Foxy Baby dungarees and sunhat from free patterns and a bed cover all made to match.

I have been making dungarees this week. For age 6-9 months. The pattern says just 6 months so thats really a bit vague when you are used to commercial childrens sizing but measuring against RTW clothing its about 6-9 months sized so just what is needed. There are several other sizes both smaller and larger.

I have had the fabric for years. Its cotton, woven and I loved it and bought about 4m I think but then it never seemed very wearable - for me anyway so its just sat there taking up space waiting for me to be inspired. 

Well having a new baby in the family managed to do just that.

 I started with a free pattern off the internet for a baby hat. The hat was needed in the last couple of weeks sudden heat wave. It was made very fast at short notice due to necessity and started off the fox fabric making I have since been involved in.

I used this pattern but without the ruffles.

 https://www.merrimentdesign.com/baby-sunhat-pattern-with-ruffles-and-ties.php

It stays on without the ties on our baby which is great because I spoke to several people recently who say they lost the hats they bought. I made this with the same fabric inside and out so its reversible but has only the one look. 

Its not easy to take a photo of this when the only head available is far too large!

We have a "no photos on social media" rule with this baby for obvious reasons which is making it a little difficult when I want to report the latest make on my blog. An when its turned into a series of makes like this fox fabric has led to I would like to keep a record of what I made. I must try to find a doll or teddy of the right size!

If I could have found a contrast fabric it would have had two different fabrics so would be truly a reversible hat but it meant unpacking loads of cotton fabric I had packed away and because this was needed at very short notice due to the heat wave, I just went with the one fabric design I had at hand for both inside and outside layers. 

I suspect that heat wave is finished now because we have progressed to pouring rain today and its not warm. Its the UK after all, and the weather has turned, so if it stays like it is this morning then we will just have rain and clouds. 

Anyway in then baby had a new portable bed/ playpen and I then made a cover for the base mat. 

It comes with a nasty plastic cover which cannot be very comfortable so having a cotton cover in the hot weather has to be better and being a baby we cannot just use a blanket because baby is now at the stage of grabbing and kept pulling sheets and blankets up and sucking them. A fixed fitted cover means he cannot smother himself and suffocate. Its plain white cotton on the back. It was made really fast due to urgent need so is actually just overlocked together with a fold over cushion backing - so no zips. But it works and will probably be outgrown before it falls appart.

In the meantime the hat has been so well used the last couple of weeks that I decided it would be nice to use another of the free patterns to make some summery dungarees. I knew about this pattern ages ago but never had a reason to sew it up.

 Pattern is from here: 

https://craftworld.com/cms/free-baby-dungarees-pattern/

You have to register but then there are loads of free patterns. 

These have taken me quite a while to actually make. You can see them on baby here - minus blocked out face!

They are a little too big but I am sure that will not last long.

Bib has glittery orange buttons. There is an extra button so they can be extended when get grews so he gets a bit longer wear from them.

 

One button hole is really not very good but they will not need to last long because baby will out grow them so I decided rather than unpick ( and risk ruining them ) to go with it as it is.

Inside the legs have sewn on poppers. I only had 4 large ones so used them at the top and hems and used a smaller size on the legs, because there will be less pressure there from baby moving. 

I think that should work but we have yet to find out.

Here you can see how they do up for easy nappy access:

 

This is the back of the dungarees:

So thats it for this week's sewing. Well actually this is over 3 weeks sewing but between other projects. These items took a while but its nice to finally find a use for the fox fabric. And of course another bit of fabric removed from my stash. I reckon by the end of this year I will be needing to build the fabric stash back up again!

 

Have a great weekend

Bracken

 

Christmas knitting in June

 

 

I decided its always difficult to get my Christmas socks finished for Christmas. That time of year is always hectic, and because its dark and cold I seem to just want to go to sleep earlier at night than in summer, so I decided this summer I will start off knitting my Christmas socks.That will hopefully mean these are better knitted and I am more relaxed come September when I seem to think of such things as Christmas crafting. Well, I am, relatively speaking, a very slow knitter so these will take a few months whether there is a desperate need for them or not. I also know lots of people begin their Christmas crafting about July so why not?

