The Pleasure of Making for Babies

I've belatedly realised that you may possibly mis-read the blog title ..... read it again ....... there is a little word for in there :P

My blogging Mojo has been sorely lacking just recently and I know people will understand why. However, the longer I've left it, the harder it's been to blog! There seems to be so many things I aught to write about that it's a bit over-whelming. For instance, I need to respond to Joy's blog award from ages ago and also report on how I've got on with Callie's give-away. I will!!  I promise!  Eventually :)

So, in an effort to get back into the swing of things, I thought I'd blog about two recent things I made during July and August for two new babies. The first baby is called Yeratel and was born when we were on holiday in July. But she was four weeks early and a tiny, tiny tot. Her Dad is the Curate at my Church and is one of the kindest people I know. I didn't find out about her birth until just after Dad died and I attended a week-day service, as much to mark Dad's passing in my own way as anything else. It was a surprise to hear that Yeratel had already been born but I was so delighted to find out that she was OK and doing well. The weekend after Dad passed away and I was down in the dumps, I couldn't help but think of this new little girl and suddenly wanted to make something to welcome her into the world.

In an edition of the Cross-Stitcher from last year, there had been a pattern for making some baby booties from felt and I decided to give it a go. I already had some pink felt, so that was easy. However, I really needed some waste canvas to be able to stitch cross stitches on the felt, but I didn't have any! I improvised by trying to stitch through a paper pattern ....... don't!!! ...... it doesn't work!! In the end, I did the stitching free-hand, so if you look closely, one little duck is slightly bigger than the other!!

I also happen to be someone who never throws anything away!! I had kept some lovely sturdy little boxes, so I covered one in pink wrapping paper and attached a little bit of pink ribbon ...... ribbon that I had saved from a card or something or other ....... remember, I never throw anything away!!

And voila! A special gift for a special little girl :)

Then, in August, a little boy called James Aidan was born to my Vicar and his wife. My vicar, Stuart, is also a lovely guy! Not at all like the description that Rowan Atkinson recently gave for Anglican Vicars :)

Even though he is not the Vicar for my Dad's parish, he very kindly took Dad's funeral service and that personal touch meant a great deal to me and to Mum and my brother.

So, with one pair of booties under my belt, I just had to make a blue pair for little James!

This time, I didn't have any blue felt, so ordered a whole load of colours from The Felt Fairy. This time, I also thought I'd buy some waste canvas and do things properly!!

Sewing on felt using waste canvas is really the only way to do it. The cross stitching took much less time to do and also ends up perfectly even. The only tricky bit is that, once the stitching is complete, you have to dampen the waste canvas so that the warp and weft threads separate and you can pull them out, leaving behind the nicely even cross stitches. Unfortunately, dampening the felt makes it shrink slightly. As a consequence, the top of these blue booties are a little flatter than with the pink booties.

Note to self ...... if I do anything like this again, pre-shrink the felt first!!

All the same, I still quite pleased with how they turned out.

I also forgot to mention that for both the pink and the blue booties, the buttons were from my button box ..... another thing I never throw away :)

Mind you, I'm not entirely sure the finished item is actually meant to be worn! I'm not sure they'd stay on a little one's feet!!

Once again, I covered a sturdy little box but obviously with blue paper this time ...... and I forgot to mention that I added a little gift label inside.

And, once again, a little bit of recycled ribbon to add a finishing touch to the box.

A long life and happiness to little Yeratel and James :)