Bibs

I was sick of the commercial bibs that we had, not staying closed, so that required making some new ones. I’ve had some luck at the thrift shops recently,gathering up some cute boy cotton prints and poly/cotton and cotton knits. The cotton print is great it has kids playing all different sorts of sports. I went the very simple route of overlocking the layers together. I did try straight stitching one and turning it through, but it was just too time consuming. I made 14 in total, so hopefully this will last til when he no longer needs them? Is that wishful thinking?

Quilting: numbers

I’ve recently been playing with quilting some squares up from recycled fabric, t-shirts, jeans, jumpers, flannel pyjamas. I did some play mats for Ash, he uses them for eating snacks on, which means I always have a quick way to clean up!

Here is one that I did some very rustic appliqué on. Numbering from 1 - 10

It has a couple of layers to it, a waterproof layer and flannel with an internal layer of flannel as well. This is larger than my last mats, about 1.2 m square. It has a couple of pockets included to hide treasures, no doubt I will forget to check them and I will wash an apple core!

A second top is completed but I have yet to cut the waterproofing, so it will be done soon.

I am on a dressmaking jaunt at the moment, I made a dress for Melbourne Cup day and now I am completing a jacket, as well as a few socks for Ash.

Sewing: nappies... modern cloth style

Well I managed to sew 7 nappies on the weekend. They have been waiting around since July to be made up. So it was very satisfying to clear these out of my to do pile. I’m pretty happy with my technique now as well, doing 7 at once makes the process very efficient, as long as they are the same in colour anyway. The last lot I did all had different colour covers which meant a lot of thread changing.

We’ve been a little slack on the cloth nappy front. Ash wears them about one day each week so we aren’t making much of an environmental saving with them. This is about to change now that we have about 3 days worth of cloth nappies, it means we can have half in the wash and the other half in use.

I like the cute patterned polar fleece ones but they are a lot more bulky than the pul ones. I’ve run out of pul lining for the patterned ones as well so I’ll have to think about how many more I want to make. I got a little obsessed with cloth nappies at the end of my pregnancy and found a lot of great patterns and websites with information on making nappies, but the reality is that you really need the baby to check the fit and sizing. Now that Ash is a little bigger these nappies seem to fit a lot better and there are a lot less problems with leaks.

Sewing: Jeans

I’ve made the little one some jeans. They are so gorgeous but too big. It will probably only take about 2 months for him to grow into them but I am impatient because I'm so happy with how good they look. I’ve cut out another pair of pants that I’ll size down a little so that he can wear them now.

I’ve just realised that I don’t have a photo of the finished front. Here is one in progress. I did faux pockets on the front, just stitched them on.

I'm loving making trousers for Ash, they are so quick and easy, especially when I just do an elastic waist to make it easy to get over the nappy butt.

Bibs

Not so long ago I was reading a post about bibs that a mum was deciding over and I thought the idea of a pelican bib was kind of weird. (There is an example of a plastic moulded one here.) What would you need a pocket on a bib for? Now I know. My DS is trying out finger food and I can see now that a pocket would prevent so much of the food ending up in his lap. The high chair tray only covers so much then there is the gap between the bib and the tray where everything seems to end up. I have been draping him in a tea towel and then puttting a bib on in an effort to not have 3 changes of clothing a day.

So the next design project is going to be some bibs with pockets. I'll have to do some research. I have a great normal bib pattern that I have been using for the last 2 months. I hope to have a few in my Etsy store soon, for sale. Here are some WIPs they just need some velcro to finish them off.

Next time I'll get a shot of the bub in one. He is so cute I have thousands of pics of him so will have to introduce him to this blog as my chief model.