If you haven't tried it yet, I hope I have the honor of introducing you to the free Flax Sweater pattern by Tin Can Knits. I've worked it up several times, and love its simplicity – and opportunities for modifying, like I did above by omitting the garter panel on the sleeves, and adding bobbles throughout the pattern.
I had pledged that 2021 was going to be a year of selfish knitting (where I knitted only for myself to build my handmade wardrobe) but I'm already – happily! – slipping on that vow. My friends just keep making tiny beautiful humans and I can't help but knit tiny things for them!
When we moved to our new house, I knew I wanted to update the decor in Miles's room a little bit. It really hadn't changed since we'd set it up before he was born. He's definitely a woodland-loving kid, and is also really into outer space and constellations. I decided to do an outer space theme in his new room, with soft colors like purple (currently his favorite).
I made two new throw pillows for a reading area in his room. Punch needle is a new craft to me – in fact I'd only done one kit[affiliate link] before making the pattern and punching this pillow. It's so fun and satisfying! Read on for a list of what I used and how I made the pillow – plus the free pattern so you can make one too if you like.
Worsted weight yarn in light yellow, dark yellow, light pink, and black
Large embroidery hoop
The pattern is designed to print on four separate pages. Once they've printed, arrange and tape them together to create the smiling sun design.
After the printed pieces have been taped together, use another piece of tape to hang them in a window. With one hand, hold the monk cloth over the printed pattern so that the light from outdoors shines through and the pattern is visible through the fabric. Use a pencil to trace the pattern onto the cloth.
Use your embroidery hoop to keep the fabric in place, and start punchin', switching yarn colors and rearranging your hoop as necessary. If you're new to punch needle, please check out Sallie Dale's Instagram story highlights for tips and techniques.
When you're finished, measure the size you'll need to fit the pillow insert, and cut out a circle around the punched piece, leaving room for seam allowance, too. Cut the same shape from scrap fabric to serve as the pillow's back.
Pin both pieces right side together, and sew almost all the way around, leaving an opening wide enough to insert the pillow form. Turn the piece right side out, and insert the pillow form. Use your preferred method to stitch the opening closed.
The pillow is definitely a sunny spot in Miles's new bedroom, and he even sleeps with it in his crib some nights. I haven't done any punch needle projects since finishing this in January, but now I want to pick it up again! Do you punch needle?
I have a surplus of black linen that was once destined to be a jumpsuit and now...I don't know yet! In the meantime, I used part of it to sew a burp cloth for a friend's beautiful new baby. (It was pictured here.)
I pre-washed and dried the fabric, then cut two rectangles that were 9" x 21" and sewed around the edges, leaving an opening of approximately 5". I clipped the corners and turned the burp cloth inside out through the opening (using a knitting needle to get the corners nice and pointy), then ironed it flat and top-stitched around the whole thing. After that I freehanded a repeating running stitch with white embroidery thread. Then I washed and dried it once more, leaving it a bit puckered and lovely.
So many friends in our (socially distanced) circle are expecting or just welcomed beautiful new babies! I wanted to share a few of the things I typically buy to celebrate the arrival of a new little one – and the birthing parent too.
(That William Morris quote comes to mind as a guide: "Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful." Although in this case beauty is in the eye of the parent, so I lean more towards use.)
Something from the registry. This is an easy one and always a good bet. The parents-to-be know what they need! Get it for them.
Burp cloths. These will always (always) come in handy. I'm going to share the sewing tutorial for the black linen quilted one you see in the photo soon; the pretty rainbow ones I ordered from here, and they're only $8 for a set of two [affiliate link].
Baby hats. Again, so useful, especially for winter babies! And I'm quite certain there's nothing cuter than a baby in a bonnet. I knitted these two; the pink one with this free pattern (the same pattern I used to knit the hat Miles wore home from the hospital) and the bonnet with a pattern from this book.
Reverse zip pajamas.[affiliate link] I was so grateful for these when Miles was tiny. Target sells sets of three pajamas that have a zipper which zips from top to bottom instead of bottom up. This means being able to do diaper changes without getting your baby undressed all the way – so nice for middle-of-the-night changes, especially when it's cold!
Postpartum healing tea. We got lots of incredibly sweet gifts after Miles was born, and one of them was a bag of postpartum hormone-balancing tea. This was a BIG help to me in those first few bleary weeks. It was the only thing that took the edge off my anxiety and I was grateful for it every day. (And there was no note! I still don't know who sent it!) I haven't been able to find the exact same tea, but this one looks similar and I ordered a few bags for friends who will soon be postpartum [affiliate link].
I'd love to hear your go-to gifts for new babies and their parents, or what you received after having a baby that really came in handy.
Even though Miles weighs 34 pounds now, I still "babywear" him every chance I get. I wear my carrier around my waist when we hike together so that when he gets tired of walking, I can just sling him on my back (he's too heavy for me to wear comfortably on the front anymore). The carrier I use[affiliate link] can hold up to 60 pounds, so as long as he wants a ride, I'm ready!
