After making Kent's Christmas pants last year, I feel that I'm comfortable enough with sewing baby pants to do them for other people, so there are a bunch of upcoming winter babies who will be wearing pants made by me.

I made some Christmas pants for Morgan's baby girl, who's due just before Christmas, out of the last scraps of fabric leftover from when I had made Kent's pants. Kent's had an elastic waist, because I could measure him and make sure they were going to be the right size, but since newborns are fairly unpredictable in terms of size (and, uh, everything else?), I figured a drawstring with a cute ribbon was the way to go. I also found a nice pattern for booties that includes a ribbed cuff to help them stay on, so I've been knitting these up for lots of babies as well.

I made these for Morgan's baby before they found out they're having a girl, but Christmas flannel and red booties can transcend gender, I think.

A friend from my AP group in town is having a little girl in October, and we had a baby shower for her yesterday. She also got a pair of red booties before she found out the gender, and I decided to make some pants for the baby shower. I found two excellent flannels — once I finally found the freakin' flannel section in the fabric store — one with giraffes that had about 3/4 of a yard left on the bolt, and a light green with tiny polka dots of various pastel colors. I'm in love with both of these fabrics. Our baby may get pants made out of one or both of them, since I have a lot left.

I've made a paper pattern for this particular size, which I hope is roughly 0-3 months, so that I won't have to keep tracing the same pair of Kent's pants over and over. It's so simple to make them, even with button holes and a drawstring, and nothing much seems sweeter than snuggling up with a new baby who's dressed in soft flannel.

I wanted to get a book for my friend's daughter as well, and since she already has a son who's almost 3 and has a huge collection of books, I figured I'd look for something with a female protagonist in hopes that they wouldn't already have it. My friend is not a girly girl and never has been, so I knew that I was looking for a strong, creative, smart main character, preferably one who was not dressed in all pink or a ballerina costume. You get the idea. I pored over a lot of picture books in Barnes & Noble before I fell head over heels in love with Ladybug Girl, the first in a series of books by Jacky Davis and David Soman. This heroine is perfectly awesome, and she even has an older brother, just like my friend's little girl has. I adore her and would highly recommend this book to others (Heather and AB, you guys in particular!).

Ahh, book love. And sewing love. And babies. Yum.

Labels: craftiness, family, photography, what to read

• posted by erica 8/27/2009 06:47:00 PM
•