"Moeke started and I'll continue.."
Moeke (my mother-in-law) asks me if she can crochet something for the baby. "Yes, I really want a nice playpen blanket. One that fits nicely in the living room." I told her. With the colors of the living room, she went hunting for yarn and picked out a nice combination of taupe, off-white and petrol. Perfect for the living room. The result can be seen above, fantastic!
"Yes, that's not that difficult! You can do that too" she says. She teaches me the stitches and at home I get busy crocheting small squares. Just like every project I start, this one doesn't have any results (sigh). A box for yarn, because when I start something I have to have all sorts of things in stock... and then I do,...um,.. nothing with it (sigh).
In my previous blog I wrote about how my cousin's girlfriend (Madelief) asked me to help make a playpen blanket. Tada! Now I could finally apply the technique I had learned from Moeke, This is fantastic! The result was great to see and it started to itch. I wanted to make more, only our Mautie didn't need anything anymore, so I started an Instagram page. In the hope that other people would become just as enthusiastic and would provide me with new projects. You also need a name for a page and used our daughter as inspiration, because partly because of her I got so busy. I had uploaded all the things I made and soon I received nice reactions and compliments.
In January 2017 I came home with PTSD, and soon mister "depressed" appeared. I had seen that stupid Netflix again, sleeping and resting was also not for me. The intense start of the medication with psychoses did not help either. I had to convert my negative energy into something positive. Since it was a baby boom I started asking all the pregnant women around me if I could make something for them. Our cousin Inge really wanted a blanket for the pram, well fantastic! I could get started again. Our cousin Joreen also really wanted a hand-crocheted chevron playpen blanket (a wave pattern). Super fun, because I had never made that before! Based on their ideas and wishes, I got started. It was a win-win situation, they got a unique maternity gift and I was busy. A perfect solution to give the bad period a nice twist. That was the start of Mautie's Mama!
Mama often came to support me on my mommy days and asked me why I didn't sew, because then I could alternate with crocheting. "pff, I can't sew" I replied. "I'll teach you" she said, after which she showed up the next day with her sewing machine. BOOM.. there it was in the living room on the dining table. Together we went looking for fabrics, because I had no idea what good quality was and what kind of fabric I needed. She taught me the difference between jersey and cotton and what you could make with it. Despite the fact that jersey is not the easiest fabric to start with, I stubbornly went for jersey. The following days I got a quick sewing lesson from my mother. She explained the basics of drawing a pattern, straight stitching and finishing. And that's how I made my first skirt, which I am very proud of.
Thank you very much for reading my blog!
Kind regards,
Daniëlle
