Maritime quilt

I can't believe I'm posting two versions of this quilt pattern in a row - just in case it wasn't already obvious how much I love this pattern!  This version was made for the new daughter of a good friend of mine.  They live by the sea so I thought including the Charley Harper maritime print in the middle was a nice touch, and I knew she'd like the design too (my friend that is, not the new baby, well I mean I'm sure the baby will too!).

The Charley Harper fabric was leftover from another quilt backing and luckily it was enough to do the middle row of arrows.  I think it works really well with the Kona Cotton in 'Curry'.  I didn't have enough of the Kona Curry left so I went back to Village Haberdashery to get more but they were out of stock. Luckily I found more on eBay which was delivered quickly - it still took me ages to make this quilt though as we've moved house recently which has taken up so much time, and stress and anxiety but I'm sure anyone who's moved house will understand that!  The white is a lovely 100% cotton sheet from a local charity shop (I always wash them on a very high wash when I buy them and obviously only buy ones that are clean to begin with!).


As you can see I'm still sticking to straight line quilting but since this quilt I've had a go at wavy line quilting which I love the look of too.  I'll build up the courage to try some free motion quilting soon!  However I think with this particular design the straight lines work best.

The batting is 100% bamboo and is so lovely and soft.  The backing fabric is a 100% cotton double duvet cover from John Lewis which I found in a charity shop.  It is such lovely quality and didn't look like it had been used!  So far I've used it for 3 quilt backings and still have some left over. 

I remembered to add a quilt label to this one and I really need to try and remember to do this with every quilt. I used a rectangle of white fabric, covered it in spray starch, ironed it then used a Pigma Micron pen to write the label.  I like how it looks when the label is handsewn on the back like this but I wonder if maybe I'd be better machine stitching it to the backing fabric before making the quilt sandwich, or machine sewing it into the binding at a diagonal angle to make it more hardwearing? I'm working on one more babyquilt for a friend, one for Harris and one for me but I am planning to get some garment sewing in this month too! I have two Marilla Walker Maya tops cut out which I'd like to sew up and I'd like to get started on a test pair of trousers - New Look 6459.

Sewing small things

I've made a few small things recently but I'd say these 2 Batman capes have been the most appreciated! Somehow we managed to lose a Batman cape Harris had been given so I knew I had to replace it.  While I was at it I wanted to make one for one of his best pals. I bought the black and yellow satiny fabrics from the Man Outside Sainsbury's and the black and yellow felt from Hobby Craft.  I drew out the pattern onto newspaper roughly following the guidelines from this tutorial.  Inittially I was just going to use the black but then decided it would be nicer to line them.  I'm so glad I did as they fly up brilliantly in the wind now as we found out on the first scooter test the night after I made them! I wasn't sure how the scallops would work so only tried it on one, I wish I'd done it on both now as they look really good.  Disaster struck as I was ironing though and I managed to burn through the black on the non-scalloped one, just a little bit up on the neck piece. However it determined that the scalloped one was the one being gifted and the one with the wee hole was kept. Harris hasn't even noticed the hole yet but I'll darn it before he does.  I had sticky-backed velcro in my stash which i think must have been my mum's as I don't remember buying it.  I'd love to make some more capes with different themes, though I do find sewing with slippery fabric like this very frustrating!

Months ago, in the autumn I think, I cut out another See Kate Sew raglan tee and a short sleeved tee from Ottobre but never sewed them up.  I finally got round to this in January and they've both had lots of wear already - thankfully, as they're not going to be long enough for much longer. That'll teach me for procrastinating so long on sewing them up - I can't do that when sewing for a growing boy!

The gorgeous flamingo print is a Charley Harper fabric I got from Billow Fabrics and it's a lovely quality thick jersey which for once was really easy to top-stitch.  It's such a great happy fabric and I think I may have enough for a short sleeved tshirt for him for the summer out of it, fingers crossed. I think the pink ribbing was from Kitschy Coo.  As I saw this was the See Kate Sew raglan tee again - I've certainly got my money worth from this pattern, I've used it so much and love it!

perfect underarm seam matching - this makes me ridiculously happy!

The other tee-shirt is an old t-shirt of my husbands that he couldn't bear to part with even though it had holes in it. So, I used it for a mini tee.  I managed to keep the hem so I only had to top stitch the sleeves - a nice and quick make.  I did take the time with both these makes to overlock all the seams as they'll see a lot of washing so need to be hard wearing.  Harris loves this tshirt and it also makes him happy it was his dad's before him, which of course makes us happy too!

Soon it'll be time to start on his shorts and summer tshirt sewing, and a few more sun hats too - I'm looking forward to it. Roll on spring eh?!

Sewing roundup, come on, it's time to play

Having completely missed posting for the last Kids Clothes Week (though I did manage to get my projects uploaded on to the members site) I thought I'd do a quick round-up post of my children's sewing recently, before the next Kids Clothes Week comes round in early August. He wears me-mades quite a lot now and I love seeing him in things I've made. I just hope he keeps enjoying wearing them!

Owl Totem Raglan from Ottobre magazine, Spring 1/2014

You've already seen the Raglan sweater, which I plan to make more of for the Autumn. I've also made 2 versions of the Made by Rae Flashback Skinny tee so I'll do a wee write up on that pattern. Of course there's been another pair of Sunny Day shorts - I think there will be at least one pair of these every summer - and I'll do a quick review of this pattern too.

Short-sleeved Flashback Skinny Tee



First up - the Flashback Skinny tee from Made by Rae

Details -

Pattern: Flashback Skinny Tee

Size: 2T

Fabric & notions: Short-sleeved version was a mens M-sized t-shirt from charity shop, long sleeved version was scraps from previous makes - the blue, which I've used for Harris already here and here and the bird fabric which was originally used in this Maria Denmark tee, with scraps used here as well. Considering I only bought a metre of that bird fabric I've got a lot made from it! Red ribbing bought from Kitschy Coo, £5 for 1/3 of a metre

Were the instructions clear: Yes, very clear. So clear in fact that I'm considering buying the Geranium dress pattern as a pattern to use for little girl presents.

Any changes I'd make next time: I'm going to add some length to it, or maybe even move up to using the size 3T

Total cost: £5

Sunny Day shorts in Charley Harper Maritime birds fabric

Details -

Pattern: Sunny Day shorts by Oliver + S

Size: 2 years

Fabric & notions: 1/2 metre Charley Harper Maritime fabric from M is for Make £9.20, elastic and thread from stash

Were the instructions clear: yes, I've made this plenty of times before and didn't make any changes. I LOVE this pattern!

Any changes I'd make next time: I definitely need to go up to the size 3T

Total cost: £9.20


 

 

 Now it's time to start thinking about what I'm going to sew during the next Kids Clothes Week from August 8-14. If you haven't come across Kids Clothes Week before it's a week long challenge to sew for an hour a day for your kids or friends/families children. There is a theme each time but I don't usually use the theme, I just enjoy putting aside that time each day to sew for Harris, and other children in my life. It's a great wee community to be a part of, check out more about it here.