Hitting the pause button

Hello everyone!

Hopefully you haven't forgotten to "spring forward," or set your clocks ahead by one hour.   I love that it is March, and spring weather has definitely started to show in these parts!

Now, in my last post, I talked about starting the muslin for my Sabrina Slims pants. Well, I printed out the online pattern, but have not started it yet.  I had to take a pause from my scheduled plan in order to celebrate a friend!  My dear friend is expecting a little girl in April, and I wanted to create something special for her baby shower.

Little did I know how much work this would entail!!!!!!  The first thing I sewed was a set of burp cloths. I got the idea from a co-worker who told me the BEST burp cloths she ever had for her babies were ones she received that were made from cloth diapers.  I did some Pinterest digging, and finally found these:

The thing I loved most about this project was this: all I needed was a pack of cloth diapers, and some fat quarters (small cuts of fabric would do well too)!!!!!   I already had some girl-friendly fabrics, so I used them and came up with these:

Overall, these were super easy to make, and absolutely cute to boot!! I will be making more for my own son, in a marine-colored array of fabrics.  I ended up using cardstock to create my own template for the trim, so I have gotten to the point where I can really crank them out now.  They are definitely an excellent gift idea for any new expecting mom.

For the second part of my gift creation, I KNEW I wanted to make an outfit of some sort. I scoured the Internet for FREE patterns, and finally found The Little Geranium Dress, from Made by Rae.  It's a free newborn dress pattern that you can download and sew, sized for 0-3 months.

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So, the night before the baby shower, I proceeded to assemble this dress. It all went smoothly, until I got to the buttonholes. You see, it has been about 3 years since I did buttonholes on my machine. I did a test patch that worked fine, but of course, when I went to sew my buttonholes on, it was wonky and terrible.  I could have CRIED!!!

I decided to just go to bed, and begin again in the morning. I am glad I did!! I woke up, refreshed, and ready to tackle the issue. I decided to just re-cut it and sew the whole thing over. That's when I noticed I had ironed my interfacing on incorrectly the day before. Because the fabric wasn't stable, it is what caused the wonky buttonhole stitches! Aha! So, I corrected the issue, and three perfect buttonholes later, I finished an "AH-MAZING" newborn dress with an equally gorgeous knotted headband!

The fabric is a cotton knit from Hobby Lobby. It is stable, and easy to sew.  The headband is by Coral and Co. , and you can find it here.  Little girls obviously have to coordinate, so it only made sense to add one in.  

So what did I do with the first version of this dress with the wonky buttonholes??? I'm glad you asked!! It turns out the sizing is perfect for one of my daughter's baby dolls!! That made me happy to think it wasn't a total loss. And my daughter thought she got the great end of the deal!

Now that I took my pause, I am ready to continue with the Sabrina Slims.  On to the muslin and fitting for NEXT week!

Stay sew-filled!