Knitted Baby Booties and Hat

I was supposed to be putting this post up earlier, but lo and behold I ended up taking Lil man to the out of hours clinic with Rikkis Dad because he fell over and bashed his nose at school and made it bleed and I was worried it might be broken. 

It was a long wait which was made slightly longer by the fire alarm going off, but its worth it for peace of mind and I can't fault any of the NHS staff or nurses because they were fantastic with him. He actually ended up having 3 nurses look at his nose because they wanted to make sure it was definitely okay. 

So naturally we got home late and I didn't have time to post until now! 

So this is a little baby set I knitted up a while ago because its useful to have one to hand. I used some nice soft baby yarn that I was given by someone, I have absolutely no clue who though so if it was you please feel free to shout up. 

I used an old knitting pattern that I borrowed from Rikkis Nan. It knitted up fairly quickly which is nice because I fit it between other projects.

The booties are a mixture of stocking stitch and garter stitch so they look quite textured. The instructions said to thread Ribbon through the holes to tie them but I made twists from wool instead. 

The hat was from the same pattern but I;m not as pleased with that as I think it looks a bit lumpy at the top. I wanted to knit a helmet type hat but I've made one of those before and babies don't tend to wear that type of style anymore. 

I've popped the set in the drawer ready for the next baby to be born. Luckily as their a light sort of turquoise I think they'll do for a girl or for a boy. 

Right I'm off to bed today ended up being a lot more stressful than I thought it would be!!

Much Love

Frankie 

xxx

Baby Gifts!

I finally got around to quilting my most recent baby blanket.

The front is really simple HST done in a variety of fabrics, I even dug into my precious stash and used some of my dashwood studio prints in there as well as some prints from the craft cotton company and abakhans. 

The couple don't know if they are having a boy or a girl so I went for a pretty neutral palette of yellows greys and teal. I think the whole thing looks really fresh and modern. 

It took me a while to find a fleece blanket to use on the back and in the interest of full disclosure Rikki chose this one from home and bargains. You'll have to take my word for it but it is SUPER soft!

Quilting wise I just quilted along each triangle using my walking foot, It took me barely any time at all. In fact hand stitching the binding down might have taken longer!

I added a handmade tag for a personal touch and naturally after I saw it all cute and folded up I just had to make a matching bunny and taggy blanket. These are made in exactly the same way as all of my other ones and feature a lot of the same prints!!!

This is my absolute favourite set I have ever made EVER!

It all just looks so adorable when its together and I can't wait to gift it when baby is born!

Much Love 

Frankie 

xxx

Finished Baby Blanket - Blue Ombre

I love it when everything comes together. So often with quilting you can over analyse every step. I spent ages choosing the fabric, then I spent ages choose what pattern to do, then when it was finally sewn up I spent ages procrastinating quilting it.

Typically I use a regular fleece blanket to act as backing and batting for my baby quilts but this time I used a thin fleecy poly knit. The same one that I used for my softest coco! 

for the front I cut pieces of fabric into stripes and then placed them in a tonal order from cream to dark blue. Then I pieced them together in a spiral. Its a really quick way to make a blanket and I think its super cute looking.

All of the fabrics came from my stash and I was very careful to choose ones that would be suitable for a boy or a girl. I know its predominately blue but and my sister says some girls like blue and some of the prints have flowers on which girlies it up a little bit. 

This was also my first time doing decent mitred corners on the binding of this one. Which makes me feel a bit smug because it means my skills are improving! Yay for learning new things! 

Oh and by the way I spiral quilted it because that's my go to quilting technique! I really should learn something new!

Frankie

xxx

A Solid Zero Out Of Ten

So as you may of read in my last post my Grandad pasted away on Saturday,

then I got myself a cold sore

then a cut on my finger got infected 

then I cut up my new bank card instead of my expired one

and then I got a fever and ONE swollen tonsil [Yes just the one!]

and we were nearly late for school one day because my alarm didn't go off.

In fact if I were to rate this week I'd give it a solid zero out of ten. 

But this morning I've woken up and I'm ready to get my self together again. So we got ready for school [on time] and had a fairly pleasant walk there and back because it wasn't too freezing this morning and now I'm sat with my morning brew and then I'm going to blitz my house and then I'm going to gift wrap of the the little gifts I've made for my new niece or nephew who will be arriving in December!   

