Finish-A-Long Quarter 2 - the list!

The kids are on their summer holidays and so is my hubby, so it's a bit like a mad house round at mine at the moment. So I'm going to be brief! I'm really pleased that I have 4 out of a hoped for 6 finishes this quarter - I feel that I got a lot achieved from my list at the start of the quarter and, better still, I was really happy with some of them. Without further ado here's the list:

1. Mr D's Circle's Quilt:

2. A tumbler quilt for Cindy using the Kona charm packs & 1 print FQ she sent me:

3. Some triangular placemats for my brother and his girlfriend:

4. Lastly, I made another peasant dress for baby R using some of the beautiful Little Matryoshka fabrics. This was actually one of my first finishes in the quarter, and although I posted a pic on Instagram at the time, I completely forgot to blog it.

Here is is:

I used the pattern by Sew Much Ado. I love this pattern, and bought it after I made the free infant version and baby R got to wear it only once before growing out of it. This time I made it in the 6-12 month size. R is not a particularly big baby (she's 6 months this week and only moving into 6-9 month clothes in the last couple of weeks) but she is already out of this version! I don't think that my not pre-washing the fabric helped as there has been a bit of shrinkage, but I find the pattern very tight across the chest/arm holes. However, maybe the sizing is different between the USA and Europe as the weight guidelines seem to be a bit different. Anyways, I digress. I did manage to snap a little pic of my beauty in her dress before she grew out of it - this was taken about 10 weeks ago so she is a lot bigger now! (And yes, in case you're wondering, she's a thumb sucker <3)

So there you go - my finishes. Delighted with these and can't wait to get stuck into next quarter's finish! Thanks so much to Leanne for hosting the Finish-A-Long, it definitely helped keep me on track.

I'm linking up to Leanne - pop over there to be inspired by everyone's finishes!

Naptime Sewing

 
It's been a busy 6 weeks here, but I've managed to squeeze some sewing into R's nap time in the last week or so, and its amazing how great it makes me feel. I didn't realise how much I had missed the process of making things - it does my sanity good! It might seem like its impossible to sew with a new baby, but I am finding 15 minutes here and there and making progress steadily working in bite size chunks, so to speak!

When I was browsing around looking for cute tutorials to make things for R, I found a great tutorial to restyle a little girl's tshirt into a dress and decided to try it on a tshirt E has had in her wardrobe, unworn for months now. I haven't done any garment sewing in a long time, so it was fun to tackle a different project.

Ooops - of course, I discovered the reason she hasn't worn it when I started sewing - its more than a full size too big for her, but by the time she fits it, the Moshi Monsters will no doubt be last year's fad. So I kept going and added some ruffles. I used a knit, a cotton and a seersucker to give some different textures.

 

When I pinned this, I thought it would be a simple enough project, but I found sewing the ruffles on in layers a bit tricky. But I got there in the end and I think it turned out pretty cute.

Next I moved on to making something for my baby girl. When I saw the peasant dresses that Toni sewed for her baby girl last summer, I made a mental note to make some myself if I had a baby girl. So I ran up one in the last few days, using a pretty cotton print I found in the local fabric shop, and a little bit of one of my stash fabrics (Hope Valley I think?).

 

I used this free tute, although I might buy the pattern so I can size it up as its very pretty. I even added the ric rac edging!

The pattern is great and easy to make. The only thing I realised - at the very end - is that the sizing is quite small. I only noticed that even though its 0-3 months, its up to 12lbs - most of the 0-3 month clothing here in Ireland goes up to 13.5lbs at a minimum, even 14lbs sometimes.  Some my chubby little lady is already nearly at the weight limit and I'd say she'll get only a couple of wears out of it.... I'll just have to make another in a bigger size! :-)

The last project I've been working on is a tumbler quilt with my Posy charm packs. Here's a sneak peek...I have the tumblers all pieced and just need to add some borders to have a finished quilt top. I'm loving working on this and aiming to get it finished maybe next weekend, it will only be a small pram sized quilt but very pretty.

Getting the time to write posts and upload pics is still a bit of an effort, as is commenting on other blogs. But as I have my phone on me most of the time, I am snapping what I'm working on and posting it on Instagram (sewfairyface) and my FB page, and following others on the same apps that I can browse easily while cuddling or feeding a baby so if you want to keep up with me, you might like to follow me there. And if you leave your Instagram name or link to your FB page in the comments I'll be able to keep up easier with you too :-)