2014-March-April: Oshie Art Masterpiece Wedding Gift

OK, in a big break from the sewing machine, I did a BIG Oshie art fabric piece for the wedding of my friends W. and B.!  Well, it was about 15" square, but it was big in terms of time and effort!

It was really fun to design and put together.  I will admit, after finishing it, I was ready to take a hiatus from Oshie work for a while. :)

I really like the Oshie technique because it lets you do something so "quilted" and patchworky without actually sewing.  Of course, now that I'm better at sewing and have even made a couple quilts, I would love to explore the look of this piece on an actual quilt.

2014-February: Sunny Trainers #2!

This was another iteration of the Sunnies trainers.  They have fleece side panels and waistband, knit outside (Sunnies!), and a cotton fleece inner.  There is elastic in the waistband, too.  I tried to make these in a different way, with the body constructed more like a diaper.  I don't think aesthetically it was that successful, but these worked great as trainers!!

2014-February: Bear Undies

I made these for E. as she was in-between on regular undies and trainers.  All soft knit fabrics, the leg and waist bands being my old pajama shorts, and the inside was my old shirt!

2014-February: ALL THE DIAPERS!

I thought it was so cool that I sewed a pretty good stash of diapers!  Look at that!  They were going to two different people, to diaper three different babies, but still.  They all ultimately came back to me when I had C, because a) my friends are nice like that; b) yet another reason why cloth diapers are AWESOME because you can pass them on and reuse them EVEN MORE, take that disposables; and c) they both ended up not using cloth anymore for various reasons (sad but it happens).

2014-February: Birds and Crazy Animals Pocket Diapers

These were for my friend E.  I made similar Zorb-and-thin-cotton-IKEA-blanket inserts to go with them (a small and a large each) but I didn't take photos of those.

I tried something different on the bird one: a "hybrid pocket" with water-resistant fleece instead of PUL!  It had a woven outer, then pink fleece, then a suedecloth inner.  I'll show you some process photos.

Sewing the print together so it's right-side-up on both front and back

finished outer

hidden fleece instead of hidden PUL! (don't mind the random stuff on my desk . . . I've since stopped burning my yuzu incense since it bothers the hubby, even from the other end of the house)

Finished inside

Finished outside

The fleece inside the pocket!  

This design didn't work very well.  I mean, it sort of worked, but nowhere near as well as hidden PUL (which still wicks if you don't have enough absorbency).  It may have been the fleece I used (old baby blanket).  I know hybrid FITTEDS can work really well with the right fleece (and more absorbency!).

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The crazy animals pocket had a knit outer, hidden PUL, and suedecloth inner.  I seamed the outer print so both sides were up on this one, too!

Crossover snaps snapped

Inside with welt pocket

Closeup of welt pocket!  I was so proud of myself for making such a nifty-looking pocket.

2014-January: Pair of Hidden PUL pocket diapers (Bears and Stars)

Two more diapers for J's twins!  I made my first welt pockets on these -- not too hard to do, and it looks really sharp.  I made the inserts, too: a layer of Zorb sandwiched between some dimpled cotton material from an IKEA blanket!  I quilted them with hearts and I REALLY LIKE the way it looks; I may quilt lots more stuff like this in the future.

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Here they are together.  Last photo is them all snapped down to the smallest size and looking cute!

Overall I've fallen out of love with hidden PUL; when I eventually got these diapers back for C, they did wick more than I'd like.  Also, though the suedecloth is great for its stay-dry purpose, it doesn't stretch and made these diapers feel sort of . . . floppy.  And not as cushy.  That star patterned knit is waaaay softer and fluffier on these newborn fitteds than here with suedecloth and PUL.

I'm currently using those inserts in other pockets and they work great!

2014-January: Pair of Upcycled Fitteds

Does it count as upcycling when you buy some towels to turn into diapers?  Maybe repurposing?  Anyway, I wanted to try another set of small fitteds for J's expected twins.  These outers were towels I got for cheap at IKEA!  By the way, she didn't know the genders at this point, so I tried to make things gender-neutral.

The more primary one has an inner of my same old green shirt.  The purpley one has a bamboo velour inner.  Both have soakers of bamboo fleece topped with light blue stay-dry suedecloth.

Towels are hard to sew!  I don't think I will try that again. :)  However, these worked great when I got them back for C.

Process photo: choosing snap colors!  Can I mention how much I love choosing snap colors?  It is so fun!!

All four together

2014-January: Pair of Upcycled AI2 cloth diapers

I found out that my friend J, pregnant with TWINS, wanted to try cloth diapering!  Naturally I wanted to make her some things to get her stash going.  Because twins means two of everything!!  Working toward her shower, I got sewing on a bunch of diapers.  I wanted to give her some Smalls that would work between Newborn size and One-size.

Also, I decided that my OTHER pregnant friend E would benefit from my sewing experiments, too -- so lots of diaper sewing around this time!

These were the first "twin" diapers I made: a set of small all-in-twos with hidden PUL.  (I guess they are more all-in-one, actually.)  Inners were an old sweatshirt, outers two old shirts of mine, and the soakers I topped with some cute flannel prints.

After zig-zagging the velcro of the green one, I did not like how it looked, so went with straight stitch on the other.  I think it came out neater.

I realized way later that my attempts to "roll" the PUL inward on the legs would do me no good with the cotton outers!  It was bound to wick.  I did end up using these on C when J gave them back (yay!), and they did wick, but not too badly.