A Polka-Dot Lego Dress, Onesie and Necklaces (Also: Fun with Block Printing!)

What with all the Small Human Being-focused sewing going on, I think my daughter was feeling a little left out. So I pulled out one of the unfinished (unstarted?) objects I felt most guilty about: her Lego Cityscape sundress. I sort of meant to make it for Kids Clothes Week, but baby wasn't really napping, and I fell down the crafty rabbit hole of experimenting with block printing and... well, here it is.

She loves it, if it isn't obvious. I really struggled to edit down the photos on this one!

Backstory: As some of you may recall, about a year ago, I had a little "Lego Dress Showdown" to choose which blocks-themed dress idea to make for my daughter's Lego-themed fourth birthday party.

The cityscape design with the sun (which was partly inspired by this Oliver + S tutorial on raw edge appliqué) was by far the most popular, but alas, I was so tired and nauseous from my pregnancy it never happened. And her Lego birthday party was a disaster — shortly before the other kids showed up, little Z started throwing up EVERYWHERE. It was too late to cancel the party (which was in the lobby of our building) but she was so sick she didn't even eat a single bite of the amazing allergy-free Lego cake my mom made for her (no dairy, eggs or nuts):

The other kids came and played with all the Duplos and games we had set up, and we recorded a video of them singing happy birthday to her and wishing her well. She recovered by the evening but is still sad about missing her birthday party to this day.

But I digress. Back to the dress!

Lego dress basics:

The pattern: The Oliver + S patterns free Popover Sundress pattern. I actually own a bunch of not-free-at-all Oliver + S dress patterns, but I went with this free shoulder-tie dress because it is so simple — the plain front makes a great blank canvas for embellishment. It was a fun and quick sew, and the directions are just as great and detailed as with their paid patterns. My only quibble is that there isn't much ease across the tummy; if I make it again, I'll add some width and gather or pleat the dress front to the yoke.

Sizing: I made the size 7 (probably about two sizes too big) as I'd like her to be able to wear it for a good long while.

Fabric: Bright blue and yellow broadcloth from Tru-Mart Discount Fabrics (a crowded little store over by FIT that has some great deals sometimes).

Notions & tools, etc: Steam-A-Seam Lite 2 (for the appliqué). Fabric paint (Jacquard Neopaque nontoxic paints, which I already had around because I am a craft supplies semi-hoarder), Speedball Lino Cutters, Tee Juice Classic fabric markers (for the dots), some Blick EZ Cut block printing material, a foam brayer and foam brushes.

Blockprinting references used: I already had Lotta Jansdotter's Lotta Prints: How to Print With Anything From Potatoes to Linoleum... which is very inspiring, but slightly vague on the technical info and handholding needed to get good results. Luckily my local library had a more nitty-gritty detail book available, Fabric Printing at Home by Julie Booth.

Techniques used: Mock French seams (my first time trying this), homemade bias binding (for the straps) with a Clover 1" bias tape maker.

It took a lot of experimenting to get my DIY rubber blocks to print clearly on my fabric. Deepika has a cool tutorial on the Pattern Review blog using wood blocks but I wasn't about to start wood (or lino) carving, so I used E-Z Cut Printing blocks:

After I got the impressions looking fairly good, I blockprinted the Lego towers and sun onto the yellow fabric, and the yokes. (It's all the same block, I just painted different parts of it before stamping to get some partial impressions). I heat set them (oh goodness, it takes FOREVER to heatset with an iron on so much fabric!), used fusible web to stitck them to the dress front, then stitched them down with a zig zag for extra security:

For the back I decided to make it look like the blocks were tumbling down:

I had a moment of panic when she tried it on and declared it resembled an IKEA apron (the yellow and blue?) but once I added the dark green polka dots with a Tee Juice marker, the resemblance faded.

Z wore the dress on a walk to our local branch of the Brooklyn Public Library (doesn't it look cute peeking out as a skirt?)...

The librarians loved it and invited her to the monthly Lego Club.

She had a blast building a "Flying House Pirate Ship" with some mermaids and wizards on it).

While I had the paints and block out, I decided to make a blocks onesie for the little guy as well using my Kwik Sew 2433 baby layette pattern and some random knit scraps left over from other projects. I made the 9-12 month size, so it's HUGE on my 3-month old, but he's growing fast.

Big Sis tried to give him some building tips using her old Green Toys "My First Blocks" but he was skeptical:

So she gave up and played with the blocks herself:

For the necklace, my husband drilled holes in some Legos and Z and I arranged them until we got something we liked. Hers:

And mine (shown here on the day of her ill-fated party):

Conclusion: Neither garment is perfect (but whatever, perfect is the enemy of good, etc), but I had a lot of fun and feel like I learned a lot in my block printing experiments and am now a bit obsessed with thinking about how I can decorate my own fabrics. While at the library I also picked up A Field Guide to Fabric Design: Design, Print & Sell Your Own Fabric (Traditional & Digital Techniques) by Kim Kight (formerly of True Up blog, now a fabric designer for Cotton and Steel) and it made me want to experiment more with Spoonflower again. (We'll see if that actually happens).

