PUL Sewing: Wetbags and Peepads DIY

Back when Mouse was small, Littlest was nonexistant, and I had all sorts of crazy ideas, like, I thought I would cloth diaper.  Never did I, but I did sew a couple diapers that I did let Mouse wear them as long as she promised she wouldn't poop.  (She was a liar), and I bought all kinds of PUL fabric to sew 8 million more.  A JoAnns near me going out of business was a catalyst of sorts, because everything was 90% off.   In addition to diapers, cloth diapering saintly moms also use wetbags, to store these wet diapers, which unlike their 20 cent Pampers counterpart, must be taken home with you, to wash.  Because they're expensive.  And adorable.  But mostly expensive.

Since I never really got into cloth diapering, it was never really an issue.  But, when I was potty training Mouse, (mostly by denying her pampers) her teacher would hand me, at the end of the day, her 'accident clothes',  And for MONTHS, I was like, man, I should really make a wetbag.  Because sometimes the Safeway bag I had them in would mascarade as a Safeway bag holding something else, and then you forget about it, and open it a few weeks later, and WHOA.

 How cool would it be to have a bag, or two, that would scream WASH MY INSIDES as soon as you see it in a crowded vehicle?  It would also be handy to store wet bathing suits for the trip home from beach/pool..gym?   That, and I do have Littlest coming up to potty train.. any second.  More accident clothes.  So, while she napped today, I did this:

 I would have preferred a long and narrow design, but I worked with the precut pieces I had (22X24) and the matching 18" zipper I found.  So my end result was 11" x 18".  The zipper is really what determines width, unless you're willing to stitch over it and cut it.    I boxed the corners, so it would stand on its own, just in case I need it to, while I toss swimsuits in it from across the room?

And I used french seams, though I wonder if it's worth the trouble.  PUL doesn't seem to ravel, ever.  I prefer this design over others, because there is not weird zipper bulge on top, it gets sewn on, and then sewn into the side seams, seamlessly.  You can also fold a flap down and stitch to cover the zipper, but I had no vertical inches to spare.

The good news is, I have a ton more PUL for this kind of thing.  Bad news is, I can only make use of so many wetbags.  Pinterest once spoke to me about reusable snack bags though?..

While I was busy using up PUL, I made another pee pad.  I had made one earlier, in critical potty training stages, and it was great.  It's just PUL and two layers of flannel.  It makes it heavy enough that it doesn't shift around, and absorbent enough to keep her bed dry.  It's wide enough to tuck around her mattress securely.  Recently, her Godmother has kindly provided us with a truckload of disposable ones, so this was really just a matter of finishing a project..

...because I had finally found a use for all that Tinkerbell flannel.  Back when we'd still have frequent accidents, we would take it out from underneath her, and because I never got around to making another one, we'd replace it with just a piece of PUL and a piece of free floating flannel.  Sorry, Mouse.  Mommy has too many hobbies.

But there's still Littlest.  And Tinkerbell is adorable.

It can also be a giant changing pad, or even an outdoor blanket for baby.  Just stitch three layers right sides together, leave a hole, turn, and topstitch all around.

Pinterest will be the death of me. (Doll Quilt #2, with Pouch)

Sometimes it works in everyone's favor, like the time I came across One Pot Mexican Quinoa, but usually it's pretty self serving, knitting patterns, quilt patterns that end up costing real, actual money, and time.  Time that Mr Snork has to volunteer to occupy the anklebiters so they don't unwind my bobbins while simultaneously trying to puncture everything in site with a stolen seam ripper.  (They stole it from me, it didn't start out as stolen).

