Sewing for a newborn

I am in week 40+5...that's right, that is 5 days past due date. I guess the first lesson of parenting is here to hammer its point: it's no longer about you. The only thing you can do now is wait.

So I breath in, breath out, eat a cookie and try to arm myself in zen-level patience.

Meanwhile, here are my sewing projects made in the last couple of months.

Baby nest

Baby nest is a baby mattress that can be made into a little crib. It's a portable bed to use in an actual baby bed, crib or on a couch. I cannot say if it's practical or not just yet but it looks very cozy and is really easy to make.

I made mine with a thick furniture fabric on the bottom to make sure it will last long without fraying and a cotton fabric on top to make it nice and soft. The one thing I learned is that you shouldn't over-stuff the sides because they will be impossible to "close-up" if they are too hard.

There are many tutorials online but the one that I used was this one: http://www.jaggedrose.se/blog/2014/11/scandi-baby-nest-tutorialsew-along-fabrics-supplies/

Harem pants

The second project, I've been busy with is sawing harem pants for the little guy.

I should start by saying that I am not a fan of color-coding your child or worse, dressing your baby as if it was an adult.
There is absolutely no reason on this Earth to dress your boy exclusively in blue and your girl exclusively in pink. And dressing a baby in minimized teenager outfit is creepy.

Children should be surrounded by vivid colors and whimsical characters but in Denmark buying clothes for children is really hard. Everything is in washed off pastel colors, color-coded or way too adult for a baby or toddler. I mean in what universe is this fine for a 2 year old? A halterneck top in size 92!?

Obviously, I am exeagerating a bit and if you look around you can find better choices. Especially for boys. But the problem is that you actually have to work for it, to dress your child like a child!

This is why I am really excited to pick out my own fabrics and sew for my little one. Obviously, I won't be able to make all of his outfits. Both the time required and the costs would be astronomical. But at least I can add a couple of very happy items to his collection.

The harem pants are quick and easy to make (can you spot the theme here - remember, I am still a beginner) and they look adorable. I used this tutorial and the only detail I changed was the width of the stretch fabric. You can figure out yourself, what works best for you. I am planning to make a couple more pants when the baby arrives and I know the exact size, I should go for.

Sew Simple Christmas Wrapping

The first #Christmas gift packed in a #sawn #reusable #fabric packaging #handmade #sewing #christmascraft #handmadeChristmas

Et billede slået op af Maria Lind (@mariafurya) den 22. Nov 2015 kl. 3:34 PST

This year, my Christmas crafts are pretty limitted. It is mostly because we're visiting my family and so there is no Christmas tree and much Christmas decorations this year. But also, I am going a little bit crazy with sewing and knitting project for our bundle of joy coming in March. There will be a whole other post about sewing for our future baby but for now, you can have a quick look over here.

There is however one Christmas project that I jumped into and that is reusable wrapping for the gifts.

I am not the most environment-conscious person ever but there are many small things I like to do in my life to make our everyday life a bit more ecological and a bit less wastefull. My husband is vegetarian and I eat little meat, we compost our organic waste and try to plan our dinners and freeze leftovers so that we don't throw away food.

So this little project just felt like a great idea. Fabric wrapping is super easy so it's a great beginner's project. It looks lovely and gives your Christmas gifts that extra personal touch. And of course, the wrapping can be reused and so it keeps your holidays a bit more environment-friendly.

Instructions

So here is what you do:

• Measure the height and width of your gift. Remember to add the depth of the gift to both height and width if it is of any significance.
• Add 5 cm to the height and 2 cm to the width of the gift to figure out the measuremants of the frabric piece, you're going to need. Remember that you will have to cut double the height. The extra 5 cm are used making tube for the ribbon and leaving space for gathering the sack. The extra 2 cm are for seam allowance (see the pattern below).  

Christmas wrapping pattern

Et billede slået op af Maria Lind (@mariafurya) den 5. Dec 2015 kl. 7:32 PST

• Cut the piece of fabric, fold it evenly, right side in and sew them together along the long edges, on the 1cm seam allowence mark.
• Cut about 4 cm of the fabric on the outside of the seam from the top of the wrapping. This will allow you to wrap the top of the fabric to the outside, producing the ribbon tube. You can decide yourself, how broad the tube needs to be. It will depend on the size of the ribbon you want to use. I am folding about 3 cm and sewing 1 cm from the edge to leave 2 cm tube.
• Sew a seam all around the tube, fastening it's outer edge to the fabric.
• Turn the sack right side out and cut the tube in the middle of one side making and opening for the ribbon. Make sure you don't cut the bottom seam though!
• Use a safety pin to pull the ribbon through the tube.
• Et voila! The wrapping is ready.

This is the simplest possible wrapping type, the sack. If you are feeling brave you can look for other types like this lovely bottle package.

Enjoy your crafting and have yourself a Merry Christmas!

Christmas wrapping

Et billede slået op af Maria Lind (@mariafurya) den 5. Dec 2015 kl. 7:28 PST

New Craft: Sewing

This particular craft adventure started for me because I was looking for sofa pillows for our new house. The ones I picked turned out to be "designer pillows" (is there such a thing?) and they costed 500 DKK (76 USD/50 GBP) each! 

It just didn't feel like an acceptable price for a pillow...

So instead I did some research and invested into this little beauty.

I had absolutely no previous experience with sewing. I didn't even know how to thread the needle on a machine. But surprisingly enough, with a little help from books, internet and my lovely husband (Danes have housework classes in primary school!) I was able to make the first trial project.

I didn't think I could make pillows I would be happy to display in my living room right of the bat.

Instead, I bought some discounted rough cotton fabric and made an envelope for my laptop. It took several tries to get the seams semi-straight but the final result was usable.

Encouraged by the experience, I bought the fabric I wanted and two pillows at the local haberdashery store and set out to do the job.

I picked out a simple envelope pattern from Sewing Machine Basics by Jane Bolsover - a book I can wholeheartedly recommend for beginners. A similar patterns can be found all over the internet. For example here or here.

One cozy evening later, two pillow envelopes were ready. The effect is visible on the photo below. They are not perfect. One is a little too big for the pillow and the other's seam is not perfectly straight if you look closely enough.

But they are proudly displayed on the sofa and another, bigger one in yellow, is in the plans.

Once I am done with the pillows, I am planning on making stuffed toys from my friend's babies. There are so many lovely patterns out there. Just look at this toothy little monster or these bunnies.

I am ashamed to admit I was all squeamish where sewing was concerned. I thought the initial investment was too substantial to risk for a craft I have never tried.

Luckily, I am pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to get started. I wish I had started earlier. Come to think of it, a sewing intro class might have taught me the basics and rid me of my "fears". It is a very practical skill, everyone should have.

Nonetheless, I am very happy I have EVENTUALLY started and I am looking forward to making many more projects.