Mellow Yellow

Our garden is currently green (grass, weeds & moss pretending to be lawn), brown (trees and bushes about to have leaves) and yellow (daffodils and forsythia). I'm hoping that this trend won't last and that there will be a lot more green and additional colours in the coming months, but right now its kinda cool. It keeps drawing me outside, promising spring. And these duck bootees keep making me laugh (thanks mum!)

Snuggypants

Speaking of sewing, I managed a little before F was born. These are some trousers for the new boy - snuggly and warm, made from a felted men's vest I got at the charity shop, using an Ottobre pattern. They were meant to have the intact bindings as cuffs, but I cut the pieces out wrongly. In the end they worked out fine though - they are a bit high-waisted, but that is useful for a cloth nappied baby in winter - everything is kept nice and warm. Also, the stripes in the gusset match at the back, but not the front. I still love them though - he feels a bit like a teddy bear in them!

New but vintage

So as previously stated, I bought some fabric at the V&A exhibition, some of which became a dress for my niece. Some became a dress for another girl-baby-to-be:

Same pattern, this time in 'Coral' with same lining. Excellently cute pattern.

I had a day off yesterday, again with both boys busy at work/nursery, so spent the day gardening/sewing/preserving artichokes. I finished this:

which is the shirt from Heather Ross' Weekend Sewing, in fabric by Michael Miller. And yes, he does now have matching shirt & shorts :) Poor child. I have to say, I didn't much enjoy sewing the shirt and it isn't especially tidy around the collar, but it does look fantastic on, especially now that summer is about again.

The first free Friday

Its a long story, but B has had two Fridays at nursery (when he is usually home with me), meaning I had two Fridays to myself! Luxurious. The first Friday, I went to the V&A quilt exhibition, which was outstanding. I got a bit teary at the Changi quilt and was wonderfully surprised to see the transportation quilt at the very end. I have seen this quilt before, and it is a wonderful record of the women transported from London to Van Diemen's Land. This quilt reminds me of how lucky I am that I can choose to move between these two places as I wish, not as someone else commands.

Anyway, I bought some of their lovely fabric at the end, some of which ended up as this:

The pattern is the Itty Bitty Baby Dress from Made by Rae. Its a great, free pattern and looks super cute. I also got the ric rac from V&A - they sell everything in their amazing shop! This is for my new niece in Western Australia - hopefully it gets to her while it still fits. Speaking of babies - we are expecting another one at the end of the year, which kind of explains the crying at the quilt exhibition and the current lack of knitting. It'll be back, I'm sure.