Onesie Dress

I made the cutest onesie dress. I thought I was done sewing for the day but I just couldn't stop **Nesting anyone?**. I didn't think about taking pictures along the way until I was about 95% done with the dress. So I'll just tell you what I did.

Step one: I used a NB onesie that was passed down to me. I measured about an inch down from the sleeves. This one was 6 1/2 inches across. Then, by not thinking, I cut right around 30 x 10. I would have made it smaller but as I started thinking about it I decided that was probably as good as any size since I was going to be gathering the 30" edge. It was perfect.

Step two: Use a gathering stitch (or just loosen your tension) across the 30" edge. I did about 1/2 an inch from the top. Gather.

**You need to decide where you want the fabric to sit on the baby. Like I said I wanted mine about an inch from the sleeves.

Step three: Make sure you have it gathered to the right size--If you gather too little or too much it wont turn out right so wrap it around your onesie and adjust if need be--and sew the seam up the side.

Step four: Hem bottom of fabric. I did a 1/2 inch and then folded it over 1/2 inch again. You can iron if you want, I just pressed with my fingers and then pinned. *Lazy*. Sew 1/4" from the edge.

Step five: Pin fabric to dress. Right side out Make sure you don't pin both sides of the onesie! I started with my seam on the side, you can put yours on the back if you want I just think it looks better on the side, and work my way around with my hand in the onesie. This made it easier to control which layers of cloth the pins were going through.

Step six: Sew carefully around the onesie. Try to sew over the gathering thread. You can stop here. I didn't.

Step seven: Hand sew lace, in effect hiding all the machine sewing at the top edge of the fabric. I, again, started at the side seam and slowly worked my way around. I wanted some of the fabric to be seen up over the top of the lace.Again, you can stop here and again I didn't.

Step eight: I added cute little "Yo-yo flowers" to the left shoulder. Here is a good video tutorial on how to make them. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pt9-y0adfUA

Here is a picture of the ones I made. I used a large spool of thread for the small circles and the spool from the lace for the larger size. In the middle are just random buttons I had on hand. Then I just hand stitched them onto the onesie.

Now for some pictures of the finished dress.

The best part is this:
Onesie: Free
Fabric: Yard sale over a year ago for 2 bucks(I still have about a yard left)
Lace: Bought 2 years ago at 50% off= around .99.
Buttons: From random clothes over the years.
Total: less than $1 to make the whole thing. Can we say SCORE!

2 Zippers in 1 week...Eek!

I am not a fan of zippers...sewing them that is. This might be because I'm not that good at it. I don't even really get it when I use the zipper foot on my sewing machine. It doesn't make it any easier. Anyone who says it does is a liar(I call it like I see it). I decided to make a pocket for my diaper bag which has a zipper. That one went fine, the top stitch around it could be straighter--and probably would be if a 5 year old had done it--but all in all it came out fine and it zips.

Today I decided that I needed to try and make a wet bag, we will be cloth diapering when baby #2 gets here. I had left over fabric from the diaper bag and I had bought some PUL(polyurethane laminated fabric) when it was on sale at Joann Fabric with the thought that maybe I'd give this a try instead of spending $16 on a store bought bag.

The bag itself was totally easy. I might make a smaller one for my wallet, phone, ect. The zipper really threw me for a loop this time.
I'm still trying to figure out what happened here---->

Really it wasn't part of the plan. Eh, what can you do? Maybe I'll get better at zippers or maybe I should just find someone who is good at them and beg them to share the magical powers that they must possess if they are actually good at zippers.

Really, in the grand scheme of things that little curve doesn't bother me. I just wish I knew how I did it so I can not do it next time!

I think the final product looks nice.
*Not sure why this picture is uploading upside down*

I added a snap and button to my wet bag. In the tutorial I used(see below) they just made a carrying strap, I wanted mine to hook to the diaper bag. The button is just for looks.

http://alemonsqueezyhome.blogspot.com/2010/05/wetbag-tutorial.html

I think I might try to make a bigger hanging bag for at home. That is if I can figure out measurements to zipper size--I think I already worked that out, I think.

I won't lie, I'm pretty impressed that I was able to sew two zippers this week and they both work. It's the small things in life.

One of a kind...

I really couldn't find a diaper bag that I loved--That was also under $150, and really who can afford that, I know I can't-- and I didn't want a diaper bag that everyone else had. So, I decided to make my own. I should note that I've never made a bag of any kind. Not even one of those sew 3 sides and your done kind. Bags have always intimidated me, but I gave it a try.

First step, find a tutorial for a diaper bag I like(I also didn't want it to look too much like a diaper bag): http://www.make-baby-stuff.com/free-diaper-bag-pattern.html This is the one I decided on.

Second step, find the fabric. Easier said then done. I was in Joann Fabric for around 2 hours trying to decide. When I found something I liked I sent a picture to my hubby to see what he thought. It turns out I can't make a decision even to save my sanity--Did I mention I had 2 boys at the store with me?--and he was kind enough to give me his opinion. My favorite one was actually a combo that he liked to. YAY! Here's a picture of the fabric. Cute right? This was the last combo I tried with the green. There were about 8 others that I tried with it and while I liked them just fine it wasn't what I was looking for.



Third step, get over fears and get to work. I cut out the pieces in the middle of the night. Really, it was like 12am. Then started sewing everything together when I got up in the morning-around 7:30-8am. It was all so much easier than I thought it would be! In the tutorial I used the only thing that threw me off was the last step. Which way the lining needed to be turned. I did it wrong and had to seam rip the whole lining out. Not fun. I did figure it out. The zipper needed to be facing my outside pockets.

I finished somewhere in the 11:30-12:00 time frame so it did take me a little while to do. It was not the disaster I was expecting and I didn't have any melt downs--See: The Quilt that nearly did me in--I am totally happy with the bag and since this one turned out so good I want to try my hand at making other types of bags. I'm gonna get my sew on!

Now drum roll, please:
My Beautiful Diaper Bag!

The fabric that I'm afraid to use...

Ok, so "afraid" might be laying it on a bit heavy. I have around a yard or so of really cute flannel fabric with cupcakes on it. I got it a few years ago. I was buying a smaller amount for neck wraps I was making and it was the end of the bolt so they asked if I wanted it for 1/2 price. Well, Yes, yes I do. Now it sits nicely folded in my sewing bin waiting to become something spectacular. What the spectacular something will be.....yeah, your guess is as good as mine at this point. I want to sew something really bad and I want to use scraps/cuts that I have instead of going and buying new. I am going to go blog stalk now to see if I can come up with anything fun to make. Ideas?