a toque for me

My mom knows me down to a tee. Familiar with my penchant for anything mustard-coloured, she had been saving this wool for me. As soon as I saw it, I knew that I wanted to make myself a toque. Just a simple, chunky toque with a big pom pom. I decided to wing it, sans pattern, and hope for the best. It's pretty close to what I had imagined, though not quite 100% perfect. But the beauty of this kind of knitting is that it's so quick that it wouldn't take me long to modify my pattern and make another one, which is exactly what I think I'll do...

my clover earflap hat

I did it! A couple of weeks ago, on Instagram, I mentioned that I was attempting my most ambitious knitting project to date: the Clover Earflap Hat by Dover and Madden.

I was feeling confident after the sweater project and I figured why not? Sure I couldn't understand the pattern at all, I didn't have any of the tools or wool I needed and I had never even seen a knitting chart before… But I figured if I went slowly, one row at a time, and had my mother in law for troubleshooting, I could do it.

Pretty quickly I needed help (casting on stitches mid-row) but after that I was able to figure it out on my own. That's not to say that it was easy… After following the chart for just 3 rows, I realised that I had made a big mistake and had to unravel right back to the rows of garter stitching. The chart was confusing me, so I ended up writing out each row in a way that made sense to me (e.g. slip 1, P1 [YO, K4, SK2P, K4, YO, P1] x10).

I then noted all the repeats, which slowed me down, but kept me on track. That, combined with online knitting videos, got me through and I bound off and stitched the hat closed on Monday night, while watching the last episode of Death Comes to Pemberley.

I was absolutely thrilled and couldn't wait to put it on Clementine. Of course, the second I did (literally the second, I hadn't even tied the straps) she shouted "NO, NO, NO, NO!" and ripped it off. So yeah, she doesn't love it but I'm hoping that when we're in Canada she'll be so cold that she'll have no choice but to leave it on.

A few details: the pattern was wonderfully written and very easy to follow. I was very grateful for the step-by-step photos that accompany the instructions, and don't think I would have been able to follow a lace pattern if it hadn't been so well explained. I used Debbie Bliss baby cashmerino in the colour 340203. I made the 12-24 month size, which is a bit big but not so big that she can't wear it now.

p.s. you can find me on ravelry here

minted for crafters

As you all know, I don't tend to do a lot of posts like these because I'm quite choosy about who I work with. But I couldn't turn down the opportunity to do a post with Minted, because I really do love what they do. In their own words,

Minted is the world's premier marketplace for independent design. Our mission is to find exceptional artists and designers all over the world and bring their work to consumers who appreciate great design.

Each time a product is sold, the artists receives a commission. How cool is that? 

Minted is well known for their stationary, and they seriously have a card for every occasion. I love their holiday photo cards, and will probably use this one for our own Christmas cards this year. But did you know that they also have fabric? And it is some of the most unique that I've ever come across. Inspired by their beautiful fabrics, I've put together this list of things I think would be perfect to give to the crafters in your life. Or to give to yourself, because who doesn't need want to make a dress with whales on it?!?

1. A sweet print to decorate your studio, or the corner where you sew.

2. If knitting is more your thing, an art print titled 'Knit One Purl Two.'

3. Bicycle fabric! Available in cotton or a linen-cotton blend. I'm imagining a sweet little dress for Clementine…

4. If you've been around here for a while, you'll know I have a thing for whales so I literally swooned when I came across this fabric. I love the design so much; I think it would look great stapled over a canvas and hung in our living room.

5. Now that I'm knitting more complicated patterns, I find myself needing to keep track of exactly what I'm doing, row by row. A dedicated notebook would be perfect, and would make such a nice Christmas present for your knitting friends, personalised with their name on the cover of course.

This post is in partnership with Minted. All thoughts are my own. 

my in three's baby cardigan

This little sweater has been a long time coming. A look at my email records tells me that I bought the pattern in July, and ordered the yarn a few weeks later. But the story starts even before then, because I had been saving knitting patterns and longing to make something more complicated than a scarf for many years. I was so intimidated though, by the patterns themselves with all of their k's and p's (and don't even get me started on knitting charts…) and by the beautiful things I saw other people create.

