Busy cube for little fingers

Our family holiday this year was a lovely trip to stay with my parents at their home on the coast.  However, it's 6 hours away by car (this does not include any stops or traffic jams, so you can reckon on a whole day in the car).  With a baby and a noisy toddler.  In a small 10 year old Corsa with an enormous roof-box stuffed to the brim.

We don't own a tablet or anything, so videos cannot be deployed.  Therefore, Mr Button and I got down to a little crafting to keep toddler entertained.  He made some lovely wooden lacing boards and wooden beads.  I made a glitter bottle to watch.  I also did a little preparatory sewing.

Not sure what this toy ought to be called, as it's the product of my fevered imagination at 3am.  I guess "busy cube"?  If there is interest I can share a pattern, but essentially it's a 6" sided cube with doors on each side, shut by every different fastening I had to hand.  Toddler likes to play with fastenings.

Sides as follows:
1.  Eyelets with ribbon lacing
2.  Side release buckle
3.  Giant button
4.  Four small buttons
5.  Four poppers
6.  Zipper

...plus added tag with a clip thing on because I have 9 left over from my baby sling.

The lacing ribbon is stitched on at one point so it can't get lost.

A different fabric hides behind each door.

The whole point was the small buttons so Toddler could practice buttoning his own clothes.

You could perhaps keep treasures in the zipped pocket?

I had to have a little bit of Toddler's favourite colour fabric in here somewhere!

I had a cute idea to put little clear pvc pockets on the cube faces behind each door, and slip photographs of favourite family members or characters in.  But I had just a few evenings to make this thing plus all the other stuff we'd planned, so it didn't happen.

This toy ended up being presented at Granny's house instead, as we thought he might be a bit young for some of the activities on it and the screams of frustration in the car with nobody to help might be a bit much for us to bear!  However, calmer or older children might get on better.

Exciting new pressing tools!

I have some new tools!  This is MOST exciting and is going to take my stitching to the NEXT LEVEL.  I absolutely must use CAPSLOCK because I am that excited.  Geeks ahoy.

Pressing ALL THE CURVES.

My father-in-law and husband are absolute legends and between them they have cooked me up some super pressing tools.  I bring you:

"The Clapper" and "The Super-Duper-Tailoring-Pressing-Tool" (not sure what it's supposed to be called, a "Tailor Board" perhaps?) that looks like an alien spaceship in certain orientations.

Beep beep!  Take me to your leader!

My husband got a belt sander for his birthday (a joint gift from several people and including advance pennies for Christmas 2015).  He agreed to do the shaping.  My father-in-law used to be a joiner and has a massive supply of ex-stock woods and knows all that is worth knowing about these sorts of things.  His workshop and industrial tools and extraction system* are the source of endless fascination and monologues from Toddler Button.  He very kindly selected and donated the appropriate light-coloured non-staining hardwood (Ramin, apparently).

A clapper.  Not a banger.

Father-in-law made this epic Clapper, I think it's from a bit of handrail or something.  He says it's a "Banger" where he comes from and he knows a lady who battered her ironing board out of shape with one he made before.  So it comes with a warning on that front.  My seams will be so flat, even if my ironing board isn't!

Aww it's like a mini ironing board in this orientation.

The super-duper-tool was roughly cut by my father-in-law on his industrial tools, and shaped and finished by my husband.  I can press every curve!  WOO HOO!

Also, these tools look beautiful.

*Granddad's 'NORMOUS hoover!  Really 'normous BIG!

A little gift for a little lady

My clever crafty friend had another little girl!  I made her a few things.

Firstly a little cotton cardigan with vintage buttons, details here:

Also, I got excited and made her a little sign to hang in her room.  I found fabric in my stash!  It's got roses and rose-buds on it!  I thought I was being really clever, but probably everyone else has had this thought also so she'll be inundated with floral stuff.  Hey ho, sorry Rose.

The letters are fabric appliquéd on to a felt background.  I attached the fabric with double-sided fusible and stitched with a zig-zag for good measure.  The letters are hand-sewn to a ribbon with buttons on the ends.

Welcome to the world, little Rose!

I got distracted and made a baby sling

I got distracted from my true purpose which ought to be finishing that spotty dress I mentioned, or at the very least continuing my efforts in the outfit along.

