FO Parade: Tiny Things!

I made an Aviatrix baby hat and some Simply Sweet Socks for my friend's new baby daughter out of my last skein of Noro Yuzen! I have enough left over for another teeny pair of socks, should I feel inclined - not bad for a 50g skein!

So cute :)

Why So Serious: Little Dinosaur

This is Rei when she was little-er. Maybe 5 months or so?

Apparently Jake's head tastes good? I wouldn't know. Best part is she wasn't teething or anything, just weird.

Why So Serious: Baby Talk

I try not to get too caught up in viral cutesy videos, but this time, I caved. Rei is 14 months now, and isn't talking yet. This leaves me, as a first time mum, with my panties in a knot worrying that I should've read to her in the womb like a good mother (I kid...). Then this video came along and reminded me that language is immensely complex and there's a lot more to it in words. Then it made me laugh so hard I nearly peed my pants.

So Cute!

How To: Make a Baby-Sized Play Dress from an Old Sweater Vest

Jake is a sweater vest wearer. This is awesome, because I think he looks super hot in them. However, he's hard on his clothes and they do get in pretty rough shape, pretty quickly. I decided to give one of his vests - 100% cotton with a great big hole in a seam that wasn't worth fixing - a second life as a play dress for Rei, and I thought I'd share my pattern drafting and dress making tutorial. Just so you know, this isn't a recipe for a pretty party dress, it's a comfy, cosy, hard-wearing little number; made for a little girl who is almost as rough on clothes as her daddy is.

Get the how-to after the break!

How To: Make an Oilcloth Picnic Mat for your Toddler

I don't know about other one-and-a-bit-year-olds, but Rei has an almost ridiculous independent streak. It's only gotten more pronounced as she's learned to walk. Sometimes getting her to eat can be an enormous battle of wills. I've found that allowing her to eat her snacks a little more on her own terms gets a lot more healthy food into her belly. She's much more likely to eat sitting on the floor with her toys than strapped into her booster chair. With the cleanliness of my carpet, and thus my own sanity, in mind, I whipped up this cute little oilcloth picnic mat for her to sit on. It's great indoors and it will keep her snacks free of dirt in the summer months when we are out in the yard!

Want to make one? It's easy - a perfect beginner project! What I did, after the break....

Adorable Sweater, Free Pattern, Cute Pictures - What's Not To Like?

I whipped up this adorable little sweater for Rei's birthday - I wanted to share the cute with you all and pass along the link to the free pattern!

A link to the pattern and loads of cute pics after the jump!

Crafty Baby Gifts

A friend of mine had a baby a month or so ago, and I wanted to share what I made for her and her little guy.
I had seen these tutorials out in webland ages ago and had been itching to try them out - they make a nice shower gift, and I wanted to pass the ideas along.

Foxy Baby

We wanted R to have a nerdy costume for her first Halloween, but I didn't want to spend hours on an outfit for a kid who doesn't even have teeth to chew her trick-or-treating stash. I also wanted a costume warm and simple enough that she could wear it over her clothes in the car seat and stroller this winter. We though and we thought and we thought and we thought and I browsed the interwebs profusely. Nothing. Then, in a moment of inspiration, I looked to the top left corner of my browser window. FIREFOX FTW!

Here she is, my little Firefox (sans fire, of course, because people get all het up about flammable kids' costumes, and I'm no rabble rouser).

I used a New Look baby sleeper pattern, with a hood and tail of my own design. The globe is just appliquéd felt stuffed with polyfil.

Hung Out to Dry: A Brief Tutorial

More cloth diapering stuff folks... I'll stop soon, I promise.

One of the drawbacks of wool soakers (for more on wool soakers as diaper covers, see my previous post) is that you need to get them good and dry between uses. We have five, which we rotate through each diaper change. Having 5 diaper covers on the go, some of which may be damp and need to dry before their next turn, can be a space issue. You can't stuff them in a drawer because they won't get dry (or at least they won't in my humid basement nursery) but leaving them lying all over the place looks untidy and leaves them vulnerable to cat-related abuse. The only option for me was to hang them up.

This little rack was about a half hour project, if you don't count the time the paint took to dry. I used:

• 3/4" x 2" strip of wood, cut to about 31" (the length is up to you - I had this bit of wood lying around and as I don't have a saw, it stayed the length it was).
• 7 Wooden clothes pegs (or whatever number suites your needs - odd numbers are more aesthetically pleasing than even numbers).
• Hot glue, wood glue, or craft glue.
• Paint (I used acrylic).
• Ribbon for embellishment, if that's your thing.
• Drill and screws.

