Owly hoooo!

Finally finished Bodie's owl vest a few days ago but I've been ignoring it, feeling cranky with it since then...

Excuse the crappy pics, I couldn't get good ones no matter what I tried today... I should have waited for better light but oh well.
It still needs blocking so looks a bit messy, but I still wanted to show it off. :)



I love this pattern. It's really quick to knit up, and really enjoyable. That is unless you decide to modify that sizing from 9-12 month size to 24 month size, and end up pulling out and redoing half of it 4 times.

And now of course Bodie has decided he hates it. I have no idea what it is, but he HATES it. He screams hysterically the few times I've tried to put it on him so I've given up on it for now.



And on the needles now... a sneak peek...
I LOVE the way this wool dyed up. ♥

Night naps for Bodie

I made these for Bodie last night... he was desperately needing night nappies after his old ones had been worn so much they were worn down to the nap on the inner. :)

Bodie loves the knit outer, "STARS!" and it was a bargain $2/metre at Spotlight.
Inner microfleece, with bamboo boosters.
Medium DDU pattern.

I just love when ruffles turn out beautifully. :)


I should have made a newbie sized one at the same time, and take pics of them all together. Will do that today. :)

Some velour I dyed

Has been stolen!!!



I dyed this velour up for nappies and mama pads and Bodie has decided it's his snuggly now. He takes it everywhere, and snuggles up with it to go to sleep. I guess it belongs to him now, lol.

Bodie's playmat

You know you're on to a good thing when they are playing with it before it's even started, haha



And a bad photo of the progress so far...

Today I learnt 2 things.

1. Don't put things in your mouth when you're working with superglue.
2. Superglue tastes bad.

Here's what I have to show for a whole lot of mess...



More to come soon, I'm working on something for Bodie...

And here is my sweetness himself. Taken this morning when he was still all snuggly and warm fresh from bed. He insisted on wearing his barely finished new longies and then ran off with them, stroking them and telling me they're soft. Best compliment I could get. ♥





As soon as I finish the I-cord, I'm going to dip dye the longies in deepening shades of blue. Or maybe green... haven't decided yet. :)

Bodie's Green Giraffes Night Nappy

He loved the newborn one I made the other day, so I told him I'd make him one. It's the DDU in medium, with 9 layers of bamboo. Might not sound like a lot of absorbency, especially for a night nappy, but he's a light wetter.

He was most impressed with it. He ran off to show his Dad straight away and then kept patting it. :)





And tonight he saw me laying out the nappies for pics and ripped his nappy off, threw it on the floor with determination and demanded his new giraffe nappy. haha! Then he tried to put it on himself when I told him it wasn't bed time yet. Funny duffer.
Excuse my extremely neat bookshelf in the background.

I forgot to post...

... pics of these other 2 minky AI2s I did a while ago too, so I took pics tonight while I had the camera out.
Here they are with the black damask I did first.



And all the newbie naps I've made so far.

Ah huh!

I've realized what happened with the last 2 "newborn" sized nappies Ive made... why they turned out so much bigger... I had traced out the pattern again and made a few adjustments, but forgot to take off the seam allowance! So it ended up heaps bigger than the newborn size should have been! Oh well, at least they're not too small, they'll get used soon enough. Just a pity that it took me another 3 nappies to realize, haha!

Here's the other 3 which ended up too big too.




I don't think I'll do the 2 rows of snaps with the top folding over anymore either. It's annoying me now. I'd rather do one row and have them fit for a shorter time.

Giraffe minky with velour

Here's the results of the velour I dyed to match this giraffe minky.

I love the velour, but I stuffed up on the nappy construction though... I was sewing late at night and made stupid mistakes with the overlocking. You can see the leg ruffles are pretty short, and roll in slightly because I went too close to the elastic with the blades.
Lesson learned - no sewing after midnight!

Green Giraffes

Another newborn nappy. :)

I had a few issues with the overlocking today... but it's mostly fine! Glen couldn't find the areas I have problems with, so it can't be that bad. ;)






Excuse the different coloured boosters, I need to make replacements in the same lime colour - I was going to do the inner as the sage green, but once I'd done lime green snaps I knew the inner had to be lime too. hehe. I do love that lime microfleece. :)


View of the inner, while on the smallest setting.


And for fun, I tried it on 22 month old Bodie, haha. It fits, but isn't usable - it's on the last snaps and the second last stud snap on the wings would rub against his hips. Funny it fit at all though! At least I know this sizing will last the next bub a long time. :)





He didn't want to take it off. :) He loved the giraffes, I will have to make him one too.



So now that I see it fits Bodie, I'm getting all paranoid about my newborn sizing being off again... It does seem to be small enough to me! But then I worry that it'll be too bulky or something, argh, I don't know! I think I need to hold off one making any more newbie naps until I have on in my hands to compare to...

