Sewing Baby Clothing and Life Lately

Life last weekend moved a little bit slower. My husband and I headed up to his family's cottage for a long weekend to spend fishing, boating, and enjoying the sunshine. The weather was a balance of rain and shine each day. We were able to spend the days on a little bit a slower pace, sans the early mornings, traffic, and busy schedules that come with our typical workdays. Since I knew that we were headed up north Michigan and that the activities that I can participate in at this point in my pregnancy are becoming limited, I opted to bring my sewing machine and some supplies along with a goal to sew at least one baby item.

Using free patterns found through blogs, I spent a few hours sewing up two new diaper covers, one with a floral print on a gray background and one with a fun pink and blue rocketship print. The rocketship printed fabric was leftover from the first set of pajama pants I made when I was back in high school (!!!). I clearly purchased way too much fabric for those PJ pants, and I STILL have the fabric in my stash. I don't know if I should be proud or not that I have held on to that one so long.  I feel like I'm giving off a hoarder impression! ;-) These diaper covers will come in handy under dresses and pairing with onesies to make an outfit for our baby girl. You can find the free pattern on Sew Caroline's blog here.

When a couple of other rainy hours hit, I spent some time in the cottage sewing up this cute baby girl dress. This wasn't the first time I've made this dress, and with a little bit of prior practice, it was much easier to sew the lined bodice this time around and conceal all of the inner bodice seams so that there are no exposed raw fabric edges. Even though no one will ever notice the interior of the dress, I like that the interior is clean and finished, as it means less loose threads that might annoy the baby.

I purchased this white floral print cotton fabric at JoAnn's, and with the leftovers, I found a headband pattern to sew up a retro headband with a small elastic stretch on the back. Unlike typical baby and toddler clothing, this is made from cotton, not knit, so there is no stretch. I'm not sure how easy it will be to get on the baby, but it's cute and if she never wears it, maybe she will keep it for her own kids. You can find the free Little Geranium baby dress pattern on Made by Rae's blog here.

In other news, we are almost 7 weeks away from my due date, and I'm feeling a lot of different emotions that often change based on the day. I'm still sewing when I can, both to stock up on inventory for the Etsy shop for after the baby arrives and for my own stress relief. More and more of my time has become about preparing for the baby, and with less than two months to go left, I'm hoping for a smooth next few weeks. Summer is here, and I'm looking forward to continuing to sew up until the baby's arrival. If you have any free baby sewing patterns to share, please post them in the comments! I'd love to add them to my growing Pinterest board.

Have a great weekend,
Erica