Baby Oh Baby – Page 2

Fuschia, not Fuchsia

16 Comments / April 18, 2018 April 18, 2018 / Baby Oh Baby, Knitting

How’s it going out there? I’m seeing a lot of whining out there from those of us in the northern hemisphere about the winter that won’t die. Here it is April 18th and we’re supposed to get an inch or two of snow tonight! You won’t hear any complaining out of me though — I love winter. I can keep wearing sweaters and mittens! ;-D

When we were in Utah a few weeks ago, I dragged SweetiePie to a little yarn shop and asked her to pick a color of yarn so that I could make FinallyAGirl a new little sweater. I was lucky enough to be a pattern tester for a cute little size 2 sweater, designed by an Australian Instagram friend. I LOVED knitting this cute little sweater, even though it felt like I took forever to get it done.

I mis-read the pattern and made a mistake when I got the yarn, so my gauge turned out a little large. It’s ok though because we’re going into summer here, so I’m hoping this sweater won’t fit until next fall/winter. The yarn is Louet Gems in the Fuschia colorway. (And, yes, I know that’s spelled wrong, but that’s the way it’s spelled on the yarn band.) It’s a machine washable and dryable {gasp! I would never!} 100% merino yarn. I was using needles that were really too small for this yarn (trying to get gauge LOL), so it was a little hard to work. I love the final result though — the texture is soft but still firm, so I think it should hold it’s shape well.

The pattern will be released soon and it’s called the Daisy Basket Cardigan. Debby made the original with really cute little daisy buttons. I found some daisy buttons, but I didn’t like their color with this hot pink, so, when I saw these little kitty buttons, I couldn’t resist.

I love how Debby divided the bottom from the top of the sweater. That row of slanted stitches is just so sweet. And the basketweave pattern has such a wonderful texture — I just want to keep fondling it LOL. I think this little sweater will be so cute with dresses and blue jeans — I can’t wait to see it on FinallyAGirl.

And look at this cute little book that I found to give her with her new sweater. It’s all about how much Grandma loves her little Bunny.

When I saw that Grandma knits, wraps her little bunny in pink quilts AND makes cupcakes, well … I knew this little book was coming home with me! I MUST give this book to MY little bunny!

Ok, back to work boys and girls. I’ve been painting trim in the house and as much as I love to paint, it hasn’t been that fun. It’s taking too long — bring on the weekend!

XOXO,
Anna

Little Pink Dress

24 Comments / October 15, 2017 October 15, 2017 / Baby Oh Baby, Knitting

Ahhh. Another few slow weeks sped by. That sounds like it should be some sort of oxymoron, but it works like this: Not much going on around here, but time sure seems to fly by — I’m a little scared by the fact that it’s mid-October already. I have been doing some handwork while watching tv with MeMum. We’ve started watching Call The Midwife. I knew it would be a good series, but Oh. My. I LOVE it! I intentionally waited through several seasons before I started watching – hoping the episodes would pile up so we could have some great binge-watching. It’s sure been worth the wait. Aside from scenes that make me cry and BABIES, how can you not love a group of ladies that get together during stressful times and make granny squares to give to one of their beloved group?

I was also cleaning out a few pictures and realized I’d never showed this little dress that I knit for FinallyAGirl. I made it for her last winter (it may have even been a Christmas gift?) but it was a little large. She finally grew into it over the summer and wore it a time or two when we visited over Labor Day.

The pattern is the Mabel Dress from Simple Knits for Cherished Babies by Erika Knight. Unfortunately I can’t remember which yarn I used — maybe a Spud and Chloe? I thought I’d made a 12 – 18 month size, but the pattern shows the biggest size as 6 – 9 months, so, not sure what happened there either — FinallyAGirl is 14 months old in these pictures.

I love everything about this dress. The sweet yoke, all the plain stockinette stitch, and the garter stitch highlights. That back hem is a little pesky, but I think it just needs to be blocked a little after every washing. The pattern didn’t have any buttons down the back — just a ribbon at the neck. I looked at the versions on ravelry and I didn’t like the way the opening left a big gaping hole, so I added a little band of extra stitching on the left side of the back yoke and added buttonholes on the right side. Then I took the pico edging on the neckline and extended it down the right side of the opening. A quick, easy way to close up that hole, plus, it added the fun of choosing some cute buttons.

And, just like that, another weekend is over. Back to the dungeon tomorrow haha. I hope you have a wonderful week!
XOXO,
Anna

Baby Sewing

23 Comments / June 23, 2017 June 23, 2017 / Baby Oh Baby, Sewing

Thank You for all the birthday love for our little FinallyAGirl. We sure had a fun birthday weekend and I wish we could do it all again! Sadly, the little family is moving to Utah this week — they’re in the middle of the move as we speak. The U-Haul full of goods is somewhere in Wyoming, FinallyAGirl and her Mummy are flying today, and the Girls Roadtrip Car Brigade (that’s MyDadLovesMeBestSister, MeMum and I) will be leaving soon. I LOVE a good Roadtrip, so I can’t wait!

As I mentioned in my last post, I made some clothes for FinallyAGirl for her first birthday. In the rush of getting everything done, there wasn’t time to get any pictures of her actually IN her new clothes, but I’ll be working on that in the next week or two. In the meantime, here’s all my fun sewing:

I made two little dresses/tops and two rompers. Here’s the first dress — a little ruffly, girly sundress. The pattern is Elyse by Bonnie Blue Designs and the fabrics are Sarah Jane’s Summer Garden Bloom and the Japanese honeycomb dots in pink.