These are not a gift as such though, they are a selfish knit for me!

I am using the Mosaic socks pattern from Winwick Mum that I have knitted previously. Though really I messsed up the pattern but those socks have been a favourite for over a year and are now getting very thin. 

Having said that, the fact they were knitted from doubled lace weight mohair not sock yarn means they have been a major success, and so far survived much better than expected. But I would like a proper pair in sock yarn. 

Anyway this pair are being knitted from the yarn the pattern reccommends - Yorkshire Spinners Signature 4ply sock yarn. The colours I decided to use are Fairy Lights Sparkle which contains glitter!!!!!

And Cherry Drop: which you can just see here:

The Cherry drop contrast is actually going to mean I am knitting this in a reverse with the darker colour where the lighter colour is on the pattern, but I saw several pairs knitted during the sockalong where people chose to do that and it looked fine. 

 

Though right now I am wondering is there enough of a contrast? 

Or is my Cherry drop too similar in tone to the background colours? 

Ah, I suppose whatever happens in the next few rows these will be a lovely warm pair of socks and probably turn out just fine. 

I will not really know if these colours are a good choice until I get a bit further into the pattern so by then really I probably should stick with however they come out.

Its a difficult one right now knowing whether or not I should choose  different contrast and start again!

This time as well, rather than mess up the pattern by following the chart I have been following the row by row written pattern. Thats strange because usually I am much better with charts, but last time I ended up just kind of ad-libbing the second sock to try and make it match the first one where I went wrong. That did not ultimately matter one bit because they have actually been almost worn out due to being loved so much.

Other than starting my Christmas socks thats all the knitting I am doing right now. Summer seems more for sewing rather than for knitting but then thats just how my brain works because I know lots of people who are happilly knitting lovely cotton jumpers, skirts etc for summer right now.

I am also doing some sewing though but more in my next post

Have a great week and Happy Solstice

Bracken

Black top with turn back cuffs

I decided I need a very useful basic top in black or navy because so many of my summer clothing ( and winter clothing!) is patterned ( or bright colours like these shorts) so really what I need right now is some basic plain stuff to co-ordiate with all those lovely patterns.

I bought the black cotton lycra to make leggings but right now I don't need leggings so its best made into something I need now rather than some vague time in the future and me carry on struggling to find stuff that works together now so this top happened.

)

I only had 1m of this fabric so not enough for a long sleeved top ( according to most patterns) so originally I thought I will make 3/4 sleeves by folding over what was left after carefully cutting the front and back along each selvedge so leaving a sizable bit of fabric in the centre of my 1m. See below sketch of how to do this. Well its summer after all and even if its a cold rainy day its rare to need long sleeves but I did want to make something I can transition into autumn. 

Sadly never thought to take any photos of this but hopefully you can understand what I am on about here.

So I folded the fabric at each edge to cut out the front and bcks on a fold s the pattern directs. Then it hit me that if I fold over the fabric from the centre of the left over fabric, I can get two 3/4 length sleeves because the fabric has no direction to it, so no nap, and from the rest of the fabric -  the left over bits from below the front and back would make cuffs.

Sketch of my fabric layout:

 

Well I lined up the sleeve pattern on each bit of fabric that was left below where I cut out the front and back and you probably will have to do as I did and cut each cuff seperately in order to make this work. 

So where I had already cut out the sleeves - sleeves still attached to the paper pattern pieces - you fold over the left over bit of fabric to make it double, and you cut with the cuff edge on the fold and line up with rest of sleeve in order to keep the sleeve shape and then cut as big a cuff as I could from the bits left at the bottom of where I had cut out the front and back pieces. In my case I managed to make the sleeve full length when its not cuffed but it will work with less fabric too. You would just get a shorter cuff but it will still look good. This can then become a fold back cuff which is something I have not ever made before and do not have in my wardrobe at the moment. 

