baby bean

Baby bean is my all time favourite toy. She has been with me since I was born and she has been very well loved. Once upon a time she had a yellow towelling body and a cute blond curl. The curl went many years ago (I had a hair cut, so it stood to reason that Bean should get a hair cut).

Bean came with me when we went on holiday and over the years it became tradition. She went to university with me and a few years later she came travelling with me. Her much hugged and cuddled body got pretty thread bare and she gradually became more darning than towelling. I've made her several set of new clothes, the first was hand stitched out of an old t-shirt one afternoon in a beach hut on Kho Tao.

Bean has always been in Graces room but I knew she wouldn't stand up to the tough love of a toddler. Somehow I thought she would sit on a shelf and look nice but very quickly Grace decided Bean was for cuddling and there was no going back to sitting on a shelf.

When I dared to take Beans clothes off she had several new holes and I knew it was time for drastic action. So in keeping with my decision not to buy any more fabric I used some pink towel scraps to make her a new body. It needed to be something that took the strain in a way that clothes were not doing but I didn't want to completely take her apart. Instead I made her a tight fitting new suit and hand sewed it to her neck, wrists and feet. The only way I could get her in was to make a slash neck and hand stitch it up tight around her neck.

Making the suit its self only took about 15mins, all the hand stitching took about an hour and a half. I added a bit of lace around her wrists and neck partly to cover up the rather grey original lace trim (I didn't want to lose any more of her original self) and partly because I couldn't resist.
Grace saw her half way through the transformation and demanded that she go back in her purple suit so for now I haven't made her a matching pink hood, but it is one the cards.

ruffle butt trousers

I have been itching to make Rae's big but baby pants with ruffles on the bum. But I have decided that I am not allowed to buy any more fabric, despite being in love with Dunelm Mill's maritime fabric (I am sure there is a dress for Grace just waiting to be made from it). I have huge amounts of fabric and lace so all of my next projects will be made out of what I have in an attempt to reduce my stash.

They have turned out a bit Austin Powers but luckily Grace doesn't care!