Always a Beginner - Sewing Edition | By Katie

Thom and I have been deep into various projects around the house, keeping each other sane throughout each others perfectionist side. Thom is a lot better about documenting his successes, even his mistakes. I might snap a photo to send to my Mom, otherwise my various creative endeavors aren't heavily photographed. 

A friend of mine is due to have her first baby boy, River next week. Prayers all go well. In the meantime I've been digging into old skills I learned when I was younger. (Now I feel I am slowly regressing into my Mom, with the crafting room, making quilts, slowly collecting fabric... And this is just the sewing side. Gardening is a blog post for another day, and proof I am turning into my Mother.) 

Back to baby crafts, I aim to make useful things, matching the color or nursery scheme for the anticipated arrival. No, I will not be giving away bonnets with lace, or embroidered pillowcases. It looks more like zip-onesies, and embroidered bibs. Maybe these are the same modern things people make... Either way, baby River is being spoiled by handmade goods to be sent in the mail this week. 

First - A soft Alphabet, with color coded letters for future identifying letters to their name. 

Next - Mountains (and River...) embroidered on a bib, using linen, and a quilted cotton backing. All using leftover pieces of fabric from previous projects. 

Final - A zippered onesie. 

I assembled this one fairly late, as my serger was out of commission for some time. I am relatively new to serging. I absolutely love the fact I can sew a seam, and be finished. It cuts, sews, and finishes the edge in one go. However, if you mess up, you cannot go back. The trimming is done, your seam allowance is gone, bad things happen. I did this on the collar. Frustrated and ready to scrap the mostly done onesie, perfect zipper placement and all. Thom putting up with my throwing of the outfit and storming off with my toast to watch serger YouTube tutorials. I came back less hungry, and willing to try again. I essentially had to cut out the entire collar, and cut a new piece. From here I learned that I had cut the first collar piece on the wrong bias of the fabric, which meant it would never stretch as far as I needed it, to reach each end of the zippers. Oops. The second collar I cut a little wider, and stitched using my sewing machine using MANY clips. This proved a success, and the extra width ensured the wearers neck would still be covered. Crisis averted. Final result is not as polished as I expect, (which is what you can purchase at the store.) However, you won't find this color combination, or fabric of zip onesie on any store hangers. 

This is the third I've sewn. The pattern is fairly simple, the zipper gives me the most grief, likely because I sometimes use a size not recommended in the pattern, as well as not owning a zipper foot on my machine. This particular piece was difficult with the fabric used, that loved to stretch under each machines presser feet. 

Not shown - A repurposed set of wash cloths for baby using a Pottery Barn towel that had lots of life in the main fabric, but the binding on the edges that wore off. Using my serger, I added a soft cotton fleece to one side with pretty designs. I made a set for Sefton, and we use them to this day, even outlasting the "baby washcloths" I received at his shower. 

If I do these enough and get "good enough", perhaps I can open a small etsy shop to sell some items, and in-turn purchase a higher end serger, or pattern projector? The possibilities!