When Life Gives you Lemons...

Make a diaper with it anyway!

Yesterday I decide to sew up the dino dudes diaper cut that I had purchased off of etsy. A very cute Michael Miller print. I was a little bummed when I received it(my fault totally) because I didn't realize I was buying a woven PUL. I like my pul a little stretchier. Anyhoo, I decided to cut it out anyway, carefully placing my pattern, paying attention to which dino was on the front and how the tabs would look. One of the colors matched my favorite microfleece, so I was even more excited, because it washes up so well and feels just heavenly(well I would imagine it does, it's not on my bum!).

Tristan was in a good mood, he was beside me in his bouncy seat just a playing and laughing. Start putting snaps across the front of my diaper, almost done with them, going well and what? could it be??? how did I??? Attach the snaps through all layers of the diaper???? Surely not! Oh, yes, that was exactly what I did.

No fear, no crying(not at this point), I just cut out another microfleece for the inside and decide this will be a night time diaper, very fluffy!

Sit down at the sewing machine, start sewing, everything is going beautifully, remember to leave a turning spot open, yep, check! We are singing Hello, Goodbye(Tristan's very favorite Beatles song!), we are both in a great mood, go to turn out the diaper and what? could it be?? how did I??? Sew the fleece to the wrong side! Making it impossible to turn out unless I want my beautiful Dino Dude pul on the inside of the diaper!!!!!

So, what do I do? What does every good seamstress do at this point? I cry! I throw a fit! I show my rear you know what!! I'm afraid I said things that no babe should here at this time in their little lives! It was bad. Yes, I am embarassed looking back.

Did I stop? Did I throw in the towel and walk away?? NOOOO! I got back onto my saddle(my sewing bench) and I decided to pull out some of the stitches, so I could get elastic into the diaper and serge it instead of turning it. Does this thrill me? Why no, because there is nothing more I detest when sewing diapers than to sew in elastic in the blind! I am NOT good at it, not one bit! And once again I threw a fit! But finally, after a few fits and crying jags, I did it! The elastic was in! Not even, mind you, but in, so that maybe it would contain poop!

Thankfully serging went well without any incident because by this point my little Tristan was tired of looking at me and hearing me cry!

So here it is. My diaper that almost wasn't, maybe wasn't meant to be, but just is! And wow can it hold some serious pee! No leaks either!!

Here is another diaper I made this morning. Not quite as exciting, but I did use the new Ottobre diaper pattern for it. Not sure that I like it, seems a little too fat in some places and not fat enough in other places. The outside is retro car PUL, with a hidden layer of cotton velour and the inside is microfleece. The soaker consists of 2 layers of bamboo fleece and topper of fleece, which when folded over give you 6 hefty layers. Tristan is sleeping now, so I will have to let you know how it goes. But judging by the thickness of his diapered bum it looked like it would hold pee for a week without needing a change(well not quite that long, but close)! We will see!

Happy Saturday!!

Robots for Tristan!

I promised myself that this would be the year to stop hoarding all of the hard to find prints and actually sew them up! What good is buying them if you don't ever use them?? They do make great eye candy on my shelves, but Tristan is so much cuter and will only be this young once! He turned 20 weeks today!

So yesterday I cut into my small piece of robot french terry from Japan. I have to admit that when I received this fabric, I was slightly dissappointed. What I thought was orange turned out to be kind of melon colored and the purple was a little much for me. So I decided to take away from those and used a beautiful turquoise velour for the main print and a green anti pill fleece for accents.

Now for the pattern, I chose 2 new ones that I had marked from Ottobre 3/2004, the autumn issue. IF I were closer to Finland, this is one of the times where I would have knocked on their door and said HELLO, did anyone test this patterN?????? I LOVE Ottobre, but this time they were way off the mark.

The pants are the sweatpants #3. I chose to go with sz 68, but wish I had stuck with a 62 instead. Tristan is right now about 17 lbs, but only about 24" in height. These were way wide, but the other measurements didn't seem too far off. I just trimmed the legs down some before putting them together. Went together fairly easy.

The sweater was #5 and can we say, I think it was meant to fit a really BIG kid! The width was WAY off, the length would have barely covered his tummy. So I kept the width, but added a big band at the bottom to bring the shirt in more. The sleeves I cut shorter, but still they are too long and must be rolled up.



