Today's little project

I went to Borders today to buy a gift voucher for someone and I thought I would have a quick look at the magazine section. BIG mistake! I ended up buying 'Stitch' for way too much and drooling over it all afternoon. Then I got a brain wave to make some slippers out of an old felted jumper (read jumper that accidentally got thrown in with the normal wash and came out as a mini jumper). I cut them out but couldn't be bothered pulling my machine back out so, I decided to turn my attention to one of the projects in Stitch. A little winter hat for Moo. I spent what felt like a million years trying to get the pattern right because the recommended blow up size (that's what I wanted to do to it - blow it up@!) wouldn't fit a newborn. Grrrrr. But I finally got it right and cut it out and put it together after Moo went to bed.

And, no, I am not the proud mother of a weird looking recycled bag holder creature. Moo was asleep and all of her doll's heads (all 2 of them) were too small to model for me.... so the plastic bag receptacle it was. (Bag made from IKEA scraps a few weeks ago.)

And it just looked strange with no eyes..... so pins and blue tack it was!

A few notes about the hat:

• It was supposed to be made out of a felted recycled jumper/sweater but I wanted to try out the sizing in a cheap material first in case it was completely wrong so I used polar fleece.

• The original pattern has bias binding around the edges which matches the fabric on the chin strap. I couldn't be bothered making tape and as I had used polar fleece did not need to worry about raw edges. I was going to blanket stitch in a color that complemented the chin strap but when looking for the navy wool I found this old ribbon that I had bought in Sweden and thought I would sew that on instead.

• I know it is summer and maybe you are wondering why I would be sewing a winter hat. Haven't you heard the story about the ant and the grasshopper? Well, that's my excuse...... It had nothing to do with the fact that I love felt and I thought it was pretty....