A little late and a little early

I'm a little late in showing the Easter shirts I made for the kids on Easter morning, but here they are. I hadn't planned on making anything this year, but when I woke up that morning I decided that they needed something after all so I made them all matching shirts. I love how these look together, just like little Easter eggs. :)

Then I'm a little early with the baby outfits, since we don't have a baby on the way yet. Hopefully we'll be expecting again by the end of the year. For some reason I have the assumption that we'll have another boy. I have 16 outfits made so far, and 14 of them are for a baby boy.

Ottobre 3-08 Baby Romper Sew-Along

Hopefully this all makes sense, and helps you make this outfit.

Cut out all pieces, and mark snap placements according to pattern.

There are 2 different front pieces for this pattern. Both are pictured here, though a little backwards, because the one on the right side, with the crotch seam (which I'll call pattern piece "B"), will actually be on the left side and overlap the other piece, without the crotch seam(which I'll call pattern piece "A").

This piece is the one that was on the right in the upper picture (piece B), the one with the crotch seam. Make sure that you remember NOT to sew this shoulder seam until AFTER you're done binding. I learned the hard way the first time I made this, so I wrote it on the pattern, and I also mark this shoulder with a pin so I can't sew it. :)

Sew the back pieces together.

Sew the shoulder seam of pattern piece A (the one without the crotch seam) to the back.

Sew on the sleeve.
*I had already done the binding on both sleeves*

Line up crotch pieces of pattern piece B and back.

Sew together.

Now, sew the side seam closed on the side that you've attached the sleeve to.

Starting at the shoulder on pattern piece B that you haven't sewn together, apply binding to right side of fabric, and go all the way around until you get the shoulder on the back of the outfit.

Fold binding over and topstitch down.

Sew together that shoulder seam now, then sew on sleeve and bind the other leg. Then sew the side seam. (my picture doesn't show the side seam sewn, because I forgot to take a pic of that step)

Now I take 3/4" twill, tape fold it in half, then half again, so it's now 4 layers thick. I sew on a piece to the wrong side of the fabric at each spot where the snaps will go on pattern piece A. This way I won't tear the fabric when unsnapping.

I also use twill tape that I sew onto the seam allowance, as shown, so that I can apply snaps to the inside of outfit and don't have to use ties as the pattern originally calls for. Just make sure that the twill tape sticks out enough so that you can apply a snap to it.

Here's what it looks like on the inside with the snaps.

And here's the outside, all finished up.

More baby sewing!

Here's a couple more baby boy outfits that I finished up yesterday. All the patterns are from Ottobre. I'm really hoping that someone I know has a little boy, so I can send these to a good home. Either that or our family needs to grow. :)

I was so proud of the dye job I did on the brown in this set. It matches those brown monsters perfectly!

Dipes, dipes and more dipes!

20 diapers in 2 days. I know that may not seem like a lot to some, but wow, I don't think I'll try to do that many again any time soon. Here's 20 size small Very Baby fitted dipes, 10 of them are side snap (my preference) and 10 front snap (my DH's preference). I decided to just go with a natural bamboo interlock for the outer layer that way they're gender neutral, since we don't know if we'll need them for a boy or a girl, or both. :)

Inner layer is OBV, and absorbent layers are bamboo fleece.

Here's a closeup of one of the side snap dipes.
And a closeup of a front snap dipe. I added extra snaps to these after I took the picture, so that I can cross over the front wings to make the waist smaller.

Baby sewing!

I absolutely *love* sewing baby stuff. There's something that is incredibly satisfying about it for me. So I was very excited when I learned that a very dear friend of mine in Texas had another little boy, and also to receive a invitation to a baby shower for an acquaintance.

These first 2 outfits are for my friend in Texas (I'm really hoping that I actually get to the PO and mail these before her baby outgrows them). The dinos outfit is from the New Conceptions Baby Essentials pattern, and the romper is KS 3090.

These 2 outfits are for tomorrow's baby shower. The robots outfit is from the New Conceptions Baby Essentials pattern, and the gown is KS 3090.

Here are some wool diaper covers that I sewed up today also. I've, at times, thought about breaking into the WAHM cloth diaper business, and so I like to tinker around with sewing dipes and covers. Maybe one day I'll feel confident enough to actually go into business, but until then I'll just keep sewing these cute little things that I have no need for. :)

I got the pattern for these covers from Katrina's blog. After I traced the NB size I thought that there was no way they were going to fit a baby because they looked sooo small, but there they are next to a NB diaper, and they fit over it perfectly. There's even a picture showing how well they fit over the dipe. The pattern is so easy and goes together very well, I will definitely be making more of them.

Sew along for binding in the flat...

Here's a tutorial for how to do binding in the flat.

Here my tank top front and back pieces with one shoulder seam sewn together. (when you're sewing in the flat you only sew one seam together before attaching the binding)

Before sewing one the binding I adjust my stitch width on my serger to the widest setting.


Take your binding strip and lay it right sides together on top of the neckline for the shirt.
I leave my binding strip overlapping a little bit so that it's easier for my coverstitch machine to grab it later on.

Start serging it on, gently stretching the binding as you sew.

Here it is once it's all serged on.

Turn the binding strip over so that it's now covering the threads.

And turn it down once more so that it's now looped to the inside of the shirt.

Now coverstitch (or top stitch however you normally do) the binding in place.

Now take your other shoulder seam and serge it together.

Stitch that seam down, I always do it so that the seam in pointing towards the back of the shirt.

Here's what it looks like once it's stitched down.

And here's what it looks like when you're done.
(Obviously the whole shirt isn't done, but the neck binding is.)
If you're binding the arms (like I will be because this is a tank top) then apply the binding to the arm holes now, coverstitch it down, and serge up the side seams.

A tutorial for a V-neck shirt

***Update: I've posted a newer version of a v-neck shirt here***

Hopefully this is helpful to someone. My sister asked me to show her how to do a v-neck and I thought I'd go ahead and post it here. This may not be the best or easiest way for everyone, but it's the way I do it, and I love the results.

First thing I do is cut my neckband and iron it in half lengthwise.
Then overlap the ends to form your "v" shape.

I then sew the edges down, so I don't have to worry about them shifting while I'm actually sewing this piece onto the shirt.

Here is the stitching.

I then trim off the excess fabric from the corners.

Here is the front of the shirt with the band right under it. The angles are completely the opposite, so you'll have to pin this together to keep everything in place.

Here is mine pinned in place.

And here's what it looks like form the opposite side.

Then I serge the band in place.

Stopping when I get to the corner and turning it.

A picture of what it looks like on the inside once the band in serged on.

Then you flip it and topstitch it.

Here's the final product.