little and big

For sweet little Winter, daughter of my friend Han. Winter's turning one, and the weather here is turning cold, so I made this little vest from Ottobre Winter (appropriately) 6/2009.

 Here's the pic from the magazine: they suggest fur but I used felted wool from an old cardigan of mine that had a couple of moth holes.

I made it fully reversible with a button on the inside and outside. 

This side is velour left over from my dress. With two thick fabrics and such a tiny garment, I stitched embroidery thread around the edges to help the seams sit flatter.

During construction I inadvertently invented 'the Infinity Vest', oops. Unpick, unpick.

This was my first experience sewing from an Ottobre magazine. There are no diagrams really and the instructions are fairly brief, but made sense once I got stuck into it. This mistake was just me not looking properly at what I was doing.

Next in the Velour Series, which I can't promise is entirely finished yet, was Andy's hoodie. Typically, he wanted black. Wisely, I agreed, and made him something he'll actually wear. 

Black velour is not cooperative to sew or photograph. So please excuse the quality of these images and instead, enjoy the fact that Andy is writing a shopping list and about to head off with a 4y.o. in a Witchard cape to the supermarket.

Fabrics: black bamboo and organic cotton velour from here, organic cotton knit hood lining from Spoonflower.
Pattern: Farbenmix Yorik, largest size with a little added width and length (please bear in mind for the sake of Andy's body image this is actually a children's pattern!).

Lastly I wanted to add a couple more pictures of our gloop painting, which progressed from the gate to the driveway. I highly recommend this for kid-friendly fun!

Lion, a joint effort by Clem and me.

Fox, by Clem.

- Jane x