Hats

I needed a really quick, easy and cheap project to make my brothers for their birthday (they're twins)  I was lying in bed and it occurred to me that I have so many woollen jerseys that a warm hat would be nice and straightforward.  I googled a few hat patterns, but since I don't have a printer at home, I just winged it.  DH has an earflap hat, so I drew around it on a piece of paper to get the pattern, then cut out two halves and overlocked them together.

Because I was using wool, I made a lining from some stretch cotton jersey, to keep it soft next to their heads.  I overlocked the outer and the lining together, and turned it.  Just 3 seams for the whole thing.  It took about 10mins for the machine sewing.  Simple, quick and easy.  

I blanket stitched around the bottom to close the opening from turning it, and to give it a more finished look.  A more thorough seamstress would have slip stitched the opening, and then done the blanket stitch, but finishing is never my strong point.

I'm linking up with a new creative list today.  Check it out, delicately constructed, and as always Creative Friday.

I've been Koha'ed!

 What a fantastic surprise to open my letterbox and find this gorgeous parcel inside.  There is a stashbuster vest, a hand knitted hat, some lovely twisted sister wool and of course a little chocolate treat.

 The colour of the wool is truest in this picture

Thanks so much to whoever it was.  Its made my day (well, my week really).  I'm off to smoosh some lovely wool.

On the subject of cloth nappies

I've talked about cloth nappies before, and here, and how wonderful I think they are, but there are a few myths about cloth nappies that always seem to pop up.

Cloth nappies are more work.
I won't lie, there is more washing involved with cloth nappies, but its not really very much extra.  And once you get into the routine of washing them, its really easy to do.  I can feel your scepticism from here, but it really is easy.  I'm onto my 3rd full time cloth baby (none of whom have been particularly easy babies), and its just about being organised - you'll wonder why you ever put it off once you start using them.

The mess factor
This is mostly a concern for first time Mums.  I'll let you in on a little secret - babies are messy.  Disposable nappies are not significantly less messy than cloth, you'll still be wiping baby's bottom.  And just think of the smell from all those disposables in the rubbish when you're weighing up using cloth and the mess.

They're not really better for the environment
Several years ago, there was a UK report that looked at the environmental impact of cloth nappies versus disposables.  It found that the environmental impact of cloth was roughly equivalent to that disposable nappies.  However, this report had several flaws.  Firstly it was based in the UK, where the weather is wet.  It also assumed that you would be using a dryer to dry nappies (I don't own one so that isn't an issue for me), and it also assumed you would be IRONING your nappies! Why, I don't know.  These factors skew the reports findings regarding electricity use and environmental impact.  A further report was completed using 2006 data with more accurate findings.  "For example, washing the nappies in fuller loads or line drying them outdoors all the time reduces the global warming impact by 16 per cent.  If these nappies are also used on a second child, the original figure drops by 40 per cent, or some 200kg carbon dioxide equivalents over the two and a half years – an impact equal to driving about 1,000 km."  You can find the full report here.

They leak
This is a really significant factor for people giving up on cloth nappies.  Often people start out with cloth, and then find that they leak, and give up on them.  Did you know that disposables leak too? No system is foolproof all the time, and there are some really simple ways to reduce the leaking.  The first is to look at absorbency.  Most nappies are sold with one or two inserts, people usually assume that the inserts are all that they need inside the nappy, and then wonder why they leak.  An old school flat nappy is a great insert, and much less likely to leak.  The first thing to check if your nappies are leaking is to add more absorbency.

The second way to reduce leaking is to change baby more often.  Cloth nappies do need to be changed more frequently than disposables.  You should be looking to change 5 or 6 times a day.

There are some other issues - generally around fit.  Sometimes a particular style or brand of nappy just doesn't fit your baby as well as others, its worth experimenting with a few different kinds if you're having fit issues.

This post ended up longer than I thought, but hopefully I've demystified cloth nappies a little bit.  Seriously, they are really easy, and you can feel great for the environment, and your pocket when you're changing baby.  There is some more really fabulous information here

Introducing

Baby C

Born 2/7/12, weighing a respectable 9lbs even.  We are all smitten with our littlest daughter.

Pirorohu Vest Pattern

Pirorohu Vest Pattern

Close up of the bee stitch on the body of the vest

 So I have finally published another knitting pattern.  This one is for a little 4 ply vest, done mostly in bee stitch.  This stitch works best in a verigated yarn, and mine is in 100purewool in Grenada.

