Bibs, Baby!

We had a great visit with Grandma and Grandpa Spupspe the past couple of weeks. Blueberry demonstrated a new skill for them: she will turn the pages while you read to her.

I couldn't believe it when she turned every page of Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? as I read it to her. She would look at and taste the picture on each page, then reach for the page and turn it. I was surprised that this would be a 3.5-month skill. I looked it up and found a website that says babies can do this at 8 or 9 months, but then a bunch of parents wrote in the comments that their 3-month-olds could do it. Amazing. I had no idea.

Hazel has been developing her skills as well. Specifically, her sewing skills. More specifically, her bib-making skills. Until Blueberry was 2 months old, I had thought that bibs were for when she is much older, and eating solid food. I was wrong. One day she began to drool and since then she has been a fountain of drool. Several minutes per day are spent managing drool. Burp cloths are great but it's impossible to keep them where they need to be at all times. The only way to prevent Blueberry from constantly wearing a wet shirt is to put a bib on her. So rather than buy them, I thought they seemed like a good project for an amateur seamstress. Here is the latest one, which is my current favorite.




It has the same fabric on front and back and an extra layer of t-shirt material on the inside for absorbency. I sewed wrong sides together, turned it inside out, and top-stitched twice around the whole thing to make it look more finished. I'm very happy with it and surprised that I didn't end up with the t-shirt material on the outside or some other mistake.


This bib is versatile in that it catches all manner of fluids from drool, to spit-up, to sneezes.






At some point during Hazel's sewing adventures, Blueberry found her feet.



Anyway, back to sewing. The above bib was preceded by these three, which technically work, but have various flaws which lead me to think of them as merely prototypes.

The one on top is from an old t-shirt of mine. The one on the left is from a scrap of denim I had intended for a quilt. It's pretty stiff and it frays and the button wasn't the smartest idea. The one on the right is from a onesie I picked up at a rummage sale that ended up being too small, so I sacrificed it to make yet another bib.

Then I made these pants for Blueberry in my favorite color out of a t-shirt Stanley got for free from some science vendor.

I am so fricking pleased with them and it was quite easy using these instructions I found online. At first I made the elastic too short so they were too tight around Blueberry's belly, but it was easy to take some stitches out, put in a longer piece of elastic, and sew them up again.

A while back as my first project I cut the sleeves off of a shirt of mine and hemmed the shirt where the sleeves had been to make a shirt that I found to be much cuter. I saved the sleeves in case I found something to use them for, and it turned out to be baby pants.

This was my favorite project so far. I absolutely love these pants and I can't wait until it gets hot out so Blueberry and I can be all matchy-matchy. Unfortunately, since they aren't made of a stretchy material, they don't fit unless she is wearing a disposable diaper, so I will have to toss aside my concern for the environment on the days she wears these pants. But it's worth it, I tell you. It's worth it. Screw the earth, I love these pants!!!

I am thrilled to be able to make pants for my kid. It's sew easy, only takes a few minutes once you've got the hang of it, and sew cheap. I've caught a fever, and the only cure is more baby pants. So last night I looked for something with stretchy sleeves, found an ugly grey maternity sweater which I promised myself I would not wear again, cut off the sleeves and made some sweater pants.

The sweater was Gap Maternity which I got at a yard sale. The yellow onesie with the cute blue bird is Gap Baby which I also got at a yard sale. So the Blueb is dressed in used, recycled Gap today, and she couldn't be more proud.

That's my sewing report for now. Projects currently underway or on deck include a quilt I set aside years ago which I intend to finish, though not in a way that would please even the most amateur quilter, and not in a way that would allow it to withstand a trip through the washing machine, cloth napkins, more bibs, burp cloths, and more bibs.