An explained absence, and more baby-ness

Oh my, it has been another long, long time. The past month has passed in a flash, with more illness (me), travel (France for Moot and me, Africa for her dad) and general busy-ness.

There has been some crafting, however. Mostly cutting up bits of fabric for various projects.

The wip that needs to be transformed into a finished item is a baby quilt and ball set for my step-brother's newest daughter, born last night! No name yet, and worst of all, no pictures. They live in North America, so I need pictures.





Back to the quilt. It's my first, and it's made from old linen napkins, bought as a lot from eBay and cheap as chips. I love the way the white squares bounce off each other, with damask shinyness and cotton crispiness. I wish it was easier to get that across in a picture. The backing fabric is an old Amy Butler print. I am at the point of sewing the binding, which is really just the backing fabric folder over and slipstitched in place. When her parents come up with a name, I'd like to embroider it on the top somewhere.



The ball was great fun to make. The fabrics are a mix of my stash and my grandmother's stash. They were pieced together using the English method, with thick paper. I really enjoyed the hand sewing, making careful tiny stitches.



Then I stuffed it with wool and - a bell. Both were from Myriad. I can't recommend the stuffing wool enough, it came in a huge fluffy bushell, and I had to rip bits off to poke into the ball. The ball isn't exactly round, but it tinkles so I don't think this new baby will mind.

Next on the list are summer clothes for Moot from this book, a dress for me, and first in line, a Girlie Dress for my sister out of this fabric.

Oh, and another thing that has been making us fidgety is my regular fantasy of selling up and moving to the Gulf Islands in western Canada. Not helped by bad habit of browsing estate agents and finding this little piece of paradise. One day, one day...

Nursery pictures, and a birthday present

Some more shots of Moot's room, on a beautifully sunny, spring-like morning.

The rabbits on a string in the top picture come from possibly my favourite store in the whole world, the Chiri-men Craft Museum in Kyoto. No website proper, but you can read about it here. Seriously, it is one of my greatest shopping regrets that we didn't buy one of the large red hoops with hanging hina dolls.

The curtain fabric is 2D-Zoo, from Reprodepot. I though it was a Robert Kaufman, but I can't find it on their website.

There's been some crafting, but not a lot of picture taking. The baby blanket has been finished, wrapped and is ready to post, along with some appliqued onesies - a bunny shape, a bear shape and a pea pod. No pictures of those, but I have to make some more, and will photograph them.

We are going to a first birthday party this afternoon, so last night saw some hurried sewing and embroidery. I'm really pleased with the top, just don't look too closely at some of the sloppy sewing...

It's for a sweet little girl called Willow. I embroidered her name into the inside of the neckline, because she probably needs her clothes labelled at nursery, and there's a loop of fabric on the outside of the neck, handy for hanging it up.












I really want to make one for Moot, now. I look the ecolier look of the fabric. I think it might be perfect for some mother-daughter matchy-ness.

Current obsessions

Thanks for your kind comments on my bad-mood post. I'm still in my own little blargh-world, but at least outside the sun is shining, right?

This week's excuses for avoiding blogging are:

:: Some much needed home decorating.



We finally painted the baby's room and moved her in early last week. We are all sleeping much better, now that I'm not waking her up with my hacking cough, and she's not keeping us awake with her sleepy mutterings. It's thoroughly predictable, but I had to make her some bunting. It was one of the many projects earmarked for the two weeks after her due date, when I was to be impatient for her to arrive, as all first babies are late, and would need to keep busy. Like so many things involving parenthood and babies, the plan didn't go according to plan. Anyway, I'm very pleased with the bunting, which was super-easy to make, and I look at it obsessively during nursing sessions.

The hen mobile - christened the "dream hen" by her father, she lays eggs that help Moot have sweet dreams - is from Danish Design. We also bought her the swallows mobile, which hangs over her changing table. She has a lot of mobiles.

The bumper around the cot, which I made last year, is still bare. I am procrastinating on that project - I want to applique egg shapes on it, and maybe a hen or two. I need to get some of that double-sided fusible interfacing stuff.

Her room is quite bare at the moment, and while we have some pictures to put up, and a lovely embroidered panel I bought in Mexico a few years ago, I am enjoying the sparseness.