The other day, right after dropping off a baby quilt to my longarm lady, I came across this:

Literally, just after I sent the other quilt on its way, and it was a good time to wash some dishes and address that shady lower drawer in my fridge.  But, alas.  Pinterest never leads to dish washing.  And rarely to the lower fridge drawers, since it is not where I keep quinoa and enchilada sauce.  It leads to this:  

And this:

And ultimately, the best part, this:

And it would be awesome if I was pulled together enough to make this in a couple hours, like Pinterest said I would.  But Pinterest didn't know that instead of using any cute fabric, I'd HAVE to piece a mini quilt out of scraps from the recent baby quilt.  (It's kind of adorable to have a doll blanket matching baby cousin's blanket?)  Then I'd HAVE to try some sort of a new pattern (disappearing four patch, which, FYI, doesn't work if you use all the colors ever created.  If you can't commit to a solid color to pull it all together, you may as well just four patch and skip the disappearing act).  Then practice mitered border corners.  (that was actually cute).   

And the fact that my Singer 301 wouldn't have anything to do with minky fabric until I read all the forums and went to JoAnn's to get some ballpoint needles.  Picky, picky.  I don't know how a 60 year old machine knows what needle is jabbing fabric down there, but apparently it does, and if it's not the right one, it gets super offended.  

It was kind of worth it though, because historically the doll quilt and baby quilt I have made for the girls don't get used, ever.  Mouse says it's not a "real blanket".  Apparently, the REAL, made in China, preferred blankets of this household all have some sort of a fleece side.  And now that I know this, and  incorporated that in, it is Eva the Monkey's new favorite. It's been a long time since something I've made got picked over it's Chinese counterpart, I'm pretty excited.  

Pumpkin Fairy Jackie Lantern in Butterick 4434

Last year, I used McCalls 6238 for the Alice in Wonderland dress, it was a great little template dress, and when I went to look for it this year (because I cut out size S, and now need a L) it has gone out of print, and no JoAnns in SoCal had it.  I even checked the Palmdale desert JoAnn's.  That's commitment.

So, while I ordered it online to keep for a future project, I had to find a new little dress.  I wanted simple lines, raised waist, and lined.  There were a couple options, and I settled on Butterick 4434, even though I think their envelopes are kind of plain, I have very little of them in my stash, and tend to pick them last.  I'm shallow like that.

Enter the Pottery Barn Kids Pumpkin Fairy dress that I saw at the mall, and WANTED,  and found the $80 price a little hard to swallow:

It did go down to $69 on clearance.  But, it turned out that tulle is the cheapest fabric EVER, so I took my $80 to JoAnn's and spent $17 of it on supplies for this dress.  The end.

It ran large, according to the measurements, Mouse is a size 2.  But a size 1 fit her with few inches in the waist to spare.  I had read that on PatternReview, but tested it with a muslin, just in case:

Size 1

 The hardest thing about making a muslin is trying to get a child into it.  She's OK trying on 'pretty dresses' but it took a couple cookies to try this on, thankfully it calls for something like a 35" zipper.  Easy kid insertage guaranteed.

 I had a hard time sewing the placket in the McCalls dress, and it had come out less than perfect.  But, an invisible zipper on this dress worked like magic.  I think the pattern calls for a traditional zipper, but, invisible is just as easy.  I find each time I sew it, it keeps getting more and more invisible.  Skills, yo.

 Felt applique? Check.  Beads and Swarovsky crystal?  Check.  Hand stitching detail?  Check.  This dress has all of the hobbies I want to dabble in but don't have the time.  And, it was fun searching Pinterest for felt flower ideas.  Did you know that if you tri fold three circles and put them side be side they make a flower?

Like this 

 

I bought 4 yards of orange tulle and 2 yards of sparkle yellow tulle and the dress has 5 layers of tulle gathered on top of the skirt and treated as one piece with skirt.  There's a green tulle sash, behind the applique, but it's hard to see in the photo.  I used some silky poly for the body of the dress, and had to interface the top, or the middle seam would bulge through it, with all of its million layers of gathered tulle..

Mouse is pretty fond of her dress.  

When she's not wearing it, she carries it around and pets her 'pumpkin dress'

The dress was super easy to make, few hours including cutting time and tiny babies underfoot.  Although Mr Snork does an absolutely admirable job of keeping them out of my hair while I sew, which means keeping Mouse away from scissors and 'helping', two things she is completely obsessed with, both together and separately.

