kids
Rainbow confetti
Well, following the recent theme… i have yet another pair of matching sweaters to share. Shocking, I know. Right?! 😅
This time, I opted for a textured pattern that I love and have made for myself a couple times already called Laurie, from Josée Paquin. It is so simple yet so texturally interesting and elegant! And I thought it was the perfect match for the yarn I had in mind.
The yarn I’m using is a DK Pima Cotton yarn my mother-in-law got for me in Peru.
She got me 4 balls, 2 of the Rainbow confetti colourway and one each of the happy confetti colourway and a plain natural. All together, those make a wonderful gradient, so that’s what I decided to do.
V’s sweater is worked from rainbow to natural and E’s sweater is the opposite, going from natural to rainbow, making an adorable pair. Now since I was working on a limited amount of yarn, I did my best to maximize the use of each but also wanted to make sure the sweaters fit for as long as possible. As such, I maximized body length and opted for shorter 3/4 sleeves.
As the Laurie sweater pattern doesn’t provide child sizes so I had to adapt the pattern to child sizes. All the details are obviously on my Ravelry project page as usual, linked here and here.
V’s sweater is about a size 5T. Back and front were worked over 85 sts with 26sts for each shoulder and 33 sts for the neck. The 3/4 sleeves were worked over 50 sts with 3 decrease rows.
E’s sweater is about a size 2-3T. Back and front were worked over 65 sts with 17 sts for each shoulder and 31 sts for the neck. The 3/4 sleeves were worked over 44 sts with 3 decrease rows.
I love these adorable little sweaters so much, and they are so buttery soft!! I hope the kids will get a lot of wear out of those.
Now then, until next time 🙂
Peach Fuzz trio
Life is busy folks! But even though I haven’t been posting here, I promise I’ve been crafting on. And I was so proud of my last few makes that I wanted to pop in here to show you what it is 🙂
A few months ago, I ordered Melanie Berg’s most recent book “Sweaters”, and I love just about every design in there (as expected! She’s such a brilliant pattern designer).
I decided to break the ice with the simple but oh so colourful Peach Fuzz sweater, paired with some wonderfully soft Sami 100% organic Pima cotton yarn I brought back from our last trip to Peru. The purple yarn used for the yoke is also Pima cotton, it’s the Pima Cotton DK from Cloudborn Fibers. I’ve had this in stash for such a long time and absolutely LOVE IT (some of you might recognize it as I’ve used it for a snowflake sweater before) and although it’s not as light and airy as Sami, I thought it paired well for the more structured rib parts of the sweater.
And because I loved this piece so much, I couldn’t make just one… so I made three – one for me and one for each of my girls. Can I just squeeeee over how cute this little trio is?!
For my own, I followed direction for the smallest size and used 68 sts sleeves. I made no other modifications to this wonderful design.
For the girls, I obviously had to whip up something a bit different since the book doesn’t provide child sizes. All the details for each sweater are provided on my Ravelry project page (here for the 2T version and here for the 4-5T) but basically I changed the neckline to add buttons and changed the striping sequence on the sleeves to accommodate smaller little arms.
That’s all folks! I’ll have another matching kit to show you again in a few months I’m sure, so until then, take care 🙂
Matching outfits
Happy summer folks!
While it’s been a very busy summer over here, I would like to share a few quick makes I’ve done lately for my girls in matching fabrics because why not? They’re so adorable!
The first set is this orange combo made primarily using Katia Fabrics jersey sold by panels, with a featured picture and matching pattern. My oldest is sporting a very plain 3/4 sleeve raglan tee, and the youngest is wearing a romper from Katia Fabrics pattern magazine Spring-Summer 2022. It is model #8, made in size 12-18 months (80 cm).
I made V’s tee first, then used the scraps to make E’s romper. The tee is using the featured pattern on the front, the matching pattern on the back and sleeves and solid for the neckband. E’s romper uses mainly the matching pattern for the body, then the solid orange for the pocket and neckband and since I ran out of fabric I used a matching fuchsia jersey for the two back pieces. I absolutely LOVE these outfits, and my girls will for sure wear them plenty this summer (They already have!).
The second set I made is this shirt and onesie I made using a cute animal print paired with lacey very light blue fabric. It’s such a soft combination, I think it looks quite lovely. V’s tee is again a simple ranglan with contrasting sleeves and neckband, and E’s onesie is made using another Katia Fabrics pattern magazine, this time model #6 again from the Spring-Summer 2022 edition.
