Baby Boy Sewing Projects

I love sewing for my girl. Dresses, skirts, ruffles, bows, I love it all (in any color except pink). But I did get awfully jealous of people that had little boys to sew for as well, especially when Dana and Rae put on the Celebrate the Boy series. When I found I had a little boy to sew for in August I was THRILLED and couldn't wait to get started on some little boy clothes and diapers. I still have my one size pocket diapers that I used with Bug, so I was just updating my diaper stash a little bit.

1 newborn fitted from the free Darling Diapers Unlimited pattern, 5 newborn all in 2's from the LaDiDa pattern, 4 one size pocket diapers from the LaDiDa pattern, and 1 one size pocket diaper from my own pattern.

These are all wool longies meant to be used as diaper covers. They are all made from the free Katrina longies pattern. I used wool sweaters I thrifted to make them. These first 3 pairs are newborn size, they are so itty bitty! Nate has pretty much outgrown them now, but they fit for about 2 weeks.

Size smalls

Size mediums

12 fitted diapers made from the precut kits sold here at wazoodle.com. I actually love the fit of these, although the absorbency could be a little better. I'm thinking about ordering a kit for a dozen mediums. It was really nice not to have to cut out all the pieces, they went together very quickly.

Infant Lap Tees, as seen on my tutorial. The tees started getting a little snug at a little over 10 pounds for him, perhaps his broad shoulders were part of the problem :)

Pants!! I used a pattern from an Ottobre magazine for these pants. I love how professional they look, they've got so many cute little details. They seem to be a bit big for the 0-3 month size range that they were meant for though.

Vests!! I love these adorable little vests, the second one is made out of organic bamboo fleece and is sooo soft and yummy. Again, from an Ottobre magazine pattern.

These shirts are my favorite part. I got to use all of the adorable knits that I was using in things for friends with boys and for my etsy shop. It was very satisfying to be able to use them for myself :) Also made using an Ottobre pattern.


Hopefully the outfits will fit him soon, then I can share pictures of the clothes on a baby, much more gratifying and infinitely more adorable!

Thrifty and Thriving

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I have a few new goals to work on now that I can focus on being a homemaker. I am going to start meal planning, couponing, and keeping house with FLYlady.com's help. As you may have gathered from my last post, I am a bit domestically challenged. That 50's housewife up there? Not on your life. I honestly just never had the motivation and drive (or skill base) to learn how to be a great cook, or the energy and desire to spend my weekends and evenings keeping my house in impeccable order. Now I have no excuses. 50's housewives- here I come!

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We've always been thrifty and conscious of using our money wisely, but I knew I could do better with the grocery bill if I started meal planning and couponing. So I've been learning how to make the most out of couponing, forthemommas.com has a great series on learning how to coupon. They also have weekly coupon matchups for the stores that I have in my area. I have no grandiose dreams of a "stockpile" of practically free things that I will never be able to use in all my living days or extreme couponing like spending $0.30 on hundreds of dollars worth of groceries. I just want to save as much money as I possibly can on the things we need.

Since this meal planning/couponing thing will probably be taking up a chunk of my time, I will probably be blogging about it, so I made a new category on the right side of the page for my "Thrifty and Thriving" posts.

FLYlady.com is like the "Housekeeping for Lazy Dummies" book that I never bought because I was a lazy dummy. The tools that she has on the site are so great, checklists, little tips, organizing ideas, and I love the online calendar with Cozi. I love her baby steps mentality. It keeps me from jumping in headfirst and trying to do it all right away, then getting overwhelmed and stopping everything altogether. My husband is also loving it, because the house is clean on an everyday basis, not just on sundays and wednesdays :)

