… so first post for the year! the most exciting news of all for us is the arrival of our darling little grandson Theo; Cassie and Daniel’s baby boy. He’s very little right now so he is extremely busy eating and sleeping… in fact, more sleeping than usual since he was a tad on the early side. I’m so proud of Cassie how she has coped in difficult circumstances… Mum and baby were sent home from hospital only a couple of hours after birth, and coming from a generation that was typically spoilt with about five days in hospital for your first baby, this is pretty shocking to me. She’s doing amazingly well!!
Anyway, I made little onesie for Theo, just before he was born; in fact I gave it to her at his baby shower which was held just barely a scant week before he arrived actually. Man, things went so fast… anyway, here it is!
O course there is a little story behind this… a few years ago, Cassie made a few workout tank tops for Tim and Sam for Christmas pressies. She drew the screen prints and printed them herself, and then sewed up the tank tops too. She gave one each to Tim and Sam, and I’m not sure what was the story with this particular one but it has sat unworn in the fabric stash every since. She can’t remember now either! Maybe it was always an extra? Anyway, I always thought it was such a thoughtful idea of hers, and it’s a pretty cute and clever print too. Couldn’t possibly just let it continue sitting there! So, I dug it out, and in the tradition of babies in this family; I made a little onesie for Theo out of it. The pattern is my own, I just had to make this one a bit bigger, because the writing on the back would not fit on the smaller size I’d made previously for newborns.
Pretty cute, huh?!
I’ve also made a much-needed, new maternity dress for Cassie, the same design as the white one I’d made previously. I had a few … issues… with this one, suffice to say stripes are always a nightmare and even when you think you’ve accounted for all stripe contingencies that may arise, a new one IS probably going to crop up and surprise you. Ok, guess I may as well go into it… somehow, despite careful measuring and checking, I STILL somehow managed to hem the dress with an extra stripe along one side seam than the other. Honestly thought I’d cut them the same, but well, turns out I had not. I had to cut off the old hem and make a new one.
The other disaster was that I somehow managed to stitch the separate tank front INTO THE WAIST SEAM! thus rendering it useless for its intended purpose as a maternity dress. DOH! This required unpicking the seam plus the overlocking, because OF COURSE I overlocked it before I’d noticed! in what is actually quite a delicate fabric, and well, fixing up the whole shemozzle. So, for a simple little make it ended up taking most of my day, which I can ill afford right now, to be honest, but at least it got done.
And she looks lovely in it, so it was all worth it actually.
I’ve finally finished another very long-term thing recently too… for me! and am hoping to get it posted in between packing boxes and organising some minor work done for our new house as well as this, our old, one. Oh, and of course our new pattern, which is far more challenging to finish now that I’m on my own with it, since my helper has her precious new baby to attend to. Aaahgh, my head is going to explode…
Onwards and upwards!


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