Choo-choo's

As previously noted, Noob is obsessed with trains these days. And he is also potty training. The combination of these two things makes for a lot of fun at bedtime, when he wants to wear his Thomas the Tank Engine underwear ("choo-choo's") to bed, fights getting a diaper on, and then asks to go potty (requiring full diaper removal) a bunch of times before he actually goes to sleep.

To alleviate this problem, I decided to sew him some Thomas training pants for overnights.

I wanted to use the same Trimsies Trainer pattern that I used for his training pants for school (which have worked out well and are still in use at naptime, BTW). But I also really wanted to use some Zorb II quadfold inserts that I made a long time ago, because Zorb II has been the only fabric I've been able to use consistently overnight without stink issues. The Trimsies Trainer pattern is so trim that I can't use normal inserts with it, and I don't have any Zorb II left to make Trimsies inserts with it.

Instead, I pulled out my old standby, the Darling Diapers Unlimited pattern. It has a side snap option, and many people say that any side snapping diaper can be pulled up/down like training pants.

The end result...

Pattern: Darling Diapers Unlimited, side snapping. I added about an inch to the rise of the medium size to make this more of a medium/large.
Outer: Thomas the Tank Engine woven cotton (eBay seller)
Hidden layer and wings: Old t-shirt
Inner layer: Cotton velour

No PUL, so this is a fitted diaper, requiring a cover. I made it a pocket fitted so I could adjust the absorbency as needed. I bet this would catch a pee on its own as a daytime trainer, but for nights, I stuff it with one of those Zorb II quadfolds.

Unfortunately, I don't love the fit of the side snapping version of this pattern. (I think it would work better if I had put in front elastic. I meant to, but forgot. Oops.) And the wings are not really stretchy enough to facilitate pulling it up/down. But it's perfectly functional as a diaper, just not so much as a trainer. And Noob prefers it to his other diapers, so, good enough!

 

I also made some Thomas fleece longies out of the leftover fleece from making Noob's nap mat. Katrina pattern, size large. Unfortunately, I wasn't paying attention when I cut these out, and I made probably the worst cut that I possibly could have... the only pictures of Thomas ended up all crammed into the butt area on the back, and one side was upside down. Oops. But again, perfectly functional, and Noob loves these longies and insists on putting them on whenever he sees them. Kids this age are so forgiving of sewing goofs.

 

Finally, not train related, but I sewed up some fleece shorties out of Army fleece. (I've mentioned this before, but my husband is former Army.) Katrina pattern, size large again. I actually paid attention while cutting this time :) and these turned out well.

Front:

Back:

Tag:

The inseam is a little long. I've left these unhemmed for now, but I think I might go ahead and hem them a bit. I don't want to lose the "Army Strong" on the right leg, though.

 

Fleece: Are you ready for some football?

 

Ah, fleece. If you've been following my blog from the beginning, you know that "fleece" was the most-used tag in my tag cloud for quite a while. Then summer in Texas hit... and fleece is not exactly my fabric of choice after 64 days (and counting) of temperatures over 100 degrees.

But we've been preparing our house to put it on the market, which has entailed a major clean-up of my sewing room. And oh my goodness, I have a lot of fleece. Mostly from the great Joann's remnant bin sale late last year. So, my goal over the next few months is to sew a lot of it up.

With football season right around the corner, I figured I'd start with some football-themed items. Starting with the fleece shorties shown above on Noob. Here's the back:

As I've mentioned previously, I'm an Eagles fan and Hubby is a Cowboys fan. Not surprisingly, Cowboys fabric is easy to find here in Dallas, but I had to order this Eagles fleece online. Well worth it, though. I love how these shorties turned out.

I put in a "hammock-style" extra layer in the wetzone, which allows me to use these directly over non-waterproof diapers, such as prefolds. The extra layer is just a strip of fleece, to provide extra protection from wetness. It makes for really easy diaper changes when we're hanging out at home. Here's what the inside looks like:

I didn't make this shirt -- my parents bought it for Noob. But it makes for a nice set!