I'm not sure what changed, but this year I decided to just go for it. When I first had a good look at this pattern, and then saw my friend's toddler wearing the cardigan, I was hopelessly discouraged. And then I gave myself a pep talk that went something like this: For crying out loud Gaby, just do it. One. Row. At. A. Time.

So I started, and I repeated my mantra, 'one row at a time,' to myself many, many times. My mother in law helped me out with one little bit (the sleeves, I think) but mostly, I was able to follow the pattern without too much trouble. The funniest thing is that after holding on to the pattern and the yarn for over 3 months, from start to finish it only took me 10 days to knit this up and put it on my girl. I was so proud, and a bit surprised too, when it was done and it really was a cardigan. With buttons and sleeves and everything.

As happy as I am with the end product, I have to say that I absolutely loved knitting it too. I found so much comfort in picking up my needles each day, and paired with an episode of Downton Abbey, it was the perfect way to spend an hour.

A few details: the pattern is in three's: a baby cardigan. I used Bendigo's Luxury 10-ply yarn in the colour blue denim. I made the 18 month size, which is a bit big on Clementine so I'm planning to cast on soon for one size down. This knitting this, it really is addictive...

p.s. I'm on ravelry, and you can find me here.

when your toddler takes a 4 hour nap

Every day, around 11am, Clementine goes down for her one nap of the day. She falls asleep quickly and easily (thankfully), but as to how long she'll sleep for… Well, that one's a mystery. Without rhyme or reason, she will sleep anywhere from 45 minutes to 3 hours. Until yesterday, that is, when she broke all nap records and snoozed for four. Hours. Straight. It was crazy! I debated waking her up, but thought better of it,  deciding that she obviously needed the sleep. She still went to bed at the same time as usual later that night, and didn't wake until the morning so I know that I made the right decision (not always the case).

So what is a mom to do when her toddler naps for 4 hours? There was some laundry and tidying, but that didn't last for long. The couch was calling and so I curled up with some knitting, my current book, a stack of Taproot magazines and quite a few cups of tea. I also managed to whip up a pair of pyjama pants for my girl, once I determined that my sewing machine wasn't loud enough to wake her up. I used this tutorial, and they were super fast and easy to whip up. They ended up on the small size, but luckily I have lots of that flannel left over so I'm going to try again.

In other news, there was a crazy storm in Sydney last night and when we woke up this morning, we found that our roof had leaked. Our new couch is drenched (in parts), as is a big patch of our carpet. So once again, our living room is in disarray. But we had to laugh because as annoyed and frustrated as we were, once the couch was without its cushions and things were hung up to dry all throughout the apartment, Clementine was in heaven. She's treating the couches like her own personal trampoline park, and having a ball. Leave it to a toddler to always, always, find the fun in any given situation.

pretty as a picture dress

I have been wanting to make this dress for Clementine forever. Probably since the very first time I saw it in the book Handmade Beginnings, which was, in fact, before I even had a baby to sew for. But I knew that if I ever had a girl, she'd be in this dress sooner or later.

So I had the fabric (the exact fabric that's used for this dress in the book), I had the pattern, I had the baby girl but I didn't have the gumption to give it a shot. Enter my mother in law. Over three afternoons, she showed me everything from how to painstakingly transfer the right sized pattern onto paper to how to use a padded ham to press every seam perfectly. She even did some of the trickier bits herself to make sure the end result was flawless.

And it really is. When we finished it yesterday we both kept looking at it and sighing. It's just so beautiful. The buttery voile, the colours and prints, and the little one who really isn't into modelling these days.

p.s. on a completely unrelated note, the husband and I are off to see Alt-J tonight and I'm so excited it feels like Christmas!

repurposed hot water bottle cover

This week, I took some time to shift things around a bit to give myself a sewing space. By putting our big, bulky printer in the closet, I freed up enough room to leave my sewing machine on a desk in our main living space. All of my sewing supplies and fabric are still in a chest of drawers in the hall, but at least now I don't have to also haul out my sewing machine any time I want to work on a project.