 Most of the time got spent hand sewing the applique, the felt eyes and mouth, and arranging them on tulle.  I think this is a great template dress, that could be embellished in various ways for a flower girl, a costume, etc.  I'm thinking about stitching on a spirl-y tendril..  Can you do too much to a pumpkin dress?  I don't think so.  

 The semi circle skirt is twirly and girly, and the zipper is hidden behind the lining in the back of the dress.  I used french seams on the skirt, and that with lining and invisible zipper makes it look like a RTW garment, which I like.  If you went ahead and lined the skirt, and used this tutorial for no-hand-sew lined bodice you could have a complete machine sewn dress.   

 Trick or Treat!!

As an added bonus, all the leftover tulle went into a 20 minute matching tutu for Littlest.  I have some red dupioni laying around, and I might use this to make Mouse a Christmas dress.  I have 8 million patterns, but when I find one I like, I just use that one over and over until I run out of size range.  Ha. 

Chasing Rabbits in McCalls 6268

Mouse was doing a duo act for Halloween with (very reluctant on his side) her Papa.  It was supposed to be a trio, but I ran out of time to make my Queen of Hearts costume.  May be next year.

Mr Snork's Hatter costume came together over the last couple months or so frequenting the Boutique (women's capris, blazer and shirt to modify, sparkly bow tie, MY socks), but I could never find anything suitable for Mouse.  I don't trust internet costumes, and she's so small, (20-ish lbs) that there's a very limited range of things she can be that aren't footed, fluffy, and have a headed hood that she HATES.  So I couldn't find her an Alice in Wonderland costume ready to go.

I looked in stores and on EBay for a suitable blue dress, but struck out there as well.  Queue McCalls 6268 and an old blue button down of Mr Snorks.  I've kept that pattern on top of my 'want to make' list, just because it's cute, but if you use the poofy sleeves from view D, it becomes a perfect Alice dress:

A size large fit my 29 pound, 31" tall Mouse.  An old large size shirt of Mr Snork's provided just enough fabric for the dress, when seam ripped (not cut, I used the seam allowances on several occasions) and I had to piece the back skirt from two pieces.  I could have just bought some blue fabric, but then I'd never use up my giant pile of "repurpose" stuff.  One shirt down, 234058274 to go..

Just a tiny pile of scraps left over:

I was happy to see that Janie and Jack currently carries a (beautiful) dress, that looks just like this pattern, minus the sleeves.  So, we're even in current fashion.

It came together really easily, except I apparently suck at making plackets.  The whole make a slit, and then make that slit a straight piece of fabric didn't work out for me, it's puckered in the back..  I will practice it to get it right, because I really like the finished look.  Alice's pinafore ties covered the back, luckily:

I cut the skirt on bias, just because I really like bias cut skirts.  I love how full the skirt is on the pattern, many times the envelope picture looks awesome, and then you cut what is essentially a wimpy A-line.   I'm pretty sure I want to make a holiday dress from this pattern, as well.

Dress front:

Dress from the side:

Alice isn't complete without a white pinafore, and although I'm sure somewhere in my pattern pile there's a perfect vintage pinafore, I couldn't find it, so I made one up.

 I drew in some card symbols with pencil at first, and they looked fine, but then I had time to waste, so I went over them with some running stitch.

Alice was adorable.  She didn't really get trick or treating, and was trying to sneak into people's house's, past their legs and bags of candy, but she did help her dad win the office costume contest.  She makes for an awesome prop.  Or, rather, he makes an awesome prop for her.  The cat helped.

I used Mr Snork's old shirt, and some white eyelet fabric I had picked up at a yard sale, the lining came from Costco's Kirkland 600 thread count bed sheet that I found in the boutique.  I usually draw a line at bed linens from thrift stores, but I figured if I cooked in in industrial laundromat long enough, it would make a delightful Queen of Hearts dress.  I never made it that far, but it does make really nice lining.   I think I might talk Mr Snork into buying us a King set from Costco.   I also used some JoAnn's tulle for the ruffle, from the massive tulle sale they had, where I bought all of it, in all the colours.  Whew.  One yard used, 9874560348756 to go.

