Still more baby gifts

As I mentioned previously, I had an insane number of friends expecting babies. I think there have been four new arrivals just since the beginning of June! Now I have a few months off before another mini-boom coming in December/January...

Anyway, I've been working on the stuff above for quite a while, and finally got around to finishing it up. It's for Hubby's friend D and his wife, who just welcomed their first baby, a little girl. D's wife went to Oklahoma University (OU), hence the fabric choice :)

Nothing super exciting here, all stuff I've done before...

• Sleep sack: McCall's 4236, size medium
• Pants: Simplicity 2291, size small
• Onesie: From the Babies R Us clearance back in March, with one of the fleece squares sewn onto it.

Yes, it felt pretty funny sewing a bunch of fleece with temperatures well over 100 degrees these days, but that's why I made everything in 6-12 month size!

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 :)

New baby gifts

I have an obscene number of friends expecting babies right now. Seriously, it’s out of control... seems like half my Facebook friends list is pregnant or married to someone who is! Maybe I need to defriend Hubby on Facebook, so that his wife doesn’t turn up pregnant :) Anyway, it means I’ve been busy in my sewing room, working on gifts for all the new arrivals!

First up was yet another sleep sack using McCall's 4236.

I made this one for B, who is one of my very best friends in the whole world. He was the one who first introduced Hubby and me, nearly 9 years ago! Sadly, he lives in Los Angeles now, so I don't see him anywhere near as often as I'd like. But he is a huge basketball fan, so when I saw this fabric (in the Joann's remnant bin, of course), I immediately thought of him.

He and his wife are expecting their second son later this month, so that gave me a good excuse to use up the fabric. I figured that it's already too warm for fleece sleep sacks in Los Angeles, so I made it in a size medium (6-12 months), so they can hopefully use it next winter.

More baby gifts coming in future posts...

Another fleece sleep sack

This one is made out of the same McCall's 4236 pattern that I've used to make sleep sacks in the past. I made it with long sleeves this time, as sometimes Noob doesn't have any clean long sleeve shirts at bedtime. So I think it'll be handy to have a sleep sack that he could wear over short sleeve shirts, even in winter. But to be honest, the sleeves were a pain to sew on, and they limit how long Noob will be able to use the sleep sack (hard to believe, but we probably won't be using heat anymore two months from now...) so if I do any more in this size, I'll probably do sleeveless again.

The fabric is Joann's blizzard fleece, in an ice hockey pattern -- Hubby plays ice hockey! I don't love the print, but it was in the remnants bin during the great 75% off remnants sale, when blizzard fleece was already on sale for 50% off. So I got four feet of it for about two dollars. I usually avoid blizzard fleece for cloth diapering stuff because it's not as stretchy as anti-pill fleece, making it tougher to fit over diapers, but for a sleep sack, stretch isn't too important.

Noob is sleeping in it tonight and it fits him well.

Fleece sleep sack (again)

The nights are getting chilly here, and the fleece sleep sack that I sewed for Noob a few weeks ago is working out beautifully. On a recent trip to Joann's, I saw some Texas A&M University fleece in the remnant bin. One of our friends is a proud Aggie and she has a baby boy just a few months younger than Noob, so I got the idea to sew another sleep sack for them.

It took some careful planning to line up the plaid correctly across the zipper in the front, but I think I did a pretty decent job. This shot also shows how the zipper ends about an inch or two below the neckline, so that it doesn't jab into the baby's throat:

Hopefully this keeps little D warm this winter! I plan to sew up a few more of these for Noob, because they are super easy to sew and handy to have around.

Fleece sleep sack: I finally finished a project!

This is one of the projects I mentioned that I've been working on in my last post. I finally finished! It's a fleece sleep sack to help keep Noob warm this winter.

The pattern is McCall's 4236. It's great! Just two pattern pieces to cut out, and then it's pretty easy to sew. This was one of my first attempts sewing a zipper, as well as finished armholes/neckholes -- both are little tricky at first, but I'm getting the hang of them.

This is a size medium. I compared it to a size medium Halo SleepSack, and it appears to be practically the same size/shape.

I made it out of navy fleece just because that was the first piece of fleece I pulled out of my stash that had enough yardage :) But as I started sewing it up, I thought it might look cute with some Dallas Cowboys decoration on it. The football helmet applique is from some Dallas Cowboys fleece that I've been using to make pajama pants for the kids. It was easy to sew on, and I think it makes the sleep sack look less plain.

I finished this after Noob went to sleep tonight, so he'll have to wait till tomorrow to wear it. But it definitely suits him better than the hand-me-down sleep sack he's been wearing :)