Embellished baby pants.

Are you getting sick of baby pants yet? Good! Me either. I could seriously make these till they came out my ears. Now that I understand how pants are put together (thanks to this brilliant tutorial by Dana at Made), I literally cant stop making them. This pair was made from an old pair of wide-leg trousers. They were a really cute pair of pants, until I decided to clean with bleach while wearing them. I used the existing hem and they came together easily and quickly.

They were however, kind of plain and since I had to find something to cover those pink spots, I added this raw edged hem with buttons. Jack finds these pants just as acceptable as all the others.

Good enough for sitting up and reading a book anyhow (his latest skill). Seriously, is there anything much cuter than a 9 month old "reading"?

"Baby Train Conductor" or "Jack's Hat Continued"

Though fun and pretty cute there were a couple of problems with the Imperial Baby hat. Firstly, it didnt cover Jack's ears. Since the whole point of this hat experiment is to make something that will work as a sun cover, that just wont do. This time I made the main part of the hat an inch wider and I think that for Jack's head size, this new measurement will work just fine. The other problem I had with the first attempt was the brim. I wanted something a bit more... baseball capish?
Note: Please excuse yogurt face McDoogles below. Sometimes you do what you have to do to get a non-blurry baby picture, like feeding him spoonfulls of yum and then quickly scooting backward on your butt while madly snapping pictures before he thinks to start crawling all over you again.

I tried making the whole thing a bit smaller and slightly curving the edge that actually connects to the hat. Its better, but not quite right yet. Its a bit exagerated still. Hence the train conductor comparison. See?

I feel like this is a less awesome family costume theme idea. Bruce would probably look pretty hot in a bandana and overalls though.
My mission continues...

Unintentional Imperial Officers Cap (for babies).

We all know how sun-sensitive a baby's noggin is and how important it is to protect said noggin in a stylish way. It seems the preferred method of summer baby head covering is a bucket hat. It's not my fave. I mean, pretty much anything you put on a baby is cute, but I thought I could do better. I wanted to make a couple of light weight caps that would keep Jack's delicate skin safe AND look awesome. Here is the first attempt.

I was pretty pleased with how it turned out, but something kept nagging at me. It looked familiar somehow. It struck me this evening while going through the pictures I took for this post. Jack looks a little bit like Veers...

Completely unintentional but as anyone who knows me would say, a happy accident. Perhaps I have the beginnings of the best family Halloween costume theme ever?

Some people have expressed an interest in this hat. Would anyone bother reading a tutorial or downloading a pattern if I made one?

Star spangled tank?

OOf, this week has gotten away from me! I have been very busy doing "house" stuff. Grocery shopping, filing a giant pile of paperwork that's been glaring at me for months, tidying up things (a rats nest of power cords and battery chargers for example) that have regrettably become part of my home decor. These things needed to be addressed, but ignoring all my crafty inclinations left me a little wild. Instead of working on any number of UFOs or starting on something that's been on my to-do list, I made this.

I've been wanting to do something for the 4th but I wanted it to be easy and quick so I might actually get it done on time this year. Inspiration struck today when I thought about all these boring white old navy tanks I have in combination with Dana's kick ass sprinkle technique. It came together over nap time. I put the tank on and marked the spots where I thought stars should go with safety pins. Then I just traced a couple of stars onto the tank with a fabric marker and sewed away. You can still see the fabric marker here. I couldn't wait to wash before I drug Bruce into the living room to take photos.

Easy-peasey! I think this tank will look smadorable with the red shorts I'm dying to make now that I have a working pattern. Keep your fingers crossed I manage to get those done in a reasonable amount of time.

Mmmmm Bread...and some standing too.

Since Jack has been eating solid food, Bruce and I have been making an effort to eat more naturally. We've been mindful of lables and have focused on cutting things out of our diet that have too many ingredients, especially things we can't pronounce. The easiest way to make sure we know what is going into our boddies, is to make things ourselves. I've always wanted to be a bread baker, and have tried several times with minimal success. This perticular attempt was quite delicious though, and with a few tweaks may become a staple in our house. Recipe Here

The other thing thats been going on around here of late is a whole lot of this.

Jack sure loves to stand, and he's pulling up on EVERYTHING. I can't leave him to sit with a toy long enough to get a cup of coffee anymore. He crawls over to something, anything and pratices his new skill. Its exhausting but hilarious and we are both fully enjoying it. Since Jack and I dont have apointments or errands every day, we sometimes (often) spend the day in our pjs. I thought I could make the standing a bit easier and slightly less comical if I were to help out his little slippery feet on our hardwood floors.

I got some puff paint at Michaels and dotted up the bottoms of the feet of his pj's. Hopefully this gives my little man some traction and though I do delight in seeing a smiling baby do the splits, he's probably going to appreciate this wardrobe update.

I made shorts!

Yes, I did. And I'm very puffed up and proud of myself. Ever since I started making pants for Jack, theres been a little seed in my brain about shorts for myself. I have kind of a weird shape. I've always been thick wasted with skinny legs. Pants that fit my waist are saggy in the butt and pants that look great on my rear end wont button up. Its super annoying and something that's always had me interested in sewing for myself. Well with my new understanding of pant construction, I decided to draft a pattern and make a muslin today. It was so flipping easy I don't know what I was waiting for. I did mis-measure the waist at first pass. I tried them on the first time and couldn't pull them past mid thigh. But with a cheap, busy quilting cotton like this, it was an easy fix. I just added a couple of panels to the sides.

Its barely noticeable. The waist is elastic. This is not only very comfy and forgiving on my post partum body but also way less scary than a zipper. I just made shorts that I might actually wear, gimmie a break! The version I've had in my head is cuffed so I tried that out here. Figured I may as well nail down the details while I was messing around. It worked out really well. I just added 4 inches to the hem before cutting the fabric and hemmed the shorts with 3" pressed under. Then I just folded 2.5" back up and pressed again.

I really dig the little button tabby detail that seems to be everywhere right now, so I found some cute contrasty buttons and sewed these arrow bits. I'm super lazy so there's no button hole or anything. I just looped the arrow over the cuff and sewed the button on through all 3 layers. The entire project took 1 nap and one mum mum cracker (about 2 hours). That includes drafting the pattern, realizing I had messed up, unpicking 2 hems, and resewing up the sides. I am really excited to adjust the pattern and try it out on some better fabric. I have some red cotton that I can actually hear singing to me from the next room, ooo and some gray canvasey stuff. The possibilities are endless. I leave you for now with this snap of Jack. Lookit those eyes ladies! Ahhh my beautiful little boy. Its been a very good day.

Update: Squeee! These shorts have been featured on Sew Woodsy and I'm feeling all fuzzy about it. It's a fantastic blog, head on over and check it out!

A cover for my baby's butt

I was browsing craft blogs as I'm apt to do, and came across this tutorial on Made. I love Dana's tutorials and this one was no exception. So easy to follow, and the results are fantastic. I added the skull applique to the butt because well, I have to add embellishments to everything.


I think these will be a an awesome addition to Jack's summer wardrobe. So much classier than just a diaper don't you think?