My Supertote

Ta-dah. Introducing the first real bag I've ever made!!!! :D

Supertote pattern by Anna of Noodlehead.

It's the first time I try one of Anna's patterns, and I'm super pleased with the final product. Anna's instruction are straightforward and clear! Here are some notes that came to mind while making this bag:

1. My least favorite part of sewing - preparing the fabric, cutting the pieces. This pattern has a lot of pieces. Over the course of a week or so, I cut and prepared my fabric pieces. Then the nice little bundles stayed on my sewing table for a few days while I recovered from that! hahaha!

2. The little squares on the exterior pocket are what spurred me to make this Supertote in the first place. Having ordered some beautiful fabric from Alison Glass (Petal in Eggplant from the Handcrafted range; planning to make a summer dress with that), there were a few samples of her Sun Print line in the package when it arrived. Ooh, I had to make something that would show off these colorful squares.

3. I decided to use an old pair of jeans to create a reinforced gusset layer. Needless to say, when I was sewing the lining to the bag exterior, throught the pleat region, there were about 8 layers of material there. So as not to damage my machine and needle, I slowing (and manually) passed the needle through the fabric. I see now, after a few weeks of use, that the stitches are sort of loosening, so I may have to hand-stitch those spots closed. Maybe. This kind of hand sewing is not my favorite thing! ;)

4. The interior pockets are indeed roomy as Anna describes in the pattern. However, I think I made mine a tad too roomy. Probably because I didn't tighten the elastic enough. The pockets gape open a bit, so they function more as dividers than pockets. At some point I may un-stitch the lining and try to tighten the elastics, but perhaps I'll just leave them as they are at the moment.

5. I used a thrifted and dyed bed sheet as the fabric for the lining. I should have realized that a used bed sheet will have thinner regions in the fabric where head and/or feet will have worn away the thread. Thus, the main compartment of my inner lining bag is a bit thread-bare, it may need replacement at an earlier timepoint than expected. ah well.

6. I always keep (tiny) left-over scraps from a project, thinking to myself, "one day this will come in handy". Well, making this Supertote, I was able to use up a tiny piece of yellow cotton containing orange flowers for the zipper tabs, and a half-yard cut of a yellow paisley cotton that I had bought years in a quilting shop just because I liked the yellowness of it ;) It's yellowness matched (almost) perfectly with the yellow of the inner lining, so yay to using up some of my scrap stash!

7. Altogether, this bag took a couple of evenings to construct. However, it was "in-the-making" for about 5-6 weeks! Ha! A few days after I finished making the bag, we went on holiday. So I brought it for it's maiden voyage, and it's definitely a great travel bag due to it's roomy-ness.

Right, on to the next project! (ignoring the growing pile of clothes that need mending....)

Sending hugs in the post :: part 2

For my mother, I took an old wool sweater of mine, one she knew well from the time I still lived at home, and cut out a large love-heart. Onto this I hand-sewed some felt flowers (continuing my felt obsession), and machine-appliquéd a smaller love-heart onto the front, made with a scrap of woolly sweater and some fabric (from a thrift-store shirt, the same one I used to make a mini doll shirt out of).

The same thrift-store shirt served as the backing for creating a....cushion. I stuffed it full of polyfill, cuddled it for a few evenings, and then shipped it off to the green isle.

Edit to add ::

Unfortunately the postal company that was in charge of delivering the package within Ireland is a complete joke; I used Track-and-Trace, and although online it stated that delivery had been attempted several times, there was no trace of it being anywhere near my mother's home.

At least the package made it's way safely back to me...I will have to give this heart to my mother in person. An excellent reason for a visit, don't you think? ;)

Sending hugs in the post :: part 1

I don't live in the same country as my mother or my sister. We are spread around Europe, just a few hours away by aeroplane. We can visit the lush greenery of Ireland to see my mother, and we can bask in the hot sunshine when visiting my sister in the south of Spain. They come here (the Netherlands) to marvel at the intricate grid systems of canals and windmills that keep the fields and cities safe from flooding.

The modern world allows us to keep in touch via Skype and What's App etc, but it doesn't replace the comfort of a hug. A real, in-person, hug. Nothing ever will.

But some things can come close. Let me show you what I made as substitutes for hugs for when we are not around each other in person.

For my sister, I made a doll, using the pattern from this wonderful book, De Poppen van Tante Hilde. I love that this book gives you the basics (doll and clothing) and then the sky is the limit. This is my second time making a doll like this (the first one lives in Germany now), and I love the results.

Using an old t-shirt of mine as the body, which I dyed slightly with coffee to darken it from white-beige to a bit of a darker beige, and some interesting gold/green/beige cotton for her torso (I didn't have enough t-shirt material left due to a cutting error! Oops!), this little woman came to life.

I decided to give her a felt hair style, which I machine stitched with a decorative flower-like stitch. I ended up not including the bear ears as depicted in the middle image above...

I upcycled a thrift-store shirt to create a mini-version for the doll (again, using the pattern for the open blouse from Tante Hilde's book). I managed to keep the original buttons, so from cutting to finished product, this little item of clothing was made in a jiffy! For her skirt, I used some left over corduroy originating from an old pair of my husband's trousers. Mini-man and Big Brother contributed to the doll by drooling on, or playing with her before I wrapped her up for posting.