I think I will sew the pants again, they turned out cute. I will just trim the pattern down some. The sweater tracing is going in the garbage. I wouldn't want to waste any fabric on this one again. For now, it's cute on. It would be great for those that need to layer clothing on their baby during the winter.


And here is a picture of my latest moon diaper. Robot pul, fleece hidden, suedecloth inner. Love these!

Mosaic Moon Diapers, My Favorite!

I posted last night about mosaic moon diapers. I had never heard of the pattern until a mama over on sewingmamas had it up for sale. I googled it and it seemed like I should give it a go, so I bought it. Boy am I glad that I did. I think it is my favorite diaper pattern so far and very easy to put together. Here is the link for the pattern in case you want to give it a go.

http://hyenacart.com/prod_details.php?vid=9&id=56561

I did change up a few things to make it better fit my style of diapering. First off, I made the back tabs a little bit longer, my guy is a chunker in case you hadn't noticed! I kept the same width throughout the rise of the diaper, but cut my inner suedecloth more narrow to allow the fabric to roll in. And lastly I added snaps in the rise of the diaper.

The first one that I did was a fitted and requires a cover. I don't know why I continue to make these. I love the fit of this one, but I like to be able to put Tristan in normal baby clothes without a cover most of the time. But for my first one it turned out great and the fit was fabulous!

Then I did a few more, PUL for the outside layer, hidden layer of fleece and the inside suedecloth. I did lay in shaped soakers, the top layer matching suedecloth, then a few layers of velour and the bottom of fleece. They work great! I have had only 1 leak in the 2 weeks that we have worn them AND it was overnight, with Tristan setting a record breaker for us, 9 hours of straight uninterrupted sleep! Love that, didn't mind the leak!

Here are a couple of pics. Ending with my little chunker! He was extremely happy the day I took this picture! Can you believe my baby boy came into the world at 5 lb 5 oz and weighed 15 lb 12 oz at his 4 month checkup! What a difference a little time has made! What can I say I grow em big!


Hope your first day of 2011 was as great as mine was!

Goodbye 2010 and Hello 2011

As I sit here tonight pondering the events of 2010, I am grateful for all of life's changes this year. We welcomed our newest(and last baby) into our family while at the same time grieving the year anniversary of my dad's passing. Life and death, you can't have one without the other, one brings so much joy and the other so much pain and sorrow. I hope that my little guy, Tristan David will grow up to be as great a man as his namesake, Grandpa David. And I find myself hoping all of the time, that like the song, there are holes in the floor of Heaven and my daddy is looking down on all of his kids and grandbabies, grinning ear to ear as he watches over them. I try not to take my loved ones for granted and let them know how much I love them on a weekly if not daily basis. My #1 goal this year, LOVE more and LAUGH often with my family.

I know that I have not been a great blogger lately, I am sorry for that. My #2 goal this year is to blog more often. I still find the time to sew, but haven't found the time to blog about my sewing. Tristan is still very fussy, colic is not our friend right now. He is right over 4 months, so I am praying that time does heal all wounds and he grows out of the pain he is in now. Thankfully he does great at night time, so I am able to sleep, a really sanity saver! I have so many projects that I am working on, so many new fabrics and ideas! I can't wait to share them in 2011!

And my #3 goal this year, lose the rest of my weight and stay healthy! I do not want to be a stick, but I do want to live long enough to see my great grand children one day! I know that means that my diet needs to get even better! My walking trail needs to get longer too! I am down 50 lbs of prebirth weight, yes I was fluffy before becoming pregnant! 30 more and I will be doing the happy dance!! I know that I can do it, I just have to give myself a big push for the New Year!

And now I am off to watch the Rockin' New Years show with my 7 yr old, Noah. He is super excited about bringing in the New year, he has yet to stay up for one! But this year he says is his year!

I hope that everyone has a very blessed New Year full of family and good friends! Lots of sewing too!

And because I can't resist here is Tristan at 4 months. He is wearing an AI2 that I made him from the mosaic moon diaper pattern(I will post more soon), love this one. Love the PUL print that I bought off of etsy too, I wish I had more! Oh and the beanie I crocheted him before he was born. He is my blue eyed chunk of love! Happy New Year everyone!