I can't use our diaper bag when I wear him, though (it's backpack style). I don't like managing the extra straps of a shoulder bag when he's already on my back. And the carrier makes it tough to keep things in my pockets, so when it comes to my phone and keys, I usually stick them between the waistband and my body (which obviously isn't that secure or comfortable).
This is a very simple tutorial showing how to add elastic loops to the back of a small makeup bag. The waistband of the carrier can be threaded through these loops, and the bag worn on your hip while walking, adventuring, or hiking.
Scroll down for a video!
You will need:
A small zippered pouch (I found this one in Target's dollar section last year)
Elastic
A hot glue gun, fabric glue, or a needle and thread (how you will attach the elastic depends on the fabric of your bag)
Measure and cut two lengths of elastic that will fit vertically on the bag. Fold over each end of the elastic, and attach to the bag using the appropriate method. Slip your waistband through to wear.
Six new favorites. Posts like these are such a good outlet for me – like shopping without having to pay! I'm going to the thrift store on Wednesday and will be keeping my eye out for some new clothing additions for everyone's closet (but shopping for toddler clothes is always especially fun).
One more Valentine's Day-themed DIY to share this week, because apparently Valentine's Day will be here Friday! Which seems soon to me, ha. I've a bit of shopping to do for my two favorite loves in the next few days, but here's a project I made for Miles to play with. Can you tell we have lots of felt?
I used white craft paint to draw a rough jar shape (and yes, I did have to look up pictures of jars to get it right) on a large piece of gray felt, and cut out lots of tiny heart shapes in pastel candy colors reminiscent of conversation hearts. I borrowed a heart-shaped sticker from Miles's collection to serve as a guide for the cutting.
Felt sticks to felt, so that's it! He's been enjoying moving the hearts into the jar, and it's become (somewhat accidentally) a good color identification exercise for us – I'll ask him to move just the purple hearts, just the green ones, etc. I attached it to the wall with packing tape – not ideal, but I haven't the energy for a better solution, at least not until we move house and I can install a somewhat permanent area to switch out seasonal themed felt boards, since this is our second lately and they've been fun for all of us.
When I was pregnant – well, even before I was pregnant – I thought about how much fun it would be to learn what my child loved and then fill their world with that thing, you know? Just support whatever it was they couldn't get enough of. At age 2, Miles has a couple of those: basketball, horses, ballet, and rainbows. And it's just as much fun as I thought it would be to watch him walk wide-eyed into the Basketball Hall of Fame, to ride perched atop a somnolent pony at the fair, to point out a rainbow arching over our house.
I wanted to get him a stuffed rainbow toy for Christmas last year, and found this one[affiliate link] on Amazon, but it seemed a little pricey. My friend Katy had been doing watercolor painting on fabric, so I decided to make my own for Miles.
(I don't have any photos of the process, which I feel bad about. My phone's camera started taking pictures on a delay, so they're all blurry. Kristie surprised me with a new one for Christmas though!)
I mixed fabric medium[affiliate link] with water and painted a rainbow using basic watercolors and a foam brush onto cotton muslin. I let it dry and then put it in the dryer according to the fabric medium's instructions to set the paint.
Once it was totally dry, I cut out the rainbow and a matching piece of gray felt for the back. I pinned the pillow sides together (painted side facing in) along with a piece of fun vintage trim I happened to have.
I machine-sewed along both arches and one short side, then turned the piece inside out and stuffed it. I stitched the other side closed by hand.
One made for Miles and one for his friend Eleanor whose birthday we just celebrated, these touch books were fun and fairly simple to put together.
I scrounged through our craft room and basement for interesting textures, and came up with: window screen, pink bubble wrap (cut from leftover Glossier packaging), embroidered gift wrap, felt, sherpa fabric, reversible sequins (left over from this project), sandpaper, and clear plastic (used in the quiet book and this project, too). It's really a good way to use up scraps -- and to use up a lot of hot glue.
Start with determining how many pages you'll have, including cover and back. Cut that many 6"x6" squares of your cardstock. (I had 8 textures, so cut out 10 squares.) In all but two (saving those for the cover and back), measure and cut a 4"x4" square from the middle.
Punch two holes in one side of every square, trying to make sure they all more or less line up with each other.
Cut out your textures large enough so that they fill the 4" window you cut, but small enough that they don't overlap the edges of the cardstock or the punched holes. Hot glue in place.
Some, like the bubble wrap, screen, and plastic, were see-through, so I strategically paired two of them with the book's cover and back page, and used a 4" square that had been cut out as backing so that the bubble wrap page would have a solid background.
Hot glue the cover and a texture page back-to-back, and do the same for the back cover.
Hot glue two texture pages back-to-back to make the internal pages, being sure to keep your punched holes lined up.
"Bind" the pages with the rings, and write a title on the front in Sharpie.
Scroll to see all the pages, and a video of Miles's book in action.
