Racing and baby sewing - odd blog mix, perhaps...

Ever since I had my second (and last!) baby I've hardly raced my bikes. But, once a year a race comes around that I can't help but enter.

The Race the Train is a mountain bike versus steam train race and it's fun. Add in that it's only 17km and not overly technical and even my fat, old legs can enjoy themselves! The kids ride the train with my parents while Flipper and I race on our mountain bikes.

The race is out in the country not far from where the lovely Jenya (While She's Sleeping) lives, and we've had some nice email chats around this time of year before. This time, I was planning to catch up with her, her lovely daughter and very cute new(ish) baby.

That was all the excuse I needed to make a couple of garments using the Oliver + S Lullaby Layette pattern as a new baby gift.

I made the size 3-6 month shirt and bodysuit. They looked tiny when I drafted the pattern, but not so tiny when I sewed them up, and then quite generously sized once I met little baby L. I hope they fit her at some time when they're kind of seasonally appropriate.

The first one is a little bit of the Art Gallery print that I had  leftover from this dress

Then I had just the cutest Japanese cotton for another...

The background is fairly pink, so I entertained my love of brown for the snaps and binding. I hope Jenya doesn't mind! The print is adorable. Each of those little characters remind me of the world dress type dolls my grandmother had, only with a quirky Japanese twist. 

We meet up at a playground and the kids had a play while Jenya and I chatted as only two sewing nutters can. Lovely!

My race the next day was cut short when a teenage kid hit the dirt just up ahead of me, and it was apparent he'd broken his collarbone and wasn't going any further. I stopped along with another rider, and we kept him company until the ambulance arrived. The train had just caught us at this point and the train drivers later jokingly confessed they'd seen the kid get the "speed wobbles and go over the bars" but they "couldn't stop and go back".

Once upon a time I would have had a stopwatch/speedo/lap timer on my bike and would have lapped out for first aid, restarted and raced home for a finish. Nowadays I was happy to cruise home with the other chap who'd stopped and chat about how we would have beaten the train, but for....

If you're up for a bit of real winning, not just imagined glory, then don't forget to enter the Japanese Sewing Week giveaway with has another day and a bit to go. See my post here to enter the giveaway and check out everyone's makes via Made by Sara's blog