Zuri getting light therapy at home, and modeling on the side

Light therapy. . . seems like all we do these days. The yummy cashmere blend soaker is so soft and very nice with the flat diapers. At this size all of Zuri's diapers give her bubble but. It's hard for them to be absorbant and trim. This soaker looks like capri's though.

Big brothers look on as Z gets some zzzzzzzz's. Glo baby glo!

Lights off, for a diaper change. Since this thing is plugged in and we use water with wipes we don't want to really "light" her up!
These longies came out much better than I thought and since they do still fit Mardie I'm sure she'll get plenty of use out of them. . . that is until she out grows the rise. M doesn't wear a dipe anymore so I guess thats why they still fit.

Dying for Sherbert

I finished the last of the dying. Orange! I had 2 dappi covers given to me from my friend Jaime. I love my rainbow of flats and kimono t's!

Soon, maybe very soon, my sweet baby Z will be wearing them.

Dying to change

I got to dye yesterday. I just need one more package of orange dye to finish off my kimono t's and flats. I love the colors that Dylon produced. I don't know why but I ended up with one light and one dark kimono and both were in the same dye bath at the same time and I thought equally agitated with the flat diapers shown below. The diapers dyed uniformly. The dye on the kimono's is uniform, just one is a different shade. All are 100% cotton.
It wil be so fun to use these flat diapers and tops at the hospital for my babe with her fashion wraps!

fashion tabs

I decided to cloth diaper Zuri at the hospital. This is a new undertaking. The boys had their first cloth diapers at home. I am going to use flat diapers, single layers of cloth that are in large rectangles or squares that unfolded provide no protection for diapering, but are meant to be folded many times into other shapes to hold/contain pee and poo. They can be used without covers by being pinned on fastened with a snappi fastener or just held on with wraps. For ease in the hospital I will use wraps. My sis gave me these newborn wraps along with a ton of cloth dipaering things before Charmie was born. They have a notch for the umbilical cord cut out. I hardly used them for my boys moving quickly to wool covers and all in one diapers. When I decided to use flats and prefolds I realized that they are perfect for hospital use and our early cloth diapering days.
I had tried to hand paint them, but they are polyester and the fabric paint just washed out, and bled into the stitching. I didn't dye them for the same reason but I wanted them to be cute.
I was recently blessed to be able to purchase some PUL remnants and had a few free scraps given to me too. Since PUL is waterproof fabric I thought what a great choice to embelish diaper covers with. I sewed a little tab cover on and now the once plain covers are fashion covers!

I felt like dying today. . .

I didn't feel like or have time for anything major.
I did get some housekeping done.
I went through some baby things to pull out more gender neutral things that I will probably use for Zuri. . .
We ran some errands as a family.
I shopped for groceries.
I decided I felt like dying



I had to make my potion.
I took some white distilled vinegar.
Some water, more than the vinegar.
And some cheap store brand drink mix.


These I combined into a glass casserole and mixed well.
I figured this concoction might just do the trick.
Then I got out two of the first soakers I ever knit.
They are knit with undyed, LB Fisherman's wool.
I started with Fruit Punch.
I chased it with Berry Punch.
After they were dyed I threw them into the wash on the short hot cold cycle with 2 dryer balls and the pretty stitch patterns turned into
felt. The colors are more vibrant that the photos show below

This soaker was a size large and is now a size small.
The one below was already felted some from large to medium and it is also now small.

I need closure

I finished this up tonight too. . . the hat and tucking in all the ends. I just need to find closures, probably buttons for the kimono and the diaper wrap. The hat and kimono patterns are in the One Skein Wonders book. I modified them both. For this kimono I made the sleeves a little wider than the pattern called for. I also made the cross over panels wider and used a scrumtiously soft wool/silk blend yarn, Frolich Silky Baby Lambs vs. the Bamboo. I used Karabella Aurora Melange 100% extra fine merino for the Scallop-Edged Hat and wool diaper wrap. I made up the pattern for the diaper wrap from looking at other diaper wraps that I have and like. I added crochet edging around the leg openings to stabilize the stockinette stitch and build a poo containing guesset. This cover is nb to small size with plenty of stretch.
I need to now go shopping for buttons for the kimono and diaper wrap to keep them closed on little Z. The picture doesn't really capture the yarn very well imho. The set does match. The Karabella yarn has three strands (plum, pink and grey) twisted together so when knit it looks heathered. The kimono is the same bright plum that's in the other yarn, vs. purple. I'm trying to decide if I have enough for some booties or mary janes. . .

