Jahr: 2013

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my first tshirt!

here it is, my first real piece of clothing (apart from accessories): a tshirt!

the pattern is from the ottobre design magazine, issue 3/2011. it’s the pattern „12. happy animals“. size 80. i love the overlapping neckline like in onesies. no neckline that is too small for baby’s big head and no need to attach any buttons and such.

it’s made of a flower jersey i already had in my stash. i didn’t want to use any of my new boy’s jerseys because there was a fair chance that i would ruin the fabric big time 😉 after all it was my first real garment, my first ribbing, my first serious jersey project, my first try with twin needle…

i have to tell you, it wasn’t easy. being a little perfectionst i started off with high hopes and great expectations…

first downer was, that i just didn’t manage to sew with a twin needle! it didn’t work! i tried all kinds of thread tensions and different fabrics but i always ended up with messed up seams. strangely enough one seam looked good, one seam had many missed stitches. maybe somebody has any idea how that can happen and what i can do about it?! maybe it was just the cheap no-name twin needle i bought at ebay?

after that disaster and at least an hour of trying and getting really frustrated i gave up. single needle and zigzag stitch it was. but then i didn’t seem to be able to even sew a proper normal seam anymore. after another hour of trying and swearing it started to work. finally. but the way to sew on the ribbing that was discribed in ottobre seemed too difficult and error-prone for my fragile state of mind, so i chose a slightly less elegant but easier way.

that finally did the trick and after some sewing without mistakes i’m proud to present you: my first tshirt:

since it’s definitely no boys shirt i gave it to my friend dani’s little sara today. she is 2 months younger than lukas and i hope it will fit her well 🙂 (waiting for a photo of sara wearing it!)

well, i think i got the hang of it now. so i can’t wait to sew another shirt for lukas 🙂

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first jersey sewing project

as the title already states: this was my first jersey project! and it went quite well actually. and is wearable. yay!

the pattern is for free, is called „jerseymütze bettina“ and can be downloaded here. i used a little mod i found at kaddi’s blog. you’ll find a tutorial there which is in german, but quite self-explanatory even if you can’t read the text. the hat is doubled, which is excellent for a jersey newbie like me as you won’t see any crooked seams 😉

the fabric is cute and perfect for a pilot’s son 😉 and i still have enough fabric left for a matching tshirt… will be one of my next projects….

here is the result. it fits and has already been worn several times. and probably will be worn a lot more if summer isn’t coming any time soon…

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fabric shopping

i recently rediscovered sewing…

in the beginning of my crafting „career“ i sewed quite a lot. mainly bags and accessories. and since lukas was born i always adored those lovely ottobre patterns of tshirts, pullovers, sweatshirts, shirts, jumpsuites, pants etc… and even more adored the looooovely (organic) fabrics you find on the web…

but i always was afraid of sewing jersey fabrics. i just have a normal, non-fancy sewing machine which just has the usual flexible zigzag stitches. but i thought it must be „do-able“ so i dragged my boyfriend and baby along to the fabric market that took place in frankfurt at the 28th april….

and this is my loot 😉

fleece in two turquoise colours, a variety of cute jerseys, ribbons and ribbing. i just got 50cm of every jersey which is enough for tshirts anyway….

at the ottobre website i flipped through the issues and bought the ones i loved best (two directly at the website and one at ebay). so i’m the proud owner of the issues 3/11, 1/12 and 4/12.

inspired by the lovely patterns there i placed another fabric order online at dawanda and got these things:

i’m especially looking forward to using the lovely hamburger liebe sweat (in green and white). it will become a jumpsuite for lukas one day 😉 skulls will be a hat/tshirt, the stars will become pants….

so enough shopping for me for now! it’s sewing time! how exciting!

i will keep you posted with the sewing results soon… but i can already tell you: sewing is so much more difficult than knitting! knitting is like yoga for me: soothing, calming, relaxing. sewing is a fight: stressful, frustrating… but very rewarding too, as you can see the results a lot sooner!

