Thursday, March 20, 2008

Will this make it happen????

I am less than a week away from my due date, and I am so ready to have this baby. He's so heavy! And I am so bored. I have finished 95% of my projects. (I can't finish them all as it gives me the heebee-jeebees - I am oddly superstitious that if I finish them all that I won't be around afterwards). I'll show you the projects that I have finished. The quilt that needs to be hand quilted and the home-made fitted diapers and wool sweater diaper covers that need snaps are to left to the imagination for now....

But before the projects, I have to show you this cute picture of one of my snuggle-bug cats, Simon. He has been super clingy all through this pregnancy. When I am at the computer he insists on being held like a baby in my lap, or up on my shoulder like you would burp a baby. If I sit on the couch he is magnetically attracted to my big warm belly. At night he sleeps on my belly/back, as I sleep on my side. This is me sittin gon the couch cross-legged and knitting, with a belly warmer:


Knitted Wool Diaper Covers


I forget which pattern these are, but I know I got it from Anna! They are lanolized and ready to go. I hope I did the lanolin correctly. The process is simple, but I have never done it before. It is so hard to tell if they'll work. I'll just have to try them out and hope for the best. Jumping into cloth diapers and wool covers is a new thing for me. We used disposables for Miss B. Now we know better and plan on keeping all that plastic out of the landfills.

Home-Made Pre-folds


I made these small pre-folds out of a stack of old t-shirts. The inside centres are padded with the pink t-shirts that I just can't put on a boy bum. I kept the more neutral colours for the outsides. They sure are soft. They were amazingly simple and easy to make. I love my serger!!! I hope they are absorbent enough.

I made some larger ones, too. Home-made tie-dyed t-shirts will look so cute on a baby bum, especially this summer!


I made some black ones too, but they didn't look good in the pictures. I can't wait to see them on. A little punk rock bum!

Dyed Indian Cotton Pre-folds


These were unbleached indian cotton prefolds that I bought from a local diaper retailer. I wasn't going to dye them, but after I dyed the motherese from the last post, I just couldn't stop myself. The colours ended up more muted than the motherese, but I think it has to do with the colour of the unbleached cotton. It could also be that i only washed the pre-folds 10 times before I dyed them and there may have still been some oil left on the fabric that prevented it from absorbing as much colour. Oh well, still cute!

Another Pair of Longies


I love this pattern. It is so simple - a great brainless activity. I must make more....

The Bag


I made this bag out of nothing. I made up the pattern. Well, actually, I didn't even use a pattern. I just cut out pieces that I was hoping would fit together. The dark grey corduroy came from remnants of a project from before Miss B was born. We had inherited a car seat from a friend, but the cover was ghastly. At nine months pregnant I had decided to recover the car seat with the lovely grey cord. I tried and tried, but I couldn't make it work, so my pregnant self resigned to paying a dress-maker $100 to finish what I started. I should have just bought a new damn car seat! But it did turn out beautifully and we are going to use the car seat again for this baby, so I guess it was worth it. Anyway, the leftovers are the outside of this bag. The inside is a really great 1970's sheet that I found in our co-op's share-closet. I made lots of pockets on the inside. I tried to take a picture of the inside, but the pattern and all the pockets were too hard to figure out visually. I added a quick-release buckle to the strap after a few different attempts at making the strap. It isn't adjustable for size - I'll leave that for another time when I am not pregnant. Other than that, I am quite happy with it. I guess it will be a diaper bag. It looks like a diaper bag. I did buy a diaper bag (well, actually, it is a really cool bag from Lululemon), but one can never have too many bags, non?

Art Books


This project has been years in the making. My very artistic daughter draws all the time. She started taking paper from the printer as soon as she could draw on her own. I have collected all those pages of printer paper over the years and wanted to do something with them. I did some research and found a lovely little company on the North Shore that does binding of small projects. I organized the drawing by date and they bound them like real books. Miss B was so thrilled with the result. She sat and looked through everything. I tired to name all the drawings, especially the ones she gave me titles for. She seemed to remember them all. She even knew what the non-descript blobs of early drawing were. We plan on doing this every year. It is totally worth the $50/book.


So this is the end of the projects! I did make some slings - a few stretchy, a few woven. I also made a wrap. They are not worth photographing until they have a baby in them! The diapers I made are really cute, too, but they need snaps. I really need to find a snap press to borrow to do the plastic snaps.


I cleaned off my work table in my bedroom. It has nothing on it. No more piles of projects, no more sewing machines. Just a lamp. It is all ready for the midwives to put their gear for the birth. So what am I supposed to do now? How about get a pedicure with my darling daughter?

Baby Jaguar Toes


Cherry Blossom Toes


And now we wait. And wait. And wait. And wait..........

2 comments:

cosymakes said...

sooo exciting! sounds like you've been crafting up a storm. may it all go well.
xoxo
cosy

Midlife Traveller said...

The diapers and covers are so amazing! Thinking about you lots and wishing a peaceful and marvelous birth!!