 

I added a box of different tea-bags for my sister's partner, and sent the whole thing...by snail mail (a self-carved stamp, inspired by this lovely book by Gennine; and she has a great online resource if you want to try it out yourself).

And I can happily say that she was well received by the recipient :) Yay! Now there's a little bit of the four of us keeping my sister company even though we are far from each other.

Two Milos

I've had Georgie Hallam's Milo pattern in my Ravelry library for a long time. At the end of October last year, I finally cast on to knit one. Here are my Ravelry notes with yarn details. I decided to make an 18month size, for my (then) 7 month old. Ha. My idea was that if this project was put on the shelf (as many of my knitting projects do) then perhaps it would be at least finished by my son's 2nd winter (i.e 2015/2016!).

I took it to work with me, and while I pumped, I knitted. It was a nice way to spend those pumping sessions, instead of being stuck on my smart phone! This strategy worked as I finished this Milo vest in record time: about a month!!!!! One thing struck me...the vest looked huge. I  guess my tension was a bit looser than my swatch tension.

 I tried it on the mini-man, and as expected, it was way too big. Although he has worn it a few times, so its not that huge on him. By eye, it looked like it might fit the big brother, so I asked him if he wanted to try it on, and after a little hesitation he agreed. It fit him perfectly, but at the time, he wasn't too keen on the vest. I quote "It is nice mama, but I don't want to wear it" when I suggested that he could have this vest. Hmmm.

It was such a quick (and satisfying) knit, that I casted on another, this time in the 12month size (for the now 10month old). (ravelry notes). It took me a little longer to finish the second one, partly because I had cast-on another project at the same time (the Hitch-hiker shawl), but I finally cast off around the middle of February.

I tried the new one the mini-man, and its lovely :) The fit is perfect.

And in reaction to seeing his little brother all decked out in his own milo, the big brother asked me one morning "Mama, where is the vest you made me ....I want to wear it!" However, I have yet to document him wearing it; he never sits still long enough to get a picture. But I did manage to get proof of mini-man wearing these mama-made knits :) Aw!

The tale of two pouches

I made these zippered pouches as gifts.

The first one was gifted to my son's daycare teacher who was leaving for another job. He had gotten on really well with her, and she was great at her job. We were sad to see her go. Luckily, her successor is just as awesome as she was! 

The second pouch I made was a birthday gift for a dear friend of mine. I don't get to see her often anymore now that we no longer live in the same country, but this year we paid her and her family a visit to celebrate her day. It was great to be able to give this to her in person.

The outer part of both pouches is made with a thick layer of felt, onto which I machine appliqued some (very simple) felt flowers. I played around with the arrangement beforehand, and I secured them down with a small bit of glue before sewing them on. I lined each pouch with some quilting cotton from my stash.

Nice and quick, and very satisfying to make. I think I should make myself some too. You can never have too many pouches. Hahaha! 

Rawr...

Another birthday rolled around, this time a birthday boy from a few doors down. He's the same age as our mister man and they enjoy each other's company when they're not claiming each other's toy as "mine"!!!! Seeing how 3 year olds can solve disagreements sometimes shocks me (e.g.when shoving is involved) but on the other hand can surprise me with how compassionate each can be to the other.

He's a Dino fan (like our son) and I did think of making a similar t-shirt with a felt Dino appliquéd to the front. But, after a few washes, Dino had shrunk a little (re-felted?) so now the t-shirt is a bit scrunched up in the middle. I guess it's not ideal for clothing that needs to be washed often. Lesson learnt!

Instead I decided to make a Dino softie! I drew out a pattern on paper, cut the pieces out from felt, and starting sewing. A few stitches here, a few there. It's nice to have a quick and easy project within hands reach. I glued the decorative parts to the main body before blanket stitching them on so that they stayed fixed as I sewed them. I stuffed him with some polyfil until he was nice and squidgy!

And after a few evenings...Mr Dino was ready. And I was told that the Birthday Boy did not let go of his new Dino softie until he was fast asleep that night. It's always nice to hear that your handmade items are well-appreciated, isn't it? :)

Tah-dah!!!

Upon returning home, my almost-3-year old put in a request for a Dino of his own. Seeing as his birthday is just around the corner, I'm now busy stitching another T-Rex. The pieces are cut...and now for some hand-sewing...

Dinosaurrrrr

Mister Man really likes his Monster t-shirt, much to my delight! I've made shirts for him before but this is the first time he actively searches in his wardrobe to wear this mama-made tee. No need to convince me to make another tee for him. Again, I used the FST pattern from Rae (cut out size 5T, with 4T length). Found some Pinspiration here and hand-appliqued a felt-dinosaur to the front of the tee. And this was a collaborative project, as even Papa joined in; he cut out the dino and his spikes.

Using a blanket stitch and embroidery thread, I attached the dino to the t-shirt (I used a small bit of washable pritt-stick to keep the dino in place while I stitched). It has been a while since I hand-stitched something, and the slow repeatable motions were quite relaxing.

And much to my delight, this tee has also been approved by the little man, who is such a busy little bee, it was hard to get a "non-blurred" photo of him wearing his newly acquired tee-shirt.

 

I was worried the felt wouldn't hold up being washed (for the first time) in the washing machine, but I just turned the t-shirt inside out and put it in a lingerie wash-bag so it wouldn't be rubbed against during the wash cycle and it came out fine.