Quick Change Trousers

Here's something else I made for little V. before she was born. Another pair of the popular Quick Change Trousers from Anna Maria Horner's Handmade Beginnings. It really is no wonder so many people love these, they are quick to make and picking out the fabric combination is really fun! Also, they're really cute! These are the 0-3 months size and still a tad big, but V.'s been wearing them for the last couple of days and there are no problems with them falling off or something like that ... ;-) :-) The fabrics of this side of the trousers are both designed by Rashida Coleman-Hale, the pink one is from the I Heart ... collection and the other is from the famous Washi.



Oh, those little feet ... My heart is melting. :-)



The reverse side pairs an aqua Patty Young print with a cheery acid green and teal flower fabric (from Lecien, I think ...).



Of all the adorable little baby clothes, it's the tiny socks that are my favourite. Their smallness and cuteness just kills me! :-)

retro geraniums

Before our little V. was born, I made some more little things that I didn't have the chance to show you, yet. I made these little dresses in celebration of there being three little girls in the family, ours and her two cousins. I got the idea when I saw the three great colourways of the lovely Color Me Retro collection by Jeni Baker. I knew I wanted three quite simple, classic dresses, that could showcase two prints. For a moment I was considering drafting my own pattern, but then I came across the brilliant Geranium Dress sewing pattern by Made by Rae. I love that it comes in a wide range of sizes (I needed 0 months, 6 months and 3 years) and there are tons of options to change up the design and make it more personal. I'll definitely make more of these, once I get the chance to do some sewing again. They are a great fit, too and super cute on! I'll let the pics do the talking, got to get back to cuddling the little one! :-)

she's here

:-)

baby sleep gear

More baby sewing! I made these Baby Sleep Sacks from this great (and free!) pattern by Running With Scissors. They struck me as practical for night-time diaper changes and I also had all the material I needed on hand. I bought the flannel on sale a while ago and I had the knit fabric and ribbing lying around left over from other projects.



Making two at the same time, assembly-line style, meant that they came together pretty quickly. I finished the ribbing in a slightly different way than in the tutorial, but ended up regretting it, since it was bulkier this way and I broke my twin needle halfway through ... I'm happy enough with the outcome, though. The sleeves look quite narrow, so I'm curious to see how well they will fit (or for how long).



I really like the fact that there are built-in scratch mitts incorporated in the sleeves, they're so cute and practical.



I had a lot of the flannel left, so I also made the snuggler from Simple Sewing for Baby.



This was another quite quick and easy project. I'd never seen a snuggler before, so I'm curious about how useful it will be! After this project, I still had enough fabric to make a two-sided duvet cover with the quilting cotton on one side and the flannel on the other.



I followed the measurements and style of the duvet cover included in the Finnish government's baby starter pack. Because of the flannel on one side, I think it can also double as a blanket. I'm really happy with these sleep gear projects, they were easy to make and the materials didn't cost much.

Now back to waiting ...

Quick Change Trousers

A little more baby sewing ... I made these little Quick Change Trousers (pattern from Handmade Beginnings by Anna Maria Horner).



Choosing the fabric combination for the two sides was really fun and the trousers came together really easily and quickly. I love this Monsterz print, I wish I had bought more of that collection when it was around.



The reverse side is a scribble print from Cloud9's Happy Drawing and the birds are from Beach Mod by Monaluna for Birch fabrics (as are the dots I paired with the Monsterz).



I can't resist showing you my favourite details of the Monsterz print. Who knew socks are such a big deal for monsters?! :-)



I also made this simple softie rattle:



I used part of the panel print from Happy Drawing, backed it with an orange scribble, stuffed it with polyester and added a little bell to it. Cute and easy!

Have a great weekend!

crib bumper

I finished the crib bumper! Yay! *Throws arms into the air like the little toy frog.*



Again, I used fabric from my Noteworthy FQ bundle, this time the blue, grey and off-white fabrics. I loosely followed the instructions in Lotta Jansdotter's Simple Sewing for Baby. I adapted the width of the finished panels to fit our crib and assembled strips cut from the fat quarters, 30 cm tall and with random widths. For the outside of the bumper I alternated Noteworthy strips with pieces of grey solid cotton. I quilted in the ditch of the inside panel at random intervals to add some stability.



The ties are quite short, which is good for safety reasons, I guess. I just don't know if they'd be long enough for a crib with broader bars, so that would be something to try out if you'd like to make a bumper as well.



I'm really happy with how it turned out, the colours are really soothing and the prints so lovely, in my opinion. The crib looks much more cozy with the bumper, so I'm glad I made one.



We didn't buy a lot of baby clothes, but I couldn't resist buying this little onesie when I discovered Virkkukoukkunen's Helsinki shop last week.



The picture is hand-drawn and there are no two exactly the same. The text says "human seedling". You can see their range of onesies here. The Helsinki shop is really lovely, they have a great little selection of Robert Kaufman fabrics, including Ann Kelle laminates. The staff was really nice and helpful as well. I'll definitely go back there to buy some fabric in the future! It's so difficult to find quilting cottons in Finland, so I'm glad I found their shop!

changing table storage and a block

Here is my latest sewn storage project, after the fabric basket and -bowls! I've been really reluctant to talk about this on the blog for some reason, but (as you might suspect now ...) we're having a baby! Soon! :-) So now you know, and also understand what I've been making all those baskets for. Nesting Fabric Bowls, indeed!



I used more of my Noteworthy FQ bundle, some natural linen and some old curtains. The changing table is a very basic design from Ikea and I made the fabric pockets to make access to all the baby changing paraphernalia easier.



I kind of eyeballed the size of the pockets, and it seems they turned out quite well to hold diapers, baby wipes and so on. There's a similar pocket panel on the other side.



To make the storage pockets, I measured the table and decided on the size of the pockets. The linen background is ten centimetres higher than the pockets. I fused fusible fleece to the backs of the pocket panels and the linen and lined the pockets with the yellow curtain fabric. I then machine-basted the lined and topstitched pocket panels to the linen background around the bottom and sides and stitched it to the background along the panel seams.



Then I added the yellow middle panel and some bias binding ties and backed it all with the curtain fabric. Easy peasy, and it does look quite nice as well, I think! :-)

I'm sewing quite a lot at the moment, all the time starting new projects and sometimes even finishing WIPs. When Jeni at In Color Order published her design for the Aurifil Block of the Month on Sunday, I couldn't resist giving it a try!



I used scraps in happy saturated colours and even decided to incorporate some leftover flannel. I was quite impatient to see the result, so this is not my finest piecing. Should have trimmed those HSTs! I think this block is really cool and scrap friendly and a couple of them would make a lovely little quilt! Well, let's see ...! Next, I would like to make a crib bumper and finish the feature panel fabric bowls, time and energy permitting. :-)