In the meantime, Z is loving her Lego dress, and I am thrilled that I finally finished it.

**Disclosure: Actions you take from hyperlinks within this blog post may yield commissions for polkadotoverload.com (quite likely to be spent on yarn or fabric or possibly diapers).

Baby D wearing stuff I made.

Baby D strikes a pose in a me-made kimono top with robot appliqué. That he is already outgrowing.

Presenting a photo roundup of Baby D wearing stuff I made him while I was pregnant. I'm too sleep-deprived to form too many actual sentences, but man do I LOVE getting to actually put this snuggly little guy into things I sewed or knit (which I have been Instagramming pretty regularly, if you like that sort of thing).

The little dude is growing RAPIDLY (at not-yet six weeks old, he is over 12 pounds and wearing RTW size 3-6 months), so I'm trying to get as much wear out of the things that fit or almost fit as I can before it's too late, since I am NOT having more babies.

In his Baby Doctor Who iron-on TARDIS T-shirt transfer (with big sis):

And the Funkadelic one-hour bodyshirt (matching photo with his Daddy's Funkadelic pending), which I originally sewed for his sister. Also: how cute are baby jeans? These are from the thrift store, not me-made, but I love that they have totally useless rear pockets because: jeans! on babies!

Growing into his Puerperium cardigan and accessories:

Which were TOTALLY too big at birth:

In his New Conceptions kimono top and matching pant sets — tops (as opposed to bodyshirts or pajamas) are rather impractical for such a young baby because they ride up, but I wanted something that wouldn't irritate his healing belly button. (For the record, these are gender neutral and I would have put them on a girl too, because tools and robots are NOT just for boys.)

The Kwik Sew red hooded sweatshirt I made from a secondhand cashmere cardigan (will get a better photo later, but this was great for Valentine's Day):

I am also wearing a me-made maternity top in this picture, because I still can't fit into regular clothes. Whatever:

I'm afraid I only have crappy Instagram camera phone photos of these handpainted handknit Better Than Booties cable socks and the Gift Wrap baby sweater and bonnet, but still!

Serious chubby cheeks, I just love them.

And finally, not anything memade in this picture (besides the kids) but aren't they just the sweetest? It's moments like this that get me through the TOTAL LACK OF SLEEP in my messy, milk-spattered daily existence:

P.S. I mentioned in my last post we were having some horribly painful breastfeeding challenges due to tongue tie, lip tie and oversupply. I am happy to report that things are MOSTLY better (thanks to two wonder lactation consultants and an ENT). I can actually nurse now without screaming and crying in pain (which made it impossible to go out and nurse in public without screaming and frightening the passersby). I may even start doing some occasional pumping this week to get the little guy comfortable with bottles for when I go back to work in a few months ... which would mean husband and I can go out on a date next time my parents visit!

Last-Minute Baby Sewing Binge (Before Being Stuck in Bed) — With Tools and Robots!

Up until last week, the only item I had actually finished for Baby Wood was a single pair of Better Than Booties baby socks (the green ones shown above, Raveled here). Then I looked through my stash of newborn and tiny baby items and completely panicked, because I have almost NO gender-neutral clothes for tiny babies (what if we have a boy?!), and very few warm winter clothes (Z was a summer baby).

I made a thrifting expedition and scored 15 cute little second-hand gender-neutral baby things for $26, but dressing baby in store-bought clothes isn't as SPECIAL or FUN as putting him/her in something me-made, now is it?

So I ramped up my baby knitting queue... and last Sunday, while the four-year-old was visiting her grandparents, I went on a bit of a mad sewing binge, tracing, cutting and sewing seven little itty bitty baby garments in one day--more than I've sewn in one day ever, and more than I've sewn for months total. AND all the fabric and patterns had been in my stash at least four years, or were secondhand, so—SCORE FOR STASHBUSTING and CUTTING UP OLD CLOTHES TO MAKE NEW ONES.

Mainly, I wanted to make some cute, snuggly, special baby outfits for the new one to wear home from the birthing center.

Set #1: Orange overload: A little cotton kimono knit top with contrast ribbed bands and cuffs in an orange tool-themed print with matching pants and hat, plus an orange merino wool side-buttoning cardigan and little wool booties (in progress).