I decided that Baby Button has reached an age where he can no longer be relied upon to sleep through toddler group (although he's basically slept most of today, so maybe I'm wrong about that).  I need a nice new sling so I can hold him while I chop 20 toddler bowls of fruit*!  One that is quicker to put on than my current one, and because I can't really justify a new sling, one that is preferably free.

I remembered the Pea Pod Hip Carrier!  It's an awesome free pattern!  (The instructions are very clear and complete too, especially if you're a photo-tutorial sort of person.)

I did a dive into my upholstery fabric remnant collection and found the remaining fabric from my kitchen chair cushions.  I also found some double-sided fusible and a cheap tesco fleece blanket which served as the "fusible fleece" the pattern calls for.  I also added some firm iron-on interfacing on all pieces.  Finally, I used the double-sided fusible and a remnant of matching pink silk from my collection to line the inside of the long shoulder strap, which would otherwise have looked odd as my fabric is only printed on one side.  (Yes, it will probably bubble apart in the middle as it's tugged through the buckle but who cares, it won't actually come away from the strap as it's stitched at the edges.)  I even found the rest of the matching thread spool!

Check it.  Matching lining like a PRO.  (Matches better in real life than this dodgy photo.)

The sling didn't end up completely free.  I wanted to use a salvaged side-release buckle that Mr B had saved, but he said to buy new ones instead because "baby".  He's probably right.  So I paid £3 for some new buckles, and I splashed out a totally unnecessary £2 for 10 matching clips so I can add the clip for my keys.  What should I do with the remaining 9 clips?  (Ideas please!)  So, the sling cost me a fiver.

Lookie!  Adorable matching key clip on a little tag!

Anyway, long story short, it's very comfortable and it's hard to take photos of baby in it when he wants to grab the camera.  But I hope you don't come to this blog for the photography.

Baby said "chhhhhhh" (90s modem sound) which translates as: "Look!  A baby over there with a lady who looks like Mummy!  I'll smile at him!"

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* When toddler Button was this age, he sat in a baby walker at toddler group and watched the chaos.  It was all good until his friend decided to feed him crayons.  I cannot use the baby walker this time around, because toddler and his friends like to get in it themselves and push each other up and down the hall as fast as they can.  It's pretty hilarious, but not if baby is the passenger.

A little catch-up

On my sewing table

I've been making a new summer dress out of some spotty blue and white cotton I bought on my honeymoon (so it's only been in my stash 7 years).  I was holding off on making clothes for me for ages because I'm breastfeeding, but then I read Gertie Sews Vintage Casual and I thought: centre-front zipper!  Hel-looooo baby!

I'm using my own self-drafted pattern and it would have gone together really quickly were it not for a hiccup with the overlocker which ceased to proceed.  More of which later.

Since it's not done yet and there are no photos, I'll save more waffle on this for later.  Hold on to your horses, I bet you can't wait.  ;-)

On my needles

Lots of lovely people I know are having babies soon!  There's a bunch in June/July, and another bunch in Nov/Dec.  I must knit faster!  Some items have been completed already, and some are still planned in my head, but of course I can't post anything until the babies have their gifts.  So there will be a bunch of knitting posts through the rest of the year about projects I'd finished 6 months previously.

I treated myself to a set of ChiaoGoo Red Lace interchangeables with my birthday/Christmas money plus some proceeds from the sale of 20m of my mum's pink upholstery velvet (thanks, Ebay and Mum).  It's very decadent to spend that much on needles, but as my entire family say: "You never regret a quality tool purchase."  I think that might be a family motto.

Out of my toolbox

So, half-way through the summer dress my overlocker (US translation: serger) started to make noises even more alarming than usual.  If I put my foot down, it said CLUNK CLUNK BANG and then the threads snapped.  It was already pretty noisy, as toddler pointed out: "Mummy, use that 'chine: Uh-uh uh-uh UH-UH!"  It finally got to the point where no tension settings worked to make a nice finish.  I couldn't pretend any longer that it didn't need a service.

