Handmade baby skirt + the alphabet

Finally I have a bit of time to post this skirt I made for Lily last weekend. It's made from a lovely striped linen I came across in Battersea fabric shop Fabrics Galore. I realise I've called it a baby skirt yet Lily looks like a toddler already! She just turned 9 months and is starting to stand unaided for a few seconds at a time.

I followed a pattern in one of my Japanese sewing books. The pattern had a pocket which I left off for this attempt but when she is older I may add it. I love my Japanese patterns! The diagrams make them so easy to follow for someone like me. I often get confused with wordy instructions in English patterns but give me a diagram in Japanese and I am fine- go figure!

And look what I stumbled across the other day! A year ago I was playing around with illustrating the alphabet for children's rooms. I eventually shelved it as there were so many great ABC posters around that I decided to do something different. I used a few for Joseph's room and the A4 sized ABC prints in my shop but I'd forgotten all about the others. I can see lots of unfinished bits but looking at them together I still like the overall effect so maybe I can rework it into a poster after all.

Handmade: Super Hero Cape + Mask

 I managed to get a bit of sewing done at the weekend. Joseph has been taking about super heroes non-stop this week. Apparently his Dad is a super man, he is super boy, I am super woman and Lily is super baby! With all this talk of super heroes I thought it would be great to make a costume so he can play dress up.

Using blue cotton fabric, some felt and ribbon I came up with this. I realised too late that I should have tried to find a pattern or tutorial but it worked out in the end! I love how quick it was to make, in total it took about 1.5 hours from coming up with the idea + working out a simple pattern to the finished cape and mask.

Joseph was amazed when he saw it and wanted to wear it straight away. We went down to the small playground near our flat and he delighted in jumping around in front of the other kids. The best reaction has to be the 3 year old who on seeing Joseph said "Wow, there's Batman" to his sister!

The only downside to the costume is that Joseph was a bit disappointed that he couldn't fly. He really thought he'd be able to and was asking why it wasn't working. I managed to catch a few blurry snaps of him larking around luckily it didn't take him long to forget the flying part!