Measure out where you want your clothes pegs to be and mark your strip of wood. Glue the pegs to the wood, making the top of the peg flush with the top of the wood. I used hot glue because I am into instant gratification.
Once the glue is dry, paint! I recommend a coat of white as a primer if you are doing a light or bright colour, especially if your bit of wood, like mine, has manufacturey details stamped on it. When the paint is good and dry, embellish your rack (lol... Rack... Sorry, I lack maturity and self control) in whatever way would suit your room decor. I wrapped ribbon around mine and glued the ends down on the back, which gives a nice bit of colour and texture and also coordinates with R's floral mobile and the wall decor.
Drill two starter holes so you don't bugger up all your hard work trying to force bits of metal through the wood, and fix the rack to the wall with screws. This rack is only meant to hold lightweight objects, and weighs almost nothing itself, so don't worry too much about drywall screws and the like.

Yay! I would guess this project cost about three dollars, factoring in all the materials, but if you are like me and have this sort of stuff lying around, it's free! I love it for hanging soakers, but it would be a really cute way of storing hats and coats or dresses or any other adorable baby clothes that need a home and want to be displayed.

By the way, how much do you love those numbered cards on the wall above the soakers! The illustrations are ridiculously sweet and the cards are sturdy enough that they can be used as a teaching tool when your little one is learning to count!

They are the Animal Counting Cards by eeBoo, an amazing brand of beautiful kids' toys and learning aids. Ours were a gift bought at Sprouts, a lovely boutique in downtown Victoria. I can't afford their stuff, but maybe you can! Their selection of high quality children's items is delightful. I want every single thing they sell.

Cloth FTW

I heart my cloth diapers. Well, R's diapers. Not mine. I don't wear diapers. Really.

I upsized and upgraded our diapers from Bummis infant sized prefolds and PUL covers to Kissasluvs One Size Hybrids closed with a Snappi. I love the Bummis for their durability and fantastic price, but the Kissa's are fantastic and I'd never go back. They're soft and fuzzy and cute and amazingly absorbent. They dry faster than prefolds. They're trimmer and softer and a much better fit. However, the main reason I chose them was so I could use knitted wool covers instead of PUL ones. If you've spent any time with me in the past few years you will have noticed that I am a knitting fanatic. When I learned about the possibility of wool diaper covers, I couldn't resist. Wool is God's gift to my baby's bum. Seriously. Also to sheep, I suppose.

Why? When wool is still coated in its natural lanolin (sheep grease - very gross in theory but hey, it's in your lip balm and it hasn't killed you right?) it repels water. After it becomes too wet to repel any more water, it absorbs up to a third of its weight in liquid without feeling wet. It breathes, keeping baby's bum a nice temperature both in winter and summer. It's antimicrobial - I don't know how, I'm not hip with the scientific jargon, but it is - meaning unless poop gets on the cover, you don't need to wash woolies very often (like... months) and they won't smell or be gross. It's even fire resistant. Wool doesn't have to be itchy and unless your kiddo is actually allergic to it, there shouldn't be a problem with comfort. Least importantly but most obviously, wool soakers are so CUTE!

I used the Curly Purly Soaker pattern - an awesome free knitting pattern with a great final product and very accurate sizing - and the Frantic Mama soaker pattern (also free) to make these:

They all use my hand dyed wool from my previous post. They fit R really well and look so very sweet on her bulky little cloth diapered bum. I haven't seen a single leak since I started using them. She seems very comfortable and has a far greater range of motion in her legs and waist than she did in her old covers. When she's wet you can feel a little dampness, rather like how a disposable diaper feels when it's wet (the barely damp part, not the warm, squishy, gross part). I haven't had any problem with compression wicking so far, including when I took her out in the me tai carrier for over an hour. Wool soakers take a little more care than PUL covers - I hand wash with Eucalan wool wash and lanolize them using Lansinoh (marketed as nipple cream, but just pure lanolin) as per this video tutorial. They are fantastic - wool is really as good as everyone says it is. It really works.

I love that I can use something natural like wool for R's diapers. Would you rather wear wool socks or plastic socks? Cotton underpants or paper and gel polymer underpants? The same goes for diapers. I'm happy with this choice.

By the way, I got the Kissa's diapers through Parenting By Nature - a Canadian online retailer that sells so much more than cloth diapers. The service was great, and shipping was free and fast. I'm pretty darn pleased.

Flower Mobile Tutorial

I promised to write this up months and months ago but I never did. Bad me.

