Birthday Crochet!

So a whole month has passed, and I still haven't posted anything of Eve's first birthday. But I will!! My sister did a family photo shoot and I have to say, she did a smashing job. I can't wait to show you.

In the meantime, here is one of Eve's first birthday presents that I made for her. I used a pattern for the squares from a Mollie Makes magazine and then grannied around until it seemed done. I took the idea from Tif of Dottie Angel who is an endless source of crochet inspiration. I can't find the exact post right now, but it is in there somewhere!

Because I get extremely itchy and rashy when I crochet with wool, this is a washable acrylic yarn, which, on the bright side is nice and hardy for being dragged around by the unstoppable Eve!

I loved making this blanket for my littlest one. I have plans for more, I'm sure Caleb and Jemima are due for another one?

I have been making quite a lot of stuff lately, but have fallen off the blog bandwagon. I hope to climb back on somehow.

Onesie (twosie)

A weekend or so ago, the urge to sew was too strong to resist. I left all three kids at my mum's house and sewed flat out for an hour before being beckoned back to feed baby. It was very fun- and no mistakes were made in this particular hour which is worthy of noting!

I made Eve this onesie dress using this tutorial as it's basis. I added a "faux bodice" to make it look like a little vintage dress that she owns, and coincidently cover up the little picture. The onesie was Jemima's as a wee one which made it an even more gratifying process.

A little note if you ever plan on making one, keep in mind that you lose about an inch of the length of the onesie in the process of attaching the skirt. This didn't matter in my case because I think Eve is a shorty like her mum.

High on the joy of completing a project in hardly any time at all, I made another one in the evening. I made a mistake when attaching the skirt on this one, so it took a little longer, but cute, hey!

Eve is ONE in 3 days, which in some ways startles me in it's soon-ness, but in others it is almost a wonder she has only been here a year. It feels like she has always been part of the family. We are having a little picnic on Saturday, just our little family plus my sister to take some pics which I am really looking forward to. I sort of forgot about Father's Day, lost in my thoughts about how to make Eve's birthday special (sorry Chris, sorry Dad)- so I had better get onto that!

Hello, world.

Little Eve with her "Fleur" from OneGirlDesignwks Christmas 2010

Pink baby oobee

Yellow baby oobee

Hi Blog!

I'm sorry to say it has been a while since I posted! As punishment, blogger won't allow me to move my images around. Fair enough.

I did some sewing (weeks ago now)!

I won the baby oobee pattern in a giveaway from Leslie (One girl blog) and bought 2 of her baby oobee fabric packs to make my girls one each. Eve will get hers when she turns O N E in a few weeks, and Jemima will have to wait until Christmas. Jemima can't wait! (My latest strategy is to make the kids their gifts in front of them so that they will be excited to get their handmade-by-me items: a little manipulative, I know. ha!)

I love Leslie's work a lot. I bought Eve a "fleur" for Christmas last year and the fabrics are so cute. And her quilts inspired the quilt I made for Eve before she was born.

Jemima's is the pink one- yes that is a liberty quilt, lucky oobee!

Eve is likely to just chew on hers for a while, but oobee will be sure to get awesome cuddles as well.

Thanks Leslie for the freebie! I will make heaps of these in the future I am sure!

I made something!

My husband and I went away for the weekend just gone to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary. We took the Scmevebot (aka our baby Eve) with us, as she still gets all her drinks from me. The older two had an absolute blast with my mum and dad including going to a music festival on Saturday night. They especially enjoyed rocking out to the band, Chasing Light which both my brothers are in (the singer and the bass guitarist). They have pretty cool uncles really. I claim to be cool by association.

Anyways, on the weekend I made this little hat using this tutorial from A Beautiful Mess. Thanks Elsie! It ended up a little bit on the small side, and so doesn't stay on very well, but it is still a cute statement! I have another one on the hook already for a little friend.

Feels so good to finish a project- and actually blog it!

hmmm, so cute!

Another quilty thing

I made this little tied quilt with a pink minky backing for a new little friend by the name of Elisabeth. I can't wait to meet you Elisabeth, though I suspect we will only get to meet you after we have met our own girl baby, as you live a little too far away.

For Sweet Baby Amber

One of my dearest friends had her first baby a month ago and she is just beautiful. Oh so little. Little dark pink lips, often shaped in a little "o" and a little covering of dark hair atop her little round head. Ahhhh. I am not as clucky as I once was with just any baby, but this little miss is special.

