a Mommy-made Dress

Here's Bridget in her first Mommy-made dress.  I have enjoyed making little boy clothes for Henry over the past few years but there is something extra special about a little girl's dress.  

I just copied the general shape of a dress she already owns.  I like how it turned out even if it is a bit sack-like.  I didn't think a little baby dress needed any shape but I think next time I will try adding some sort of shape.  And of course I made it a bit big like you do when you're sewing for a 3 month old.  So that adds to the sack look.  But I think she is cute enough to pull off the sack look anyway.

I'm sure there are many more Mommy-made dresses in her future.  

Sewing For Baby

I've been doing some sewing for baby recently. Baby will be here in around 2 months!

I sewed a couple of little T-shirts, not sure when these will fit - they look pretty big to me. The green one was done using the pattern from Growing Up Sew Liberated and then I made the white one using the pattern and instructions from thismamamakesstuff. The green one took about a million times longer to make and I did not like fiddling with that neck binding, I personally did not think it was worth the extra effort. The white one looks almost as good I think. I also used the thismamamakesstuff pattern for making newborn gowns for Henry when he was the baby in my tummy. Can't believe I didn't think to use it to make T-shirts back then - T-shirts are definitely preferable to onesies for cloth diapered babies.

And I made all 4 of these pants just by making my own pattern based on some newborn pants I had using the method I talk about here. These are tiny, definitely for the first couple weeks. I am feeling pretty confident that this is going to be another tiny skinny baby just like Henry and I'll be glad to have some pants that fit well. Even with big cloth diapers, Henry only had a couple of pants that stayed on well in those first weeks.

And for a May baby I need a teensy tiny sunhat. I used the pattern from the book Sweet Booties in newborn size.

I think I will put a hold on sewing for baby now. Especially because we all have a feeling there's a little girl in there and if I wait I'll be able to pull out the floral fabric for my next baby project. Wouldn't that little sunhat look crazy cute with flowers. Or I could even do a little sun bonnet!

Henry's been such a sweetie recently, so happy playing on his own. I even got some of this sewing done during the day while he played happily in the basement with me. But we have been getting out. Here are some pictures from yesterday, playing in a big puddle which he called a swimming pool. (Today we have snow again and Henry went out in snow gear.)

Baby #2

We will become a family of four in May with baby #2 due on the 11th. We had the ultrasound on Monday and yes there is a baby in there. I went through first trimester sickness, have a baby belly, have little aches and pains, and am always tired. But it still seems unbelievable that there is a baby in there. Even after we saw its little legs and face and spine.

Of course we have all those same regular worries about baby #2 as every family. Suddenly we notice how much attention Henry demands. We have already begun messing with our lovely sleep strategy of Henry and me falling asleep together after nursing at night. As much as any sleep book might tell us that this is a mistake and as much as we might have our work cut out for us over the next 4 1/2 months to get Henry just a little more independent and ready for the new baby, it has been a lovely and very easy almost two years. Nothing feels better than doing what feels right to you as a mother especially when it works. And we are making some slow progress in our quest to change things up a bit. Last night Kevin put Henry to sleep completely on his own just by telling him stories in bed for 20 minutes. Next we just have to hope this was not a fluke and then turn our attention to those night wakings.

And just this weekend I finished my first knitting project for the baby. I used a variation of the 5 hour baby sweater. A little yellow cotton cardigan.

We tell Henry all the time about the baby in Mommy's tummy and he will kiss my belly but he doesn't get it. He's too busy baking with Thomas anyway.

A little baby dress

We have just discovered that one of Kevin's old high school friends has just moved to Waterloo and she has a 3 month old daughter. We are very excited to have more friends in the area and I was excited for an excuse to do some little girl sewing. I know little girls usually have lots of beautiful dresses but I am hoping that since this is brown with blue flowers it is at least a bit different to her other dresses. I used this old vintage pattern and I think it turned out well. Can't wait to give it!

A Spring Sweater

I finished this sweater for Henry a few weeks ago but then it sat waiting for the neck hole to be made a bit smaller for those weeks. It's this pattern that I've made before but this time with size 7 needles. It turned out well except for the crazy wide sleeves (can't believe I didn't notice how huge they were as I was knitting). It's a cotton yarn so he should be able to wear it in the months coming up.

