Yep, still pregnant and trying to stay busy until it’s time. Little bit really needed a diaper bag. I bought the fabric for it quite some time ago (Bloom and Grow by Riley Blake), but I hadn’t found just the right pattern. I know I could have made one up–I actually started to a few times, but sometimes, you just want someone else to do all the thinking for you. Yesterday, I happened on the Ladybug Diaper Bag pattern from Sew Spoiled and fell in love!

The pattern is a downloadable pdf, so I was able to get started right away. I spent most of the day working on it yesterday. (I actually thought maybe all the up and down, standing to sitting, that making an involved bag requires might help get labor started. It didn’t work.) I purchased my copy of the pattern from the website YouCanMakeThis.com. They have a 20% off code that is good through today: SUPERSALE.

I did make a few modifications, not because there was anything wrong with the pattern, but more to make the bag exactly what I wanted. I’ll detail those as I go.

Here’s the front. The biggest modification that I made was taking 3″ off of the width. I tend to be pretty minimalistic in the things that I pack in the diaper bag, so a slightly smaller one works well for us (yes, even with cloth diapers). I also brought the magnetic snap on the front down about an inch. I wanted it to close a little more tightly than the one in the picture on the website.

And, the back. I did two elasticized pockets here as the pattern recommends.

Here’s another modification that was really easy to make–a little “hidden” pocket on one of the side panels for my cell phone.

Inside, I added a divider to make it a mom & baby bag. Here’s the mom side with a couple of pockets for business cards, a pen, etc. I left out the zippered pocket, but now I wish I’d maybe put it in the divider.

Here’s baby’s side with three elasticized pockets instead of the two that the pattern calls for.

The pattern was really easy to follow and understand. The pictures of each step were great! If you’ve purchased any of my patterns, you probably already know how much I appreciate pictures of each step. I think they make getting a great result from a pattern so much easier.

A few of my favorite things about the pattern itself: The look of the front of the bag is so unique and really attractive. The small flap closure makes getting in and out of the bag quick and easy, but still provides some protection for the contents inside. The adjustable strap is awesome for going from shoulder to stroller–you could even add some length to the strap to make it long enough to go across your body, if you like to wear your bags that way. Adding iron-on interfacing to both the inner and outer pieces (although it does take awhile to iron it on) makes a really nice finished bag that stands up on it’s own (a great feature in a diaper bag).

Since this will be my “purse” for awhile after baby arrives, I just had to add a matching wallet and key fob. The wallet pattern can be found at Wired Up Designs.

I’m so excited about using my new bag. I think I’ll work on adding a few more accessories while I wait for baby . . . a changing pad, a wet bag . . . hmmm . . . what else?

 

 

Ah, the waiting . . . It’s interesting that when I reflect on the things that I’ve learned in life, I see how much God has taught me about waiting, yet I still find it hard to be patient and trust His timing. I am so ready for baby to be here, but so far, there’s not much sign that says it’ll be happening right away. While I wait, I’m relaxing a lot and really enjoying my new-found love of knitting! It’s so nice to have a hobby that I can do while I have my feet up (in hopes that I might actually have ankles again someday).

 

 

 

This little sock monkey set was inspired by the sweater in the picture below. I didn’t knit the sweater–it was actually a gift from a very sweet friend. When it arrived in my mail, I knew right away that I wanted to make a whole set to go with it!

I started with embroidering a sock monkey on a newborn-size laptee (from my Little One Layette pattern). Then I added a pair of knitted Picky Pants longies in newborn and, of course, every little sock monkey needs a hat!

The longies, hat and sweater were all knit with Patons Classic Wool which is readily available at craft stores like Michaels and Joann, and is a great wool to start with if you’re just learning to knit!

Then there’s the Eliott Elephant set. It’s entirely possible that I’ve been daydreaming about this set since I found out that we’re having a new little boy. The elephant fabric is so cute! I made this one in size 0-3 months with small Picky Pants, so it might not fit right away. The yarn was custom-dyed by the very talented Tasha of Eva Baby Designs on BFL.

