for josie

So glad my friend was clever enough to have a baby girl because it gave me a sweet excuse to make these perfect little shoes. The moment I saw them on the Purl bee I was looking for a reason to make a pair or twenty. 


The project journal materials use beautiful wool felt which is hard to source here in Calgary and there wasn't time to order any from any of the online sources I like - the baby shower was imminent. I checked my stash but it yielded nothing even remotely exciting for baby girl shoes. Then I remembered the sweaters I felted last year for making Valentine's Day scarves for Aubrie and Jane. Perfect!!! Just a little more artisanal, a little bit me - something original for beautiful brand-new Josie. Totally fun, fast and easy to whip up I want a pair for myself (working out a pattern for bigger feet and harder wear). 


the Purl bee has tons of great projects and ideas - from sublimely simple to luxe - all attached to a great resource for materials (Purl Soho). Check it out. It's one of my favourite fun reads.

owl costume for aubrie

Eden reminisced last week that her all-time favourite costume was the dinosaur costume I made when she was five. I think that was just about the last big, over-the-top costume making year for me. That was the year that I was pregnant with Mark (our fourth child). Up to that point I had always had a blast planning and making extravagant Halloween costumes for the kids. That year I felt like I was pushing a boulder uphill all the way - way, way too much going on - the result being... after the sewing spree was finally over I became The Scrooge of Halloween. No costumes that required any amount of sewing or purchase were allowed. Miraculously the costume box always revealed enough treasure to disguise the littles and what was lacking there my personal wardrobe and ingenuity supplied. 

This year I appear to have finally recovered from the trauma (a long, long recovery to be sure) and I have found my costume-making mojo again with Aubrie as my muse. Eden suggested an owl mask - an idea too cute to be ignored and my imagination slipped the leash. From one simple concept to another this costume was totally, totally fun to make. Really simple too. I used cheap (I don't use that term loosely - I hate polyester felt but it worked for this application) felt for the top of the wings. The rest of the fabrics are all quilting cottons. The wings have unfinished seams with the raw edges of the cotton contributing to the idea of feathers. The tummy patch on the pinafore is simply made of rough circles with unfinished edges (more feathers) that are overlapped and stitched on. The mask is made from some felted wool sweater fabric I had left from an earlier project and a bit of cotton quilt batting. I sewed elastic loops into the seam near the wrist of the wings so that she can flap her wings as all good owls can.

All in all, I am very pleased with the result. The sad thing? - that Aubrie's beautiful eyes are behind the cute mask. The best thing? - (aside from her pleasure) that the pinafore part of the costume is so cute she will simply wear it daily. Being a grandy is the best job ever!!!

To see some beautiful pictures of Aubrie (and siblings) in costume check out Eden's blog. I love Eden's work. She is incredible!

Blouse to Baby Romper

Last summer I saw a blouse on a clearance rack - size XL... much too big for me but XL so.... lots of pretty fabric. I bought it, brought it home and showed Merin. She loved the fabric and we planned to use the lovely cotton voile to make something fun for her after Ysa was born. As is often the case, I had more ideas than time and so the blouse got bundled up and put in the closet in the sewing room. 

A better idea was born last week when Eden asked me to make a few summer things for Ysa. I thought of that pretty fabric and pulled out the blouse. I had already cut off one of the sleeves and used the fabric in a quilt top. My initial thought was to just use the fabric as yardage but when I got started there was such pretty pleating at the neckline, and sweet little buttons, and the self-fabric belt....well, the wheels started turning. It was so much fun to make this little outfit and even more fun to see how absolutely adorable a cute round baby makes it look.

It looks even cuter when the elastic at the bottom is pulled up around her chubby little legs - kind of like a soft, sweet bubble. Super delicious!

A Little Hat

If I could leave well-enough alone, this little hat would have been about as close to instant gratification as I am likely to get....a least as far as knitting goes when I am the knitter. But I got worried about size when I was almost finished the first time - pulled it almost all out, wound the wool up and got to work again. The second time, I didn't count carefully enough and the decreases were not working out the way they should have - undone again. But like they say, third time's the charm (that and I was getting a bit fed up with the project). So, if not for all that, it would have taken just a short afternoon to make this little hat for Ysa. As it was it only took one afternoon and an evening. Now there is a hat to match the sweater. Cute to be sure but could anything begin to match the perfection of this face? How I love her.

