Breastfeeding Dresses

I made a couple of the Hotpatterns Cosmopolitan Dresses last year and I knew they would be perfect for breastfeeding as the wrap goes the whole way across the dress. Because they are made from stretchy fabric they are also perfect for those of us who don't immediately lose that post pregnancy stomach (I still haven't lost mine after having the twins 7 1/2 years ago).

I love this fabric from Spotlight. Yes it is polyester, but it is pretty soft and I love the colour and it was on special. I can't remember for how much, but this was a pretty inexpensive dress. I think I managed to get it out of 1.8m. I left off the tie as it just drew attention to my stomach and I used the short sleeve from Simplicity 3775. I also added a band around the neckline as before. I cut it 2 1/4" wide, but would make it even thinner next time.

 Will anyone notice if I wear the same style of dress every day this summer?

 I made this one earlier in the week in the same way. I'm not loving it like the other one. I am not a big fan of the fabric. It has a completely different feel to the other one. It feels like polyester and just does not hang the same.

 I have a couple of other dress patterns that would also be easy to breastfeed in. I have seen some great versions of Vogue 8379. I think I am just a little put off by the facing, I have never had much luck with facing on stretchy fabric.
I have already cut out Butterick 4914. It is very similar to Simplicity 3775, but when I compared all the pattern pieces, the tops are quite different, so I thought I would try it and see what it is like.

Have you made any good breastfeeding clothes? Can you recommend any patterns?

Books

On my bedside table.

Triburbia - kind of like 'The Slap' in that it is told by different people and so far most of the characters aren't likeable.

Gertie's New Book for Better Sewing - love this book, I am learning a lot.

Handmade Beginnings - I think Olive needs a dress and some pants. I love the little coat pattern.



Red Whirligig Shrug

The Whirligig Shrug I made Olive when I was pregnant is perfect for the in between weather at the moment. I love this pattern for babies. It is quick and easy to knit and the arms are easy to fit tiny baby arms and fingers through.

I thought I had better knit another one in the next size up for when she grows out of it. I used the same yarn - Debbie Bliss Cashmerino DK - in red which is really quite difficult to photograph, but it is a really lovely red.

 More details on ravelry.



Colour Blocks

While Olive slept in my arms I played around with quilt block ideas.

 Then Eva made a picture of the beach.

It is beautiful beach weather today. I wish it was just a little closer.

Beanbags

After reading on how Claire of Craft Schmaft made some beanbags I decided we really needed to update ours. I was going to make them the same way, but after a quick google search I thought I would try the one from Stardust Shoes. Somehow I found myself in Spotlight without working out how much fabric I needed so I bought 2.5m of each of these and a lot of cheap cream poly/cotton.

The cotton drill in Spotlight was perfect for beanbags, they have lots of rolls of it in different patterns and colours at the moment.



I realised when I got home that I didn't have quite enough of each fabric. I also thought the small beanbag was too small and the big one was too big. So I cut my own pattern using as much of the fabric as I could. I managed to cut 4 segments out of 2.5m. I also cut 2 circles about 4.5-5" across to applique to the top and bottom just like the pattern. I couldn't find any velcro but I had a lot of long zips so I used them for the opening. I made the exact same shape bag for inside out of the poly/cotton (but I did not applique the circle on). Once the inside bag was full I sewed the opening closed with the machine which was a little tricky once the bag was full.
Here are the dimensions for a 1/4 of one of the pieces.

A stack of beanbags. The bottom two have a 100L bag of beans in them, I ran out of beans for the top one so it is just waiting for a little bit more.

 A perfect kid size beanbag.

Pride and Prejudice

If I didn't have Olive I would have just bought this for myself.

The Weekend

It was suddenly summer on the weekend. We put down the blinds on the verandah and started a huge wash of all the quilts in the house. We ate pizza with lots of silver beet before it goes to seed (recipe in this months Delicious magazine). Toe nails were painted and we watched Chris (kayaking) and his team in the Blackwood Marathon. I feel like I need another weekend to recover.

