Fitting into new duds

Here is Jonah, showing off his raglan owl sweater, Guatemalan n' corduroy pants, and red velour cloth shoes.

The latest

I have been doing some speedy crafts lately. Above, a pair of souped-up blue jeans with star appliqués and patterned cuffs for Eytan Yarden. Below, a swallow onesie and a peapod onesie for Jojo.
And, a polar bear appliqué for a onesie that Jonah inherited from Nikhil:

My muse, almost 3 months!

Here he is in one of the onesies I made before he was born. The 3 month sizes fits him perfectly!

Not-New & Improved

The baby slept until 10 a.m. this morning (!!!), and I used that time to fix up a bunch of his clothes. Top: onesie from Lizzie, enhanced with French ribbon. Middle: overalls from Lizzie, enhanced with veggie ribbon. Bottom: Old Navy sale items & romper from Lizzie, enhanced with various appliques. Many of these feature purchases made with a bday gift certificate to Reprodepot from my dear husband.

In a sea of blue

I'd estimate that at least half the baby presents we've received are pale blue clothing, mostly simple cotton onesies marred by silly expressions and annoying decorations. I am still on my gender-neutral clothing campaign because I think it's practical (should we have additional children) and more aesthetically original. So, in my non-existent spare time, I redo as many of these baby blues as I can.

Amy Butler Frenchy Bag

My sister bought me this very cool pattern for my birthday. I was wary of a pattern from a non-traditional brand, especially the 1/2" seam allowances (what IS that? it's always 5/8", Amy!), but found the construction techniques mostly very smart and easy to follow. I used various velvet brocade scraps from Freddy Farkel for the exterior (thus two unmatching sides, one floral, one striped), and a fancy metallic gold-striped cotton from the Button Box for the interior: thus the lining cost three times the outside of the bag. Conclusions:
1. I like magnetic snaps and they're easy to install.
2. I botched the exterior pleats because the pattern doesn't specify to iron them the length of the bag. This is important to the look of the final product.
3. The pockets are too big to be useful and need to be sewn into subsections.

My muse turns one month old

These newborn onesies aren't going to fit for much longer, so I'll try to capture the little man wearing them now!

Another sling thing

We bought a used Ergo babycarrier last week, thanks to our friend Michele in the 'burbs who did the pick-up! This carrier can be used for an infant, but only if you buy the $25 insert. Highway robbery, I tell you. Here's my homemade version. I sewed fluffy upholstery cording to two layers of cotton batting, then covered the whole thing in a cotton case and quilted around it before closing it with some seam binding. While the cost was under $10, the time & travel involved were not trivial. Still, I find it satisfying to try and replicate something oneself.

More blankets

Here are four new additions to our blanket collection. The two on the left are just pieces of waffle knit fabric with serged edges. We were seeking additional stretch to help with swaddling, but the added give just makes it easier for Mr. Houdini Hands to do his evil deeds! The two on the right are my now-standard cotton gauze jobbies. One post-baby addition: no time to make my own bias tape, so it's store-bought. Ah, the sacrifices we make for our little ones!

Pouch Slings

I'm 11 days post-partum and it's time to craft again. Yesterday we took our first outing for pleasure (i.e. not medical appointments) and went bird-watching and fabric-shopping. I bought fabric to make my husband and me each a pouch sling, two more gauze swaddling blankets (one can NOT have enough of these!) and two waffle knit swaddling blankets (my husband, the swaddler, insists it's a lack of stretch and not his lack of skill that lets the little one's hands out).

Here's what I learned about making a sling, after studying various directions and tutorials. I also went out and bought a Hotsling to study temporarily. Cut a piece of fabric that's 24" wide (you could get away with as little as 22 or 23" I think) and 56" long. Cut the curve into the short sides. Create a loop with a French felled seam (which requires sewing the *wrong* sides together, very counter-intuitive), then hem both "rails," leaving 12" open at each side of the seam. Insert fluffy cording into these openings and sew shut - a zipper foot helps. My husband is 6'3" so his sling required a longer piece - I started with 66" and then we custom-fit, using a sack of flour as the baby!

My muse is born

The blog will be on maternity leave for a little while, I'm delighted to announce. Here is why:

This little bundle of love arrived on Saturday, May 24 at 6:58 p.m. and weighed 6 lbs. 14 oz. He looks great in all of my creations!

