Baby bunnies

(Update from May 2010: here she is wearing the pants)






I bought this fabric at least a year ago at Portsmouth Fabric Company - a nubby Japanese cotton that reminds me of Runaway Bunny and a complementary orange-red quilting cotton with a delicate gold print. At first I planned to make something wonderful for Jonah. Then time passed. Now another baby is on its way and I wanted to make at least one very special (my husband would say, very outrageous) outfit for la quetsch. This is like the purple corduroy and Guatemalan striped ensemble I made for Jonah, i.e. one lined jacket (size 3 months) and two pairs of coordinating pants (size newborn and 3 months) all from Simplicity 3582. That feels like quite a lot from just two yards of fabric. Modifications: added two additional tabs for closure (having just two at the top is weird for a baby, in my opinion), used contrast fabric for the pocket flaps, and used contrasting red thread (which adds pressure to do an extra-good job top-stitching). I think the collar could be a bit taller but otherwise I adore this pattern.

Onesie trio +

A trio of onesies in anticipation of la quetsch's arrival, including a seasonal options for Passover, a Shabbat top, and a duo to wear to one's baby naming or bris. Specs: long-sleeved cotton onesies from Carter's, Electric Quilt Company printable cotton, Steam-a-Seam Lite, various scrap fabrics (vigilant readers will wonder where the adorable flannel bird came from...upcoming post will reveal all!).
Oops - forgot about this one from a few weeks back. Make that a trio PLUS. I guess the baby will have two Shabbat onesies. As above, except with a felt elephant from a Kwik-Sew pattern (not too sure how it will fare in the washer or dryer...).

Remakes

My friend Priya sent us a big box of wonderful toddler clothes a few weeks ago. Most of them went straight onto Jonah - a few got remade (sans brand names, sans footballs) as you see below:




This is the best one, in my book. It's a combo of some scrap fabric and a Carter's message that I'd peeled off a baby romper I just bough:

Lemongrass Quilt

I started this quilt at the end of January, to kick off my baby crafting for "la quetsch" (gender unknown, due 3/24). It's the Lemongrass Quilt by Laura Ducommun from the book Quilts, Baby! Here's her version: The inspiration for the colorway came from some Ikea fabric (Barnslig) that I bought in December: raspberry, lime, orange, and a slate-ish blue. These fabrics (Anna Maria Horner, Westminster/Rowan, Joel Dewberry, etc.) came from my LQS in Wellesley. The palette is quite a bit brighter than Ducommun's version, and avoids the large chunks of white which seemed unwise for a baby quilt.

One part of the quilt that I found challenging was cutting my perfect rectangles into random trapezoids (see below for after & before shot). This required wasting a lot of fabric and letting go of my usual tendency to set everything at right angles. Clearly the left side is more interesting, but I found it hard to do.

Initially, the directions are easy to follow and well-illustrated. My only complaint there is that the amount of fabric she calls for to make the orange rectangles (1 1/2 yards) is more than twice what I actually used (5/8 yards) - an unfortunate waste. I plan to use the remains for the binding, since the raspberry and blue are almost gone (she should call for more of these if she expects readers to make the binding from them, as she does).

As I continued to piece the blocks, however, I ran into serious trouble. Turns out that Ducommun's directions about the maximum size for orange rectangles can, once you've added even the skinniest permissible borders, leave you with blocks that are far bigger than the 11 x 14" finished size. I blindly followed her initial measurements (isn't that the point of buying a pattern with directions!?) and ended up in a quandary. Not being the start-over-to-do-it-right type, I settled for some borderless blocks (i.e. no lime on the outside) and one pathetic pentagon. Having to cut down my original blocks and retrofit them made piecing the front very time-consuming. For some reason, I had a really hard time planning how to size the lime strips to get my off-kilter blocks back into rectangles - something weak in my brain there. As a result, I had add little scraps of lime here and there to get everything to the right size. Oh, and another bonus - the amount of lime fabric she calls for is insufficient, so I bought another 1/4 yard. Here's where I ended up once I'd finagled everything I could:

Then I pieced the blocks together, made my sandwich with batting and backing, and spent two long nights watching the Olympics and basting the whole quilt in a spiral shape:

The next adventure was a really neat one: I tried free motion quilting for the first time! It took me some time to read all the good internet tutorials on the subject, buy the right canary yellow thread (not what I expected would match the lime sashing, but there you go), and figure out how to lower the feed dogs on my old Bernina. Then I dug out the table attachment, turned down my stitch length to 0, and started to sew concentric circles all over the quilt. I have terrible right/left coordination (can't rub my belly and pat my head simultaneously), so moving the quilt manually while using the right speed with the foot pedal was a huge challenge and yielded wildly varying stitch lengths. Other challenges included: the weight of the quilt pulling it off course and getting little jags in my lines every time I paused. Even being on vacation and home alone, it took me three days to get through this process.

