Hats and mittens and cowls! Oh my!

*Post title brought to you by our recent startling realization that O has not seen The Wizard of Oz.  This will be remedied soon.

I've been trying to look on the bright side with the whole polar vortex/longest, coldest winter in my lifetime thing and am mostly failing miserably (although it's actually a miraculous 33F right now -- woohoo!  I'm almost ready to break out the flip flops and sundresses).  I do, however, really like winter accessories, which are a bit of consolation.  And I really like being able to cover my badly-in-need-of-a-cut hair with a hat anytime I'm out in public and being able to act like it's because of the weather.

One pattern I have fallen in love with is the Kitschy Coo bibbed cowl.  Perfect for kids, and I have been known to swipe O's for myself also.  Here's his, which is made from the same camo fleece as his hat and convertible mitts.  The other side is black microfleece. I liked this so much that I actually handstitched the opening for turning so it would be reversible.  Shocking, I know!

He's actually not going spelunking; we were going for a walk and it was getting dark.

I was so happy with the cowl that I made one for E also, even though I'd already made her a mini version of my ruffled cowl.  I also made her another pair of Sew Baby Mitten Wraps from two layers of fleece.  I lengthened the cuff for more wrist coverage.  She has teeny wrists, so I really need to move the velcro over, but the cuff of her winter coat holds them in place okay for now.  This fleece is an exact color match of her coat; I should have taken a picture.

And, of course, she needed a new hat.  I had just enough yarn left from this soaker sack that never made it onto the blog to knit her an earflap hat with a crocheted flower.  I'm pretty terrible at following crochet patterns, so I was quite pleased that I managed that little embellishment.

More recently, I made myself a Vrida Cabled Slouch hat, after I realized that the last time I knitted myself something was in 2009.  Yikes.  One of my goals for the year is more sewing and knitting for myself.  I love to make things for the kids and to give as gifts, but I've been stockpiling patterns and fabric and yarn for myself for years, and I need to make a dent in that stash!  Plus I know I'll be a grateful recipient.  ;)

This was also made to match the awesome felted sweater mittens that my sister made me for my birthday.  I meant to photograph them together, but apparently never did.  So imagine teal and charcoal sweater mittens, okay?

I am very happy with how this turned out.  I was running out of yarn and had to cut down on the body a little, so I was worried it wouldn't be slouchy enough, but it blocked nicely.  If I know you IRL, you probably either have already seen me wearing this or will soon enough!  

I also made my dad a hat.  When I saw him before Christmas, he complimented Ray and me on our red hats (the aforementioned 2009 knit for myself) and mentioned that he recently lost the hat I'd knit for him before.  And by before, I mean before O was born, so he was due for a new one!  Since I'm currently obsessed with cables, I went with the MacDuff hat and totally love it.  I made the M/L because he has a biggish head, and it's little large on me, but you get the idea.

It's a darker red in real life, but I have a lot of trouble getting reds and purples right with my camera.  User error, I'm sure.

Man, I do love a good cable, especially now that I relearned how to cable without a cable needle.  So slick.

In other news, I finally got a smart phone and am on Instagram now!

Sew Baby Travel High Chair

While E's sitting skills have improved dramatically in the past couple of years, she's still not reliable enough that she can sit at the table unrestrained.  I suspect that would be a head injury waiting to happen.  At home she uses a booster seat and at restaurants we usually just take her in her adaptive stroller.  Most people's houses, though, aren't handicapped-accessible (ours included so far), so we tend to run into issues when we're visiting people at mealtimes and forget to bring along the booster seat.  We're usually about an hour down the road before one of us realizes it's still strapped to her chair at the table.  We also run into space issues when we're taking longer trips.  We are continually putting off the purchase of a minivan, although that day is coming soon.  I saw a few tutorials for fabric high chairs and thought that would be the answer to our various seating and bulk issues, but I wasn't 100% sold on the design of any of them. 

Enter the Sew Baby Travel High Chair pattern, which I happened to see at Joann Fabrics a couple of weeks ago.  While it's more of a fabric-hog than some of the tutorials, I also thought it would work out better for E.  I dug out some ancient stash fabric --  I remember buying this when O. was a baby with the intention of making a pouch sling, but never got around to it.  (Believe me, there was no shortage of baby carriers around here, so that wasn't a big loss. I made at least three other pouches, not to mention mei tais and ring slings.  I was a bit of a babywearing hoarder.)  I think it's a stretch twill.

Cutting out the pattern piece, fabric, and batting may have taken longer than sewing it up.  The only change I made was to use 1.5" hook & loop left over from my cloth diaper making days instead of the recommended 3/4".

I'm quite happy with how it turned out.  It's sized for up to 2T, but E is skinny and can still wear 2T pants as capris, so I decided to just go with it as-is.  She has some growing room, but it would be quite easy to size up for a larger child who needs positioning help.

It folds up even smaller than I'd hoped and fits easily in the side pocket of the Thirty-one bag that we usually use for her things.

Something like this has been on my to-sew list for about a year, so I'm pretty psyched to finally be able to cross it off! 

