My Sewing Blog

I haven't been working on much shop related stuff this last week. It's a bit blah really. Etsy is making some changes to their site, and their fees, and it seems to have been a very quiet week. I don't know if it's Etsy or if it's just me. Views in my shop have dropped. Like practically all week, they were next to nothing. Since I opened my shop people have been complaining on the Etsy forums about how their views and visits have dropped. People are saying their shops are much quieter than they usually are and they're making less sales. Maybe Etsy isn't the right place to sell on? I sold some sewing magazines and patterns I had (not on Etsy) and I was going to use the money to buy more fabric to make stuff for my shop, but now I'm not sure. I have no idea what I should work on. I was planning to get some more PUL for embroidered nappies, but I haven't actually sold any of the ones I've made so far, so maybe it's not a good idea. But then ag...

This is the pattern that I've used to make the nappies I'm selling in my shop. It's a one size pattern, with a snap down rise. When I was making nappies for my own babies I don't think I ever made one with a snap down rise. I did use the Kayla's Cloth Kits one-size pattern a lot, but my baby was big enough when I made them that I never needed to use it on the smaller settings. This is really quite a trim fitting pattern, so think it might be quite difficult to stuff. I love the idea of having a different colour fabric on the wings though. It really jazzes the nappy up and if you cut the pattern without the wings you can get more cuts out of your fabric. The wings can be made from scraps. Prints with an accenting solid, or solids with a print on the wings look good too. The pattern has a welt pocket for putting the inserts in, and I absolutely hated making it! I felt like it looked kind of messy when it was finished too, so I changed the way I did that. I made m...

I just finished sewing the last one! These are made with the Kayla's Cloth Kits sized pattern. I made the large size. They're all pocket nappies that I plan on stuffing with small sized prefolds. The pattern recommends stuffing with a microfibre cloth, but I've never been able to find any good sized ones around here. I seem to have quite a few in shades of blue. I'd really like to get some green PUL to even up my rainbow a bit! All the inners are made from suedecloth fabric (except the orange, which has a black microfleece inner). I've never used suedecloth before. I'm not sure if I like it or not. It's nice that it doesn't stretch while you are sewing, but it feels kind of synthetic. Thanks to M's help I managed to squeeze 7 inners out of 1 yard of the tan coloured suedecloth. They say men have a better spatial awareness, so I asked him to help me fit as much as possible onto the fabric. I got the suedecloth in a swap. The penguin one I bought ...

Here's what I made on my mini sewing challenge week... Thursday: A small Chloe Toes pocket nappy. Yellow PUL outer and a mocrofleece inner. Friday: I made the star print pocket Chloe Toes, and also put snaps onto the AIO. I used red lycra binding on the microfleece inner pocket edge. I don't know if it is the same stuff as FOE. It looks and feels exactly the same, but I decided not to make the whole thing with the red in case it leaked or something. Cat was getting in the way when I was taking the photos! He was trying to catch the cord on the camera. Saturday: Medium sized Poquito Pants. This is the 1st pair I've made using FOE. I wasn't too sure if I'd like it or not, but it turned out really nice. It's fast and easy to make them this way too. Sunday: Made another pair of medium Poquito Pants - t&t version this time. The knit fabric is really stretchy and seems quite fragile. I didn't sew a size tag on. Might go back ...

I'm sure I must have put a pic of them somewhere... These are some KCK Ones I made for someone from our home education group. The flower and ladybird one is a modified KCK One. I put a snap down rise on the front, something like a Bumgenius - not that I've actually seen a Bumgenius in real life. I might make a snap closing one at some point. I think the wings would need to be shortened just a little bit, and I'd probably put two rows of snaps to stop wing droop. The paper in the pic is an instruction sheet I printed out. I think the colours look really pretty together. The royal blue seems a bit out of place I think. I did have a yellow and a red cut out, so it was a selection of primary and pastel colours - but I've run out of labels and aplix now. I used microfleece for the inners of these, but I'd like to try suedecloth. I plan to order some to try out, and I think I'd like to get a few cuts of PUL in colours I don't have. Like some greens ...

I haven't updated for a while, so I thought I'd put these (really bad) pictures up. Just a little pile of stuff I've been working on. These two are very long overdue gifts. I really don't like the way they turned out. Still need to put snaps on the front. My overlockers blade needs replaced - but I can't afford another one. It really didn't like the birdseye and flannel combo and chewed it up at the edges. These are newborn Darling Diaper AIOs with snap in soakers. PUL outers, 2 hidden layers of birdseye and flannel inners. These are two bamboo velour Little One Sizes. Without soakers. Haven't got round to doing them yet. I got tired of messing up with blind elastic so I decided to try a different way of putting it in. Don't know if you can see the difference between the two. I'm not sure if the new way is any faster though, but it is less frustrating. You can't really see the snaps on the front, but they have cute little peng...

A fluffy stack! I found a piece of fabric one day when I was rummaging and I had an idea about making a whole matching set with it. I got some Dylon and some white velour and dyed my fabric to match the print. The lime green and print ones are Little Starters, the lime green velour is a side snapping Little One Size, and the rest are front snapping Little One Sizes. There are a couple more that aren't in the picture. I still have to put snaps on for the snap in soakers. This is a one size on a small setting, and one on a bigger setting. The rise snaps down inside. These are two medium Fattycakes I sent to Denise for her little boy. Both are PRR knit prints on the outside. The whale one I have had for about 6 years now! I used woolly nylon thread on the whales one. It turned out quite nice. I planned to use a nice lime green french terry for the inside of the car one, but when I came to cut out I found my bit of fabric was too small! So I was stuck with this not so ni...