School holidays, and we've been busy!

I don't often get the holidays off with the kids, but this school holidays, our company had a scheduled closedown for the second week.  I took the opportunity to spend some time with the kids.

A trip to Madelyn's mum and baby group after not seeing many of them for at least a year, found a new home for a baby knit, as one of the mum's has recently delivered a beautiful little girl into the world.

Kelly Brooker's "March Sisters"  Beth pinnafore pattern and Rosa Leaf Booties by Julia Noskova 

(Modelled on a reborn doll)

We dyed some wool for me to turn into monsters - Austy wanted grey, green,yellow and blue but the blue kind of moulded into more green.  His favourite colour though, so he is happy.

 Maddy couldn't make up her mind and kept adding colours but wanted lots of pink and purple.

We had a marathon craft session from an idea I found on Pinterest:

(Maddy's)

(Austy's)

I love the texture..

.. and Austy's signature (yes the two's are still reversed but he is definitely improving).

I even managed to dust off the sewing machine and sew this little playsuit for Maddy.  So cute!  Can't wait to see it on. 

Pattern from Petite Kids: Johanna Romper. Next time I would definitely make the tie longer, this is a size 5-6 and the images in the pattern look like a smaller size. I like the way the pattern has the tie ends hanging lower.    Fun fabric is a Riley Blake design,with sweet little birdies singing in the flowers.  Perfect for Spring!

Blogtoberfest Day 3: The elusive buttons

I decided to finally finish off the Alicia Dress (Ottobre 3/2009) that I made for Madelyn when DH told me I could keep on sewing if I wanted to after I finished off the page boy suit for Matt & Jazz's wedding. I got it all done from tracing to finishing in just one afternoon, but then procrastinated on putting the buttons on as I have a morbid fear of ruining things when I add buttonholes. Crazy really as my sewing machine does a beautiful job of an automatic buttonhole... and since I now know I can use my sewing machine to actually stitch the buttons on, the most arduous task of all can be done by machine.

So last night I pulled it out and do you think I could find those supercute little daisy buttons I spent time picking out for this dress? Of course not. I gave up after an hour of searching and made some little bloomers instead (Eyelet Bloomers Ottobre 3/2007). I didn't really follow the instructions here, just used the pattern piece (got to love a single piece pattern!!!) and added some length to the hem so that I could do a ruffled casing instead of shiring elastic on the legs. I don't have shirring elastic and don't know if I'm game enough to try it yet so I copied an idea I saw on some cute baby leisure pants at Seed the other day (and for less than half the price!!!). These pants have to be the quickest baby pants ever. I will certainly be making more for spring/summer as she can get away with shorter dresses (so as not to get all tangled up when crawling) with a pair of bloomers underneath. Occationally I will let her just wear a cloth nappy butt in all it's glory, but I don't have a gazzillion nappies in every colour and not too keen on things that don't match (call it obsessive compulsive but I like colour coordination!), so only if the nappy matches she can go bloomer-free. (I am a little less anal about the whole nappy matching thing these days but I vaguely recall having a go at DH when Austy was a fewe months old because he used a lime green pocket nappy under a white bodysuit which poked out through the leg holes - I told him only skin colour under white.... now I am just happy that my baby has cloth on most of the time as DH will go for a disposable when he can.)

When the bloomers were done, I forced myself back to the knitting. I say "forced" because I'm not too sure I like this thing in all it's fuzzy wuzzy glory, but I have started it so I should get it off the needles one way or another. I think it'd be cute if it weren't for all the shedding. It's Lincraft Angora Plus, hand dyed by me a while back. It was cheap and I thought it was soft and sheeny (it is) and it passed the cheek test (where I rub it against my cheek and decide if I would want it next to my skin let alone a baby's), but oh the shedding!!! Sadly I don't ghave a cat anymore (you can read about Gryffin here) but my lap was oh so much fluffier than when he was around. I'd better get used to it I guess, we have a cornish rex on the way, and while his fur will be delightfully soft and pattable, I know from experience that it will be fine and hard to get off clothes.

And of course I found the buttons this morning but don't know if I'll make it to the sewing machine with my two kidlets awake.

My cute little baby bears

It's been a while since I last blogged, but I promise I've been doing stuff. I finished this cute little hat for Maddy a few weeks ago but never got around to photogaphing it until now. I made one for Austy too, after having made the full hat/bootie/mitten set for his older cousin Corey, and hooded teddy bear sleeping bags for their older cousin Alyssa, and Andrew's cousin Harry. My kids get just the hat as I have lots of other things on my to do list these days.

Here's Austy in his at around 7 months old, from my first ever blog post in this blog. Where has the time gone?!

I have completed the Dinosaur Roar outfit (version 2 - for Austy this time) but it is hanging on the line so you will have to wait until it's bloggable.

So I will just leave you with this photo of Madelyn checking out her new shoes, and let you salivate a little over the rocky road I made for Easter!

ETA: The baby bear hat comes from a booklet by Patons, called "Baby Bears". I've had it for about 10 years.