milo soaker

Well that was an energetic photo session! Monkey boy (for some reason or another) couldn't manage to sit still for more than two second to have his photo taken. Not a great help when you are learning to use the new camera and trying to manually focus...sorry for the blurry shots, these were the best I could get!

I finally got around to finishing the knitted soaker. It came together nicely as per the picture, but didn't end up fitting quiet as snug as I would have liked. Although it looks OK in the photos, it could have done with less rise in the front and a little extra in the back. I kept having to pull it up at the back to keep it over his nappy while he was busy rocketing around the house, and the front was too bunched up. Still very cute and might work well over a bulkier night nappy. He is wearing this one over these fitted's I made for Maeve a while back. I will get them lanolised tonight and see how they go over the next few days.

Has anyone else used wool covers with their cloth nappies (diapers)?
I would love to hear what patterns you found the best and how successful you found them as a nappy cover. I made quiet a few for Grace back in the day and they were great. I found they worked the best in summer with just a shirt or dress over the top. In winter they got a bit bulky layered under thick pants and the likes.

The pattern was from 'Vintage Baby Knits' By Kristen Rengren. I knitted it in the 9-12month size, but next time would probably go smaller. The wool I used was the most softest Merino from Lincraft 'Italiano donegal merino' in 12ply. It didn't seem as chunky as your usual 12ply however. This soaker used up just over one 50g ball.

And here he is doing the bolt in his woolies...

little by little

Most of my sewing use to be done in the evenings once the girls were in bed, but since having a newborn in the house again, evenings just aren't the best. That seems to be Jude's more unsettled time, and I don't have the energy to stay up as late as I use to. I end up going to bed with him most of the time.


These pajama pants are some I sewed for myself (the night before I went in to labour), but didn't get around to putting elastic in. They now have elastic and are super comfy to wear!


I have a bunch of organic hemp and bamboo fleece sitting in the sewing room waiting to be turned into these fitted nappies. This is my next sewing task, but I can see that they will take forever to make!

And a simple scarf is on my needles. The wool is called 'sorbet' by Moda Vera and is a beautiful merino wool in amazing colours. I am loving the texture!

who would have thought...

Who would have thought...making your own fitted nappies could be so satisfying! We have be in desperate need of new nappies around here for Maeve. The old terry squares just aren't doing the trick, no matter which way I fold them they don't fit right. Up until now they have been perfect and served two little bottoms very well. 
I decided to sew the free Ottobre pattern, which turned out to be a winner. I know a lot of people say this pattern runs rather large, but I found it fine if you ignore their elastic instructions and sew the elastic in as tight as you can. Just secure it at on end, stretch it as far as you can and stitch it down. Make sure you use a good quality elastic (I used swimwear elastic) because having to pull them apart later on to add new elastic doesn't appeal to me at all! I added snaps instead of velcro hoping they will last longer and be much harder for little fingers to undo. 

Back to the sizing again, I made Maeve the larger size 80-86cm (she is usually size 86cm) which fits great now but has room for growth.The best thing about these nappies was for each terry square I cut into I got one nappy piece and 2 soaker pads. There was very minimal fabric wasted. The outside fabric is flannelette, and there are an extra 2 layers of flannelette in the soaker pad.