I have a few things on my 'to make' list, but I decided to warm up with something super simple: a hot water bottle cover. Inspired by The Crafty Minx, I cut up an old (holey) sweater of mine to create this cozy cover. I love how it looks and feels like I'm cuddling a favourite sweater; absolutely perfect for this blustery day we're having.

Hope you all have a very happy weekend!

sunday sewing

Today, while Clementine slept and my husband watched the footy, I sewed. My poor sewing machine has been neglected lately, mostly because I hate cleaning up after myself once I've started a project. Maybe someday I'll have my own dedicated sewing space that can get as messy as I like, but for now, my crafting space is the living room. In our open plan apartment, most everything happens in the living room. But I digress…

With my baby girl's birthday fast approaching (!!!) I decided to make her a birthday crown, à la soulemama. I made a hybrid crown using the pattern in her book The Creative Family as well as this tutorial (such a good one!). As for the decoration, I was inspired by this crown. I had to make the elastic part much, much shorter than both instructions call for because Clementine is a tiny little thing, but I've left it inside of the crown so I can simply unpick one seam and adjust it in years to come. I failed to consider that Clementine doesn't really like wearing things on her head, so now I just hope she'll wear it long enough for me to take a special birthday picture.

Once the crown was done, I moved on to some instant gratification sewing. I've been meaning to make some new placemats for a while now. Ours are old and stained, and once I spotted this fabric at Ikea I knew exactly what to do with it. The construction is really simple; I just cut out 8 rectangles (43cm by 33cm), sewed two rectangles right sides together leaving a gap, turned it right side out and then topstitched around the edge. Even my husband likes them, which is saying something…

All in all, a most productive (and happy) day.

appliqué initial singlets: a tutorial

My crafting time is pretty limited these days (mostly because I can't be bothered to clean up the inevitable mess) so it sure is nice when I can find little pockets of time to sew. Today, while my husband took Clementine out for a walk, I quickly gathered up some supplies and made these two initial appliqué singlets for a soon to be born baby boy. They were so quick and easy to make that I thought I'd share a tutorial; this would be a perfect last minute baby gift. If you keep a few plain singlets on hand, you can whip these up faster than a trip to the shops. Promise.

You will need:

- a plain singlet, I used organic Pure Baby singlets but Bonds does nice ones as well
- a small scrap of fabric for the appliqué
- a small piece of fusible interfacing
- an iron
- scissors
- a sewing machine, but you could easily make this by hand with just a needle and thread

Instructions:

1. Take your piece of interfacing and draw your letter on the papery side (the other side is the glue). You will have to draw your letter backwards.

2. Iron this piece of interfacing onto the back of your scrap of fabric.

3. Cut out your letter (the interfacing will remain attached).

4. Carefully peel the interfacing away from the fabric, leaving the glue attached. Now iron this letter onto the front of the singlet. Either with your machine (I would recommend a zig zag stitch so the edges don't fray) or by hand, sew around the outline of the letter.

Wrap in paper, tie with a string, and deliver to a new mum!

nesting: for christmas

It's no surprise that this month is usually a hard one for me. I miss my family, and I long for the traditions that make me feel like Christmas is coming. Traditions that are so seasonally based that they just don't work here; it seems odd, but I really do miss the cold and all of the indoor activities that come with it (like baking, drinking egg nog, watching movies, and knitting). Other years I've just let myself wallow, but this time I decided to get in the spirit of things. Or at least try my best.

We opted not to get a Christmas tree (maybe next year) so I emptied a little red bookcase and used it as our Christmas corner. I hung a wreath over it, filled the shelves with gifts and decorated with red and green bits and pieces like this beautiful bird that my friend Katrina made. My mother in law also made the three of us beautiful stockings, using this tutorial from the purl bee.

This month I also managed to do some baking and sewing. My friend Katie and I made the Chocolate Banana Birthday Cake from My New Roots, which was delicious and well worth the effort. Right before Christmas I made up a double batch of my favourite olive oil granola, which, packed into jars and decorated with fabric scraps made a perfect homemade gift for family and friends. Lastly, I sewed up another doll (I know, enough with the dolls already!) which was sent to baby Tallow, in honour of her first Christmas.