This is one of them, I have no idea when I made these but I vaguely remember cutting them out whilst little man played cars and then sewing them up that night? Its juts my regular taggy blanket.

I made on in blue and one in red, there's a another baby due next year so it made sense to bust two out at the same time. ones backed in fleece and ones backed in a minky type of fleece.

I quilted one in diagonal quilting to look like little x's and the other is straight line quilted kind of like tartan? they couldn't have took longer than an hour but I think they are pretty cute.

As usual the ribbon tags are just scraps from my stash. 

So yeah I'm pretty pleased with these and I think they'll make a great addition to the little gift baskets I'm going to make up.

Right so I'm going to have my brew, finish watching westworld and then I'm going to finally get my house back in order!

Frankie

xxx

Flamingo Print Baby Dungarees

I'll start off by saying I have a cold, yep I'm less than a week from the wedding and currently my face resembles rudolph. Naturally I'm equal parts furious and grouchy but I'm trying to stay positive. After all a sickness bug has been making its way around nursery last week, so things could be worse [Touches all of the wood so things don't get worse]

Anyway your not here to read about how crappy I'm feeling are you? No your here to see the most adorable pair of baby dungarees their is.

These are for my new not quite born yet niece/nephew [the babies going to be a surprise until its pops itself into the world!] Now the problem with the whole not knowing if its a kyle or a kylie is that everything I make for the hamper needs to be unisex.

Flamingos are unisex right? I tried to go with a slightly more boyish look as a base because you can always make things look girly with accessories like tights.

Right so details, the pattern is from the second GBSB book, Its one of the smaller sizes and I fully lined it so there would be no nasty seams scratching brand new baby skin. The sides and the bottom are closed with press studs for easy nappy changes etc. The two shoulder straps are fully attached with the buttons, So they are none functioning but I don't see that as an issue.

The crotch area is finished with a strip of bias binding and the leg holes are just fold over hems.

I love the little fold in detail on the shoulder straps, especially because it shows the spotty lining I brought. 

I used the same spotty fabric to make the super cute pocket!!! 

And the best part is how adorable it looks with some of the other things I have already made!!!!

Much Love

Frankie

xxx

Knitted Diagonal Baby Blanket - How to!

Okay so this is my go to baby blanket pattern, Its quick its easy and you can use scrap wool if you want which is a glorious thing in the knitting world! Because all of those wool scraps add up!!!

Anyway this one is for my sister in law and brother, so I used all the colours!!!!

So here's how you do it!

you will need:

scrap balls of wool [it helps if you sort them into colour order, like a rainbow!]

your biggest knitting needles [ I think i used a size 5 or 6?]

a couple of free hours [and a good box set!]

1. Sort all of your wool into rainbow order

2. Grab your first two balls of wool and tie the ends together. cast on 3 stitches and treat these two strands as one. [you will continue to knit the whole of the blanket using two strands so the colours will "fade" into each other. Now the cool bit is one ball will inevitably finish before the other so then you just tie on your next ball of wool! this is what creates the ombre effect!]

3. Using your three cast on stiitches, knit 1 row and increase 1 stitch at the end

4. Continue knitting a row and increasing 1 stitch until your width is approximately 70cm or more if you'd like it to be longer!

5. Knit one row

6. Knit 1 row and decrease one stitch at the end.

7. Keep knitting a row and decreasing one stitch until three stitches remain

8. Cast off your last three stitches and weave in ends!

9. You can also add an optional crochet trim! which I did because I ran out of wool!!!!

Its such a versatile pattern! Heres some ways yo can make it your own!

- use a different stitch! try stocking stitch or moss stitch!

- Instead of two strands use chunky wool!

- Be eco friendly and recycle tshirts to make tshirt yarn! [this might be a lil thick though!]

-Knit all in one colour for a more neutral feel!

- Skip to colour ordering and just use one colour scheme like various shades of pink or blue! 

Hopefully the mummy and daddy of my new niece or nephew will like the blanket! I personally like the bright colours because OMG so much fun!!!!!! But I think they will because they are bright colourful people!

My only regret is that it isn't bigger but I think it will work nicely for a car seat layer or a Moses basket one! I wish I could have knit it bigger but I ran out of wool! Which is pretty hard to believe considering I used scraps!!! 