Of course, Hubby would never let me get away with sewing Eagles stuff but not Cowboys stuff. And anyway, I have Cowboys fleece coming out my ears. So I sewed not one but two Cowboys soakers. Again, these are intended for use directly over a non-waterproof diaper, such as a prefold -- but they are also just cute and fun for wearing around the house!

I used embroidered fleece on the first one and it turned out OK, but I don't really like the partial star on the back:

 

The second one turned out just about perfect! I thought I had some action shots of Noob wearing it, but I guess not. Too bad, because it's so cute! And that is a high compliment coming from an Eagles fan :)

 

Finally, a soaker that Hubby and I can both approve of:

 

A couple of specifics for these projects:

• I used the Katrina longies pattern to make the shorties, and the Katrina soaker pattern for fleece to make the soakers. They are all size large.
• As I mentioned, I did a hammock-style extra layer in the shorties. For the soakers, I used an extra wetzone layer.
• I tried one of the soakers a few nights ago over a fitted diaper, and it held up great!
• The contrasting waistbands and leg cuffs all came from fleece from Joann's remnants bin. The remnants bin is a perfect place to look for contrasting fleece, because you only need a small amount (about 4") to make waistbands/leg cuffs. So it's easy to find for super-cheap in the remnants bin.
• These sew up fast. Less than an hour from cutting to done. And I am not a fast sewer, by any stretch of the imagination.

I'm sure there will be many more fleece projects to come, so stay tuned :)

More wool shorties

Yeah, yeah, another pair of wool shorties. I've almost got enough to call it good for the summer months -- well, unless Noob outgrows the smalls over the course of the summer. Which is likely. At which point, you'll be subjected to more of these posts as I sew up mediums. Sorry.

Anyway, I got the sweater that I used for this pair during the same thrift store run where I got the one that I used for the last pair. I think this one cost $1.50 -- expensive, I know! :) But here's why I was willing to pay that much. For starters, I love the color. It's very denim-y, so I think it will work nicely with shirts that I'd normally pair with jeans. Also, I love the wool. I mentioned previously that lambswool is probably my favorite type of wool for diaper covers. My second-favorite type of wool is cashmere. It's not quite as thick as lambswool and tends to stretch out easily, but it is soooooo soft! Well, guess what this sweater was made out of? 95% lambswool/5% cashmere! It is soft like cashmere, but feels like it will hold up better like lambswool. It's also a nice weight for hot Texas summers, not as thick/hot as lambswool but more substantial than cashmere.

As always, I used the Katrina pattern, size small. I used the ribbing from the bottom of the sweater for the waistband, and cut it one size smaller since it's so stretchy.

I love how these turned out. I think they'll see a lot of use this summer!

What can you get for $1?

Hubby and I do most of our shopping for kids' clothes at thrift stores. There are a couple of awesome ones near our house, and it makes no sense to pay $10 or more for a piece of clothing that will be worn for just a few months. So, I did some shopping for the kids a few weeks ago, and stopped by the men's sweater rack while I was there to see if there were any good items for upcycling into diaper covers. I know, I know, I should really limit myself to sewing out of my massive box of sweaters that I got for $10, but... well, what can I say. I'm not that disciplined. And anyway, the sweater rack is pretty hit or miss, so it's by no means a certainty that I'll find anything good when I look.

Well, turns out that it was a "hit" day. I picked up three nice wool sweaters for a grand total of $3.50.

Here is the first one. It was priced at $4, but since it was sale day at the thrift store, it was only $1. (Yeah, that's right, I'm so cheap that I don't even shop thrift stores: I shop sale days at thrift stores.)

It's from American Eagle Outfitters. 100% lambswool, which is one of my very favorite types of wool for upcycling, because it is usually soft but still nice and thick. Men's size extra large, which meant that even after I felted it slightly (by washing on warm and then drying on high) to make it a little thicker, it was still plenty big.

So, I got to cutting and sewing. And after a few hours, I had this:

Top left - Soaker, Katrina pattern size medium, made out of the body of the sweater.

