(I promise there will be knitted FOs too, very soon! Once they are blocked, and photographed.)

I really love Simple Sewing for Baby by Lotta Jansdotter – it’s full of useful things that you can make with a limited amount of time. Perfect for my foreseeable crafting life. ;)

So far I have made:

A drool neckchief (perfect for my teething boy) – the first of many!

And (finally!) a mini tag blanket (which has been on my to-do list for months.

(Mods – I made FB’s smaller than suggested, and added a button hole to one of the corners so that it can be attached to his pram or triptrap via a toy tie. You can’t see it in the picture but the other side is fleece. Very cozy.)

I’ve found it’s pretty hard to find baby trousers that will fit with a cloth nappy. However I’m finding it a little easier to carve out a bit of making time in an evening when FB has gone to bed and W has gone to the allotment.

(Turns out this time is more precious than ever. Making things – whether I’m knitting or sewing, or whatever – is making me happier than it ever has before. And I’ve been sewing since I was about six and knitting since I was seven.*)

Anyway armed with what I could remember from The Creative Family (since Lara still has my copy. <3), and the excellent backup of Redcurrent’s tutorial, I set about making a test pair.

(There is so much I love in this photo – aside from my sweet boy – the hooded blanket from Amy Butler’s Little Stitches, that his auntie made him for christmas, and the Treasure Basket made by gershamabob**, which FB explores every day. )

I ended up loving this version alot more than I thought I would. (The fabric was an old charity shop pillowcase find that has been in and out of the ‘back to the charity shop’ fabric pile a few times, but which I now utterly love as these trousers.)

They  fit him now but won’t fit for very long and are pretty piped on when he has a cloth nappy on, so I made a second, larger test pair using another pillow case, and some spotted Rowan fabric for the cuffs.

(This pillowcase has been much used and washed many times and so is very soft and – as you can see below – a bit see through. It was W’s long before we met.)

I’m really happy with them, and FB has been wearing them alot since they were made. Now I’m poised to use some of my new fabric purchases to make more in the next few days, (after I get through I couple of mini deadlines. :) And then we’ll be set for summer.

*Despite this I have only just learnt about the huge ’sew backwards’ button on my sew machine. People who love me have mocked me for this, and rightly so. ;)

**Want to make your own Treasure Basket? There is a great PDF here.

A week last wednesday…

… and yesterday.

Simple Mom (a site I haven’t been reading for very long, but which I’m enjoying), is having a Spring Cleaning Party for Normal People.

This idea really appeals to me, especially after a long winter of not-a-lot-of-time-or-energy-for-housework. And it’s come at the perfect time for us, given that W has taken the week off work, and we really want to get our house sorted out, (amongst other things.)

Realistically, it’s likely to take me more than a day to get each ‘day’ done, but I’m ok with that.

I’ll try to post some interesting before and after shots, and maybe give away some bits and pieces, should I come across anything that could do with a new, crafty home.