:: More sickness, only this time worse. Moot had a bad cold and a fever. It's the first time she's really been ill, and it was quite sad to see. We were in hospital earlier this week (see next item on the list) and apparently it's a bug that's been doing the rounds.

:: More useless fretting about the baby's weight. She is probably what is considered underweight, and we have regular check-ups in hospital for the purpose of monitoring her, and driving me mad. It's incredibly frustrating - she just doesn't have a big appetite. No matter how much milk or food she is offered, she only takes what she wants, and that seems to be not very much. And she is a perfectly healthy baby. Just small. I hate these appointments, because they turn her weight and food into an "issue", which I really want to avoid. And I worry about her being so small, like any mother would. Anyway, it usually takes about a week, and then I get over it.

:: Stash re-arranging, from a messy corner of the living room to an ottoman and chest of drawers in the bedroom. Now I can read pattern books and finger fabrics from the comfort of my bed. Is that worse than reading cookbooks in bed?

Another obsession of the post title.



I made this dress for her a while ago, her father drew the outline of the duck so I guess it was a collaboration, really. I try not to make her wear it every day, but really, I want her to.

I'm still working on the baby blanket and more cushion covers, but I want to make something for myself next. I am quite obsessed by this pattern from Built By Wendy, and I have the perfect, cheap, fabric in mind, a white cotton with a thin blue check.

Because I am obsessed by tunics. I rarely go into central London these days, so my Top Shop browsing is online - have you noticed that they have a tunic category on their website? Fantastic. That said, I do worry that it isn't reasonable to want to dress like a pregnant woman when you aren't pregnant.

Excuses for not blogging

Erm, so, like, it's been a while. I have lots of things I want to blog about, but I also have many excuses as to why I haven't. A nasty bout of flu, visits from in-laws, sorting out childcare for return to work this summer, feeling blah and frumpy and the need for a bit of a break.

Not that I haven't been sewing, or reading your blogs, or dreaming up more things to make.

I've made another cushion cover, with some Amy Butler fabric from my stash. And I slipped some browny-aubergine fabric behind the cotton lace on the small cushion cover, thrifted from Value Village, to bring out the detail.



With some dotty flannel and jumbo rickrack, I'm making a baby blanket for a friend whose baby is due at the end of the month. I think I first saw the ricrac used that way on etsy, but my bookmark to the shop's page isn't working. I got the rickrack from Ribbon Mad.



Unfortunately, the trimming isn't straight, so it's waiting on my WIP pile, to be ripped and resewn.

To make up for the loss of stash fabric, I've had two new arrivals. One is the first of my swaps from Flibbertygibbet's swap, from Carole, who doesn't have a blog.



The strips are very sweet, and will find their way into a project for another baby, due in April. My second swap parcel has been delayed and is due soon! You can see what other people got - and what I sent - here.

I'm quite broke, but stretched to five pounds for some Liberty fabric strips from ebay, for a quilt project I'm mulling over.

Inspirational books

Things have slowed down a bit on the crafting front, to make time for socialising and playing, and some inspiration.

I found a great book in a second-hand bookshop near us, called Creating Fashion by Betty Foster. It's a kind of pattern cutting course in book format, with lots of historical pattern blocks, and while the diagrams look confusion now, I'm hoping that soon it will all make sense.







We're going to a wedding in March, with Moot, and I've been having fun dreaming up an outfit for her to wear. I'm taking as starting points a pattern from old needlework book and a scrap of Liberty fabric I got at the sale.



Can't show you the print, because someone is getting a bit of it as part of Flib's January Strip swap.

And I made some more trousers for Moot, my first fully reversible ones.



Oh, and I found this site, Caramel Baby and Child, through Port2Port . So very, very inspiring... and so very, very expensive.

Now it's sunny, and I'm off to do some very overdue gardening.

Smock top

Ah, yesterday was a bit of a sewing frenzy, for me. Which might not equate to a sewing frenzy for you, but hey. No sooner had I finished my second cushion cover, then the post arrived with a parcel from one of my aunts, in Canada. Inside was a lovely sock doll made by her daughter, a cute little bear outfit from her other daughter, and a small bundle of fabric.

I have been encouraged to make bloomers - thanks, Rebecca - and their time will come, but really I have been yearning for Moot to reach the 12-month size for the smock top pictured in this post. I figure she's not far off being that big, so I traced the pattern, cut it out, cut the fabric and made the top. All in a couple of hours. For me, a frenzy.



