More newborn fitteds

Sorry for such a long hiatus, but life is crazy busy around here! I've been working on a ton of fun projects and I'm going to do my best on catching up on blogging. The pictures I use may not be the best, but at least they'll give you an idea of what I've been doing!

In my last post, I showed off some of the newborn fitteds I sewed for Q. I forgot to mention that if you're sewing diapers for a newborn and you haven't visited Mama Kat's blog yet, you should. She reviews a ton of different newborn diaper patterns (some free, some paid), and she just had a baby of her own so she's been updating the reviews with pictures of the diapers she sewed on her baby.

That said, I've tried out a few patterns that she didn't review :) First up is the Rocket Bottoms newborn pattern. This is a free pattern that was just released in August, so of course I had to sew some up before Q outgrew it! Here's the first one, on its own and then under a newborn Proraps cover. She is about 1.5 months old and around 11 lbs in these pictures.

Outer: Woven cotton (Joann's)
Hidden layer: Bamboo fleece
Inner layer: Suedecloth
Soaker: Petal style, total of six layers of bamboo fleece, topped with suedecloth

And another... similar construction to above, except the outer woven cotton is from Walmart, and the inner is minky (Joann's Soft & Comfy fabric):

On the bum, 2.5 months old, around 12 lbs:

I really like this pattern. It is sized very similarly to the Darling DIapers newborn pattern, but I think I like the shape a little better. Q outgrew both of these fitteds at around 3 months old and 13ish lbs. I lent them to a friend who is using them on her baby, who was a month old and about 7 lbs when she got them, and she says they're working great -- so they fit a pretty good size range.

This next diaper is not technically a newborn fitted. It's a Witteybums size small.

Outer: Cotton knit. This was an old t-shirt of mine that was wayyyyyyyy too short and tight for my post-baby body :) But I thought it would make a cute diaper and it does! I chose the Witteybums hip snapping pattern because it doesn't require much fabric, which was good because the shirt was pretty tiny.
Hidden layer: Bamboo fleece
Inner layer: Cotton velour
Soaker: Snake style, 3 layers bamboo fleece/1 layer cotton velour

1.5 months old and around 11 lbs in these pictures. She is currently almost 4 months and approaching 15 lbs, and it still fits well. This is one of my absolute faves.

And finally, a Rainy Days size 1. This is designed to be a newborn + small diaper in one. The front snaps down for the newborn setting, or can be unsnapped for the small setting. I think it's a little bulky for a true newborn, but it'll certainly fit from pretty early on. She's almost 4 months old and approaching 15 lbs in this picture, and it fits well on the larger ("small") setting.

Outer: Cotton interlock
Hidden layer: Bamboo fleece
Inner layer: Cotton velour
Soaker: Petal style, total of 5 layers of bamboo fleece/1 layer cotton velour.

Newborn fitteds

"Q" made HER arrival on July 2!

I made some fitteds for her in advance of her birth. She was a homebirth baby, so I wanted some diapers that recognized that. Here's what I came up with:

The white ones are all made using the larger version of the Darling Diapers free newborn pattern (DDNB). The outer layer is cut from an old white sheet, there's a hidden layer of bamboo fleece, and the inner layer is bamboo velour (except the whale one, which has an inner layer of cotton velour). The graphics on the back are silk screened, using my newest toy, a Yudu machine. I got the Yudu back in April or May, I think, and I've done a lot of fun projects with it. I'll show off some others in future posts.

The blue diaper is made using the "Arfy" NB/S fitted pattern.The outer layer is some remnant woven cotton from Joann's, hidden layer of bamboo fleece, inner layer of cotton velour.

Note that all the diapers have woven outers, which means that they fit a smaller size range than diapers made entirely with knit/stretchy materials.

Here are some close-ups of the Arfy and one of the DDNB's. Both diapers have an umbilical cord snap-down.

They also have two rows of snaps on the diaper body but one row on the wings, so you can snap into the lower row for a smaller baby and into the upper row for a larger baby. This picture shows both diapers on the largest settings.

Action shots... well, enough action as you can get out of a newborn :)

Q was born at 9 lbs 4 oz and only dropped down to about 9 lbs even, so not a tiny newborn! But all these diapers still fit well at birth, and still fit today, at 7 weeks/11+ lbs.

This is the Arfy diaper at 3 days old on the smaller setting (on the left), and 6 days old on the larger setting (on the right):

It fits nicely underneath a newborn Proraps cover:

I'm not using most of the DDNB's, because the three in the bottom row in the picture above are all waterbirth-related... and Q ended up coming out so fast that I had no time to get in the tub! Luckily, I made those two in the top row that are just homebirth. Here is one from Q's newborn photo shoot. She's 14 days old in this picture:

(Photo copyright Chasing Fireflies Photography -- highly recommend her if you're looking for a newborn photographer in the D/FW area!)