In the unlikely event that you haven't seen the perfectly beautiful pictures Eden took of Ysa in her sweater and bonnet do go take a look. Sigh.

A Sweater for Ysa

Back in the olden days when I was a child visiting my grandparents on the farm, my grandma taught me how to knit. Since it was so very long ago, I cannot say for sure if I took to the concept because I thought it was really cool or if I was simply needing something to do, but whatever the case I turned out slippers, scarves and potholders galore for a while. The knitting project paled though as I entered my teens and got lost by the way. From time to time (very infrequently it must be said) I have pulled out the needles and made something. The idea appeals but getting started..... well, hmmmmmm. Yes then.


One of the projects I started when we went on our little time out in Fairmont was a sweater for Ysa. It was something I had picked out before she was born - before we even knew of she was she or he. Life has been quite demanding since her birth and it was a treat to be able to sit and knit and reflect. I must make clear that I am not an expert knitter - there is much I would like to learn - but I do love it. One of the things I like less about knitting is the lesson in delayed gratification. I cannot turn out a sweater or a pair of socks in an evening say. But this little sweater knit up very quickly. I can attest to that because it is finished and went home with Ysa today. 


Late yesterday afternoon it looked like this:

At 9:00 this morning it looked like this:

And at 10:30 this morning it looked like this:

Adorable I think. No. I know! Could be the baby that is really so beautiful but I think the sweater suits her. The yarn is an amazing blend of Italian merino wool, microfibre and cashmere. Heavenly soft. And it is machine washable too, so it is not entirely impractical for an infant. If you could feel it you would have chosen it too. And the color is so perfect with those wide blue eyes. The sweater is a little big (note the stylishly rolled sleeves) but that just extends the wear. Her mom was so excited about it that we made a little bonnet to match out of some fabric that Merin and I had chosen for a quilt that didn't get made. Nice to think that Ysa is using something Merin chose, I made and Eden thought of. 

The bonnet was made from a doll pattern that I enlarged - I need to rework it but it is still adorable. Or maybe it is the baby again! Pretty much sure that's it. Don't you love the love there between mom and babe?

Eden said something about feeling the need for a photo shoot with this outfit. I cannot wait to see her pictures. I love her work!

Felted Wool Heart Scarves

Valentines's Day is coming. Perfect motivation to be creative - and with two sweet, sweet little girls in mind - the wheels started turning. I decided to make scarves for them out of felted sweaters. So off to Value Village to buy a few previously loved sweaters for the project. I was amazed at the apparently large number of people who wash - and dry - wool sweaters. By machine. In hot water. Seriously interesting. (There was even a lovely pink cashmere sweater from BCBG that I don't think had started life sized to fit a 2 year old.) Anyway, a stranger's loss was my gain since this was exactly what I was looking for. I chose six sweaters in shades and patterns that seemed roughly "valentine's-ish", carted them home and got to work.

Felting sweaters is easy and ... fun! (You get to do what you really shouldn't and it works out well. How often does that happen?!) Just toss the 100% wool sweaters in the machine with a healthy amount of detergent and run the cycle with hot water. Put them in the dryer on hot. Repeat. And voila! perfectly miniaturized sweaters that are nicely felted. I cut the sweaters apart at the seams, pressed them lightly, and cut out a bunch of 3" hearts from one sleeve of each sweater.

Next I lined the hearts up in a way that appealed to me and sewed them together using Pearl Cotton. I use 'sew' loosely because really I just made a couple of stitches and then tied a knot leaving the ends showing. Just for fun I embroidered an initial on each scarf.  Done! 

I would like to be all "Oh this old thing?" - kind-of-cool about this project but really I am pretty tickled with how it turned out. More "Look, look, look!" than cooly uncaring but, what's the big deal with cool?I love how the hearts look a bit like flower petals. I love how the little girls played all afternoon wearing their new scarves. More magic.