Stretching 2 yards of Stretch Terry

Yesterday I got a little sewing mojo back and brought out both my sewing machine and my serger to complete a few projects on my list. On Saturday I ventured down to the Mill End store to pick up terry cloth with the goal of making washcloths and towels for the baby, and I ended up scoring a great deal on 2+ yards of turquoise cotton stretch terry in the mill end section.

The stretch terry is super soft, and I wanted a slightly rougher fabric for the flip side in case the baby has cradle cap, so I also picked up a half yard of plain white cotton terry cloth that was slightly rougher. I kept it simple by tracing a rounded corner rectangle onto the fabric and then serged the two fabrics wrong sides together: quick and easy!

I also wanted a couple of dedicated baby towels, so I doubled up on the stretch terry, once again serging the edges together to create 2 baby-sized towels.

And since I still had some terry cloth left, I decided to make a couple of "kerchief drool bibs".

I have a friend who's baby drooled so much while teething that she just kept a bib on him at all times to help protect his clothes from being wet all the time. This seemed to work well, but I'm not a big fan of the look of bibs, so when I saw one of these "kerchief bibs" in a photo of a friend's teething baby I figured it was a much more stylish alternative.  Each bib is essentially two triangles sewn together and secured at the back with velcro. I could have used snaps, but I'm hoping the velcro will ensure that they will fit regardless of how pudgy his neck is.
  

Portland Baby Shower

The second weekend of September brought about our 2nd Baby Shower!

Since we live in Portland, and our friends here couldn't really travel up to Washington the weekend before, Remi and Andrew graciously offered to throw us a backyard afternoon party - and managed to schedule it on the very last day of beautiful weather before the rain set in.

Trevor, Ryan, Mike and Fereidoon enjoy the food and beer

Looking, and feeling, 34 + weeks pregnant

Most of our friends here have children under the age of 4, and it was a ton of fun to see them all running around the yard and interacting with each other. It made Mike and me happy to know that our kiddo will be joining the fray soon.

Andrew attempts to corral the kiddos

The food and company were fabulous and everybody was more than generous with gifts. Now I have to buckle down and get all those "thank you" notes out!

Freya is very excited to meet her new baby boy cousin

Baby Guitar

Last week my niece Elle turned 1 - where did the last 12 months go? While I feel like my pregnancy has been going on forever, it feels like the rest of the world has just sped by.

To mark Elle's birthday I made her a mini guitar from felt and velveteen. I used a free pattern online for a ukelele, and basically just added more strings. I also added a band all around the outside so that it resembled a guitar more, and looked less like a flat pillow. The strings are made thin cotton yarn, and I tacked it down every 3" or so. And I used white pearl snaps for the "tuning" keys.

Sadly, I don't have any photos of the guitar other than this awesome one of Elle. I got a new camera for my birthday and accidentally reformatted the camera card before I took the photos off of it. But you get the idea...

Bow Baby Shower

This project is still cooking.

Here's a photo of me at 33.5 weeks. This was taken last weekend at my Mom's house during a baby shower (for the kid lovingly nicknamed "Buck" by his aunties).


Mom and Susanna put together a great shower, and we were lavished with all sorts of amazing gifts, attention, hugs and well-wishes. Soon I will post some of the great  gifts that we received; many of which were handmade, which I am extremely grateful for since I don't seem to have much creativity mojo in me to make anything for my son.

Here are a few shots of the party:

Peter Rabbit

"Bunny Tails" Cake Pops

Flowers from Mom's garden

Susanna

Freshly caught and smoked salmon, courtesy of Mark, along with pretzel rolls, manchego & fig, and cucumber tea sandwiches

Empanadas! Mom and I spent the morning making these in assembly-line fashion.

Mike shows off his best "soothing sway"