blouse for the babysitter

So my fabulous mamma is now baby-sitter in chief down at grandma's nursery and is working so heard that she's wearing out her favourite outfits!  She gave me one such pathetic article which had actually got holes in it, but she was still wearing it, it was so comfortable!  So, like a phoenix from the flames I chopped it up and used the pattern to make a brand new one of the same size and shape.  I even used the interfacing from the old blouse in the new one, just to pass on a little of the soul of the shirt she loved so much!! Lol!!

Happy Christmas Mamma!

Get your 80s on!

So i'm loving the italian films from the 70s and 80s at the minute, we watch a new one every night over dinner and a glass of wine... the style is fabulous!  One of my favourite actors is Jerry Cala', for the awkward situations that he gets himself into and his hilarious catchphrases.  Reminded me of a while ago when i made one of his catchphrases into a tshirt for my gorgeous nephew...so i decided Rocket needed one too!

It translates roughly as "cool, double cool, cool with bows on!" - umm...it loses something in the translation i think...lol!!

Love it Loud!

So I think Rocket really must be a fan of italian rap music, the reason being that he lives by the motto of one particular song ....so in the spirit of Articolo 31...

...i give you piu' volume!!!

Rainbow vestments!

At the same time as the new muslins, i dyed some vests....as before, the colours washed up very bright and girly, so they're not going to be able to be used for my boy!!  I'll have to just find a baby girl to give them to...one that like tie-dye of course!  I have to say though...i love the random-ness of the pattern and the coverage...now if only i'd any more masculine dye colours left.....

How many arms?

So i have to admit that i've always enjoyed changing the baby, but it's getting steadily more difficult the older he gets.  He can now roll over and needs to be pinned down or he'll be away across the carpet with no nappy on...eeek!! danger!!  But one of the most difficult things is trying to change his clothes!  He is quite literally ALL arms and legs.  No sooner have i got one foot through or one hand through and there's another one pushing through the same hole, or the other side is out and flailing in the air...aaahh!!

So the motif i chose for this vest is particularly suitable for him!!  The vests were dyed as usual...it's a little hard to see but i used blue and green dyes and they made a lovely variegated effect. 

Baby's 1st uniform!

So my bambino has enrolled in the best creche in the country while i'm at work...yep, Grandma's house!! He and his big cousin (who is a whole 6 months older - oh!!) are the sole pupils and are spoilt rotten all day long, no doubt!

So i decided to make him a little uniform, with the Grandma's Creche crest on it of course!  To make the crest i used freezer paper then fabric paint....it has the 4 most important things that make it Grandma's Creche...heart for much love, stars for lots of fun, z's for naps and a banana...well...because...you need to know my mum really!  She believes that bananas cure all ills. 

Then free-motion script at the bottom...easy-peasy!

earthy-friendly start

So this is something i forgot to post at the time....this year Earth Hour was 31 March 2012, 20:30–21:30 and i wanted something appropriate for the baby to wear, you know, something earthy and cheery.  Well i carved up some lino stamps and then made a little onsie for our earth-friendly bambino.  

 

He is already doing his bit for the environment by wearing washable nappies (in assorted colours and patterns...i LOVE by the way!) and he will be indoctrinated in the joys of growing his own veg as soon as he can walk in wellies and handle a trowel!!

vehicle vests

So in the interests of getting cleaner lines for the little vehicle shapes this time i used freezer paper stencils. I cut them out neatly with a craft knife so i could uses both the negative and positive stencil.
This is just to try and make the little vests a little more "masculine" because i suspect that all my colourful outfits are verging on girlyness...so i'm just trying not to give him an identity crisis too early in life you know??

easy earflaps

So i wanted to make a little hat with earflaps to keep the bambino's head warm when he finally arrives. This is a free pattern that i found on ravelry, but can be found directly on the designer's blog. The hat is super-quick to make, as it uses a couple of strands of wool at a time and is all worked in treble crochet so you can make it in one sitting pretty easily.
I think i'm going to have to make one in a larger size for me, i really like it!!

stamped sleepsuits

So the plain tie-dyed sleepsuits were a little boring weren't they?? I thought i'd have a go at lino stamping on them. It's a little bit difficult to get the stamps to look very neat because the fabric is jersey and so each time the fabric "gives" a little, making it a little bit scruffier than stamping on linen or cotton poplin.
Anyway, I made a bunch of little vehicle lino carved stamps in the usual way and stamped up the little suits with fabric paint before curing them with a hot iron.
I'm quite pleased with how they turned out!

day-glo onsies

So I made more of the dyed onsies, this time with short sleeves and socks to match! lol! I love how the thread doesn't take the colour so it stays white...it kindof looks like a little trim. I couldn't decide how to decorate these vests, but then decided that, because they are already so bright...it would perhaps be over-kill to add any more detail!
Me?...over-accessorising?? surely not!!! lol!

ciao bambino!

