My creative space: little caps

Lately we've had quite cold weather (for Sydney) and it seems to have brought out the mother hen in me. When I rugged up the kids to take them out recently and didn't have a hat for my boy I remembered this pattern from my stash that I'd made up when he was younger (one seen here) and decided to give it another whirl.

This time I used a nice cozy medium weight grey wool for the outside and a thrifted piece of yellow linen for the inside. Then, as it was looking a little sparse I added a little piece of sriped grosgrain ribbon I've been hoarding. You know when you buy something on a whim then fall in love with it and ration it in a crazy hope that it will never run out? That's how I felt about this ribbon. It just adds a little something to the cap to finish it off, a cute little detail.

Little champ that he is, my boy took to it straight away "Is that my hat mama? Do you make it for me?" and wore it for most of the day, which of course made me pretty happy :-) When little girl saw it she told him how cute he looked in his "train driver hat" and promptly asked me for one "the same fabric but with a butterfly on it please mama". I was amazed but very pleased that she liked the grey flannel! Yippee, I didn't have to do pink on pink for a change!

So that evening was spent making a slightly larger sized cap, lined with pink cotton (didn't get that far away from it!) and embellished with a felt butterfly that I cut out free form and embroidered onto the brim with thread creating the body and feelers.

 She suitably chuffed the next morning. And I guess you can see what was coming next...

 Yes, one last one for my big girl "with a flower please mama". This one sized up at 105% to fit her almost adult sized head, and embellished with a stylised flower in ribbon and button when the intended felt was just not working.

So after 3 evenings of cap sewing I'm pretty over that pattern for now! But at least I know my little munchkins have warm heads... or the potential to have warm heads, as it might be ;-)

Wander on over here to see more of this week's creative spaces.

Dinosaurs are cool

I mentioned recently that having a boy has opened up a whole new world of crafting and fabric for me. While I love pink and princessy things, it's nice to have an alternative.

The other day I made bub another of these little caps to wear for our very chilly recent weather.

I repurposed some denim (from an old pair of his father's jeans) for the outside, then used a snuggly, cute dinosaur print flanelette that I'd found at Spotlight on a gathering trip recently. Hey, I can justify fabric shopping as modern day "gathering", can't I (men being hunters, women being gatherers :-)? This was one of those "I'll get some now coz I like it and use it for something later" moments. In the past it would not have even caught my eye, but now that I have a boy to think of, it jumped out at me. So it seemed perfect as the lining for the cap.



... and I cut out one of the dinosaurs and did some 'free stitching' with the machine onto the front. I really like the slight frayed edges and sketchy style of the stitching.



The boy seems happy with his cap, and actually keeps this style on, which is more than I can say for any other hat I've tried on him. I wonder if he will end up liking dinosaurs like his mama does :-)

Duds for the little dude

When I was pregnant with number 3 and discovered he was going to be a boy I was a little surprised. I'd heard the stats: people with 2 children of the same sex have 75% chance of having another of the same. And also I couldn't imagine having a boy. I loved having girls and all that entailed. Incidentally, my big girl had been saying "it's a boy mamma" for ages, so when we told her that it was indeed a boy she just shrugged her shoulders in true 4 year old style and said "I knew that". And my other (little) girl would just be glad to have someone smaller than her to play with and boss around!

Now, on a totally superficial level, when thinking about having a little guy in my life I thought that clothing him was going to be boring, if not a total non-event. And what do you sew or craft for boys? Isn't it all functional Bonds gear and spiderman outfits? Not so much call for fairy wings, tutus and dolls. But thankfully the inspiration is coming to me. First a friend made bub a cool little sun hat and t-shirt with ute motif, which he has worn to death. I love them because they're so individual. We were also given a groovy little t-shirt from jackson & kerr.

Then I was excited to recently make him the little cap pictured above from a fabulous pattern by Leila and Ben. It has such cute details. I used a plain corduroy for the outside and some Prints Charming grey and yellow patterned cotton for the lining, which I love (isn't it funny that even though we don't see the lining on the garment much, it somehow lifts the whole design to know you have some lovely fabric inside). Prints Charming design such beautiful fabrics, and it's worth a visit to their Sydney shop if you are in town - very inspiring!





And on the 'to do' list for him is:
• sew a repurposed t-shirt form The 90 minute shirt tutorial (couldn't get the link to work, sorry), with a stencil inspired by Lotta Jansdotter's book Lotta Prints: How to print anything from from Potatoes to Linoleum
• sew some everyday trousers with padded knees in contrasting fabric, maybe this pattern
• make him a dinosaur softie for his upcoming birthday
• make some more pairs of my tried and tested baby slippers before he starts walking - quick!

Now, I'm not kidding myself that I'll get all (or any!) of the sewing projects done, but hey, it's nice to dream :-)

What are your favourite clothes for little guys?