I found that thread basting was a bad combination for this kind of machine quilting, because the loose basting stitches caught in the presser foot and had to be cut loose all the time. After much clipping of threads and removing of basting, I was done:


Then I used the detailed directions from Last-Minute Patchwork Gifts to do a hand-stitched double binding made from randomly pieced lengths of the leftover orange and raspberry fabrics, and gave it a wash in the machine to get some good crinkling action:

Notes for future iterations of this quilt:

1. Only buy 5/8 yard of fabric for block centers (not 1 1/2 yards), unless you want to bind in the same fabric. Buy 1 3/4 yards for sashing (not 1 1/2 yards).

2. Cut center rectangles smaller than directed so that there's room to fit in two more borders of at least 1 1/4" each. Final block must measure 11 x 14".

3. Rather than basting the quilt, place safety pins at the corner of each block. Buy special quilting safety pins that have a curve to them.

I did not want to love the monkeys

I received Quilts, Baby as a Hannukah gift and Laurraine Yuyama's Monkey Business quilt - with its nine intricately constructed appliqué monkeys - immediately caught my eye. I had to try just one. In fact, I figured that by trying one panel, I'd get this madness out of my head and be really excited to focus on my more modest, pre-existing baby craft projects. Three hours later (an exceedingly rare stretch of time made possible only by the fact that we were visiting my parents) I had one monkey, sans eyes but otherwise intact (the felt is in Jonah's room and I never remember to get it out before his bedtime). And he is so fetching. Really, just awesome.

Now, unfortunately, I'm hooked. Yes, I am due in 7 weeks. Yes, I will be working full-time until my water breaks. Yes, I already have another baby quilt (Lemongrass, from the same book) in the works. And an aran sweater. And a list of real tasks that matter - like installing a carseat and choosing baby names - that will inevitably get swept aside by this silliness. And yet:

All this could be mine!

Kimono Critique

I think Amy Butler and Heather Ross have the same learning disability. Or, more accurately, teaching disability. Both of these well-known fabric designers have published enticing books of sewing patterns, full of gorgeous pictures that just beg you to dive in and start stitching. Oh, but once you do...sewists' hell awaits! These beguiling patterns are positively poisonous: incorrectly sized, full of errors, and difficult to construct. I've already ripped into Miss Butler's ineptitude elsewhere, so today I will reserve my wrath for Miss Ross.

Weekend Sewing by Heather Ross was a lovely gift from my husband, who shopped slavishly from my Hannukah list this year (yay!). I decided to start with the baby kimono because I've been itching to make one, having seen a great tutorial on the web and considered, warily, Butler's version. Things started well: there was just enough of fabric from my back-to-school dress (which I turned out to be too pregnant to wear for the first day of school!) to make a kimono from the sheer red paisley cotton, and I happened to have some fuschia bias tape on hand. So, the project was a stash-busting freebie.

Constructing the kimono, while quick, was a process riddled with pesky problems. The shoulder seams puckered awkwardly at the neck edges when I applied bias tape to the neck opening. Ditto with the underarm seam. I have never, ever seen a pattern with this problem - how did she manage to invent it? The last straw was the side ties, of which Ross directs us to make four. That's a lot of very stiff ties on a tiny shirt for a tiny person. And, as it turns out, two of them (to your right in the photo below) could easily be replaced by a much smoother and tidier snap.

I really want to support all the young, funky women who are bringing independent sewing into the modern world. I love reading craft blogs and supporting people selling original patterns and materials. But if you can't even give directions for a smooth sleeve, then big-brand patterns have earned their place at the top of the pecking order. Having just completed a much more successful baby item from a traditional pattern, the contrast felt especially stark.

Harry Potter Hoodie

Just the thing for junior sorcerers!
I don't really understand the point of vests. In particular, I don't understand the point of a hooded fleece vest at all. I mean, if it's cold enough for fleece and a hood, wouldn't you want sleeves? Are there people whose arms just get very, very hot? I do not have this problem.

In any case, I somehow ended up sewing a hooded fleece vest this past week. Here's why: I bought this great lilac-blue fleece in December, when I thought I'd have the motivation to make a hat for a friend's toddler as a holiday gift...but it didn't happen. Amazingly, the same 1/2 yard sufficed to make a whole vest. As I've mentioned before and more than once, this pattern (Simplicity 5316) is super. I added 2" to the length this time as the earlier iterations are getting a bit cropped-looking.

The color is beautiful on Jonah's skin and the pattern has a fun, Harry Potter feel to it. Now I need to practice finding occasions on which he can wear such an odd piece of clothing.