I made most of the DDNB's with one row of snaps, but here is one with two rows of snaps. I found it hard to get the umbilical cord snapped down well with this one's waist on the tightest setting, and this doesn't give you the ability to have a lower rise setting for a smaller baby. But her umbilical cord only lasted for a few days anyway, and obviously she didn't need the lower rise setting, so if I were making these again, I think I'd do the double row of snaps on all of them. Here she is in the double-row version at 4 weeks old (under a newborn Proraps cover in the picture on the right):

And the single row version. 1 month and 1 week old, and she still fits this diaper on the smaller setting, even though obviously she no longer needs the umbilical cord snapdown:

Bottom line on these two patterns: I love them both! The Arfy pattern fits a little bit smaller, so I'd recommend that if you're anticipating a smaller baby. I'm glad I have more of the DDNBs because I think they will last longer. But they are both great patterns, and you can't beat free!

By the way, if you're wondering where I came up with the graphics for the diapers, the two general homebirth ones (top row) are both from the international homebirth symbol contest. They haven't picked a winner yet, which is fine by me, as it meant I could choose my personal favorites from all the entries!

For the waterbirth ones, I did a search on Etsy for "homebirth" and noted the graphics that I liked. Then I replicated them on my own, using images I found through web searches or in the Microsoft Office clip art gallery. I put everything together using Microsoft Publisher.

Stay tuned for many more posts on new baby sewing and crafts... when my new baby lets me get around to it :)

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.

 

Newborn diapers and big sister gifts

One of my good friends just had her second baby a few weeks ago. She's cloth diapering, so I figured I'd try out some newborn diaper patterns!

If you're planning to sew newborn diapers, you must check out the Mama Kat Diapers blog. She reviews tons of newborn diaper patterns (including many free ones) and provides pictures and great information.

I knew my friend was planning to use prefolds and covers, so I wanted to sew a few more covers for her. The first one I made uses the Bramblestitches pattern, size newborn. Here is a link to the pattern, and here is a link to the magazine article explaining how to sew it.

The outer is a poly print, from the Top Shelf Fabrics destash.

I used a "Handmade" tag with size tag on the back :)

The inner is PUL. I chose to sew it with the fabric side facing out, to be softer on tender newborn skin, but you could also sew it with the shiny side facing out if you wanted it to be wipeable. I've done that before, on a cover I sewed for Noob, and had no irritation problems.

Although this was newborn size, it turned out pretty big. I'd say it's more like a small size.

I think it would work well over a Snappi'd or pinned prefold. But I know many people like to just trifold prefolds and stick them in a cover. I didn't know which camp my friend is in, so I decided to sew her another cover that facilitated trifolding.

I settled on the Witteybums pattern. I forgot to post pictures of this, but I sewed up this pattern months ago for some diapers for Noob, and absolutely loved it. I did an all-in-two style diaper for Noob, but the pattern also has a neat option to make a cover with flaps to secure a trifolded prefold, very similar to a Flip cover.

I first made a newborn size cover. I knew from the diapers I sewed for Noob that this pattern has a very narrow crotch. Since it needs to fit over a prefold, I widened the crotch about 1/4", per the Mama Kat Diapers blog.

It turned out teeny tiny! Here it is next to a Proraps newborn cover. Noob was 8 lbs 11 oz at birth, and we used the Proraps covers for only about a week, until his umbilical cord fell off. Then we moved on to larger covers. The Witteybums newborn cover is even smaller than the Proraps! I'd say it's more like preemie size.

I'm going to keep it and see if it fits Q at all, but I decided to sew a small size cover for my friend. This time, I widened the crotch by about 1/2". Here are the two completed covers.

Insides of the covers. The outer is just a single layer of PUL, and then the flaps are PUL as well.

Here's the small cover with a standard infant (green edge) prefold trifolded inside:

Comparison shots of a Bummis Super Whisper Wrap size small (on the left) with the Bramblestitches NB cover (middle) and Witteybums small (right). The BSWW was one of my favorite covers for Noob. It fit him from when we stopped using the Proraps at 1 week old to a few months old. The Bramblestitches cover, in particular, has a very similar shape to the BSWW.

Finally, I decided to make my friend one pocket diaper to try out. This is a Rocket Bottoms step 1 diaper. I really like the idea of two-step diapers like this, especially when I'm sewing my own. The "step 1" diaper has a snap-down rise, allowing you to adjust it to fit from roughly 7-21 pounds. So it's designed to fit newborns (unlike one-size diapers, which are typically too bulky), but you don't put a ton of work into a diaper that's going to be outgrown in a few short weeks. Then there's a "step 2" that fits from roughly 18-40 lbs, so it fits even longer than the typical one-size diaper.

