Going green....

I have a cousin who is expecting a baby in the next month or so, and I have another diaper clutch in progress for her (I cut both out at the same time - good thing it turned out so successfully!).  But I also know that she switched to cloth diapers when her older child was around 2 years, and she plans to cloth diaper this baby from the start.  Not sure if it's more a financial or environmental decisions, but either way, go her!  In any event, because I know she's committed to cloth diapering, I decided that cloth baby wipes would be a nice gift!

There are 90 or so in these stacks, mainly because I was having fun cutting up flannel that was in the "huh?  What was I thinking?" category, as well as flannel that was leftover from other things but I just wasn't sure what to do with the leftover pieces.  And also because it was strangely fun and addicting.  These are all 8x8, with slightly rounded corners to make serging easier.  They are double-layer flannel, because I didn't have a stash of terrycloth or anything else for the backing, and I decided that I wanted this to be stash-busting instead of a reason to go shopping.  The apple, diaper pins, and beach flannel on the right and the penguin in the middle were all leftover pieces.  The Sesame Street on the upper left was purchased for making crib sheets for the local pregnancy center years ago, but obviously I never got around to using that particular flannel.  And the fall leaves on the left and polka dots on the top are both flannel sheets from the thrift store.  They were purchased to become PJ pants, but that hadn't happened yet, so I sacrificed them for this.

Now it turns out I have another pregnant cousin who is thinking about cloth diapering, so I'll send her some of these.  Maybe 2 dozen.  But Cousin #1 gets the rest, because I know that she'll cloth diaper. ;)

And since I was on a roll, I also cut the fall sheet into cloth napkins for an early Christmas present for another friend.  I decided that the casual fabric should mean a casual finish, so these are also serged with slightly rounded corners.  I got ten napkins out of the queen sized sheet, plus a half dozen or so cloth wipes.  Not bad!  Hooray for stash-busting!

Christmas gifts

Sad but true - my Christmas gifts came down to the wire, and I confess that they're still not quite done. Oh, well.....I had everything done that was necessary for in person, and Christmas gifts that come late in the mail are always fun, right?

Things have been slow lately, because I was dealing with the class from *$#&!!! Also, my serger was on the blink for awhile. My output slowed down dramatically while I was waiting for my baby to come back from the shop. But come back it did, and then I was able to get back into the swing of things!

First up, the shark shirts from the Patrick Curved Raglan Seam pattern. My boys have been waiting on these for a long time, but I couldn't finish them without the serger. Now they're done, and each shirt has been worn at least twice in the last week! :) These are the same sizes as before (3T and 5T), but this time, I used 1/4" seam allowances. I am planning to compare the size 5T to the "big kid" sizes and maybe move up to the next size for the next shirt. I'd also like to try the hoodie instructions.

This is my go-to PJ pants pattern, and I liked the addition of the contrast cuffs so much on my wolf PJ pants that I did it again for these. And I used black bias tape for the drawstring. I think my friend will like these!

I finally finished the stack of cloth napkins for my friend. Those got sent out to her early so that she could use them. Hopefully she likes them! These were cut out of some flannel sheets I got from freecycle. I also have a bunch of fabric to use to make her some more. The basic pattern is from a book called Simply Napkins.

The nephews both got some toys that were not going to be terribly easy to wrap. So instead, I used pillowcases. The younger nephew got one of the trains and toys pillowcases (I made these awhile ago but apparently didn't mention them), and the older one, who is in Little League, got the Peanuts baseball print. They were a hit! And much easier for wrapping....

There's more to mention, and more that's still being finished, so that'll be for next time!