When we were decorating R's room I really wanted to avoid the pretty pink princess look. I'm just not feminine like that, and cute little girly things tend to get my hackles up. Instead, I chose to focus on a palette of greens, blues, purples and yellow. I love hanging mobiles and they look so sweet over a crib, but most of the ones I have seen in stores are tiny and cheap and tacky and attach to the side of the crib, or are stunning but prohibitively expensive. I wanted something with a little more oomph but on the cheap. And so, the hanging bouquet mobile was born.

Isn't that just the worst paint colour by the way? It looks like that 'flesh tone' coloured pencil crayon that doesn't remotely resemble the skin of anyone you have ever met.

To make the mobile you need:

• a large bouquet of fake flowers, some of which need to have long, fake wood stems.
• ribbon in colours that coordinate with your flowers
• hot glue
• sturdy wire cutters (or wimpy little ones augmented by determination, elbow grease, and muttered profanities)

First you need to get all the flowers and leaves off the stems. Some will just pop off, some need to be snipped. Make sure you leave little stems on them so you have something to glue together. Separate your flowers and leaves into two piles and select some good stems to use as the 'branches' of your mobile. You need one sturdy one for the top and two lighter ones, shorter than the first and of different lengths, for the bottom tier.

Begin assembling flowers and leaves however you like them, using lots and lots of hot glue (seriously, go nuts) to secure them together. If you are gluing flowers with very thin plastic stems, be aware that the glue may be hot enough to melt the plastic. Sometimes I found it worked best to apply the glue, let it cool quite a bit, and then smush the little stems into the glue blobs.

I used clusters of wisteria as a base and built corsage shaped flower clusters. Little flower spheres would be super cute and have a more modern look. Don't forget leaves! I topped my clusters off with a bow using torn strips of fabric left over from the curtains and bed skirt I made. This really pulled the whole room together. However, using the same ribbons as you string the mobile with would be very pretty as well.

Make five clusters: two for each of the bottom branches and one for the middle of the top branch. After the glue has cooled all the way, do your best to remove all those nasty little hot glue cobwebs clinging to your flowers.

Stringing the mobile is the hardest part. I tried it with fishing wire, but I found that this particular mobile looks goofy if you can't see what's holding it together. So I left it on the table for a while to rethink my options and the cat came in and chewed up all the fishing wire. It wasn't meant to be.

Start with your bottom tier branches. Choose two bunches of flowers and tie a length of ribbon to them and then to the ends of the branch. Don't make the lengths of ribbon too even unless your flower clusters are very symmetrical and you are aiming for a geometric effect. Mine had an inch or two of difference, giving the mobile a more natural look. And yeah I know it isn't exactly natural for bunches of flowers to hang from flying branches. You know what I mean. Hide the knot on the branch by wrapping the loose end of the ribbon over it and securing it with a dot of glue.

Once your bottom branches have their flowers attached, find the midpoint of the branch by balancing it on your finger. You don't want it to tip even a little bit in either direction - it should sit perfectly horizontally on the tip of your finger. Tie one end of a strip of ribbon around this point and hold it up to test the balance. Make any adjustments necessary and then put a tiny dot of glue on either side of the knot so the branch can't slide. Do this for both bottom branches.

Secure the bottom branch ribbons to the ends of the top branch the same way you tied the flowers to the bottom branch. You will want the ribbons to be quite different in length (a few inches). Hang one side, hold it up and see if you like it, then do the other. Make sure your bottom branches can spin without getting hung up in each other's ribbons. If the bottom branches are too long you may run into this problem.

Using a fairly short bit of ribbon, tie the fifth flower cluster to the top branch. It needn't be in the dead centre - play around with the placement and do what looks best. Make sure it doesn't interfere with the other branches and ribbons.

Find the balance point of the top branch and tie a ribbon there, just like you did with the lower branches. A loop in the other end of the ribbon can be used to hang your mobile. Make sure that it is secure if you are hanging it over a crib - use the proper hardware for your ceiling. You would feel like a terrible parent and a failed crafter if it fell on your kid. Don't hang it low enough that an older baby could grab it, and be mindful of the fact that you do need to be able to lean over the crib without getting bopped in the face by an errant bunch of flowers.

R loves this mobile. It's very large and striking, and it absolutely mesmerizes her when I give it a spin. Have fun!

Because I Had to Share

Joe Fresh brand at Real Canadian Superstore, $8.

And this is exactly why I wanted a baby girl.

