Well, I'm afraid I haven't posted here in about 3 months. In that time I have:
- Interviewed for a job
- Got the job (teaching full time - yay!)
- Discovered I was pregnant with baby #2
- Worked until I couldn't sleep at above job
- Enrolled my son in daycare
- Un-enrolled my son from daycare to stay home with papa
- Missed my boys terribly
What I have NOT done:
- any making of any kind.
Actually, that's not true. We're trying to make most of our Christmas presents for family this year, so I have made a huge batch of mustard, some of my brother's infused salts, various chocolate barks, and an absolutely delicious batch of almond roca. Hopefully more to come today. And seeing as today is the first day of Christmas holidays for me, I wanted to jump back into it!!
Here's what I made today:
Nursing pads!!
Cost: $0
(just cut up a receiving blanket I barely used with baby #1. This kid was so big, none of the commercial ones were any good to me, since he wasn't a spitter and I couldn't swaddle him in these. Had to get my mom to make special big ones!)
What I did:
1) Fold blanket in half. Trace out 8 circles ( really 16 because of the fold) using a 4-5 inch bowl as a guide. Cut out.
2) Fold in half and sew a little dart in each one (from the center to one edge, about 15 mm at the widest point of the dart). Cut off excess material from dart.
3) Layer 4 circles together, wrong sides facing in, and serge around the outside.
4) That's it!
This project seriously took me half an hour to complete and now I have 2 sets of nursing pads that I made from something I wouldn't have used anyway!! I still have lots of fabric left in that first receiving blanket, so I'll probably make more, but I figured I should ease myself back into the whole crafting/making thing. Wouldn't want to overdo it... And besides, there are episodes of Glee to be caught up on ;)
Showing posts with label baby stuff. Show all posts
Showing posts with label baby stuff. Show all posts
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Made It: Toddler Yoga Pants
Cruising the Salvation Army this week, I found several sections of semi-awesome to awesome fabrics in their stash there. I think I brought home about 6 or 7 rolls of varying lengths of fabric.One of the less fantastico, but more practical selections was a very lightweight heather grey jersey knit. Perfect for some sweet yoga pants for a tiny boy!
I had this tutorial on the backburner, just waiting for when I had some appropriate fabric, and now is the time. They really are as easy as she says they are. The only possibly tricky part is measuring the waist of a child who has just recently learned how to suck his tummy in and doesn't like the cold measuring tape on his bare sensitive skin!
I think these pants had a total of 5 seams to stitch. (I had a coordinating thread in my serger so I serged the edges, but it's probably not necessary.)
1) Making sure the stretch goes side-to-side instead of up and down, use a pair of pants that currently fits to trace a rough pattern of the legs. EXCEPT for these pants, just do a straight wide leg. Don't taper!
Like so:
2) Measure and cut waistband. This will be a rectangle of 10 inches tall by (waist + 1 inch) wide. The waist measurement is the stretchy way. For Charlie this was 18 + 1 = 19 inches. This was the tricky measuring, because the first rectangle I cut was only 16 inches and barely fit around his waist!
3) Fold in half, right sides together, and sew the waist band on the small (10 inch) side.
4) Right sides together, sew each leg from crotch down.
5) This part is also slightly tricky. Put one leg inside out and one leg right side out. Slip the right side out leg inside the inside out leg, and match up the "U" shapes. I'm sorry if these instructions are confusing and mangled. Pin, check Samster Mommy's instructions again to see if they're clearer, then sew.
6) Waistband time! Fold the rectangular tube so that it is only 5 inches tall, right side out, and pin to the top of the pants (which you have also turned right side out), lining up the open unfolded end of the rectangle with the top opening of the pants. Sew!
Honestly, I thought I would be able to explain it better than that. But it's late and I'm feeling like my brain is a bit more mushy than usual. Here are some pics of Charlie modeling with a frog book and a cookie cutter.
Something extra awesome about these pants: You could definitely make something VERY similar for yourself or another big person if you had more fabric and were so inclined. Easy peasy!
Cost breakdown: $2.49 for 1m of fabric (I suppose I'm assuming you have the machine to pull this off, and thread is negligible. You could probably hand sew it if you had to...)
I had this tutorial on the backburner, just waiting for when I had some appropriate fabric, and now is the time. They really are as easy as she says they are. The only possibly tricky part is measuring the waist of a child who has just recently learned how to suck his tummy in and doesn't like the cold measuring tape on his bare sensitive skin!
I think these pants had a total of 5 seams to stitch. (I had a coordinating thread in my serger so I serged the edges, but it's probably not necessary.)
1) Making sure the stretch goes side-to-side instead of up and down, use a pair of pants that currently fits to trace a rough pattern of the legs. EXCEPT for these pants, just do a straight wide leg. Don't taper!
Like so:
2) Measure and cut waistband. This will be a rectangle of 10 inches tall by (waist + 1 inch) wide. The waist measurement is the stretchy way. For Charlie this was 18 + 1 = 19 inches. This was the tricky measuring, because the first rectangle I cut was only 16 inches and barely fit around his waist!
3) Fold in half, right sides together, and sew the waist band on the small (10 inch) side.
4) Right sides together, sew each leg from crotch down.
