Sewing for the kids

While still busy, life on the farm is settling into a bit more of a regular routine. That means a little more time in The Palace for me. July was to be my month for sewing some bits and pieces for the kiddies. I didn't get through the big list of ideas I had set myself, and I was sidetracked from time to time by other needs/requests. I've caught up on a few things in the last week or so (and it's only nearly the end of August!). 

Lily finally received the baby basket I was wanting to give her for her second birthday —

It isn't quite finished as it has an attachable hood that I haven't quite completed. Her babies needed somewhere to sleep so she got it as is!

This is another Twig + Tale pattern that I've had my eye on for a while. The biggest hurdle for me was working out what to use as the interfacing/batting. Even though this is a NZ company, the products they suggested weren't available. I settled for Soft and Stable for the 'batting' and some Buckram for the iron-on interfacing. I had to keep in mind that the products needed to be turned through so needed to be flexible enough to do that.

Making it was interesting, with an extra step that seemed tricky but made so much sense. You know how when you make a bag with the lining, the lining is loose and floppy inside the bag? Here we turned the baby basket inside out again, sewed the seam allowances of the main and the lining together, turned it back out and wow you end up with the bottom of the lining attached. 

At this stage I was wondering if this was really going to work! But it did —

Very clever, especially with children's play; I had visions of the lining in and out and driving everyone batty!

That out of the way, I finished the 7 snakes for Odie's windows, keeping the light out of his room. I'd done 5, had a break for a few weeks, took a deep breath and completed the last of them. 

Trust him to have a corner bedroom with lots of windows - I've just worked out that's about 5.5 metres of window! Each snake is 33 inches long and has a flap to hang down and exclude the light.

Also requested lately were a couple of swing tags for the younger twins' backpacks. They both wanted identical bags, and now they can see which is their own bag. I used scraps of soft and stable for these and a bit of vinyl on the back in case ED wants to insert phone numbers, etc on the label.

A couple more cot sheets. This has used the last of my stockpiled large pieces of brushed cotton so I'm happy about that. 

And a final request, more slippers; this pair is for Odie and should see him through to next winter when he can wear his cousins' cast offs!

YD has been knitting too. Isn't this hat for her young fellow cute? 

I'm more than ready to get back into my quilting again now - any kiddie sewing not completed will have to go onto next winter's sewing list (and maybe I should start a bit earlier!)!

'til next time, 

happy stitches,