• The kimono top and pants are from the wonderful New Conceptions Baby Essentials layette sewing pattern set. Kimono tops are great for pulling over big wobbly newborn heads, and I love that the sleeves and pants are finished with cuffs instead of hems—I highly recommend this easy and versatile pattern. The main fabric is a soft cotton interlock with a tool pattern I bought ages ago from the Fabric Fairy, and the navy and orange ribbing were from a Sew Baby ribbing color assortment. I made the newborn size, and sewed everything but the top hem and the pants waistband on the serger.
• The super-simple hat pattern is part of Kwik Sew 2433, another great knit baby clothes layette pattern for rompers, jumpsuits, hats and booties.
• The side-buttoning cardigan is the Beyond Puerperium cardigan pattern, a fun and simple raglan sweater (the newborn-size Puerperium is free, but I bought the version with more size and yarn weight options). The yarn is Malabrigo Rios in the color "Glazed Carrot", a soft, washable, squishy worsted-weight merino yarn. (Cardigan raveled here with full details).
• The in-progress booties are knit from the free Gansey Booties pattern in the same yarn, and I have an earflap hat in progress (the free Aviatrix hat pattern) as well to finish off the ball.

I just love the tool pattern on this fabric—perfect for a little girl or boy from a family of makers, crafters and builders!

And aren't these buttons pretty? I do not want to talk about how much they cost, but I got them at La Casita Yarn Shop Café, an awesome local Brooklyn yarn store:

Next up:

Set #2: Gray and red and blue with a robot: Another knit baby set, plus a red cabled cashmere cardigan hoodie.

• The kimono top and pants and hat are from the same patterns as set #1. The main fabric is a super-soft cotton/rayon rib knit I cut out of a top from a giant bag of second-hand maternity clothes I bought for a song from a local mom (I have plenty of things to wear for the next 6-8 weeks, don't worry). Immediately after it was done I decided it was too boring and needed an appliqué—my husband suggested a robot would be just the thing, and I think he was right.
• The red cashmere cardigan hoodie is my TNT baby hoodie from Kwik Sew's Sewing For Baby—this is my fourth version. I cut it from a super-soft designer thrift-store sweater that had some stains and snags. The best part was I didn't have to attach any sleeve cuffs or bottom waistband—I just cut the pattern to include the original ribbing. I stabilized the front facings with bright turquoise petersham ribbon from Pacific Trimming and applied blue snaps from Sew Baby. I was going to put an appliqué on this piece too, but decided it didn't really need one.

Don't you love a pretty piece of petersham or grosgrain in a sweater? (And no, I haven't finished applying the inside snaps yet).

Here was the original sweater... there is something SO satisfying about cutting up ruined garments to make pretty new ones, isn't there? Not to mention that cashmere knits can cost $60-$175 a yard if you can even FIND them or that new cashmere baby sweaters run $100-$300... whereas this one came to less than $5 in materials:

Here's the robot appliqué in progress—it's just a scrap of bright turqoise ponté, applied with fusible webbing, then stitched down around the edges by machine:

The eyes and heart I embroidered by hand. Which is something I'm really into lately:

And that's good, because yesterday my midwife ordered me onto scheduling resting (basically part-time bedrest) due to some severe swelling in my legs and feet and other assorted reasons. I need to spend half my days in bed lying on my left side, and minimize time standing/sitting. So... I sense a lot of embroidery and knitting in the next weeks, and not so much the sewing machine.

Anyone else been through this? The thought of lying down so much is driving me crazy... I'm a doer and a maker and I've got a demanding full-time job to do and a four-year-old to chase around! And my apartment is so NOT baby-ready, and I know I'll be too exhausted once baby actually arrives to do much of anything but nurse and sleep (when I can).

Bonus photo: my four-year-old came with me to the yarn store to buy the buttons for the orange cardigan, and she insisted we had to make a list first to remember we needed 6 buttons:

Done: Bicycle appliqué cashmere cardigan with matching hat refashion

Four years ago I picked up two lovely, soft — and totally shapeless — cashmere cardigans at a thrift store for a few dollars each, with the vague dream of refashioning/upcycling them into warm and snuggly baby leggings for my then-tiny daughter.

Those snuggly leggings never came to be... but I thought a cashmere cardigan and matching hat would make a perfect baby gift for a bicycle-loving knitterly (i.e. unafraid of handwashing) friend of mine who had her baby girl last week, and so here we are:

The basics

Patterns:

• This raglan cardigan is part of the baby jogging suit from Kwik Sew's Sewing For Baby. I've made it twice as a hoodie (once in a custom Spoonflower print for my daughter, once in an owl print for a friend's baby), but wanted to make the collared version this time so I could make a matching hat.
• The bear-eared hat is the "Ernie" beanie from the 1/2013 issue of Ottobre—a pattern I do NOT recommend, because if followed as written, it leaves no actual opening for a head. For real. (You may recall this led to tears and excessive consumption of mocktails during my October sewcation.)