NB recycled longies

I found another wool sweater. I've been looking for one like this for a while. Nice and soft with pretty pattern. It was a 3/4 sleeve small GAP merino wool. So after felting the sleeves were only big enough for a nb, maybe a small if stretched. I love these tiny pants. I'm going to use the rest of the sweater later to make a soaker in a larger size.

sweet dreams

Thanks Jenny for the idea of stars. I think they suit this color soaker well.

embelished prefold first attempt

I decided to see how embroidery would work on one of my undyed prefolds. I like the design and concept. I skipped a few steps so my result could have been prettier. Over all it's still very functional so I think I'll try another later. . . The hardest part is always choosing the design. . .

merino wool sleep sak

I love my kids in sleep sacks. The boys used to wear them almost constantly at home from my memory until they were walking age. They are wonderful for co-sleeping. They keep baby warm, but baby can't kick off the sack and the arm holes give enough ventilation that they don't overheat.
I wanted to get a wool sleep sack for Mardie but didn't want to pay the price, they are not cheap. I finally this time around found one used for Zuri that is super soft. After getting that one I decided I wanted to try to make her one. Wool sleep sacks act as a diaper cover so with cloth diapering it just makes sense to have one step instead of two!
Here's my attempt. I took a super soft merino wool sweater, felted and lanolized it and recycled it into this. It's slightly larger than the Disana one I bought so this will work for her through a longer time period. I put snaps at the shoulders instead of buttons and ties at the bottom for easy diaper changes. The other sack has no bottom opening. There is about 4" of fabric tucked in at the bottom so as she grows if we are still using this one I can move the ties, or devise some other clousre for the bottom.
For some reason this wouldn't photograph well for color accuracy. My countertop really washed out the color. This table gives a truer color but the sack is actually a little more rose than lilac.
I think I am going to make her some more.

lap of luxury

Here's a soaker I finished up knitting for Zuri this weekend. It's 0-8mos size. It's a merino, alpaca, silk blend yarn that is so yummy and soft. This yarn was made possbile by Janet, see previous post of how I begged her for it. I was thinking of dying it, but the more I see it the more I love it undyed. I hope I have enough leftover to make a matching cap.

OC about a butt????

Along with my cleaning I guess I've fully crossed over into the nesting phase because I'm OC about getting things ready for Zuri. I still have until mid January before she's due +/- a couple of weeks but none the less my impulses are not driven by what I know to be true. That being said this week I've been obsessing over her diapering.
I know you're thinking, what can be so important about a baby's butt? I don't know exactly but it's all I can think about this week.
Last week Rocky found this beautiful changing table on Craig's list for me. Recycled treasure!!! It all started when I had mentioned that since our mbath doesn't have a closet and we'd be sharing with Zuri we needed a place to store all of her fluff. We discussed something to go here and decided that a plain ole changing table would probably be the most functional and affordable. We're still using the Shower Baby (look above the toilet behind the table for what imho is one of the BEST accessories for any baby!!!) for her actual diaper changes, bathing, etc. But we needed a place to house the cloth diapers and accessories, her toiletries, wipes etc.
The table had no baskets with it though. I went on a mad search for days, since just stacking the dipes on here wasn't the look or style I was going for. Just think open access to two little boys to mix, toss, flush and do whatever at will with the diapers. I was starting to have panic attacks just thinking about it. Plus I tried it with carefully planned rows of like items and the stacks were barely a few inches high and looked sloppy, disorganized and were starting to cascade to the floor.
I don't know why, but places that sell changing tables DO NOT sell baskets or bins that fit onto them well to house anything without substantial loss of storage space. Let me explain. They all have baskets and bins, but they start wide at the top, which is only about 4-7" tall anyway, and loose about 2" all the way around at the bottom. The wedge shaped baskets don't take up close to the space of the table so though you can fit 2-3 baskets/shelf, the actual storage gained is no more than if you just stacked the stuff without the baskets. Plus the baskets are not very sturdy so when and if baby ever gets a hold of them they are going to be trashed. I guess they are trying to make them disposable so you need new ones after baby is done with them? Go figure.
I needed sturdy storage with either deep sides to accommodate for the sloping sides, or they could be lower with nearly straight sides. I found a great solution of crochet baskets made from fabric strips to fit exactly 2/shelf made by a WAHM in the latter, but could not afford her $50/basket price. I think they are worth it, but just not in our budget.
Further searching online and finally in stores yielded these lovely bamboo slat baskets from Target. I LOVE THEM!!!! So much so that I actually made 4 trips to 2 different Target stores in less than 24 hours, including one 2 towns away with 15 minutes to close! I started to get that feeling that someone else would stumble on the use usefulness of my baskets and buy them all before I could figure out what I needed. Can you say OC? It was worth it though as they are the look I wanted. I entertained the idea of traditional baskets but am not a big fan of wicker. These definitely not like wicker (no holes) are all lined with natural cotton fitted liners. The added benefit is that the bamboo is biodegradeable, sustainable without damaging forests, wildlife, prevents erosion and naturally has less or no pesticides due to it's quick growth cycle.