It's surprisingly easy to take a Baby Lock Prestige 750DS to pieces.  Much easier than my sewing machine.  Instead of stupid plastic lugs everywhere that must be carefully eased apart, the Baby Lock is just screwed together neatly.  The main carcass is metal and all components are easily accessible when the plastic casing is removed.  As usual, the cure-all was just a thorough dust, clean and oil.  The quantity of fluff was amazing, but probably unsurprising after the amount of fluffy nappy-related fabric that has been put through it.  Here I must thank my unendingly patient husband who volunteered to do the cleaning and oiling of the actual joints on the basis that he's more patient and methodical than I am.  I cleaned the tensioners by removing each one in turn and flossing it with a cotton fabric scrap.  For most bits, we used the standard light sewing machine oil, but I did splash out on a can of Lithium grease to use for one metal-to-metal sliding joint which looked like it had been greased with this before.

The whole machine hums happily now.  Splendid!  Another £70 saved.  Ker-ching.

For my next trick

Tomorrow the second ever outfit-along starts!

I'm taking part again this year.  Last year I missed the deadline by sewing in yarn ends and buttons.  Boo!  This year I'm almost ready to go.  I'm making Hetty and Simplicity K1653 (which is a v-neck mock-wrap dress) in this fabric/yarn combination:

I already washed my practice fabric which is black jersey and swatched the lace pattern for the cardigan.  The real dress will be made in the floral jersey in the picture.  £5 for 3m: score!

Wish me luck!

I totally made another Ottobre shirt!

I have previously made a shirt from the 1/2015 issue of Ottobre magazine, see here.  I made another for my own toddler.

"I want to see [myself] doing cheesing!" - Toddler

The fabric is a nasty cheap polycotton from St Ives bank-holiday market.  I was so disillusioned with it's cheapness that I couldn't be bothered to pattern-match.  I also ended up using thread that was too light in colour because I lost my matching spool somewhere on my messy sewing table.  It turned up just as I finished the shirt, so it got used for the buttonholes only.  Oh well...

I got in a big pickle with the plackets last time and ended up drafting my own.  Time and reflection are a wonderful thing, and I totally understand them now!  I nailed it!  The key phrases that I wish were in the instructions are:  narrow right placket to be applied like an edge binding, and left placket to be applied to the front a bit like an appliqué strip.  And yes, you do need a seam allowance on the opening edge.

I also nailed the hem this time around.  I clipped the curves before overlocking the edge, then turned it under once and top-stitched.  That works!

I re-used six super red buttons from one of my mother-in-law's shirts.  Even omitting the collar buttons, I still didn't have enough matching buttons.  I used two of the six matching buttons on the cuffs and the remaining four down the front.  The lowest button on the front matches in style and size, but is blue instead (turns out my mother-in-law had two identical shirts in different colours).  Finally, the buttons on the collar-stand and pocket are the same red but completely different styles picked from my button jar.  You totally don't see the collar-stand button that much anyway.  Toddler is fascinated with the non-matching blue button: I caught him showing it to his father and then his brother.

I made the 98cm size again (approx 3 years old size), and it fits my tall slim 2 1/2 year old like a glove, which means it won't last long.  (He's just gone into UK age 3-4 clothes.)  I will not make this size for him again: time to trace out the next size up.

The fit of the shirt is amazing, absolutely perfect for my boys.  The outlay on the magazine is totally worth it just for this pattern.  I am already planning shirts number 3, 4 and 5!  Next I am going to make the trousers in the same image.  I scored some purple twill for £2/m from the St Ives market, it's going to be EPIC.

A coat for Miss F.

I once posted about "The encyclopedia of advanced dressmaking" from the 1970s as my favourite dressmaking book.  I now have other favourite books, but I still like the patterns and illustrations in this one.  One of the patterns ("his and her fur") is for adorable little sheepskin duffle coats for children and I've wanted to make it since before my boys were even thought of.

I needed a birthday gift for one of their little friends, and I don't often get to sew girlie things.  I'd just sorted through my stash with the helpful and ever tolerant husband, and I remembered I had a little deliciously soft purple coat fabric left over from this 1969 coat (which incidentally I am still wearing 5 years later).  I think the purple coat fabric might be wool (or at least with wool content) as it smells like a wet sheep when you press it with the steam iron.  I also had some fun deep red cotton with hearts on it.  The perfect chance to try the duffle pattern!