Now that we're in these wonderfully lazy post-Christmas days, I can honestly say that I very much enjoyed this year. I had a wonderful BirthdayChristmas and I'm glad that I made the effort to celebrate properly.

nesting: the beginnings
nesting: summertime
nesting: from summer to autumn

crafting for clementine: vol 1

 

It seems that Clementine won the crafty lottery by being born into a family of incredibly talented makers. Since her birth we've been showered with handmade gifts, from bed sized quilts to tiny booties and everything in between. In an effort to remember all of the handcrafted goodness, I'm starting a little series here called crafting for Clementine. First up, tiny toques (or beanies to my non-Canadian readers):

1. Clementine's paternal grandmother has been knitting up a storm this winter! She's already made C three of these bonnets, and I can't wait until she fits into this one.

2. This buttery yellow one is the first bonnet that came off her needles, and Clementine has worn in nonstop (see here and here).

3. The big-hearted Sarah from Love love, lady sent me a care package a couple of weeks ago. There were some sweet gifts for me, as well as these two adorable beanies. Clementine looks like a gumnut baby when she wears them; it's the cutest.

a mobile for Clementine

 

Today I finally got around to putting together Clementine's mobile. I was inspired by the beautiful mobiles that Made by Mosey makes, and I used fabric from my favourite, Maze & Vale. It's a little funky (though the husband thinks he can fix the lopsidedness tomorrow) but I think that just adds to the made-my-mum charm. Now I just need to find a place to hang it. For now Clementine sleeps in a bassinet that moves every day, so I need to find some kind of portable hanger. Any tips?

my creative space: yet another doll

 Here she is, the other little doll I made last week when I was feeling blue. Her name is Celeste, and I'm going to hang on to her just in case I have a girl after all. You can see the first Black Apple doll I made here, and the second here. I'm linking up here today, and next week I hope to be back with another 'My Creative Space' post NOT involving dolls. We'll see...

Lastly, sorry for the silence this week. It's just been one of those run around like crazy weeks, and yet never seem to accomplish anything. Today, in fact, I put petrol in the car and when I went in to pay I realized I didn't have my wallet. I was terrified I had actually lost it, but I convinced the guy working to let me run home and look for it. Luckily, it was there so I went back to the service station immediately and paid. The guy looked relieved, and then told me I sound like Ryan Gosling. I'm going to take that one as a compliment. I think. Anyway, all's well that ends well.

my creative space: a sweet doll

 In my last post I mentioned that I spent my day sewing up two little dolls. This is doll one, a sweet little girl destined for my friend's brunette baby. I like to think her name should be Mable, or maybe Maple (yet another favourite girl's name my husband hates!). She's the same black apple doll that I made back in December, with slightly tweaked proportions. You can find the pattern for free here.

Sometimes making something completely impractical and whimsical is the best kind of crafting, especially when you're in a funk. Doll two will be blogged next Thursday...

Thanks again for all of your kind and heartfelt comments this week. It's meant so much to me.

more baby booties!

I sure do like my baby booties don't I? I just can't help myself - small and easy to make, baby booties are the perfect instant gratification crafting project. At least this is a new pattern for me; I usually make these ones. This pattern is from the first Meet me at Mike's book. They're not quite as professional looking (I do hate to have unfinished seams!) as the Anna Maria Horner ones I normally sew, but they are a lot easier.

These oh so girly booties are heading to a baby girl named Summer, as soon as I can embroider a onesie to match.

my creative space: my go-to baby gift

There was such a long stretch there where I never posted anything crafty. My fabrics were in storage, my sewing machine gathered dust and I never got beyond flipping through my beloved craft books. I'm so happy to be making again - finding pockets of time here and there to make things for myself, my home, my friends, and my tiny squirmy baby.

This post is giving me some major déja vu; I've made these baby booties several times now and posted about them here and here. They're just such a perfect gift for a new baby - pretty simple to make, oh so cute, and who doesn't love baby feet wrapped in flannel?