Get Maybelle to Ellen

I haven't had much time for toy sewing this year, which is frustrating as I have no toys in my shop.

I do have one little creature available. He is going to be auctioned with the money going to a great cause. Maybelle has had a bit of a hard year to say the least and her dream is to go to the Ellen show.

So an auction is being held starting on the 5th November. Go here to the auction facebook page and have a look at all the great things you can bid on and help Maybelle get to the Ellen show!

Baby Sewing

A little summer outfit for Olive. I went into some big chain stores last week to buy some clothes for her and left empty handed. One had nothing I liked and one was so disorganised if it did have anything nice I couldn't find it. Lucky I just happen to have quite a bit of fabric and lots of patterns!

 I love this pattern - Butterick  5439. My Grandmother made the exact same style tops for us when we were babies

 The shorts are based on the Oliver&S Puppet Show Ones. I didn't add the pockets, I don't think a 5 week old has much use for them and did not cut a separate waist band piece. I just added the height to the main part. I made the bias piece on the bottom a little shorter as I with the other sizes I have made, they are the same length as the main part and I do like to have a bit of gathering at the sides. I could have made the bias pieces even shorter.
I made the smallest size and would just made the next size up when I make them again, but I would make them shorter in length, these go down way past her knees. Poor little Olive is not tall.

 A little hat which is still way to big for her, but I know it will fit her eventually.

 The roses in my garden are lovely at the moment, it is a shame that the weeds are nearly as big as them.

Juta's Blue Stockings

These socks were one of those projects that seemed to take forever. I only had one foot to go when Olive was born so I packed them in my hospital bag and got most of it done, but the last inch or two has taken a month. A row here, 5 minutes there. Finally last night I finished them. Just in time for Spring and the nice warm weather.

Cross Olive

Poor little Olive has been very very cross Olive since she was born. Lots of screaming, only likes being held in certain ways, not much sleeping and feeding has looked so painful for her. So I took her to a chiropractor yesterday and very cross Olive is now not so cross Olive. I'm crossing fingers that this continues.

As she had a really nice sleep yesterday in the quilt that Rita made her I remembered I had some of that voile left over from dresses I made the other girls a few years ago. It is so soft, perfect for babies tops. I made one using this pattern for a dress. I made the neck a little bigger and shortened it to shirt length. 

Crochet Flower Bunting

18 big flowers and 18 little flowers makes 2 lots of flower bunting. One for the twin's room and one for Eva's room. Here's a few pictures of them hanging outside on the verandah.

 I actually managed to get them hung up today.

All the rest of the details on Ravelry.

Baby Quilt

A finished little quilt.  I don't think you can have too many quits around when you have a baby, they are great in the car, pram, cot, rocker and on the floor.

This one is made from 6 panels of the Maze & Vale faric I treated myself too and is 31" x 36".

 I did some very simple free motion quilting in rows. Big and little loops and each row has one love heart to echo the grey love heart fabric. I marked each row with a hera marker and vaguely followed it so the quilting was not all over the place.

 This is not a tutorial, but more of a 'how I did it". This is how I cut the panels. They are all about 13.5" x 16.5". I measured mine and they were all a little bigger so I knew I could cut all the pieces out easily.

 Once I cut them I rearranged them and sewed them back together. Because a few of the prints were directional I made two of the middle blocks (like the one below) and made sure the pieces were going in the right direction.

 I made four of the side blocks and made sure all the pieces were going in the right direction.

After I made the blocks I sewed them together in two rows and then joined the rows.
It would be very easy to make this quilt a bit bigger. If you had 9 panels of fabric, just cut them all the same and then make 9 blocks and join them in 3 rows of 3.

A Plan



How perfect is this stack of fabric from Leslie of Maze & Vale?

 I have a plan. It is already cut and waiting to be sewn.