Bottom left - Shorties, Katrina pattern size small, made out of the bottom of the sweater's body.

Right - Longies, Katrina pattern size medium, made out of the sweater sleeves.

Now for some action shots! The soaker is a little big on Noob, but not too bad:

By the way, I cheated on this one :) I didn't have enough fabric in the sweater for an extra wetzone layer, so I cut one out of a coat (from my $10 box of sweaters... so I did use it!). It's super thick, so this soaker should be pretty bulletproof. Here's a shot of the inside with the extra layer:

Here are the shorties. They are a little long, because I cut them the same length as the other pair of shorties I made, forgetting that I wouldn't be hemming these ones :) (I used the finished edge of the bottom of the sweater instead.)

And the longies. Obviously, Noob won't have any use for these until next winter, so I made them pretty big:

Not bad for a buck.

Wool shorties

It's starting to heat up down here in Texas, and Noob's wool longies are getting to be a little too toasty. So during yesterday's naptime, I sewed up a pair of wool shorties. Same idea, just a shorter length.

I used another one of the wool sweaters out of my huge box that I bought for $10. This one is a little scratchier than the one I used for the longies, but not too bad. It looks black in this picture, but it's actually dark blue in color.

As always, I used the free Katrina pattern. Size small with about a 3" inseam after hemming.

For the waistband, I used the ribbing from the bottom of the sweater, in a single layer (rather than the double layer that the pattern calls for). The ribbing is really stretchy, so I made the waistband one size smaller than the body of the shorties, and it's perfect. It also has that contrasting gray trim, which looks really cute!

Have I mentioned how much I love this pattern? It is so easy and versatile.

Yes, even more baby gifts!

Hubby knows about as many people having babies as I do. One of his co-workers has a newborn at home, and his boss's wife is due any day. They both live in Boise and are big Boise State fans, so Hubby asked me if I could make some things for their babies.

Hubby neglected to tell me that the Boise State colors are bright blue and bright orange :)

Remember how I said in my last post that the Lacrosse Girl fabric wasn't as hot pink as it might appear on your monitor? Yeah. This fabric really is just as bright as it appears on your monitor!

Hubby assures me that his friends' wives are Boise State fans, too. I hope so, because women have to stick together, and I don't want to force some poor new mom to dress her child in orange and blue!

Anyway, aside from the fabric, nothing new from a sewing perspective. For the big boss, I made a sleep sack (McCall's 4236), fleece pants (Katrina pattern), a "soft shirt" out of a onesie, and fleece booties (Mini Mocs). Since spring is just around the corner, everything is 6-12 month size, for wearing next winter.

It's hard to read, but the fleece booties say "Boise State" on the heels:

I debated over what to use for the soles. I considered using the faux suede or the anti-slip sole material that I've used on Mini Mocs for Noob and Littles. But I eventually decided that it would be cute to do more Boise State fleece on the soles, and that this would work fine since the baby likely won't be walking when he wears them (and therefore won't need a grippier sole). So, here's what the bottoms look like:

Here is another view of the onesie sleeves. The onesie is another one of the ones I picked up on clearance at Babies R Us.

Since I have so many onesies and so much fabric, I made a second onesie in 0-3 month size that just has the "Boise State" logo on it. Just so Hubby's boss doesn't have to wait quite so long to dress his baby in blue and orange!

For Hubby's co-worker, I just did a "soft shirt" onesie and a pair of fleece pants:

I'm glad I was able to finish all that without being blinded by the colors :)

My first paid project :)

My friend T is expecting her second baby this month, and is planning to cloth diaper, so she asked if she could pay me to make her some wet/dry bags for her to send with her baby to daycare, like the ones I made for Noob's sitter. I warned her that I'm really not very good at sewing, but she was still up for it!