This time I decided to be super efficient and make one pair for my husband's cousin's new baby (got that?) and one pair for my baby. The pattern is from Anna Maria Horner's book Handmade Beginnings, and all the fabric came from my scrap bin. But my favourite part? Well that was choosing the buttons of course! I love buttons, and since I'm yet to conquer my fear of sewing button holes, any project requiring buttons without the hassle of corresponding holes is right up my alley. I picked up both these pairs last time I popped into All Buttons in Newtown. That place is my favourite.

p.s. linking up here today

my creative space: christmas mittens

 This Christmas I didn't get around to making many gifts, so I was pleased when I whipped up these re-purposed mittens for a friend of mine. Luckily, she was about to go New York which means that she'll actually get to use them, because otherwise, getting mittens in the middle of an Australian summer is pretty lame.

But back to the project - the mittens are made using an old sweater and they come together quickly so they're the perfect last-minute gift. That said, it took me 2 pairs to get these right. I made the first pair using instructions found in The Crafty Minx. Most of the projects in that book are seriously great, but this one is a dud. Naturally, I turned to the internet and used this tutorial from A Beautiful Mess. They turned out great, if I do say so myself!

linking up here today

my creative space: a baby sleep sack

Last week while my husband was away for work, I occupied all my free time with the making of this baby sleep sack. The pattern is from Handmade Beginnings by Anna Maria Horner, a book I've made so many projects from. This little sack is ace because it's lined with flannel so it's nice and cozy, and the patchwork looks pretty damn cute too. I made the patchwork front with fabric from Maze & Vale that I got at the Finders Keepers market. The fabric on the back is from Ikea, and the lining I got at Spotlight.

So, my thoughts on the project... It took forever! I actually thought I could have it done in a night, and instead, it took me a week to finish. There are a lot of steps (especially if you patchwork the front) and I found the instructions sometimes hard to follow.

If you do want to save some time, skip the patchwork front and use one piece instead. Or you can get that nifty fabric that looks like patchwork but isn't. If you do want to piece the front yourself, this tutorial is awesome. I also thought it strange that after so much work, you sew the velcro on right through all layers, leaving the seams visible from the front. Instead, I left the bottom open (you're supposed to baste it) and sewed the velcro to only the front lining. Looks much nicer. So there you go, let me know if you make one yourself!

Linking up here

a doll for a baby
baby singlets & a beanie
bibs
flannel booties
gifts for a babe

my black apple doll and gender predictions

On Tuesday night I all of a sudden had an urge to be productive and make something. So what did I spend the next 2 hours making?

A doll.

Yup. Probably the least useful thing I could've made, and yet, it made me undeniably happy. I've said it before and I'll say it again - starting with a bunch of scraps and ending up with something pretty never ceases to amaze me. I followed this tutorial from Emily Martin of The Black Apple, and then added a cape and a mask based on this doll.

I did, of course, think about the baby growing in my belly and wonder whether this doll could be for him/her. I know you're not supposed to say this, but to be perfectly honest, I would LOVE to have a girl. All the names I like are girls names (and I can't think of any boys names!) and I'm just a pretty girly gal myself. Dolls, dress up, sewing... that's a language I speak! Both husband and I are convinced though, and have been from the start, that it's a boy. And we're not finding out; we I want the surprise :)

my creative space: a lazy beach bag

Writing this post prompted me to go searching through my archives for a beach bag that I made a long time ago - a less lazy beach bag than this - but apparently, I never blogged it. I'll have to rectify that. I did, however, realize that I used to make so many things! A scroll through my first couple of months of blogging turns up project after project. Man, I used to be so productive!

In any case, last week I did manage to rustle up this bag using fabric from my latest trip to Ikea. I simply made a roomy bag, with rounded corners, French seams and a long strap so it can be worn across the shoulder. It perfectly fits a towel, swimsuit, magazine, sunscreen, water and snacks. The essentials. I may even keep it packed and ready to go in the trunk of my car, for those last minute dashes to the beach. Summer is coming...

Linking up with My Creative Space today. Find other people's crafty projects here.