonna happen for a while though. It is taking me so long to do something these days. Katelyn doesn't like to sleep during the day (or night) and it's the hardest. I hope she changes her ways and I have a little more time on my hands for things I like to do. Am I asking too much? :)