Category: Sewing

Getting Things Done

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Is it just me, or does everything seem to pile up at once? You can just be going along with one or two things to do, and then when you plan to do something, twenty other things need to be done at once. That would be how my week is going.

Like I said before, I’m working to really get my Etsy store “open”. Technically, it is open now, but I’m “grand opening” on Sunday. And there is another project I am working on to go with that. So there’s two projects I was planning and working on at a steady pace.

Then, we found out favorite book character day is on Friday. That added another four projects to the list. But it gave me incentive to see if I could knit a five-foot scarf in under a week. (Spoiler alert: I finished in two days. Maybe a whole four hours of work into it?)

I’ve also committed to helping my mom re-open her Etsy Store this week before a major event at her work. And after a major event in her life, but that is her story to tell (and she should, hint hint). So I’ve put off some things for that until I finish this costume, but I’m getting to those, too.

While it can be stressful to have so many things going on at once, I think it helps. It gives that extra push to get things done that sometimes is lacking when you only have one or two things to do.

Sewing a Stroller

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Bebe, the soft doll the boys have, came in a stroller. It matched his pajamas and was perfectly sized for a small child to push around the house/neighborhood. What it wasn’t perfectly sized for was a four-year-old plopping his rear in it and pulling himself around the house. So it has needed some surgery for a couple years.

I had some green cotton left over from fixing up the balance bike, and I had some random remnant bin finds. I salvaged the hardware from the original seat and used what was left of the seat pieces as a pattern for the new one.

I made the main portions of the seat from the green material, then made bias binding for the edges. Actually, I first tried to reuse the original edging, but somehow it wasn’t long enough despite the fact that I used the original seat as the pattern. Go figure.

I also changed how the top attached to the stroller. It originally had a couple elastic pieces that went around the handle. I chose to do button straps instead. That way the whole thing is easily removable in case it needs to be washed. And there’s no chance of the elastic breaking down as the old ones did.

Time to Swim

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The local swim school requires that kids be put in swim diapers until the age of four, regardless of their potty training status. Once they aren’t actively pooping their pants on a regular basis, it seems a bit wasteful to use a disposable diaper for every class. This is where the reusable swim diaper comes in handy.

Problem is, most over size two only come in a pull-up style. That works when it is dry, but wet swim trunks are tough enough. You don’t want to be dealing with a wet swim pull-up tangled in that mess. So i decided to make one that has side snaps. Best decision ever.

I found this pattern on Sew Mama Sew and we went on a trip to the fabric store after swim class one day. Couldn’t find any PUL material, so went for the ripstop nylon option. Got swim fabric (that the little one got to pick himself), and some black wicking jerset, plus fold-over elastic. It took a couple of tries, but I finally figured out how to get all the layers to stay together while sewing. Once I had that figured out, it was a really quick finish.

It also took a couple tries to get the snaps on the right way, too. But it is so easy for the kids to put on when it is snapped up and then even easier to unsnap and pull of at the end of class. It makes getting dressed after swim class so much easier.