Apple a day dress

Marina in apple dress

Yet ANOTHER woollen moth casualty – this time they munched multiple holes a much-loved green woollen wraparound skirt. Greedy. Bastards.

Apple dress cut out

So, I size it up for a toddler’s tunic dress, just cutting approximately around another jumper dress and keeping the existing hem and side seam. As I’m cutting, I notice one of the offcuts looks like a leaf (see? between the armholes of the front and back?), and the apple motif follows quite naturally.

And then I’m off down memory lane… I had a dress with an apple on it as a child. Here is the original apple dress.

So I cover the mothholes with an applique apple. As it’s a fuzzy woollen, I’m guessing it won’t fray, so don’t finish any cut edges, or use interfacing to stabilise the apple. (Two machine washes later & I’m proved right – all stable AND unfrayed). The rest is dead easy: machine stitch the apple into place, followed by the side & shoulder seams, then fold the seam allowance once on the neck & armholes and stitch. It’s a bit wonky – my cutting, I’m afraid, but I figure it’ll wear ok.

Apple dress finished

The neckline looks pretty small all of a sudden, so I make two self-

Apple dress loopsApple dress button

covered buttons and loops for a shoulder fastening, and a small facing for each edge. This takes ages but I like the finished look.

However, in the cold light of day, it turns out the neckline is too BIG, so I run a little elastic thread through it with a darning needle – this works perfectly and Marina seems to like it!

Marina in apple dress laughing

NB After about 85 blurred photos she suddenly climbs on the sofa and strikes a slightly eerie doll pose. For a second. Then runs off and jumps around a bit more. Photographing a toddler to show off a garment is REALLY hard work. How do you do it?

Marina in apple dress doll pose

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Oh and I also made this hat from the offcuts. It’s simply a rectangle, sewn up the short side, hemmed at the bottom and tied around with a strip.

Apple hat

She wouldn’t keep it on for more than a second, threw it off and now we cannot find it ANYWHERE. Prolly been munched to dust, by a bunch of delighted moths.

Lilac Norwegian Sweet Baby Cap

lilac norwegian sweet baby cap

Nice bit of forward thinking: winter will be upon us and Little Miss will need a hat. Last winter, the only hat that actually remained on her head had a chin strap. It was a hand-me-down from my beloved sister-out-of-law and it kept both my niece & nephew warm through 70s Bavarian winters.

So, I hunt about for a similar pattern and find the Norwegian Sweet Baby Cap – then get some soft Debbie Bliss baby cashmerino wool in a light lilac (340051) from John Lewis.

Using DK instead of the recommended “baby weight” (which is what exactly?) means my gauge is all out of whack so I adjust it by

  • casting on only 107 stitches
  • using 4mm needles
  • on the increase/decrease row, reduce the stitches between increase/decrease to 15, 16, 16, 16, 16, 15.

NB These adjustments are part measurement, part guesswork – I’m no deft mathematician, nor experienced gauge calculator. I just choose the needle size cos they are the smallest circular needles I have. The stitch looks ok so I knit a few rounds in garter stitch as per the instructions, then try it on Little Miss’s head. It’s clearly too big, so I mark out how many stitches go round her head and start again casting on fewer stitches. Then divvy up the non-increase/decrease stitches as evenly as I can.

I keep trying the hat on her as I go, so make only two further adjustments:

  • only repeat the increase/decrease row 8 times
  • add a 10 row garter stitch chinstrap with two cast-off buttonholes.
Overall, it’s a really simple pattern, if you know how to knit, purl, increase and decrease. And it finishes up satisfyingly quickly, speeding up rapidly as you decrease towards the wee point.
Norwegian Sweet Baby Cap strap closeup

I locate a silver metal button that I *think* came from a dirndl skirt of my mother’s (she lived in the Austrian/German alps for a chunk of the sixties). My older brother recognised it immediately anyway (“Wow”, he said), and he’s not a button kind of guy.

Norwegian Sweet Baby Cap button closeup

Problem. The hat has not stayed on Little Miss’s head for more than two seconds. Hence no modelled pics. Any tips?

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Update

A week after completion and the hat stays ON.

Norwegian Sweet Baby Cap side

Could it have anything to do with the hypnotic qualities of CBeebies?

Happy Norwegian Sweet Baby Cap

A sugar high?

Playground norwegian sweet baby cap

Or the sudden drop in temperature over the weekend?

Who cares! Result! Pics!

About me


I started this blog to help me Get Things Done: sewing and knitting mostly.
But now I have a daughter! So I continue to daydream in enormous detail about what I'd like to make, but squeeze the 'doing' into precious naptimes and evenings.

Can I keep it up? Time will tell!

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