For a new baby

Kevin has some friends expecting in May. So I was excited to sew something for the new baby. They know they are having a girl but I am still learning the ropes of serging and sewing with knits so I didn't make a dress. I made a little sweat suit from an old Ottobre magazine, the same one I made for Henry in the fall.

I used some knit fabric I got from our thrift store that has little mermaids on it and some pink trim. I love the mermaid fabric for the cuteness but after sewing it up it became very obvious that it's not very good quality. Very thin and not super soft. I should have paid more attention beforehand instead of being too in love with the mermaids. Lesson learned.


And to finish off the post here are some recent pictures of Henry, this is as good as photos get at the moment as I just cannot get him to look at the camera.

Tie Dye

Since I am into everything crafty at the moment I did a bit of tie dyeing last week. Did some pants for Henry and a T-shirt for me. There was also a sweater that I just wanted to change from speckley brown and white to purple but it turned out hideous and splotchy.


I love Henry's pants. They are his second pair of purple pants, and they're even zanier than the first pair where each leg was a different shade of purple.

Henry's Peace Vest

I just finished knitting this little vest last night during our Sunday night cartoons. And I love it. So sweet especially with a stripey top underneath. It is from this pattern here.


I did the 12 month size which gives the skinny guy some growing room. I used a cotton so he can hopefully wear it in the summer too. I love the pattern. It was my first time doing any colourwork, a perfect first project for that. I had to do a sewn cast off for the neck hole. When I did regular binding off I could not get it over his big head, not even close.


I think he is so sweet in it. Taking these pictures this morning reminded me of back when he would sit still, back when he couldn't squirm out of the perfect position. Well there is no need to plan for action shots when 11 month old Henry is involved.


I still think he is very photogenic, see the evidence below.

Now Making the Pants

Now for a tutorial on how to use that pants pattern to make some pants. I could make Henry infinite pants using this method - so easy and fun and customizable and uses very little material. Remember this method can also be used for adults.

Materials:
Enough fabric to cut out two of your pants pattern piece
Elastic

Step 1: Lay out your fabric either folded or with right sides together (here I have wrong sides together, same thing - you just need to get two mirror image legs). And lay your pattern piece on top.


Step 2: Cut out your fabric. Make sure to include a seam allowance. And leave enough space for hemming the bottom and making a waistband on top (hopefully you included this in your pattern).

I did include a hem and waistband in my pattern but decided that with this wide wale corduroy I wanted an extra wide waistband and also decided that I would make the pants extra long and do a flipped cuff. So I left extra fabric top and bottom.


Now you have this:


Step 3: Fold each leg over right sides together to match up the inner leg seam and sew that seam up.

You can see here that I did a good job on my pattern making because the inside legs match up perfectly. Don't worry if they don't, you can fix it up when you're hemming the bottom or snip a little from the crotch.


Step 4: Put one of your legs right side out.


Now place the right-side-out-leg inside the inside-out-leg (right sides together) and line up the leg seams. You're now dealing with that curve that is the crotch of the pants. Pin it.


And sew it.

Step 5: Now take that one leg out of the other and you have a pair of pants, still want them inside out though.

Now we'll do an elastic waistband on them. Fold over the top about a half inch and iron.


Fold the top over another half inch or so and iron again.

Step 6: Now sew around the waist creating a casing for the elastic. Be sure to leave an inch unsewn/stop sewing when you are in inch away from where your started.

Step 7: Attach a safety pin to your elastic and thread it through the casing. Once you have it all through compare to another pair of elastic waist pants to decide on the length of the elastic. Sew the two ends of elastic together and cut and push it all back into the casing.


At this point you can sew up that space you left in the casing or leave it open if it's not noticeable and it doesn't bother you. You may want to replace the elastic with a longer one if the kid grows.

Step 9: Hem the bottom of the pants. (Do the fold over a quarter inch, iron, fold over another quarter inch, iron, and sew.) I have no picture for this since I didn't do this, I just used the already finished edge of my fabric. (I got the fabric from a pair of pants.)

Turn right side out and you have pants!

And here are some pictures of my Henry being cute in his new pants.