A Handmade Childhood : Stroller Blanket

It is alarming how fast time is going, already I am entering my third trimester. Every weekend is taken over with getting different chores and tasks done before the baby arrives. It also means I need to get some baby projects under my belt. This week I made this stroller blanket that was wonderfully easy to do and a great asset considering similar blankets sell in baby stores for at least $45. It is one piece of quilting weight cotton backed with fleece. The baby is scheduled to arrive in February and a cold winter  has been predicted so this will keep her cozy. I love this pattern and I love that the blanket is not ultra girly or cutesy.  The finished size is 30 1/2" x 30 1/2" and the fleece makes it lightweight but soft and warm. I will give you one warning, fleece can be quite stretchy. If you use a sewing machine, loosen the tension a little and pick a longer stitch or zig zag, having a larger seam allowance, as opposed to the tradition quarter inch helps too.

I got the cherry blossom fabric from 'Gather Fabrics' on Etsy. She has a lovely selection of patterns including child friendly designs. Here are some other fabric suggestions, I've got to admit it took a lot of willpower not to buy them all myself.:

Follow Liz's board Stroller Blanket Fabric Ideas on Pinterest.

You Will Need

31 inch square of patterned fabric in cotton poplin/quilting weight cotton or linen

31 inch square of fleece OR cotton batting for a lighter blanket

Thread

Sewing machine

pins

• Pin the right side of the fabric to the less fluffy side of the fleece
• Sew with a half inch seam but leave a couple of inches not sewed so you can turn it the right way
• Remove all pins!
• Turn right side out and use a broad knitting needle or stick of some kind to poke into the corners to make them sharp
• Iron the blanket
• Fold the seams of the fleece and cotton in where the opening is and pin together
• Sew this up
• You're done!

This was a quick project but you could make one with a patchwork top or simply applique some fun shapes onto the fleece itself. I am thinking of making one with lighter cotton batting for the warmer months.  It could be a great gift too: make a bigger one for a bedspread or a lap blanket.

A Handmade Childhood: Beginner Knitting Projects for Babies

My weekend started off with steely grey skies and a drive home from work and seeing everyone dressed up for Halloween. I checked the mail to discover that my parents had sent me some of my old story books that they had found from my childhood.
This was really thrilling because two of them were ones I had been looking for online and couldn't find. It was quite intense to read them again and instantly be transported back to my childhood. I remembered so many lines from my favorite stories.  It reminded me of how powerful books can be and how children's books can hold a special place in our hearts. They were where we learned that different things were possible. I have been working on a children's book secretly for a while and want to illustrate it. I have kept it a secret because I think there is a belief people think anyone can write a children's book. Anyway receiving these books inspired me.

On Saturday we woke up to this! I loooove cold weather and although we knew the snow was coming, I don't think anyone was really convinced that it would look like this.

Of course this was a perfect excuse to stay cozy inside and I was able to indulge me new knitting obsession. Sewing projects for the nursery have been put on hold until we paint so that means I am knitting up a storm and learning tons. Below are links to a couple of projects I found that taught me new knitting skills. If you are also new to knitting I recommend you give them a try. They are both for booties I admit, but to be honest they are great starting projects because they can be completed quickly and don't use up a great deal of yarn (perfect if you're worried you'll make mistakes, as I was).
IMPORTANT TIP
I decided that I wanted to budget a little so I bought size 7 metal knitting needles to use. This was a mistake - wooden or bamboo are much better for beginning because there's a bit of friction which prevents the stitches sliding off. I had a great pair of Clover Takumi needles when I first took up knitting again a couple of years ago and found them much easier to use. Just don't accidentally slam one in  the car door like I did!

Practice Knitting Stitches Together and Ribbing

 

I found this video and made the booties you see above. It isn't the best video in the world - for a start they really should have filmed her from behind so all the instructions make sense to what you're seeing - and there's actually a mistake in it. However someone in the comments section  has kindly listed the correct steps. I also don't love the final shape, as my friend pointed out, they would be good for a baby robot since they're rather square!  That said, it was a good starting point.

