The flip vest: take one

Recently Dana from Made released her latest pattern - the flip vest.  When I saw this pattern I knew I had to make one for each of my boys (one boy might be a bit too big but I'm going to have a go at enlarging the pattern a size or two).

I've been working all day on this vest, the pattern is easy, the instructions are detailed and despite being a relative novice with polar fleece and knit ribbing the whole thing has gone together without a hitch...

...but even after doing a whole lot of pre-sewing measuring and checks I just had this nagging feeling that the 12-24 month size was a little on the small side for my 18 month old.

And yep, when he woke up from his sleep and I gave it a quick try on, it's too small for him.  It's too tight around the chest area, the front just won't overlap to put any kind of fastening on.  Obviously the sizing gods are not smiling on me recently after the too large pants episode.

Oh well, we'll call this a practice run and start over on the next size (the 2-3).  Lucky for me I bought extra fabric so I've got plenty of extra to work with.

Boy fabrics

I'm preparing for boy sewing in the coming weeks, so I went shopping for boy fabrics and came away with these lovelies.

Corduroy, drill, some blue fleece and grey ribbing.

The most prized fabric that I am yet to find is some navy blue pinwale corduroy - I've checked for it twice in the shop already with no success, but they say it's coming.

Off to throw these in the wash and prepare some after school snacks, those boys, they need feeding.

Saturday shop update

One for girls and one for boys, both size 4.  I like to keep things even around here obviously.

Have a great weekend!

My creative space: size up

I bought half a metre of red and blue car corduroy on the cheap last week.  My sole intention was to make a pair of pants for the boy.  Last time I made these I was still using the 6-12 months pattern, I skipped the 12-18 months size and went straight onto the 18-24 months size seeing as he will be 18 months in a few short weeks time.  Aaargh, they're too big!  Never mind, there's plenty of shorts and t-shirt weather around here for a time yet so here's hoping these will be the perfect size for the colder months later in the year.

I love a pair of oversized pants on a kid though, they look so cute and funny.

We had a lot of fun mucking about in his room this morning, there's a huge mirror in there and I quickly realised it's easy to get caught out in the background while taking photos...and I should really have moved that fan to the side before I started...never mind, I'm just showing you to a bit of "real life" around at our place this morning.

Ah so what, let's have a go and some self portraiture while we're at it!  

Joining in with these talented folks today.

Making

Today I finally got caught up in some dressmaking.  

A quiet house and being on top of the domestic work gave me the mental release to spend some blissful hours in the sewing room.

Ah, so many projects, so little time!

The love in the stitches

 Oh how I love my little guy, he's super cheeky with a ready smile, he's got a soft little giggle that he reserves for when something is really funny, or if I tickle his ribs. He's quiet and patient and gentle, and very attached to being in the warm cocoon of our little family.  

But this year it's time for me to start to inch my way forward to a return to some form of paid work outside the home.  For my little guy this means one thing - he has started in daycare.  After a false start with a local commercial daycare operator that neither of us felt comfortable with he now has one day a week at a community based centre in a beautiful setting with beautiful resources and the most friendly and caring daycare staff a mother could wish for.  He seems to be settling in and having fun, and also getting plenty of cuddles when he needs re-assuring.  It's odd for me too in these first weeks, I feel a little empty handed and directionless without him.

To make sure there's plenty of love packed in his bag when he goes for his day I made him a special sleep time blanket.  

I used some fabrics I already had for the top, a vintage nursery print and red gingham, and backed it with a metre of red and white striped flannelette.

  I hand stitched the bias binding on the back, every stitch has a little bit of love and wishes for fun...

...and happy days. 

xx

Deja vu

Got that deja vu feeling this January - too much rain, cleaning up after the storm, the start of the school week routine.  I also got that slip-sliding feeling again from my ironing board cover.  Nearly three years after making my last cover the elastic gave up the ghost.  I will spare you any evidence of the state of the fabric, it had that brown tinged, well ironed look to it OK - yuck.

I dug into my "pattern filing system" and found the pattern I made three long years ago.  A little bit of quilting cotton, a packet of binding tape and some new elastic and I'm back in business.  For the record though, I still hate ironing...but at least my board has a little bit of love. 

I've got to say that my tutorial on covering your own ironing board continues to be one of the most visited pages on my blog.  You too can do your own, its easy!