Baby Makes: The first of many (Starry Romper)

I have been doing so much baby sewing lately and am LOVING it! Honestly I'm completely obsessed by it. If any of you out there are parents yourselves you will know that once you have a little one in your life all your attentions and money go straight into them and you care so much less about your own needs and appearance. Your little ones will be dressed in the cutest little outfits whilst you are still trying to rock a pair of leggings and oversized tshirt which you have owned for 4 years!! It's therefore no surprise that my sewing has taken the same turn and I'm now happily turning out gorgeous little outfits for Master Fox. Not to mention the fact I need to make the most of the fact I'm currently allowed to choose what he wears which won't last forever.

After seeng one of my friends babies in an adorable little handmade cotton romper I did some internetting and discovered Puperita patterns on Etsy and I love them. I bought the starry romper pattern as I wanted to make a pair of jersey dungarees and this looked like the perfect fit for this type of fabric. I specifically wanted to make them from jersey as it's such a comfortable and giving fabric for a baby. These little things are still developing, and at the time of making these in particular he was just trying to find his hands and feet and start crawling and so I didn't want to make something too restrictive for him. Not to mention jersey is soft on the skin, warm and most importantly washes well, perfect for little babies. I bought this particular jersey on eBay from a seller in Germany (how come wider Europe has much better fabric than we do here in the uk!). 

 

The pattern was so simple to follow and really quick to sew up using both the sewing machine and overlocker and it turned out simply amazing I am really proud of it. I did try and do some pattern matching but didn't realise there were 2 monkey repeats and lined the fabric up to the wrong ones!! Oh well we need to make these mistakes to learn don't we! I should also say you don't need to use an overlocker to make these and the pattern works just as well with cottons as it does jersey but you will need some stretch fabric for the cuffs. 

 

I hope you love this little romper as much as I do, I think the pocket is one of my favourite bits of the pattern, I keep putting things in there for him ;). I also decided to make a matching dribble bib using one of his existing bibs as a template. I think it's an excellent use of some of the left over fabric and now he can be coordinated!!

Right well that's it for this post but don't worry I have so many more to show so watch this space for more rompers, some joggers and most importantly his amazing handmade Halloween outfit which I am particularly proud of!! X

Felt Dinosaur

 

This is Mick the Felty Dinosaur! Hello Mick. 

Mick is another pattern which I got from the second issue of Simply Sewing magazine. As soon as I saw this pattern in the mag I just new it had to be done. I mean it appeals to all my sewing whims. Plushie, cute, quick, perfect for the boy. He just had to get made. 

He is made from pure wool felt. When I saw the pattern I knew I had the perfect piece of material to make him out of. The body is a hand felted piece of fabric in teal and green, I hear you, its like it was made for this project. I've had it in my craft room for years and you know when you can't bear to use something because you know the perfect project will come along... well here's proof it does in the end. Because its hand felted real wool as well it gives it a gorgeous texture, its almost scaly just like a real dino!

The pattern was really easy. Its thankfully mostly machine sewn which just a few sections of the feet being hand sewing, perfect! The instructions were really clear and easy to follow. I also love the way the feet are sewn on so that it makes the dino stand up.

The Simply Sewing magazine, whilst not always being chocca full of things I would make, has at least always had really clear instructions, and with the pattern pieces provided this makes things a lot easier. I hate it when you have to upscale pattern pieces, I mean we don't all have access to a copier do we, and the idea of doing it on graph paper is just too much of a chore. I have had issue 3 through the door now, and this one is a little lacking in projects which interest me personally, but I suppose you can't please everyone all the time. It comes with a lovely felt pack, but again i'm not inspired by the projects included so need to rack my brains for a different one.

Anyway. I think I'm rambling!! I hope you like Mick (he was named by Mr Fox, don't ask me why Mick). I would definitely suggest giving him a go if you have a copy of the mag. If not, get googling for some felt dinosaur sewing patterns of your own!