Pregnant Friends: Do Not Read

Sorry to be starting these last two posts with warnings, but I am trying to balance the recording of my current work with surprising some dear mama friends later this winter...

I've already established that my new baby present of choice is an appliqué onesie & pants set, so here are the results. Despite having had a somewhat miserable vacation of family illness, I managed to crank out four sets. These cover all expected births between now and my due date...thus clearing the ground for me to craft for my very own Quetsch. As I do not know the gender of any of these little ones-to-be, I made two very girly sets and two basically-boyish-but-flexible sets. All 100% cotton, size 6 months.

Girly sets both look like this, from Alexander Henry fabric (which you can sometimes find at JoAnn - thrilling!):

Basically boyish sets look like this:
I am a polar bear despite my pointy snout!
and this:

Spinning gold out of cheap cotton

above: Annamoa and Barnslig I
below: Barnslig II, the Cecilias

Warning: this entry is strictly for fabric nerds and/or people who care to read my random thoughts about project design. No finished projects here, folks.


...will be one of this winter's challenges. I returned from an outing to Ikea with five new friends: two pre-cut Barnslig fabrics (3 meters = $8!), a one yard-plus chunk (clueless clerk seemed unfamiliar with concept of remnants and gave me what was left on bolt) of birdy Annamoa, and two one-yard cuts of Cecilia (this one and this one). Buying fabric at the Ikea counter involves stepping out of the store's seemingly flawless Northern Europe efficiency and into a dark corner of some second-world nation: there are no employees staffed to the area, and when you give up ringing the broken bell and find someone to help you from elsewhere, they spend oodles of old-fashioned effort to measure, cut, hand-search a binder for the product list, replace the bolts on shelves (while you wait? but of course!) and hand-write the barcodes and yardages on a plastic bag. I guess this is the fate meted out to those of us who stubbornly refuse Ikea's pre-sewn wonders and insist on turning to our machines. If any Ikea executives are reading this: please visit a national chain fabric store. They use machines that do all this work for you!

Okay, so on to what will come from this fabric. Herein lies the challenge. All but the Annamoa is thin cotton (flimsy or gauzy, depending on one's mood) and thus better suited to bedding than children's garments. But children's clothes are my thing, so I'm thinking about:

• linings for outerwear made of fleece or corduroy
• quilts that call for printed fabrics (I got this book for Hannukah and am scheming...)
• travel bags for dirty laundry
• quilt backings
• appliqués
• summer tops, pjs or shorts
• overalls or pants for pre-mobile babies

For the Annamoa, which is more of a home dec weight, I can imagine overalls or a spring/fall coat (with warm lining)...but the pattern is so large, its punch will be lost on a small body. This may be better suited to a wall hanging or large bag for a grown-up.

A few more baby gifts are in the works. If I get my son to nap properly in the coming days, I'll post again before I return to work.

Seeking Saner Baby Gifts

In the past - BB, Before Baby - I handknit a sweater for every new baby who was born in our social circles. Not custom work, just a steady stream of projects that alternated between vaguely girlish and vaguely boyish. I kept the finished creations neatly stacked in our back closet, ready to go. When Jonah was born, I had a few girl sweaters left in my stash. Now the stash has been empty for at least a year and I've been searching for a new baby gift that I could make on a more working-mom-friendly timeline (say, in one evening!?). So far, I've tried appliquéing store-bought clothes (which felt like not enough craft-love for a newborn), sewing felt booties (which I know from personal experience have a very short period of usefulness, although they are adorable), and now combining a simple hand-sewn project (elastic-waist pants) with an appliquéd store-bought onesie (ordered by the dozen). This début project just went out to Miss Micah Mandell, whose parents sent us the most amazing onesies (Jonah is *still* wearing one of them now at 17 months - whoa!). The fabric is an aqua print with tiny monkeys from RetroDepot. While the pants are generous (I used a Burda pattern and it seems too full around the ankles), my poor photography accentuates that even more. Everything's sized for 6 months, in which time spring should be arriving in Chicago...

First Day of School Dress

This summer I cleaned out every closet in our house (sounds impressive, but there are only four closets total and they weren't so so messy). The best thing I unearthed along the way was this dress, all cut out and ready to be stitched. I wish all projects started at this stage - it really speeds things up! It's a lined dress (Butterick 5510) with a crossover bodice, empire waist, cap sleeves, bias-cut skirt and side zipper. I made it from a lightweight, sheer Indian print cotton and lined it with a basic pink cotton. The wonderful surprise was that the dress fits perfectly. Perhaps I altered the pattern when I cut it out a few years ago? I have no idea. Whatever the reason, there's no pooch above the tush in the back, the armholes are the proper size, it's not at all low-cut (key for middle school teaching!), and the zipper is laying flat as a pancake along my side. I think the bias skirt is part of the great fit, and I'm wondering if it's possible that I haven't made another bias-cut project ever? Could that really be?

