Sensory gift

How to make a sensory square

Recently I've received 2 special request for sensory play square.   So I though I would do a how to made blog.

I'm going to use fat quarters to make the main part of these, this I normally choose a polycotton for the front and soft fleece or absorbent toweling for the back, and different ribbons.

Once I've cut these to the size I want I usually do 6.5" x 6.5" I then select the sensory ribbons to go around the edges between 2 and 3 each side.

Firstly I sew the ribbons on making sure to catch both ends.

Then I attached the backing so the front and back are face to face, and sew again making sure the ribbons are all sewn in, leaving a small gap to pull through to the right side.

I then sew around the complete square this ensures the ribbons are secure and triple sewn for security

Don't forget you can keep up to date on our new items on our facebook page http://www.facebook.com/SunshineBabyCrafts. there will be lots of new items to buy

New baby gift set

Baby shower

Now days with the advent of baby showers and reveal parties, I was think of a new all in one present.

My idea was a parcel of hand made items wrapped up in a muslin and tied with a ribbon, in two different sizes.

These will be make from double knit yard from #Woolwarehouse and #Dearmore and will be made from #JamesCBrett, #stylecraft, #Patons and #knitsirdar yarns.

I was going to add baby wipes, but with the government, trying to stop the usage of these I've decided to add cotton wool and baby lotion instead. 

Size one

buggy sized blanket either plain or patterned.

1 cardigan

1 pair of bootees

1 pair of mitts

1 hat

1 bib / bandana

1 teddy

1 taggy/knitted comforter 

1 muslin

2 nappies

Cotton wool and baby lotion

Size  two

buggy sized blanket either plain or patterned.

2 cardigans in different patterns

2 pairs of bootees

2 pairs of mitts 

2 hats

1 bib

1 bandana

1 teddy

1 taggy

1 comforter

1 muslin
4 nappies

Cotton wool and baby lotion

The colours I was thinking of were, white, pale blue, a darker blue, green, yellow, pink, lilac.

I was then thinking of selling these at craft fairs and I was also thinking of approaching bespoke baby and children's wear shops to see if I could rent a shelf or a portion of the shop to sell assorted and knitted baby items 

New baby set

This weekend I've made a sweet little new baby set consisting of a hat, pair of mitts and a pair of bootees ideal for those first few week.

These would make a lovely gift for any new baby, hand knitted in #JamesCBrett white yarn.

Return to dementia mitts

A few yrs ago I made some dementia mitts for the local dementia society, since then I've also been making them for my mother in laws care home.   Sadly in February my mother in law died suddenly and I thought I would make some more mitts to say thank you for the care she received whilst in the home.

To make the mitts I use all my odd bit of yarn to make then as colourful as possible, I search in all the chairty shops for buttons, beads, jingle bells and ribbons and lace to make them eye catching, and the residents really appreciate them so do the carers as they calm them down with something to fiddle with.

A few weeks later the Covid 19 virus hit, so with this in mind I had plenty of time to make as many as possible, and would be delivering them as soon as I could .

So far I've made 13 I'm hoping to make at least 30 if not more

Face mask

With the on going Covid  19, I decided to help out daughter number one and her friend and make a few face masks for them to help them at work.

I sorted through my stash of fat quarters and pick these.



After a quick wash and iron I cut the masks out the size I use was 9" x 6" x 2 for each piece at this point my poor husband nearly died of shock when he found me on the floor using a rotary cutter on the new carpet, he couldn't see the cutting board underneath 😂😂





After attaching the elastic I  then added the pleats to give the mask room to cover the face, and placed the second piece on top this also had pleats and machined all around the edges leaving a gap for turning out.







Once turned out I pressed the pleats as this made it easier to then sew around the edges to finish it off securely.

12 masks waiting to be picked up at social distancing of course

Pretty in pink

Pretty pink dress

As soon as I saw this pattern (which was a surprise gift from a friend) I thought yes I must make this, I'm using #JamesCBrett super soft double knit I like this yarn as its machine washable because we all know what baby's are like but it's not to go the tumble dryer.

This little dress is pretty enough to be worn on a special occasion or just every day wear and I'm sure it will get a lot of use.  its will fit a 16" chest which is on average a 0-3 month baby.

