No Pictures

Well, grrr... I forgot to take a picture of the baby. In the end I didn't wrap him. I wasn't really sure if I should or how to do it. I finally opted to carry him in the building like a baby. Few people had arrived yet so I handed him to "Nana" for practice. She works with Neal by the way which is how we know her daughter. I had wrapped up the the other two items. Did any of you know Hallmark makes adhesive wrapping paper??? I didn't! I bought it by mistake. I'm not crazy about the stuff. They send it with some sticky tabs (tape) which didn't stick well. Before leaving the house I pulled out some regular tape and re-secured one of the ends. It was interesting paper. I felt I should be putting it in my cabinets and not on a present though. I had to laugh when they kept setting the baby up with the smaller present in his lap. He looked older then his 0-3 month outfit. I did take the longer drive this morning to the other base and bought a blanket to wrap him up in. I'm glad I did. With all the moving around he did without being swaddled he may have grown longer legs (diapers moving down the leg to much).

I'm sooooo glad I gave up my pipe dream of making a small diaper cake. I started forming two layers and learned I needed more diapers. I began to plan what other items I would need to "decorate" the cake like toys, paci's and so forth. Well... a lady walked in with a really big nice diaper cake. Now that I say that the girl received a lot of nice things. Stateside it is common to go to a baby shower where you get a ton of big, small, needed, and nice items, but overseas that just doesn't happen. Someone may buy you an outfit or a couple other random items, but she was given a big gift basket full of hand picked baby items, several bags full of 4+ baby outfits with socks, hats, and diapers. I was amazed how much people really wanted to bless her. The 19 year old girl graduated from high school a year ago. Getting pregnant was a big oops that she has decided to see to completion. When I first learned she was pregnant I wasn't sure what she would do; abortion, adoption, keep it. I asked Neal if she was going to keep the baby. Her mom stepped up and said I will financially take care of you and the baby while you continue to get your education. Fast forward to today where her family (mom and sis) are fully behind her and highly anticipating this little guys arrival. The father situation is a bit confusing to me. He doesn't want anything to do with the mom, but then I hear he is in the name planning and now the baby might have his last name. I keep telling the girl if he wants nothing to do with the baby not to tag it with his name. I'm hoping she pursues child support if for nothing else to have current info on the father so if the baby wants to meet him one day he can. On a random note, I knew he was a black guy, but I didn't know he was so dark. My goodness the baby could come out any color. Mind you I'm not trying to be racist. I've just been picturing this tan baby with kinky hair since she got pregnant. Her "tan" baby may just be almost black as night.

Baby Shower

I made a couple things for a baby shower we are going to tomorrow. Well, today really seeing how it's after midnight. By the way I finished them earlier, but I'm posting them now because Neal just got off the computer. Yes, you have seen this fabric before. I used it to make Kaitlyn a dress recently. I didn't have any "boy" fabric so I thought this blue and orange would have to do. The blue is actually darker then it looks in these pictures.
I took this picture pre-Velcro. I used iron on Velcro to keep there from being ugly stitches on the top side. I also put fusible fleece between the two longer pieces of fabric. I figured if it is used for a changing pad while the wipes and diapers are out being used then the pad should be a bit more comfortable then two pieces of fabric. You can find this diaper clutch pattern on Blessed Roots blog. I've made three of them so far and they are super easy. I have stolen her idea on how to sew seams when you must flip the project inside out; it really helps in pulling the raw seams in.
I didn't know this picture was blurry until I had already wrapped it. I've made three of these over the last month. Over Kaitlyn's first year of life we used a lot of tissues. I found flattened and falling apart tissue wrappers in my purse and diaper bag all the time. I figured a tissue case would keep my tissues cleaner and together longer. Our noses are fine right now so I have yet to carry mine around. The one thing I changed was instead of putting ribbon on top of a raw edge to camouflage it I actually wrap it around the raw edge. In the tissue case above I just used bias tape. I contemplated which color ribbon to use and saw the white bias tape sitting there and thought why not. As for sewing the ends I sewed it on the right side first with a 1/8" seam then flipped it inside out and sewed 1/4" seams. I wanted to case to hold up and not have strings hanging from it. Another thing I changed was the dimensions. The tutorial says to cut a 7"wide x 6" long piece of fabric. I found the 7" to be to baggy on the sides of the case and 6" to short for how I sewed it. The case above was cut 6.5" wide x 6.25" long and fits the tissues great. The instructions in the tutorial say to buy a certain kind of tissues. I bought the standard travel tissues and after putting them into the case I used a seam ripper to make a slit in the top of the package.