So while i was dying the muslins I also did a bunch of onsies and baby sleepsuits of various sizes. This is really for the same reason....lots of pastel blue available in the shops but not so many bright colours. Actually my blue looks very pale in this pic but it is actually quite bright...the light here was awful. The purple one was dyed in half the water which seems to give a more patchy tie-dye effect. Lastly, i added little freezer paper stencils on the front to personalise them a bit!

dip-dyed baby clothes

There's really not much point in spending a lot of money or time on baby clothes for the first couple of months since they grow so fast and all the work would be wasted. Instead i bought some white sleepsuits in different sizes and dyed them up. The less water i used, the more patchy and tie-dyed the effect was (see the purple one) I can't decide though whether i want to add more detail to these...they look pretty boring...im thinking perhaps of making lino stamps or something to liven them up a little...hmmm.

twinkle twinkle little star

So yeah, the reason that i decided to take a month off from blogging is because superD and i are expecting a bambino/bambina ourselves. And i've been far too tired to be bothered pushing myself to do enough crafts - i've been taking lots of naps instead, and i'm still exhausted all the time. This baby so far is seriously sapping my craft mojo - hopefully not a sign of things to come!!

Anyway i thought i could just about manage something simple to craft while sitting watching italian films after my dinner each night, so i decided on a little baby hat...and even that took me about 3 weeks to finish!! nightmare!!
It was a little dull without the added gold star - one thing this baby will be is accessorised!!! The hat was a simple increasing circle, done in rows rather than in the round, and then i folded up the last 3 rows of double crochet just to make a nice fat brim. I'm working on a quilt now but going by how long this hat took it could be a while yet... so maybe next month!

retro brown kaftan

So in one of the summer Burdastyle magazines they had a white kaftan. Made from two giant semi-circles of fabric, and slits cut and hemmed (front piece to back piece) to make sleeves and the rest just caught round the waist, leaving a nice pleated gathered skirt. I made it in this heavily patterned cotton. It looks kindof vintage-y because it's such an old fashioned print.
It risks to look a little frumpy so i always have to wear it with high sandals and nice earrings so that it is "intentionally" old-fashioned looking and not just frump-tastic, which was superD's initial reaction when he saw it!!
O well - can't please them all!

baby tux

So at the evening dinner of the wedding, Poog's date the dishy Daniel decided to up the stakes by putting on his secret weapon lucky outfit - the tux bib.

Well Danny's dad managed to make it to the dinner thus relieving Danny of his mum-sitting duties, rather than get offended at being jilted for his equally dashingly-dressed father, baby Danny settled down quite contentedly to have another nap.
All's well that ends well!

boardroom baby

So poog's 2 week old baby boy, Daniel, was taking her to a recent family wedding, you see her husband couldn't make it for the service so she needed a date. Well she planned to wear red so we had to arrange a little matching accessory for Danny to look suave and debonaire at his first formal function.

I decided on a red "power-tie" bib to make him feel confident and masterful as he accepted the admiration of the adoring millions.

He seemed to enjoy wearing it and spent the day flipping the tie up and down in the cutest way ever. I think i'm going to ask him to accompany me to my next formal function!

yikes it's the 80s

I came across this t-shirt the other day and just had to laugh. I made it for superD to wear to an 80s night here in my local town, and had never posted it because it was so rare looking - but hey, i'm looking to get back to doing a little bit of freezer paper stenciling so i thought i really should post it to remind myself. You see this blog is really like a little craft diary for me and when i glance back over it, it always reminds me of things that i still want to do.

Pretty obvious steps - draw out stencil on freezer paper and cut out with a craft knife. Iron onto the t-shirt and stipple on the paint (in this case - white, neon pink and neon green)
Rip off stencil, cover with a cloth and iron on hot to set the paint. I didn't have any particularly fabulous pics of the t-shirt in action...this one's a little blurry - but you get the idea? And since lil'pil looks like she has some kindof weird birthmark across her face, or is wearing Hollywood Montrose sunglasses (any Mannequin fans??), i thought i'd post this one to make it clear what she really looked like. That's me in the fabulous aztec jumpsuit...I wish i could wear my hair like that every day. Crimping ROCKS!!!

crochet converse cuties

So poog has had her gorgeous bambino and it's a boy - so i'm really glad that i went for blue sneakers! (I was pretty sure it was going to be a boy, even though i had no reason to). These are really cute little crochet converse sneakers made from the free pattern on ravelry.
They are very simple to make but a bit awkward as my stitches are pretty tight and there's a lot of crocheting into the loop-behind-the-back-loop which really does stress your fingers!
My favourite part was lacing them up.
And just to show how tiny they really are, here's one with a bit of perspective. Now just imagine with a chubby little leg sticking out of it!! CUTE!

ruby "button" slippers

So for Poog's impending bambino/a, i made a cute little pair of strappy slippers at her request. The pattern was extremely easy to follow and is available as a free ravelry download here. If only shoes were so quick and easy to make in larger sizes.....
Well for reasons related to the theme of this post i'm going to be taking a little blog-holiday for the month of August. Due to various health-related issues I won't have any opportunity for crafting or posting this coming month so i'm allowing myself the luxury of a month off. It also allows me to redress the balance of 10 posts per month since I posted 20 posts in March 2009 and the uneven numbers have been annoying me ever since (yeah i know i'm a little weird and obviously have nothing more important to be annoyed about!! - but i hate uneven numbers!!)

So i'll see you in September! xxx