Easter Couture for the Bibble!

I know he isn't technically due until April 10, which is 2 days after Easter. But with gestational diabetes it's very likely I won't be allowed to make it to 40 weeks. So, I'm quite sure he'll get to celebrate his first Easter this year. I found a very cute and easy newborn pants tutorial from Made by Rae. I also used her tutorial for making bunny knee pads, except that I used much smaller bunnies to fit the newborn pants.

The onesie is just a 0-3 month size white Gerber onesie with a bow tie applique. I told Michael that I plan to start a bow tie collection for Korben, and this will be his first!

I LOVE the Made by Rae newborn pants they sew up in literally about 15 minutes!  I already have two more pairs cut out, and I'm going to have to purchase her Big Butt Baby pants pattern.  Thanks Rae!

80's Nursing Gown

I finally sewed up McCall's 9437! I got this pattern quite a while ago from the lovely ladies at pattern rescue. Initially I just liked it. I love classic-style nightgowns, and there seemed to be lots of nightgown patterns available in the 80's.

This one is great because it buttons all the way down to below the waist in front, so it should make a perfect nursing gown. In fact I was just on the Baby Center boards this morning and people were saying the only good nursing gowns they have found were Laura Ashley! Well this pattern happens to be a Laura Ashley pattern that was issued back in 1985. :) 

 Here is my pattern review.

Sewing Tiny Things

And my final weekend project is a couple of wrap onesies for my little guy. I found a really great tutorial for a wrap onesie at Nefertari Creations. I was looking for something that wouldn't irritate his healing belly button when we brought him home. I love that her design criss-crosses, but still snaps at the crotch. She is very fortunate to have a cover stitch machine that gives a professional finish on the edge binding. But I found another great onesie tutorial from Naomi at Omi Creates that uses a very simple zig-zag stitch to create beautiful binding. So I used her technique on all the binding.

This first one was really just a trial run, so I used the selvage of the fabric to make the binding, since I didn't have any other knit. And I learned that I made the binding too narrow for the snaps to fit. But, it's still pretty cute! I really wanted to make him something with the fold over mitten cuffs and attached booties. Because I've been getting lots of good advice from experienced Mamas and I'm hearing that infants constantly kick off their socks and scratch themselves with their new finger nails. (Thanks Mama Kelly!) So, I altered the wrap onesie pattern to have longs legs with booties, and I used the sleeves with mitten cuffs that I found from yet another great baby tutorial created by Jessica at Running With Scissors. Not only she offers a great tutorial for sleep sacks, but she also had the genius idea to use old T-shirts for the solid knit portion of the pajamas and the binding!

This is what I plan to bring Korben home from the hospital in. I just have no idea if it'll fit him! LOL! So, I'll bring a couple other cute outfits that people have given him just in case...

Robot Night Light!

Korben has a robot night light!

I really wanted Korben to have his own special night light whether he has his own room or not. I'll always remember my night light that I had when I was little and I used it for a very long time. I had this idea of making a night light with a plastic toy robot. But toy robots are kind of collector's items and are actually pretty pricey. Then, I thought, well I can't be the only one who thought of a robot lamp, so I started looking for robot lamps for sale. These were the best I could find:

But, for $98, I thought I could come up with something better. As I was cruising around eBay looking for plastic robot coin banks, or cheap toys that I could maybe salvage and repaint, I came across these robot measuring cups!

They're available in red or white and they're hollow plastic! I decided to get the white set because I wasn't sure what color I would paint the robot. I drilled holes in all the cups and made sure they fit on the Ikea lamp I found at a thrift store for $1.50. It looked pretty good even before the paint job.

I got the the plastic lamp shade and the tiny CFL bulb at Ikea and gave the robot a fire engine red paint job. His volt meter on the front is just a download from google images that I stuck on him and drowned in clear nail polish, so it looks like it's behind glass. It looks really cool when the light is on!

Stuffed Animal Hammock

We have a toy hammock!

It's nice to free up some space in our bedroom by going vertical with stuffed animal storage. I loosely followed the cute Stuffed Animal Net Tutorial from Christie at Lemon Squeezy. But I'm always looking for resourceful ways to save money on crafty projects, so I used some alternative materials. I bought a mesh bag from Dollar Tree and took it apart for the netting. And I used 2 1/2 packages of webbing from my rainbow luggage strap stash.

The bag was really easy to take apart. The stitching on the seam and the stitching on the drawstring casing just pulled right out. Then I cut it into a triangle and serged all the edges to add a little strength.

These luggage straps are one of my favorite 99 cent items. Whenever I see them at a dollar store I stock up. I've used them for sandbags, bag straps and now for the binding on a toy hammock. I just folded it in half and sandwiched the mesh inside- no pinning required! Good thing I still have a couple packages of this stuff left for future projects!

Up next on the list of nesting to-do's: a robot lamp!