Big Dreams

Big changes tend to make you look back and take stock of your life. I've been thinking about my dreams, goals, and ambitions lately and I am absolutely amazed at how much they have changed since I graduated high school eight years ago. When we took this picture, our dreams were actually relatively simple now that I think about it. We dreamed of being free of our oppressing parents, being able to pay our own bills and be self sufficient, and thought endlessly about the future and how great it would be.
Two years later we were still dreaming, now about wedding plans and me about a career in teaching that I was going to be ready to start in two more short years.
Then we were dreaming about a house and a little unexpected but much anticipated baby girl that would change our lives forever.
As each of our dreams came true another dream crept in to replace it, always pushing us forward in our life journey. I never imagined that I would ever dream of becoming a housewife. The idea of staying home all day to cook and do dishes and fold laundry and vacuum was repulsive to me. Well, repulsive is a strong word, it's really only the cooking that I detest, but that is enough! I could not think of any reason that I would trade a career that I loved to stay at home.

Then I met my little Bug, took her home, and realized that I could spend the whole day just staring at her and be completely fulfilled. I then understood why stay at home moms gave up their careers, a life outside of the home, and slaved away in the kitchen just to be with their kids. I had a taste of being a mom, and it turned out to be all that I wanted, and all that I couldn't have.
I had to keep teaching and bringing home my half of our income so that I could continue to do my part to keep the dream of owning our own home and paying our own bills alive. I had to try and learn how to balance the demands of being a teacher with the demands of motherhood. The days of early mornings and late afternoons, taking my extra work home with me, and being really great at my job were over. As were the golden days of summer when I could watch my girl learn and grow by the hour and didn't miss one special moment, newfound skill, or little smile. It took me a while to put a finger on why I wasn't happy, why I started to resent my career path, and what it would take to make things work.I had to embrace the words "Good Enough." A perfectionist to the core, I have never been happy with anything that was not my very best. I am not satisfied unless I know that I have put my best effort into the task I am working on. Balancing teaching and motherhood meant that I had to be satisfied with being good enough to get by. I started making a new dream, a dream that revolved around staying home with my babies when we had our second child.

Well, since our dream of a baby boy has come true, so has my dream of becoming a stay at home mom. I decided to take a leave of absence from teaching and see how it feels to spend a year at home. I cannot begin to describe how amazing it feels to be able to focus on being a mother, I feel like I have been able to find myself again after losing who I was in the balancing act I was trying to pull off.

Of course, our financial needs have remained the same, and I need to bring in some sort of an income, which means that I will soon become a work at home mom as I start my own home daycare. I still love working with children and teaching, and a home daycare will let me continue to teach while staying home with my babies.

For now, I get to spend my days being fulfilled by these sweet little faces :) Isn't freedom grand?

New Arrival!

Two weeks ago we welcomed a little bug into our busy life. Nathan has finally arrived and we are all very much in love with our little baby bear. Although considering that he weighed nearly 10 pounds when he was born, he doesn't seem quite so little as my 7 1/2 pound Bug was :)

It's hard to believe how much life can change in the matter of a few days. I have a whole new perspective as a mother of two beautiful children. I think finding real balance will take some time, but meanwhile, we at least have some semblance of order.

Our little girl has grown into her title of Big Sister over the course of the last two weeks. She started off a little jealous of all the mommy time that Nathan was getting when we got home from the hospital. She had her share of bedtime tantrums, big time attitudes, and outright defiance. Now that things have settled down and mommy is able to balance her time a bit more evenly we are seeing a more helpful, loving sister. She loves her "brudder" and is intensely interested in all caregiving activities that she reciprocates with her own baby dolls.