Fabric: A cut-up thrifted Lord and Taylor two-ply cashmere pullover sweater, plus some scraps of blue bamboo knit and some turquoise wool felt for the appliqué. Much better than buying actual cashmere yardage, since I could repurpose the ribbing as well.

Notions: Embroidery floss, fusible webbing (part of my dwindling Lite Steam-a-Seam 2 packet), colorful snaps from Sew Baby, petersham ribbon from Pacific Trimming.

Size: Medium (3-6 months) for the sweater, and I just eyeballed the hat size to match.

Here's what the adult sweater looked like before I cut into it:

Inspiration: I knew the gift had to be bicycle-themed, because my friend and her husband are the kind of people who manage to squeeze five bikes into their 1-bedroom Brooklyn apartment. (All of which they ride, frequently). I cut my appliqué design out freehand based on this cute little T-shirt from Mini Boden:

Modifications: No modifications, but I'm embarrassed at how much unpicking was involved in both of these items—somehow I managed to attach the collar wrong twice, and the ribbed hem too.

Construction notes: The cardigan is simple, if you actually pay close attention to the instructions, which I apparently did not. SO. MUCH. UNPICKING. OF. SERGER. THREADS. I did 90 percent of this project on the serger, reasoning that would keep the fine-knit cashmere from unraveling better than the machine.

The embroidery bit was super fun—I fused the little wool felt shapes to the cardigan with fusible webbing, then just played around with some back stitches and running stitches.

I initially put a bike wheel on the hat, but it looked odd and I replaced it with a heart:

Finally, I wrapped the wee soft things in some of my daughter's extra artwork (with her permission), and tied them with a bit of leftover yarn—so much more fun than commercial wrapping paper and ribbon, am I right?

Hmmm... I kinda want to make a matching set for my baby-to-be now with the remaining cardigan, a nice red cabled knit — they could wear them when they play together.

P.S. I am happy to report that my daughter's scheme for a handmade mermaid fairy superhero doll with a big curly purple Afro is well underway—we designed the pattern together and she's mostly sewn and stuffed—all she needs now are a few finishing details. More to come soon!

Something else made during Me Made May... (plus: an owly baby hoodie and maternity sewing plans)

Halfway through Me Made May a few months ago, my husband and I got some exciting news—I was four weeks pregnant! We did not yet want to publicly announce, but I almost instantly developed an obvious baby belly and a quite expanded bustline and began to have trouble fitting into some of my favorite clothes, me-made and otherwise. (I think it's a second-time mom thing, as I didn't show at all with my daughter until I was at least 11 weeks along).

I didn't want to give up on Me Made May, so I just tried to suck in the belly in photos and even wear body shapers to try to hide it on the blog and at work for the rest of the month... but by the last few days of May I was actually wearing some of the maternity clothes I made back in 2010, and various kindly people of New York were already starting to offer me seats on the subway. Can you spot it?

And then at about 6 1/2 weeks along, I suddenly was hit with a wave of nausea and exhaustion like no other, and am only now at 16 weeks starting to emerge into some semblance of normal feeling. All I've sewn in the meantime is a little baby hoodie for a friend's baby shower:

The nice thing about sewing baby clothes is how very short the seams are—they may have just as many pieces and bits as adult clothes, but before you know it, everything is done. This is from the wonderful Kwik Sew's Sewing for Baby book, and I made the same pattern for my own daughter Z when I was pregnant with her (did she not have the BEST little fro-hawk?!):

I'm now planning to embark on a modest maternity sewing and baby sewing/knitting spree—a friend of mine from the Brooklyn Sewing Club scored me a set of Simplicity maternity patterns on a $1 each sale (some of which are actually Megan Nielsen patterns!), and I'm super excited to make them up. Here are my top three:

Simplicity 1469 (which is also Megan Nielsen's nursing/maternity top/dress pattern):

Simplicity 1468 maternity wrap top (another Megan Nielsen):

Simplicity 1360 maternity dress or mini dress:

I'm probably not going to overdo the maternity sewing, as I have quite a few maternity me-mades left over from last time and have been able to score a lot of great items free or thrifted (like the top in the photo). But I think at least a few warm maternity tops, a pair of wool jersey leggings, a long-sleeved dress and a wool jersey skirt for winter are in order, since I'm due in January. I might focus more on adding to my nursing-friendly-top-and-dress stash, as that will be something I can wear for at least two years, not just the next five months.

P.S. Our daughter wants to name the baby "Text Message Wood", "Tree Wood" "Apple Wood" or "Brothy Sisty Wood" (Wood is husband's last name). We will not be taking her up on her suggestions.