armchair cover

here we are, the armchair cover, finally finished! it's not great though... i made lots of mistakes, and i'm not that happy with the fabric, maybe the print is a little too big, really... it's a nice splash of colour though!

i've got plans

involving this:


and this:


and this fabric (the second one!)

P sanded this chair down, years ago, and I unpicked the cushions and was going to try my hand at upholstery, but the cost of proper upholstery fabric and the chance that it mightn't work out has kept me from it so far. But now, that ikea is here, i got some fabric at 6€ per meter, so even if it doesn't work out, it won't be a tragedy. We sold one of our big chunky brown leather armchairs today, and this fireside chair will replace it, and give us a bit more room in the guest room. We have another one to match it, but it's not sanded yet.

The living room was just getting too crowded, with a 3 seater couch, and two big armchairs. We also have a buffet and hutch, a tv cabinet, a couch table, two little book shelves (to be replaced with one big book shelve and a tiny desk or bureau, at some time in the future), a play pen and a play mat, plus assorted baskets (for magazines, firewood etc). Oh and the ironing board is hidden behind the buffet and hutch. That'll have to change when M starts to crawl!

It feels good to have gotten rid of that armchair, we never really used it anyways! The space and light we gained is worth it. I'm trying to evaluate my possessions at the moment, what do I really like, what do I hang on to for the wrong reasons... Hanging on to an armchair just because it's part of a set and because we might use it some time in the future - wrong reasons!

When I got the call after putting it up on gumtree and emailing with a buyer, I was at first a little worried, I'd thought it was a girl looking to buy it, but it was a guy! I called my neighbour and asked her to come over with her little girls, so I wasn't alone in the house. Better safe than sorry! Of course the guys turned out to be lovely, and one of them brought his little daughter along, who went out with my neighbour's daughter to look at our ducks in the garden. They were, I think, spanish, and one of them was very dishy indeed, as my neighbour appreciated greatly, a bit of eye candy for her, after a hard day involving potty training, a 70 mile drive and tantrums from both her two little ones! In true diet coke style he was wearing jeans and a nicely fitting pristine white T shirt, tanned skin, dark eyes, shiny black hair... OK OK, I did appreciate it, too!!

chickens

i saw these cute chickens in my aunts house, i want to make some!! they are very simple, i think, cotton, ribbon, rope and filling. love the photo, it's taken in the room my aunt keeps for her grandchildren, there's always been a huge assortment of playmobil in her house, and i'm glad to see it's still there! my granddad used to make willow baskets, i wonder did he make this one...

rain rain rain

it's too depressing to take pictures of, so here some photos from last week, when it was lovely and warm!

my nephew's cousin had this cool gadget for observing little critters

like this fat caterpillar!
you can't see it in this photo, but it's pretending to be a one eyed lizzard! no idea what it's called!



the older kids were delighted to get a ride on the combine harvester

i used the rain to do some sewing though, with fabric i got in IKEA (bedlinen).
A purl frog, I drew the pattern on an a4 sheet of paper (printer no work), I think he's quite similar to the original!
doesn't he look so at home in the rainsoaked greenery?

and a little turtle, from this book i think (i only brought the pattern, not the book!)


oh, i forgot to mention the most exciting and scary thing, I applied for a career break, and i got it!! 3 years off! I'm delighted to get the chance to spend so much time with my little one, i feel so privileged! we won't have much money to spare but i think we'll be OK, and time with the babe will be worth so much more than money ever could be!

I really should be sleeping... I better go to bed!

the crossover smock

Making the most of being surrounded by willing 'babysitters' i made a little smock for Emm, using this pattern. I shortened it a little, so it'll fit my little 8 months old, but kept the width as is.

This one is the first attempt with this pattern, so my mum gave me an old stripy shirt that my dad doesn't wear any more, it matched the turquoise-blue plain fabric I brought from Ireland really well.

I cut the pattern out of the stripy fabric, then pinned it, right sides together, onto the plain fabric. I sewed all around, leaving a gap to turn. Ironed, turned, ironed again and topstitched all around.

It didn't seem to fit very well when I was knotting the straps, so instead I attached snap buttons, and folded the pointy edge of the strap under. In this picture she's wearing it tied losely once, then buttoned. If that makes any sense, it's hard to describe in words... I will make another one, I'm sure, but I think I might make the straps longer, with a square edge instead of the pointy ones, so that it'll look a little bit like ribbons. Or I might attach actual ribbons?

stitch and bitch birthday

chocolate and peach cake
my friend c made these! how cute! see the letter 'p' that's a hank of embroidery thread? there were balloons at the door, too! nice to get a little attention for a birthday, even though i've pretty much stopped counting!

as you can see, c, who's hosting, is a big emma bridgewater fan!

better bib - success!

yes, it's definitely working! so tonight at stitch and bitch i'll be finishing the edges!

better bib project....

today emm decided to have some of my carrot soup and destroyed the sleeves of a lovely top, so i decided to try my hand at making a better bib. i made a raglan pattern using one of the tops that are still to big for her for reference. i got some lovely fluffy cupcake tea towels in penneys (aka primark), 2 for 3€, so if i can make 4 bibs out of them, that's not too bad! for the sleeves i'm using an old top of mine, the embroidery actually matches the colours of the tea towel!



the sleeves are deliverately long, so i can roll them up a little, the idea is that they will push up the sleeves underneath it and hence keep them clean! BLW safe!


as the little one is asleep, i just attached two fabric pieces as ties for now, and left the edges unfinished. we'll try it tomorrow morning for breakfast, and if it works well then i'll finish the edges and make ties using bias tape!


i could see these working with slightly puffier sleeves, with elastic in the cuff!

