She's Here!!!!! Introducing....

DOLORES!!!!! (AKA Lola.) This is what I was busy trying to push out of me last week: the sweetest little baby ever! I cannot tell you how much Pat and I adore our new daughter. There really aren't sufficient words to describe how precious she is to us.

You'll be seeing much more of my little muse in the future but I'll just share these three pics from her first few days of life for now. 

Oh, and I'll leave you with this awesome song that, for obvious reasons, I can't stop singing!

Refashion Friday Inspiration: Shirt Detail T-shirt Top

Today's Refashion Friday post is about a garment that, in a similar vein to the frill hem denim shirt remake, has a few different elements going. But maybe a feature or two might provide some inspiration even if the whole thing doesn't work for you! 

So what IS going on here? Well the base of this top is an unwanted grey marl dude's T-shirt that had the sleeves removed and the hem chopped off. An equally neglected men's button-up shirt was then ransacked for pieces to apply to the T-shirt/tank basis. The button stand was cut away and top-stitched down the front. Sections of the sleeves were harvested to make new slightly puffy sleeves (with cuff bands made from the hem part of the original T-shirt).  

The new top also features a waist band/tie made from harvested shirt fabric. Overall, this top is fairly cropped and quite boxy. Personally I think my favourite element is the applied button stand: such a simple feature that could add an unexpected design element to a variety of makes. 

Theo's Baby Quilt!

First there was Surayya's. Then there was Samuel's. Now comes the hat-trick! You remember my mate Anna for whom I made a couple of maternity garments recently? Well she had her little baby!!!! A little boy called Theo who, if the photo on Facebook is to believed, is CUTE! Sadly, Theo and his folks live in Madrid so it's going to be a while until I get to meet that little chap in the flesh, by which point I'll have my own new little person for Theo to hang with.

I actually finished this quilt back in May to take with me when we went to Madrid to visit. Anna and her husband Marcus chose not to find out the gender of their baby before the birth, so I had to make it gender-neutral. I also wanted to give this one a fairly fun, contemporary look so I kept that in mind when hunting out fabric scraps to make it from.

Technique-wise, it's made in more or less EXACTLY the same way as the previous two. If it ain't broke... It's backed with red fleece which, along with the wadding, were the only bits that I needed to actually buy. The patchwork fabric pieces came from a combination of my own fabric stash and the scraps hamper at Sew Over It. I think the only thing I did differently with the construction of this quilt is that I hand-stitched the second edge of the binding rather than using my sewing machine as I did with the previous two. This red bias binding is narrower than the other two's self-made binding so I decided it would be less of a headache to stitch it down by hand. I'm actually really pleased with how neat I was able to stitch it.

So, you may be wondering, is there a fourth quilt in the pipeline....?!

Refashion Friday: Knitwear Baby Trousers

Now this of course is not a new idea. Heaps of peops have turned unwanted knitwear into cosy baby trousers before (in fact I've done it before myself) because it's just such a blooming good idea! I decided to make some for our imminent Missy after buying a baby carrier at a nearly-new sale last weekend. I swiftly realised that her little legs might get mighty chilly hanging out the bottom of the carrier during Winter. See? It's not all pretty-and-everything-but-potentially-not-going-to-get-used-much baby sewing round here!   

Probably much to Pat's annoyance, I've been carting round a large bin bag full of old jumpers and scraps of knitwear during the last couple of flat moves we've made. Some of the knitwear was harvested from the embers of the TRAIDremade studio, and then when friends found out I was collecting unwanted knitwear I also got donated a fair bit. Last Christmas I was using it to make lots of pairs of mittens to sell at craft fairs, which was a great success. Then I gave most of the leftover stock as Christmas presents (genius, no?!). I had every intention of making and selling more mittens again this Christmas, but with Missy on her way and the loss of the 'thrill of the new' means that I know I probably won't. Plus all the women I know already have a pair of my mittens now so all the left over stock would end up sitting around at the end of this Christmas's selling season! 

So I delved into my knitwear stash and found a few garments to have a whirl at turning into baby trousers. The wool jumper pictured above, for example, used to be Pat's. It finally lost the battle against moths and I put it in a hot wash to felt it up in preparation for making mittens. Instead it's become the warmest of the pairs of baby trousers! 

I decided to use the same pattern as the recent jersey trouser making marathon I went on. The pattern is so easy to construct and I prefer the narrower leg than the previous baby trousers I've made in the past. I had to restrain myself to only cutting out three pairs to see how they went (cut out pieces pictured above). When I come across a quick project like this, my natural inclination is to go mental and MAKE ALL THE THINGS, but until I know how useful they'll be to us, it seemed a bit pointless to make more. 

