Six

Happy Birthday Jelly Bean! Now you are six. 

Sunday tee (FO)

Crafting is a rare luxury at the moment, just because my energy and time is sooo limited. The other night I  had to rustle up a plain black tee-shirt for the bean's school dance show (we had tried and failed to buy one, and were running out of time). While the machine was on the table I took the opportunity to stitch up one of those raglan tees I cut out a couple of weeks ago.

This morning, while little bean had a nap and the jelly bean got on with some Halloween crafting, I managed to finish the neck of that little tee.  It was the first time I had successfully attempted to apply a neckband to a knit/t-shirt. There have been a few previous fails, but this time I read a tutorial that made sense to me, and I gave it a go.

We'll just gloss over the slight wrinkle which is - of course - At. The. Front.

Curses.

I also wrangled a neckband onto a plum stretch velvet tee which I made for the jelly bean in August. (And which looks nicer in real life). She took one look at it and said she didn't want it, but changed her mind today when I finished the neck. Again there is a wrinkle at the front, And I have managed to put it on back wards so the seam is also at the front. But, well, someone on a galloping horse probably wouldn't notice, and as these FOS are both upcycled remnants of previous garments I am not mcbothered.

DIY Elsa costume (FO)

The jelly bean was five a couple of weeks ago, and like most small girls, is fairly enthusiastic about the film Frozen. Badly sung and barely remembered versions of 'Let it go' feature regularly in our house.

An Elsa outfit of some description was needed for her birthday, and I did some careful research on the webz to get some ideas. I decided to make a skirt and top rather than a dress, with a separate cape. As with all dressing up clothes, I figured it would be useful to make things interchangeable, just in case a fireman or a pirate ever needed a snow queen's frosty cape to wear. 

In one of those 'oh yes' moments, I realised that the sparkly teal knit fabric I had in my stash might just be. completely. PERFECT. for this project. It feels fairly horrid and is undoubtedly a synthetic throwback from the 1970s, but it looks pretty (and double bonus is only cost £3). 

As if that was not karmic enough, when I was hunting through my box of scraps, I found an old vest/cami top of mine in a nice ice-blue colour, just right for the not-quite-matching vibe of Elsa's sleeves. 

Yada, yada. Here is the make:

1. SKIRT
I wanted to emulate some of the shape of Elsa's skirt, without the split or foxy silhouette. So, I decided to have an a-line panel at the front, and gathered panel at the back. The front panel has a little hi-lo curve at the hemline to look extra cute. I used some of the jelly bean's existing clothes to give me an idea about dimensions, but generally just cut it on the fly. I cut the front panel on the fold, and then used a curved hem from another pattern to give me a cutting line for the hi-lo hem. 

I just cut a rectangular panel for the back of the skirt, with plenty of width to give fullness. Of course I had cut this before thinking I should add a curve to this hem too, so that it could form a little train. Oh well.

Because this is a non-fraying knit and for dressing up, I did not finish the hem.

I did the waistband on this baby three (yes, THREE!) times. The first time I included a dressing-up-friendly velcro closure, but then realised it would pull the fabric something rotten and end up mangling the skirt. So I took it off. 

I cut another waistband from the scraps and got that all sewed on ready for the big day. Before I could add a fastener, I got sick (lying-in-my-bed-unable-to-do-anything-sick) and the birthday dawned and the jelly bean put it on anyway. It was fine apart from the fact that it had no fastening, and it was about 2 inches too small (yes, too small?! wtf?)

Cue more seam ripping. Sigh.

The third time I made a casing and elasticated the whole darn thing. No fastenings, no velcro. Nothing to go wrong. It's fine. 

2. BODICE
Next I made the top. I wasn't quite sure how I was going to do this at first, but somewhere I got the idea to use the raglan tee pattern I bought a year back (it's all about the stash). 

I cut the back from the teal fabric and the sleeves from the ice-blue fabric, without any adjustments. Oh, actually, I did make an adjustment - I made a mistake when I cut out the sleeves, so I had to fudge it a bit lowered the back neckline to match the front and trimmed the neckline on the sleeves. 

For the front of the bodice, I used a piece of the teal fabric, but adjusted the neckline to look more like the front of Elsa's bodice, with a little bit of a sweetheart shaping at the top and a point/V at the bottom. I then filled in the 'missing' part of neckline with a scrap of ice-blue fabric. I've been reading lots of sewing tutorials lately, and I made use of a tip I saw somewhere (umm, make it love it I think) about using a glue stick to stabilise things before sewing. I glued and then top-stitched the two pieces together, before making up the tee in the normal way.