I quite liked the onesie pattern as it is cute and versatile. It’s easy to change things up by removing or changing the sleeve frill, combining different fabrics, etc. It is also the same pattern I’ve used for the third set of matching outfits I made, this time adding another one for me!
The set features a beautiful leaf print linen fabric that I bought a few months back in Peru, combined with a plain white cotton weave. The model I am wearing is a Jumpsuit again from Katia Fabrics Spring-Summer 2022 pattern magazine (model #32) in size Large. V is wearing a beautiful frill dress from Katia Fabrics Spring-Summer 2023 this time, model #14 in size 3-4. The onesie is the same pattern as the previous set but with only the straps, no sleeve.
While I absolutely love every piece of this set, I must say that there’s a couple things I’ll change next time I make any of those pieces. First on my jumpsuit, I struggled placing and sewing properly the chanel for the elastic waist and the belt loop. Next time, I will install the belt loop last, on top of the elastic waist chanel instead. I also will need to add 1 or 2 inches to the top as I have a pretty long torso and I found the waist to be sitting a bit too high on me. My daughter’s outfits are perfect, but next time I’ll add a few inches to the frill dress skirt as I find it a bit too short but any otherwise, I absolutely love the finished garments. They’re comfortable and fresh and breezy and perfectly summer-y.
How about you folks, what have you been up to so far this summer?
Toddler things
While our family is cozy and warm here in Lima, I thought I would take a few moments to share with you my most recent spring makes.
Shortly after my first daughter was born, a clerk at our local fabric store showed me a pattern magazine from Katia Fabrics. Now I gotta say I had never worked with their patterns before and had no idea they even existed but I decided to get the magazine anyway after skimming through it as I thought the designs were really cute. It was the spring/summer edition called « Essence ».
While I loved their designs, I never quite worked up the courage to sit down and figure out how the patterns/instructions worked as it seemed kind of daunting to me at the time. The magazine sat in my office for a good couple years, but I finally picked it up this spring and decided to give it a go.
To my great surprise, while they do work very differently than other more traditional patterns I’ve worked with before, I actually found their method very intuitive and picked it up right away.
The first design I tried was a jumpsuit, and I gotta say it is probably one of the cutest things I’ve ever made.
It’s the design #19 in the book. I made it exactly as is, I believe in size 98 cm (2-3 y/o?). The only mod I made was to use stretchy jersey fabric instead, in 3 different colours/patterns to make it more fun and lively. The design in cleaver, easy to put together and just so cute! the straps are a bit too long so i had to tie them up but this will fit for a LONG time!
I loved my experience with Katia Fabric’s pattern magazine so much that i ended up going to fabric store to buy another one, the fall/winter edition called “Textures”.
From this magazine, I made a sweatshirt (design #17) in a fun animal printed fleece.
Again, I cannot express how clever, cute and easy to put together this design was. I love everything about it. The pockets, the hood, it is just perfect in every way.
My family and I will be enjoying the warmth and the sun for a little bit longer but soon enough, I’ll be back to share more spring and summer makes with you all.
Cheers 🙂
Small things
Holidays are right around the corner ans I’m so excited! My Christmas tree is already up. What about you? Somehow this year I skipped Halloween entirely and went straight to Christmas mood, and honestly I’m all in for it. The past few months have been a blur and I gotta say that very much I’m looking forward to a well deserved break.
I haven’t had much time for crafting but did make a few small things – baby things that is. And I wanted to show them to you today. The set I’m showing you was made out of beautifully coordinated jersey print from Katia Fabric I bought a couple years ago when I was on maternity leave. It took me so long to finally get around to using it (life is busy you know!) but I’m just so glad I did. This fabric designed for kids comes in panels with 2 or 3 coordinated patterns you can use to make shirts, sweaters, dungarees or whatever else your mind can think of.
I opted for a simple sweater – pants combo as I felt that was the best way for me to use up as much of the fabric as possible. The shirt is a basic raglan top (you can head here for the FREE printable pattern from Jamie – Scattered Thoughts of a Crafty Mom) and the pants are the mini modern joggers from Brindille & Twig.
Both of them were made in size 2, and I mostly used encased seams for my sensitive daughter who doesn’t like tags, threads and seam allowances.
Aside from using encased seams instead of regular or overlock seams, I did almost everything as per pattern. The only small mods I made were to omit the neck binding on the raglan top and omit the knee patches and the drawstring at the waist on the pants.
My daughter absolutely loves this set, and I gotta say that I love it just as much. It is so adorable!
Crafty Effie 