Diaper bags

I have a confession.  I am a seamstress who started out sewing diaper bags and I was thisclose to buying one for myself.  I know I know, lame!  I had the pattern, I had yards and yards of beautiful fabric but I lacked the motivation.  But I finally was forced to make it when my girls both got the stomach flu at the same time and we had to stay home for 3 days!  I go stir crazy so I needed a project.  I brought my sewing machine upstairs and got to work, in between cleaning up puke.... 

I started with 4.5 yards of beautiful Kate Spain fabric in the Fandango line.  One of my all time faves and the Fishsticks Mama and Baby bag. 

I love the bag it's very cute but the pattern was somewhat frustrating. The instructions were clear, but I don't think it should have been a PDF. There were so many pieces to tape together and I had all these little rectangles and odd shapes to take together and half weren't labeled. It was maddening! It took over an hour just to get the stupid pieces taped up!

The bottom left is what I am talking about! How am I supposed to know where that goes? And then the top right at least had words so that you could figure it out by the process of elimination.

This pattern had 27 pieces of fabric, 4.5 yards all together and has 12 pockets!!  It took me about 7 hours over 2 days to finish (between puke clean ups!).

The front is basically 2 big pockets on top of one another that are divided in half (into 4 separate pockets) with stitching down the front. 

The back has one big zippered pocket.

The inside, on mama's half!  The bag is divided down the middle.  One pocket divided into 3.

You can kind of see the divider here.

The baby's side has 3 large pockets with elastic at the top so they can expand to hold a bunch of baby stuff.  Right now, I put diapers in them!

the last pocket is on the side and is supposed to be a phone pocket.  I put my iphone in there and it seems a little tall.  I mean, I know it will stay in since 3/4 of it is in the pocket, but I am sure I would lose it somehow.  :)

The strap is basically one giant, long piece of fabric that feeds through a d-ring and you tie it where you want.  It could be really long, but I like my bags up a little higher so truthfully the strap didn't need to be quite so long.

Whew!  After all is said and done, I am glad I made the bag.  However, I won't be making them for anyone else though! 

Cloth diapers

I plan on using cloth diapers on this babe when she arrives.  Although, I don't really want to start until she is about 6 or 8 weeks old.  I didn't want to start with newborn size diapers as they generally only go up to 10 pounds or so.  All my babies have been big and 10 pounds would get about 2 weeks worth of wear in my house.  So I started out buying and making size small which goes up to about 20 pounds.  My last baby was 20 pounds at 7 months so I still may not get much wear out of these!

I bought a bunch of the Babyville items at JoAnn's and set to work making diapers.  I made a few testers first for my sister and a friend.  Both have reported that the diaper worked fine and has held up.  So I made 12 for myself so far.  I still have 8 more to make but it gets so boring!  I am not a very dedicated assembly line seamstress. 

These are all the same pattern, some just have velcro, some are snaps, some have curved tabs, some are square, but the basics are all the same.  A waterproof PUL outer, microfleece inner with a pocket to stuff a prefold or soaker into.

Here is the inside!

These 2 have a knit outer layer, then the waterproof PUL and then the microfleece inside layer.

Here is another I made for my nephew with the last boyish piece of PUL I had.

These have coordinating tabs!

 

So far that's all I have!  Hopefully within the next 6 or 8 weeks I can find time to sew a few more.  I definitely don't want to do laundry everyday! 








 

Baby Nursery

Still no baby!  I have now spent 2 weeks of my life waiting on past due babies, but everyday gives me more time to get more stuff done that I didn't know I needed to do!

I finished up the nursery some time ago.  Probably back in October.  I let my older girls pick out the bedding and of course they chose the pinkest, girliest stuff they could find.  Honestly though, I like pink and girly and they were thrilled that they are included in the plans.  We also let them pick the middle name, which of course they like to brag about!

Here is the bedding they chose...

Here is the only baby enjoying this nursery right now!

The crib and rocking chair.  The last time we used the crib we used it as a day bed and now we are unable to find the parts to put the last side back on.  Story of my life.  But hubby has an idea to just permanently affix the side. 

Cute little birdie picture from Hobby Lobby that needs to go on the wall!  Still!

I had these plain curtains from WalMart that we brought with us from our old house and they were just sitting in a box.  The curtains that matched the bedding were really expensive so I figured I could just embroider these to match!  I am glad I did!  The girls think I need to put a butterfly on the other side....

