Rainy Day Thank Yous

Wow, today is a fall day! Yesterday I used my car's air conditioning and today I used its heater! I was hoping for another nice day to sit outside at some park and read in the sun, but oh well! Instead I spent a few hours making baby shower thank yous!

A Little Dress for Haly

A few months ago when my mom and I were at Pacific Fabrics looking for diaper cover supplies, I discovered that they had a cute Oliver + S pattern on their clearance rack! I had been admiring their cute little girl dress patterns on their site for a few weeks, but didn't want to pay full price. Since I've been granted some sitting-up privileges by my doctor, I've spent a few hours over a couple days cutting and sewing the Tea Party Dress together.

The pattern came with 5 sizes, so I started by tracing th pattern onto a pattern sheet so I can use other sizes as I want them. I decided to go for the 6-12 month size this time, hoping that it will fit Haly next summer. If not, then I'll put a onesie under it and call it a jumper! This was a pretty basic pattern to cut and sew. The hardest part of the instructions to understand was the part about the yellow piping I added. If you've sewed much before, you should be able to figure it out without really needing the pattern instructions. One change I made was to not use buttons or make button holes. Instead, I again used my amazing 16mm snaps from the Snap Source.

My favorite part about this project is the main fabric I used! It is a cute little Strawberry Shortcake print from 1980 left over from something my Grandmother made, most likely for a cousin. I've had it in my stash for years and loved it, but never quite knew what to do with it. I still have more that I'm trying to find some cute project to use more of it.

Halcyone's Hexagon Bib

I saw a picture of a bib someone had made with hexagons that I got my idea from. I have no idea where the picture came from, but here is what I ended up with!

I started by making hexagons. This meathod is called English Paper Piecing. This video is an excellent tutorial if you want to give it a try! Here are the steps I followed:

• Make evenly shaped hexagons out of cardstock scraps.
• Cut fabric scraps to go over the paper. I'd recommend a little more than a 1/4" allowance.
• Baste the fabric over the hexagons.
• Lay the hexagons out to make sure you have the colors set up in a way you like.
• Whip stitch the edges of the hexagons together at the edges.
• Iron once they're all sewn together
• Remove baste stitching and pull out papers. If the papers don't look too worn, you can save and use them again.

Once I had the hexagons all sewn together, I cut a piece of fabric and sewed it across the top. I used a piece of an old skirt for the back. To get the pieces to stick together for when I cut out the pattern, I very lightly spray basted the backing, a piece of warm and natural cotton batting, and the hexagon piece together. After it dried, I pinned a pattern I made (I traced a Carter's bib, making the neck space a little bigger.) to the fabric stack and cut it out. I machine quilted the layers together. For the binding I used some bias cut binding made from more scraps I had. To finish it up, I used some great 16mm snaps (no sew!) from the Snap Source. Now I can't wait to use it!

Halcyone's First Sweater!

I started this sweater for Halcyone last Tuesday and finished sewing up the seams today! I love the way it turned out! I picked up the free pattern a little over a year ago at Ben Franklin when I saw the one they had made with some of my favorite yarn. While looking through my stash of yarn last week, I re-found my yellow Lion Brand Recycled Cotton yarn and decided to give it a try. You can still get the Nature Baby Kimono pattern free at Ben Franklin in Redmond, or download it here with a free account.

This is one of the easiest non-scarf knitting patterns I've ever done. The whole thing is made with basic knit and purl stitches, a few easy "make-1" stitches (knit one in front and one in back of the same loop), and knit 2 together stitches. I made the smallest size of the 4 given in the pattern using size 8 straight needles. This took 2 skeins of yarn (didn't use much of the 2nd skein). I think if someone used a smaller size needle for a newborn size that 1 skein would be enough.