Napkins!

Fabric: Sugar Pop for Moda

To me, it's incredibly satisfying to use the items I've made around the house.  I still love seeing Evan's quilt on his bed each day or putting on a cover during a diaper change.  I fully adore my mismatched napkins, with their mitred corners, made from sets of mixed fat quarters.  However, a kitchen can always use more, so I caved in to a lust for some lovely fabric and made eight more.  Now I can have a giant dinner party or avoid laundry for a few days, and still have enough napkins!

Napkins in their cage...

Spring Top Sewalong

Flowery button-down by Nicole

Despite how much I wanted to, I was too busy being pregnant and teaching a night class to participate in last year's Spring Top Sewalong.  This year, both boys go down for the night around 8 and if there isn't good TV on (so sad Top Chef is over!), I can sew for a few hours.  I don't often make clothing for myself, but the Sewalong spurred me on, so I purchased some nice, lightweight voile and decided on a pattern from a book I bought a few years back, which I purchased solely for the shirt design (Downtown DIY Sewing, by Alice Chadwick).  It has an interesting yoke construction, princess seams in the back and a mandarin collar, but once sewn in, the sleeve was super floofy, so I ripped it out and reduced the fluff a bit a lot.  I took in the waist to make it more fitted and added a self-belt.  Even though the fabric completely reminds me of my great-aunt's cobbler aprons (Mom, can you back me up on this!?), and I came *this close* to throwing in the towel when I saw those poofy sleeves, I am very pleased with the result.

Big butt baby pants

As I knew would happen, finding pants that fit over Little Man's big, cloth-diapered butt is a challenge. I can only take so many pairs of baby leggings! In my zeal of nesting before the baby arrived, I made a couple of pairs of "Big Butt Baby Pants" from Made By Rae, but the baby never wore either--just too small in the waist. Last week, I used fabric from my stash to make two more pairs, adding elastic at the ankles so the little crawler could do his thing. My husband made a comment about bringing back MC Hammer pants, but I don't care; I think they're cute!

(The khaki fabric came from JoAnn's a while ago, and the green striped fabric is "Welcome Road" from the Nicey Jane collection by Heather Bailey. By the way, how much do I adore her laminated cottons? Too much.)