Two little baby dresses...

The light is terrible at this time of  year.  Daylight photos of these dresses were even worse than this flash photo.  If you put on your sunglasses and ignore the white flash, you can see the lovely dresses that I knitted from the super-simple-baby-tunic pattern which I found on Ravelry.  

This is a lovely pattern, so quick and easy to knit. Even though it is free, "caveat emptor" applies as there are minor mistakes in the front bodice instructions.  But most knitters will be able to spot and solve them easily.  I just thought I should mention them.  I don't usually recommend patterns that contain mistakes.  But this dress is so beautiful, I have made an exception.

I had yarn left over from knitting a hat and scarf set.  The colours are not typical baby colours, so I added some pink.  The patterned yarn came from Poundstretcher and the pink yarn is from Hobbycraft.  They are both double knit weight, but the patterned yarn was thinner and tended to roll at the hem.  I added a couple of rows of double crochet (UK) and that seems to have fixed the problem.  Yay for learning to crochet!

Here is a close up of the buttons:

They are lovely quality wooden buttons that were generously sent to me by Joanne of the Cup On The Bus blog.  There were hundreds of buttons of 2 sizes, plus one lonesome flower button.  I have sewed that to the centre of one of the bodices and it looks really at home there.  Thanks, Joanne.

I really like the way these dresses turned out.  I am going to send them to Operation Orphan. The pattern says it will fit a baby aged 0-3 months.  But I think it would last a bit longer than that.  The beauty of Ravelry is that you can see comments from other knitters. Many say that the dress can still be worn as a little top when the baby grows.

This pattern is very adaptable and economical.  Even with the buttons added, it weighs only 48g which I think is amazing.  How do I know it weighs exactly 48g?  Well, I finally caved in and replaced my useless kitchen scales with some digital scales.  I have already used them a lot for weighing parcels, wool, and even food(!) so it was a good purchase.  If you choose a really special yarn and add flowers, bows or lace etc, you will end up with a unique gift for someone.  Or you can use a cheaper yarn for a really practical top that will become a favourite daily outfit.

More girls' dresses....

Here is a little quintet of girls' dresses that are destined for Sew Scrumptious which is an organisation that distributes dresses and shorts to girls and boys living in Malawi, Kenya, India, Ghana, Uganda, Cameroon, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Burundi, Ethiopia, Philippines, Tanzania and Zambia. 

These dresses are sometimes called pillowcase dresses as it is possible to make them from spare pillowcases. They are basically 2 pieces of material sewn together with ribbon ties at the shoulders.  I have left the ribbons undone for easy packing.  I also like to add a contrasting band at the hemline.  It takes longer but is worth the effort.

I don't have any spare pillowcases, so I bought a similar pattern and some suitable cotton material.  The Winnie the Pooh material came from a market stall at a good price.  The rest of the material came from a charity shop at an even better price.  They were selling large pieces of material for only 49p.  I managed to cut the two light blue dresses from one piece of material.  What a bargain. I made the mistake of oohing and aahing so much about the price that, when I went back the next day, they had doubled and even trebled it.  They still sold their material, but not to me!  The blue theme in the dresses is my way of keeping down costs for thread, bias tape and ribbon.

These particular dresses should fit girls aged approximately 4-6 years old.  I managed to buy material in the same charity shop that will be suitable for boys' shorts and I have found some easy patterns.  It seems that less than one in 10 items sent to Sew Scrumptious is shorts.  i can just see the boys' hopeful little faces when the donations arrive.  So next year I will sew some shorts to add to my parcel before I post it.

My sewing projects are finished for 2013.  I have some knitting left to do which will fill my dwindling free time.

Not a sheep in sight........

This is slightly off topic for a wool/knitting/crochet blog but I just had to show the 2 dresses I made this week.  I used to sew a lot many moons ago and even made my own coats, trousers, jackets and blouses.  Then I stopped sewing and promptly forgot nearly everything.  These dresses have been a steep learning curve and I'm pleased with the way they turned out.

They are very similar to the pillowcase dresses that people make but I actually followed a Simplicity pattern.  I looked at lots of online tutorials about how to make this type of dress but gave up partly because I don't have any spare pillowcases and partly because I bought this lovely material for the bargain price of £1 a year ago and have been itching to use it.  The blue material at the hemline is from an old sheet that I had already chopped up and used to line a baby blanket last year.

These two dresses are supposed to fit a girl aged 6 years old.  The organisation I am thinking of sending these to is Sew Scrumptious which distributes dresses to girls in Africa, India and other countries worldwide.  With that in mind, I made a great effort to make these dresses as indestructible as possible.  They will hopefully be handed down and worn by many girls over the next few years.

As I am not lucky enough to have a sewing room, I have to use the dining room table.  This time of year the room is bathed in natural light and warmth.  I'm going to take advantage of that and do a bit more sewing before the weather changes.  

Parcel on its way to Greenfields Africa...

Here are the knitted goodies that I have just posted off to Greenfields Africa which is an organisation that distributes clothing to children in Kenya and Uganda.  It is well worth taking a look at their website to see all the ways they help in these countries.

I have been making these items for several months.  There are 5 blankets, 4 dresses and 5 hats.  All, apart from the stripy blanket, are knitted.  The stripy blanket was crocheted.  I had forgotten about some of these items and I love some of them so much that it was difficult letting go of them.  But they were not doing any good boxed up in my house.  So off they went to pastures new where hopefully they will be used for a long time.

