Cars and Stripes!

This little hoodie caused me and Austy a little grief! I decided to use some cute cars print inside the hood, a soft cotton drill that came from Quilt Fabric Delights. It was just too cute to refuse, despite the fact the pattern (Ottobre - Fall 07) called for a cotton knit.

When I went to try it on him the morning after I had made it (a distraction from the tears he already had over the fact I had to go to work), I couldn't get it over his head. Austy was very certain it would fit, tellling me "It's okay Mummy, I can make it fit" and he continued to force it. He somehow managed to get his face through the face hole without actually putting it on and called out "I got my hoodie on!" with a broad cheesy grin. Then he realised it wasn't on properly and he started to get upset, so I broke into laughter... I had to or else I would havecried with him! He was a bit startled by my response but then he started laughing too and I promised I'd fix it. Several hours with the unpicker and then a bit more time at the machine and here it is.

Not as cute as the cars version, and now with the stripes I could very well have used the original embroidery design (a blue tractor) that I had tested out with plans of going on this hoodie until I realised it was the wrong type of vehicle to match the car and roadworks vehicles in the lining. Oh well, I will have to embroider the tractor on something else! The jumper is a good size (I had to do size three) although I think if I made it again I would do the sleeve cuffs much narrower, that way they won't hang in the dirt or in his food when he eats. I had thought this might happen so cut them slightly smaller than the pattern, but as the sleeves are a tad long, I didn't cut them small enough.

I am also working on my apron swap - slightly late (oops) as it was due to post on Sunday, but hopefully it will be in the post on Thursday evening, along with the other goodies the swap calls for. It's very bright and summery, trying to make me THINK it's warm in my freezing cold sewing room at the opposite end of the house to the toasty warm gas heater! My partner is a bit bigger than me, and since I have not much idea about American sizings, I went for a more OSFA approach. A design I made up as I went along with one main criteria, that the ties wrap right around and tie up at the front (as my swap partner requested). I made them pretty long since I don't know how big she is, so they should tie into a nice big bow at the front.

Hopefully I'll get a chance to post again on the weekend after a button hunt - I have some baby knitting to show off!