5) This part is also slightly tricky. Put one leg inside out and one leg right side out. Slip the right side out leg inside the inside out leg, and match up the "U" shapes. I'm sorry if these instructions are confusing and mangled. Pin, check Samster Mommy's instructions again to see if they're clearer, then sew.
6) Waistband time! Fold the rectangular tube so that it is only 5 inches tall, right side out, and pin to the top of the pants (which you have also turned right side out), lining up the open unfolded end of the rectangle with the top opening of the pants. Sew!
Honestly, I thought I would be able to explain it better than that. But it's late and I'm feeling like my brain is a bit more mushy than usual. Here are some pics of Charlie modeling with a frog book and a cookie cutter.
Something extra awesome about these pants: You could definitely make something VERY similar for yourself or another big person if you had more fabric and were so inclined. Easy peasy!
Cost breakdown: $2.49 for 1m of fabric (I suppose I'm assuming you have the machine to pull this off, and thread is negligible. You could probably hand sew it if you had to...)
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Week 9: Bubble Bath Flop
(March 1, 2011)
As suggested by a friend of mine, I set out this week to make a nice bubble bath for Charlie's evening baths. Something gentle with natural ingredients and soothing and bubbly!
I found this recipe several times over, so decided it must be a good one:
1 cup liquid castile soap
3/4 cup water
1 tsp. glycerin
6 drops essential oil
For a soothing sleepytime bath, I selected Lavender EO. I mixed it up, and put it in a nice pump bottle and got excited about using it, but it doesn't work!!
The only thing that happened is that it turned the bath water very milky and slightly lavender-scented. I even added just straight soap and it didn't bubble! Maybe I need more glycerin?
This was a pretty disappointing project for us... Though the bath was nicely soapy and smelly and it did the job getting a small body clean, the whole point of a bubble bath is the BUBBLES!
I'll probably continue to tinker and search for better recipes to make this work.
 |
| Pants helps to stir it up |
Cost breakdown: Castile soap $5.00 + glycerin $0.30 + EO (varies depending on type of oil) = between $5.50 and $6.00 for just under 2 cups of bubble bath. That doesn't work.
On the plus side, apparently this liquid Dr. Bronner's soap can be used for a multitude of things, so at least I can use the rest for other projects along the way. And the "bubble" bath still smells quite nice. Maybe it'll just be cloud-bath from now on...
 |
| Cloudy bath water! |
Friday, February 18, 2011
Week 7: Sam's Birthday
(February 17, 2011)
Yesterday was my little nephew Sam's 2nd birthday. I wanted to make something fun and imaginative and versatile for a wonderful little boy who has just about anything a boy could want. Beanbags!
I don't think kids should be limited by their gender in what colours are appropriate for them. So Sam gets bright orange and pink beanbags as well as green and blue.
I also made Sam a little sticker book (because my little one has recently discovered that he LOVES stickers, and I thought Sam might too...) but it didn't turn out as well as I wanted it to. If you want some instructions, this is the page I followed. I will tell you, hot glue never turns out the way I want it to! That, and I don't think wax paper is the same thing as freezer paper.
Happy birthday Sam!
Yesterday was my little nephew Sam's 2nd birthday. I wanted to make something fun and imaginative and versatile for a wonderful little boy who has just about anything a boy could want. Beanbags!
I don't think kids should be limited by their gender in what colours are appropriate for them. So Sam gets bright orange and pink beanbags as well as green and blue.
I also made Sam a little sticker book (because my little one has recently discovered that he LOVES stickers, and I thought Sam might too...) but it didn't turn out as well as I wanted it to. If you want some instructions, this is the page I followed. I will tell you, hot glue never turns out the way I want it to! That, and I don't think wax paper is the same thing as freezer paper.
Happy birthday Sam!
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Made It: Cloth Baby Wipes
I just did this! So, so easy! Really, the most difficult part and the reason that I was procrastinating this whole project was digging around in our tiny storage area to find our baby washcloths. I had put away all the "baby" stuff and when we moved here it got shoved to the back of the closet/crawlspace.
I basically just did exactly what this lady suggested, minus the tea tree oil. I may try that if I end up getting some in the future, but for now, we make do! Also, the feminist breeder has a pop-up method, but mine are already rolled. Next time!
Got a bunch of baby washcloths? Got a disposable wipes container? Vinegar? Water??? You too can have your very own cloth baby wipes, minus all the nasty chemicals in conventional wipes! The thing that makes this project so gosh-darned sensible is that we're already using cloth diapers. Now with the cloth wipes, we just stick everything in the diaper pail together, instead of sorting out the disposable wipe for garbage.
(image taken from www.cubitsorganics.com)
I basically just did exactly what this lady suggested, minus the tea tree oil. I may try that if I end up getting some in the future, but for now, we make do! Also, the feminist breeder has a pop-up method, but mine are already rolled. Next time!
Got a bunch of baby washcloths? Got a disposable wipes container? Vinegar? Water??? You too can have your very own cloth baby wipes, minus all the nasty chemicals in conventional wipes! The thing that makes this project so gosh-darned sensible is that we're already using cloth diapers. Now with the cloth wipes, we just stick everything in the diaper pail together, instead of sorting out the disposable wipe for garbage.
(image taken from www.cubitsorganics.com)
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