Handmade-en

I have always loved the thought of handmade presents for children.  Items made with so much love they would be cherished forever and my babies would literally be wrapped in love.  I strongly encouraged all of my friends and family to make things for my son and he now has a couple of really beautiful blankets, a cardigan, a hat and some booties which are all now too small and another cardigan in the process of being finished! 

As you may or may not have seen, I made his mobile myself as I wanted his room to incorporate clouds and knew what I wanted to see in it to achieve that.  I am not a knitter (yet) and I don't remember how to crochet so I need to refresh my memory.  The the only way I could contribute to the handmade-ness was to decorate and create accessories.  I painted the room myself and made sure all of the decorations and furniture were just so.  I know babies don't care what paint you're using or whether there should be stars and polkadots instead of stripes but I knew I wanted the room to be a grown up nursery to grow with my son rather than against him so I omitted the excessive use of teddy bear print.  I also didn't want to enforce the boys must have blue and girls must have pink, I'm all for him to be able to make his own choices and not become the person I think he should be; although I will be forcing manners, good morals and cleanliness on him whether he likes it or not.  The nursery is beige and cream with a striped ceiling, white cloud shelves dotted around the walls and I have used orange as an accent colour (changing mat, bedding, storage boxes) as I thought it was a sufficiently unisex but not a visually offensive colour. 

My son like all other babies, loves bright colours and although he has shelves which display some of the colourful books and toys he has been given, there is no real stimulation on the walls so I wanted to do something a little different.  Instead of buying an alphabet poster... I cross-stitched one.  Not only can he touch the characters and letters but he can also enjoy the colours and my husband and I can teach him about superheroes! It took me just over a week to do in the end as it's not massively difficult (although I have made a couple of visible mistakes) but it is time consuming.  When you have a baby who didn't like to sleep during the day it can take a little longer than you'd like. 

I bought the pattern from talented Canadians weelittlestitches through Etsy.  They also have a larger version which is touted as slightly more difficult but I liked that on the mini one you could see the full letters properly.  It was so nice to be able to sit down and work on this while I watched my little boy sleeping and I felt a massive sense of achievement when I finished as I haven't really sewed let alone cross-stitched for years! So here is the finished product which I really need to frame soon! 

~AB~