Sister the Suffragette Bear

You may have noticed that the last post on this blog was about being pregnant and hormonal and crazy. Well, that has resolved itself, in the form of Baby Calvin, who is now about 13 months old and sleeping slightly more like a human being. That sleep has allowed a tiny bit more knitting, just in time for another little baby's birthday bear.

(Past Birthday Bears)

      

   

Baby Maeve turned one this week. As is my tradition, she gets a bear. And of course since plain bears are BOring, I needed to dress it up properly. Maeve's mom made about a bajillion pussy hats leading up to the Women's March in January, so my first thought was a tiny hat for the bear. But why stop there? I was a little disappointed when baby #2 turned out to be a boy, because I knew I would never get to raise a tiny suffragette. Well, Auntie Mollie is not going to let that stop her, and it's about time Baby Maeve learned a thing or two about patriarchy ... and pantsuits.

Introducing Sister the Suffragette Bear, complete with Pussy Hat, a Hillary Clinton pantsuit, and a Votes for Women protest sash.

For new visitors, these bears are from the "Best Dressed Knitted Bear" by Emma King.

Cloth Diaper Burp Cloths

So, um, I've been a little busy lately.

Aside from growing a human being, I've been working hard at ALL my other jobs, one of which is with a non-profit that provides free postpartum support for families in the Hilltowns of Western Massachusetts. One of our services is the Village Closet, a donation site for baby items -- clothes, car-seats, swings, toys, diapers, anything you could need. We have a whole WALL of cloth diapers. One of our volunteers spent the day sorting through and organizing all of them, and left us with a bag of "un-suitable" pre-folds -- they are worn out and torn up. She said they might be good for "a craft project", so of course I couldn't throw them out.

Pinterest has plenty of ideas for how to use cloth diaper as burp cloths, but most of them involve purchasing new "cloth diapers" at Target and sewing on a nice border or panel.

  

The ones I have are not really nice enough to be saved by a simple border -- they need to be covered up completely. But since they're actual cloth diapers (not the fake ones from Target), even torn up they should be pretty absorbent.

I had some leftover fabric from another project, so I played around and found a really easy, but very slick-looking way to cover up the diapers and make some nice, big, absorbent burp cloths/changing pads/lap pads.

Materials:

• a real* prefold cloth diaper -- about 12x18". The idea here is you're using an old junky one that's been washed and washed, so it's not going to shrink any more. *The ones from target are fine, but won't be as absorbent as real ones.
• 2x pieces of Cotton Fabric, 16x24" - one solid color, and one either complementary solid color or patterned. If your diapers are a different size, I just cut the fabric 2" more on each side, and 4" more on the top and bottom than the size of the diaper.
• Matching/Contrasting colored thread

Other:

• Pins
• Iron
• Ruler and/or cutting mat
• Rotary Cutter or scissors
• Pencil

Instructions:

Wash, dry, and iron fabric, and iron the diaper as flat as possible.

Cut fabric into 16x24" rectangles.

On the RIGHT side (as opposed to the WRONG side) of one of the rectangles, use a pencil or chalk and draw two straight lines down at 6" from each side.

Place one piece of fabric right side down, and place diaper in the middle of it. Try to center it as much as possible -- 2" from each side, and 3-4" from top and bottom. Place the other piece of fabric right side up on top and pin all three pieces together.

Starting at about 1" down from the top of the diaper, sew a line down each penciled line, ending about 1" before the bottom of the diaper.

With Solid side up, fold sides in and over and pin to create a 1" hem. Sew down sides, starting at about 1" down from the top of the diaper and ending about 1" before the bottom of the diaper.

With Solid side up, fold top and bottom in and over and pin to create a 2" hem. You may have to trim some of the excess fabric to get it so lie flat. Following the lines from the edge hem, sew around the top and bottom hems.

Trim threads, and gift to a new mama who has NO IDEA how many times she's about to puked on. Machine Wash and Dry.

