Shorts, kites and trains

TIME IS RUNNING OUT. It has suddenly occurred to me that I've got limited time to shoe horn my little boy into clothes like this:

I mean, he doesn't even wear nappies anymore! Where did my baby go? Whoa. Anyway, I'm waiting for the day in which he turns round and says "I'm not wearing those, they're ridiculous". But in the meantime....

The fabric is Michael Miller, originally bought with another project in mind but the pattern wasn't small scale enough so it's been gathering dust on the shelf for a while. The pattern is an old faithful, the Little Heartbreaker Pants from Sewing for Boys which I've now made several times over. I shortened them, added the cuff on the bottom and 'bloomered' them using this tutorial.

The shorts got their first outing at the weekend on a trip out with the grandparents. Tucked away in an orchard in Grantchester, Cambridge, is this picture perfect miniature steam railway. Run by train geeks enthusiasts, they open to the public once a month for rides. This has been running for well over 30 years, a fact proven by the existence of a photo of my older brother riding the very same trains as a little boy! This was a rather lovely trip down memory lane for my parents who were very excited to be going back with their grandson. It's a bit of a Cambridge secret but you can find a little more information here.

DIY

Not a whole lot of crafting going on at the moment due to this:

My sew/work space currently looks like this:

The best bit about home improvements? Perving over design sites and pinning like crazy.... Here are a few of my favourites pins at the moment and what seems to be inspiring me:

Via Fantastic Frank

Via the Beautiful List

Via Sweet Peach blog

Via Sweet Peach blog

There's more on my Pinterest. We've got a load of furniture to put together and will be packing Ruben off to his grandparents for a weekend so we can get it all done. Imagine, a whole child-free weekend and we're choosing to spend it constructing wardrobes. I'm sure I used to have a life once....

Shoesies for Oshen

My friends are quite literally CHURNING the babies out at the moment. Having made granny square blankets for the last three I was looking for something else to make as a gift and found these Lilac Baby Booties from ithinksew. They were ridiculously quick and easy to make and brilliant for using up small scraps.

I thought the new born size looked tiny so I went for the next size up but I still don't reckon any feet, even titchy baby ones will fit in there! I was worried that they would be useless so whipped these ones up as well:

These are the Charlie Baby Boots. Again, quick and easy to make - I modified them slightly by making the insides a bit smaller so the lining fits better and adding pull tabs. My only problem with them is the print on the fabric makes it look as if I've made them upside down.... This is to prove that it wasn't me being an idiot:

I guess that kind of print doesn't work on very small items!

Sewing for Boys

This is the Two-in-one jacket from Sewing for Boys by Shelly Figueroa and Karen LePage. I actually finished it a few months back and wasn't really expecting the boy to still be wearing it but thanks to our delightful English summer, we're really getting a lot of wear out of this one.

I added patch pockets rather than the welt ones in the pattern because, well, life's too short to make welt pockets*. I figured also that a two year old is probably not going to question the pocket styling, as long as it fits a small plastic turtle inside and can be used to transport a small amount of sand then all is ok with the world.

I'm pretty pleased with this as it's my first ever coat! The construction was really rather simple and I'd definitely consider making up another version for the winter. It also gets rather a lot of admiring comments when we're out and about from strangers which is always nice! Do you accept compliments gracefully on hand-made stuff and keep quiet or do you go for the 'thanks, I MADE IT' approach which inevitably draws more compliments? I usually go for the latter and then feel a bit showyoffy afterwards.

*I noticed that Sewaholic's new pattern features welt pockets. I'd be interested to see her method as she's got a brilliant way of making things look easy.

I'm back...

Well hello there. *blows the dust away*

I'm glossing over the fact I've not blogged for 4 months! Life got in the way. Some good, some bad, just life really.

But I've got a few things to show for all that time off! First up is this bag that I whipped up a while back after utterly falling in love with these beauties. The fabric is a heavy corduroy that I got at Walthamstow Market ages ago for ridiculously little pence per metre. I fell for the classic:

"Can I have one metre please?"
"Yes. Actually that's the end of the bolt, there's 2.5 metres there, I'll give it to you for the price of 2"
"Oh, ok"

What's wrong with me? Why am I totally unable to say "No thanks, I only want a metre"? It's like I'm worried I'm going to RUN OUT OF FABRIC.... Anyway, I used a tiny fraction of it to make this clutch.

I did use it as an evening bag a couple of times but it's not quite as sturdy/stiff as I'd hoped so it's been relegated to a wool bag for the moment. In fact, it's currently storing these:

I'm a bit addicted to Patons Smoothie acrylic yarn at the moment. The wool snobs amongst you may well shudder but I like acrylic - it's washable, feels soft and is cheap! What's not to like? I've finished another baby blanket, you can see it over here.