To finish the neck I folded over a narrow hem and top-stitched. The clean line fits with the vibe of Elsa's costume, and it was really quick! I love it!

3. The CAPE
Finally, I got to work on some organza which I bought for the cape (£4.50 per metre). Although it is fairly easy to sew, it is so fragile that it pulls apart really easily. I hemmed the bottom, then gathered the top and attached a ribbon tie. The first attempt looked lovely, but was too long, and came apart when the birthday girl stood on it. I shortened the cape to reduce the risk of being stood on again, and reattached the ribbon at the top - hopefully it will be a bit more robust this time...

All in all, I am totally thrilled with the way this turned out. I spent £4.50 on the organza and everything else came from my stash (ribbon, thread, fabric, elastic). Oh, and the jelly bean likes it too. 

Snow on snow

The white stuff has been with us for a few days now, coming and go-ing as the temperature rises and falls, but never quite disappearing completely from our garden.

At the weekend, we had an inch or so of fresh and fluffy snow to play with, and we enjoyed time in the garden scooping and sweeping and failing to make a snowman. The jelly bean wasn't quite sure whether she liked it or not, and came inside a few times to watch the fun happening outside.

The best game, it seems, was one involving snowballs being thrown at you - but only when you are safely inside and there is no danger of anything cold and wet slithering down your neck. I'm with you girl.

It seems like work is snowing on me at the moment. As soon as I sweep up one snowdrift another one engulfs me. So this is how Sisyphus felt...

Hats Off (FO)

Despite the blog silence there have been a few FOs here lately. Among them these sweet hats, made for my cousin's twin girls that arrived two (TWO!) years ago. 

Pattern: Fair Isle hat by Zoe Mellor in Nursery Knits

Mods: adapted the number of stitches to suit my gauge; knit one flat and the other in the round

yarn: 4-ply from stash (various)

dates: started and finished in October 2012

As identical twins, they have been colour coded from birth by their parents. One is red and the other blue, so I made hats which are (virtually) identical except for the bobbles.... 

The jelly bean has taken a fancy to them, and has requested one of her own. She did quite a good job of modelling don't you think? 

Progress #2

So, after a week at home, this is how the list looks now:

1. Finish Dolly (baby cardigan), block, assemble and send to recipient. 

FAIL. Sat down to finish fronts, but when measured against back, discovered that they bore little resemblance to the size of the back I had knitted. So I ripped them. Completely. From almost finished to nothing. Just like that. I did not cry, I just swigged my beer a little more vehemently, and got out some crochet (ha!) 

2. Before sending Dolly in the post, check that recipient is still small enough to wear 3-6 month size. If not, pass onto smaller baby and start knitting a bigger Dolly for first recipient. Do Not Swear.


Fail (see above). Now inevitable that first baby will be too big for 3-6 month size... 


3. make some cloth nappies for jelly bean's dolls

Have made a paper pattern, but nothing stitched. Part Fail. 


4. make some more doll blankets/quilts for jelly bean/gift stash

Fail. Concentrated on Other Things.

5. make birthday crown for jelly bean

Success! It was even completed in time for the jelly bean's birthday. But there are no photos (yet).


6. make birthday cake(s) for jelly bean

Success: Two cakes were made. DH is now complaining that there is no butter in the house. Oops. I will not mention the slight issue of cake batter leakage which meant one of the cakes had to be stopped mid bake and (successfully) reassembled. 



7. dye some (old) clothes

Fail. I did look at some dye in the shop, but didn't have any cash.



8. tackle UFO pile: ripple blanket; man socks; sewing pile

Part Success: ripple blanket has got another stripe, man socks have now got a second heel and I made a start on (my first) quilt top! Eek. 



9. make a large pile of gift bags 

Success: it may not be the largest of piles, but I managed to whip up 9 bags. All made from the stash. 



10. do some gardening (back garden: veggie plot)

Success: weeding and clearing was begun. Harvests were gathered (broad beans and potatoes) and eaten (yum). 



11. do some more gardening (front garden: flower plot)

Complete Fail. 