I had plenty of the coordinating Eliott striped knit, so I also made a matching hat and a pair of knit pants (from my LOL pattern, as well).

Now, I just need this baby boy to come out so he can try out these clothes that I’ve been working so hard to create just for him! I know, patience, mama–baby will come when it’s time . . .

  

A nine-year-old little boy from the local church where we’ve worshipped for the last several years passed away a little over a week ago. His name was Montana. Although we weren’t close friends with the family, we worshipped with them and our children went to Sunday School together, and my heart breaks for them. I can’t even begin to imagine what a difficult time this is for them. Montana had a four-year-old little brother who’s left to grow up without his big brother now, and I really felt the leading to craft something for him–something that might bring him a little comfort.

  
I’ve posted before about the I-Spy Quilt that I made for Jamie and how much he loves it. Collecting all those different blocks left me with quite the collection of blocks leftover, and I knew right away that would be the perfect thing.

The finished quilt measures about 40″ X 50″. A good lap-quilt or nap-quilt size for a preschooler. I like that the I-Spy blocks make it fun, too. In fact, Jamie and I played “Can you find the race car, dinosaur, football . . . ” with it before I threw it in the wash when it was all finished.

I left out batting and backed it with minkee. I love the way this makes a nice drag-around-the-house quilt that’s easy and compact to fold, but still feels soft and warm.

I also added a label to the back to remind Dooley of how very much he’s loved by family and friends.

I am so excited that so many of you have so many questions about cloth-diapering! I’m working on an information post for you–hopefully, I’ll have it up in a few days.

In the meantime, I wanted to share how much fun we had putting together this swap that was hosted on one of my favorite boards: Diaper Sewing Divas. (That’s a great place to go, by the way, to learn all about sewing your own cloth diapers.) In this particular swap, the kids (with moms help) were supposed to put together Valentine’s Day goodies for the children in the family we were partnered with. My three youngest participated by putting together this package for a little girl who is almost two. We started with a little messenger bag and matching zippered bags that I sewed up using tutorials from here on my blog.

Then we added homemade coloring books. The kids each picked out coloring pages that we found online to make up a coloring book from each one of them. I used Chez Beeper Bebe’s Coloring Book Tutorial to put these together. (I did leave off the book-binding tape, though, because we didn’t have any on hand.)


Coloring books need crayons, of course, so we followed the Cool Chunky Crayon Tutorial at Whimsy Love to recycle our old broken crayons into new chunky ones!


Finally, we mixed up some of our favorite Kool-Aid playdough to send along with some multi-sized heart cookie cutters.


Of course, we couldn’t leave mom out, so we sent along some fun things for her, too!

All packaged up and ready to go!

Only a few days after we sent our package, our swap package arrived!

There was a little arguing over who got to open the package.

Somehow, Jamie won!

Each one of the kids got an awesome drawstring bag. (Allen’s has already been put to good use holding his Nerf darts!) Each bag was filled with all sorts of goodies–candy, bubbles, socks, pencils, pop-up balloons, ceramics to paint and lots more!

And, there were fuzzy socks for me and a pile of cloth diapers and a blanket for baby! Such a fun swap to give and to receive!

It’s getting close to time to welcome our new little one! We love using cloth diapers, and I especially enjoy sewing them myself. I’ve actually been working on diapers since not long after we found out that we were expecting. There are so many patterns available now, and they all have advantages. I thought I’d show off our newborn stash now, and then, as we try out each pattern on baby, I’ll report back with feedback.

I tried to make our newborn diapers from prints that are gender neutral so that they can be used again for another baby.

I also used knit fabrics to make all of these. The stretch in the fabric will help them to fit longer than if I used woven fabrics.

In case you’re counting, that makes a total of 40 newborn fitted diapers and 12 covers. I also have quite a few smalls finished, but I’ll save those for another post. Aren’t these adorable, though? If you’ve never tried cloth, you really should give a go. I promise they’re much easier to use and care for than you think they are!

Our homeschool group had a field trip to CiCi’s Pizza yesterday, and the kids had a great time. There’s just something about making your own pizza that makes it taste soooo good! I couldn’t resist showing off some pictures of the fun.