More on Nappies



The nappy I made last month fits Olive pretty well at the moment. I won't say it is perfect, I think it might be nearly impossible to make the perfect all in one cloth nappy which never leaks, but so far this pattern is doing well. I have made a few more and they are much better fitting and a lot smaller than the traditional cloth nappies you have to fold yourself (we do have quite a few of these and use them). We have had a couple that leak so we are going to use an extra cover over the top and see if this stops it. We used Tots Bots covers with Eva and I can count on one hand the number of times they leaked and this was usually when we didn't put it on right. I am pretty happy with these though, they aren't hard to sew (just a little boring to sew to be honest) and it is much cheaper to make these than buy them, so I will definitely be making more and using them.

 I found the best message stuck to my computer this morning.

New Fabric

Some new fabric for summer clothes for the tiniest one. 

From fabricworm.

Eggs and Pavlova

We have been looking after a few people's chickens while they have been on holidays and we have a lot of eggs. Lots and lots. We have given them away to everyone we can think of, I have cooked a lot, I made fritatta which used 9, but still our fridge is full of them.

Yesterday I thought I would try a pavlova. I have never made one before as they always looked a little tricky. They have to be beaten just right, the oven temperature has to be right, and then there is the small problem I have with following recipes. I really do prefer to read them and then just kind of do my own thing. So I tried hard and followed the recipe exactly.

 And this is what happened. The yummiest pavlova. I wish I had of taken a picture of the inside, it was perfect.

 I am not known for my food presentation, but trust me this was good.

So now I have made a great pavlova I may never make another, I don't think I could make another one like it.

New Sewing Patterns

McCalls, Butterick and Vogue had a good sale recently. I thought a couple looked great for now, stretchy and good for breast feeding, I'm pretty sure I didn't need another stretchy wrap dress pattern or another shirt dress pattern, but I couldn't resist - what if it is the perfect pattern for me that needs no alteration and is amazingly flattering (always my dream when buying patterns)??

This lot only cost $11. Postage was a ridiculous $25, but $36 for 7 patterns is very very cheap in Australia.

 I am still crocheting, the pile of flowers is getting bigger.

Olive's Birth

I have been asked a few times if things are 'getting back to normal' or if we have 'gotten into a routine'. Mmm I'm not sure things have ever been normal or if we have a routine to get back to, but we are coping. Luckily we have school holidays this week and next week so Chris is home and the girls went to my parents for a few days. So things might be a bit crazy every now and then, but I think it was like that before.

I am still taking it slowly,Olive ended up being born by caesarean so I am taking advantage of having help every day and not doing a lot. The twins were born by caesarean, but Eva was not so I was planning on another VBAC, but this was not to be. My waters broke in the middle of the night (now that is a weird feeling and I am glad I was in the bathroom when it happened) and we drove the 100km to the hospital. Lucky we had someone we could call on at midnight to come and watch the other girls. I was having contractions every 5 minutes by the time I got there and after a couple of hours every minute and a half, but not much else was happening.

It was obvious looking at my Dr watching the monitors and Olive's heart beat that was he was not happy so he called in a theatre team and about 4.30 in the morning Olive was born. It was kind of a surreal experience, I had been so anxious and I was so relieved they were getting her out and so happy when they did and I could see Chris holding her. I was also relieved to be pain free and was so tired from no sleep that night and very little sleep in the nights before that I had to shut everything out for a while that I went to sleep as I was being stitched up.

Poor little Olive spent the first few days on a drip as she had very low blood sugar and couldn't keep her temperature high enough, but she is great now and putting on weight quickly. Those little legs are getting nice little rolls and she has a couple of little chins which are so cute in babies.

How gorgeous is this quilt from Rita? So so soft, voile is just the most perfect thing for a quilt for a baby.

Crochet

Thanks for all your lovely messages about Olive. We are loving having her home. Her big sisters are so excited and have been so helpful.

I am spending most of my time feeding, burping, patting and rocking, but in between I have done a little crochet. I started some flowers and this blanket last year and it has been sitting patiently  in a basket all year waiting for me to do some more. It is the perfect thing to have on the go at the moment, you can stop anywhere and pick it up later without having to work out where you are up to and what you need to do next. The flowers are quick and easy and I can get one finished while Olive sleeps. I am planning on using them to make some flower bunting for the girls' rooms.