A pancake day dress

Hello everyone!

I can't believe it's been over a month since I last made myself heard!  I really mean to write more, but it just doesn't happen.  That's being a mum of 4 for you I suppose.

So what has been new in Belgina's World?  Well not much to be honest.  I haven't really got much finished, despite crocheting every day.  The Frozen project I am working on is taking FOR EVER!  I can't wait to finish it, because I am getting utterly and thoroughly bored with it now.  I am hoping to have it ready for world book day though, so my daughter can wear it as part of her outfit.

The Great British Sewing Bee has started again and that has inspired me to dig out my sewing machine again for the first time in many months.  I had a few fabrics I have been eager to turn into a dress for my tiny one, but never got round to it.  In hindsight I should have used the squirrel fabric and teamed that with the hoglet fabric, but it was too late by now of course.  Instead I am going for some chickens.  I loved that fabric so much when I used it last year, that I wanted to use it again.  I thought it could make a bit more of a summery side to the more autumnal/wintry hoglet side.

I am really pleased with my newest version of this, though still not 100% convinced that the foxy pockets and chicken fabric are a good match.  The sewing itself is getting much neater though.  I am getting better at the sharp bends or the straps and I managed to do the button hole on the one side in 1 go.  The other side sadly did require a bit of unpicking and redoing, but I'm getting better at this sewing business!

Here she is wearing her new dress.  How grown up does she look?! Especially compared to the other tadaah post that I wrote this time last year.  She's really pleased with the pockets too.  She has a thing for pockets.

And this picture is about 2 hours later after a muddy walk.  A new dress and white tights wasn't the bestest of clothing choices!  I had expected her to want to be slung after about 100 metres as per usual, but today she just kept going and going and going.

Well, this is all from me today.  I am sincerely hoping I will be back much sooner with the extremely long awaited Frozen themed reveal!

Love Bx

Happy 2015!

Hi everyone,

First of all I want to wish everyone who reads this a happy 2015.  May the year bring you much joy and happiness :)

I mentioned in my last post that I was making a shepherd outfit for my 5 year old's nativity.  Here is the finished product: a gown made from an old fleece blanket, with a tea towel head dress and a crocheted belt and head band!  She looked fab and as a bonus she was nice and warm too in the chilly hall where the nativity took place.

Over the holidays I have also busied myself with a little bit of stash busting.  I turned to skeins of hand dyed Nimu yarn into another Road Trip Scarf and into a pair of fingerless mittens (from a pattern in Inside Crochet).  I love both and have been using them pretty much daily!

My next few projects will be hats.  My husband has requested one and I have found this reflective yarn I want to turn into hats for the girls for walks after dark.  I just need to find a pattern I like, which is the problem.  I seem to be quite picky when it comes to hats!

I hope to update you all soon about the hat situation.

Until then,

Love Bx

Frozen, Frozen, Frozen!

Hello everyone,

As promissed, this week I have a Frozen themed blog!  My 5 year old is absolutely totally obsessed with Frozen, so I thought I'd create a few Frozen themed things to go into her stocking at Christmas.  Originally I decided to make her a cape out of snow flakes and although that is still a work in progress, it is much much harder than I thought and so I doubt it'll be ready in time for Christmas.  Especially because I need to produce a shepherd's costume by next week too!
So what have I managed to finish for her by now then?   Hats: an Elsa hat that has Elsa's crown and plait and an Anna hat that has Anna's plait.  It'll be great for role playing.  They were such a quick and easy make too because they were made of double strands of aran weight yarn.

That's both of them together.  I did use a pattern that I bought via Etsy.  Link here :)

I also got the tiny one to model them for me, because they are a surprise for my 5 year old and so not for her eyes yet.  She's not the best model, because the hats are 1 size to fit from age 4 upwards AND she's a little monkey that's not the best at standing still, but here some action shots.  She's clearly thrilled with them too! 

That's all from me for now.  I hope to show off the... ahem... fabulous home made shepherd costume I should have made for the 5 year old by then.  It involves an old fleece blanket and some spare yarn.  Should be interesting...

Love

Bx

A bear and a cake.

