Thinking, planning, dreaming
Reading the craft blogs is dangerous. So many cute ideas! Such creative projects! But so little time (when I should really be doing "real" work, the kind that I am nominally paid for ...)
But sometimes the craft blog world is clearly just in my brain in a remarkable way. Just yesterday I posted about making baby toys, and mentioned that I'd like to try balls, perhaps. And lo and behold, I run across a stuffed ball tutorial. With a jingle bell, no less.
And yesterday I was thinking about getting little Krauselet's furniture set up (we have a dresser for its little clothes, and a changing table. We also have a co-sleeper bassinet ready in the wings, but I don't think we'll put that up until Krauselet actually arrives; it is going to crowd the bedroom pretty tightly).
And in my thinking and mental furniture-arranging, I was considering how nice it would be to put up a mobile above the changing table (and above the dresser, too, which is the secondary changing table). And then this morning Sew, Mama, Sew obliges me with not one, but two, mobile tutorial projects!
Not too many days, too, since I found tutorials for diaper changing pads and cool stuffed dolls, and I've also been thinking about our baby wraps, too.
I have the fabric for the wrap(s) - J's mom kindly purchased it for us, but because she was paying I felt I had to acquiesce on color and weight. So instead of a fun, funky purple/blue/green/cream cotton print that I loved and would have cut on the bias to make it a smidge stretchy, I ended up with a white, cotton/lycra, slightly stretchy, lightweight twillish/canvas-y kind of fabric. Nothing wrong with white, I suppose, except that it shows every stain ever made by baby or baby-wearer. And despite MIL's assertions that it is the easiest to care for because you can just drop it in the bleach if necessary, it's not that simple around here. I categorically do not use Chlorox or any similarly toxic substance, not even on my own clothes and certainly not on the Krauselet's. It's sunshine, hydrogen peroxide, and gradually-dingy whites for us. But plain white is a little, well, um, boring, and after all this wrap thing is more like a garment for me or for J than something for the baby.
So I've been thinking about how to spice it up. The best idea I have so far is to make some really wide bias tape out of some fat quarters that I love (have I mentioned how much I love bias tape? I really, really love it) and bind the wrap that way, thus preserving the stretchiness of the fabric (which is a nice benefit) and preventing the bulk of a traditional hem. I'm also considering either appliqué or a crazy-patch block sewed to the center front of the wrap, which would have, in my mind, two benefits. For 1) it would make it easier to hide baby stains (or mommy stains) on the front of the carrier, which is the most visible section. And 2) it would be easier to find the center front of the carrier, which is useful for tying it on properly. We also have enough fabric to make two wraps out of the white fabric, so I could personalize each one - one for me, and one for J, if I felt so inclined.
And of course I still want to finish all the nest-feathering projects and the personal-gratification projects, too. Still in progress: living room curtains, and finishing a few UFOs of various varieties. Still on the drawing board: cushions for the dining room, a curtain for the dining room picture window, and cushions for my rocking chair and the window seat in the living room. On the horizon: making nursing-friendly tops, making baby presents galore, and making myself a wrap dress (which probably won't be a maternity dress anymore, but still will be awesomely cute). Still a pipe dream: recovering the couch, and making a crazy quilt. That last one is going to happen, even if I'm 95 years old before it does.
But sometimes the craft blog world is clearly just in my brain in a remarkable way. Just yesterday I posted about making baby toys, and mentioned that I'd like to try balls, perhaps. And lo and behold, I run across a stuffed ball tutorial. With a jingle bell, no less.
And yesterday I was thinking about getting little Krauselet's furniture set up (we have a dresser for its little clothes, and a changing table. We also have a co-sleeper bassinet ready in the wings, but I don't think we'll put that up until Krauselet actually arrives; it is going to crowd the bedroom pretty tightly).
And in my thinking and mental furniture-arranging, I was considering how nice it would be to put up a mobile above the changing table (and above the dresser, too, which is the secondary changing table). And then this morning Sew, Mama, Sew obliges me with not one, but two, mobile tutorial projects!
Not too many days, too, since I found tutorials for diaper changing pads and cool stuffed dolls, and I've also been thinking about our baby wraps, too.
I have the fabric for the wrap(s) - J's mom kindly purchased it for us, but because she was paying I felt I had to acquiesce on color and weight. So instead of a fun, funky purple/blue/green/cream cotton print that I loved and would have cut on the bias to make it a smidge stretchy, I ended up with a white, cotton/lycra, slightly stretchy, lightweight twillish/canvas-y kind of fabric. Nothing wrong with white, I suppose, except that it shows every stain ever made by baby or baby-wearer. And despite MIL's assertions that it is the easiest to care for because you can just drop it in the bleach if necessary, it's not that simple around here. I categorically do not use Chlorox or any similarly toxic substance, not even on my own clothes and certainly not on the Krauselet's. It's sunshine, hydrogen peroxide, and gradually-dingy whites for us. But plain white is a little, well, um, boring, and after all this wrap thing is more like a garment for me or for J than something for the baby.
So I've been thinking about how to spice it up. The best idea I have so far is to make some really wide bias tape out of some fat quarters that I love (have I mentioned how much I love bias tape? I really, really love it) and bind the wrap that way, thus preserving the stretchiness of the fabric (which is a nice benefit) and preventing the bulk of a traditional hem. I'm also considering either appliqué or a crazy-patch block sewed to the center front of the wrap, which would have, in my mind, two benefits. For 1) it would make it easier to hide baby stains (or mommy stains) on the front of the carrier, which is the most visible section. And 2) it would be easier to find the center front of the carrier, which is useful for tying it on properly. We also have enough fabric to make two wraps out of the white fabric, so I could personalize each one - one for me, and one for J, if I felt so inclined.
And of course I still want to finish all the nest-feathering projects and the personal-gratification projects, too. Still in progress: living room curtains, and finishing a few UFOs of various varieties. Still on the drawing board: cushions for the dining room, a curtain for the dining room picture window, and cushions for my rocking chair and the window seat in the living room. On the horizon: making nursing-friendly tops, making baby presents galore, and making myself a wrap dress (which probably won't be a maternity dress anymore, but still will be awesomely cute). Still a pipe dream: recovering the couch, and making a crazy quilt. That last one is going to happen, even if I'm 95 years old before it does.