Im going to cast on another one of these tonight, But I can't decide which colour scheme to go for, blue or pink? 

Maybe this time I can make it bigger!

Much Love

Frankie 

xxxx

Crazy Baby Bibs!

I love my sister in law. She has zero fear of print, colour and embellishment! Even if its all in one outfit! Which is why I knew I could go as crazy as I wanted when picking fabrics for her baby bibs!

First of all I picked a scrap of african wax print to make this bib that's actually pretty dammed awesome looking!

And I backed them both in this awesome diamond print because as I said she has no fear of colour!

And then I did a slightly tamer one in a piece of owl print. because well red and sparkly doesn't go with everything! [this one badly needs an iron!]

But I still backed it with the crazy diamond print! Both bibs are reversible, and close with press studs. I used my own pattern and ran them up in about half an hour. I might make a few more yet but I think twos a pretty good start for the baby's gift hamper! 

Much Love

Frankie 

xxx

New Baby Bunny!

I don't want to alarm you all but......

I'M GOING TO BE AN AUNTY AGAIN!

Seriously was there a power cut I don't know about? everybody seems to be popping out the babies!

Anyway I've already started its gift basket in fact its what this quilt top is for! 

I've tried to go pretty neutral on the bunny, both of the fabrics are from the craft cotton company. and as a nice touch the triangle fabric that's on the body is on the bunnies I made for its elder brother and sister for Easter.

I used my own Easter bunny tutorial, and didn't make any changes. I was tempted to make a mouse but its mum and dad requested a rabbit.

I'm very pleased with how it turned out I'm just wondering if I should change the ribbon round its neck for something darker? 

And I've already decided if its a girl I'm going to put a tutu on it!

Frankie

xxx

Daisy Dress For Pudding

I cut out a dress recently and found myself with a small piece of fabric left. well a medium sized piece, Not quite enough to make myself something but a bit too much for it to go in the scraps box.

Luckily for me I have a lovely lil god-daughter "pudding" and it seemed a shame not to make her a lil something.

Now normally I don't do children, there's a few I like [my own included] but mostly I just think they are sticky, loud, obnoxious little beings. 

I like pudding though, luckily for me shes still small enough to think I'm humorous and doesn't require much more attention than the odd silly face!

Anyway the pattern came from the second great british sewing bee book, but I omitted the collar and added a ruffle along the bottom. For a dress the pattern seems very short?

I lined the bodice and left an opening in the back neck so it can be easily gotten on and off. I used an odd button and a loop for the closure.

I put lace trim around the join between the skirt and the bodice, mainly because I was caught up in a whirl wind of adorable baby making! Luckily I had just enough of this lace to do it!

I spent most of my time basking in how adorable it was turn out and the rest of the time trying to make sure there were no scratchy seams.

I top stitched the neckline and armholes so everything would stay in place and so It wouldn't need ironing.

I'm really pleased with this, It was actually quite nice to make something for someone else even if I don't think I'll be doing it a lot! babies grow too fast!!!

And I'm definitely glad I added the ruffle onto the bottom!

Now I just have to hope that baby likes it, mum likes it and that it fits!!!

Much Love

Frankie

xxx

9 Patch Taggy Blanket!

I kind of feel like becuase this took me less than an hour to make, its not really blog worthy. But it turned out cute so I'm going to subject you to it anyway!

Its is a really simple nine patch taggy blanket that I made using my own tutorial which you can find here. 

I won't go through the construction because its all covered in the tutorial but I only used fabrics from my scraps box and the ribbons are from my ribbon drawer as well. I tried to pick ribbons with different textures because I know babies like that kinda thing! Unseen is the back which was a scrap of soft red fleece! 

I quilted it very simply using straight lines. I might add the babies initial to the centre square when it arrives but it depends if I remember! Its going into a little gift basket I'm making for a baby that should be showing up around august? Anyway I've finished the making portion of the gift so now I just need to buy things.

In other news :

I brought a face powder that claimed to be translucent and now I look like I've been tangoed.

Litterally scared to leave the house incase someone mistakes me for a memeber of TOWIE! [which I don't watch! the kardashians yes but I draw the line at towie!]

Much Love

Frankie 

xxx