another sling

i made another one, using lightweight cotton that i've been saving and looking at for ages (and a cream coloured sheet from 'penneys' for lining), i thought i might like a lighter coloured sling for the summer. i'm not so sure now about the print, it's probably a bit too small for wearing? does it look dowdy? M likes it, she is fascinated by the tiny flowers and circles..

another sling picture

this is the pouch sling i made for my husband, i think it came out a little too short, and it's not even washed yet! although it's not on quite right, either, it's a little twisted. i think the westfalen fabric works really well for guys, this is a woven stripe coordinated with a matching check. m isn't quite used to being in a sling, yet, after 2 or 3 minutes she was trying to stand up to get out! if the weather's still nice when the rugby's over, maybe i can convince the daddy to go for a little walk with us, to try out the sling properly, maybe in the cradle hold.

the toy attached to the sling is a 'tigerente' (tiger duck), a janosch character.

slings, christening and baby weight

it's from www.gorgeousbaby.ca, and i'm very happy with it! lovely soft fabric, good fit (i measured according to the website), and m seems to like it, too!

it's great for breastfeeding, i'm planning to go to the parent and baby cinema on tuesday, i think i'll bring it for that, it gives good support.





i made a pouch sling for p, too, it's nowhere near as nice as, and much simpler than the bought one, i sewed it this evening and can't wait to try it out! a reinforced curved seam is quite hard to do,, especially when the curve already looks a bit wobbly! but i used nice westfalen-fabric, so it's definitely man-friendly, and all cotton. unfortunately i can't remember if i pre washed the fabric, i kind of think i mightn't have... must remember to only wash it cold or it won't fit!!

we had the christening last week, a mad day, 23 adults and 9 children in the tiny house! a bit of a squeeze but all had fun, and the food went down well, my mum and i cooked all day saturday, and my neighbour made lovely desserts. anybody in north dublin, get your desserts from her! her cakes are divine! there was a merengue roll, a swiss roll with mandarins, a cheese cake and a banoffi, yum!

all the work cleaning, tidying, cooking, and 8 visitors from home shifted the last 2 kilos of the baby weight that were still hanging on! considering that i don't diet and eat whatever i like, including chocolate, that's not bad! i can't say my figure is the same as before, there's definitely a bit of soft belly jelly that seems to be here to stay, but at least most of my jeans and all of my tops fit again. oh, did i mention i'm loosing my hair! the post pregnancy molting has definitely started :-( and i have so little to start with...

i'm getting used to motherhood and am enjoying myself here, while i'm off work there's lots of time for cuddles and giggles with my little angel, and while i'm not doing half the things i thought i might be doing on maternity leave, i'm enjoying pottering around, and finally having a car so i can go for walks on the beach and for trips to the shopping centre for a browse and a latte, and to buy 'exotic' vegetables like fennel, which i couldn't get here in the village... i kind of expected to be really bored and dieing to get back to work, but that's not the case at all! it'll be hard to go back in autumn!

aprons

Isn't this the loveliest apron ever!?
It's so flattering and the colours are brilliant and it's reversible, too! I don't usually buy many patterns, especially not for practical things like aprons, but I am very very tempted! It's by Meg from Montessori By Hand, a very talented lady!

These are some photos of aprons i made over the last few years...

this one's made from habitat teatowels, for my friend





the first ovenglove was a bit too snug for its own good, it got donated to my other friend's kids' toybox... the second ovenglove was a little better and is actually still in use in hel's house!

this one is my own, again, habitat tea towels... i am planning to make matching oven gloves with the left over tea towel, using the pattern from lotta jansdotter's simple sewing book.



i made this little one for p's niece, she loves it!


and these two for p's granny. she's not been feeling well for the last two weeks and hasn't been baking. today she was brought into hospital! i hope she'll get her spirits up again, she's been a bit down about being weak and old and everybody around her is very worried.

the finished cropped cardi! - and some more photos

i even did the leaves. Bring on the summer and the strappy dresses!


and another wraparound apron for p's granny, she was wearing the other one i made every day, so now she can have one for weekdays and one for the weekend...

our nativity scene! these figurines were in my dad's house when my mum moved in, so they were probably bought by my grandmother. We only have the family and one angel, poor baby jesus' head broke off when i was a child, we liked to take him out of his manger to play... the two chocolate reindeer are standing in for the ox and donkey that there usually would be. i think i will keep a lookout on ebay to try and find more kind of matching figures over the years! they are made from some kind of plaster or bakelite. Joseph is about 17.5 cm, the angel, which i thought was bought later as it is a little different, is 11.5 cm. Mary's face reminds me of my granny, it's the cheeks i think, and the look in prayer, my granny was quite holy, too, and named Maria!


this is the baby blanket my mum made for me when i was little, it's crochet, and yes, i was born in the seventies... does anybody have an idea how it's made? my mum can't remember, except for: it's two rows of purple and one row of orange. the stitches are worked into the row beneath creating a quite dense fabric. it'd love to find out the name of the pattern, i can see this working with a plain dark wool for the purple and a variegated brighter one for the orange. the other crochet stitch i want to try is the catherine wheel, i think that's the pattern moonstitches' scarf is made from.

finally some photographs of projects

the superquick honeycoloured biggy print scarf, made from 3 balls of biggy print





the completed main part of the cropped leaf tie cardigan, i'm dreading all the seaming...


i also made a start on the leaf tie, i used 3.5mm for the leaf and 5.5 for the i cord.


here the extended ripple scarf, the seam isn't great but the way i wear it you don't see the seam at all, just a layer of pink peeping out underneath the gray.



and once more, a picture of the seat covers at the kitchen table! not entirely happy with them, they slip a bit. not sure yet how to fix that!