Terminado/Finished Sewing Baby Lounger- Changing/Playing/Napping Pad

Cousin Martha Loving up my dog Jasper
on our recent camping trip
at Pismo Beach

My cousin is going to be a grandmama!

I thought about buying some beautiful Kona cotton and making a finely pieced and quilted baby quilt. 

But......

Would I get it done? I hate to admit that I have found bits and pieces related to unrealized baby quilts in my sewing collection, where the baby involved is in high school..... That's what happens when you decide to focus on garment sewing!

"Whiskers and Tails" - Robert Kaufman fabric

I was looking through my fabric inventory and found this doggie print, very thick batting and a blue and white striped home dec remnent. Golly what a thought - to use up what I have!

Considered various piecing ideas with the print and decided some things are more darling just as they are.

Here is baby pad tucked into it's matching laundry bag
Extra laundry bags for babies are handy
Note - Jasper appears to approve

I have just completed the baby-to-be, a changing/napping/playing pad. It's not intended as a blanket, because the home-dec side would be rough on tender skin. I remember it’s handy to have items you can throw down on the grass or a less than clean zone. 

Babies lounge around a lot.

Reminder of doggy print  became laundry bag - and will serve as gift bag for the baby shower. Horray! nothing remains but minimal scrap!

Also ordered  a baby’s-first type toy to attach to top of laundry bag

I also plan to make several of those bunnies you fold out of washclothes* to attach to the top - there never being sufficient quantities of washclothes in house when a kid is born

I will save the fine piecing and lovely quilting for another day

Técnicos

I did basic round shaped quilting - kind of snail like. Paper worked  well - I hand basted a big circle of it down, then stitched it in place with machine stitching and ripped it off. I also used round chalk lines with pins as guide lines. Quilted enough across surface to attach top to back.

Tried the walking foot - but teflon foot floated better. Maybe because of  very thick batting?

Making the bias strips from home dec fabric, and dealing with fussy corners actually took the most time - that thick home dec fabric is not very fun on the mitred corners.

* For washcloth bunnies I rubber band (instead of tying ribbon) and add faces with sharpie pen (instead of gluing on eyes) to attach to top. The ones in the link below have attachments that would cause choking (that link is not intended for newborn babies but has a handy folding diagram). But once the rubber band is removed and the cloth washed - it just becomes a washcloth. In addition to following link, there are a variety of youtube videos showing how to fold these bunnies origami-like.

 http://www.auntannie.com/Easter/WashclothBunny/

Romancing The Dress Part 3: The Dress Comes to Life

Other frock postings

Romancing the Dress Part 1: Dainty

Romancing the Dress Part 2: California Romantic asks do skirts really fit into her active and arty modern life?

I was sure I'd finally come to terms with my tendency  to romanticize the dress. How many times have I reminded myself how little use I tend to get out of the dresses I've sewn over the past few years? 

Compare frock sewing, I repeatedly chimed to fellow sewists, to the time invested in a flattering pair of shorts, pants or one of my every day  embroidered tee shirts. Just calculate the cost per wearing, the cost being based primarily on the best use of my free time. Frequently I reflected that  as a part time student and independent free-lance worker, it's only practical to accept that a dress is not a worthwhile investment of my sewing time.

And then along came Vogue pattern v8810, and once more I was hooked. Even when I created the toille, I argued with myself about the value of the project.  Right up until I cut it out of three yards of black and off-white houndstooth, home dec fabric.  (It used to be that I didn't admit to using home dec for fashion sewing, but since I saw it featured for clothing in a Vogue Sewing Magazine, I realized I'm not the only one.)

Thanks to Marilyn Yeomans
of Cloudbook Photography
For snapping this photo using my cell phone camera
Oh Marilyn, you know how to get the pose!

Yes, I made another dress, and I love it. Now I just need to prove my time was well spent by getting lots of wearing time in.

The technical details are in my review at PatternReview.com