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.

Two Projects

I still have to show you a couple of sewn projects from before I left Bulgaria but today I wanted to show what I have been doing here in London. I mean I haven't done much at all as I've been laying on the couch and eating bonbons I am lazy these days. But I did manage to make two little things.

The first one was a hat for Matt. He did not bring any hats with him and so I picked up some Debbie Bliss tweed yarn for him and started the hat.

The pattern is free from knitting web site Ravelry. It's called Turn a Square and it supposed to have stripes all over the hat. I changed that. I just did three stripes all different thickness. I like how it turned out. This is actually a second version of the hat. The first one turned out too big so I had to undo everything and re-knit it again.

Second time around I knitted it without any increases after the ribbing and, also, used smaller needles. Now it fits him perfectly. And I love the tweedy look of the hat.

So then I signed up to do another test knit on Ravelry. I promised A I'd make her something and she's been waiting. So I tested her size so she can keep the finished project and wear it. It is a bolero/shrug thingie that's called Wisteria.

It was a very fast knit. I made size 5T. It turned out very cute BUT I wish it had some kind of ties or a button in front as it keeps falling off her shoulders. Other than that, I like it and she loves it. Always wants to wear it.

Of course there is a picture of A's super posing. She's into posing lately.

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.

Wish These Worked

I brought some pictures with me of what I have been working on for the last couple of months. So you won't see any freshly made stuff here for now as I am away from my sewing machine. But I will be blogging about the things I made before I left.

So first on my list are the training pants I made for Katelyn. I actually purchased this Tinkle Time Trainers pattern long time ago as I planned to make some trainers for Alyssa to use at night when she was potty training. Crazy how long ago it was. Then I never got to it as I was away from my sewing machine at that time too being pregnant with Katelyn. And Alyssa got potty trained very fast and wore usual undies even at night.

This time around potty training proved a little more challenging so I dug my pattern out to make some trainers for K. I was a little sad to discover that I only had instructions part and could not locate my pattern pieces pdf. Good thing I had one trainer cut out already laying around so I just cloned it. I made four of these. All with a pocket inside so I can stuff different inserts in there. I don't like the pocket option though and if I make more I'll just sew the soaker into it. I think it would be easier to deal with them that way. The pattern was easy to follow and the fit is alright.

My only wish is that they magically potty train K. Ha. She's actually is very good about going #1 into the toilet and telling us when she needs to go. But #2 is going to take a loooong time. Ugh. Any tips on how to teach them to ask before they go #2 in their pants? :)

Purple Phildar Tunic

I've been making things for little ones for a while and kind of neglecting my oldest child. So one day I decided to make E something and my eye fell on the tunic with cables from the Phildar magazine. The reason I don't make stuff for her as often anymore is that she's getting big and it takes more time and more yarn to knit something for her. She doesn't really complain, but when I told her I'd make something for her she was very happy.

I showed the picture of the tunic I wanted to make for her and told her to pick any color she wanted it to be. She decided that she wanted a purple tunic. I was a little surprised as my girls usually pick pink for pretty much everything.

I decided that I did not want to deal with sewing the seams after it's finished and knitted it from the top down. I did make a couple mistakes and not quite satisfied with how it turned out but it doesn't look too bad. I think I made a size 8 but it's hard to tell as I did not really follow a pattern. But it looks like it will fit her for a while.

I used "local" yarn - Alize LanaGold. I bought it from some yarn store in Sofia. I think it's turkish though. It is surprisingly nice yarn. It knits well and holds cables even better. I had to go back to that store and buy more yarn so I can make more stuff while we're gone. Oh, and did I say it's also cheap? Win/win.
But let's get back to the tunic. Emma loves it and is asking me to wear it every day. It's too nice out though for her to wear a sweater (because it is a sweater, really). So we are waiting for the colder weather over here.

Marple Pattern Testing

In the beginning of September I got an itch to make something absolutely new and not very much seen. Ha. Well, that is how I felt. And so I was lucky enough to be given an opportunity to test a knitted pattern. I've never done it before and so it was all new for me.

The pattern is Marple Dress by Taiga Hilliard Designs. Made from the top down and without any seams. My preferred way of knitting as of lately. I also really like round yokes like this. The knit was easy and went without any glitches. My yarn stretched a little after blocking so it turned out longer than I expected it to be. But it only means one thing - K will enjoy it for longer.

K saw me making it and asked if it was for her. When she heard that it was indeed for her, she got so very excited. That is why I made sure I finished it as fast as I could. She'd come up to me and ask again and again if it was still hers. Isn't it the sweetest thing when your kids get excited about something you're making for them? I don't get that excitement anymore as much from E, but A and K are still in my fan club.

Loved doing this test knit and maybe will do some test knits again after the baby is born. I'll be sitting around quite a lot with all that nursing and holding the baby.
Stop by Ravelry if you need more details about this pattern and yarn.