 

Practice Casting On Extra Stitches

These little booties are very sweet and it was great for practicing adding extra stitches to a piece. The pattern calls for casting on extra stitches at the beginning and end of  the piece you've been knitting so that you end up with a  T-shaped piece of fabric (fabric is what knitters call your knitted piece). Before embarking on the project I of course had to look up how to do this. Fortunately I had just bought the book Stitch n Bitch which has great instructions on how to do just about everything for knitting. However this tutorial is quite good too.

The original project is in French but there is a translation. 

http://pruline.canalblog.com/archives/2010/01/04/16385448.html 

I am very pleased with the results. They are adorable and should be tiny enough for a new born. The pattern didn't call for adding buttons but I added some to give a little flare.

More Resources

If you are bitten by the knitting bug as I have been you should definitely sign up for an account with Ravelry. It's an amazing resource with thousands of knitting projects that you can sort by type, difficulty, what size needles you want to use, and more. Some projects you have to pay for but there are a wealth of free ones too.

I have also signed up to a knitting community on Google + called The Knitting Lodge. They have virtual knit-alongs four times a week. Maybe I'll see you there :)

Finally here's my play list of videos of beginner techniques for sewing. I will keep adding to it as I learn more techniques. I tried hard to find videos that are clear with good production value from channels that are still active - not as easy as you might think.

Repurposed Flour Sack Laundry Bags

This project is so easy and requires so little skill, I am not even sure I can call it a craft project. Yet it is the simplest ideas that are often the best. These laundry bags are the perfect size for baby clothes and because they hang up save you much needed space.

I have a love of vintage flour sacks, the designs are usually fun and random, I mean look at the ones below. I bought these at a local vintage store for $7 each, but you can get them cheaper (and more expensive!) from EBay or Etsy. I personally would never pay more than $10 for one and even then it would have to be a pretty special flour sack!

You also need an embroidery hoop. I used an 8 inch because I happened to have one lying around. You could easily stretch to a 9 or 10 inch.  These sacks were  inches in width.
Ok here's the hard part :)

- get you embroidery hoop and separate the two pieces 

- put the hoop over the sack at the top

- open up the sack and fold a couple inches of the opening over the loop

- play around with how it gathers so that you can see the picture most clearly

- put the outside piece of the embroidery hoop over the opening with the screw at the back

- tighten the loop

I found that the screw sat perfectly on my door hook but you might need to add a loop depending on where you hang the bag.

You may wonder once it's full whether the bag might slide out of the hoop. I checked, it doesn't. The friction of the cotton and wood from the hoop create a nice grip and you just have to make sure you fold enough of the opening over. See below.

I plan to make a second one so that I can divide light and dark laundry. I will post more ridiculously easy flour sack projects soon!

New Ebook of Nursery Sewing Projects Planned

Pablo, one of my assistants

Winne, another assistant

It was interesting when we announced to the world that the baby I am carrying is a girl. Suddenly it seemed more real to everyone, and our friends and family started to muse over what she would be like. What she be girly? Would she be a tomboy? In the words of Doris Day, Que Sera. Honestly, we have no idea who this little sprout will become. we can't control that directly. What we can do is decide who we want to be as parents and what sort of an example we want to set. My husband is generous and warm, so we have that covered! I on the other hand, looked at my life and thought. What I am doing is fine, it's enjoyable enough and pays the bills, but it's not much more than that.  I look at all those creative people on sites like The Selby or Freunde von Freunden and think how much I would like to be one of them.

Which leads me to the evolution of the nursery and how for me it's not just about making a pretty room. When I was born I didn't have a nursery, I was the youngest of four and didn't get my own room until I was seven. So to me, having a room that we are designing just for our baby is a big deal. And given my love of crafts and sewing why not fill it with things I have made especially for her? It has become a way of preparing myself as well as the space for the arrival of our first child. I love the notion that she will be surrounded by things that were handcrafted not mass-produced and essentially disposable. While doing this, I realized that maybe this would be the start of something more. A book of projects that I can share with other expectant parents (or friends and family of) so that they too can enjoy the unique ritual of making something with love.