I recently finished up my first two blocks for the Fresh Comfort Virtual Quilting Bee. Katie asked for blocks designed around anything related to trees. The first block I designed myself using traditional flying geese blocks for the trees and piecing together the remaining parts of the block to resemble tree trunk, sky and grass.

For the second block, I used a the Maple Leaf tutorial at Quilter’s Cache.

As I was sewing these, it occurred to me that I’d love to have copies of each of the blocks that I sew for the bee to make a quilt to keep. So, using the same patterns, I sewed up these two quilt blocks with fabric from my stash:

I’ve really needed to sew up a new bag for me for quite some time. My old one had seen it’s better days. I love being able to say, “I made it myself!” when people comment on my bags, but, um, I didn’t want to say that about my old one anymore. Before I started on my new bag, I did a little browsing and brainstorming for what exactly I wanted. Once I had my list ready, I went to work!

The Shade Garden fabric by Michelle Engel Bencsko just makes me smile, so I used the last of what I had in my stash to piece together this bag. I really liked the look of the “tied” handles that are popular right now, but it took some work for me to figure out how to actually make them look nice. I also added an elastic and fabric-covered button closure that is perfect for keeping things contained but still allows for quick access–it looks really cute, too!

The inside is much like my old bag with a middle divider and a divided side pocket where I can keep my cell phone, a pen or pencil and my favorite lipgloss.

Of course, I had to add a matching wallet and key fob, too.

I’m so happy with how the whole set turned out! When oldest daughter saw it, she asked me to sew one up for her right away. I think she might get one for her birthday in a few months instead. Shhhh . . .

Just one more Christmas post before I move on to other things. It has become a tradition for me to make our kids new Christmas pajamas every year. I love having the kids in matching pjs on Christmas morning, and since my kids range in age from almost 20 to 2, I really have no choice, but to make them! I used several different patterns this year, some of my own and some purchased.

For my youngest two boys, I used my Patrick Curved Raglan top. I did modify Jamie’s to add cuffs to the arms. For Jamie’s pants, I used my AJ Bottoms pattern with cuffs added the same way I did the shirt. Allen’s and Samantha’s pants were both just traced from a ready-to-wear pair of PJ pants. (Knit pajama pants are very forgiving and tracing a pair that you know fits well works great!) Samantha’s top is my Emmy pattern which is her favorite.

For Morgan and Sean, I used Kwik Sew 3144. Morgan asked for a long nightshirt, and Sean wanted the v-neck style top. (I did modify the top a bit to make it more masculine for Sean. I just made the sleeves a little wider and longer and squared off the bottom and hemmed it.)

I always try to get the tops done as early as possible so the kids can get as much wear as possible out of them. They wear them with jeans to Christmas parties, get-togethers and, of course, to visit with Santa.

Morgan asked me to make a new twin-size quilt this year for her bed in her college dorm. The flip-flop quilt that I made her many years ago has seen it’s better days, and she needed something a little more grown up. She loves the beach and the ocean, and her favorite colors are blue and green. I set out hunting for the perfect fabric many months ago and had about given up when I ran across Hoffman’s Beach Babes fabric. I knew it was just right, but because it was a popular, discontinued fabric, it was hard to find. Fabrics by the Sea came to my rescue! I saw that they had a few sets of the various fabrics, so I contacted the owner, Barb, and she worked with me to put together exactly what I needed to get this quilt done! (She even included great goodies in the package–a quilted coaster kit and salt water taffy!)

Morgan loves her new quilt, and I was even able to squeeze enough extra squares out of the leftovers to piece together a pillow sham and toss pillow for her.

I made a new twin-size quilt for Sean last year, but he needed a smaller, easy to drag around lapquilt. Like most teenage boys, he loves football, and I was able to find some really cool realistic cotton football prints to put this quilt together for him.

I like to make my lapquilts without batting and back them with minky. It makes for a nice warm, comfy quilt that folds up compactly, so it’s great for travel. I think Sean really likes his!

Now that Christmas is over, I’m looking forward to our new baby arriving in about a month, and doing lots of baby sewing. Pictures are coming!