It's a bit big, still, so not action shots, but I'm really pleased with it.

In other news, the night out on Thursday was a success. We saw Emma Tricca, and the pub was great, although it's been so long since I've been in a smoky environment, that I found the cigarette smoke quite overwhelming.

Also, I've discovered this woman, Ellie Curtis, is teaching the t-shirt printing class I will be attending at the East London Printmakers later this month. Isn't this animal print amazing?

Etsuko, my love

Second cushion pad cover: done. I love, love, love it.

Pillow talk

A good afternoon. First up, I finally got round to making some covers for two cushions we've had for years. We've had them for so long - and coverless all that time - that I don't remember where they came from. So I broke out the Etsuko, found some yellow fabric for the piping, and in one evening and one morning, the first one was done.




The fabric is cut and the bias tape made for the second one. I've still got some Etsuko, and other fabrics that I've been hoarding for cushion covers, and I'm so very pleased with this one, I might have to go buy some more cushions.

Two other goods things. I've booked a place on a t-shirt screenprinting class here, one evening in a couple of weeks. I went through a screenprinting phase, and made some screens at home which I used to print a couple of t-shirts, but it's a bit of a faff at home, and I'm hoping that doing this course will give me the skills to use their workshop. If anyone else is interested, they have two more free spaces.

Finally, we are going out tonight. Yay! A friend is babysitting for the few hours between bedtime and the night feed, and I'm taking my husband here, as a sort of belated birthday present. There's a chicken casserole in the oven and a DVD of How to Marry a Millionaire for our friend. For us, there will be music and beer, and I think we will all have a nice time.

Japanese crafty goodness

So finally, the very, very, very simple dress I made for Moot from one of my Japanese craft books. It's crumpled because this is an after-she-wore-it picture. I know it's a stupidly simple pattern, but they are so hard to find.

I went for snaps instead of buttons, because the buttonhole function on my machine is rubbish, and I dispensed with the frill that supposed to go around the hem, as in this shot.



It's the six month size, which I thought would be ample for her petite seven-month frame, but it's more like a tunic. Just as well, because I made a mess of the bias edging. I still have some of the purple corduroy left, so I am going to make the 12 month size, but this time I will line it with some shirting cotton, and therefore avoid the whole bias tape issue all together.

The pattern comes from this book, which was bought from amazon.co.jp. ISBN 4-579-10996-1.



Here's some other images from the book. I love almost everything in it, and am panicking slightly that she will outgrow the patterns before I have time to make everything I want to make for her.










A few words of tribute to Japanese craft books: they are what brought me into the world of crafty blogging. You see, we honeymooned in Japan, and while wandering through a book store, I found the craft section and was completely and utterly blown away. When I got home, I googled "japanese craft books", and it was like stepping through the back of the wardrobe into another world.

Sweater with a smile

I'm back from two weeks in Cornwall for Christmas and New Year. It's the longest we've ever stayed with my husband's parents, and it felt like a real break from daily life. And it was a bonus to see them spend time with the baby.

My Christmas crafting was all finished in time. I made another apron and glove set - me and the rest of crafty blogland - for my mother-in-law.



There were also some elephant-shaped lavender sachets, which I didn't photograph.

And I capped off my hard work with a mad sewing frenzy while my husband was sent out of the house on a long errand. What was I making? Angry Chicken's fantastic earflap hats. I haven't managed a proper group shot yet, but here's one my father-in-law took which gives you an idea.



Has to be a new family tradition, i reckon. The giraffe jersey fabric I used is an all-time favourite, from that old faithful, Reprodepot. Which reminds me, I've just discovered this place, and they stock a bit of Amy Butler and Kaffe Fassett online. Yay!

With all that out of the way, I finally managed to finish a sweater I started knitting for the baby - gulp - before she was born. She was such a titch, I remember holding the back piece against her and it was long enough to have been a dress. I finished it just in time, she's almost busting loose.



I've started another sweater for her, from a Tiboodoo kit, which I also got before she was born, hence the gender-neutral greens.



