i like this outfit

After the success of my tunic, i decided another skirt and top set would be good to mix to help mix and match a little.

I found this remnant a few weeks ago and thought it was just really a sweet pattern.

I made the skirt just by folding the fabric in half and seaming down the back, and then elasticating at the waist. Although unfortunately i don't have a waist anymore so had to make a decision about where the skirt would sit - under bump or over bump. i decided over bump was the more comfortable choice, although perhaps not the most flattering. but i've stopped worrying about that sort of thing really (my poor new husband!)

The top i made for this set i used the pattern for my tent dress and shortened it, rather than the tunic pattern i made. It worked really nicely.

It's nice to wear a t-shirt with the skirt too. I only really do that indoors though as i am a bit shy of wearing anything too figure hugging in public. Sometimes when the baby moves about it makes some funny shapes out of my tummy! scampy baby! x

expanding wardrobe for expanding me!

I have been quite enjoying dressing my big tummy, but i have very much missed wearing skirts and tops. I had a little trip to the highstreet and found a very practical jersey skirt - good for stretching over all sizes of tum! But what to wear with it?

I just got myself a little piece of blue fabric and went about making a tunic top. the pattern was the same as i used for this little two piece suit - but just made a little longer in the body. i haven't drawn a new block for my new shape - that might be an interesting project though - i wonder what shape that would come out.

annnnyway - here you can see what a simple shape it is - just some bust darts, but otherwise very straight:

it was looking a bit like a hospital gown, and not the denimy sort of look i was aiming for. I found this lovely trim though which really helped! i think i have more patience these days as sewed it all by hand and enjoyed that task.

 it is such a comfortable little outfit. good for a lazy weekend day. x

little red riding hood

A little while ago while i was trying to make some more space, i had a very ruthless clear out of my wool, only keeping the ones i thought i could definitely use and limiting myself to one basket full! It was a bit brutal - but it is nice that all the balls don't get so tangled up now.

One ball that survived the cut was a massive ball of red chunky wool from tea cosy projects of yesteryear. It made me think that red is a very good unisex colour when you have to clothe a baby but don't yet know if he's really a boy or not!

I did a little ravelry search for baby patterns in chunky wool and my favourite was this one - a little snug!

I enjoyed this one as the construction was really interesting - you might be able to tell from the picture - it was all knitted in garter stitch and more or less seamless. And the pattern was really informative with lots of good instructions. I learnt some good skills like provisional cast on (using a bit of crochet) and grafting.

I hope this will keep little baby as cosy as it keeps our tea! xx

Fairisle for me

Although i am knitting quite a lot for the baby at the moment (i can't help it - little things are so nice to make!) I did get some beautiful wool for my birthday last month.

I am using a pattern from the same range as my monochrome fairisle snowjumper from last year. Here is the original - shades of grey, black and white:

But i decided i would prefer to make a more colourful version and found this lovely wool - Drops Alpaca. There are a great number of colours to chose from, but i decided to pick from their mixed colour wools which have a slightly tweedy appearance.

You might think an alpaca is a bit of a wirey wooled creature, but this wool is the softest of any wool i've ever used.

I am not sure if i perhaps should have gone for a paler background colour, but i am pleased with the way this is going. Here is a sneak preview.

Back complete!

It's proving a little bit of a challenge as a lot of concentration is needed, but i am trying to stick with it as i know this will be a lovely new cardigan for the winter if i can finish in good time.

Yours alpacarama
Emilia x

little legs

Soon we will have a baby come to live with us! And i am really very much into nesting mode. We have managed to clear our spare room so we can make it more like a home for him in there. And I have started collecting some warm woollens as am very aware he will be with us in November and the start of the cold months.

Ebay has been a wonderful source for hand knit cardigans and jumpers and i've managed to collect some real gems. I decided my hand making energy will be best directed having a go at making some trousers for baby. I can already tell there are some good legs on that little one - he is exercising them well.

We don't know if he   will be a boy or a girl. But everything does seem to be quite blue... but i thought it will be easier to sew lots of bows onto blue things, but making girls clothes into boy clothes is more challenging! There is logic there somewhere.

Anyway, with this leggy mission in mind, i managed to find some good patterns for trousers and leggings.



This knitting pattern was one i found after a charity shop rummage. i stormed through the little leggings  in no time...



The wool i got in the sale and it is lovely and soft, but i am not sure about it for a cardigan/bonnet/mittens (i ran out for the last few rows and had to improvise - odd foot). I will definitely try to do another pair of these though in something a bit woolier that will lend itself better to creating the whole suit (my poor baby!)



I also was pleased to find this dressmaking pattern to be able to make some little things using my sewing skills. The baby looks a bit hot in all those clothes, but it seemed to be a perfect collection for the winter, including a little jacket and dungarees (i want to make those in corduroy!) for now i have had a go at the little trousers in this brushed cotton fabric. They are so soft!





They were supposed to be lined, but i thought this might just all be a bit much fabric in the end (now i look at it, perhaps this pattern is for out-wear) Because i just used a single thickness it did create the need for a bit of improvising with the turn ups and waist band, but i am pleased with how i managed.