I've arranged Zuri's things in the lower 4 bins as such:
The top bin on the left is daddy diapers. These are 11 all-in-one diapers, 3 pocket diapers and 4 g-diapers, 8 g-diaper liners and plenty of g-diaper inserts. Basically this basket has the ones that Rocky doesn't have to think too much about. All he has to do is take off what she has on and put it into the pail or if it's a g-diaper flush it, then grab a new one from here and slap it on like a sposie!
The top right bin is all covers and wraps. . . 5 nylon, 5 pul, and of course my favorite, 5 WOOL and a wool sleep sack! There will be more wool coming I just have to knit them or sew them up.

Can you tell I LOVE WOOL?????

The space between bins on this shelf will hold 4-6 folded and rolled hooded baby towels. We use plenty of those with our Shower Baby!

On the bottom left I have 15 contour and 12 fitted dipes.
The right has 9 flats and 19 prefolds.
The space between the bins on the bottom shelf will hold the clean reusable diaper pail liner and smaller wet bags for the diaper bag.



The set up for the upper shelf of the table for quick access to supplies is:
From the the top left special bath toys, the middle is snappis and pins and the bottom has toiletry tools like hair brush/toothbrush, nail clippers, etc.
In the middle the top is diaper doublers and the bottom is washable fleece liners.
The top is right cloth wipes, the middle is flushable liners and compostable nappy sacks, and the bottom is baby wash, lotion, oil and creams.
The top of the table is my favorite part since there are special places for all of the goodies Zuri will need.

This is our current newborn to small sized diapering stash (up to around 12lbs) with 70+ diapers. I can go a few days between washing if I desire. All of the larger size diapers are in storage. If I decide that I need to add some more to this and when she grows into the bigger dipes there is plenty of room in the bins to accommodate more booty stash. I'm so glad now that I saved so much of the cloth diapers and supplies from Charmie and Mardie. Even though they are either gender neutral or boyish it feels nice to get ready to use them again for their baby sister.

Changing table Nirvana. . .
Now I can move on to being OC about something else.

Dye Project

I decided to use some prefolds in my cloth diapering this go-round for their simplicity and cost ;-}. I dyed these with Dylon permanent dyes along with some Diaperaps cotton blend covers. I also have some dyed in the larger size but those are packed away. I have three more colors to dye a few dipes each in but I'm waiting to see if I have anything else to dye first.

knitting projects

Here are some knitting projects completed, on the needles, and to be started:

Baby legwarmers for Zuri. Cotton lycra blend.

Baby leg warmers for Zuri.

Hemp wash cloth for Zuri.

Super soft merino and wool/silk blend yarn to make diaper soaker pants for Zuri.

Meet Serge's BIG sister and Grace

Happy Belated birthday to me! For this year's birthday/Valentines/Mother's Day gift Rocky got me a Janome Memory Craft 888 Compulock, 5 thread serger. She arrived today, one day earlier than I anticipated. I haven't named her yet. For now I'll call her SBS (Serge's BIG sis). She dwarf's Serge. She's very quiet and doesn't move around a lot even at high speeds and on this somewhat wobbly table.
We ordered her from eBay and the stitches I've tested so far work perfectly with no adjustment! I love the auto tension and the ease of switching between stitches with just a few punches into the touch screen. I still need to practice a lot because I sometimes forget one step and the alert won't let me serge until I fix it. Unfortunately the seller didn't include all of the parts needed to do some of the stitches like Coverhem, Chain and the 2 thread stitches so I'm in communication with her to see if she can find them and send them.

