I am in full holiday gift-giving-production mode.  Not to long ago, I made some weekend travel bags from Heather Ross’s Weekend Sewing to give away as presents.  These are so quick and easy that I have decided to make a more for the upcoming holidays.  I finished two this evening.

For both bags, I used Amy Butler home decor weight fabric.

For the inside of this one, I used fabric from Erin McMorris’s Wildwood series.  To make sure the trees were right side up on both sides, I cut two pieces of fabric and seamed them together instead of cutting the lining on the fold as the instructions directed.  I did the same for the main fabric on the other bag.

I’m planning to give these to H.’s homeroom teachers at school, unless I don’t end up keeping them for myself (which is tempting!)

We’ve been having some relatively mild weather here lately, so I keep forgetting that winter is just around the corner.  I finally got around to knitting J. some new mittens.  I used less than half a ball of Rowan Handknit Cotton and leftover Jaeger Matchmaker for the mitten band and crocheted cord.

I modified the Bold Banded Mittens pattern by Zoë Mellor.  To minimize having to seam up the mittens, I knit them using the Magic Loop method.

Now, the tricky part will be getting J to actually wear them and keep them on.

I have been knitting more than these mittens, but I will show you after the holidays once the knitted gifts have been given.

We seem to be in the midst of a baby boom, so to prepare for all the new little ones who will be (and have been) entering into our lives, I’ve been busy making bibs and burb cloth sets for the past few weeks. These took me much longer than I had anticipated.  With various illnesses hitting our home and the slew of work and school commitments, I haven’t had as much time as I had hoped to sew.

15 bib and burb cloth sets later (including the ones I made earlier this month), here is the rundown:

There are 4 lone bibs left without burb cloths.  I ran out of matching scrap fabric.

One of my daughter’s best friends, “Prince H.” as my daughter calls him, turned 4 on Halloween.  For his birthday, I made him a O&S Sailboat top using Michael Miller plaid fabric.  I added an applique pattern from the latest Ottobre Designs using leftover thin-whaled corduroy.

I love the way it turned out and want to make one for J. too.

Every year I seem to go through my fabric scrap drawer and make a bunch of patchwork bibs and burb cloth sets.  I have a number of patchwork bibs and white flannel already cut out, but only have managed to sew up two.  These two sets were made for two new baby girls. The first set was made using leftover Amy Butler fabric.  For the second set, I used Jay McCarroll fabric.  I have yet to use these to make an actual garment.  I just couldn’t want until the leftovers hit my scrap drawer.

I’m hoping to get more baby bib and burn cloth sets made in the next week of so.

I’ve been silent for the past few weeks, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been busy…perhaps a wee too busy to post, yes.

There are soon to be two new baby boys in our lives–no, I am not pregnant with twins.  These are for friends’ babies.  For one, I made a raglan sleeve sweater using cotton fleece and leftover cotton cashmere yarn.

The second baby sweater also used cotton fleece.  I used  the Child’s Placket-Neck Pullover pattern by Joelle Hoverson.

I’ll  be post a few more other projects I managed to finish in October.

Just a few three more Star Crossed Slouchy Berets…I love working with Malabrigo Yarn.

I made the brown one following the pattern directions.  For the one in blue, I added an extra set of the 12 row pattern before doing the increases.

H. saw me making yet another beret and asked if she could have it.  She loves it and wore it to school today.

Like the blue one, this mustard-yellowish/orange one has the extra 12 rows added to make it a bit more floppy.

The fall birthday season is in full swing.  For some reason so many of our loved ones have birthdays in September and October, so I have been spending most of my free time making presents.

A while ago, my friend Nan, sent me a wonderful link which showed a tally shirt (I have since lost the link). I loved the brilliant idea to add appliqué a shirt which had a tally mark to denote the child’s age.  Since it would only work for kids 5 and over, I have been waiting for our group of kids to pass the 5 mark.

I. turned 5 in September, so I made her a Lazy Days Skirt using some striped corduroy fabric and trimmed pink and brown ribbon.  My sewing machine was acting up a bit, so her tally shirt didn’t turn out as well as I would have liked.

I made two other tally shirts and another numbered shirt, but I accidently deleted the photos when I was transferring data from my old laptop onto my new one.

During H.’s time in the NICU, I knit so many things from Erika Knight’s Knitting for Two (since it was the only knitting book I had with me at the time).  One of my favorite items I ever made for H. was the Lacy Bonnet.  H. wore this hat for such a long time.

For little baby N., who was born the day before my birthday, I decided to make one for her.  I used one a half balls of Rowan Wool Cotton, and used some of the left over yarn to make two mini bunnies.

One bunny is for N.’s older sister, and the other is for H.  H. has been heart broken since she lost Pom Pom, so I made her another little bunny.  I still have some left over yarn used to make Pom Pom (which was left over from H’s lacy bonnet, now that I think of it), so I’m hoping to make her a new pink mini bunny.

Using the leftover fabric from J’s raincoat, I broke out my copy of Heather Ross’s Weekend Sewing and made two weekend travel bags.  With Liesl’s amazing advice, I purchased a walking foot for my sewing machine which made it so much easier to sew the Etsuko Furuya’s Echino cotton laminate.

This travel bag was given to one of my most beloved friends and previous roommate, Scott. The pattern said to hand stitch the side panels.  My hand sewing is pretty lack luster, so don’t look too closely. Hand sewing with this fabric was quite a challenge.

I made another one for me with the remainder of the leftover raincoat fabric, but I opted to use my sewing machine to attached the bottom side panels.

These bags are so fast and easy to make that I have churned out a total of 5 weekend travel bags (this photo only has 4 since I already had given Scott his travel bag when this photo was taken).

Main fabric is Mocca by Alexander Henry.

The main fabric is Amy Butler’s August Fields Fresh Start in Seafoam and the lining is Chestnut Branches by Joel Dewberry.

The main fabric is Bright Buds in chocolate by Amy Butler and the lining is orange canvas.

The only downside of the pattern is that you can seen the seams inside of the bag.  I think it would look a bit nicer if those seams were hidden. I’m planning on making more of these for holiday presents.