I look forward to wearing this dress on the first day of school. Dresses convey that no-nonsense, all-business image I'm going for in the classroom! And that I try, unsuccessfully, to get away from in other aspects of my life!

What a hoot!

I love this simple little overall pattern and thought it would be a make a lovely back-to-school outfit in wildly patterned cotton corduroy. The styling easily accommodates a cloth-diapered bum and is a snap to put together. Speaking of snaps, the crotch is all snap tape. I'd like to find a supplier of snap tape who places the snaps further apart, though, since Jonah's father and daycare provider both cannot be troubled with all that fussiness. As I did not take the time to match the front pieces, there is one owl who is bisected in a rather tragic way - otherwise, I am very happy with the results!

Synthetic Synthesis

I have Complicated Feelings about polar fleece. My basic rule for fiber arts is, if it's worth making yourself, it's worth making out of natural fibers. This probably goes back to my mom's imposition of all-cotton undies as a child, reinforced by Elizabeth Zimmermann's vehemence on this topic ("For people allergic to wool, one's heart can only bleed" - Knitting Without Tears). And yet. Fleece is warm, stretchy, easy to care for, and in the winter, lets us keep the heat a lot lower in the apartment than I'd otherwise tolerate. It even repels baby spit-up, as I learned last winter!

With these contradictory emotions spinning in my head, I bought a very cheap remnant of sage-colored fleece at JoAnn's several months ago. After succeeding with my first hoodie, I decided to make another out of fleece. It was satisfying to repeat the same pattern just a few weeks later - I remembered to stitch closer to the zipper so that less of the tape would show, and I correctly made a flat felled seam (rather than a French seam) on the hood.

I also got to use up my grandma's vintage plaid bias tape, which has been hanging around the sewing basket I inherited from her for at least 20 years. This was one of those beautiful moments that reinforces all of your hoarding - I had *exactly* the right amount of tape to cover the zipper and make the ties for the matching cap (see below). Erma was smiling on me from heaven, clearly - and she was not such a smiley lady!

Another fun garnish was a sheep appliqué that I bought at the Droguerie, a fabulous French craft shop, in Strasbourg in July. I usually find appliqués tacky, but honestly, there is nothing tacky about the Droguerie. C'est très classe!

I also made a bomber cap with some of the leftover fleece (same pattern, Simplicity 5316). I am still feeling guilty that last winter, I sent Jonah to daycare without a hat that stayed on (I just really wanted him to wear the hat I'd knitted, you know? And I didn't have anything else...). So I spent some time in the sweltering August heat making this, to prevent any mishaps this coming winter:
I am sure these articles will look adorable on baby Jonah, but it would be cruel to dress him in fleece on a day like today. Hopefully I'll remember to take some pictures when the weather chills out a bit.

Funked Out Peasant Blouse

My sister said she'd buy me this Lila Tueller pattern for my birthday if I promised not to make it out of super-crazy fabrics. I may have broken my promise! I found it difficult to choose the right trio of fabrics for this top (perhaps the companionship of my impatient toddler added to this).

Now, about the pattern. I had a rough start. There are no directions for layout and cutting. The upper front piece is missing the notches that are shown on the directions. And the first sentence of the pattern contains an error about where to baste (it's at the lower edge, not the upper one). HOWEVER, it was all uphill from here. The top came together nicely and the details were clearly explained. It would have been nice for Ms. Tueller to do the math on the proper length of elastic for the neckline (so as to avoid waste) and the circumference of the blouse in different sizes, but I made notes on the pattern for my size so that I can refer to them next time around.
Here you can see the details at the top:
And here's the side zip, which does not bend or pooch at all! However, the stitching is a bit wobbly. And that's with more than 20 years of sewing experience, honors Home Ec. included, alas.

My individual touches: I didn't have elastic thread (and didn't realize at the time that I could buy it at my local hardware shop, rather than drive 30 minutes to JoAnn's!) so I made an inner casing with twill tape and ran 10" of 1/4" elastic through the casing. I did add elastic to the front under the bust, which is an option listed at the end of the pattern. This improved the fit quite a bit. I made a size 12 and it fits well - the directions explain that these sizes run very small, which is true since I'm usually a size 4 at the store.

Next time I'd like to make the top in closely matched neutrals for a more sophisticated, monochromatic look. I'd also choose really soft, thin fabrics so that I get more drape and less stiffness around my bust and elbow gathers.