I am proud to say that I got both kids in the car and left the house just week after he was born! Something I was a little frightened of to be completely honest. We attended our local breastfeeding support group, and I found out that this kid is already back to birth weight and then some. So the middle of the night cluster feedings are paying off! We also ventured into Target to make a run for more breast pads and sour cream. Maybe adjusting to life with two kids will be easier than I thought it would be. ((knock on wood))

Infant Lap Tee Tutorial

I've been sewing a lot of things for our little boy that we're expecting in January. I am attempting to sew most of his wardrobe using my huge fabric stash. We're planning on using cloth diapers, which don't really work well with onesies. Too much bulk for a little body, and they don't work well with fitted diapers and wool covers. So long sleeve t-shirts were in order. I scoured the internet for a pattern or tutorial, but there were none to be found that were free and ready to go. I drafted a pattern for a newborn/0-3 months lap tee with some help from Dana's 90-minute shirt tutorial and I'm posting it up here for you all to use! I even included those little mitt pockets on the sleeve that can fold over to cover up their little fingers and sharp fingernails :)

Click here to access the PDF file. I am quite new to digitizing patterns, and did the best I could with those curves, I hope to learn the art of tutorial making soon. For now, you'll just have to bear with me :)

While decided what fabric to use for these shirts, I was thinking it would be really nice if I could get my hands on plain old t-shirt fabric. Then I remembered all of these t-shirt leftovers I had from making t-shirt quilts. They had been sitting in my upcycle pile for ages. The shirts were perfect for this project, and the bonus is that they already have a hem on the bottom. I hate hemming. I haven't figured out how to make a nice looking hem with a knit fabric sans coverstitch machine. *This pattern does not include a hem allowance, if you'd like to make your own hem, you can add to the bottom of the shirt pattern.*

First, cut out your pattern pieces. Note that the front and back pieces have a dotted line that should be placed on the fold of the fabric. Seam allowances have been included. Once I had cut out a shirt, I used those pieces to cut out more shirts. It was a lot faster than folding the fabric and using the paper template. I cut out the pieces using my rotary cutter.

Line the bottom of the template up with the hem of the shirt. You should be able to get both the front and back pieces on one half of the shirt you are upcycling.


You can cut the sleeves for the lap tee using the upper portion of the shirt. Fold the shirt in half as shown, then using the pattern, cut out both sleeves. It is important that if you cut out the pieces separately, that you make sure to flip the template upside down for one of the sleeves, or else you will have the mitt pockets facing opposite sides when you sew up your shirt. If you don't want to includ the mitt pockets then you can remove the square portion on the bottom of the sleeve.



The last step of cutting is the binding for the neck. I trimmed off the edge from cutting the sleeves. I use my rotary cutter and ruler to measure a strip that is 1.5" wide and runs the whole width of the shirt. Cut the strip in half.
And you've finished cutting all of your pieces!

The next step is to sew the binding on to the neckline. The length of the binding should be slightly shorter than the neckline, you want it to stretch as you're sewing it down. It gives the neckline the best shape in place of using a rib knit like the collars on t-shirts. Pin the binding to the neckline right sides together and sew down the edge using 1/4- 1/2" seam allowance. You can see phase 1 of attaching the binding completed in the bottom picture.





Phase 2 is pinning down the binding and topstitching. These directions are for my cheater version of binding. Turn the seam allowance towards the binding and fold the binding over the seam allowance. Pin in place. Turn of the shirt and topstitch on the right side of the shirt. This leaves a raw edge on the wrong side of the shirt. Trim it down and you're done with phase 2! If you want a clean finished edge on the inside, you can cut a 2" wide strip of binding and fold the unfinished edge in before topstitching. I personally feel like that is a very bulky neckline, and prefer to exclude the extra layer of the binding.


Attach the neckline for both the front and back pieces.



Now let's prep the mitts for the sleeves. Lay out the sleeve with the right side of the fabric facing up. Fold over the pocket portion of the pattern piece as shown. Using a satin stitch, sew down the edge of the pocket to the sleeve.






To sew a satin stitch, set your machine to a zig zag stitch, using a very wide stich width, and a very short stitch length.
Don't forget to change your settings back to normal after you finish both sleeves.



Now you're ready to put the shirt together!

