One Hat, Four Styles...

My brother thought the herringbone newsboy cap I made Adam last week was adorable and asked me to make one for his daughter Grace.  She's only a month older than Adam so I just used the same pattern size - easy peasy.  I figured the cap should look more feminine, although perhaps not bubblegum pink. Instead I chose two floral patterns that are just subtly girly and made it so the hat is reversible. 

Right now the hat can be worn as a "flat cap" or "train conductor" style and with either fabric facing out (hence, four styles).  Lemme show you:

#1: Train Conductor, Cream Floral

#2: Flat Cap, Cream Floral

#3: Train Conductor, Batik

#4: Flat Cap, Batik

I think the reversible part is pretty cool but it means I can't sew the brim to the body of the hat to better retain the "flat cap" shape.  If I did then it would no longer be reversible.  A possible solution is to use snap buttons on either side of the hat but I started to have visions of button prints left in the middle of Grace's forehead so I nixed that idea.  Oh well, my sister-in-law can decide later if she wants to keep it reversible or just tack down the brim.  Personally I prefer the "flat cap" shape so we might have to sacrifice reversibility for style.

The plan had been to give Grace the hat last night when we dropped off Adam on our way to a fancy dinner party (yay!) but that plan got derailed when Adam came down with a virus (boo).  Slight fever and rash, the doctor said not to worry. Nothing serious but just serious enough that I had to forego the party and stay home with a sick and fussy baby.  After some baby Tylenol and a good night's rest he was finally smiling again today.  I suspect he just didn't want me to go to the party.  Oh Adam.  Anyway here's a photo of him wearing Grace's hat this morning.  Hmm...just occurred to me as I'm blogging...better wash this hat again before giving it to Grace.

"Mommy, I just wanted to stay home with you!"

Factory Worker or Train Conductor?

Mike and I had a great time last night at the wedding in Barrie.  Wow, to dress up and have a fancy dinner out together...what a treat!  Adam was with us for the ceremony at the church but then my parents took him for the evening.  He did about as well as I could have expected during the day - pooped before we headed out of the house, napped well on the drive up, fed contently in the backseat before going into the church.  He didn't even pull too much at the bow tie I sewed onto his onesie :)  Oh yes, did I even remember to mention in my last post that I added herringbone suspenders and a plaid bow tie to go along with his newsboy cap?

Unfortunately during the ceremony he wasn't content to just sit around.  I spent most of the time holding him upright and pacing or swaying near the back where Adam could stare out a window or be mesmerized by a candle.  Two other young fathers were having about as much luck with an 8-month old daughter and what looked to be a 3-month old baby girl.  Gratefully there was a nursery just around the corner from the area where the ceremony was being held and I was able to slip back there to nurse Adam (in an actual glider chair!) when he was over-tired.

Adam got plenty of compliments on his outfit which I of course beamed about. Everyone loved his hat.  He was adorable in it along with the matching suspenders. I thought he looked sort of like a train conductor...or maybe a backup washboard player for The Lumineers.  My parents got a real kick out of it when they saw him and said he looked like a factory worker.  Our little Adam...off to work so soon? Oh how the months fly by.

Bleary-eyed from the car ride

On the dance floor at the reception

Herringbone Newsboy Cap

I am sooo excited about this new baby newsboy cap I made yesterday!  We're off to a wedding in Barrie today and had originally planned to leave Adam with my parents for the whole day. However just a few days ago we decided to bring him along for the ceremony part and then drop him off before the reception since there was going to be a few hours break in between. On top of that it's our first time away from Adam and I didn't want to spend the entire day wondering whether it was too soon to call my parents (again) and check up on him.  My parents are fantastic with him...the issue is more that he's not great with a bottle (but definitely getting better) and that makes me uneasy about leaving him for any lengthy period.  Plus the logistics of having to pump multiple times while away for a wedding...ugh, enough said.

Anyway that left me thinking a few days ago that Adam had nothing to wear to the ceremony! Now yes, I know he's only 4 1/2 months and no one is going to shake their heads at him if he arrives at the church in a onesie and joggers...but still. Yesterday came along and I still hadn't had a chance to look for anything for the little guy so I decided I was just going to have to make him something.  The problem was that almost all of my fabric is flowery and girly since all of my sewing so far has been either for myself, my mother, or baby girls!  I didn't have the car yesterday to run out to Fabricland or Lens Mills so I dug and dug in my closet.  Then I found this wonderful herringbone suede-like material I bought years ago.  I was perfect for this project - boyish enough for a newsboy flat cap and thick enough to save me the step of using fusible interfacing :)

I bought the flat cap pattern off Etsy in the morning and started cutting out the pieces during Adam's afternoon nap.  The engineer in me would have wanted to figure out the pattern myself but the excited sewer (and now practical mum!) in me just wanted to skip ahead to the sewing part.  Time was a tickin'.

Inner lining for hat body

I managed to snap a few shots of the hat during construction.  Because I didn't need to use interfacing the whole hat was made with just six pieces:  Two pieces of lining for the hat body (above photo), two pieces of herringbone for the hat body (below), and two pieces of herringbone for the brim.  Otherwise I would have needed medium interfacing for the hat body and then thick weight for the brim (3 extra pieces).