Crochet Firefly Spaceship

Remember how I was all worried about getting Baby M's gift done quickly? Well, it didn't take that long.

Though it does look a bit ... phallic.

Serenity actually breaks down pretty simple shapes. Tubes, circles, squares, triangles.

And I think Mr. M like it.

Baby Gift Brainstorm - Firefly

So Mrs. Kinne was due to have a baby in May. I figured I had most of April to finish his gift.

Then he decided to arrive in March.

So we're a little behind schedule.


Oh, and he's fine. A total champ. All the more reason he needs a really awesome gift.

His name is Malcolm, after Malcolm Reynolds on Firefly, so OF COURSE he needs a Serenity-something. Mom says she wants a Pigeon Hat, so I guess I can make him a Jane Hat for next winter.

But I think he needs a space ship, don't you?

(Free pattern, score!)

(another free pattern!)

and maybe some little guys, eventually ...

All aboard the Baby Gift Train

Two of my co-workers at TeenNick/NickMom are due around the same time, so I made them cute onesies so they can brag to all their new mom-friends about 1) their awesome job, and 2) their incredibly crafty co-worker.

Using my Crafting for Good

Not that it's usually for evil, but you know.

A co-worker is pregnant and due in a few weeks. She's been on bedrest for MONTHS already, so she did not have a chance to do any childbirth ed or breastfeeding classes. As a self-proclaimed Lactivist, I felt a strong desire to help out as much as I could.

Lately I've been giving my child-bearing friends a "Postpartum Survival Kit" as their baby gift -- things they'll need in those first few weeks that no one remembers to tell them about. Things like Overnight Maxi Pads (because the ones the hospital gives you are crap), hemorrhoid pads (cause let's face it, you don't want to have to ask the guy at CVS where they are), and those cotton multi-purpose pads (cause they're awesome). Depending on the mom, I'll also include breastfeeding stuff -- breast pads, nipple cream (because you can never have enough, and it's sort of expensive), those microwave sterilization bags (cause boiling water is HARD!) Sometimes I'll get stuff off their registry, and usually I knit them something too. Sometimes I'll put it in a little basket that can double as a portable diaper caddy, but I didn't get around to that this time.

This time I went one further. Because my friend wasn't able to do any education (and actually seems to be a little overwhelmed to do research on her own) I decided to make a really easy Breastfeeding Cheat Sheet. I made six 3x4" cards (front and back), and put all the basic information one would need to know to get started -- positions, latch "rules", common problems and what to do, and the number for a Lactation Consultant and the local LLL chapter.

I feel really good about including this in her Survival Kit, and I hope she'll find it useful.


... Plus I got to use my laminator, which alone makes it a good. day.

Baby Sweaters!

So many babies lately! Baby Caleb (Troy+Becky) was born right before Christmas and Baby Dominick (Andrea+Ricky) was born just before New Year's.

   

It was a good thing I was trying to get all my knitting projects before the New Year (new, bigger, non-knitting project on the horizon!), because one of these babies came early!

For baby Caleb, I nixed the idea of combining Packers and Vikings (a little too complicated) and went with a simple Notre Dame jacket. The special touch is the shamrock applique, which is SO CUTE!!! They also got a simpler Golden Dome hat ... I didn't have the patience to do the brim fanciness.









Baby Dominick got the real prize. Ricky is a huge LSU fan, and his nursery is completely decked out.








Of course I went with a Letterman Jacket (I can practically do this pattern in my sleep now).



Oh, it looks like an ordinary sweater in the LSU colors, right?


Wait WHAT!?!?!?!

I took the LSU logo and gridded it up!




This was so complicated, but I came out so good!







I had to have so many balls of the same color, or else the back would have been even crazier! Also, this was a great time to learn to weave in ends correctly!

I really liked doing this more complicated pattern, and there MAY be another Domer baby headed someone's way soon (not me, keep your panties on people). Maybe a little leprechaun?