The ugly shirt continues to provide

While I was cutting out the pieces for the baby toy in the last post I looked at my pattern pieces and thought "Hey! Looks like Legwarmies!" In saying 'legwarmies' I am not trying to be cute; it's a sweet baby leg warmer knitting pattern found here. I was about halfway through making them and they were very present on my mind because they were working up fabulously. Anyway, I decided to make some legwarmers for R. Here's what I did (you'll need an unwanted knit shirt with cuffs, or, of course, some fabric). I love the utility of this project. They make dresses possible on cold days, they don't have to come off for a diaper change, but they do come off easily if it warms up while you are out and about.

Take your 8.5 X 25.5 cm bit of cardboard from the previous project and use it to cut two pieces of knit fabric on the fold (so they are actually 17 cm wide). Cut off the cuffs of your shirt, cut the seams off, and then cut them into two. They will be folded (like they were when they were cuffs). Like this: (all these pieces are folded)

Stretch out the cuff pieces so they are the same length as the short ends of the leg warmers and sew them on, enclosed-cuff-style. I recommend lots of pins to keep everything even; the stretched cuffs can be tricksy.

You will have a little two ended sleevey thing, comme ca:

Make another and apply them to the adorable infant of your choosing. Cute poses are pretty easy to photograph, what with the proximity of sweet little baby feet. Aww....

Are you in love yet? I like that they are sort of Tim Burton-esque. I bet if Jack and Sally or Victor and Victoria had babies and put them in leg warmers, these would be the ones.

Oh, and the knitted Legwarmies are also a success.

A bright future for an ugly shirt

I bought a set of fleece pyjama pants to wear in the hospital when R was born, and they came with an enormous black and white striped shirt. The thing was hideous on me (Horizontal stripes on my pregnant 2X self. Seriously people... why?) but the fabric was a super snuggly soft 1X1 rib in 100% cotton, so I kept it around, just in case. When I read that really young babies have trouble distinguishing anything other than very high colour contrast, and hence love graphic black and white toys, I knew my convict-esque shirt had a future. I set out to make a simple cuddly sphere for her to drool all over. She loves it so much I thought I'd share.

First, cut a piece of cardboard into a 25.5 x 8.5 cm rectangle (the short end is exactly one third the length of the long side) to use as the pattern. Using this as a guide, cut 2 pieces of t-shirt on the bias. I think if your fabric is a stocking stitch knit rather than a rib you could cut on grain, but a rib stretches too unevenly to cut on the grain for this project. Try it if you like (I did, with unspectacular results) but I think you'll have better luck on the bias.

Using the short end of your cardboard pattern, measure one third of the way along the long side of one of your fabric rectangles. Position the short side of the other piece along this long side, covering the middle third of the piece and making a T shape. Pin. Wow... that makes no sense. Look at the picture OK?

Sew along that pinned edgeuntil just before you reach the end of the short side of the top piece of fabric. Re-align the edges of the 2 pieces, and continue sewing around, matching up the edges in thirds as you go. Essentially you are making a cube - each rectangle makes up 3 sides. Leave a smallish hole at the end of your seam. Turn, and stuff.

Sew up the hole, inserting a loop of ribbon so you can hang the toy or hook it to things with a plastic link. I embroidered some hearts in red, blue, and yellow on mine. I forgot to take a picture of the finished product when it was new, and it's had some love over the past few months, but here's what it looks like now:

R loves this thing. It's really squashy so she has been able to grab onto it with her clumsy little mitts ever since she first began to show interest in holding onto her toys. Mostly now she tries to shove it in her mouth, which is pretty fun to watch as it's almost as big as her head.

I think this fabric ball is a great, versatile toy because it can be simply modified with greatly varying results,  and doesn't take as much sewing as a 6 piece stuffed cube/ball/thing. Make it in a non-stretchy fabric for a more cube shaped toy, or stuff it with a cube of foam instead of polyfill if you want something that would work like a building block. Throw a few jingle bells or some crinkled up cellophane inside so it makes sounds when baby plays with it. Use different textured fabrics like corduroy or vinyl, or sew tabs of ribbon in all the seams to give it tactile interest. Put a securely sewn sachet of dried lavender inside to stimulate baby's sense of smell. Have fun with it and baby will too!

Happiness is...

... A smiling baby.

A friend and I recently spent some time marvelling at the wondrous healing powers of baby smiles. Nothing can brighten your day like a big gummy grin and a gurgling squeak of uncontrolled joy. We decided if you could bottle baby smiles and spread them all over the world there would be a whole lot less hate and a whole lot more peace on earth and goodwill to men (And women. How about people? Stupid gendered language. Baby smiles could get rid of that too I bet). Then we realized bottling baby smiles sounds harmful to babies and just... kinda sick.