Hi everyone,

I know I promised some Frozen themed makes, but something else jumped the crafting queue.  With the weather is still feeling distinctly wintry and the tiny one's hat still being last year's.  I decided making sure she was snug and warm was more important.  So I decided to dig out the Baylie Bear Cowl pattern I had bought earlier this year from Velvet Acorn.  As usual this was an easy to follow pattern and being super chunky yarn, it was crocheted in no time!  Super cute too.  I really would love to make more in super chunky yarn; it does go satisfyingly quick!

 Here she is: my little Baylie Bear.

I also managed to get an action shot of my little one in her little dress I made last week.  She loves it.  It sits beautifully and seems to be very comfy to play in too.

Today is also a big day in the Belgina house.  It's the birth day of my first born who is now officially a teenager!  Yes, this day 13 years ago I became a proud mum of a son.  To celebrate I made him a waffle shaped birthday cake.  He has a bit of a waffle obsession at the moment, so this was fitting!  It's a bit of a different make, but I thought I'd still show it off, because I am pretty proud of it!

That's all for now.  Hopefully I really will produce some Frozen goodies next time!

Love.

B x

Autumnal toad stools and a dress

Hello everyone,

Today the air suddenly has a bit of a chill to it.  Winter is definitely on the way!  Call me strange (my husband does :)), but I had been looking forward to a bit of a colder, wintery weather.  It is nice to get out your woolly jumpers and scarves!

When we left the house today, my eldest daughter spotted a cluster of amazingly beautiful toad stools in the grass opposite our house.  They really reminded me of the dress I made for the littlest one this week and I thought the toadstools' sudden appearance was quite apt.

The dress I made for my daughter was from a paper pattern by New Look.  It looked easy enough on the picture, but as usual I was a little bit optimistic.  The pattern had a few features I had never used before, such as making a separate yoke, pleats (!) and bias binding at the arms holes. 

 It ended up requiring a lot of concentration and turned out OK, but by no means perfect.  There's some puckering at the arm holes a and the straps aren't even in width all the way around.

The pleats at the back are not very pleaty at all, but by the time I noticed, it just was too much work to unpick all the stitches.

All in all I really like it though.  The gorgeous Michael Miller "Nuts for Dinner" fabric just makes the whole dress stand out and the toddler clearly loves it.  She has been stroking it and kept trying to steal it of the hanger when I tried to take the pictures!

That's all for now.  Hopefully my next post will bring some Frozen themed goodies.

Love 

Bx

P.S. The paragraph under the full dress is adamant it will be centrally alligned, so that's where it will stay.  It is annoying the heck out of me though!

Beautiful autumn

Hi Everyone,

This week has been quite a busy week in Belgina's World.  I have been crafting, but the WIP's are still the same ones.  I seem to be progressing very slowly due to grumpy snotty toddlers, visiting family and my new role as my children's school's PTA secretary.

I have been busy taking plenty of pictures of the beautiful autumn colours around my village though.  The weather hasn't been brilliant, but when the sun is out the golden colours are just stunning and I can't help taking picture after picture.  And best of all, my early Christmas present has arrived: a telelens for my camera, so I can take even better pictures!

Here are some of my favourites.  Enjoy!

I see this magnificent tree out of my kitchen and bedroom window ever day.

That's all for now.  Hopefully next week I will be back with a finished product for once!

Love

B x

Wonderful half term holidays.

Hello everyone,

I thought I'd try and keep my blog a bit more active from now on and keep you up to date with the happenings in Belgina's World.

It has been the half term holidays here and we have spent the last week doing a nice mixture of exploring and relaxing.  The lovely warm weather we have been having was a bonus too. The highlights of our holiday were a trip to London where the big 2 went to a shop with their dad while I explored the British Transport Museum and Covent Garden with the little ones, a trip to the swimming pool and last, but not least, Friday's trick or treating with the little ones.  The village centre seemed awash with children and the little ones came home with a bucket full of sweets.  Enough to last them til Christmas!

After last week's blog post in a long time, I got spurred on to start the projects that I had had on my mind for a while. I couldn't chose, so just went "for the several WIPs at the time approach"!

Here's a little sneak preview.  You may or may not be able to guess what they are :)

Love

B x