Alice and the Hatter:

I think this might be our thing.  Every year.

How long do I get to pick her costume?  I figure, at least 9, 10 years, right?

Vacationing with Mouse

Mouse is a pretty traveled baby, with almost monthly trips to Chicago, Colorado, and NorCal, and a lot of flights in her tiny lifetime, so we weren't too worried about taking her to Maui.  Although, preemptively we looked up nanny services.  Because she can be vicious, and we weren't sure if we can swing her 24/7 for 10 days, all by ourselves.

She has exceeded our best expectations.  With the exception of the first night, she has been fantastic.  First night she woke up every 2 hours, and Mr Snork, terrified the hotel would throw us out, walked her on the beach, every couple hours all through the night.   After spending the next day delirious with no sleep,  Mr Snork relaxed about the possible hotel baby discrimination, Mouse realized he wasn't running to walk her on the beach at 2 am, and gave up.  Babies are crafty.

I was relieved to find out vacationing is almost the same, except there's a tiny creature who wants things.   Wanting things is her THING right now, and it's really the only thing she's good at, so we humor her, in hopes she soon develops other, less taxing hobbies.  (That, and we're whipped).   Sometimes we cave and stay home during happy hour and let her take a nap, and sometimes we pretend we're in charge and take her for a run in the stroller.  And she screams for 2 miles, to let us know she doesn't like it.   But, what travel partners are perfect?  At least, this one can be bought with crackers.   (For a few minutes at a time, so I really need to find a longer lasting alternative, or buy stock in cracker companies).  And she only snores a little.

Sunshade + blow up bathtub + baby UV suit =  HOURS of fun on the beach.   Mr Snork and I take turns snorkeling and diving for sea glass.   The beached parent invents games with rocks, monitors sand intake, build sand towers for Mouse to crumble, and bathes the Mouse in the ocean.  She loves it.  I haven't spotted obscene amounts of sand in her poop, so we must be doing OK.   Once we had to emergency evac - she rubbed her eyes as she played in the sand.  It was a little ugly, but she recovered after a shower and a nap.   For all the time we spend on the beach I'm surprised it only happened once.  All this playing makes her nap super hard.   This morning we spotted turtles from our balcony, and I dispatched Mr Snork to go snorkel with them, and make sure they aren't rabid or mean, or anything.  After he swam with them and cleared any human related psychoses they might have and they still stuck around, I went down and also had a turn.  Mouse slept through all that, but she's not much of a snorkeler anyway.  

 My mother emailed me and told me she had a dream of Mouse taking her first steps, in the sand.  Because she had a dream the night before Mouse was born, (that she would be born), we have taken the appropriate steps to let this dream happen.  We've walked her on the beach, and on the plush Hyatt lawns.  (We aren't even staying in Hyatt.  We go down there for the grass).  We've tried sunrises, and evenings, and live bands.  No dice.  As soon as we let go off her hands, she promptly nose dives for the ground.  Or sits back.  I'm thinking it was a dream glitch.  I have put hours into this, and all I have is a million pictures of Mouse butt scooting around on all fours, away from us and our aggressive need to teach her things.

The only thing Mouse consistently doesn't like (other than sitting in her carseat) is shopping.  She gets super antsy in the stores, dives for displays, chews tags, attacks things, and thrills Mr Snork every time we have to make a hasty exit.  No touristy loot for me.  I make do by looking at the windows, and making a mental note to Ebay things later.  I should make physical notes, but it would ruin Mr Snork's day each time.  This way, I'll reliably forget each thing once I'm three storefronts down.

We take her into Lahaina art galleries, and she pretends she's into art.  She's almost snobbish about it.        There were some silly paintings with a bear and rabbits, and the salesperson rushed over, telling us how perfect it would be for a nursery.   Mouse stared her down like, "Why would I want this ridiculous bear??  The place next door had a stunning bronze mermaid sculpture, so please leave my face, and take your nursery rabbits with you".     Like us, I'm pretty sure she's obsessed with Vladimir Kush,

and Fabian Perez.

Lucky for her, they're both available to stare at locally at Laguna Beach, because it might be a while before either one comes home with us.