Stardust Shoes

Inspired by yesterday's success with felt booties, I decided to stay in the footwear department today with these stardust shoes. I found the construction a bit awkward at first - many layers that needed coaxing to be pressed or folded as the pattern demanded - but ultimately, quite satisfactory. After a pair or two, you won't even need to look at the directions! Tips/modifications: trim all interfacing 1/4" around before applying, don't interface upholstery-weight fabric, join heel to heel lining by sewing right sides together instead of pressing under along short sides, use fusing to join sole to sole lining. For fabrics that fray easily, beware that the raw edge joining the sole to upper is visible (for my red velvet slippers, I handstitched a lining over the sole's rear half and joined it to the upper). Specs, in order: roosters, Moda sock monkeys, Martha Nagley turnips and peas, red & gold upholstery with floral trim, diamond upholstery with Kaffe Fassett shot cotton lining. All soles are made from velvet or ultrasuede upholstery.

Bitty Booties - A Love Story

I found this delightful felt bootie pattern on the web awhile ago, but I only got around to trying it yesterday. I used high-quality wool felt that I bought at Portsmouth Fabric Co. and a variety of notions from my stash. This is a really great stash-busting project, by the way, because you can make dramatic use of tiny amounts of ribbon, a pair of buttons, etc. The red and purple pairs feature leftover JoAnn's ribbon and buttons (the kind that come with store-bought clothes and promptly disappear when you actually need them...), and the green-yellow pair have ribbon I bought at RetroDepot. On the purple pair, I used the flower embroidery stitch on my Bernina. Somehow I've owned that machine since 1988 yet never used the embroidery functions - what a terrific discovery!

Baby Legwarmers

After doing some reading online, I went to Target and bought ladies' knee socks at $4/pair to make baby legwarmers. I am hoping these will be an affordable alternative to the $12 variety I'd originally registered for. In photos two and three, see the results of my ultra-quick foray into the land of baby legwarmers. I cut off the foot of the sock right before it started to curve (easy to see on striped socks!), salvaged the straight portion of the foot, folded that in half, and attached that as "ribbing" (not an accurate term, since it's in the same knit as the body of the sock) to the cut edge of my socks. This yielded an icky bulge but was otherwise very efficient and satisfying. Now I will keep my eyes open for cute, cheap knee socks!

Restocking the Stash

Thus far I have spent my third trimester stash-busting in many forms. Today, however, I broke that trend and went out and bought NEW MATERIALS for some fun new projects. I went to Freddy Farkel's Frugal Fabrics and raided their samples section. I bought a dozen chunks of velvet and tapestry upholstery fabrics, which I think could make good fabric shoes for a baby and hip bags for a mama! Total cost for these fabrics: $13.13. See, thirteeen *is* a lucky number!

Oil Cloth Bibs

As my due date approaches, I'm focusing on short-term projects. Today I made a trio of bibs from oilcloth. I used the pattern from Chickpea, but added a front crumb-catching pocket and bias tape in lieu of lining. This pattern uses very little fabric, so a little oilcloth will go a long way. My machine had no problem sewing the oilcloth when I used a "denim" (size 16) needle and longer stitch ("3" setting). Pulling on the bias tape as I sewed allowed me to get fairly smooth edges without pinning, gluing, or pasting (all time-consuming options I'd read about on other blogs). Since I am still in the fantasizing stage with a snapsetter, I sewed on snap tape for closures.

Two More Rompers

I love this pattern! It has just a few distinctive details (front pleats, pocket) and seems very practical with the snap crotch (not that I know anything about these matters, yet). The upper romper is size 3 months and made of cotton. There's a coordinating blue onesie somewhere in my stack. The lower romper is size 6 months and made of Guatemalan cotton purchased a few years back in Panajachel. I found it useful to interface the facings of the rooster model to stiffen the straps; using denim to face the Guate version made this unnecessary.

Garter Stitch Cardigan

I bought this luxurious Debbie Bliss Cashmerino in pale pink several years ago and let it languish when I realized that it's a color that looks a bit horrid on me. Now I'm bringing it back to life, with the help of some accompanying browns, for a baby sweater (from Knitting for Baby). I found the gauge a bit loose (although correct, according to the directions) in that it yielded a very stretchy, spongy sweater. In the past, I found that the buttonholes were too far from the edge of this sweater (especially once you add the knitted border), so I tried a zipper this time instead. It seems to have the effect of shortening the body a bit. The coordinating hat, a garter stitch cloche, features two complementary pompons.