Snug baby.

Liberty Mouse

Just recently it was my birthday, and i was instructed to ask for things just for me (not for the house, and not for the baby) One of the biggest treats for me is some liberty fabric, and so mum and dad gave me this beautiful piece of Poppy and Honesty. It is the same fabric as Liz's bridesmaid dress, but a different colourway (this was my favourite of everything i saw, but too autumnal for a june bridesmaid i thought)

And Rich knows what a treat this for me too and gave me a voucher to go and choose a piece myself. We popped to London on tuesday and it was definitely a treat to have a good browse of all the beautiful fabrics on offer. In the end, and with Rich's guidance (not too curtainy) i went for this lovely piece. I probably wouldn't have looked twice at it online, but it is lovely in real life. I think it is called Thorpe T or maybe Thorpe H. I'm not sure entirely, but it doesn't matter too much.

I tried to go for some darker fabrics, as i have stocked up well on summer dresses now, and realise this season won't last forever. These will be such a treat come autumn!

And luckily there were also enough funds on my gift card for a liberty mouse!

Hip hip hooray! Treats all round xxx

Blooming Marvellous

Having an ever changing body at the moment is really keeping me on my dressmaking toes! I am quite limited with what i can wear from my wardrobe at the moment, but there are a few little gems which are seeing me through (my betsy dress and this old faithful yellow tent dress and this little gem are my new best friends!)

And here are a couple more new(ish) items which I am really getting a lot of wear from (made during wedding fever with no time to blog) They use the same tent dress pattern as my new checked dress, but just changing the fabric has given them their own styles.



This lovely daisy dress i really adore. i just love the fabric. It is a lawn cotton so is really light and floaty and although identical to my other tent dresses, the drape of the fabric seems to totally change the style.





 And this one is made with a crisp cotton, but as the fabric was quite narrow i had to streamline the shape and wear with a belt. This is definitely a good one for getting a seat on the train!

I bought a little basic stretchy skirt from H&M last week so I am hoping this will open up some new possibilities for me.



And for now I have this remnant to play with - there is a metre and a half and I am hoping perhaps a tunic and skirt would be a nice change? I will let you know what happens! xx

Emilia. xx

In a jam

Another little wedding post - just to mention our jam! (I am on a roll!! jam rolypoly)

I wanted to make our favours to thank our guests for being with us on that special day. At christmas i had made some jam for presents, and thought this would be a lovely idea for the wedding too.

I thought it would be nice to have a bit of rose in the flavouring, as it was a romantic occasion. I found this perfect recipe from waitrose - so simple - but delicious - Raspberry and Rosewater.

I made the labels so that they also doubled up as place names, and found some sweet fabric for the lids so they added to the table layout nicely.

Our epic wedding cake

As well as our flowers and bridesmaid's dress, my mum also made us our wedding cake (super mum!). And what a cake! I had enjoyed doing my research and showed mum a few pictures of the things i liked - mostly more flowers! and just look:

Four tiers (five really including our double tier!) so wonderful. The cake is all fruit cake which is amazing as we are still enjoying it!

My sister helped with the icing - all 10kg of it! And we had a lovely surprise when we cut it as they had signed it:

The cake toppers were my own handiwork (i think i had the easy task!) I had seen some gorgeous little peg toppers on etsy and elsewhere, and decided i would have a little go at copying them! My painting skills are very limited, but the outcome was quite sweet i think:

Rich ended up with a bit of varnish round his neck, but i think apart from this it's quite a good resemblance!

Matrimonial Flora

Our wedding feels like a long time ago now, but I have just got our photos back and very happy to relive that most wonderful time.

I enjoyed planning for the wedding a lot, and between my mum and I, we managed to do a lot of things ourselves to make it wonderfully personal.

We just had a small guest list for our ceremony and reception dinner, so it was not too much of an overwhelming task to do the tables ourselves. I managed to collect lots and lots of glass jugs and vases from the charity shops, the odd one each week did the trick, and mum grew a lot of the flowers in her garden. Unfortunately because of the late start to spring this year, not everything was ready - but mum did a good job of finding some lovely sweet peas and freesias and cornflowers and roses and carnations - and of course lots of gypsophelia-  from roadside stalls, the supermarket and the florist. It was nice that the vision was quite a relaxed garden flower type theme as this meant that we could just enjoy picking what we liked and it was such a lovely activity for the day before the wedding to keep my nerves at bay!

And here is a lovely picture our hosts at the pub tweeted - they said that the dining room had never looked prettier.

And Liz and I made our own bouquets which made them extra special for us - and suited our outfits too.

So lovely all these flowers. xx

Wedded Knit

So.... my wedding cardigan did cause me a bit of a hassle (you might have been able to tell). But i am pleased to report a happy outcome! i managed to finish this knit in the knick of time, and here we are- the finished result:



Our wedding day was such a beautiful sunny one, but I did wear this all evening and it features a lot in our cake cutting pictures! (Look at our amazing cake!)



I think i will be holding on to this pattern to make myself another one day. It is such a sweet design.

xxx