The peach wool challenge.....the result is a draw

Here's the finished peach dress.  The pattern called for a moss stitch bodice but I decided that the knobbly peach yarn and the bobbly moss stitch would have been too much.  I tried a ribbed bodice but the weight of the dress just pulled it down into holes.  I didn't think garter stitch would look good, so I tried stocking stitch.  I'm glad I did as it made the most of this beautiful pink yarn.  It is called Soft Cotton by Sirdar and definitely lives up to its name.  I can't remember knitting with cotton before but I am now a convert.  I think I had a strange idea that cotton yarn would be hard when, in fact, it is as soft as feathers.

This dress is my least favourite of the dresses I have knitted from this pattern.  The peach yarn was hard to knit with and has made the dress very "full".  On the plus side, there will be plenty of room for a baby to kick its legs.

I had enough yarn left to knit a matching hat.  To coin a phrase, "the photo doesn't do it justice".  The cotton yarn is so soft and perfect for a baby hat.  As both items are going off to a charity in Africa, it is unlikely that they will be worn by the same baby.  But they are both newborn size, so the possibility remains.

I won't give a link to this hat pattern as I found it very difficult to knit.  To be fair, lots of people have knitted this pattern and left good comments on Ravelry.  So maybe I was just not in the zone.  I have been meaning to knit this for some time and I'm glad I did.  But I found the topknot part VERY fiddly to knit.  It took as long as the rest of the hat and I even dreamed about it.....more of a nightmare really.  I was unhappy with my first attempt, ripped it out and knitted it for a second time.  Boy was I pleased when I finished it.  

Peach wool challenge....

I had enough coordinating wool remnants to make another little dress which will eventually go to a baby in Africa.  I knitted the first few rows in a soft peach wool that was left over from an earlier blanket project.  I have now reached the main body of the dress and the yarn I'm using is white with flecks of yellow, peach and dark pink.  So far, so good.  But it also has big lumps of what I can only describe as cotton wool.  These lumps make it quite slow and difficult to knit with.  Luckily most of the lumps are on the inside of the dress.  I've checked carefully and they are not at all scratchy.  So they will hopefully just make the dress extra warm.  

I'm knitting from the hem upwards on a circular needle which turned out to be a good decision.  Trying to sew a seam in this knobbly wool would have been interesting to say the least.  I'm even struggling to think of any other uses for wool like this.  This wool came in a bargain lot so it looks like I'm not the only person clueless about what to do with it.  I have another ball in a different colour and that will probably end up as a dress unless I have a better idea.

It will be a relief to reach the bodice of this dress.  That part of the pattern is moss stitch and the dark pink wool I'm going to use is the perfect texture.  Just a few more centimetres to go......

Last baby dress....for now

When I returned to knitting just over a year ago, I went into a local shop and bought a few balls of wool.  This was one of them.  I promptly fell out of love with it because it is quite a strange shade...not quite peach and not quite pink.  But it suddenly seemed just right for the baby dresses I have been knitting this month.  I also had the perfect matching buttons and, ta dah, here we have a dress that will look lovely on someone.

I've filed the pattern away now as the novelty is wearing off.  But I will definitely knit it again.  For anyone interested in knitting this dress, here is the pattern  As I have said before, please read the forum notes at the end of the pattern as they explain a counting error in the front bodice.

Another pretty baby dress....

Here's another cute baby dress that has just come off my needles and gone into my charity box.  I'm really pleased with it.  One of the advantages of buying cheap joblots of wool is that I sometimes find little gems that I haven't used before.  The stripy wool is King Cole Comfort Prints DK and this shade is called "Pomegranate".  It is beautifully soft and fine and perfect for baby clothes.  I have enough left to knit a matching hat.

I knitted this dress on a circular needle as I wanted the stripes to flow around the dress.  That also meant there was no bulky side seam to sew up.  I found the perfect pearlescent buttons in my button box and I'm delighted with the result.  

For anyone who wants to knit this pattern, it can be found here
Please make sure to read the comments that come after the pattern as they explain a counting error in the front bodice.

Pretty in pink baby dress...

I felt like knitting something quick and pretty. This pattern has been in my queue for quite a while and it fitted the bill perfectly. I just used wool I already had and it took only about 60g. I already had the buttons as well and they match the cream stripes beautifully. 

I sewed the buttons on very carefully. This is a charity knit and it is always in my mind that these knits will get a lot of use. If a button were to come off, it is unlikely to be sewn back on again and that would be a shame as, hopefully, this dress will last for years and fit many babies.  It is even designed to grow with the baby.  When it becomes too short to be worn as a dress, it can still be worn as a little top over shorts or leggings.

It is a quick knit and I will be doing many more for either charity or friends. Here is a link to the pattern http://rebeccagunn.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/super-simple-baby-tunic.html

Anyone planning to knit this pattern should read the notes at the end as there is a counting error in the front bodice. It is mentioned in the notes and the pattern writer has promised to correct it, but hasn't yet done so. 

There is also a pattern version for knitting on a circular needle. I knitted the flat needles version and was quite happy with sewing up the side seams as they are short. The pattern recommends sewing up with a mattress stitch which I have just investigated and will use next time. It gives a flatter seam; but isn't easy to use with stripes...as I discovered too late.