They're Just Popping Out!!

Hey Guys!

So the flavour of my month was babies, babies, babies! I haven't really made the effort to make any handmade baby gifts until now. To be honest, I've only had a couple of friends have babies in the past few years, and they were born way back at the start of my sewing journey. But it seems babies are like buses, and now they're coming thick and fast!

I've been working far too slowly on this Lua sleep sack for quite a while. But the beneficiary made his debut in the wee hours of Saturday morning, so I got off my bum and finished it. To be honest it's not an especially time consuming project - I just kept questioning my choices of fabric and pattern size.

The boy put doubt in my mind about the fabric combination. I personally like it! The galaxy fabric is a Robert Kaufman called Stargazers Galaxy Royal. I picked it up at Frumble Fabrics thanks to some helpful Twitter suggestions (By the way, their postage is obscenely cheap and it arrived really fast). I really wanted something space related as the Dad is really into astronomy :) The lining I picked up in A1 fabrics on Goldhawk road but I've seen it elsewhere. I've seen it in some other colourways too. Thankfully that was a stashbust from the remnant left over from my sister's Tofino pajamas a couple of Christmases ago. Woohoo!

Thankfully it sways towards the boy spectrum but I know my friends would have been happy with it for a girl too. I was actually convinced they were going to have a girl so I was surprised with the announcement! I house-shared with the baby's Dad for two and a half years; and the baby's nursery is actually my old room!

I made a few changes to the pattern, firstly making it a bit smaller. It's a bit scary looking when you first cut it out! It looks ginormous for a 0-6m baby. I shortened it by a few inches and there was plenty in 1m of fabric. I also mistakenly sewed the armholes with a 1.5cm seam allowance instead of 1cm which I didn't think was too big of a deal. I also deepened this to 2cm on the inside neck, which I had always intended to, as I thought the straps looked very close to the babies faces in the samples.

Sewing on the buttons was interesting. I found these in my stash, and I thought they looked dreamy! The pattern has you stitch them on 3 separate times, with extended tails that are knotted excessively and sewn back into the sack. I don't think these buttons are going to become a choking hazard (fingers crossed!).

My invisible side zip went in so well, thanks to my new invisible zip foot! The boy treated me for my birthday - yes it was over £30 but it's definitely the best one I've ever used. Bernina is definitely £££! I found my zip to be quite stiff intermittently so I really hope it doesn't break!! Good colour match though!

I really hope they like the sack, and they get use out of it. At the moment I'm waiting for them to get home so I can have baby cuddles!! Walking the fine line of showing interest but not being too pushy!!

My other gift, you may have already have spotted! It was for Clare from Sew Dixie Lou, who is yet to pop ( I think?? It could be happening as I type!). I was having quite the panic about what to make for Clare, as so many other Spoolettes were going to be making goodies, and of course you don't want to make the same as someone else if you can help it! I had some good ideas but it was the execution and time limit that forced me to veto them.

Background story: I remembered that Clare had a denim jacket she wore to a Rock Festival in Canada that she had decorated with patches. And of course a denim jacket is one half of a Canadian Tuxedo. And seen as the baby will be half Canadian..... Well you catch my drift.

So here's what I came up with: (photo's borrowed from Clare!)

The jacket I bought (I did not have time for making a Denim Jacket!!). I picked up a TCB lightening bolt patch from the US to tie in with Clare's Jacket, to tie in with her love for Elvis and to tie in with a tattoo that Clare had spoken about in the past. On the inside of the back yoke, I sewed in the fabric that Clare used to make her Betty Bacteria dress at the John Lewis Sewing Bee last year - which was a special day we all shared together.

On the back:

I used a heavy chain stitch to embroider 'Spoolette' on the back yolk so that little Miss. Szabo would feel included from Day 1! I was really happy about the result but I wish I had had time to make the jacket too!

I can't wait to meet them both!!

Emmie

Stash Confessions...

Hey Guys,

So this is what I had to deal with Sunday morning! There was some organisational retructuring to say the very least.

For a while now, I've been trying to decide the best way to reorganise my stash in the limited space we have in the living room. I was having a hard time working out where to fit anything else in among the already stuffed plastic storage boxes scattered and stacked about the room (three either side of the TV, four under the desk and not forgetting the stack on the Expedit cube and other bits stuffed in other nooks and crannys).

So the boy decided it would be best to buy a wardrobe to resolve our storage issues. So we purchased an IKEA Pax wardrobe to fit in the alcove. And spent all Valentine's day putting it together (Awwwww).

Erego the mess. We had to pull a lot of stuff out, including the cube, the plastic boxes and all the fabric on top of it (and clean behind it of course). And we needed the space to actually put the stupid thing together! Of course then Sunday was about making this wardrobe my haven (while the boy went off galavanting and playing golf).

I filled it with five shelves and a basket. 

Also *cough* I have a confession. 

I'm sure you can't have missed all the talk about the John Lewis fabric sale. Well, um, I sort of had a crazy binge. Over three visits.

Let the lovely new wardrobe act as a display for my shame!

So there you have it! Except that's not all of the confession.

So, I apparently have more fabric than I thought, seen as the wardrobe was easily filled.

Holy Shitballs

Terrifying and beautiful!

I spent my Sunday refolding all of the fabric to fit the depth of the wardrobe (trying to be space efficient).

Lets take a tour!

Top shelf is curtains I had intended to use for something (but may give away) and a tub of fabric for the next fabric swap. Then some small tubs of scraps.

Second shelf is mostly my tailoring fabrics (tweeds, wool blends, etc). Some random knits rolled down the side.

Third shelf is my cottons and other pretty dress fabrics.

Fourth is my heavyweight coatings, flannel, heavy knits, velvet and denims.

Pretties!

Fifth shelf is my scrap tub and my Husquvarna sewing machine.

Pull basket is full of pretty largish scraps, fat quarters and future Minerva kits!

And there we have it! All hidden from view and with an awesome mirrored door too!! So so excited to have a full length mirror.

And just in case you were wondering what happened the Expedit cube - it joined its friend at the other alcove! It all holds my other sewing bits, notions, patterns and other scraps from the Tailor Man.

I put some grippy dots under the edges of the front corners of the top cube as it was sliding a bit!

 

My mannequin also lives here and thankfully there's some space on top for some of my handbags, I was getting stressed about finding a home for them!

Next, I need to replace the round dining table with a square one. It will be so much more stable and a more sensible shape - I lose so much space with the circle and all the chairs poking out at funny angles.

So do you guys have any other suggestions for good storage ideas? I'm tired of living in a bomb site!

But I'm getting there :)

p.s. I also want to say thanks for all of the love on my last couple of posts - you have no idea how much it meant to me!

Emmie xx

xx