KCW Day 4: Pompom Poncho

Woo-hoo!  An actual completed project for KCW.  I'm not counting costume sewing, since nothing I've made will be worn other than for Halloween. [Edit: I just saw that the KCW blog featured costumes today, so I guess that was a made-up-by-me rule.  LOL]

I noticed the other day that E's poncho for the car was getting too small, so a new one was my first priority.  I've made so many of these from the Sew Baby Poncho Pizazz pattern that I've completely lost track of how many exactly.

I made my usual modifications for this one: adding elastic to the center front of the hood and overlapping the hem of the hood when sewing it on, which seems to make it sturdier.

I also added a fleece pompom from this tutorial to jazz it up a little, since it was made from a plain stash fabric.  I am desperately trying to sew down my ginormous fleece stash!  My camera has issues with blues and purples (or I am inept, whatever), so I tried to color correct it to close to the right color.  It's actually a really pretty cobalt leaning slightly towards purple.

I think she likes it.

The Girl's Birthday Dress -- and a Poncho

There was much agonizing over E's dress for her third birthday.  I'd decided weeks ago to make a Modkid Kyoko, but after several shopping trips, I couldn't find just the right fabric.  Hate it when that happens.  On to Plan B, which involved some turquoise velour and my handy-dandy collection of Ottos.  I settled on the "Pine Green" Jersey Dress from Ottobre 6/2008, in neither green nor jersey -- although I did line the skirt with jersey.  E. is in a 3T in RTW, but really only for the length, so I traced a 92 for the width and 98 for the length.

Skirt lining

It went together pretty quickly and easily, which was fortunate, since I sewed it up the night before her party -- of course.  It does seem to run a bit short, but it's hard to tell for sure, since she can't stand independently.  If I were to make it again, I'd add 2-3" to the skirt portion.

I may or may not have made the dress just to go with these tights.

I really like the shirring detail on the bodice.  I was intimidated by shirring for much too long.  It's so easy!  Don't fear the elastic thread.

I tried to match her bee cake to her dress and came pretty close!

She was also in need of a bigger poncho, so that was one of her gifts.  The Sew Baby Poncho Pizzazz pattern is easily my all time most-sewn pattern (excluding diapers).  As I've mentioned before, I'm a huge fan of the poncho as outerwear.  This one is made from some yummy Windpro -- love that stuff! -- with my usual mods of adding elastic the hood and overlapping it at the neckline.  I made it a size too big, but it's still wearable, and I know she'll outgrow it soon enough.  *sigh*

Winter Warmers

It's getting cold!  I knew it was coming, but was perhaps in a bit of denial.  The girl and I needed some warmer accessories, so out came the fleece. 


I needed a black hat to wear with my pink winter coat.  I've had the coat for a few years and can't figure out what I wore with it other winters!  I guess the past two years I mostly wore my Mamajacket, but that has found a new home with another babywearing mama.... I've had my eye on the hat from Ottobre Woman 5/09 since it came out, so I traced it and went to work.  It was pretty quick to sew.  The tucks took a little bit of fiddling and I blind-hemmed it by hand, but it still was done in one nap, with time to spare. 

Side view showing the tucks

It's hard enough to get a decent self-portrait without having to worry about picking up the details on black!  I'm not sure how I feel about the finished product.  I'm not in love with it, but I don't know if it's the style or just that I shouldn't wear that much black by my face.  Hmm.  What do you think?


On to the girl's winter wear.  E. just had those cheapo stretchy mittens, because they're easy to get on her, but they weren't cutting it now that it's frigid.  She needed something warmer for when we pick up O. and the other ones I bought her fell off after about thirty seconds.  I was looking for something else and came across the Sew Baby Mitten Wraps pattern, which I'd totally forgotten I had (tells you something about my pattern stash!).

I'd originally bought it when O. was her age, but tried to make them from WindPro and thought that fleece was too thick and hard to work with for such small thumbs.  This time I used 200 weight Polartec -- the same as her hat made two years ago (!) from the RainShed Convertible Bomber hat pattern -- lined with cotton thermal from one of her shirts from last winter. 

They're not an example of my best sewing, between the stretchiness of the thermal, trying to keep four layers together neatly, and hurrying because she needed them ASAP.  That said, they are *so easy* to put on!  She has sensory issues and doesn't like her hands touched, so getting her thumbs in the right spots can be tough, but these slid right on without her making a peep! 

Open flat

O. has a serious case of crazy eye in this one.  Ha!!

Fleece Poncho for L.

The next finished project from KCWC is a fleece poncho for my nephew, who is turning one.  Ponchos are my favorite outerwear for babies and toddlers, since they're so easy to slip on and can be put over the car seat straps, which is safer than having a bulky coat between the child and the straps. 

 

It's size 18 months from the Sew Baby Poncho Pizzazz pattern, modified to have a curved hood and elastic around the face.  The fleece is Malden Mills 200 wt Polartec.  Whenever I sew with it, I wonder why I even bother with fleece from JoAnn's.  This is so much nicer!  I wish I could get it locally.

Next up is a dress for E, if I ever make up my mind about which pattern to use!