So, off I went to Joann's. I took a bunch of pictures of fabric and sent them to T, for her to choose what she wanted. She picked out a really cute dots print for the exterior, and I found some coordinating fabric for the lining of the wet and dry pockets. The dark blue is broadcloth (cotton) for the dry pocket, and the turquoise is PUL for the wet pocket:

Right before I started cutting and sewing, the PUL delaminated on my own wet/dry bags :( Basically, PUL is made by laminating a waterproof layer of plastic-y material to polyester fabric. When it delaminates, the waterproof layer separates from the fabric. This definitely isn't good, but even worse is if you then throw it in the dryer, the laminate melts slightly and sticks to itself, often causing a hole when you try to separate it later.

Not good if you want your bag to stay waterproof! And once it happens, there's nothing you can do about it.

Luckily, I was able to return the PUL I had bought from Joann's (yeah, I am not using Joann's PUL ever again!) and order some from fabric.com instead. Hopefully it will hold up better...

Another problem I had with my own wet/dry bags is that on one of them, the fabric pulled through the stitching on one edge of the dry pocket, probably because my stitching was so close to the edge of the fabric. Anyway, this created a small hole. In the dry pocket, a hole is mostly a cosmetic problem, but it is certainly one I wanted to avoid on T's bags. So I sewed hers with a 1/2" seam allowance, rather than the 1/4" seam allowance that I used on my own. That gave me a slightly larger margin for error when sewing. I was also very careful to match up edges of all of the layers of fabric, to ensure a decent-sized seam allowance on each layer. This was tricky for the exterior layers, since there are four separate layers that need to match up (the two exterior layers plus the two layers making up the lining of the dry pocket), but I checked carefully after sewing and it looked like I did a good job.

Finally, I did a better job on the handles than I did on either of my bags. I cut the handles out of one piece of the dots fabric and one piece of the dark blue broadcloth. Each piece was roughly 12" x 4". I sewed the two pieces together, turned them inside out, folded in half, and topstitched the entire thing. The result is a handle that matches the bag perfectly and is not at all flimsy. As with my own bags, I added a snap on the handle, so that it can either hang (e.g. from a doorknob) or snap around something (like the handle of a stroller).

It was a lot of work... I spent a lot longer on these than I did on my own bags, really trying to get them as close to perfect as I could for T. I love how they turned out :)

I used light blue zippers, which look really nice with the blue dots:

Unzipped, showing the interior layers:

When I was done, I had some leftover scraps. I also had a 7" zipper that I purchased ages ago and never used. So I decided to surprise T by making a small wetbag for wipes.

After sewing so many wet/dry bags, making a simple wetbag was sooooooo easy :) Here's a shot of the inside, showing that same turquoise PUL.

Then I figured, well, what is a wipes bag without wipes? I have a yard of flannel that I purchased almost a year ago for a project that I ended up abandoning, so I decided to use it to make some wipes. Since the wipes bag I made is pretty narrow (I typically use a 9" zipper for my wipes bags, rather than 7"), I made the wipes narrow as well. I cut rectangles of flannel approximately 4.5" x 8.5". This size fits well in the wipes bag and also fits perfectly in an old disposable wipes container (which is what I use at home to store my cloth wipes). I put aside 10 wipes for T, but kept a few for myself, too :) Hey, Noob has had a runny nose for the last week or two (teething, I think?) and cloth wipes make excellent Kleenex's, so I like having lots on hand!

While I was working on all this, I got to talking to T about the wonders of wool as a diaper cover. She bought one of Noob's newborn wool sets from me to try out, and I figured I'd throw in a bonus pair of recycled wool longies. The legs came from the sleeves of a sweater in that big box of wool sweaters I bought for cheap, and the waistband came from an old turtleneck sweater of mine that no longer fits, as it has become a little too felted over the years. I used the Katrina pattern (same one I used for Noob's longies) in newborn size.

These look really itty-bitty, so I'm not sure they'll even fit T's baby. But I was just glad to get rid of a little more fabric out of my stash!

T got it all yesterday and she says she loves it! I hope she's not just being nice!

Sewing for a paying customer is a little stressful for me, but it was a good experience overall. I might do it again in the future if the opportunity presents itself!