It's got a lovely lace patterns skirt and a stocking stitch bodice with a lace panel on the front 

 The front of dress

Detail of the front panel

Detail of the back

Baby blue

Baby's patterned jumper

This weeks project was a pale blue  patterned jumper knitted from #Patons fab DK,  which is machine washable and can be tumble dry on a low heat, which is always good when you have a tiny baby.

This super cute jumper is for a 16" chest so that's an average new born to 3 months depending how big the baby is.

The jumper has a lovely moss stitch panel in the centre garter stitch panels each side ending with a double moss stitch on the outside edges.   The back is knitted in stocking stitch and has two buttons and the sleeves are also in stocking stitch.

  back of jumper

  front panel

              

front detail

just before being sewn together

As you can see it's a short jumper which I personally don't like on baby's I like a nice long jumper to cover their little backs to keep them warm so next time I'm going to add an extra inch or so to the body of the jumper.

Taking a break from craft fairs

Taking a break!

Over the past 2 yrs I've been doing a craft fair each month except to January, August and December, so as you can imagine this plus working full time has left me exhausted.

Taking stock 

After doing 20 craft fairs with virtually only weeks in between I was rapidly running out of stock, and so I took them momentous decision to take a year off from craft fairs, as I was rushing to make new items and really not enjoying knitting anymore.

So I've been looking for inspiration on the internet, and also I decided to  look at what were my best sellers and redesign a few items and look at designing some new knitwear.

Having a large stock of yarn I wanted to make more colourful knitwear, and I've been looking at updating some of my patterns adding stripes and motifs, and using different stitches, I rather like the double rib as this makes a super cuddly jumper without the bulk of chunky yarn on little babies, and it's also stretchy for longer wear. !!

I particularly like autumn  colours, golds, oranges, reds, greens, purple so I'm thinking of making this one of my jumpers, with think stripes on each colour, at #Woolwarehouse they have a large supply of beautiful yards as well as buttons.

Looking through my stash of yarns I found some rainbow yarns I'd forgotten I had, these are  #Paton, and I've also found yarn from #Stylecraft and #knitsirdar, and my imagination took off at a fair sped, I could see lovely dresses, tops and legging for when those dark winter days need cheering up.

I also have a large range of pastel yarns from #JamesCBrett, #knitsirdar and #stylecraft, which I'm going to use to make lovely summery knitwear to match with the dresses I want to make, and I want to try hand and machine smocking. So watch this space.

Super cute angel top

This weeks make is a lemon yellow angel top made from #JamesCBrett super soft baby double knit.

The body was all made in one. 

 

And the sleeves were added with the yoke and knitted as one, and has 5 buttons down the back.

This super cute little dress will keep someone lovely and warm with a pair of white tights 

New surprise parcel

Lovely parcel

I had A lovely surprise today from #JamesCBrett as a thank you,  3 Lilac, 3 blue and 2 soft grey balls of yard all in super soft baby double knit.

Thank you #JamesCBrett I can't wait to use this

Lockdown knitting

Working from home

Whilst the Covid19 lockdown has been on I've had to work from home.  (Shame) 

This gives me extra time in the evening as there has been no traveling involved and I get an extra few hours each night to knit.

So far I made 3 cardigans and 1 jumper using #James C Brett and #Stylecraft yarns both of which I purchased from #Woolwarehouse.

Two white cardigans, a grey cardigan and a pale blue jumper and this weeks work in progress is a yellow angle top 

Monday morning surprise

Today whilst working from home, I received and lovely surprise in the post, from my daughter's lovely mother in law, a large package of knitting patterns.

Now anyone who knows me knows I like nothing better than rummaging around local charity shops in the hope of finding knitting patterns, I particularly like the vintage patterns.

 I'm  really looking forward to making these very soon

It's raining. Let's make summer dresses!

While the weather has been wild outside, it's been a perfect excuse to hide indoors with my sewing machine!

This is a lovely light cotton fabric that I really enjoyed working with.  I picked it up while I was on holiday in Cornwall last year.  It's sized for a 6 - 9 month old baby, and it has a couple of features I haven't tried before.  The gathering for the skirt was a lot harder than I expected!  I also used top stitch around the bodice and I'm really pleased with it!