So, here's my contribution for the day to world peace.

Bathrobe to Burp Cloths!

J's old bathrobe was replaced this Christmas (thanks Mum and Dad!) which is a good thing. It was getting pretty ratty and I may have washed it with something red at one point, leaving a few pink splotches. It was made of a pretty sturdy white 100% cotton terry-cloth-type-stuff with loops on one side and a velvety reverse. I decided it was too good to waste, so I stuck it in a corner of the bedroom floor (naturally, a fantastic place to store potentially recyclable clothing) and waited. When I was in my nesting frenzy before R arrived I realized I had no burp cloths! The horror! I was really pleased with the transformation.

You will need:

• Fabric. An old terry bathrobe will yield loads of cute cloths. Old towels (provided they aren't super scratchy) would be great as well. Anything soft and absorbent with large flat areas will serve you well. I really recommend making this a recycling project - cloths like these get a lot of use and won't stay pristine for long. It's really satisfying to get so much mileage out of fabric you would otherwise throw out.
• Sewing machine with fun stitch patterns. If you are lucky enough to have a serger, give it to me! I mean... crack it out. It's worth the threading time to avoid fraying later.
• Fun thread colours. You will go through lots of thread on this project, so it's a great way to use up those half spools that build up over the years.
• Lint roller for cleanup. Terry cloth makes a mess. Velvety terry cloth is even worse, as it makes little fluffy bits that stick to you.

Start by tearing your fabric into rectangles. I tore the large panels of the robe into wide strips and then divided those strips into smaller sections. I didn't bother making all the rectangles the same size, preferring to get more out of my robe rather than go for uniformity. If I was making these as a gift I would have been more diligent on that front.

Cut off all the frayed bits. Now you have loads of fluffies to pick up with your lint roller.

If you have the tools, serge the edges. If you don't, join the club.

If your fabric has a soft side, turn that side down and use a wide stitch (like the diamond one I used) to sew a 1/2 inch hem the whole way round. Turn it up as you go, and don't sew right on the edge. You needn't be too precise, they'll look great no matter what. When you get to the corners clip a bit off at a 45 degree angle and overlap the two sides, sewing them down. Make sure the corners are sewn well down or they will fray with frequent washing. Like so:

Use the same stitch to sew down the loose edge. Centre the needle over the edge completely covering it with stitching. This locks it down nicely and keeps it from fraying. I used two different colours of thread, one for each line of stitching. I really like how it looks - just ornamental enough, but not too frilly.

You're done! Snip your thread tails and go :) Take a pretty picture first though, because from this point on your pretty project will be covered in spit-up and drool.

Introducing...

BABY!

R was born on January 25th. She's pretty small - 6 lbs 14 oz at birth but growing well - and has the cutest copper coloured hair. She's a very pretty baby (and hardly looks like a little old man at all), but isn't terribly photogenic as she's fond of making strange faces.

...Thus I have been too bloody busy to blog. How do they take up so much of your time? Especially when they aren't doing anything in particular? I could spend a whole day just staring at her and cuddling her - I don't even notice the time flying by. Well, until I get hungry and then suddenly realize that it's 3 pm and, though I have been peed and pooped on 2 or 3 times, I haven't had breakfast.

I wouldn't be surprised if everything I post for a while is baby-related. Hope that's ok! Just before R arrived I went into full out nesting mode. They should make a TV show called "When Crafters Nest" - it could be a scary nature show with lots of jiggly camera movement and close up shots of wild-eyed pregnant women churning out hundreds of little crafty projects... Ok so maybe not. Within a few days I had made the pattern for and sewed 3 sleep sacks (based... well ripped off... from the style of a Halo Sleep Sack), a blanket, curtains for R's room, a matching bed skirt for the crib, recycled burp cloths (tutorial to come), and 2 knitted baby sweaters, with 2 matching pairs of knitted baby booties. I also made a floral mobile to hang above the crib, but there were a few major setbacks with that (the cat ate the fishing line I strung it with... never leave finished projects in reach of cats). Once I re-string it I will finish taking pictures and do a tutorial.

I love making baby things - they're so small that they hardly take any time!

 

  

 

 

Here's another baby picture for good measure! She's almost 2 days old in this one, getting ready to come home from the hospital. Cute! I love this little kid so much. She's unbelievably sweet. We are so lucky to have her.