Things for boys - part 2

I am back with the second installment in my 'things for boys' series (you can read part 1 here). It's time for crochet hats! I picked three designs, all pre-approved by Alexander before I started to crochet. Lucky I have an adorable little boy who makes the cutest model (when he cooperates)!

The first design is an aviator hat in gorgeous chunky beige wool with cream trim and wood button detail. The pattern is by Beezy Mom's Creations on Etsy.





The second hat is a pretty simple but pretty cool pattern that I found on Ravelry. It's called 'Brainwaves Beanie' and it's by Playin' Hooky Designs. He looks so grown up in this one!




With two 'sensible' hats, I wanted the third one to be 'fun', so I started looking through Etsy for some cool animal designs. I knew I had found 'the one' when I came across this pattern - a pirate owl! Alexander's squealy excitement when he saw the picture confirmed my choice. FUNKY!




I know this post is supposed to be about boys' things - but who says only boys can be pirates?! See, my little girl here rocks her own pirate owl hat. You can probably imagine the reactions we get when we take them out wearing these hats.



Back soon with the third and final installment in the series: personalised bunting for boys. See you soon!

PS - the hats are available for purchase in my Etsy store, with worldwide shipping.

Clamshell blanket

Remember the clamshell pram blanket that I started making for Alice a couple of months ago? It was based on this colour inspiration board.



It's done. Just in time too - the Australian winter is really beginning to bite.



The little madam was not a very cooperative model today! There were quite a few pictures of her crying or pulling grumpy faces at me, or crawling away. I managed to get a few cheeky shots though.



The pattern is by Sandra from Cherry Heart,  she has a great tutorial on her blog as well. There is also a clamshell-along group on Ravelry, if you wanted to have a crack at it yourself.

New sewing room - the big reveal

Drum roll...... ta-da! Here is my new sewing room. It is finally ready and I absolutely LOVE it!



I am especially pleased as the furniture and fittings (desk, cabinet, shelf, pegboard, accessories) came in at just under my budget of $300. I would have loved to have thrifted some items rather than buy brand new, but as I wanted the room ready as soon as possible, I went for the next best thrifty option: IKEA.



The room is the smallest in the house so it was a bit of a push to squeeze everything in, but I am glad we decided to keep the guest bed. I have already been crocheting on it this morning, with a cup of tea by my side.



I am a bit of a fusspot when it comes to dust, so I had to have a cabinet with glass doors to keep dust off my fabrics and yarns. This IKEA cabinet is just the right size - big enough to hold my current fabric and yarn stash, but not so big that I would be tempted to go on a fabric shopping spree to fill it up! I have my fabric on the top half, and the bottom half has my yarn, minky, and interfacing. Unfortunately my felt sheets were too large to fit the cabinet so they are sitting on top for now until I can figure out a more permanent home for them.



I had the pegboard cut to size at my local hardware store, and my husband mounted it onto a frame. It was a yucky dirty white colour so he gave it a lick of paint using some leftover pale pink paint from Alice's nursery.



For wall art, I created my own 'Keep Calm' poster, using the poster generator by Keep-Calm-O-Matic, then printed it and popped it into an IKEA Virserum frame.



I also displayed some of my hoop embroidery on the angled wall next to the desk. I am imagining this wall covered with hoops in a few years' time.



It is so nice to finally have a space that is completely customised and away from the hustle and bustle of family life. And with plenty of storage too.



But I have to say, the absolutely best thing about it is: it has a door ;)

Things for boys - part 1

One of my favourite blogs is Things For Boys, run by the very talented Abby. I don't think I need to explain what her blog is about - the name says it all! She has one little guy and another one on the way any day now (in fact maybe even as I am typing this), and she has a truly impressive number of tutorials to make almost anything you can think of for boys, but also some great stuff for girls and mums too. If you haven't discovered it yet you should go and check it out. Chances are you have already pinned a few of her tutorials on Pinterest.

The reason I mention her blog is because I have been on a bit of a mission myself to make more things for boys, as I get a lot of requests from my customers for more boy items in the shop. My style is very girly and floral so coming up with boyish stuff in keeping with that style has been a bit of a challenge. So one day I sat down and spent a long time looking at my fabric collection, doodling designs, and shortlisting ideas. So this will be a multi-part post - and this part is about bibs for boys.

I only had one boy bib design in the shop previously (the Aqua Life bib, which I blogged about previously here). I designed a second patchwork bib in the same style as that one. It is backed with a gorgeous dot minky in champagne with a soft silky sheen. You may have noticed that I now also have a new template for my boy bibs, which is different from the pear shaped template I use for my girl bibs.



I also made some bibs with bow ties, which turned out cute as! They come with 9 fabric options for the bow ties and 8 options for the bib fabric itself. I also lined these with a soft wadding material, both for absorbancy and also so they maintain their shape better (important for those cute birthday photos!)



My quest to make more 'things for boys' continues. This is what I am currently making for my 2 year old little guy - an aviator style crochet hat using some gorgeous chunky yarn. And there will be another hat after this one.



Coming up in part 2: Crochet hats for boys!