Little Fish Creations

She is six months old today – in this photo she’s chasing bits of banana around on her high chair tray

We have moved and are very happy in our new place – we now have space to swing a cat (if we desired lol)

I tempted fate and I WON! As mentioned in my previous post I planted tomatoes and I’m pleased to announce that we will not be around to harvest them since we have FINALLY BOUGHT A HOUSE! Yes I do shout it out like that every day 🙂

It seems planting garlic didn’t provide temptation enough for fate and I’ve made my harvest this week -perhaps a little early for some bulbs but the tops were seriously dying off do I figured it was time 🙂

These are the same garlics that sent me to hospital during my pregnancy. It turns out that digging over a garden in your third trimester is not recommended (take note pregnant readers!!! MW especially!)

Sometimes when I look at Ada it’s like I’m looking at myself and I get a bit startled by it. Which is funny since when Jasper was little I’d often see my sister, Meg, in his face especially from certain angles.

Ada has been an easy baby to care for SO FAR (I always say that so I don’t jinx myself… And then laugh at my silly superstition!). And the great debate is around whether it’s because she is easier than Jasper OR if it’s because we (mostly) know what we are doing this time. A bit of both – we suspect.

Another superstition… I’ve planted tomato seedlings in our garden in the hopes that this will tempt the fates into helping us find a house to buy. Because the fates would love nothing more than to see me nurture tomato plants all summer only to find that we have to leave before we get a harvest! 😉

The thing is… If we stay here much longer I will have to give up my sewing room because Ada can’t sleep in our lounge/kitchen/dining space forever!

Busy days!

My fear of sewing with knit fabrics is now a distant memory since I started sewing up maternity clothes and now a wardrobe  of little baby outfits.  I’m still a bit untidy with the finishing, but I think I’m getting better each time I try.

This first outfit was from an Ottobre magazine pattern. The pants were meant to have cuffs as well as the top, but these was the first garment I made and I think the cuffs seemed too hard so I omitted them out of fear LOL.  It all turned out a lot larger than I anticipated and I think we are looking at a size 0 or 1 here.

I had problems with the top, as the front is meant to have a cute gathered feature, but I couldn’t get it gathered evenly using clear elastic tape as instructed. It’s skewed but I don’t think the baby will care 🙂

I don’t have any baby sized patterns smaller than the above outfit, so I decided to try tracing a pattern off some smaller clothing. I think it worked brilliantly 🙂 The fabric is from Spotlight and I still have heaps left!

The only tricky thing with the tracing was getting the shape of the sleeve cap right. In the end I drew it out freehand and it worked very nicely. A fluke maybe?

This outfit was the same traced off pattern however the fabric is sourced from a top I bought at a local op-shop 🙂 it looked pretty much unused and it’s so soft and perfect for baby items
This last one I’m posting is something I’m really proud of because I used one of my old jumpers that I’d accidentally shrunk up a bit. It’s a super soft, finely knitted merino from David Jones. I used the traced off patterns from above and modified them to 1) be a cardigan with cotton bias binding and 2) make use of the jumper sleeves for the leggings!

Being pregnant all winter has fooled me into thinking baby will need to be kitted out in woolies… but in fact we are having a spring/summer baby! I’m taking comfort in the fact that it IS Tasmania after all so a cold snap is a real possibility at any moment!

I think there’s a switch that triggers in your brain when you find out you are pregnant. This switch turns on a powerful urge to collect together WARM THINGS. And being pregnant in winter probably amplifies the urge tenfold!

First up. I wandered into the Waverley Woolen Mills Shop in Hobart where I found a HUGE basket filled with woolen blanketing remnants and seconds. I almost wet myself with excitement! Wool fabrics are unknown to our friends at Spotlight so this is a very, very exciting discovery.
Anyway, I bought 4 pieces of gorgeous fabric including this grey twill blanketing which I have cut in half to make two bassinet sized blankets. How to finish the edges off had me stumped for a while, and I eventually decided that bias binding was the way to go. The fabric for the binding cost more than the blanket fabric LOL.

I made another larger blanket out of a soft merino/cotton basket weave blanket, but I didn’t take a photo as it’s a bit dull – the most exciting bit being the deep mitred hems… I love a mitred hem 🙂
Then… I started with the crochet. After spending a fortune at Spotlight on some assorted colours in wool yarn, I embarked on a ripple blanket. It was MEANT to be cot sized but it turned out to be pretty much single bed sized. This crochet pattern is addictive and progress is FAST. I think it took me less than 2 weeks of casual evening crocheting to complete.

This yarn washed up so beautifully, and is soft, soft, soft. It’s Cleckheaton Country 100% wool 8ply.

For the ripple, I used a great tutorial from the lovely website Attic24.

I had some balls left over so I made another little blanket which is probably suitable for tucking around bubs when she’s in her capsule.
I love these colours together 🙂
So addictive is this crocheting that I’m currently working on another ripple blanket. It’s total overkill, I don’t need any more… but I can’t seem to stop!

So, the (not so) secret is out 🙂 We’re having a girl! Which is the most ACE thing that could happen for a mum who loves to sew I reckon.

To conjure this pattern I used the bodice shape from one of my Japanese sewing books and graded down the size so I think it’s about right for a 6month old. I extended the bodice to create a simple a-line shape.

I love this bright, bright fabric which I bought from Spotlight, it’s a crisp, lightweight cotton which is lovely to sew with. I’ll be snooping around there looking for similar fabrics in other prints at some stage soon 🙂

Since I’d gone to all the trouble of creating this pattern I was keen to make some multiples… besides I have collected all this cute fabric lately and it was BEGGING to be used. This lightweight, soft cotton comes from Linnet in Japan and it’s printed with a tiny landscape pattern which I adore.

I love this little dress 🙂 I cannibalised an old dress that my sister sent me and I think it works really well being a lovely border print, I had these embroidered, linen covered buttons in my stash and I reckon they work very nicely here.

All these dresses have been fully lined with a gauzy voile, mainly as an easy way to finish the arm and neck holes, but also to give them a bit of body as most of the fabrics are so soft.

My apologies for the strange photo. I don’t know why I only took one very skewed picture, but I did and the light has gone so this is all we have… anyway. I love a large print on a little dress 🙂 This fabric was a remnant that I picked up from Darwin Spotlight ages ago. I have enough for a pair of baby pants out of this fabric too… gotta love a remnant that stretches to two garments!