I'd like to also introduce one of my first Industrial machines, Grace. She's an industrial blind hemmer. I got her from the same person Rocky got my Mother's day gift (Singer 201k) from last year. I've been cleaning her up since she's been in storage for a while. I got her as a 2fer so I have another one in the garage. I need to sell one of them and I'm leaning towards the other one, but I'm trying to wait to see if I can get an Industrial straight stitch machine, reuse the table and motor and just sell the head. Grace needs a belt and she'll be up and running very smoothly. I tested her today after getting some instruction from my work mentor/boss and after realizing that that handwheel turns opposite my home sewing machines she formed some perfect blind hem stitches. I am itching to get her belt and really try her out!

Finally here's my new scrap chest. Each drawer is about 12"x12"x12" for perspective. It's just big enough to fit by the door of my sewing room. I got it today from Target on clearance, plus the manager took an additional $10 off just because I asked! It is perfect to store my neutral/cool and warm scraps that are too little to fold yet too big to part with. It's turned for the picture, but normally it would face outward toward the doorway. Hopefully now that I can easily access my scrappage I can make some projects with it!
I've got two more machine covers to make. SBS came with a carry case but not a dust cover. She and Grace will be very hard to keep clean if I don't get them hats soon.
I will also soon be painting my room and have some shelves up so stay tuned for pics! It's been super fun getting this room in order.

new workroom

Before you get all excited I am still in the same room. I just love it now. I've been realizing how first my sewing work with the professional workroom to sew home decorations, and now the dance bags and other merchandise has been an answer to prayer. With both of them I was happy to have the work and potential for extra income, but didn't seem them for the GIFT that they truly are. Thankfully God has opened my eyes to see and I am so grateful. I am going to be in this room a lot more in the future creating so I needed to get it ready for work. The first thing was to organize my fabric and yarn stash. I had this idea a few weeks ago from one of my new knitting books to organize my yarn y color vs. by fiber type. I didn't want to mess with all of the yarn though so I put it off. That is until last night (Friday night) when I was reading a blog link my mommy sent and found a link for fabric stash organization. I really loved how her work looked so today when I put the boys down for nap I started folding the fabric. I folded all of my yardage and you can see it in the bins to the right. It's all organized by color. I can get 3 stacks per bin. I ran out of room when I got to the red so I stacked it on top. The white pile on top is wadding, stabilizer and interfacing. The large basket on top has been relocated and contains the yarn surplus.
To the left I finally organized my yarn by color and I LOVE it, both how it looks and the ideas I'm starting to get by mixing things up. Before I just saw all of the wool yarn and it looked messy and disorganized. Now I see the color values next to each other and can use them within the hue or across the spectrum.

This picture is taken several hours later after I had worked through some other issues in the room like moving the baker's rack. It has all of my fq's and scraps and still needs to be folded in collapsible baskets. It also houses the 4 vintage/antique machines I'm keeping. Singer 201, Peaches (301A), Genie (354), and Baby Kenny (1040). The other 5 I plan to sell.
Back to the stash. . . I also added a tier to my fabric stacker and put the red into it. I moved my postage supplies on top of that and moved the white stack over. I like it better here.

This is the room from the door. No I haven't finished my sewing room wall hanging, but I had forgotten about it so I pinned it up to remind me to finish it.
I moved SK to the middle so that I can more easily use Serge or BMK. I also gained a little extra room on SK's table for larger items I'm sewing. Rocky pulled my thread racks down so that I could move my baker's rack but they will need to be put up later. Right now they are cluttering up my flat surfaces a little but I'm so happy with my room redo I don't mind. One other thing I really like about this new arrangement is that my table has a long side against the wall instead of a short side so now I have plenty of room to walk between my work table and my sewing areas. Before I had to really squeeze to get through when my chair was there.

Dance bag #3

This bag is the 2nd bag I promised Gina this week. It is a mini drawstring messenger bag. Perfect for a Tween, but functional for older or younger . The strap is generous enough to be worn across the body on a grown person, but it is easily knotted to shorten it's length . It has three interior pockets, the center one is cell phone sized. The side ones are slightly wider, so a good size for makeup, hair bows, hair pins, keys, etc. I used three fabrics for this bag, the embroidered pink stripe, the chocolate micro suede contrast and the lining is a sparkly and slinky pink with iridescent metallic dots. It was very difficult to photograph the colors accurately. This bag is my original design.

sample

Here's a sample knit from a combination of two yarns. I'm loving it, but let me know, what do you think?