Speaking of beautiful pictures - I tried, despite popular protests to take an ADORABLE picture of Mouse and Parrot named Pearl that hangs out in Lahaina, charges $30 per picture, and is an exquisite shade of greys and pinks.  As soon as Pearl, perched on my hand entered Mouse's line of sight, she started reaching for her with vigor indicative of plucking and other unfriendly behaviors.  Pearl freaked out and was replaced by a not-nearly-as-exciting dull green bird, who was a veteran and a trooper.  Our "Aloha from Maui" postcard choices consisted of 2 shots of Pearl scaling my arm in desperate escape attempts and 4 shots of Mouse glaring at the stoic green bird.  No $30 material in sight.   I guess 10 months is too early?  My plan is walk her past the birds daily, until the novelty wears off, and she can play nicely with them for a fraction of a second.  I have 6 days to accomplish this.  Mr Snork is hoping I fail and save him $30, so I'm double committed.

In Mouse's defense, she lets me take countless pictures of her, for free.  A lot of our time is spent doing just that, on the beach, on the resort grounds, under every plumeria tree or hibiscus bush I can spot, and in the wild.  Sometimes, Mr Snork mans the Mouse while I climb waterfalls and try to get artsy with the camera.   They climb waterfalls too, but prefer the outskirts of the waterfalls, with less slippery rock.    Mouse can also play with a pile of rocks by the river while we have lunch.  Sometimes, we all hang out in the shaved ice trailer by the road and eat the ice, watching the Sugar Cane Train go by.   Other times we hide, and watch her head bobbing in the pack and play, looking for us, when she's supposed to go to sleep.  Like right now.  

She Figured Out That Doors Open.

Oh, no.

Baby Mouse Wants to Play, Too.

She came to be almost 6 months ago, and if she knew she wasn't even mentioned in this blog, she'd be pissed.  Although, to be fair, nothing's been mentioned in this blog in about 6 months, give or take (give) the last two long months of pregnancy where I couldn't feel my ribs anymore and nothing seemed fun.  

She went from this tiny, unimpressed, lip pursing creature (that we were all scared of):

To this:

Still tiny, but a whole little person, with a personality, likes (Mr Snork, baths, her toes), dislikes (she changes these up frequently to keep me on my toes, but always greeted with a ridiculous for her size angry grunt), and all types of skills (that we're still scared of, but not as much). 

Like this whole foot in the mouth business.  She couldn't do this couple weeks ago.  I got probably 80 shots on my camera during this toe discovery business.  My hard drive at 6 months post partum is groaning with the weight of thousands of baby pictures.  Some taken in continuous action mode.  Which makes me think, I have a couple pictures of my great grandma.  Baby Mouse's great-grandchildren will be able to see her every day since birth, until Mr Snork confiscates my camera, like he's been threatening. 

She's amazing all over, of course, because I  m a d e  her (with some help from Mr Snork) but she has been particularly amazing in two respects.  One is her standing.  She started doing it at about 4 weeks old, she'd straighten herself  and we thought it was gas, until it turned out she just really likes to stand upright.  At about the same time we learned that she did not like being cradled, which to this day, makes for a feeding challenge. 

And the other is her face.   She's been giving us dirty looks from Day 1.  They say babies can't focus well the first couple weeks..  I'm here to tell you, if there's was a reason to focus (milk not in mouth soon enough) she managed to focus.  I read an article that said tiny babies don't know what hunger is, and they don't know when it hits, that their parents will be there shortly to relieve it, hence the massive freak out.  She may not know I'll be there to relieve it, but she looks at me like she KNOWS I could've been there sooner.  It's pretty amazing.  And, for Mr Snork, there are also looks of complete and utter adoration.  The first bunch of actual, real smiles were actually directed at Mr Snork.  Of course.  And his ribs didn't even feel a thing.  Typical.



Please welcome Baby Mouse (formerly referred to as Strawberry. Turns out she's less of a fruit and more of a tiny animal in person.)  My new, tiny, adorable, temperamental sidekick.  Who loves her Papa a little more than me, but I'm not bitter or anything.  It's probably a baby thing. 

