Baby Sleep and Sleeping Bags

Dear readers,

I'm back! Finally, after having my second baby, dealing with some sleep and feeding issues, almost eight months later I'm back to post something. Been itching to sew for months, but my little Hippo (that's the Little Wyld One #2) has kept me busy! We call him the little Hungry Hippo because when he was born he ate and grew a lot. Now he's the Hefty Hippo. He's almost as big and heavy as the Little Wyld One, whom I'm gonna call Monkey from now on. Well, Monkey is almost 2-next week in fact. Sigh, have to get busy planning something. 

I haven't been able to sew for a few months. But when Hippo wasn't sleeping well without being wrapped, I made some baby sleeping bags on the fly. I liked the ones where the bags don't have armholes in them, but they are very expensive to buy, and I'd need several. Hippo does not sleep well with his arms free, but he was getting too big to be wrapped anymore. So being quite desperate I drafted my own pattern and made 4 sleeping bags at once. 

Sorry, I don't have a tutorial-I was in a rush and just wanted to get one done. I used soft cotton knits from my stash, and long vintage zips from opshops. 

One of these days, I'll make a PDF pattern and post it here if anybody is interested. 

Speaking of PDF patterns, a friend asked that I make a PDF of my maternity skirt pattern to sell. I never thought of doing it before, and I wonder if there would be a market for it. I have no idea where to start or what sizes to offer or how much to sell it for. But if anybody has any thoughts about it, please leave a comment!

I'll leave you with a pic of my Little Wyld Men.

Baby Rocker Makeover

Somebody at my mother-in-law's workplace gave her an old baby rocker to give to me. I liked that you could put a baby in there and rock it to sleep, as well as set it up so that it stays stationary. However, this is what it looked like-

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="639" caption="It looked rather old and stained."][/caption]

The fabric was sewn into the frame of the rocker, so couldn't be taken out and washed.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="639" caption="I wasn't crazy about the dirty teddy bears"][/caption]

But it was a good brand-Mother's Choice, and a freebie is a freebie. So I decided to give it a facelift.

I had some really soft cotton that I picked up at the opshop that I decide would look really good as a cover.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="639" caption="Some blue cotton fabric from the op shop"][/caption]

I also went to Spotlight today and picked up a metre of prepacked polyester wadding.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="639" caption="Polyester Wadding"][/caption]

But before I did anything, I wanted to make sure that the fabric would look right on the rocker.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="639" caption="A mock up of what the final product will look like."][/caption]

Looks just fine. So, I proceeded to make a pattern with newspaper.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="639" caption="Using newspaper to make a pattern."][/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="639" caption="Marking all the spots on the newspaper"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="639" caption="Cutting out the fabric with the newspaper as a guide and adding seam allowances."][/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="639" caption="Laying the wadding on newspaper."][/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="639" caption="Cutting the wadding without seam allowances"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="639" caption="Pressing the fabric flat to prevent puckers when sewing."][/caption]

I planned to sew the wadding onto the wrong side of the fabric, and then turning it inside out. So-I pinned the fabric rights sides together, with the wadding on top of the wrong side.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="639" caption="Pinning the wadding on the wrong side of the fabric"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="639" caption="I sewed directly onto the wadding all around the sides."][/caption]

However, I left a hole in one of the short sides for turning the cover inside out.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="639" caption="The Hole"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="639" caption="I anchored the four ends of the wadding unto the fabric before turning inside out"][/caption]

Then I proceed to pull the fabric and wadding through the hole.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="639" caption="This is what it looks like the right way up. See that little hole?"][/caption]

I'm going to close it up with iron-on hemming tape.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="639" caption="Inserting hemming tape into the hole"][/caption]

Iron-on hemming tape is a fusible adhesive which bonds 2 pieces of fabric together when heat is applied. It is usually used for making invisible hems. I only discovered it in Adelaide-I'm not sure if I've come across it in Malaysia.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="639" caption="Ironing the hole with the fusible hemming tape in it."][/caption]

The original rocker seat has a strap sewn unto it to hold the baby in. I wanted to transfer it to the new cover. So I cut it off. Snip snip.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="639" caption="Cutting off the safety strap"][/caption]

I wanted the cover to have a quilted look, so...

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="639" caption="Here I transfer all the markings from the newspaper to the cover. "][/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="639" caption="I sewed along those markings to define the seat of the cover"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="639" caption="I sewed a curvy line down the length of the cover"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="639" caption="Here I used the quilting bar to guide the second line of stitching"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="639" caption="The quilted look"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="639" caption="Sewing the safety strap on with a bartack stith"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="639" caption="I handsewed snaps on black tape on all four corners to anchor the cover into position."][/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="639" caption="Tadaa!"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="639" caption="I also made a little padded holder for the straps. "][/caption]

This was a very quick and rewarding project-no precision needed, yet the finished product looked quite professional.

Here's a before and after picture.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="581" caption="BIG improvement!"][/caption]