Stitch 2 Stitch

I finally got rid of all my UFOs and what a relief! With that lot out of my hair, I can now focus on getting some winter PJs for the kids and if time and patience, and sewjo permits, I might even sew me a pair of flannel PJ pants. I dont really have a copy but I’ll just trace out the comfy ones I have now and give it a go.

Between the end of my UFOs and starting a new batch of garments, I was bitten by the linen bug and somehow found myself digging out this old blanket that MIL gave me. Even though it’s really old (she got it during the war!! O.o), she has done such a good job at keeping it in good condition that the only thing wrong with it is that it had the satin (I think) binding at the end of each side that were torn. Other than that, no holes…no stains at all. This is the kind of blanket that you cannot sleep without a sheet between you and the blanket. It literally makes your skin crawl and ‘itch’.

Ask me how I know and I can tell you that some time ago, I forgot to put the sheets on and it was midnight and with bub asleep, there was no way we could have done the sheets so both of us slept without the top sheet and OMG….it was just bad. And to make matters worst, it was cold that night too. We truly suffered!! And definitely learnt our lesson. Anyway, while Arianna has a nice thick quilt that MIL bought her when she was a bub, KR doesnt have one so I thought I’ll just wing a lazyman’s quilt for her and see how it turns out.

I sandwiched the blanket between 2 cotton fabric pieces (I dont quite like them and they dont match!) and despite all my efforts of pinning and hand-basting the rotten thing together before sewing, it still bunched up at the ends!! >:( I also sewed a couple of lines down and across the blanket to keep it in place, and that took bunched up!! :/ I wanted to add bias binding around the blanket but at this point of time, I’m a little sick of looking at it. I’ve used the OL to sew down the ends to prevent the cotton from fraying so that will give me some time to figure out what I’m going to do next.

Since I still had some fabric left from what I had used, I sewed up 4 bolster cases for KR. Arianna’s got her bear and Brandon hasnt attached himself to anything yet (aside from him dummy), so this lot is mainly for KR.

I finished the cases this morning so they will go into the wash. The blanket is drying out at the moment but I’m not sure it will be ready for use tonight. But seeing that the temp might drop, I may bring it in and toss it in the dryer for her to use tonight. I can already foresee Arianna going berserk over the fairy bear ballerina fabric….. >.< Will take pix of the lot when they are all nice and laundered.

I know I said that I was done with this pattern but apparently there was another one hiding under my WIPs! lol So I thought I might as well get it out of the way. I really like how this one turned out especially that contrast fabric. I’m truly in love with Stella. The mamas at CM always say that once you’ve tried Stella, there is no turning back and I couldn’t agree more! It’s really suitable for tshirts and leggings and at the same time, excellent for necklines too because of it’s elasticity.

The match between these 2 is just amazing!!

Stella Red and some fabric from Sandi’s destash (Was is some Euro one, Sandi?)

Definitely loving it!

I can’t believe it but Lisa is planning a beach party for her youngun! Initially I thought Joey’s birthday was in July or something and I was thinking, this woman must be nuts!! But I reckon I was the nutty one. lol Turns out that she was only planning a beach party in December. Talk about being organised!

I really like her invitations, they are just so cute and she told me about her invitationbox.com beach party invitaitons and I’m so loving it. Although we wont be having any beach party for the girls just yet, I am planning Brandon’s 1st birthday party and I reckon it will be in a park. Hopefully….

Kids grow too fast that what I’ve planned to sew for Brandon may no longer fit him by the time I’m done! *shakes head* There are so many cute baby outfits that I would really like to sew for him but having 2 other kids to sew for, his normally ends up last. But that doesn’t stop me one bit from making a SWAP. Heh.

Brandon is 7+ months now and it’s hard to belief that he was only born 7 months ago! lol Altough he hasnt rolled over yet, I think he will soon do it coz he is already attempting to roll but hasn’t succeeded. Soon he will be crawling and we will be expecting blue-black knees! lol At least we have carpet and not a laminate floor which is hard but that said, with trying to potty train Arianna, I would LOVE a laminate floor. Makes cleaning up messes so much easy…if only….. *sigh*

Despite the name of the pattern, I didn’t use velour for this simply because I don’t have any. Waiting for it to arrive in the mail from CM but I have other plans for that. Another relatively simple pattern but I now realise why I don’t like sewing on buttons. The one time I was so happy with how the top turned out, I just *had* to spoil it by doing my buttons differently. *slaps forehead* I’ve been handsewing the buttons on the last couple of garments coz some bits are too bulky hence, it wont go past my sewing machine. So I’ve been practising my button hole stitching which is still crap!