Not that I would have got it in pink if I had known. I've knit one of their sweaters before, from a pattern badly translated from French into English, which flustered and confused me, and turned us into mortal enemies. This time I'm knitting from the French pattern, and it seems we've kissed and made up. And you can get quite a lot of knitting done during a five-hour drive. (It helps if you've never managed to get round to getting a driver's licence, and therefore someone else has to do all the driving. Thanks honey.)

Also, I've just a few finishing touches to a dress for Moot, made from a Japanese craft book pattern. Pics when I'm done. It's well past my bedtime, and the baby has been waking up earlier than usual, so I must power down and go to sleep.

Panic, don't panic

After an early morning blast at the sewing machine, I finished the last present - another matching apron and oven glove for my mother-in-law. No pics, we're in the middle of a packing frenzy as we are leaving for Cornwall for a fortnight as soon as the post arrives with the last of the Yuletide gifts. Or so we hope, otherwise my father-in-law is out of a present.

I've really enjoyed sitting down at the sewing machine every night to plough through my list, and I'm looking forward to tackling some more sewing when I get back. I've already cut out the pieces for a dress for Moot, and made the covered buttons to match. I looooovvve self-cover buttons.

As a holiday present to you, I'm offering up a bunch of old Martha Stewart mags, with some Gourmets and Gardens Illustrated thrown in. First come, first serve.



I haven't made a note of what the issue numbers are, but if you are after one in particular, I can have a look. Otherwise, just email me at madeformoot at google mail, and I'll mail you a couple in the new year. Or if you live in or near east London, we can arrange for you to pick them up.

And in case I don't manage to post again before Christmas, my family wishes you a happy pudding!

Present presents

Some more Christmas sewing. It's hard to not get distracted, but I'm slowly making progress.

I've haven't quite decided who is getting what, but here's what's on offer.

A Denyse Schmidt-inspired lavender and flaxseed eye pillow, and with the cut-offs, I made a lavender-filled thing, which I've decided should be a key-chain. These two items are a pair.



The fabrics are odds and sods - some old Cath Kidston, some Amy Butler, some mystery fabric from my aunt, a Japanese print from Reprodepot.

Then, more Schmidtery. An oven glove - like others, I think the thumb turn is a bit weird, but I've tested it, and it doesn't stop it "working".




I added a loop to hang it from, and a fabric covered button cos I felt like it. I'm making an apron to go with it. The brown fabric is an old Alexander Henry print - I love most of their stuff, if I wasn't broke I'd buy and buy and buy it - and the red fabric is treasured Schmidt Flea Market Fancy. I want to cover my life with it.

I'm also working on some elephant lavender sachets.

Yeah, there's a theme: I got a big bag of cheap lavender in a market in Paris in the fall.

Posh coffee and £1.40 avocados

The baby's bumper is coming along, fuelled by repeated, quasi-obsessive, playing of Oh Sister by Bob Dylan.

On Saturday, we went to Broadway Market, a 20 minute walk from where I live in Hackney, in east London. A stroll down this relatively new, busy market, always unsettles me, for a number of reasons.

1. I've lived in Hackney for seven years, and parts of it have changed a lot, Broadway Market being a prime example. Seven years ago, it was run-down and had at least a half-dozen, if not a dozen empty shops. The Saturday market now has stalls selling organic food, artisanal breads, crafts, etc. It got going a couple of years ago, and the street is a much livelier place as a result. There are coffee shops, a couple of gift shops, and even a crafty shop, Fabrications. I enjoy an expensive cup of coffee as much as the next person, but I feel the market, which attracts people with comfortable amounts of disposable income, sits uneasily with the rest of the borough, which is one of the most deprived in the city, if not the country.

2. Where did all these babies/children come from?! The place is positively heaving with them. It's enough to make me feel slightly embarrassed for having had one, too - I mean, how unoriginal can you get?

3. I always look at the crafty stalls and dust off old fantasies of having my own stall to sell screenprinted t-shirts/knitted things/collected things/cookies. There are lovely stalls there, with people doing those things much better than I ever could, but I still get the nagging, itchy feeling that I should/could get my act together and do something.

I made two small purchases: an iron-on apple patch to go on something for the baby, a hefty 40 pence, and a delicate little brooch made by a sweet-looking woman (can I call her a girl? She was born in 1983) under the name Buddug. Apparently, it's Welsh for Victoria. Her website says she does buttons, which I will definitely look out for next time.