And that's what I plan to do in the coming months. I already have a list of projects to create and I will use this blog to post updates on how its going. It will  be an ebook of nursery projects including throw pillows to more functional items such as laundry bags and changing table accessories.

Creating a Handmade Childhood: Patchwork Baby Quilt

The first baby project to be completed! It's a crib 'quilt'. Technically it's not a quilt because I didn't quilt it. It's a good feeling to create something for the little sprout, it's as if we are building a welcome for her.

The pattern is from Joann Fabrics. I will warn you that the instructions are a bit vague so if you're new to quilting, it may be difficult to follow. I used a natural grey linen to incorporate the zakka aesthetic I want for the nursery. I will be using the same linen for throw pillows and other accents which I hope will give the nursery some feeling of unity while allowing for me to play around with prints and patterns.

The fabric came from all over the place, Etsy or Fabric.com are good places to find some that may either be similar or indeed the same. The design of multicolored Spirographs is from Ikea. Once the quilt was assembled, I backed it with a type of quilting batting that doesn't need to be covered, you can get it here. It's beautifully soft and makes for a lightweight quilt.

Making Peace with my Sewing Machine

Ugh Monday. I know. But, I hope you all had a great weekend. Mine was pretty fun as I finally got to work on a project for the baby, a quilt. I have to admit that I have been dragging my feet a little on this one because I have a love-hate relationship with my sewing machine. For years I was convinced that it had screwy tension, when really it was user error. You see the blessed thing is old and was passed to me after going through various owners. The model isn't made anymore and I didn't have a manual. Turns out I have been threading it all wrong, how did I find out? I checked online. Now it works like a dream!

So off I went sewing patches and amazing myself at how little time it took - I admit I have hand-sewn a lot of projects because, well, I was afraid of the sewing machine. It was wonderful to have a fall chill in the air, listening to the young kids next door play their drums and think about my mum and all the sewing tricks she taught me. My first driving and sewing lesson came together when she explained that using the pedal on the sewing machine is like using a gas pedal.  Sewing for me is more than making things, it connects me with my mum and my life growing up in the UK. Maybe one day I will teach my own little sprout. Hopefully I will have some pictures of the quilt soon as I want to finish next weekend and move on to the next thing for the nursery.

Baby Crafts

At 35 (almost 36) I am pregnant with my first child. We recently found out we're having a girl which is exciting and terrifying at the same time. My husband and I definitely dragged our feet about starting a family because we were too busy living in Zambia or moving to Asheville and having a wonderful time as a couple. A few friends that had become parents tried to convince me that it was an amazing thing to do that would change your life. "You'll never experience such joy and love" yeah, yeah.  "It's so fulfilling" great but I feel pretty fulfilled already thank you very much. Nope none of this was convincing. There was one thing they should've said that would've got me on the procreating bandwagon in a heartbeat. "You will have endless opportunities to do crafts!" What??? "You get to design a nursery." SOLD. OMG the crafts! There are quilts to be made and pillows and little baby things. AND there's the chance to make maternity clothes. Consequently I pretty much live on Pinterest which is my new favorite thing.  In the next few months I'll be posting what I make.  Then when the baby's born I imagine there will be a long silence while we navigate the chaos. I've decided on a zakka themed nursery which makes me very happy. On the board below a lot of the fabric or color choices aren't my taste, but the projects are great.

My Friend's New Etsy Shop

Apart from finding someone amazing and having a great time with them, being married also means my friend pool has extended and I have met some amazng people through Chad. One of these people is a very good friend who has opened her new shop on Etsy called Crashbox Design - this is also the name she uses for her graphic design work.

She makes these great pictures with names on, we got one as a wedding present and I love it. It's so simple but effective and I love the fact she respected that we are keeping our names.

If you interested in graphic design, here is her site for that.