Olive - 10 Weeks

Pattern Sale

Sleeping Bag

I have found it really tricky to find a good sleeping bag for Olive that was just the right weight and not completely out of my price range so I was a bit excited to see a pattern for one in Handmade Beginnings. I managed to make it out for things I already had in my craft room (this is not surprising - there is a lot of stuff in there).

I used some charm squares I had for the front.

Instead of velcro I found a packet of snap fasteners. I have no idea why I had them, this was my first time using them. I think I much prefer them to velcro on things like this, I think the snaps are much more likely to stay shut.

I love this green fabric and there was just enough for the back, side and the binding.

I don't tend to have a stash of flannel fabric, but I found a metre of this and used it for the lining.

The pattern is meant to be for 0-3 months, but this is quite big on Olive still at 2 months. I added an inch to the length and I think it will fit for quite some time. It was very hard to get her to stay still yesterday. It is not often she is still at all when she is awake.

I think this would be great in winter using some cotton batting between the lining and the outside and I think it will be quite easy to size up.
It was worth buying Handmade Beginnings for this pattern alone.

Vegie Patch

I love this time of year in the garden (except for the snakes, we had our second one for the year in the garden on the weekend). The garlic is nearly ready to pull up, my mouth is watering at the thought of fresh tomatoes, lots of herbs are growing and there are potatoes to eat. The silver beet is nearly at the end. We have been making the yummy silverbeet crustless pie out of Stephanie Alexander's Kitchen Garden Companion to finish it off.

We made the decision to not plant zucchinis this year. Pretty soon there will be people begging us to take some of theirs. There are a bit like broad beans - everyone grows them as they are so easy, but you always seem to have more than you can eat.

 The girls and Chris dug up some huge potatoes. I think this will feed all of us all one night.

I prefer the tiny little ones and I have been making them into a nice salad by boiling them and then adding chopped spring onions, lemon juice and wholegrain mustard.

Butterick 4914



I started Butterick 4914 the other night and finished it while Olive slept yesterday. I added the band to the neckline which I cut to just under 2" wide. I think I have found the perfect width and this is definitely my preferred way to finish a stretchy neckline at the moment. I made this with more cheap polyester stretch from Spotlight.

Once again I used the sleeves from Simplicity 3775. I have not thought much about sleeves before but the shape can completely change the look of a garment. Even though this looks a lot like Simplicity 3775 the pattern pieces are different shapes. The Butterick one fits me a lot better.

I would have taken some photos of me wearing it but that would have involved brushing my hair, shaving my legs and finding a decent bra so I threw it on the ground artfully arranged it on the floor.

This pattern is out of print, but you might be able to find it on ebay or etsy.

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.