baby shower joyousness and other randomness.

Today, for the baby shower, I took with me the Itty Bitty Baby Dress,  (And darn it, but I forgot to take pictures!)  four extra-large receiving blankets,  (the pictured set was for a shower last week and that was a boy... this was a girl, so we had bright pink, bright lavender, teal green, and yellow), and my version of the Hip Mama Diaper Bag.

This is the unfinished picture, because I was in a hurry and never took another.  (It was getting on 5, the shower was at 7, and nothing was wrapped!)  I put my own twist on it.  Inside, there are two extra elastic pockets on the sides, the lining is tacked down on the corners and the sides of the bag, it has an extra piece of interfacing in the back, and the snaps show from the outside.  I learned a long time ago that with bags, all sides need interfacing with heavy-duty interfacing and so does the bag front. And I learned that snaps should go through a minimum of three layers of material, including heavy-duty interfacing if you don't want to it to tear out.  So mine go through the canvas, lining, and interfacing on the flap, and through two layers of canvas and one layer of interfacing on the body of the bag.

All of it was a hit!  The dress, blankets, and bag were all oohed and ahhed over and people were shocked that I made them.  Truthfully, I made it so that it would be sturdier than what I can buy.  And the changing pad shown with the bag is larger than the commercial ones.  Much larger.  You could probably comfortably change a toddler on it.  I may change it up with Penny's and add a layer of batting and a layer of muslin to the interior to make it cushier and comfier to changer her on and it would have the added advantage of making it a bit less floppy.  The top layer is the same as the lining--

It's laminated cotton and bright and happy and cheerful.  And best of all, it's easy to wipe out when inevitably, something gets spilled in the diaper bag.  Fabric.com sells scads of laminated cotton... and I had a discount coupon for it, so I didn't pay full price.  (It was also on sale at the time, too.)  Evie picked out the canvas from Hobby Lobby when it was 40% off.  I will be making another.  But this one will be for Penny, and I'll be putting her name on it.  This last one was for a as-yet unnamed baby girl, so the front was bare.  Penny's will be brown and pink, because that's my SIL, Joanna's favorite color combo for her girls.

Heather's aunt offered to pay me to make them, but I told her that since it was a free pattern that I didn't own the rights to, I couldn't do it.  Besides, there's a lot of work and $$ in materials in one of those bags.  Honestly, they're labors of love.  I make stuff like that for people I care about, but it would cost people too much for them.  After all, I have around $50 invested in materials for it.  Add on labor and considering that the originals, the Queen Bee Diaper bag, which the Hip Mama bag is a copy of, sells for around $150, there's not really a profit in it.  By the time she paid for my materials and labor, she'd not be able to resell them for enough to make a profit.  I prefer making kids' clothes.  They're faster, easier, and, well, I love making cuteness!

A couple days back, I promised pictures of the finished jammies for Joanna's birthday.  I have the pics, but I never got around to posting it.  (Yes, I do need a round TUIT.  I lost mine.)

Here's the tank top.  Remember, this is Simplicity 3971.  It has a tank top, button-up PJ shirt, and PJ pants.  The knit was easier than I thought it would be. Especially after I serged the raw edges before I hemmed.

The ribbon piece in back it my version of a label, and I put a bow in the front so it was even easier to tell front from back.

Here's the pants  It's a cotton/poly blend.  Lovely and lightweight for sleeping in during Georgia's 100 degree summers.  And I cut 3 inches off the rise so they weren't so high waisted.

And the matching top.  I cut the pocket and the cuffs on the bias, actually following directions this time.  I think I prefer cutting them on the grain because the stretch makes it difficult to work with.  I also glued the pocket seam allowances down to make it easier to top stitch on.  The buttons are a matching blue--the value buttons that cost around $0.90 at Joanns.

And to make it even better, they were a big hit with Joanna.  She says that they're her favorite jammies ever and swears they're the most comfortable things in existence.

Thank goodness birthdays are over with for the next few months.  And no events, either.  So it's back to sewing for me and mine.  Tomorrow, I'll talk about my new pants... which was a semi-successful experiment.  I didn't have enough fabric for traditional jeans, so I made mock jeans with an elastic waistband.... which needs taken in as it's a little big.  And I think I'm going to need to re-hem them higher.  We'll see!