This was my first time sewing with loop fabric. Rather than just putting a narrow strip of aplix or touchtape on the front of the diaper, I put a big panel of loop fabric. Supposedly, this gives more adustability, since the tabs can be attached anywhere on the panel.

This was also my first time sewing with pre-cut aplix tabs, rather than cutting my own tabs from a strip of aplix. Very handy and professional-looking.

No pictures of the inner, but it's suedecloth (white butter suedecloth from Hancock's, my favorite!) with a modified welt pocket. For a soaker, I was hoping to use some of the Cotton Babies microfiber inserts that I have around the house, but they were just a little too wide. So I did three layers of heavy bamboo fleece, following the pattern included with the Rocket Bottoms pattern.

All three diapers together:

Of course, I couldn't forget the big sister! I made her a crayon wallet, with a personalized name tag on the front:

I got the fabric a while back, on clearance at Walmart! They have some cut fat quarter bundles that include contrasting fabrics. Perfect for this crayon wallet, which calls for a contrasting fabric for the pockets on the inside.

I goofed, and made the pockets for the crayons (on the left) too long. Weird, because I followed this tutorial exactly and it shows the shorter pockets, and when I made this for another friend a few months ago, I ended up with shorter crayon pockets. Oh well. It makes the wallet slightly harder to close properly, and it makes it harder to get the crayons out (you kinda have to push them out from the bottom of the pocket), but it works OK. One nice thing is that then the crayons don't "color" all over the rest of the interior of the crayon wallet.

This was all lots of fun to sew and I love how everything turned out!

Noob's nap mat

One of my earliest posts on this blog was about a nap mat that I made for Littles to take to preschool  It worked perfectly! She ended up using it until just a few months ago, when we stopped having her nap at school.

Between first trimester fatigue, the holidays, our China travels, and sewing Noob's training pants stash, I didn't have time to make a nap mat for Noob before he started preschool, so he's been sleeping on Littles' mat. But pink ballerinas aren't really "him," so I always planned to make him a new mat as soon as I had some time.

Let the record show that I originally planned to make this using a bunch of fleece from the great Joann's remnant bin sale of about a year ago, since I really need to use it up! But Noob is obsessed with trains as of late, so just before I started sewing the mat, my husband said, "Hey, why don't you do a train theme?"  That meant scrapping the remnant bin fleece I had gotten for cheap and had around the house in favor of buying expensive licensed Thomas the Tank Engine fleece (since, oddly, it's very hard to find train fleece that does not feature Thomas) -- but what can I say. My husband made me do it!

I made this in basically the same way that I did Littles' nap mat (documented extensively in the other post), with a few minor changes, which I'll get to later. The end result...

Bottom of the nap mat and straps: Royal blue fleece (I was able to use some from the great remnant bin sale here)

Top of the nap mat: Flannel

Pillowcase: Thomas the Tank Engine woven cotton. (I got this a while back as part of a bigger fabric order, figuring I'd find some use for it!) I used my serger on this, rather than doing French seams like I had to do on Littles' nap mat in my pre-serger days -- sooooooooo much faster.

Blanket: Thomas the Tank Engine fleece, from Joann's

Here's a close-up of the pillow and top of the blanket. I made the blanket a little longer than I did with Littles', so it can come up and over the pillow a bit. But I didn't attach it to the side of the nap mat at the top, so it can fold down, as shown here (and above).

Rolled up...

The light blue piece is a shoulder strap -- a new feature I added on this one. It's just a single layer of fleece, about a yard long. I thought that might be too short, but if anything, it's too long. It's very thin, by design: It lies under the mat when it's unrolled, so I didn't want there to be a big bump when Noob lay down. I don't love it, but it works OK for now, and it'll be easy enough to cut off in the future if I decide I really hate it.

Close-up of the name tag:

The light blue is fleece again. Gahhhh, this picture makes it look like the edges are really crooked -- I promise they're not that bad in person. For the tag itself, I used printable fabric that I got on clearance at Joann's a while back. It's canvas material that you can stick in your inkjet printer and print on directly. It's not supposed to be washed, so we'll see if we remember to always unsnap the tag before washing :) If not, no big deal, it's easy enough to make another one of these.

By the way, the picture is of Noob riding on a high-speed train from Shanghai to Beijing :)

Overall, not my best work. You can't really tell from the pictures, but I had serious trouble sewing straight lines, for some reason! So there are a lot of places where the mat is kinda cockeyed. But it's definitely usable, and most importantly, Noob loves it. OK, he might not look like he's loving it in these action shots, but trust me, he was super excited about his new "choo-choos."