Saturday 21 May 2016

A blanket and mini blanket for baby Robin. On a rather grey day

So please excuse these photographs. Also they were taken on a phone as this was when my camera had just given up. Not my best. But sweet enough makes, so the state of the photographs has been forgiven
 As soon as I thought about making a baby blanket I wanted to put these two fabrics together, both leftover from some dressmaking for me as yet not shown. Well, a dress and a skirt... more details sometime! The ditsy floral dress made an age ago now, the blue floral skirt made last summer and that was when I decided they just had to go together, with the brightest pink piping. And it turned out just as I hoped. The grey floral is a cotton poplin from Fabric Rehab and the blue floral has been sitting in the pile for so, so many years. Possibly one of the longest term residents of my fabric pile. It has a light blue cotton background with oh so many blue daisies embroidered all over. Purchased in Brighton when the shop Velvet still had a separate fabric and habadashery shop.

There was some sneaky piecing for both fabrics as this was a using what was in the pile make. Sandwiched inside is some cotton flannel, as Baby Robin lives in Kenya so I imagined doesn't need anything too hot. I quilted it altogether on the machine with some large squares, which are totally lost in these photographs, but it did give a gently quilted feel
 The ribbon blanket is backed with the same flannel with some dreamy Liberty
 I have no idea how Liberty tana lawn will respond to scrunching and dribbling and enthusiastic baby cuddles, but it does look so pretty! I do hope it is still going strong as I was informed that it was a favourite of Baby Robin's... I shall let you know!

Monday 9 May 2016

A knitted collar

Hmmm. I do like this, and wear it a lot even though there is a little part of me that thinks it looks rather like the sort of heavy rubber collar you wear at the hairdressers. I think it is the size. And I'm unsure of the colours I chose too - not the grey, I love grey - but the pink is a bit pretty pink for me. But I had popped into the local wool shop with a friend, with no actual purpose, and they had a special offer on delicious MillaMia wool. Not being able to resist, I remembered this pattern and so chose two colours from the very limited colours left... it really was a great offer and so the shelf was almost empty! (I should perhaps mention that the pattern is the Brita Collar from MillaMia's High Society book of patterns). And that is why I combined the lovely grey with the oh-so-sweetly-pink pink. The colours are storm and petal, and the pattern needs just one ball of each.
I followed the pattern until the final cast off stitch when I added a few extra stitches to create a button loop, whereas the original finishes with a ribbon or hook and eye. And look, there is moss stitch and dear little cables.

I seem to have been showing lots of wooly makes here recently - there are a few to catch up with after wintery months spent cosied up with a blanket and some wool, so hopefully some sewing makes soon. Though I have managed a seasonally appropriate knitted make recently, and fancy a few other patterns so maybe there will be some summery knitting and crochet too!