Aurora Marie Stefansdottir's Baby Blanket

The blanket is in diamond patterns in size 26 x 28.  The yarn from Michael's is washable and dry-able. The pattern doesn't show as well because the yarn, although mostly pink, is multi-color. For design, it's probably better to stick with one color.  It's very soft and although I had my doubt, it turned out pretty nice.

First Dress!

Here is the first dress I've completed (not first attempted) for Edie. It is sloppy in parts, though I tried my best. And a pattern cutting error led to the ribbon embellishment in the front. But I think it's cute. I was careful and slow, but also decided not to torture myself with perfection and at the end of the day, just get it done and wearable. And I think it's that!

The pattern is Simple Dress from the Lotta Jansdotter book Simple Sewing for Baby - which is such a great book.

Fun with Felting

Felting is something I'd never tried. It is really popular here - both plain old felt (German felt is GORGEOUS!) and knitted felt. I've used some felt to make baby toys, but I'd never felted a knit piece until this one. I bought 7 skeins of felting yarn at a flea market, so I had a cheap way to experiment. My first one was this felted doggy dumbbell. It turned out great, though a little lopsided. I stuffed it with stuffing from ripped up toys, including a squeaker from one. The dogs love it and it is so sturdy - and it will get sturdier every time I wash it!

The pattern is here: http://taras-knits.blogspot.com/2008/02/puppys-dumbell-toy.html

Knit Rabbit

This project came from a book called Creative Play for Your Toddler. It has many fun and simple toys to make for your kiddo. It is on borrow from a friend, but I may have to get a copy one day. The bunny turned out a little mutant-y, so it's out of the gift pile. But Edie loves it anyways, so it's hers, of course. It was very simple. No shaping in the knitting pattern. Just make a square for the body and two ears and stitch together. I needed to use slightly tougher yarn and way tighter stitches for a nicer look, though. Next time!

simple t-shirt baby hat

This is a great way to use old t-shirts! Even those in imperfect condition are likely to work. The original directions had the seams on the inside, but I kept them out for baby's comfort. And it also called for cutting the decoration out with pinking shears, which I don't have so I had to sew up my edges. I used a bit of cross stitch from a hand embroidered napkin I bought for 1 euro at a flea market. It has about 6 of these flowers on it, so I'll get my money's worth! For Edie, who is now 15 months, I enlarged the pattern. The original pattern seems to fit 6-12 mo, approximately. The result was a cute, very comfortable, Spring/Summer weight hat that Edie kept on quite well - and that took literally 5 minutes to make. It was hard to get a good pic of her in it because I needed sun light for the shot but she doesn't like her baby eyes in such brightness!

I just cleaned out the ol' closet, and I'll be making many more of these as gifts.




Original pattern here: http://happinesscomesinlittlebits.blogspot.com/2011/03/sewing-bee-simple-baby-hat-sewing.html