Welcome baby

On the 1st of August we welcomed someone very special. Our baby girl L was born a little earlier than expected weighing 3.2 kg and measuring 47 cm long. Of course we think she is an absolute delight and are completely in love with her :)

Big sister R is adjusting well. She loves to check up on L. She has become a champion nappy change helper, however she is not too keen to hold her little sister just yet. That's OK. Our girls have plenty of time to get to know each other and to learn to appreciate having a sister.

For a good measure of an Awwww factor here is a photo of L's first bath at home. L was producing a relaxing yawn and I was lucky to capture R's expression watching her. Could she be more in awe?

Soon enough I will write about a few things I made for R before L was born, but for now I will go cuddle her, play with R, chill with my sweetest husband and have fun with my mum who is here visiting.

Have a great day friends.

Around the world blog hop

Lovely Jane from Lil Pip invited me to participate in the Around the World Blog Tour, and I was happy to jump on board! So, let's get to it! Feel free to click on photos if you want to read about projects.

What am I working on?

I am currently working on curtains for my daughter's room. Four months ago we bought a new house (literally). It is beautiful, light, airy. I love it. When we first saw it I felt at home. Now we are slowly but surely making it our home. I have been looking for ready made curtains to put in Little Monkey's room for a long time, but I could not see a design or a price tag that I liked, so decided to make them myself. I have been working on this project for almost two months. I start and stop, then start and stop again. I like to start and finish a project, so I am getting annoyed at myself for progressing so slowly this time. I am nearly there though!

How does my work differ from others in my genre? 

I don't think what I do is different from anyone else. I just make things that make my daughter and I happy. It really is that simple.

Learning from my mistakes

I used my seam ripper more last week than ever before. Everything I touched seemed to go wrong. I managed to sew all the wrong bits together on 3 dresses in one week! Maybe sewing late at night had something to do with this. Maybe I rushed too much trying to make quite a number of dresses for an upcoming market... Maybe, maybe, maybe.

I thought to myself, "It's OK. I will slow down and make something for myself for Selfish Sewing Week". Yeah, as if! That was a disaster too! I wanted to make myself a skirt. Simple A-line skirts are apparently a good project for a beginner. I grabbed my measuring tape and carefully took measurements. I was honest and didn't suck anything in. According to the size chart on the pattern I needed to cut out pieces for size 16. OK, I did that, sewed the pieces together and tried the skirt on. It fell off me since it was so huge. Oops. OK, my measurements kinda fit into size 14. So I adjusted the skirt and it was still enormous! By then I could not bring myself to use my seam ripper again. I was devastated.

I was chatting about disastrous sewing experiences with Victoria from As It Seams who also had a passionate date with her seam ripper that day. We talked about how we need to share our less than glamorous sewing stories too.

So yeah. Every now and then I fail. But that is OK. I see failure as a learning experience. Today I want to share a few of my failures with you and what I learned from them.

Pattern: Burda 9584

This is the very first dress I made for Little Monkey. I fell in love with the pattern. It seemed relatively easy to make and I could just imagine my little girl running around in a dress like this. So, While she was sleeping, I made my daughter a dress... that she never got to wear. Sure enough the dress is cute. But it was too big. You see, I did not measure her, I just went by ages on the pattern...

I learned that I HAVE to take measurements and not rely on age indications.

OK. Now I learned this valuable lesson I thought I would make a top and bloomers from the same pattern in her size. While she was sleeping, I made the cutest little outfit. However the top was still too wide! You know why? OK, this is a little embarrassing, but actually up until then I did not realise the markings on the plate of my sewing machine were seam allowances. So I guessed seam allowances while I sewed, and I guessed wrong!

Pattern: Burda 9584

 I learned to take note of seam allowances and to use marking on my sewing machine.

After making this little top I learned to check the length of a garment before cutting fabric. Luckily I had cute lace to make the top longer! Little Monkey got a lot of wear out of it! Oh yeah, the bloomers are from the previous example and got a lot of wear too!

Free pattern here

I love sewing with my grandma's fabric. When I was nine years old I begged my grandma to buy the fabric. I used it over 20 years later to make this sleeping bag.

Do I hear someone wonder why I am writing about it today? Well, have a closer look at the top of the sleeping bag. The design is somewhat unusual. Wanna know why? Because I made a mistake while making the pattern for it. I made the top of the sleeping bag too big. Since it was late at night and I was too tired to think of anything constructive I went ahead and chopped the top off... then let out a quiet scream and went to bed nearly crying thinking I have ruined precious grandma's fabric. The next day I thought of a different design and fixed the sleeping bag. This sleeping bag was a life saver last winter.

I learned that I shold not cut fabric when I am feeling tired. I also learned that even when things seem ruined I can try to think of a plan B and pretend that was the original plan.

Of course I made more mistakes... but I might leave them for another post.

If you have been sewing for a while I hope you are having a giggle remembering silly little mistakes you have made. If you are new to sewing... Well, I can promise one thing - you will stuff up. You and your seam ripper will become great mates. BUT you will learn from your mistakes, and you will make beautiful things and have fun in the process.

While she was not sleeping...

Little Monkey has always been a beautiful sleeper. So sewing while she was sleeping has been great. However there are days when she is just too cool for daytime sleep. I would like to work out how I can do a bit of sewing while she is not sleeping… My first attempt looked like this:

This took place a few months ago. Little Monkey wanted to help me make a skirt out of her naughty jumper. Oh yes, a jumper that would not fit over your child’s head is naughty and the only suitable punishment I can think of is to make a skirt out of it. 10 minutes project… if you are alone! I thought if I let Little Monkey play with my threads, this might entertain her long enough for me to finish the project. This technique worked, however it took me just about forever to de-tangle all my cottons.

A little while ago I just had to make her a new skirt. Little Monkey came into the sewing room with me. It was soon after I bought my overlocker. I blinked, and she changed just about every setting. I swear salespeople at the store I bought it from were not as confident with it as my little person. Thank God for manuals is all I could say about that experience.

Yesterday Little Monkey didn’t feel like sleeping again. For the second time this week (ouch). When she doesn’t sleep, I still give her an opportunity to rest. So while she was busy playing in bed, I thought I would quickly finish making an elephant softie. Little Monkey came in just as I finished stitching. She was most curious about what I was doing. I thought we could try and stuff the elephant together. This little experiment did not go wrong. Watching her little fingers push fluffy hobby fill into a small opening was just precious. 

I was so proud of my little girl!

Do you sew while your little people are up? How do you make it work?