1. Lay out the front piece in front of you.
2. Lay the back piece down next, facing away from you. The shoulders on the back piece should overlap the shoulders on the front piece as shown.
3. Lay down the sleeves, make sure that the mitt pocket side is toward the back piece.


Fold over the sleeve so that it matches the edge of the armscye on the back piece and pin it. Then math the other edge of the sleeve up with the armscye on the front piece and pin it. The shoulder pieces will overlap. Sew down that seam and trim it down. Repeat with the other sleeve.


Fold the shirt in half and pin down the sleeve and the side of the shirt. Sew down the sleeves and sides and you're finished!

Make many many more :) I think Baby has plenty of itty bitty tees now!

Vacation Crafting

We just returned from a nice and relaxing week with our family and friend in Maine. We had no cell phone service or wireless internet where we were doing some glorified camping. We did have lots of fun spending time together on the farm playing funball, cooking mountains of food for the family and friends, traveling down Coos Canyon, and driving 40 minutes to the nearest wal-mart to replace my broken crochet hook :) I didn't spend much time behind the camera, but I did snap some pictures of Natalie riding a "pony" named Dragon.

She was in 7th heaven and has been jabbering away about him ever since. Her Aunt Bri stayed with her the entire pony ride to make sure she wouldn't fall off.

It was gorgeous, and worth the trip. But I was dreading the 9 hours in the car with a 2 year old. Since we were driving through the day and we don't have a portable DVD player, I wrapped up little dollar store "surprises" to keep Natalie occupied when she got cranky. The hit of the ride was a little bag of foam stickers. It kept her occupied for at least 2 hours, she even persisted and continued when it was dark and the road was bumpy. She peeled and stuck the entire bag of "over 100" stickers and placed them on the coloring book surprise that didn't get nearly as much love. This is the result of her efforts:

And, since I can be just as cranky as a 2 year when I'm in the car for 9 hours, I had to bring somthing to occupy myself as well. I settled on crocheting more amigurumi, since I couldn't bring my sewing machine to make diapers and sleepers.

Natalie loves them both, although she misheard me when she asked what the creature on the left was. I distinctly said "hamster" and she distinctly heard "monster." So here is Monster the hamster, and my funkalicious turtle. He turned out a little wonky, but 2 year olds don't really care about that, right?

Sigh, back to real life. I head back to work for the school year on Monday, and I'm trying my best to resist writing about how much I want to stay home with my big girl all year long.

Anniversary in DC

We went to Washington, DC yesterday to get in some good quality time and celebrate 3 years of marriage. We haven't gone since field trips in high school, so of course, Natalie had never been there either. We realized once again that we are not and will never be city slickers :) It is quite a nerve wracking adventure. I'd rather have my little home in the sticks of Northern Maryland than the big, flashy city any day of the week.

We had grand plans of doing a couple museums in the first part of the day and then maybe heading to the zoo for a few hours. It did not go as planned, does anything really go as planned anymore?
We started at the National Museum of American History. I didn't take any pictures inside because most of it was too dark for my flash-less camera. There were so many interesting exhibits! Robert spent forever in the Transportation exhibit and I was enthralled by the exhibit of the First Ladies and their fantastic dresses and accessories. We spent the entire morning and some of the afternoon there!

We spent the rest of the afternoon at the National Museum of Natural History. It was mind blowing and definitely Natalie's favorite part of the trip. She got to see a tank ful of fish from the coral reef (aka Nemo & Dory from her favorite movie), a large stuffed bison, and the huge elephant in the Rotunda. I was captivated by the gems and minerals exhibit. It is so amazing to see how gems are created and the subtle differences in the structure of their atoms that makes diamonds so much harder than quartz.


Bug's quite serious "ouch!" face :)


Unfortunately, it was the kind of day where once Bug caught sight of the camera she became uncooperative and unreasonably grouchy. We have exactly zero nice pictures of us together.

Yeah, it was that kind of day for the camera. However, it was a great, long, exciting day our family.