Hey hey! I’m here joining the It’s a Small World (blog tour), After All for Rae Hoekstra’s newest line of fabric for Cloud9, Small World. I’m talking about Rae of Made By Rae glory, of course! So when she asks you to check out her incredibly cute 100% organic baby wale corduroy, you say YES! Which is exactly what I did.
My second Miss Matatabi Makers post is up on Miss Matatabi today! I’m sharing what I made with that cozy triple gauze!
It’s a sleep sack and blanket for the baby, but honestly, I’m jealous!!
Check out all the details and more pics on Miss Matatabi and her selection of triple gauze!
Today I’m sharing a tutorial on the Oliver + S blog on how to alter a shirt pattern with sleeves to a sleeveless shirt! I modified the Lullaby Layette Shirt pattern for the tutorial, but you can use this method for pretty much any pattern.
Head over to Oliver + S to check out the full tutorial!
I made the Lullaby Layette Shirt pattern (View B in the 3-6 month size), but I made a few modifications. Besides making it sleeveless, I decided to add a little gathered skirt. It was actually supposed to be more of a peplum top, but I made the skirt so long that it became a dress! But that’s ok, I think this will actually fit her for awhile!
Before adding the skirt, I shortened the bodice by a couple of inches and also took the sides in a bit, so it was less A-line. I was too nervous to add snaps to this amazing fabric (the chances of me messing up and tearing a hole in the fabric was too high), plus there’s something so sweet and more vintage-y about buttons, so I went with these light blue ones. I think I made the right call.
This fabric! It was a gift from my good friend, Frances, AKA Miss Matatabi. It’s a nani IRO double gauze and it says “Fuwari Fuwari” on the selvage, but I didn’t recognize it, so I knew it must be older than a couple years. Well after I cut into it I asked Frances about it and it turns out it’s a super rare print from 2006! VINTAGE NANI IRO (yes, 2006 is vintage when it comes to a fabric line). I suddenly felt mortified that I had just cut into it!
But Frances said that it was probably a good thing that I was able to use the fabric without the pressure of having to create something “worthy,” and I think she’s right. This fabric probably would have sat in my stash forever and ever, and at least this way it was used to make something special for my daughter and maybe someday it’ll get passed on or something. Random question – do you save your handmades? When they are outgrown, do you give them away? Store them? Toss them?
In other news, Kaya is getting harder and harder to photograph. That window of time when she could sit up, but not move has been too brief. She’s already getting ready to crawl and I can barely get her to sit still for a few seconds. Oh boy!
Anyways, I’d love it if you headed over to the Oliver + S blog to check out my tutorial. It’s my first time posting over there! 🙂
Happy Monday!
So you all know Kristin from skirt as top, right? Well, she just welcomed her third babe into the world a couple of weeks ago and I wanted to send her and her littlest one some love. I was trying to think of the perfect handmade gift, but when I couldn’t decide what to make, Jessica of A Little Gray came up with the brilliant idea of a Noodlehead Divided Basket. Kristin has made a few of these for other people already, it’s kind of her go-to baby shower gift, so it just made sense for her to receive one too, right?
Well, it turned out to be such a great idea, that Gail had the exact same one! I finished making my divided basket the night before baby C was born and the same day Gail blogged her basket. When I first saw it I thought, “NOOOOOOOOO! Curse her and her adorable divided basket!” Haha, just kidding (love ya, Gail)! It wasn’t quite that dramatic, but well . . . maybe a little. 😉
But then I realized quickly that this was a great thing, because two divided baskets is certainly better than one! With all the things you can do with a divided basket, we might as well have made one for every room in the house.
The theme for the boys’ room is Camp Ivanhoe from the movie, Moonrise Kingdom. I checked out Kristin’s pinterest board for some inspiration and picked this particular blanket to pull colors and style from. I grabbed all of the “campy” fabrics from my stash and it turns out, I have quite a lot! The main fabric is a wool remnant that I’d been holding on to for awhile and never quite knew what to use it for.
BINGO. I think it worked perfectly here. The pocket and accent pieces are all solid quilting cottons. On the pocket, I made some strips of fabric to make stripes and top stitched them on. The lining of the basket is an awesome plaid flannel from Jo-Ann.
The pattern is great. I’m thinking that Anna (aka Noodlehead) is a genius, because I couldn’t really imagine how this was all going to come together, but she figured it all out for us and it’s really kind of magical. This is the first time I’ve sewn one of her patterns and I’d say it’s a really great one to start with. I also really want to make a Super Tote and a Cargo Duffle, and well, pretty much all of her other patterns.
In the directions, Anna recommends using fusible fleece to give the basket more structure, especially if you are using a lightweight material. Well, I thought that the wool was thick enough and didn’t use any, but I wish I had. The basket is pretty floppy and doesn’t really stand up on it’s own when it’s empty. But even without the fusible fleece, my machine had trouble stitching through the thicker sections (where the handles meet the body of the basket), so I’m not sure if it would have been able to handle another layer! So we’ll see. If I make this basket again (and I assume that I will), I definitely will use the fusible fleece and just hope my machine can handle it.
I also made a little flag garland for the room with craft felt and felted wool. I used the template for the scrap flag garland from this book (affiliate link), except I cut the top 1/2 inch off the top of the flags and carefully top stitched baker’s twine to connect them all.
Then I filled the basket with a bunch of other goodies (not the diapers shown here) and shipped it off to meet its new little owner. I hope I get to meet him someday soon too! He seems to be fitting in so well with his awesome skirt as top family 🙂 Awwww . . . you really gotta check out those sweet newborn pictures. Is it crazy that I have baby fever already when I still have my own baby??
One last project, for a little someone . . .
Someone new to make clothes for! 🙂
(pattern: Little Man Shoes by Shwin & Shwin with modifications)
you and mie 