When I made the jumper trousers for baby Joe, his mama Sophie requested that I make them extra long. Her thinking was that the trousers could be rolled up at the bottom and last a long time. Apparently, those trousers are still going strong nearly two years later (although she did have to replace the waist elastic to make them more accommodating a year in). I took that into account when making these for our Missy and made the size bigger than she'll probably need this Winter, plus added extra length to the leg. That way we can roll them up this year (see above) but hopefully she'll get two years worth of wear from them. Hurrah for potentially-practical baby sewing! 

An Army of Knitting Ninjas

I'm not sure how it's happened but I'm very pleased that it has. An army of knitting ninjas has appeared seemingly from nowhere and created an Autumn/Winter selection of wooly delights for our Missy! As you may know, although I try and make as much of my own wardrobe as possible, my lack of knitting skills means I rely on charity shop finds for my own knitwear provisions. I thought that I would need to do the same for our baby: hoovering up charity shop jersey and knit things and making the wovens (plus some simple jersey trousers) where necessary. This was concerning me a little because, whilst good quality jersey items have been abundant secondhand, I hadn't found much nice baby knitwear when out 'hunting'. I needn't have worried because a mountain of warm loveliness has appeared! I'm so grateful to the talented and generous women who have made these things, that I'd like to share them with you here...

This gorgeous and super-soft limey-green cardi with heart motif has been made by Mumma E! What you are witnessing above is the outfit I've packed in my hospital bag to bring Missy back home in. C.U.T.E. 

But that isn't the only item hot off her knitting needles: she has also created this other gorgeous green 'rig out' (pictured above) that's a bit bigger. Green items seem to be a theme with my mum because she's convinced that our little lady is going to have ginger hair. I have explained to her twice now that both parents need to carry the ginger gene for that to be possible and there are no gingers in our family, but anyway, these are lovely greens she's picked. Allegedly a knitted coral hoodie is in the pipeline... she's on fire is Mumma E!   

And then... This glorious set of cuteness appeared from my mum's mate Kate who lives in Scotland! Despite the fact that I have never actually met Kate, her generosity is so deep that she made us this phenomenal little set and bought us further cuteness for lucky little Missy.

And then we need to talk about Brenda. Brenda is my mum and dad's next door neighbour. She used to be mine as well between the ages of 11 and 19 (me, not Brenda). Well, Brenda could clearly clothe whole nations if sufficiently sorted for wool! She made both little lemon sets pictured above (along with some matching mittens that I forgot to photograph) PLUS the blue dress and cardi set and pink buggy blanket pictured below AS WELL as another pink dress and brown buggy blanket not pictured. Damn that lady has skills AND speed!!!

Now I know very little about knitting, but check out the amazingness of the stitch pattern of the blue dress (close-up pictured below). That can not be easy. 

What's up next?: NAUTICAL BOOTIES!!!!!!!!! These are the fruits of knitting needles belonging to Christina, an assistant/teacher at Sew Over It. Christina is quite frankly one of the nicest parts about working at Sew Over It at the weekends and I miss her now I'm on maternity leave. Can we just spend a minute looking at these!?: 

And last (in terms of most recently received, i.e. today!) but of course not least: a GORGEOUS crocheted pixie hat from the seriously multi-talented Emily. Look how well this hat is going to go with the nautical booties?! 

As I have mentioned, I am super grateful to all these knitting legends for their amazing gifts for Missy. She hasn't even got a clue right now just how lucky she is, or how cosy she will soon be! 

Refashion Friday: Refashion Your Own Nursing Bras

(Image Source: Keeping Up With Us Jones')

I'm not going to lie, today's Refashion Friday post features an idea that will interest a very limited demographic. However, it's one of those ideas that is so genius that even those that are not likely to deploy it in the immediate future might hang on to it for use in the future, or to pass on to someone else for whom it may become relevant.

This is not my idea. It is an idea I found on Pinterest that has been devised (or at least explained) by Valeri on her blog 'Keeping Up With Us Jones''. As soon as I saw it I clocked it as a genius way to avoid buying any more new stuff and spending any more money than is necessary on this whole 'being pregnant and having a baby' scenario.

Some time ago I received a comment from the lovely Jen on my Eight Month Maternity Wardrobe post that included the following tip:

"Just make sure you invest in some good nursing bras - they can really be the best thing for making you feel better about your body afterwards, when you feel as though your pre-pregnancy figure is gone forever, especially since now there are some lovely options out there for nursing bras."