Anyway, instead of sewing the button holes first, I sewed the buttons on first. Why? I don’t know…coz I’m just a dufus, that’s why. And then I marked the holes and somehow, the positioning was not quite right and I screwed up a bit. The other issue I had with this top is that there is no need to sew that many buttons on. Although the pattern calls for 8 buttons, only 5 are actual buttons, the others are just for embellishment. But that said, because the gap between the *real* buttons are too far apart, they gape. So at the end of the day, I saw myself sewing on those metal snap press studs to close it up. Suck a kerfurfle! >.< All said and done, I think I'd give this pattern another go as well and this time....I'll do it right!

Cotton interlock and Stella Hot Pink (I think) both from CM

Have been a wee bit busy sewing up for the girls and I’m almost done with my UFOs which is a piece of good news. This means that I can get stuck into some winter wear. Lord knows its been getting colder by the day! I am most likely to succumb to getting those huge onesies PJs for Arianna and KR. And I’ll be sure to pick some gender neutral colors too!! Brandon will be sick of pick by the time he’s their age. lol

More for Arianna. Her Godma was screaming for one too – not this pattern but something using this fabric coz she is horse crazy. I’ll have to check to see if I can squeeze in a singlet top or something.

This was fairly easy to put together although I sort of mucked up the yoke a bit. It asks for stay tape to be sewn on the bottom of the yoke to stabilize it I suppose but since I didn’t have any stay tape, I used elastic tape instead. WHY I chose to do that I am not sure….I can’t really blame my pregnant brain since I no longer am.

But I am going to blame the fact that I was doing this at 1am in the morning! lol Have to blame SOMETHING…..so although it looks alright once it’s all done, when you know something is not right. It never will look alright. But all in all, it was a hit!

Pink too….

It’ll be awhile no doubt but I thought it wouldn’t hurt to get my brain juices going and think up some ideas for Brandon’s 1st birthday. We will most likely have it at home and with those wireless outdoor speakers, we will be able to have some music out on the balcony. For most times, it’s really more of an adult party coz at 1 year old, they really dont know much.

That said, there will be kids around as well so I’m thinking that we might actually have the party downstairs where there is enough space for the kids to run amok and at the same time, there is actually room to place the food and what nots. Will have to run this by Ted and see what he has to say. To be honest, I must be the only mum who really hates organizing parties! If I had the choice, I wouldnt do it. *sigh* I sound like a really mean Mommy dont I?

This has to be one of my fav Otto patterns because it’s so versatile! For the cooler months, just add the sleeves and come summer, chuck the sleeves and voila, both mum and girls are happy!

I loved sewing with Stella fabric!! Such a pleasure to sew with, really….I’m totally in love with it which means that all the other knit fabric that I hv will now suffer….. :/

And the child loves it too!

Here are the other orvokkis that I’ve made :

http://stitch2stitch.net/index.php/2010/09/12/a-blouse-a-day-keeps-insanity-away/

http://stitch2stitch.net/index.php/2010/09/26/modified-orvokki-109/

http://stitch2stitch.net/index.php/2010/10/17/orvokki-top-18-109/

So both girls now have at least 2 orvokkis each. I think I’m done with it for now.

I hate to admit it but if I can make find a way to sew up pants without zippers, I normally do. And it would be like Christmas came early if the pattern calls for elastic which this one does!! More importantly it goes up to 112cm. *dance dance dance*

This is the second pair of cord pants that I’ve sewn up for Arianna. Here’s the first one. She’s a rough one at the playground and all, and somehow we don’t like her wearing skirts and dresses when she goes up the slide. Hence these pants…also, it’s baby cord so it’s soft but yet, keeps her warm. Arianna is a 104 now so I made it a size bigger to last at least till next season hence the 112cm looks big now. But she’ll grow into it…hopefully not too fast!

Fabric bought off eBay but the ribbons are from CM. Love it!!

I reckon she loves it too!! lol Caught in action pulling a John Travolta pose.

TFL….

My wishlist is getting too long for me to remember these days! lol I keep on adding things but I’m not too sure how many of those things I can actually get. Next on my list in actually getting a working oven. The oven we have at the moment is not working and hasnt been working since we moved it. All this time, I’ve been using my Flavourwave to cook bake dinners and it’s not really the same.

We’re planning on getting an oven in the next couple of months and although we could have gotten one of those payday loans, I guess we just feel that we should wait for a really good sale to get something within our budget. I’ll have to spend some times researching to see what would fit into our tiny kitchen though and if we’re after gas or induction. MIL has warned me against getting an induction stove, so we may well be getting a gas.