Hat body and brim completed using Herringbone

Fortunately the whole project was pretty quick, although I had to do it in chunks  based on Adam's napping schedule and when Mike got home from work.  I was rushing to finish the cap even as Mike was getting Adam ready for bed and managed to slip it over his sleepy head for a quick peek at the finished product before turning off the lights.  Fits like a glove :)  This was an awesome project, and now that I know how simple it was to make I plan to do a few more using different fabrics.  Maybe a light plaid one for summer? Wool one for winter?  So many possibilities.  Can't wait until the little guy wakes up in the next hour so I can snap some photos of him in it!

Monkeys are De-licious!

Adam is munching on everything now, and combined with his drooling that's been going on for weeks I'm wondering if he's already teething.  I couldn't help snapping some photos of this cutie with his play-mat monkeys. 

Caught red-handed and looking stunned

Here are two photos from another play-date with Delia.  She's 7 months old and I'd say definitely teething. 

Adam seems more startled from the camera than from having his toes munched on!

One-Handed Muffins (a.k.a Orange Craisin Muffins)

Last Friday Adam and I had a playdate at my friend Brigitte's house.  Her toddler wasn't at daycare that day so it was a full house.  We were outnumbered 3-2 but somehow it worked out just fine.  It helped that Adam was able to nap (despite being alone in an unfamiliar room in the basement) so was asleep or cheerful for most of the afternoon.

It was going so well in fact that we decided to try out a new muffin recipe that Brigitte had found.  Orange raisin muffins.  Well actually, she didn't have raisins handy so we decided to use Craisins instead.  The odd thing about the recipe is that everything should go into the blender at once.  That had us pretty skeptical...but we thought it would be a fun experiment even if it didn't work out!

1 orange , cut in 8 slices (peel too!)

1/2 cup orange juice

1/4 cup oil

1 egg 

2/3 cup sugar (reduced to 1/2 cup)

1 1/2 cup flour 

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

2 snack packs of Craisins

I think those are all the ingredients. Just trying to remember now off the top of my head so I might have forgotten something but it looks right.

Of course, when we dumped the dry ingredients over the wet ones in the blender we both had an "I'm not so sure..." expression on our faces.  Was the blender really going to be able to fold everything together?

The answer to that question was No.  Way too thick. Only a small section near the blades swirled around a bit but everything else just remained stacked in layers.  A bust.

Brigitte with her 7-month old Delia

So we moved onto Plan B which was me holding the handle of the blender while Brigitte stabbed away at the mixture with a wooden spoon.  Both of us were holding our babies with our other hands at the time, hence, One-Handed Muffins.

Pretty goopy stuff

Then we added Craisins and continued mixing. It wasn't looking any better.

Craisins!

Brigitte put the mixture into the muffin tins.  Still no better looking.

Should it be this wet?

Clearly they didn't rise. I'm guessing it had something to do with the baking powder not being mixed properly throughout the goop.  The muffins were super moist after the instructed 15-min so we kept them in the oven for another 10 or so. Still really moist.  Oh well, it was somewhat of a success.  They looked pretty cute and tasted...well...like orange muffins with Craisins in them!  I'd try this recipe again but in proper mixing bowls - if I do I'll report back and tell you all how it went :)

Babies practicing tummy-time

1234, Tell Me That You Love Me More...

Thank you Feist.

I've been taking monthly photos of Adam (with his chenille blanket as the backdrop) and he just turned four months last week.  Four months??  Oh my.  We're at the point now when his age is described in months rather than weeks.  Soon it will be years. Then decades, right?  Yup, I'm one of those thirty-somethings turning thirty-something +1 this summer.  

Well anyway, here is Adam's progression so far.  The most dramatic changes were in his first two months where he ballooned from just over 7lbs at birth to 13 1/2 lbs (second photo).  The growth finally plateaued  (thank goodness) after month three when we cut out night feedings and he was sleeping straight through 'til morning (thank goodness x 2!) He looks almost to be slimming down a bit now.  Maybe it's just the rest of his body catching up to his head :)  

At month four, just a tad under 17lbs, he's a lot of baby but also a lot of fun.  Laughing, babbling, playing...rewarding.

Delightful Dinos #3: Rex

Okay, I thought I would have finished Rex shortly after Monty and Spike but this fella got shelved for a while because things have been pretty busy lately.  Rex was really only stitches away from being finished for about a week but I was waiting to put a bell into his tummy but since I never got around to buying a bell I gave up and closed him up on Thursday.

I used dark brown thread for his eyes to make them stand out. The only thing I don't like about Rex is that his legs splay out to the sides way too much and he usually topples forward onto his nose. I need to figure out a good way to keep his feet pointed more towards the front. For now it will have to do.

Cute collection, huh?  I think Adam likes Spike the most (or should I say, Spike's tasty and chewable spine?) Yum, yum!

From left to right: Monty, Rex, Spike