penn

38 weeks

I'm inching ever closer to the arrival of our baby. I'm now 38 weeks pregnant, so it's one of those "maybe tomorrow; maybe in two weeks" sort of waiting games. I'm pretty sure I have at least a week to go; I haven't felt many contractions or any sort of indication that baby is ready to come out. The baby is getting crowded, but that just means I can regularly feel a little baby bum pushing out of my belly.

Here's a photo of Matt and I together (outside that midwestern staple, Perkins) on Sunday. That's a darn comfy maternity hoody I'm wearing.

Something cool for this week is that I did some really pregnant sewing. I sewed a crib sheet! We have an extra thick mattress, and the crib sheets a friend handed on just didn't fit correctly. Rather than waste time trying to order sheets to see if they'd fit, I decided to take matters into my own hand. I followed this tutorial from Imperfect Homemaking. One lesson learned: I needed to stretch the elastic tighter at the start. I figured that out pretty quickly, so my sheets turned out fine, but I'll make tighter elastic on the next sets. Also, wonderful bonus: I don't have to struggle to get these sheets on, since they're perfectly fitted to the mattress thanks to her method for creating a "pattern."

I love the fabric pattern. I couldn't find it online, but it's a nursery pattern from JoAnn Fabrics.

A little out of place, but I want to share one last picture. This is from an end-of-the-year party at our local bowling alley. I was 35.5 weeks pregnant here. It's one of a few pictures I have with Matt, and it shows better than the picture above.

Baby burp clothes

Last night, I got back in the sewing saddle. One of the amazing perks of my school is that we have an entire center designed to encourage student creativity, design, and awesomeness. Part of that is a sewing center. I'd share their cool names, but I think that would make everything too google-friendly. In the sewing center, we have commercial sewing machines (so nice) and a serger. I'd never used a serger before, and the machines made me a little nervous, so I headed in to get some lessons from the assistant director of the center.

I'm hoping to make several things for our baby, including a bunch of reusable wipes, burp clothes, and whatever else strikes my fancy. I'd ultimately like to make a quilt, and I'm slowly working my way up to that. Last night, I also learned how to use the rotary cutter.

Here's the finished product. After learning one, the second one went way quicker!

I pinned fabric to cover the thicker, center part of a pre-made cloth diaper. I sewed down the long edges, and then I surged the short edges. Sewing the short edges would also work fine as well, but I figured I'd take advantage of the fun serger.

Serging!

Here's one of the burp clothes all spread out.

I'm really looking forward to what I can make going forward. These tools are smooth and so easy to use. I was nervous before going in, and the commercial sewing machines make everything so much easier than my home machine. I think I might need to make another fabric store run, because my little stash will go quick.

Felt food fun

I sometimes struggle what to get my nieces and nephew for Christmas. I don't want to inundate them with toys. Sparkly pink clothing items are usually the key for one niece, but I like to give them something a little more.

Enter felt food. They have a play kitchen they all love (ages 1, 5, and 7), but they don't have a lot of food for it. After Thanksgiving dinner, I busted out the felt and embroidery floss. The kids were here, so I actually got some input from them about what they'd like. Note: this has not diminished the gift in the least. Rather, they seem extra thrilled to get to participate and ask for certain items.

Today, I made a broccoli floret, a fried egg, and two cookies. One cookie is below (my niece's sprinkled pink sugar cookie). Not pictured is my nephew's cookie. He was still embroidering a happy face on it while I took the pictures. Both my 5 year old niece and my 7 year old nephew learned a bit of sewing this weekend, and their mom is excited to try at home.

The best part is that my nephew had a wonderful creative idea to put the fried egg into an eggshell so he can "crack" the egg. Genius!

Here is the felt food. The broccoli floret is the first thing I did, and it turned out giant. I think that's the whole head of broccoli. I'm going to experiment with different patterns to see if I can do better next time.

I'm hooked now. This was easy enough to make, and I was able to do so while watching TV.

There's lots of free tutorials and patterns. I free-handed the eggs and the sugar cookies, but I follow a tutorial for broccoli. Here are some that I like and plan on using:

- the broccoli tutorial I'll adapt (I think her dimensions are wrong -- I made smaller florets and they were still way big, or else her other food is giant)
- a creative salad, especially for the cool way she does mushrooms
- Frugal Babe's felt food project and her part 2 and final installment
- a gigantic set of tutorials from Apartment Therapy
- a super cute idea to do ravioli, bow ties, and donuts including take-out bags

One thing is for sure: I'm busting out my sewing machine at home to do more of these. The hand sewing looks cute, and I'm sure I will still do some parts that way, but I think I can just fly if I do machine sewing. I will have to get some more bobbins (and thread in general) and get over my fear of the machine.