I’ve taken up another new hobby while off on mat-leave. It always seems like my breaks from work, whether long (mat leave) or short (recovery from surgery), include a craft or hobby. Often these creative ventures are new to me:
- Needle Felting – picked this up when I was recovering from pacemaker surgery last year. I haven’t done much by it, its MUCH trickier than I thought it would be. I’m hoping that once our basement is done and I have my craft station/computer desk all set up and organized, I’ll be able to fiddle about with it again. If you’re interested in needle felting, there is a fabulous instagram account (and etsy shop) to check out: Its All My Felt . This little gem is a girl I went to high school with! She makes some fabulous/amazing felty treats.
- Crochet/Knitting – i’ve been doing this for a while, but with the little man in my life now there really hasn’t been much fibre art. Id like to eventually finish my hexagon blanket which I started 5 million years ago.
- My most recent experiment has been SEWING!
I have sewn before, so its not entirely new, BUT that was a lifetime ago. Back when I was in elementary school and high school my mum was BIG into sewing. She created hallowe’en costumes, practice skating outfits, graduation dresses (I of course picked a big poofy ballgown for my grade 8 grad), and formal wear. Mum has made herself gowns for work Christmas parties and conveniently we were the same size back then so I got to wear the dresses too.
Since being on maternity leave, I’ve been on social media more often (downtime when little is napping, early days when I was pumping after every nursing session, etc). I became hella inspired by loads of awesome baby gear made by stay at home mums and full time working mums alike. I thought to myself “what the heck, can’t be that hard!”
Where have we heard this before??
I had a gift card to Walmart and spent a portion of it on a Brother brand sewing machine. Mum helped me pick out a decent machine – it can monogram, do buttons, and quilt. I probably will never use all of its features, but they’re there if I get super crazy 😉
Not long after that I found a few facebook groups (interested? google “patterns for pirates” and “made for mermaids” – no affiliation, but their patterns are ballin’). I ordered some knit fabric from a place not terribly far from my city and got to work. There was much cursing. Then my mum gifted me her old serger! Things improved quickly after that. I took the serger to get serviced because it needed to be cleaned up and adjusted – conveniently there is a place maybe 5min from my house. I’ve since made a few pairs of harem style pants for my boy and my friend’s kiddo. I’ve made my sister and her daughter matching dresses too.
My wrap dress – super comfy and nursing friendly.
Leftover fabric made into harems pants for my friend’s little girl
My first hoodie with a modification for nursing
hallowe’en bum pants for Kasper
Boxy Pouch! currently holds my sewing bits and bobs
The dress I made for my niece (her mum’s matches the sleeve fabric).
I just finished a new pair of tights that look like they’ve got leg warmers at the bottom. They’re super comfy!
I’ve got plans to make myself and Kasper semi-matching Christmas duds out of that gorgeous red and black plaid I’ve seen everywhere. I’m going to make a dress with black sleeves for myself and I’ll make a fun bubble romper for him. Its going really well and I hope to keep it up so that i keep improving and learning new tricks. I will definitely be including more sewing updates on the blog so make sure to check back here!
xo