You need to sew the cuff seperately to the rest of the sleeve. So to begin you make the cuff into a tube shape and here be careful which side you sew. I sewed the wrong bit first then had to unpick and sew it correctly. Then sew the sleeve to the top and close the side seams before you attach the cuff. Check the circumfeace of your cuff is the same as the bottom of the sleeve so the sew up without any ruffling. To attach the cuff the cuff needs to be folded inside itself and you just add it doubled over to end of sleeve - hopefully this will make sense!

 

The overlocking goes inside the sleeve and the cuff will then turn back and look neat. So you can also wear the sleeves with cuff down to make them full length and then they have a nice look without hems.  That is assuming you have enough fabric for full length but I think this idea will work on shorter cuffs too.

Anyway this is a way to use just 1m of stretch fabric to make a long sleeved top - this is 4-way stretch so dancewear/ sportswear/ leggings type stretchy. So far I have not found any pattern that only uses 1m of fabric for a long sleeved top but most patterns tell you to cut out ina  way that wastes loads of fabric. I generally ignore the layout anyway. Often if you cut carefully and ignore the pattern payout the pattern companies give you, you can get another half a top - so have contrast back and front maybe out of the offcuts and I need to do that. This fabric was not cheap at £8.95/m but its still a reasonbly priced top and better quality and style than I would be able to buy for that kind of money on the High Street - and its unique.

More photos:

For the pattern I used Butterick 5562 View D without the extra neck bit so its just a plain boat necked top.

Ah, and yes, the UK has become hot again. Today we are meant to get to 28 DegC. 

Have a great week

Bracken

Green velvet steampunk skirt

Ok so its summer and even in the UK generally people do not wear velvet in summer - or only to festivals, or at night, or if they happen to be a goth, or a rock star type. But this skirt has been in my half sewn unfinished objects (UFO) pile for literally years!

I think I cut this out back in 2017 or 2018. Then I sewed the side seams and it came out a bit big and I always meant to resew but never got round to it. Then the other day I was going to cut out a new pattern for a skirt, and I had to move the UFOs because there was no room for the pattern pieces and I remembered this skirt. 

So why did I worry too much about the waist anyway? Its meant to have elastic.

I decided this needs to be finished and right now I am having some serious problems with finding time to do any sewing so why not just work my way through some of these UFOs? 

So I added the waistband and voila: 

You will have to ignore my squinty eyes. It was a very bright sunny day when these were taken and I was being blinded by lovely sunlight.

This is a high low skirt and its a very easy make so it really should not have sat waiting to be finished for around 5+ years. The pattern is Simplicity 8020 and I made this before so should have found it really easy to make this.

Also this issue with the skirt being a bit too big - well bearing in mind my recent weight fluctuations thats no longer a problem. 

 

Right now I am much smaller than I usually am, so I made a waistband which fits and being elastic it works well and when I put some weight back on then it should still fit me because the side seams were left as they were, and after all I can always make this waistband bigger and it should still fit. My weight has fluctuated by 10kg in the last 6 months and I have not dieted so its slightly worrying.

Here its worn with the Burda top I made. That top took me 3 months to work out how it went together and sadly these pictures do confirm my suspicians that that CB back seam on the top is not straight. Its zigzagged not overlocked. Not really sure that should make any difference though, but it could mean my sewing was less than perfect. I am not used to sewing stretch fabrics with a zigzag stitch.

I wasn't sure on the original pictures of this seam being straight or not and assumed ( wrongly I think) that it was the way I had stood in the photos. Well it could be I suppose but really I suspect that these new photos this confirms its sloping and not a straight seam as its meant to be. It is made from very stretchy slippy fabric though and I have still worn it so I suppose its not really a problem, but once I find the time to make a new version, which should hopefully be more perfect, I think I will be recycling this top.

Have to admit, it does occur to me that perhaps this skirt would work well for a beach skirt. It will be warm in the cold wind and not so long it trails in the wet sand. Hmmm. One to try out later maybe?

Have a great week,

Bracken