The Nesting Mode is a Terrible Thing

When you have ADD. 

We got back from our late honeymoon, and the long stay at the hotel has inspired me.

 .. To throw away everything I own.   There's something about living in an empty hotel room, out of a bag with 3 dresses (and 9 bathing suits) that was really, really appealing.   This seemed really simple until I got home and remembered I really *like* all the crap I have.  But, my God.. there's so much stuff.  

So far I have simply resorted to randomly throw away various pieces of clothing as I fold laundry.  I have to be quick about it, because if they linger in a plastic 'donate' bag by the door too long, I eventually talk myself into keeping it for refashioning, using the fabric for something else.. a dusting rag..  etc.   I think what the problem *really* is, is that I do not have a walk in closet.  Clearly.

The kitchen also got hit, and I managed to toss all the ratty old spatulas, and the 5 sets of measuring cup sets.  As well as 800 packets of soy sauce.  Then I thought, what if we go camping, spur of the moment, and make rice.. and I'll have no soy sauce?!  And then I thought that's exactly how I end up with 800 packets of soy sauce, and that if I served it with rice while camping, Mr Snork would refuse to eat it anyway, citing health concerns, FDA guidelines, and average life expectancy of people who scavenge for food at the bottooms of their kitchen drawers. 

I did, however, keep the 200 ketchup packets, because parting with two perfectly edible things at once might seriously scar my psyche. 

I have also stripped down the living room curtains, and made Mr Snork put up a traverse rod we've had for ages, and am now working on making the sheers into austrian shades, of sort.  I was pretty sure getting the rod hanging was the major obstacle, but it's now been 4 curtain-less days, and an unreasonable sunny/hot living room.  Oops.

I am waiting for the mail ordered sheer austrian tape.   Had I known the sheer type can only be gotten online, Mr Snork might have gotten an extension.   Something tells me it's going to be a disaster.  Horizontal gathers just seem wrong.  I mean, I found some really good pictures online, but my sheers are looking at me with a smug smirk that tells me they will not go down easily.  It's not just their attidude, either.  I used some opaque white tape JoAnn Fabric carries for the edges, and the sheers curved in mutinously.  Something tells me that adding 5-6 more segments is not going to improve the situation.   Good thing I got a load of drapery weights at a yard sale for a nickel.  Fingers crossed.

In addition this, I'm re-making the curtains to add heading tape, pleats, hooks, etc.  This requires piecing panels together, by hand;  so, mostly, I've been staring at a giant pile of curtain.  I have a sore back that's not conducive to hours of hand sewing.  I'm contemplating Stitch-Witchery, or some other iron on adhesive.   Horrifying as it may be, it might be the only way these curtains will go up before Strawberry gets here.

Speaking of whom, I have to paint her room.  Green, with bubbles?  Or flowers?  And, may be a monkey.  Might have to stencil the monkey..   She's also going to need curtains.  I'm waiting for Mr Snork to rip out the carpet and put down flooring in that room.  He's seriously lagging on his nesting syndrome, because I sense no sense of urgency about him whatsoever.  Although, he is remarkably good at humoring me, so there's that.  Had I said today I need that room painted purple, hire an artist to paint a castle, and need him to get into the walls to wire some lights into said castle, I swear, he wouldn't bat an eyelash.  He'd pretend to look up castle painting artists adn their credentials and lay low, waiting for the nightmare to pass.

AND, in a truly exciting development, I think I have tracked down the T-Mobile dress reincarnation.  What do you think:

And, this, from McCall (#6029) with a fluffiier skirt:

Well, it's close enough.  It's closer than the other 'reincarnation' I procured on Ebay:

 Might have to make both.  After the curtains.  And room painting.  And shady sheers.  And a quilt I am making...  (true story).  And, of course, the wedding thank you cards.  (Insert very ashamed smiley face)

And, only, like, 6 weeks to go till Strawberry!  (Who is no longer breech, after 9 days of 4-hour-a-day snorkeling schedule).