Recent Baby Makes

As I’ve had a bit of a run recently on making baby clothes, my baby fabric stash was in *desperate* need of re-stocking. (Disclaimer: my definition of desperate comparative to others may vary!) I’d received a voucher code from stoffe.de and thought it was a good opportunity to bump up my stash. Stoffe.de are really reliable and very well priced. Some of these jerseys cost nearly twice the price at my local fabric store. Obviously as they buy on mass they are better placed to be able to negotiate on price and where I can I try and support my local store – it’s all about trying to find that balance!

This was my little haul:

Oooo you lovely fabrics!

I tend to keep a stash of baby fabrics as baby projects are those that I just dip in to when I have an hour or two to spare. They’re there for when I feel like making something or need a kick start to my sewjo. I’ve recently been buying a lot of neutral but cute baby fabrics as I’ve realised that neutrals are a big trend for babies right now, and they are also easy to gift to girls and boys!

My first make out of this stash was these hat and bib sets:

I love to make these as they are quite speedy and people seem to love them. There’s something about how small and cute the hats are! I line the dribble bibs with C.Pauli’s super soft white nicci velours, made with organic cotton. I could just spend hours stroking it. I can’t think of anything better to wear against soft little baby faces! I also use two snap fasteners (sometimes three) so that these bibs can grow as baby does.

Whilst I’m on the subject of C.Pauli I also used some remnants of one of their beautiful box kits to make these gorgeous hats. In-keeping with the neutrals theme, these proved very popular. I will definitely be making more of these as the fabric is so gorgeous.

I’ve also had more success recently with combining the soft velours for larger bibs with a jersey top such as the one below. I’ve discovered that as long as the jersey is reasonably stable, you can still get a good finish without anything stretching out of shape. I’ve also discovered the cam snaps made specifically for jersey – these have that bit of extra grip for stretch fabrics and I would definitely recommend them!

Anyway – that concludes my round up of latest baby makes. All of the makes featured have already found loving homes, but should you wish to order anything, just let me know!

Denim Cleo Kit

 

This one has taken me a while to get to blogging, but time to show you my second attempt at sewing Tilly and the Buttons’ Cleo Dress Kit. This time I ordered the dark denim kit, and I have to say, I am super pleased with the results. The fabric was a lovely quality, although I have to confess not quite the color I expected. From my perspective it is more of a dark navy than black, and I think Tilly has updated her kit description accordingly. It was a pleasure to cut and sew and I think the finished dress will hold up well.

I cut the same size as I did on my last Cleo dress, which still works well for me. The skirt is definitely too big, but very easy to take in on completion, so my strategy is just to sew it off and then chop off a good 3cm on each side seam with the overlocker. It’s no couture technique but it’s been suiting me just fine!

I couldn’t believe it this time that I yet again had trouble with the facing. On my last Cleo, I’d accidentally forgotten that there’d been a printing mistake in the first pattern and had cut the wrong facing. This time I had all the right pieces, I just forgot it in my cutting layout and then didn’t have enough fabric left to cut the front facing. So frustrating! However, such challenges are a good opportunity to exercise creativity and resourcefulness. I decided to rummage through my fat quarter stash and see if I could find something funky that I could use as a facing instead. In the end I found some black fabric with different coloured spots – the final result has actually been really cool and it makes me smile every time I see it! At least I know my dark denim Cleo is definitely one of a kind! Maybe third time is a charm on this facing? Who knows!

Saying that I’m not 100% sure I will make a third Cleo. I seem to love making them more than I actually wear them. For me, they’re definitely not something I could wear to the office, so they are limited to weekend wear. What can I say, sometimes on weekends I just want to pull on my jeans and not bother with tights and finding a co-ordinating t-shirt. I’m thinking that might change in the summer though where the Cleo will be nice to wear out and about on weekends. I’ll let you know!