The Callon's: Getting ready for baby

I have been a Sewing Machine!

Pun totally intended.

I have always admired the slings that I see mother's wearing their babies in. I was also a bit envious because I didn't even dream or imagine this stuff when Joey was a newborn. Of course they had Baby Bjorns and I used one while I coached volleyball but it always hurt my back and Joey never looked comfortable in it. I came across some really gorgeous slings on etsy.com when I first found out I was pregnant again. The one I really wanted was over $60, only because it was made with Amy Butler fabric. I found some more modestly priced ones for around $30 which I contemplated about here. However I couldn't decide on the fabric I wanted and I realized I just didn't love either one enough to commit.
Enter in my obsession with Joann's craft store. I found the cutest gray hounds-tooth fabric that I knew would look great on something. I dwelled on it for a couple of days and found a really neat baby sling tutorial on Pinterest.com from The Poplar Porch blog that really simplified the process and dumbed it down enough for me to get how to sew it.
I thought a yellow Chevron striped fabric would go perfect with the gray fabric and so I went on a very short search for it at Joann's and came up with nothing, but I did find a yellow dot fabric that matched well. I took the fabric over to my Mom's and she helped me sew my first sling together. My Mom has sewed since she was a little girl and one of her last projects was sewing me my homecoming dress sophomore year of high school. It was really neat to see her "light up" doing this project since it's been quite awhile since she has sewn.

Here I attempt to model it with a stuffed animal and a self portrait. The picture doesn't do it justice, but it turned out awesome. The fit is not right yet since I have a big baby basketball in the way, but it should be fine post birth.

My adventures in sling making gets even better. I made another with left over fabric from the car seat canopy I also made. Depending on your measurements, it only takes two yards of two coordinating fabrics and some thread and you got yourself, not one, but two slings. So after purchasing and sewing I only paid about $15 total in supplies for two baby slings. Technically, I can make another sling for nothing if I pair the two remaining pieces I have left over from the other two slings. Baby shower present? =) The second one only took about an hour to whip out, since I knew what I was doing.

In addition to sling making I also have created some blankets, diaper/spit up cloths, and a reversible car seat canopy.

The picture below shows both finished slings, a guitar blanket, and the cloths.

I didn't use any web sources for the blanket since those are pretty basic to sew, but I did research what fabric to use for the burp cloths (flannel for absorbency)since I wanted to pair them with the cute fabric I bought on fabric.com awhile back. The guitar fabric was originally intended for the car seat canopy but I mistakenly bought jersey knit fabric and it's very stretchy and hard to pair with regular cotton fabric so I reworked it to make a blanket instead.

The car seat canopy was fun to make, but took a little bit of time. It may be because I did it with my Mother-in-Law and we love to chat, but also because we were brainstorming how to do the ties. I get a little overzealous when I sew and go too fast, but I was really glad to do this project with her because she had some really good tips for me. I used this tutorial from the Vanilla Joy Blog. The instructions were almost like making a rounded blanket with ties to tie on the car seat handle. Since I was making it reversible (using the gray hounds tooth and teal dot fabric from the slings) it was a bit complicated getting it to all work together. None the less though, the canopy came out beautifully and it's probably my best "sewing in a straight line" accomplishment to date.

I unintentionally matched it to the car seat fabric. I say unintentionally because the guitar fabric was my first pick and the teal polka dots fabric was actually purchased to make a hospital gown with, but I have ditched that project...for now.

Lastly, here is a sneak peak at part of the nursery. I sewed up this blanket with the adorable Owl Fabric and a chenille underside. It turned out surprisingly well, considering sewing with two completely different fabrics is difficult and the chenille fabric kept slipping and moving on me. I do plan on finishing it with blanket binding for more of a polished look, but I may just leave it the way it is for now. Mainly because I have never sewed binding on before and it looks good the way it is. I would hate to mess it up!