I was so pleased with it, I made it in this fabric too! 

I need to finish them both, they need a good press, and also some buttons and button holes.  Any excuse to shop for buttons!  Before I do that, I'm going to make the same dress in this fabric

I think the fabric is so cute!

We've also been making really brightly coloured suntops and coordinating shorts ready for summer - when it arrives!

These are in larger sizes, this particular one is for a two year old.

Never Sew Distracted!

Even though it's damp and windy, I've been thinking about summer.  I'm starting to look at dresses and to try to design some myself.  I'm actually half way through making one, but I had a bit of a disaster yesterday - I got distracted and didn't position the material properly and finished up sewing through all layers - front and back! I need to unpick it today and see if I can redo it neatly.  If not, it will become another practice run!

This is my finished rectangle doily from before christmas.  I started off in a circle, and then squared it off as I went round.  One finished, I blocked it out, and here it is!

Finished!

I'm very pleased to say I've finished the quilt!

It's too big to get a better picture of at the moment, it's final finished measurements are 1.2m x 1.1m!

I changed my design a bit as I went along.  I had originally planned to quilt each elephant on the centre panel as I backed it, but it was too large by then to maneuver to get a pleasing result.  Next time, Ill remember to back it and quilt it before I joining the sides! I had a similar problem in the reverse, I had designed a chevron pattern to quilt it using white cotton fabric and coloured threads, but I couldn't handle the fabric well enough to get a nice finish, so instead I used a nice, soft cotton.

As you can see I learned a lot as this is my first quilt. We are doing a craft fair on Saturday, so Ill take it along and see if people like it!

My First Quilt!

It's taken me a week, but I've finally finished the front of my quilt:

It was a bit difficult to get a picture at 1 x 1.1m it's bigger than my kitchen table!

I had the elephant fabric as a fat quarter and I wanted to use it as the main feature of a quilt.  I wanted to give it some borders and corner squares to bring out the colours in the elephants, so I opted for white border pieces and yellow and green corners.

I found inserting the corners was the difficult bit.  I'd read quite a lot before I started and books suggested sewing the long border to the quilt, then sewing the corner pieces to the short borders and attaching the whole piece to the quilt:

Once I'd sewn them, I realised I'd taken the seam allowance into account twice, and the corners weren't in the right place.  I unpicked them and resewed them, and I'm much happier with them now :

Phew!

So now the front is finished, and I need to quilt it, then work on the back and think about the binding colours.

Back soon with a progress report!

3,2,1 - Quilt!

Well, I've finished the special request, and they were very pleased with it, so that was great!  I can't post a picture yet as it's a surprise gift for a new addition to the family, but Ill post one soon.

Today, I'm going to start my quilted cot throw.  Im going to start by drawing out the templates I need and double checking my design measurements and calculations are correct!  I'm hoping to get it finished ready to display at our next craft fair on 23rd November.

Finish What You Start

Well, I've finished to hoodie!  I'm really pleased with it, I really like the colour combination.

I've been designing a quilted cot throw using a panel of bright motif fabric with plain borders, and colourful squares on the corner.  For now though, that will wait because I've just had a new special request come through.  And that means an excuse to visit the wool shop!

Craft Fair

We had a really good time on Saturday at the Old Chapel in Upminster.  The venue itself has been lovingly restored by the tea and an army of volunteers - many of whom served tea and cake all day!
We met a lot of interesting people, and some very talented crafters!

Last week I was mostly getting ready for the fair, finishing off some quilts for Debbie and things, so not much time for anything else.  This week though, I'm finishing the jumper for my friend.  Ill post a picture once it's finished - Im determined to have it ready to give to her on Friday...  watch this space!

New Baby Blanket Design

So, I've finally finished one of my many projects I have on the go!  It's a blanket that is designed with car seats and prams in mind.  It's 22 x 18''so it's just the right size.  I was given the idea of a smaller blanket when I saw a lady pushing her baby in a buggy with the corner of her blanket trailing on the floor behind her!

We are going to be at The Old Chapel in Upminster on 5th October, if you are nearby pop in and say hi!

While I'm in the swing of finishing things, I'm going to have another go at the button hole on the dress!