I totally took that suggestion to heart. I thought that, seeing as I've saved quite a bit of money maternity clothing by making, repurposing and borrowing all I've needed, I would treat myself to one or two nice nursing bras. So I went into a couple of fancy maternity shops but two things became apparent: A) my boobs are currently too big for all the nice nursing bras I saw on my attempted shopping trip, only the less attractive ones seemed to come in my size, and B) DAMN, posh bras are EXPENSIVE!!!!! I'm way too skint right now to justify spending that kind of money on bras that should only realistically see six months use and will be covered in milk or be in the laundry most of the time anyway.

So as much as I'm sure that after the baby is born I'd like to set fire to the unsexy maternity bras I currently own, instead I'm going to apply this nifty little trick of Valeri's and keep my maternity bras in rotation until either my boobs change shape/size or I give up breast feeding (assuming I'll be able to breast feed ok in the first place). Actually, I'm not sure I'll do the step that Valeri suggests of making the loop of fabric so that they are still adjustable. I may just apply the hooks and eyes and tether the straps at the length that they fit well at.

Anyways, apologies for going on about nursing bras and my recent deliberations for longer than was probably necessary. I hope that Valeri's post saves you or someone you know some money at some point in the future!

The Bloomsbury Dress Set

I'm a firm advocate of the phrase 'Make hay whilst the sun shines'. Though my own interpretation right now is probably more like 'If you're on maternity leave and finally have a functioning sewing machine, get some flippin' sewing done whilst you can!'. So that is what I have been doing. Even though our little lady is still just about in utero right now, both elements of this outfit are actually for a 1 year old. As I mentioned in my nappy-cover blog post, I plan to dress her mostly in jersey until that point. 

Pattern:

If memory serves, I bought this vintage Style 1106 pattern (published 1975, Size 1) from the awesome Snooper's Paradise in Brighton not long after we moved here a few years ago. How frustrating must it have been trying to sew for children before multi-sized sewing patterns became the norm? Such a small window of opportunity for each pattern to be of any use to you! This is actually the second time I've used this myself, the first being for my friend's daughter Surayya that I made in Africa wax fabric. When I made that first version I wouldn't have guessed that the second time I'd use it would be for my own little Missy! I also recently leant this pattern to my friend Kate so she could rustle up a birthday present for a mate of her's daughter, thus getting more use from this than it possibly ever got from its original owner!

Pattern changes:

Kate and I both came to the conclusion that the neck opening seemed a little tight, so we both made that a little wider on our respective versions. I also added a couple of cms to the length, plus only used 3cms of the suggested 5.7cms (!) hem allowance to make it a bit longer. What is up with those crazy-short hems on kiddie dresses of the 1950's/60's/70's?! I'm hoping that Missy will be able to wear it for a longer period of time if the length is a bit more generous. Kate and I also decided to opt for small poppers to fasten the top back opening instead of buttons because we'd narrowed the neck yoke and creating button holes would have been a bit of a faff on the new reduced dimension. 

Also, I created a slightly different sleeve shape pattern for this version. I wanted something less frilly or puffy than most of the sleeved versions included in this pattern already so that this dress can be worn with a cardigan over the top (seeing as this outfit should be coming into use next Autumn/Winter). 

The matching nappy cover pants are made using the same Newlook 6818 pattern that I blogged about last week. I'm not sure how seasonally appropriate they will be for when this outfit comes into use, it's possible that wooly tights might be in order at that point, but who can say?! Making these nappy covers is so quick and so much fun, and I'm sure she'll get some use from these ones even if it isn't with the dress. 

Fabric:

I am one hella lucky mama-to-be because a few weeks ago the super-lovely owner of Sewbox.co.uk offered to send me some fabric to make something for our Missy. As you probably know by now, I try to avoid buying new fabric for my sewing projects, particularly when sewing for myself, but I'm not a crazy person! If offered some lovely new fabric to sew something special for our little baby, I'm not about to pass up that opportunity!

So I told Susan from Sewbox the meterage I'd need for this dress pattern plus some nappy cover pants. I also sent her a couple of links to fabric that she stocked (Liberty Bloomsbury Collection - Woolfe and Liberty Bloomsbury Collection - Dance) that I really liked so she'd get the idea of what kind of colouring I was into, and left it to her to select me something. Susan only went and sent me BOTH of them AND some amazingly cute matching buttons! I really can't thank her enough. 

Conclusion:

I may have slightly undermined the classiness of this Liberty fabric with the application of some white bobble trim that I found in my stash. I wanted to add something so that the neck yoke and pocket details didn't get lost in the ditsy print. I think the outcome is somewhat more Mexicana/fiesta-time than the fabric designer probably originally envisioned! Maybe Missy can wear this for her first birthday. Jeez that's a mental thought...