My mother was a sewer. Growing up, she made most of our clothes--I remember matching strawberry-print sundresses made for me and my two sisters particularly well--and all of our Halloween costumes. I understood the principles of sewing, but never had much interest in actually sewing myself because my mom just did it better. (Being a perfectionist has it price since I never wanted to try something new if I thought I'd be bad at it.) She did force me to help her sew my pioneer skirt and matching bonnet for our Stake's pioneer-themed Youth Conference when I was 14. But it wasn't until my junior year of high school, when I was faced with an open spot for an elective class, that I decided that sewing might be fun. I took two clothing classes in which I made everything from pillows to simple pajamas pants and skirts to dresses and even a fully lined jacket. I really enjoyed my clothing classes and my mom even gave me her ancient Singer sewing machine (okay, it was really only from the 70s) which weighed approximately 50 pounds. But college derailed my sewing endeavors. I never learned how to use my mom's old machine and grew tired of lugging it from one apartment to the next so I gave it to my sister (a move I still regret, especially since my sister doesn't sew). So I didn't sew for nearly ten years. I had been thinking about buying a simple machine and picking up the hobby again right around the time that Kimberly announced the quilt group. That was all the impetus I needed (that, and Dongdaemun) to start me on my new sewing craze. I love having a creative outlet and I really enjoy making things for my family and others to enjoy.
Zara has two cousins (and 3 second cousins) who were born within a month of her. My brother and his wife welcomed their first baby--a girl--on August 24th. Zara followed a week later on August 31st and my sister had her third child--her second boy--on September 21st. (And my other sister just announced that she's expecting her second next year.) So for Christmas this year I decided to make everyone a diaper and wipes case. I used a tutorial from Make It and Love It, one of my favorite crafty sites. It's not the best tutorial, but now that I've made so many of these things, I can whip them out in under an hour. I love quick and easy projects that can be finished in a day.
These don't use a lot of fabric so they're a simple project to do with your scraps or other fun fabrics that you're not quite sure what to do with yet. I made the one on the right side for myself. I just couldn't help myself.
The insides. I actually started working on these quite some time ago (I did the one in the center during the summer) but I had just never finished them. But I was motivated after our last meeting, and so I finished them all last week and they've now been mailed off to their intended recipients.Well, I had so much fun finishing that project (finally!) that I decided I wanted to do another quick and easy project. And since I've got this really adorable little baby now, who's suddenly very interested in grabbing and holding onto things and shoving them into her mouth, I wanted to do some simple toys she could play with.
So I turned to Make It and Love It once again and found tutorials for cloth blocks and cloth teething rings.
I made 6 inch, 5 inch, 4 inch, and 3 inch blocks using lots of fun, vibrant fabrics. The 3 and 4 inch blocks are easier for Zara to hold and play with now.
Here she is with her 3-inch block clutched tightly in her hands on its way to her mouth. Next up, the cloth baby rings. These were another pretty quick project, but I think I stuffed them with just a little too much fabric because they were kinda a pain to sew together.
Luckily, black fabric hides a multitude of sins.
And Zara certainly doesn't seem to mind my less-than-perfect sewing projects.
She's just that awesome. Also, she really will stick anything into her mouth. At least these are easy to wash.
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