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christening crafts

lukas will be christened on 7th july 2013. so some crafting was due 😀

invitations:

i bought a crafting book about birth and christening cards. on flipping through the book i found some designs i liked and only realized later that the author of the book was anja wägele, the same person who took the newborn photographs of our little lukas! 🙂

this is the book: kartenideen zu geburt & taufe

and i guess anja won’t be cross if i promote her a little, so have a look at her website: http://www.zebrahoernchen.de/

i love the „tree of life“ theme, so i made this design from the book. and also used the theme for the candle and for table decorations (no photos of that yet, obviously).

for the cards i bought matching cards and envelopes, used a stamp for the text, cut the trees from brown paper, created the leaves with a punch and used a variety of other items, like buttons, pearls etc… i found it quite tricky to glue the things to the card without makeing a complete mess. in the end i used a toothpick to apply tiny portions of glue to the pearls and stuff to avoid the glue from oozing out everywhere.

i’m very happy with the result indeed (and so were the recepients of the cards):

candle:

it is tradition to make a candle for the child that is christened. either by the parents or by the godparents. so it was a great opportunity to try candle design. 😉 i did a little research at pinterest etc. and collected some ideas. so here is what i came up with. i’m very happy with the result!

it was the first time i decorated a candle. and it was quite easy actually. you just get a candle and wax sheets of your choice and start. you can also buy prepared parts like letters, christian symbols etc. but i found them sooooo ugly! so everything on my candle is handmade. i drew my design on paper and then put this template on the wax sheet, redraw the lines with a pen so that the outlines of the shapes get visible. then i used a cutter to cut out the parts. i thought it might be difficult to put the parts on the candle, but wax just sticks on wax, so no problem with that at all. if you just give light pressure you can reposition the parts, and a little more pressure to attach them permanently.

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wee austin hoodie

i’m so proud of this little cardigan for lukas. it was quite a lot of work and took me about 1.5 months because it’s knit with sock weight yarn. the pattern is great, the yarn is great and it really suites the little man 🙂

pattern: wee austin hoodie by connie chang chinchio

didn’t double the yarn in the woven section. instead i knit 10 rows instead of 4 rows of woven section before starting the armhole shaping. the woven band has 18 (instead of 12) rows in total.

yarn: old maiden aunt merino superwash, colourway bitter bug

needles: 3.5mm

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wedding bears

i made this for my cousin’s wedding in december 2012. i bought a bottle of champagne, rolled up the money and tied it to the bottle with these little guys. bride and groom loved them 🙂

pattern: bear christmas tree decorations by little cotton rabbits

i altered the pattern a little and made a long wedding dress (20 rows), legs for the groom (9 rows) and arms (7 rows). i didn’t like the ears in the pattern so i used the ears from the hamsterbeans pattern.

yarn: all kinds of scraps

needles: 2.25mm dpns

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ten stitch baby blanket

i loved knitting this blanket for our little one. it’s seamless – which is soooo goooood! 😉 i hate weaving in ends! i wasn’t convinced of the the kauni yarn though: don’t get me wrong, the colour changes and colours are beautiful but i had several knots in every skein. which is just not acceptable! especially in in a yarn with colour changes! i promised myself i wouldn’t use kauni again but already broke this promise (you’ll read about that later…)

i finished this blanket in the end of august 2012 when i had to spend a few days in hospital (they thought i might develop a gestosis – but me and the baby were fine)…

and what can i say? lukas loves his blankie! we use it every day! in his bed, during naptime, in the stroller. this is the baby project that is most used by now!

pattern: ten stitch baby blanket by frankie brown

yarn: 3 skeins of kauni wool 8/2 effektgarn

needles: 3.5 double pointed needles

(baby belly under the blanket 😉 )

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back… with baby :)

i’m back! after several months of not even thinking about this blog, i just returned to blogging again. are you happy to see me again? 😉 i am – though it’s a lot of work to bring you up to date with all my projects. well at least i have a good excuse for dissappearing for months this time: on october 10th 2012 our little son lukas was born. 😀 and you can imagine that i was very, very busy since then….

everybody, meet lukas: