storybook woods

Lila and her dad have been “waterfalling” (as they like to call it) on Sundays. It sounds like a good time, and part of me would love to join in the fun, but you know what else sounds pretty great? Four hours to myself.

Here are the photos they sent me during my special alone time:

hiking at oneonta falls

lunch at horsetail falls

Most of my morning was spent listening to Cat Power and working on a little wool bonnet. I’ve been daydreaming about fall sewing since early July – probably because Lila is maxed out on summer clothes and the weather has barely been nice enough to wear them. It seems wrong to sew for fall now that the sun is finally shining, but my neighbor is expecting a baby girl mid-October and the shower is in a couple weeks. So, in keeping with the Posie theme, I made Alicia Paulson’s Storybook Woods Baby Bonnet – a cozy little hat for a fall baby.

The gray is a lightweight wool suiting from Joann’s. At first I balked at the price ($26.99/yard), but after doing some quick math I figured out that 3/8ths of a yard at 40% off comes out to pretty much nothing. Plus, there’s enough left over to cut two more bonnets. It would take a lot of mini marshmallows to get Lila into one of these, but I think it’d be awfully cute. We’ll see.

The lining is Moda Painted Flowers from the Sugar Pop collection. The ferns on the lining kind of mimic the embroidery, which is what sold me on the fabric.

The bonnet is reversible, too – a feature I always appreciate in a pattern. And the wool is so soft, I think it really could be worn either way.

I also like how the pattern has you sew down the seam allowances where the bonnet’s sides join the gusset – the top stitching on either side of those seams is a nice detail, I think:

The whole thing came together without a hitch, and I even learned some new embroidery in the process – the fly stitch (it’s the green fern-ish looking one).  It was my first time sewing with wool, too, which was a pleasure. Now that I’ve started sewing for fall, there may be no turning back….

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