This is a super easy pattern — although, with all those ruffles, not particularly quick. I do love a cute little ruffle-butt though!

For the other little dress, I wanted something fairly simple-looking. I had a white linen blend in my stash and I teamed it up with the Spechler Vogel Pima Cotton Classic 1/32″ Check in Red from my little etsy shop.

I embroidered these little red and blue flowers at the pleats and then gave them a tiny button center. (The instructions for these flowers are contained in the Blair romper pattern mentioned below.)

The pattern is Butterick 3405 and I had to make a little Purl Soho sunbonnet to match. FinallyAGirl will be living in the land of sunshine-all-the-time, so she’ll need a little face/eye protection. We LOVE those Purl Soho bonnets!

SweetiePie will probably not thank me for having buttons all the way down the back — FinallyAGirl is a wiggly little baby — she doesn’t have time for dressing as it interferes with play time! Hopefully a little flag ribbon and stamp at the side seams will make up for it ;-D.

After dresses, I made two little rompers — we LOVE babies in rompers ! The first little romper came from a free pattern that was included with the Summer 2016 issue of Classic Sewing Magazine. It’s called the Blair Romper and I very unimaginatively used the same fabric that they used in the magazine – Liberty of London Phoebe in pink and aqua. There are four white flower buttons at the shoulders, but I had to wait to put them on until I had a rough idea of where to place them. FinallyAGirl will have a little growing room in this bubble.

I’ve saved my favorite for last ;-DDDD. This little bubble is from a downloadable Australian pattern (of course!) — the Rose Bud Romper by Felicity Sewing Patterns. I LOVE this cute pattern and the instructions were very detailed and easy to follow. The straps are just pinned to the hanger in this picture, but they’ll actually be tied into cute bows on the baby’s shoulders. The fabric is Liberty of London Felicite in Pink and Blue.

Another sunbonnet and ruffle-butt! I can’t wait to see FinallyAGirl wearing this little outfit.

So, Grandma got a little carried away this time. Can you tell that after only boys, I’m having a great time sewing for a little girl LOL??? Ok — must run — lots to do! Have a wonderful weekend!!!
XOXO,
Anna

A Birthday Party

22 Comments / June 19, 2017 June 19, 2017 / Baby Oh Baby

Ya Know. {Sigh.} These gaps between posting seem to be getting looonger! And I keep thinking things will slow down a little more. Really, I keep telling myself, they will. We’ve been in a swirl of activity with the kids this month as they get ready for their big move out west AND the big one-year-old birthday — this week!

You may remember last summer I posted this picture of our little cherub shortly after she was born.

And this weekend, we took a follow-up picture. Our little princess has GROWN! And how different it was to take her picture now. It was a hurried affair trying to keep her happy — she didn’t like being up on that pile of “matresses”. We were in such a hurry that we forgot to make the bed properly LOL!

We had a little family birthday party for her this weekend too. LOTS of pink and lots of fun.

I was in Columbus, Ohio last weekend and I found these darling birthday party hats. When I saw they were made to look like Liberty fabric, of course, we had to have them.

Aren’t they cute???

We had a traditional little birthday party — but without the games haha. We ate lunch and then had cake and ice cream. We had a little smash cake for FinallyAGirl, but, having never had any sugar, she wasn’t really sure about the whole cake and frosting thing. (It didn’t help either, that she’d just had a very large lunch and wasn’t hungry at all.) I think the sugar confusion was enough at one point for her to see if maybe those cute balloons might taste really good too LOL!

We had lots of fun and it was so sweet for our family members to give up part of their Father’s Day to join us. We took lots of pictures (because that’s what you do to get a few that you love. ;-) )

I can’t believe how quickly this year has passed. We adore our little FinallyAGirl — she’s such a sweet little cutie and she knows just how to melt her Grammy’s heart — which she did rather effectively several times this weekend. What a fun, wonderful year we’ve had (and I’m betting even her sleep deprived parents would say the same thing! ;-D )

XOXO,
Anna

P.S. This Grandma did some sewing for her little cherub and when I get some pictures organized, I’ll post all about it.

Save

Three Things

31 Comments / May 3, 2017 May 3, 2017 / Baby Oh Baby, Sewing, Smocking

1. Yipee! We have a finish over here! FinallyAGirl’s little spring bunny dress is all smocked and done. It would have been nice to have finished it by Easter, but we had a little unplanned hospital time with TheManoftheHouse, so there were other priorities. It’s all good though — little bunnies are just as happy in the spring and summer as they are at Easter!

I purchased my patterns online at The Children’s Corner Store. The dress pattern is Lee and the pattern for the smocking is Baby Bunnies. There are kits available, but I had my own fabric — the pink 1/64″ pima cotton microcheck that is available in my little etsy shop. I love this teeny little check — it’s so sweet and it was a dream to smock.

I put my favorite little flower buttons on the back and added white piping where I could. I really wanted to add piping on the sleeve cuffs, but I wasn’t sure those little bias strips of fabric would be very happy with a straight-cut piping putting a crimp on their stretchy style. There’s a deep hem in this dress — maybe with any luck, FinallyAGirl will be able to wear it next Easter. Or, maybe, with even better luck, she’ll wear it out this summer and I can make another dress! ;-D

2. I updated my blog header. Yipee Again!!!

3. I was surfing around Ted Talks the other day and ran across this interesting talk by the author of “Still Alice”. “What You Can Do To Prevent Alzheimer’s”. My first reaction was to go learn how to knit. But I already know how to do that, so, I need to find some new skills to learn. Every. Day.

Here’s to smooth sailing into the weekend!
XOXO,
Anna