That's about it so far.  I have moved the long dresser onto another wall so that I could use the top of it like a changing table and then moved its matching tall dresser into the corner that the other was in.  The dressers have a matching bed in the basement that baby can use when she gets older.  They originally belonged to my Grandmother who bought them in the 1960's.  They must be very well built to make it all this time!  I bet Granny never thought her 7th great grandchild would be using them 50 years later!

Not much sewing has been going on up here on top of the hill!  This pregnancy is kicking my butt!!  It was so much easier when I was younger!  Any time I have sewn it's been baby stuff though, which is super cute, and one would think it would motivate me to keep sewing.  But it hasn't.  I have soooo many things on the to do list and sewing just kind of falls to the bottom of the list.  Plus, I have like 11 weeks still.  If it wasn't for the last minute, I would get nothing done!

A few cute little baby outfits...

This little skirt, shirt and jacket set is from 4/2009 Ottobre.  I have always wanted to make this and finally had the perfect opportunity once we found out it was girl #3!! 

The shoulders on the shirt aren't really that big, but it's a tiny shirt on a big hanger!

The jacket is super adorable and super soft!  I have a shirt made from the same material and I love it!!!  So snuggly!  I spent so much time on the pockets because they were small and fiddly.  Because, 3 month old babies use pockets.....

I really loved the new 4/2012 Ottobre.  There are so many cute things in there for my girls in all size ranges. 

2 t-shirts

This is #4 that goes with the white t shirt above.  It's a cute little romper.  Still needs snaps but I am working on that....

This little outfit is number 1,2 and 3.  The red t shirt from above, plus little leggings and a tunic.  Aren't the little bows on the leggings the cutest things you have ever seen!!

I also made 10 receiving blankets.  Which was really boring!  I'm glad I only made 10!  I think it should be enough.

Finally, another maternity shirt for me.  A Mamu Katrin.  I have made lots of these in the child size, but never the adult size.  It's a little small up top, but should work out, if I can get past the fit issue in my mind!  This is about 26 weeks.

And that's about it!  I do have to embroider some owls on the curtains in the nursery.  And I need to make about 20 cloth diapers and ome more clothes....  But I have 11 weeks still!! 

A few random pieces of clothing

I haven't been sewing much, I just have too many other things to do.  But I did manage to complete a few very random pieces of clothing. 

Nin needs some long sleeve shirts for winter considering she hardly has any that fit.  I loved this shirt the minute I saw the new Ottobre.  And this fabric has been sitting on my shelf for awhile.  A long while. 

Pattern:  4/2012 Ottobre #28

I figured she could wear it with jeans.  You know, the ones I made her that don't fit. 

I also made these leggings from the new Ottobre to match her new twirly skirt and shirt! 

Remember these?

I figured she needed brown leggings to go with this outfit. 

Pretty boring huh?  At least they have this cute little tab detail.

I also made 2 maternity shirts for myself.  Considering I am rapidly out growing clothes, I should probably focus more on clothes for myself!

Pattern:  Ottobre 2/2008 #17

The sides have rouching so that the shirt can expand with your belly, but the rouching totally messed up my stripe matching!

I picked up a couple yards of this DC fabric from Girl Charlee for the girls.  I made one shirt for KK but figured I could use it too!  I will need a t shirt or 2 for hanging around on the weekends.

More stripe matching problems!  Or maybe it was fabric selection problems!

 

 

They are a little big right now but with the way I am growing, it won't be long before they are snug!

 



 

One of the things I love

One of the things I love about Nin is that she isn't afraid to be who she wants or to do what she wants. 

 

Even if being who she wants means she wears this....

See, it was color day at school.  At the beginning of every year, each day is assigned a certain color to help the Kindergartners learn their colors.  They encourage kids to wear that day's color to help their fellow schoolmates.

Well the problem is, Nin couldn't remember what color she was supposed to wear, and despite searching, we couldn't find the flyer telling us what color she was supposed to wear this particular day.

So, she decided that she better wear all colors, you know, just to be sure she didn't miss out.  She was very insistent that she wanted to participate, so this is the way it had to be. 

I learned years ago to pick my battles with her clothes.  She will wear what she wants because she likes it and that's it.  Her mind is made up and no amount of convincing will change it.  It's not a hill I am prepared to die on every morning at 730 so I just let her pick out and wear what she wants.  I figure, she is the one that has to explain it to her friends if they ask.  It remains to be seen if peer pressure will ever affect her choices! 

Turns out, it was orange day so she made a very good choice with her top.  Which happens to be a dress that she wore under a skirt...