I know I'm not going to worry about the cross over snaps for the smallest setting anymore... it makes the tummy way too small, it wouldn't be used.

I have another nappy I finished today too but the fabric marker I used hasn't faded yet, so I will wash it before I take pics. I'm excited to share this one - it's made with last night's velour dyeing efforts. :D

Results of my first Procion Dyeing...

Bamboo velour bum wipes.



The sherpa just turned out in a big morph of red and orange... I used it on the back of the velour. :)



Bamboo fleece scraps on left, and bamboo velour on right.

I've wanted to try dyeing fabric for so long. I finally bought myself a Procion Dyes starter kit from Fairy Fabrics and it arrived super fast, so I jumped in to playing with it tonight when my sweet boy went to bed.

I started with the Indigo Onion tutorial for fancy swirls. It really appealed to me because it reminds me of the designs I would make on coffees and dessert plates when I managed a cafe in another life, before children.
I used to absolutely love playing with the foam on the top of the coffees, coming up with new designs, and I remember wishing I could capture that art form in something permanent somehow. I also remember similar thoughts while pouring out leftovers of brightly coloured milk shakes and watching the colours mingle together, only to disappear down the drain.

So I'm super excited at having a more permanent means to playing with those techniques now.

At first I was hesitant with the whole shaving cream idea in the Indigo Onion tutorial, but it worked really well. I love the way the swirls turned out. I'll definitely try that way again.
I also tried a few little hearts but that turned out a bit, errr, ordinary, haha.



After I'd removed the fabric off the dye above I mixed what remained all together on the tray and added some more colours and ended up with this...



I used it to dye sherpa and it didn't turn out anything like that, haha. It is a nice big messy mix of red and orange, without the defined lines.
Still, it's lovely and bright and will make nice bum wipes.

I wanted to try one last thing so decided to try Low Immersion Dyeing - the technique I thought I would like the least. It was my favourite!
This is what is resting in the bucket now, soaking up the colours. I hope it turns out that vibrant after it's been rinsed. :) Now I'm kicking myself that I just used bamboo scraps to try this way of dyeing, it turned out beautiful and I know I'm going to want to sew with it ASAP! It's destined for bum wipes, but I'll be doing this technique again tomorrow on some lovely bigger pieces of fabric, ready for nappy inners and mama pads.



I love looking down and seeing my hands like this.
I love the colours staining my fingers, reminding me of my creativity for days.


More pics ASAP, of the finished products as soon as the fabric is dried.

Working out newborn nappies

I've been playing with a few different styles, trying to work out what sizing would last the longest for a newborn in cloth. I don't want to make a heap of tiny nappies that only fit for a week, and don't want to make them too big in case we have a little babe!

So I've decided the majority of our stash with be fitteds, with an adjustable rise, ie. 2 rows of snaps...









On the smallest setting, with cross over snaps...
The leg holes are tiny, it would fit the littlest of wee babies.



The top folds down



On smallest setting, with Darling Diapers free pattern for a tiny-newborn fitted on the left, and on the right, Darling Diapers Unlimited newborn sized AI2 (which turned out more like a small - note the leg hold sizing)



Same again, with the new fitted on the smallest setting on the top row of snaps



And the largest setting on the top row of snaps




I'm going to fiddle with the snap placement a bit so the large size will actually go one more snap out, lasting even longer. :) Just have to fiddle with the size of the space in between the snaps.

So it's a nice wide range of sizes... even a tiny baby with fat legs, or a pot-bellied babe with skinny legs. Now to make some proper ones when my new Jersey Knit arrives next week...

Some newborn sized nappies

I'm starting on a newborn stash for when we have our next baby. :) I want to get the stash started now because I have so much I want to sew and make for the next kiddo, and if the next pregnancy is the same as Bodie's, I won't exactly be feeling motivated. ;)

Today I made a newborn sized AI2 with the Darling Diapers Unlimited pattern, size newborn.
Here it is modelled by Teddy. ;)



Poor Ted didn't have much of a bum so I've enhanced it a bit for him, adding some stuffing to make it pop out like a wee little newborn fluffy bum.



This picture was meant to show how small it is but actually makes it look big!



This picture makes it look a bit smaller. :)
In between Bodie's nappies (my own pattern) size medium, and size large. And the medium is the same damask minky, you can see how much it's been used and has faded!



And just a quickie practice fitted, made with an old terry nappy. Just working out sizing on fitteds...



I am so looking forward to clothing a newborn. We didn't get our first MCNs with Bodie until he was 2 months, and didn't have enough for fulltime cloth until he was over 4 months.
So I'm really looking forward to cloth from the start and all mama-made this time. :)