…milo & otis…

One of my favourite kinds of crafting is baby gift crafting. Teeny tiny items, fun super cute fabrics, lots of options for variety. Most recently, I had a little parcel to make up for one of my dearest friends, expecting a long yearned for rainbow baby. My first thought was a quilt. Quilts are one of those projects that you know will get lots and lots of use, and I love making them for those I love best. The time and effort and materials involved are not insignificant, and in craft-as-a-love-language terms, it’s pretty up there as a statement piece, especially if I use my most favourite stash fabrics. In the same way, the quilt my friends made for Beetle using their stash to make sure I got fabrics I love, gives me all the warm fuzzies every time I make his bed.

Except in this case, a quilt didn’t seem quite the right choice. For one – the logistics would be pretty impressive. Tiny house life, where our one table is both collapsible, and multi-purpose – doing duty as dinner, sewing, and school table – commandeering both the table and the space it takes up for a solid week of quilt making wasn’t precisely an ideal option. Back in 2018, I spent a few days sobbing over my sewing machine making a mini-quilt for this friend, in honour of her beautiful angel babe. I wanted to leave that as it’s own special unique gesture and make something different for the new little one. In the end, I decided on the Milo vest and coordinating Otis beanie.

Baby was likely to be born early, so I got started in advance, and made up the newborn size in both the vest and the beanie. Hopefully between a smaller birth size, and a very chilly winter to date, he will get lots of wear out of them! Being born early, baby also needed some extra hospital time, so I decided to make my friend a project bag to store her knitting in as she sat with her little boy.

What else would I make it from, but my signature combo of denim and linen? The love of this combo still runs strong! I went with a plain linen instead of a pattern for this bag, because I wanted to include a small feature print. It’s my favourite little boy fabric of the last decade, and one that featured heavily in the quilt I made for her angel baby. The plain linen left the print to be the “hero” feature of the bag, complemented with the denim, and I added a couple of small accents to make the whole thing pop. The Japanese Knot Bag is my favourite style of project bag, and I thought it would be perfect for keeping all her bits and bobs together and super transportable.

It finally all arrived yesterday, so I can finally show it all off! What a joyous change to revel in delight in every stitch, rather than grief-quilting. Due to all *waves hands at the world* THAT, I haven’t yet had a chance to meet the little one, but I am absolutely itching to give both him and his mama a great, big, squishy, quite-possibly-soggy, hug. Until then, I’m sending my love care of the postal system in the form of handmade goodies. Welcome to the world, little dude, you are so loved by so many who are thrilled to see you safely earthside.