Meet Beatrice

Beatrice joined the ranks of handmade teddies in our house today. Poor baby R was the only child in the house without a teddy made by her mum, and, really, that situation needed to be rectified. Isn't she cute?

Like her brother and sister monsters, Beatrice's pattern came from this book, "Make a Monster" by Fiona Goble. I bought it on a complete whim 3 or 4 years ago and I love it. I've made 5 or 6 of the monsters in it - probably more than any quilting book I own! It's well written, the patterns are very quick and straightforward to make with an easy construction method, and they have a big impact with the kids. The monsters are all sewn with polar fleece which is nice and easy to work with, and soft and hard wearing for the kids.

I posted a few picture on Instagram of my progress, and, in the way that you do with sewing photos, only spotted a mistake when I looked at it - the seam on the arm was not lined up properly originally, and it was bugging me, so I redid it.

She joins Martha and Leo who have lived in the 2 older kids' beds since they were toddlers. They're small, and funny looking but it never ceases to amaze me how the kids love these little guys. I tell them I've sewn loads of kisses inside their monsters so that they can make kids feel better in the night if they're feeling scared or have a bad dream and they totally believe in the power of that. Martha and Leo are looking pretty "well-loved" after hundreds of nights of cuddling, and both have had a few repairs over the years but they've plenty of life in them still.

Beatrice has taken up residence in Rachel's cot alongside another little handmade beauty which Geraldine sent her when she was born.

I think they'll do a pretty good job of minding her :-) And I need to make a few other bits to decorate her room now that her new furniture has been fitted and I've almost finished de-cluttering. Poor baba is in her room almost 3 months and it still hasn't been decorated for her; bad mum!!

More baby gifts....

I finished this cool baby comforter last night and I love it, I think its my favourite so far! Its so cheerful and colourful. The back is baby blue minky and the front is really soft apple green fleece.






The rocket is appliqued on, mainly in fleece with decorative red stitching and some fabric features from the Riley Blake "Wheels" collection which I think work really well.










Hopefully the lovely little baby boy I made it for will get lots of fun from it, with all the different ribbons and textures to enjoy. It measures approx 33 x 33 cm without the ribbons, so is a really nice size for a blankie.


I'm now working on some baby blankets with the lovely fabric I got from American Etsy stores this week. I've now just got too much choice and its hard to pick something to start with. For the boy's baby blanket I'm going with this lovely funky owl fabric backed with minky:





But I still can't decide on which fabric to use for the baby girl's blanket. I'll figure it out later on but now its time for a nice cup of tea!

Butterfly cuteness

Another baby comforter finished tonight :-)






This is made with polar fleece, appliqued with some lovely Riley Blake summer song fabric. Ribbons are sewn into the edges to add some interest for baby and the back is hand embroidered with baby's name. I hope the recipient has some fun with it when she gets a little older!

Baby Buggy Blanket

So it's finally finished!!! My first attempt at a patchwork blanket worked out really well and I'm very happy with it. It's been a learning process and there's a few things I'd do differently to make it absolutely perfect but overall I think my idea worked out as I hoped.

It's made of 100% cotton backed with beautiful, soft minky.






The cotton and minky gives it a lovely weight.

It would make a lovely blanket for a baby girl for a buggy/car seat or in a crib, soft and snuggly on the inside and bright and cheery on the outside. It measures approx 100cm by 74cm. I could easily size up to cot size too.





I'm very excited that it's finally done and the whole process of designing it was really exciting!! One of the things I am loving most about my new venture is that it's challenging me to come up with ideas and there's great satisfaction in that. There's a world of difference between following a pattern and generating the idea yourself. It's the getting from idea to finished product that's most challenging for me, particularly as I am mostly self taught. But I really (really!!) love when it comes together as this did. All that's left now is to parcel it up and send off to my beautiful niece and god-daughter L to enjoy!!

Loveys all around

I couldn't wait any longer to make something with the gorgeous minky so I got out my things last night and put together a brand new fish comforter yesterday evening. It is bright blue fleece, backed with baby blue minky, and has a fish applique in a contrasting fleece. I used some heavy cotton spotty fabric to applique the fins, tail and eye, and some thin blue ric rac for a wavy affect. Some soft blue fleece bubbles and lots of ribbon around the edges finished it off. There are lots of interesting contrasting textures for a baby's little fingers, not to mention bright colours.





It joins the 2 star loveys I made as baby presents, entirely of fleece and embroidered on the back with baby's name. I love making these, they are so soft and tactile and it's fun picking ribbon and deciding where to place it. Every single ribbon is different with a mixture of colours, widths, lengths and textures for greater exploration by little fingers!

Getting Knitty

Today was a wall-papering day! Myself and T blithely sailed into uncharted territories when we broke open the pack of wallpaper paste and the (still hideously expensive even though they were in the sale) Laura Ashley Kimono wallpaper in a beautiful duck egg blue. It all looked so simple in the YouTube videos. 5 hours later it wasn't so pretty in our house! But it is done and it looks gorgeous.

So, taking all that into account I didn't get any sewing done today. I did wash fabric to prep it and I wound up my busy day with a little knitting. I'm doing a cardi for myself to a lovely pattern I got in a magazine last month. I'm using my bamboo needles for the first time and loving them. Plus the yarn is gorgeous - it's a King Cole bamboo cotton mix and is soooooo soft. I'm knitting it in a grape purple and am very excited to see how it will turn out!



Nearly finished F's tunic too, juast need to hem and put on trimmings. Fingers crossed by tomorrow I will be done with tunics. I promised D I would sew him a new fleece monster tomorrow so that will have to take 1st priority :-)