So a special gift was in order. I bought the vintage chenille squares precut on ebay, sewed them together and popped on a cotton back. I tied the "quilt" together. While making it I sort of grew attached to it a lot which happens from time to time, but I am more than happy to pass it over to be spewed and probably pooed on by my new little friend.

Pretty in pink

We had a lot of plans cancelled on the weekend because a lot of our engagements were ill. This winter has been ferocious! We are OK, though I think we may be on the edge of a dreaded lurgy. Good thing the kids loooove taking their multivitamins! (Does that help? Who knows.)

While it is awful everyone is so sick, the plus side was a big chunk of unallocated time to craft.

So I made this.

It is a little toooo pink, I think- I chose brown buttons to try and calm the whole pink vibe down. Once their is a little girl baby in there, I'm sure it will look delicious. It is "newborn size" which in pattern speak means enormous, which is good, because the Baby Girl recipient is due in August, so it will be a while before the weather warms up.

Overall it is a pretty easy pattern. I nearly left a safety pin inside...hmmm safety. And I don't like the press stud installation- I think it would have been wise to use some interfacing. I am worried that pulling the press studs apart will tear the fabric.

Anyways, I think it is a cute little baby dress. I might see how it works out in real life for my new little friend before I make anymore though.

Little pink slippers

(Relative) success! These are made from my most recent stash acquisition. The floral design is a very soft but nicely sturdy flannel. These came together a bit better than the last pink attempt, but you will notice one is a little shorter and asymmetrical than the other. And no, the little baby's feet are not similarly mismatched. Still I think they are sweet and (hopefully) wearable!

When Jemima was born, I met a lady in hospital who had just had her second baby girl. She always avoided pink, she just didn't like it. I could understand- pink alone seems so limiting. But two things hindered my anti-pink stand, 1) I was a non-sewer and you can pretty much only buy pink things for baby girls (and still have them "look" like girls) and 2) Jemmie looked/s great in pink. 

New Life

teeny-tiny goody-two-shoes made using Meet me at mikes

I hope that everyone is enjoying their Easter weekend! It has all been a bit disorienting for us. Friday felt like Sunday (because we went to church), Saturday felt very out-of-place (even more so because we did some gardening, quite an out-of-place activity for us!), but now we are back on track. Today feels like Sunday. 

It's been a reasonably quiet weekend, in between church on Friday and Sunday, all of which has given us the head space to reflect on the basis of our faith- that Jesus lived, died, and rose again so that new life is available to us all. This is something that I have believed just about my whole life.  This is a new Australian doco about Jesus. It was on Channel 7 on Friday afternoon.

So, back to craftiness: The little shoes I made for a new little guy that was born a week and a bit ago. They came together fairly easily, though sewing around curves and doing the whole "easing" thing needs a little practice. I'm also pretty sure there is a marking that is not on the pattern, but it is pretty obvious how they go together by the time you get to that point. I am totally making more of these. Pink ones next for my latest first-cousin-once-removed, one of the cutest newborns I have ever seen. Apart from my own of course.

Enjoy the rest of the long weekend! Happy Easter!

For the little snapper

Caleb is getting one of those super tough kids digital cameras for Christmas. I am so excited to give it to him. He can do some paparazzi payback. Not so excited about that I guess.

I wanted to add a little something handmade so I put together this little camera bag. I used the instructions for this messenger bag from burdastyle, but resized it. I did the embroidery a few weeks ago. 

All in all I am quite pleased with it. I need to sew on some type of closure. I am thinking velcro. But I am not thinking going to the shops this weekend, so that little job will have to wait.

A dramatic increase in the world's population

Not only is Christmas less than a month away, but I know of about a million (yes a MILLION) babies that have been born lately. An overwhelming number for someone resolved to give handmade gifts. Fortunately we are also close to Christmas so a couple of "welcome to the world" gifts can double as Christmas presents. Get used to it kids. (My birthday is within 2 weeks of Christmas, so I know the pain.)

A couple of mini ribbon blankets. Using this tutorial as a basis. (But lazier application. A recurring theme of mine.) It would have taken a lot less time if the bobbin thread hadn't gone walkies (the technical term) stuffing up my thread tension. I "trouble shooted" for at least half an hour, including changing the needle. Next time I will rethread the whole shabang before I do that. So, another project, another lesson learned. I'm getting used to that. 

(Apologies for dreadful photo. You shouldn't have to put up with that.)