Oh, Baby!

There must be something in the water, because every time I turn around someone else announces they're pregnant 👶 it all started with a lovely girl at work who is expecting her first in the summer so I wanted to make something special for the baby. She found out it was a boy so I decided to make a little baby blanket in blue and grey to go with her colour scheme for the baby's room and found this lovely chunky yarn in Hobbycraft and settled on doing a corner to corner crochet blanket as it was quick to work up. I used the tutorial from the Crochet Crowd and started crocheting away. I finished the blanket and was really pleased with how it came out, I used four and a half balls and the blanket is 30"x30".

Now I could have stopped there, but now I had the bug, I wanted to make other things for him! So after plenty of time rummaging around in my books and on the internet I made a set of (really soft) hats using Hobbycraft's own baby yarn in blue and grey.

Aaaaand I could have stopped there, but I had some beautiful Peter Rabbit fat quarters that I'd had for a couple of years, but the right project had never come up....until now! It turns out you can get 2 bib fronts out of every FQ, so I decided to do a set of three to go with the 3 hats. I knew that it was much cheaper to buy decent quality towel and cut it up rather than buying toweling from a fabric shop, and as luck would have it, an ASDA extra soft hand towel is just the right amount to cut out 3 bibs 😁 They were so easy to make, all I had to do was cut out a front and back, sew the right sides together (while leaving a gap at the bottom) trim the seams, turn it right side out and zigzag around the entire edge and then just sew a wee bit of velcro on. They took no time at all, but be warned, if you cut up a towel, you'd better have your hoover handy because the fluff goes EVERYWHERE!!

But wait, there's more! I bought a little grey basket from Home Bargains to store it all in and thought it looked like it was missing something. Ahhhh....no baby should start life without a cuddly best friend! So I dug out some grey yarn and got started on a cuddly elephant. This actually took longer to make than any of the others because it was a small hook (3.5mm) and a lot of rounds of stitches that involved continuous counting. But when I finally sewed it all together, the result was totally worth it, he's so adorable!

 

So off he went into the basket, but something still wasn't quite right. So I went in search of the finishing touch, I thought maybe some ribbon would do the trick until I found soft tulle on a roll! AHA! I exclaimed and took it home to finish the job ( I will note that I did actually pay for it 😂) Everything was bundled up in the tulle and even the little elephant got a pretty, little bow round his neck.

 

Now everything was just right! I was so excited to bring it to work the next day for the recipient and thankfully she absolutely loved it 😄

Now I get to start crocheting and sewing for my favourite cousin who is having her first in Autumn 👶 I can't wait to get going!

Me Made May 2018

So this year I've decided to participate in Me Made May :) Usually it kind of creeps up on me and I always say maybe I'll do it next year, but this is the year I will actually participate! I'm not saying that I will wear handmade every day and be a sewing superstar since a lot of my dresses are a bit mental for working in an office 😂 So here is my pledge;

I Roisin (@secretagentraisin on Instagram and of http://invisibleduckcrafts.blogspot.co.uk/ ) sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May '18. I endeavor to wear handmade clothes at least 3 times a week and to identify gaps in my handmade wardrobe.

I'll also to try to blog/post on Insta about my outfits and any new makes during the month :) 

And here is a picture as Tim Gunn as a gentle reminder to us all :)