This isn't all the baby gift only the handmade part. I also made a "baby". If I remember I'll get pictures of him tomorrow before we go to the shower. I bought the Carter's gown/sleep-n-play outfit that comes with a bib, booties, and a hat in 3m. I also got a Carter's onesie, size 1 diapers, teething toy, and pacifier clip. With the help of rubber bands I rolled and stuffed the sleeper with diapers. He has stuffed legs and arms made from rolled diapers. When I made a couple of these before I put socks for hands, but this outfit had the roll over sleeves to cover the baby's hands. Also the first time the sleepers had feet in them, but this one doesn't so I used the booties as feet having the top of a diaper fill it up. I left the sleeper on the hanger and wrapped diapers around it so the torso and head of the baby stay together. The first two times I used a white onesie for the face (unsnapped with that portion going down the neck opening of the sleeper, arms folded back under the hat), but only had a blue one this time. It's a bit weird with a blue face, but that's okay. I clipped the pacifier clip onto the bib and connected the teether toy to it. I didn't get a chance to go to one of the local bases to buy a baby blanket to swaddle him with so I'm not sure what I'll do. My other two I swaddled. I may just wrap this guy up somehow and give him without a blanket. Oh, the first two times I attached a note to him. Here is what it said...

(this one didn't know the gender)

This is Alex the welcome baby

When you take off his sleeper and undo some more snaps
Release a few rubber bands and take off his cap
You will find a couple onesies, a hat, and sleepers too
A few diapers, some booties, and blanket to boot.
Alex doesn’t mind sharing all he has brought
Just add a bow to her hair if it’s a girl you got.

(Knew they were having a boy)
This is Alex the welcome baby

When you take off his sleeper and undo some more snaps
Release a few rubber bands and take off his cap
You will find a couple onesies, a hat, and sleepers too
A few diapers, some booties, and blanket to boot.
Alex doesn’t mind sharing all he has brought
Just wash it right up and a layette you have got.

As you can see with both I changed them according to what was included with the baby.

Baby Shower

I just got back from the baby shower. I was surprised that even though most of the women in our small church showed up they didn't all bring a gift. I walked in and wasn't sure where to put my gift down because I didn't see other gifts and I was the last to arrive. Halfway through I noticed a small group of gifts mixed in with other things. It was almost like the whole thing was an after thought. I guess to a point it was. It was my first time meeting Tonya (guest of honor) and her two little girls. Her oldest daughter is a month older then Kaitlyn and about three inches taller. She is a big girl. I had completely forgotten that Tonya has a second child until last night. I hated to go to the shower and take nothing for the 19 month old so this morning I whipped up a small purse and stuffed a pillowcase dress in it for her. Thankfully I do have extra of those laying around. As soon as she pulled out the diaper clutch she knew right what it was. Her eyes lit up and she started opening it up and checking it out. Assuming she already had a wipes case I bought a second one anyway. I wanted her to know what it was right off and figured she could always leave it in the car as an "oops, I forgot diapers" back up so the extra case would come in handy.

Here are the modified Boutique Bottoms without my screaming child in them.

They turned out so well I thought about keeping them for Kaitlyn. I really like how they look with a pillowcase dress.