Baby Turban

In December, our little one arrived earlier than expected, so I only had one day off from work before going into labor. I had planned to take two weeks off prior to my due date and get so much accomplished before she arrived. But plans never quite work out the way you want, particularly when you have a long to-do list to tackle. Oh well! And I could forget about making plans at all once she arrived. It was survival mode for the first month or so and we are only now getting into a routine at the two month mark. Still impossible to sew anything at the moment, but I hope that changes soon.

Here she is modelling her baby turban, specially made by Grandma. I saw this knitting tutorial on Pinterest and asked my mom if she could make it since I don't knit. She made this one and a bigger one in the same light turquoise that the pattern shows. So damn cute.

Burp Cloths

Nine burp cloths ready to go.

This kind of thing is very easy to make, but before I dove in I did some research. I read a whole bunch of tutorials and reviews about different kinds of burp cloths to get an idea of what is most useful. Here's what I gathered.

1. I found that although the pre-fold cloth diaper based ones are easy to make and cute at first, they can be quite thick and look messy after lots of washing.

2. Some people said that flannel and chenille or terry cloth is a good combo in order to keep the absorbency, but still be thin enough to wipe away messes.

3. And I chose to sew lines down the center like a couple of tutorials in order to keep the fabrics from shifting in the wash and make it nice and easy to fold.

4. For size, I just went with whatever fit over my shoulder and worked with my scrap towel pieces.

These three were made from old towel scraps. The red one was used to make an ice pack long ago and the blue one was made into a bath mat, which I don't think I ever posted on here.

This Heather Ross unicorn fabric is so soft and I only had a fat quarter, so it was perfect. Love it.

These six were made using some black terry cloth fabric I bought a long time ago to make a beach/pool robe, but never got around to. I think I still have enough to do it in the future. The four houndstooth and polka dot are flannel and the other two are cotton and linen.

Baby Swaddler

I made this baby swaddler or snuggler, as the pattern calls it, out of Lotta Jansdotter's pattern. It is available free online here. I have the book on my wish list, but have not gotten it yet. The pattern was pretty easy except for the velcro placement instructions, which were extremely confusing. I ended up just looking at someone else's version online to see where each piece should go.

For the fabric, I used a polka dot print on the outside and some leftover flannel on the inside since this little one will be born in winter. I love how cute it turned out. I was thinking of making another one, but another mom I know said that she had a velcro swaddler and in the middle of the night the velcro was so loud that it would wake the baby up. She suggested using it during the day. I guess we'll see how it goes.

Blue Zoo Baby Shower Gifts

This is a little baby shower set I made for a co-worker back in November of 2011. Her friend was having a boy and she wanted to giver her a cohesive present. Of course, I used the ever popular Blue Zoo Alexander Henry fabric once again. I'm surprised I still have any left!

The blanket is pretty simple with a white rick rack edge that I thought would be nice for the baby to touch. The backing is a flannel green and white star or hounds tooth pattern. It would make a great stroller blanket or play mat.

And who can resist a minky backed taggie blanket and some cute elephant pacifier clips.

Baby Sun Dress & Bloomers

This is a little sun dress and bloomers (or diaper cover) that I made for a friend of mine. His niece, the recipient of this lovely quilt, is turning one year old and celebrating with a polka dot themed birthday party. This is a girl after my own heart. You may have noticed that I love polka dots. 

This was made using the McCall's 6309 pattern.

A couple things to note about this pattern:

1. This pattern asks you to measure your baby's chest, waist, and thighs. If you do not own a baby or can't procure one then it might be difficult to get the right fit. I looked up approximate sizes based on the baby's weight that I happened to know. Hopefully it works out. Someone online did mention that the chest and waist size are often the same size, so I went with that. I hope it's right.

2. The straps are ridiculous if you follow the directions. It asks you to sew them together inside out and then turn them right side out. Impossible. It's way too tiny to flip. I picked out the seams and folded everything under and topstitched.

3. The bloomer instructions ask you to sew in bias binding to make a casing for the leg elastic. I decided to try out the method in Heather Ross' Weekend Sewing book which calls for elastic thread instead of a casing and wide elastic. Wow. It is so amazing!

First off, I thought this would be the end of my machine. How could elastic thread ever work? Some how and it was super easy. When I showed it to some co-workers with babies they all said that this was the best idea because they've bought kids clothes with regular elastic that are way too tight on super fat baby legs. (Super CUTE fat baby legs, I might add. No judgements, babies.) I will be trying this method out on some of my own shirt sleeves, I think.