12. take books back to library

Success. Whizzed up on my bike one evening, and came back with some new goodies :)



13. ride my bike

Huge Success. I have cycled to school and back with one child; I have cycled to school and back with two children;  I have cycled to cake shops to hire cake tins; I have cycled to town to buy fabric and bits and bobs and new bras; I have cycled to the library (see above); I have cycled to (Edinburgh) Fringe shows with the family and to meet friends for a grown up night out; and yesterday we cycled to the pool for a swim, and then to the park to play with friends. 



14. drink coffee

Success. 



15. eat cake.

There was plenty. 24 fairy cakes and 2 birthday cakes were baked last week, and I had my fair share. 

WIP

Things are happening here. Big things. Things that have been planned and thought about and discussed for some time. In fact, I knew I wanted to do some of these things when we first saw the house (7 years ago!)


We have builders in. We have a temporary kitchen (aka the batcave) and many boxes. There are tiles and lights and worktops and all sorts waiting to be unpacked and installed. 


It's an exciting thing. We've just moved beyond the slow structural elements of the build, and into the quicker and more palpable progress of wall finishes and kitchen installation. Yesterday the kitchen arrived in a myriad of boxes, and this morning the joiners arrived to start putting it together: a three dimensional puzzle of components. 


It feels very grown up, although we are not thinking at all about the grown up bill that will also arrive shortly. 

 the jelly bean tidies herself away in the old kitchen

The contractors have been great - tidy, considerate and punctual. The gaffer, is a very likeable man who says things like 'no problem', 'we can do that' and 'its all pretty straightforward'. We like him. 


There is knitting here too, of course. Hat no #9 sprang off the needles yesterday and no #10 is just being cast on. Tonight it's a knitting night, so I'm planning to take Deli for a night with the girls. Hopefully it'll be her last night as a UFO!


In other news, some sunshine and the long jubilee weekend meant a wee bit of time in the garden. The chiddlers helped me plant the rather wizened seed potatoes that had been waiting to be planted. And, the wigwams for our climbing french and runner beans are also up. Must plant the seeds now!

Girl sized

It's not quite finished, but I think she likes it.

Milestones

I am celebrating quietly as the darkness draws in and we look forward to the turning of another year.

We have reached a certain sort of milestone in our house, not just where there is little trace of any baby-ness (moses basket, cot, baby toys, baby clothes all gone), but where the toddler days are almost at an end too. Our little jelly bean has stopped wearing nappies. I won't go so far as to say she is completly potty/toilet-trained, but we are well on our way.

The cloth nappies I made a few months back are all packed up ready to hand on to a new baby. I'm happy, but a bit sad too. It's nice to move on and grow up, but I do love scrunchy little newborns, and a happy baby that coos and rolls and gurgles and only drinks milk! I'll have to see if I can get by just borrowing cuddles from other people's babies from now on....

Making Monday (on Tuesday): dribble bibs

I'm a bit late with this week's making monday (oooops!), but if a things worth doing....

The last couple of weeks have been studded with birthdays - first dear wee Elias, then my dad, then my cousin's twins and yesterday, a little friend of ours who has got to the very grand age of three! Happy birthday to you all.

Wherever possible, I prefer to give home made gifts, so my dad got socks, and the twins - who were 1 at the weekend - got a variety of things, including a few cute dribble bibs (tutorial here).

These were upcycled from some old terry squares and some of the jelly beans old clothes. She really wears her clothes, and not all of them are in a fit state to pass on when she has grown out of them! Some days it is hard to keep track of the clothes she gets through - such is her capacity for attracting dirt and soaking herself with any/all available liquids. Not that we'd have her any other way...

Troosers...

A week or so ago, I made use of a child-free day at home to sort out my stash of fabric. It was a rather sobering experience - I hadn't really realised just how much I had accumulated over the years, nor how many half-finished projects and things for mending there were languishing in various trunks and baskets and drawers. 

First on my hit list were some old trousers of mine, set aside to make new trousers for the bean - and a pair of trousers of his that needed mending.

Then, I got to work on some trousers for the jelly bean. When you are in the throes of potty training, dungarees are a bit of an impediment, so I turned this cute pair into some trousers. Trouble is, the jelly bean herself has a different view point - in the way that two year olds do - and won't actually put them on...  humph. But I live in hope...

Two

This little pumpkin was two this week. How the time has flown!

Happy birthday, little one.

Sew...

A few FOs to record and celebrate (it's been a long, long time coming). I foresee more in the next days...

  

upcycled baby wipes and an upcycled dribble bib (tutorial here)

my first home sewn nappy

oh, and this one isnt finished, but she's perfect in every way...