The bright baby gift reveal!

When AJ had her much awaited baby just on a month ago, after several years of wishing and hoping and waiting, I just knew I had to make her some longies. She has always been one of the first people to comment on my baby knits, and I knew she was planning on cloth nappying so as soon as I knew whether the baby was a boy or a girl, I got to work. I had planned to dye up some fresh wool for her but since I still had this in my stash (stuff I hand dyed with koolaid), too pretty to sit there doing nothing but not enough for most things, as soon as Aden's birth was anounced I just knew what to use. The denim trim was leftover from the twin jackets I made earlier this year.

Then, to make it a set, I made a t-shirt from the latest Ottobre mag (just used the basic pattern)and appliqued it with a hand drawn rocketship, cutting into some of my brights that I had bought during my work trip to the US about 18m ago, and had been planning to use for a quilt for Austin. Since the tee was so little, I figured pinching a bit for a tiny applique wasn't going to hurt so I had a fun evening designing and creating a cute little applique to match the wool in the pants. Alas, even downsizing the Ottobre pattern (which was for a 3m old) didn't make the t-shirt small enough to go with the pants, and when I sized it up against Madelyn's too small clothes (in the ebay box if I ever get around to it!) it was a perfect match for the Pumpkin Patch 3-6m stuff. So it's a good thing I made it short sleeved (figuring that since the baby lives in QLD there will not be much use for long sleeved things) as it will probably fit him best right in the height of summer.

To complete the gift I found a flanellete piece I had overlocked and intended to use as a bunny rug for Austin but never got around to hemming it (we had plenty already and I figured I'd save it for PJ's or something further down the track). When I looked into the wrapping cupboard to find only a couple of girly "happy birthday" papers, I decided a bunny rug would make a perfect wrapping paper as you could see on the sneak peak in my last post. Eco-friendly AND useful!

I am currently working on a longies set for Madelyn too - the longies are done and the fabric picked for the t-shirt but I still have to get onto that part. Hers will have a long sleeved top since here in Adelaide we seem to be one of the last places in Australia to get summer! Often I have had little shirt and short sets picked out for Austin to wear on Christmas day, only to have to run around hunting for something a little warmer on Christmas Eve. She has also outgrown most of her winter clothes and with it now being Spring there isn't much out there to buy that is warm enough for now - ah the beauty of being able to make something myself! Here's a sneak peak at her set - a progress shot of the longies (as I have been too slack to take a photo of the finished product!) The wool is "Muddy Gems" from Wooltopia on BFL Aran (soft and squishy without an ounce of scratchiness...) and I have used the Picky Pants pattern with a new cuff design of my own. Ravelers can find my cuff pattern here.

I have also signed up for the EB Quilters annual doll quilt swap for 2009 - although I certainly feel for my partner as it's going to be hard to top the cutest little quilt I have ever seen, that we were lucky enough to score last year from Lily! I have already done some blog and flickr stalking to inspire my quilt and have come up with a rough sketch already but I am keeping that under wraps for now. All I am saying is that there will be applique... lots of it!