Still Waiting

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Although I’m not officially “due” for another 2 weeks, I am getting a little tired of being pregnant. But, I got another baby outfit done. It’s much more fun to sew than to clean or do laundry. I got this pretty yellow seersucker fabric from the new fabric store in town and knew it would be perfect for another market skirt. This time, I added the pocket and appliqued a coordinating onesie.

I love how it turned out and might even make a seersucker skirt for me. The elastic waist will be perfect 🙂 For the appliqued bow, I just searched for a picture of a hair bow, found one I liked and traced it. I will be making a few to put in my etsy shop one of these days. I also made another ruffle bum onesie but I can’t decide what to put on the front, it just feels a little plain. Now all I need is the baby to model these outfits.


A few random projects

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I’m trying to get things done before the baby comes so there are a few random projects I’ve been working on. I have a pile of old shirts waiting to be refashioned so I made a baby skirt out of one of them. It was relatively easy but next time I won’t put quite so many strips into the bottom ruffle. It was a little too full. But all I did was cut off the bottom half of the t-shirt the desired length, plus about 1 inch to fold over for the waistband. I used the bottom hem of the shirt so I didn’t even have to hem it. I used my serger for a rolled hem on the ruffle and also stretched it while sewing to make a lettuce edge. Gathered then sewed the ruffle, folded over a waistband, inserted elastic, and ta-da, baby skirt. Ok, so maybe time-wise it would have been better to just buy the skirt I saw on clearance at Target but this used up a shirt and next time it should go a little faster.

I made new curtains for the kids’ bedroom since they are now sharing and the pink flowery ones weren’t going to work for Ian. I used Sweetwater’s Make Life Silly fabric.

I also made another Undercover Crate to go in our living room for toy storage. I need to make one more but I ran out of muslin. The liner turned out a little loose, so I’m going to increase the seam allowance to 1/2″. I used another Sweetwater fabric, from their Authentic line. Both fabrics I got from my favorite little online fabric shop, Fabritopia.


Market Skirts

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Continuing on my baby sewing kick, I made matching Market Skirts for A and her soon-to-be baby sister. I love the Red Letter Day print from Lizzy House and of course it had to be pink for Allison. I also got the orange version of this but decided to make both skirts the pink. Now I just need to come up with something sort of coordinating for brother. I don’t think pink geese would work and he would look like a crazy old man if I made pants or something from the orange. So, still thinking about it. I will actually try to get a picture of Allison wearing the skirt and the goal is to have family pictures after the baby comes.

I modified the length on the big skirt, since A is 4 and has long legs. I left the waistband the same size, increased the print length to 12″ and the bottom band to 5″. The bottom was a little long, so I should have only made it 4″. I left the width of each tier the same. For the approximate newborn size, I shrank it both length and width-wise. For a 14″ waist, I cut 2 each at: waistband was 11″x2.5″, middle band 18″x5″, bottom band 21″x2″. I also did the construction a little differently. For the bottom band, I cut two pieces 21″x4″, sewed them together at the sides and folded them in half  to get the double thickness like the tutorial suggests. That way, I didn’t have to hem it. (I did this with the big skirt, too, but ended up hemming it since it was a little long). I also sewed the bands into circles and gathered them that way. It’s not any harder to gather in a round than in a straight line and this way your side seams match a little better and the bottom folded over band doesn’t have an exposed seam.

I only did the pockets on the big skirt, but I might try to shrink down the pattern for baby skirt and only put on one. I love how they turned out.