A Little Amigo for M

I've loved the simple look of Waldorf style dolls, and had planned to make one for little M eventually.  With the new baby arriving soonish (ok in like 2-3 months) I wanted him to have a doll he could take care of and nurture to help prepare him.   He loves other dolls he sees, so it seemed a good idea!  So in stepped the Little Amigo doll pattern from Growing up Sew Liberated, and some serious help from my family.

I could not have made this baby without my awesome sister.  Knitter and sewer extraordinaire, she and my mom have long been and continue to be my inspirations to sew and create.  They can attest to still getting frequent calls for me for advise on things, most of them silly, ie. do I really need to pre-wash fleece?  or other similarly important questions.  And whenever I run into a knitting problem, I just put it away til one of them is over and can fix it for me.

So by no means can I take credit for the creation of this cutie.  This was one serious joint effort! My sister and I got together one Friday and did most of the work on him.  My sister skillfully prepared and sculpted his head, while I cut out and sewed the much easier body.  She assembled him, started on his hair and embroidered his face, I finished that mop of hair and applied his blush.  We also used the braided hair tutorial Meg posted on her blog, not the one in the book.

And my mom?  She made his clothes, a couple diapers, two pants, and two western style button shirts.  Thats right, look close, those shirts have man of the details of big people shirts! (although the buttons don't work, there is velcro hidden back there.

My sister and mom also made this awesome doll bed.

So he sure is cute isn't he?  I love his mop of hair, much like the crazy uncut hair of little M.

When M first got him, he kept snuggling him calling him his baby and that he loves his baby.  Later he named him after his daycare friend Marcus.  Now? well, lets just say it's a developing relationship.  Sometimes it's hugs, sometimes it's throw him on the floor and run the toy stroller over him, but he definitely likes him regardless.  Our cat is also a fan, frequently sleeping on Marcus when he's left on the floor.

Too bad he was soo much work, cause I want to make more!

A Green Rie

I love green.  It's definitely my favourite colour.  My wedding dress was actually a very pale green even.  So not surprisingly, when shopping for knit fabric for this project I bought green.  Plain, simple, and awesome.  It's a pretty nice shade to I think. Some may think it kinda snotty in colour, but I just think it looks luscious!

And so my maternity sewing continues, not at the pace I would have liked, but seeing as 3 weeks ago we decided kinda last minute to throw our house up for sale in hopes of moving to another lovely house (don't worry it's old too!), my sewing plans have been side tracked.  It's hard to sew when half your supplies are in your sisters basement 20 minutes away so your sewing nook can look tidy.  It's hard to sew when most of your energy (the littler you have) is focused on keep the house tidy in case of a showing.  So it's been a bit stressful, which sewing actually helps, but I think my pregnancy tiredness is making it all harder.

So here's to hopefully selling very very soon (so we can move before I deliver!) and to hopefully more maternity and baby sewing being squeezed in somewhere!

But back to the dress.  It's the Rie Dress pattern by Megan Nielsen.  Another simple yet awesome one.  Definitely nothing too complicated here, and this time I even put on my double needles to sew the hems and neck line!  

I made up the XS like I normally do, but I forgot I have these behemoth shoulders in comparison to the rest of little me.  So at first the bodice was pulling across the front like crazy.  Ack.  So I thought of cutting the next size up in bodice as I have tons of this fabric, but I didn't feel like taking everything out.  SO I thought I'd try resewing the arms with the tiniest seam possible (it's cut with 5/8ths)  So I sewed them in with about a 1/4 seam and undid the original seams, and voila! no serious pulling and it fits just fine!

I also cut the longest length as I usually need it, but I probably didn't as I intended it to be worn like a tunic, but at this length I probably could wear it without tights (or jeggings in the photos, that's right everyone, I bought maternity jeggings, and they are awesomely comfortable)  Don't worry though I'll only be wearing them with long shirts, unlikes all the young kids these days :)

Oh and I thought with such a simple dress, I should make me a fancy belt.  So I used up some scraps of the girliest fabric I could find and made the Empire Cinch from Anna Maria Horner's Handmade Beginnings book.  It makes me look rather like a present, but hey, I am kind carrying a very important package!

But for those simpler days, I can just belt it like this.  And the good thing with this dress is that post baby, I should be able to belt it at the waist and keep wearing it, yay!

Oh and in case you all don't know about it yet, in a few weeks is the Fall edition of Elsie Marley's KCWC (Kids Clothing Week Challenge).  I'm hoping to get a few things done for this new baby, and maybe something for little M!  Check it out!

Animal Apron

Just a little quick project post as haven't gotten around to photographing my recent maternity sewing project and realized it's been forever since I posted!

I can't believe I waiting so long to make this one either.  Little M loves his play kitchen, and helping Daddy in the kitchen (he's the chef of the house, not me!)  So naturally this kid needed a mini apron.

And finally I made one.

I used the free Child's Apron pattern by the lovely Meg over at Sew Liberated.  And naturally I made it using animal prints.  I suppose food prints would have been more suitable, but seriously, who wouldn't want an apron with frog princes on one side and monkeys on the other.  Right?

M likes it, and that's all that matters!  Isn't he cute (and rather blurry) with his kitchen?  I think so, but I just might be biased.