It's Baby Time!

It's baby time here!

Don't worry, you didn't miss anything, I'm not pregnant.:)

But, my brother-in-law and his sweet girlfriend are!!

This weekend they had two baby showers.

One co-hosted by yours truly.

(Pictures to come)

I have been a busy bee the past few weeks making some precious baby gifts.

While working away I came up with a great idea...

Why not share these easy peasy, yet super easy crafts with YOU, my lovely friends?!

I consider myself a novice sewer (well crafter in general) and each of these crafts were very easy to accomplish.

The first gift I wanted to share, I have a mini tutorial for.

Yay me, except I forgot to take pictures of one part ;)

Nursing wraps, or as I like to call them- hooter hiders, are ESSENTIAL to nursing moms.

I use mine ALL the time.

If you try to purchase one you should be prepared to shell out around $30!

WHAT!

When I looked up tutorials on how to create one each set of directions I found was far to complex for

my taste.

Let's be serious, mine ends up bunched in a ball shoved into the diaper bag pretty much all the time.

The cute little pocket on the inside has never been used.

Honestly, I didn't even notice it until Zadie was 6 months old.

SO, I decided to create a tutorial for a super-simple nursing wrap.

Here we go!

You need:

1yd of fabric

(I recommend a pattern that with hide the inevitable wrinkles!)

2 D rings

1/2 yd of 1/2 inch boning

Sewing machine

thread

1. Cut your fabric into three pieces measuring 35x25, 28x5, and 10x5

2. On the largest piece of fabric fold the bottom under 1/4 inch and iron. Then fold over 1inch and iron again.

Hem the bottom edge staying as close to the top as possible to catch both folds.

(This will give you a nice finished hem.)

3. Now follow the same steps and hem the two sides.

4. Set the main piece to the side for a bit and grab the longer strap piece.

Fold in half, width wise, and iron.

6. Hem the two sides, leaving one end open to turn the strap. Cut each of the corners at an angle.

Turn right side out

and press.

 Now top stitch along the three edges.

(leaving the end not sewn alone because it will be hidden.)

5. Grab the smaller strap piece and follow the same steps, but leave BOTH ends open and only top stitch up  two sides.

Slide the D-rings on and pin the ends of the strap together.

Sew a seam as close to the rings as possible to prevent the rings from sliding.

(The baby is wiggly enough to not have to worry about a wonky strap!)

6. It's time for the boning...

(don't be scared :))

Cut your boning down to 13 inches, rounding the corners so they wont rip the fabric over time.

Fold the top of the main piece of fabric over 1/4 inch 

then 3/4 inch

iron.

Now we need to mark our fabric for the straps and boning.

First mark the center of the fabric with a pin.

Measure out from the pin 6.5 inches each direction and pin.

Here we go for my do-do moment. I got so into the project that I forgot to take pictures :(

Sorry! 

But, to make up for it you can follow this link and skip to step 7.

She gives very clear instructions and she has great pictures on how to add the straps and boning!

Here is my finished project:

I love how it turned out!

And...

The happy parents-to-be told me it was their FAVORITE gift from the shower!

(later, not in front of people... and they may or may not have been buttering me up to be a free babysitter...;)

Anywho, it was fun. It was easy. It is WAY useful. And it is cute to boot!

I call that a win!

Come back tomorrow for more baby-licious fun!

xxxx,

I'm linking to these great parties!