Sewing for my Baby Boy

As Oprah calls it, my Ah-Ah Moment

So all of this sewing brings me up to last week. We had the sonogram on Friday at 27.5 weeks along, and found out this new one would most definitely be a boy. At first, I think I had a little sense of loss. I really did think that I was carrying a girl and I had already given her the name Clara, after my grandmother that passed 12 years ago. But one look at my 7 year old, who was smiling from ear to ear, told me that I was so glad this was a boy and he was getting the younger brother he wanted so much! He is so thrilled at the idea of teaching his younger sibling to ride a bike, swim, go down a slide, build legos and so many more things! I hope this little guy realizes what a great older brother he will have.

So back to my ah-ah moment or an epiphany as some would call it.

Sunday morning we had our usual waffle breakfast. I cleaned up and decided to steal a few minutes on the computer. I came across a photo that my oldest son had pulled up last week and posted as the screensaver. One of my favorite photos of Noah at 22 months, wearing his Gymbo froggy tee w/matching hat and the shorts that I talked about earlier. Those shorts that I had to make myself because I couldn't snag the real ones.

The picture brought me back to all of my kids. Ever since my oldest, now 16, was about 3 we had been a Gymboree kind of family. I loved their clothing and felt giddy in their store staring at all the mix and match combinations. My daughter had worn mostly Gymboree and she loved going into the store with me and picking out matching purses and shoes. And when Noah was born, I loved shopping for a little guy. I even learned how to resell on Ebay and I think I actually made money on his things in the long run.

A sadness slowly came over me. I knew it was silly, but I couldn't help feel sorry for this little guy growing inside me. This past year has not been a good one for us, and I knew that I would not have the money to shop in Gymboree or any other trendy place, like I had done with all of our previous kids. Tears were coming down my face and I felt a dark mood come over me. But that is when I remembered those little shorts. I remembered how excited I was to create something for Noah with my own 2 hands. And even though they didn't fit him as they should have, to me they were the cutest pair of shorts ever.

Ah, ah.

My mood instantly lifted. I could sew anything my little one would need and it would all be special because it was from mama with lots of love. What could be better than that?

After all, I had the machines, more fabric than anyone could ever use and a creative brain with some talent that God had gifted me with. I didn't need big brand names with flashy price tags or sale signs that tempted me with their deals to be had. I had me, a sewing mama. I would sew everything for the new baby and not buy anything from the retail stores. Our baby could live on mama made for at least the first 365 days of his life! Really. I could sew all the cloth diapers, all of his clothing and well thankfully I even provide the milk!

So I grabbed all of my ottobre magazines and thumbed through them, marking pages as I went. I gathered my tracing supplies and began tracing cute pattern after pattern, mentally noting what a baby might need.

And then I remembered the froggy fabric. The fabric that I had purchased for Noah, but sadly didn't use until he was over his frog phase. I had saved just a little of that fabric, hoping one day to be able to use it for someone special. This was my chance. I chose another few fabrics that seemed to coordinate well and set everything on the cutting table. It was late and I could not wait to get up the next morning and begin!

Monday morning I cut everything out with a smile on my face, my family thought I was a little too happy! I started with the striped romper first, a cute stripe that was overrun from Chez Ami.

The pattern is ottobre 1/2009, #3, modified to be a lap shoulder style, so that I could omit the zipper in the back. I really don't like zippers on little baby clothing. I appliqued a cute frog that matched my fabric and added a hat too. The hat was a free tutorial, I can't find the link but it was from blessdesigns.net I think. The ottobre pattern looks to be true to size, maybe a little big. The one thing that I noted was the front crotch where the snaps go, is longer than the back. Something to change before I sew the next one.

On Tuesday, I decided to dive into the tees. I had cut 3 out using the ottobre sign tee from 3/2009. Note to all: It runs huge! I traced the size 62 with no seam allowances and it still looked like it would fit a 1 year old if not 2! I stopped and recut the pattern using the chest and length measurements from their lap tee pattern and went back to the drawing board. Luckily I was able to recut from the mess up tee,not wasting my precious froggy fabric. I then made another one in white with a frog on the front and one in black with the frog on the sleeve.

Tees sew up quickly, so I was still able to sew up a diaper from the froggy fabric. This one is cut from the free darling diapers newborn pattern, although I highly recommend purchasing her diaper unlimited pattern. Loads of diapers, great instructions, very visual, if like me pictures work for you! You can find it here and somewhere there on her website you will see the free download.

http://www.darlingdiapers.com/buyddu.html

For this diaper, I used a knit on the outter, 2 layers of knit terry for the hidden and a layer of suedecloth for the inner. I really like how it turned out and think I need to make a couple of more to match the other pieces.

On Wednesday, I set about sewing up the shorts and romper out of a cute striped seersucker. I love seersucker. Something about newborns just makes me think about jon jons and seersucker!

The jon jon is from Ottobre 3/2007 and I traced it with no seam allowance sz 62. Please note on this one, ottobre messed up when doing the facings. They cut them out of the fold which is great, however they didn't account for the seams that the outter fabric uses down the middle. So when I got to the last part and sewed the facings on they were to big for my jon jon. I made it work, but noted next time to make sure and cut them smaller to allow for the s/a on the outter.

The shorts are the baby ahoy shorts ottobre 3/2009. These sew up very quickly and I ommitted the back pockets on mine. Very cute and easy too!

The last thing I did was to sew up the terry pants from ottobre 3/2006. I don't care for these at all. I traced a sz 62 with no seam allowance, but really your baby would have to have one big bottom to fit in these. They look cute with the tee, but I think I will cross them off my list!And here it all is together. My first collection, all for my little boy. It may not seem like much, but to me, it is a new way to look on life. I have realized that sewing from the heart is one of the best gifts I can give to my new one. One day I can tell him the story about how I realized that having all the money to buy things for him would not bring me happiness. But being able to give him all of my love would bring me the greatest joy in all the world!
Now I am off to sew! I picked out another fun fabric from the shelves yesterday and dyed it a fun new color. I have already started planning in my head and can't wait to begin cutting!