Sweetie Pie the Crochet Rhino Lovey

Meet Sweetie Pie, the "rhino-saurous", according to the 4 year old. She saw the one I made for a baby and pestered me until I made her one.

This is the second Riley Rhino I’ve made. I found the 3.5 mm hook works better with the Loops & Threads Impeccable as it’s quite thick. I love how big the blanket is.
I used the Riley Rhino the Rhinoceros Snuggle Blankey pattern by Ira Rott. I want to make this moose as well.

This is the first Riley Rhinoceros I made for my cousin's baby. Unfortunately I took these 2 pictures immediately finishing it but forgot to take better ones before giving it away. 

Pretty Primavera Flower Baby Blanket

My sister is having her third baby very soon and with my newly gained confidence in regards to crochet squares from the doll blankets I made my daughters this spring (here and here) I decided to do a slightly larger blanket (ha! so I thought! Try multiple times bigger!) for my soon to be born niece. It was a lot more work than I expected but the yarn I used and the pattern for the squares were a very enjoyable mix. It took me two months, but that was through the summer so sometimes it was just way to hot to crochet in the evenings. Please pardon the ugly carpet in these photos!

I used DK yarn, Sirdar Snuggly Bamboo for the flowers and Berocco Vintage DK for the green and grey. It gave the flowers a nice sheen that made them pop out a bit more from the matte green and grey. I joined them all with a single crochet join.

The only thing that bothered me with the free tutorial on the squares was that while the squares are free, and she tells you that she joined with single crochet I would have had to buy an $8 pattern to do the same border as she did. The pattern is so much because it's for a cushion cover, including a fabric backing that she made with these flowers. I didn't want to pay that just for a border though. I also would have had to buy more yard because I was running low so I just kept it simple with single crochet in grey and then one more single crochet with the pink bamboo.

The blanket is 8 squares by 10 so it's a good size, but that means it can be used on a toddler bed and then as a lap blanket after that so I'm glad it should grow with the child for quite a while.

The tutorial for the Primavera Flowers Granny Square by Dragana Savkov can be found here.

Quick, Easy and ever-so-Sweet Baby Shower Dresses!

Petunia and I did some sewing last week for a baby shower. I made one dress and she made the other with just a bit of help. These two dresses were quick and fairly easy to make, and turned out so cute!

The smaller dress is the one that Petunia made pretty much on her own. It's the Summer Breeze Baby Dress by Shwin&Shwin. It's a free PDF pattern and tutorial. There's lots of gorgeous stuff on that blog, so be sure to take a look. The wonderful thing about this dress is that there a onesie sewn into the skirt to keep an infant's tummy warm and out of a draft, and it eliminates any need for a diaper cover. Genius!

The bigger size dress is based off the Shanty Onesie Dress Tutorial by Shanty2Chic. What I did differently is made the skirt a few inches longer because I was making it with a 6 month onesie instead of what I figured was a 3 month size. I used 15" instead of 12", and I made a small hem at the top and bottom instead of doing a rolled hem with my serger ... because I have no idea how! 

I also covered up the line of gathers with a ribbon and added a fabric bow to the top of the onesie because I had to take off a pink decoration that didn't match. Easy, quick, comfortable, but also very cute. We searched our local fabric store for cute fabric and I'm happy with what we came away with, but I was beginning to worry until we found this purple butterfly fabric. Pretty scary selection, sometimes!

Throw in some homemade hair bows and you've got a gift. The ones on the right are these Double Layer Chunky Hair Bows, which I love. I use them all the time in Sweet Pea's hair. 

The little ones on the left are mini velcro hair bows from this tutorial.

What have you been crafting this summer?

Summer Sewing Series #1 - Summery Sisters!

I really wanted to sew something for my girls so that they matched, but not exactly because there's such a gap in their ages (8 years). I had this Amy Butler home decor weight fabric from a project that I never made, but only 1 metre. In the end I'm happy with how they turned out. I had planned on Petunia's skirt being a little longer, but it's alright as long as she wears leggings and she doesn't mind. Sweet Pea's top is on the small side but it will fit for the remainder of this summer. They are both simple summer evening projects. If I hadn't been so tired when I made the skirt it would have been much quicker!

The skirt is the Harmony Drawstring Skirt I found on SewMamaSew. The tutorial was very easy to follow but the drawstring part didn't work out for me because my fabric was so thick. That's ok, there's elastic there anyways, and I have to say if I made it again even with thinner fabric I wouldn't bother with the drawstring. What a pain to thread it in when there's already elastic in that channel! I really like this skirt with the heavier fabric. It's more like a cargo skirt.

The little tunic top is the Snappy Toddler Top by Prudent Baby. It can also be a dress. Snappy because you're supposed to use snaps but I only had buttons on hand. I love it but it definitely fits a little small. Good thing little miss Sweet Pea isn't very big. Oh, and the bows in her hair? The ones here. They really are non slip! I love them.

For more sewing projects for girls, check out my Sewing - Little Girls Pinterest Board.

Summer Sewing Series #2 - Sew A Pillowcase: The Roll Up Method

Summer Sewing Series #3 - Wild Flower Pincushions

DIY Baby Hair Bows

Photo by Lorne Tuplin

I couldn't find cute hair bows for Sweet Pea's hair anywhere. I remember when Petunia was this age there were tiny velcro bows in the dollar stores but they are nowhere to be found this time around.

So I went looking for a tutorial. I found one at make it and love it and it was easy, adorable and inexpensive. Score!

Check out the tutorial here!


see more . . .

Mini Korker Hair Bows

Rosebud Hair Clips

Make A Double Layer Chunky Hair Bow

Loopy Flower Hair Clip

Oopsie the Octopus stuffie - aarh matey!

This is my new nephew, Levi. Isn't he sweet? And that creature with him is oopsie the octopus, one of the free projects by Moda Bake Shop.  I made him into a pirate octopus by adding an eye patch and bandana. I thought the legs would be perfect for little hands to grab onto.

He's my first patchwork project and my first stuffie. I think I'm hooked on both. I have a lot of scraps....

tutorial here

Baby Gift Idea - Set of Soft Balls

I recently needed a quick extra for a baby gift and remembered the tutorial for these sweet baby balls from Grand Revival Design (scroll down and look for her free tutorials on the right side). I love projects that use fabric scraps, and I've got a couple more in the works. These came together even easier than I expected. I stuffed them, took the picture, then stuffed them quite a bit fuller. I didn't get a new picture of them but they looked even better after the second stuffing, so if you make them make sure you stuff them well. They're rounder that way.

Happy Thanksgiving to all you fellow Canadians!