Getting Ready for Baby

And this one isn't mine!  Ok, ok, I have one coming too, but right now I'm sewing for my soon to be niece.  My sister's baby is due 2.5 weeks after my own.  Since I'm covered up in baby stuff I'm sewing for her.  

Her baby layette includes, 3 burp clothes, 9 wipes, 1 bib, 2 pacifier clips, and one changing pad cover.  The changing pad cover was a first for me and super easy.  The tutorial I followed said to use 36 inches of elastic.  I had to add several inches of elastic after I took this photo.  It was just too tight.

Pattern Tracing

Often I know there is a right way and a wrong way to do something and I still pick the lazy way out.  I'm guilty of this when it comes to pattern tracing.  To save the original pattern from cutting you should trace out the size you want in Pellon.  With commercial tissue patterns this usually isn't a big deal.  The tissue will fold back easily to the right size.  With printed PDF patterns and smaller pattern company paper patterns it gets tricky.  

Finally, I broke down and bought some grid Pellon.  And guess what?  It wasn't THAT time consuming.  In fact, I enjoyed tracing out the patterns.  The next step is to find Pellon as cheaply as possible.  I feel like it use to be 33 cents a yard.  Seriously, I'm not exaggerating.  Now it's $4.  Walmart so far has the cheapest bolt of 10 yards for $16.

Red Dot Pellon

Simplicity 9095 Nightgown

 This is the nightgown that almost wasn't.  In my head this vintage polka dot sheet was a great idea.  Then when it was almost finished I panicked because it looked like a clown costume.  I stuck it out and finished it with the hopes that the blue buttons and ribbon cancel out the clownishness.

Currently the ribbon is safety pinned to the front.  I don't want to wash the ribbon each time due to fraying.  I'm contemplating putting it on with a snap.  We'll see.

Growing Like a Weed

Does it ever happen that all of a sudden your children's clothes are too small?  Like one day they fit fine and the next a belly is hanging out.
The other day I noticed Meredith's pajamas had shrunk.  After purchasing this Peek a Boo pattern I dug around in my winter maternity clothes for something to re-purpose and made a trip to JoAnn's.

The blue top is an maternity top and the fun print is from JoAnn's.  The pants go together really quickly.  I'm looking forward to making more now that I've worked the kinks out.

Beyond My Skill Set

My Grandchildren Walk All Over Me

My husband's father is turning 70 today.  It's hard to think what to give someone who is turning 70.  The girls "helped" make this t-shirt for Pops.  The lettering made me sweaty.  T-shirt art is not my thing.  I used the Live Laugh Love Font I found on Pinterest as a guide.    The white paint pen did not show up very well so I had to go over the letters with white paint.

The multi-surface Apple Barrel paint I used for the feet and white letters says it works on fabric.  I sure hope that means it won't wash out.  Painting two little people's feet with permanent paint also made me sweaty.  Mallory did come away with some yellow streaks on her face.  Not sure when that happened.

This shirt had the potential to be great or really really awful.  Considering my lack of talent with paint pens I'm happy with the result.

Izzy and Oliver

 A friend of mine has a baby girl who just turned one.  True to form, this child will get her gift late from me.  She is getting a modified pair of Oliver +S Puppet Show shorts and Izzy top.

 The top is made from Cotton and Steel fabric and the shorts are an upcycled men's chambray shirt.

 The green rectangle is my attempt at a tag in the back.  Someday I'll pay for labels with my name on them.  Every time I look on Etsy I get overwhelmed with the choices and so choose nothing.

Worrisome Plackets

This pattern has been bouncing around in my pattern box for two or more years.  Every time I go to cut them out, I chicken out.  What's been stopping me?  Plackets, or the fly.  I just don't get them.

 Finally, I gathered up the courage and bought enough yardage to make 4 pairs.  So far two are done.  I'm not a huge fan of flat felled seams either but they do look nice.  The red pair was my first and I used flat felled seams.  The second I cheated and used my serger to finish seams.  For the next two I'll slow down and do the flat felled seams.  They do make a nicer pair of shorts.