The book suggests to enlarge the pattern using graph paper (a small pattern graph is provided).  Since it's no longer the 1970s, I used the magic of a scanner to copy the page, threshold the image into black and white in Gimp, enlarge it in Inkscape and print it out again directly at the correct scale.  Toddler helped me tape all the pages together.

Check out my scanned book-page pattern!

I managed to cut out the coat... just!  I had to re-draft the hood into a three-piece version, because I didn't have scraps big enough to cut the original two-piece one.  This page was helpful to confirm that a shaped gusset wasn't necessary- I just went with a 3.5" wide strip.

After cutting out, I had some small 3" fabric scraps left, but that was about it.  I didn't have enough red cotton to cut sleeves out, but I found some purple lining in my stash that was lopped off the bottom of the skirt of my purple practice wedding dress when I made it into a cocktail dress.  It couldn't be a more perfect match, and it will be better to have silky sleeve linings anyway (so you can slide your arms in and out).  I also found some of my original purple thread spool - bonus!

Check out those silky sleeves!

The pattern calls for toggles, but I doubted my ability to find matching purple cord for them.  I was just about to gamble on an online button purchase for something that didn't match when I remembered I'd bought a job-lot of purple miss-matched buttons for £1 a while back.  When I looked, there were 5 matching buttons of the perfect size!  Can you believe it?  They're pretty much the only matching set in the bag, and they were perfect!  Seriously, dudes, this coat was meant to be: all I've had to buy was one extra spool of purple thread.

I have some beef with the pattern.  Clearly my method allows a perfect reproduction of the pattern proportions given, so it's not my pattern copying.  Yet the two sleeve edges are totally different lengths and can never match!  Dumb!  Also the pattern match notches provided on the underneath of the sleeves and armholes don't match, which makes you wonder why they bothered providing them.  Neither do the pocket markings.  Notches on the hood/neckline would have been handy, but when the others are useless I can see why they didn't bother.

The suggested method to make the patch pockets is just to sew lining and outer fabric right-sides together, turn inside out, press and apply.  I decided to change the method of patch-pocket construction so that the lining is not visible along the outer edges when the patch is applied.  I mitred the corners of my outer fabric, and trimmed 1/4" from around my lining.  Then I stitched the lining to the pocket piece with at 1/4" allowance.  It's a little fiddly, but the result is that reverse of the patch has the lining inserted 1/4" from the edge all round.  That meant that even if the edges rolled a little as I applied the patch, the lining wouldn't peak through.  I think if I were to make the pattern again, I'd also add a front facing to the coat, so that the lining doesn't peak around the front edges.  I'd also add some sort of stabilising inside the front edge to support the buttons and button-holes.

No word on how deep the sleeve hem is supposed to be, so I picked 7/8" because making it the same as the 2" lower hemline looked a bit short in the sleeve.  I decided to catch-stitch the main coat hem in all the way around so that it would be more hard-wearing: the little ties between coat hem and lining they suggested to make at the seams would surely not last a toddler 2 minutes! I also added a hanging loop.

Finally, I like it when people post pictures of their sewing space.  It's always a beautifully well-lit white room with colourful spools on the wall, a neat inspiration board and a tidy white desk.  Alternatively they produce wonderful candid finished shots of their adorable toddler progeny in a meadow with their new hand-sewn clothes.  I'd like to provide an antidote to this and show you the gritty reality of sewing with a toddler and baby.

I do my sewing on the dining room table, which is in a sadly windowless room in the centre of the house.  I cut out on the floor in the most well-lit part of the house: in front of the French windows in the lounge.  Behold:

As you can see, I am keeping the sharp pins, scissors and sleeping baby away from the wrecking toddler by means of a playpen unfurled into a room-divider.  There are also exercise balls, empty coffee cups and bags of fabric scraps.  Photo taken with my back to a sea of plastic toy vegetables and bolts mixed up with jigsaw pieces all over the rest of the lounge carpet.  Since I took this photo, toddler learned to open the gate by himself, so pins and scissors and baby all had to be moved.

Coming soon: adorable toddler frolicking in meadow, for which read: blurred image of muddy boy in a field, wearing wellies and a bobbly garish knitted hat sadly covered in sawdust and wood-shavings from the garage.