The bee stitch keeps the knitting in the round from being too monotonous, and adds a lovely textural element to the vest.  The name of the vest - Pirorohu, means bumblebee in Maori and is of course, a reference to the stitch.


As with many of my other patterns, this has been test knit only sporadically, so there may be some mistakes in the pattern.  Please feel free to leave comments if anything is unclear.

Making underwear Tutorial

                                    

I've made P a few pairs of underwear now, and I thought I would share my methods with you, since they differ slightly from most of the tutorials I looked at.

Materials:

Cotton knit fabric - I used some old t shirts to cut up, bonus points if you can include some kind of cute logo for the undies

Note: For hygiene's sake, the crotch piece of the underwear should be cut from 100% cotton, even if the rest of the undies aren't.

Elastic - I used regular old 5mm braided elastic, but this is a little bit hard on the skin, so next time I'll try and find some softer underwear elastic or FOE.

Instructions:

Most of the tutorials recommend that you cut up an existing pair of underwear to create the pattern pieces to work from.  This is a really good idea for a much loved and worn out pair of undies.  But the frugality in me balks at cutting up one perfectly serviceable pair of P's undies in order to create another perfectly serviceable pair of undies.  So instead I drew around P's undies as best I could without cutting them up.

You will end up with  3 pattern pieces - a front piece that looks like a curved T shape, a back piece and a kind of triangley squary shape for the crotch piece.

Cut out your fabric, making sure you lay the pieces so that the stretch of the fabric goes across the pattern 

I didn't take a photo of this stage, but you all know how to lay out a pattern right?

Next, lay the pattern pieces out, one on top of the other.  Lay the front piece on the bottom, right side up.  Next lay the back piece right side down, and finally lay the crotch piece, also right side down.  Pin all three layers together at the bottom (ie not the waist part of the pieces).  Its really important to lay these out in this order so they will all turn the right way out.

Sew/overlock all these pieces together.
Note: I use my overlocker for this entire project, but if you don't have one, a zigzag stitch on your sewing machine should do the job equally well

Sew the narrow end of the crotch piece to finish it.

Fold the crotch piece over so that the seam is sandwiched between the crotch piece and the back piece of the undies.  It should look a little like an hourglass.  If your crotch piece doesn't match up with the sides of your undies, trim the undies so that they do.

Pin elastic to the front and back pieces across the top on the RIGHT side of the fabric - this creates the waistband.  To find out how much elastic you need, measure along the top of the pair of undies that you used for the pattern pieces.

Sew the elastic to the right side of the fabric, stretching it as you go along.
Note: It pays to leave a bit of a gap between the top of the fabric and the elastic - this helps to prevent the elastic touching skin.  If you are overlocking, DON'T cut the elastic as you go, the gap at the top of the fabric helps with this as well.  Just go carefully.

Pin the crotch piece into place, making sure that all the edges line up.  Sew the elastic onto the legs, also on the RIGHT side of the fabric.  You have two options for working out the amount of elastic for the legs, you can either measure along the length of the undies, and cut accordingly.  Or you can keep the elastic on the roll and just sew it onto the sides of the undies - there is no need to stretch out this elastic, its mostly just to keep the undies comfortable when they are on.

Once you have sewn up the sides, the crotch piece should also be attached, with just the finished top edge not attached to the undies - it should remain pretty secure.

Once all the elastic is attached it should look like this.

You're nearly finished! Sew the side seams - double check that they are right sides together.

Turn them right side out and admire your handiwork

Including cute logo on the bum.

In case you've been wondering

What I've been up to lately.

Sorry, no baby news yet, but shouldn't be too much longer.  I've been making P some underwear.  A little while ago I mentioned that she didn't have that many pairs of undies, and we had a conversation about it.  It went a bit like this:
Me: You don't really have that many pairs of undies
P: You could make me some!
Me: I don't really have the right elastic, but I could make you some
P: It nearly my birthday, I could ask for some elastic to make undies.

I love that she immediately wanted me to make, rather than buy them.  And I have finally got around to making her a couple of pairs.  They are super easy to make and sew up really fast.  I used several different tutorials to make mine up, and I will put a tutorial together about how I did it once I've made a few more.