Heat packs

These are an older project I made but they never let me down.  These are about 8 years old now & just as nice as when I made them.  I used scrap fabric & plain sewing.  There was some covers that have gone missing so that will age them faster using the heat packs au naturale.  They are filled with flax seed, about 1lb each I guess.  They also freeze really well to function as cold packs.  The long one is 5 compartments, finished size 22+3/4" long x 4+3/4" high.  It is perfect for neck or joints.  The rectangular 6 compartment one is 9" x 10+3/4" and is perfect for belly or back ache.  They also work really well to prewarm the bed at night, we all need our toasty comforts. 

I wasn't overly fussy about making them since they were from scrap fabric.  I compartment-ed the flax seeds so they wouldn't become one mishapen lump.  I don't think I even measured the fabric but folded it once the overall shape was sewn to figure out the compartments.  Once I figured out the divisions I did use a measuring cup to evenly distribute the flax seeds & sewed the compartments closed as I filled them.  They lie nice & comfortably where they are placed which I really like.  This is what works for me.  These are well worth an hour of sewing time to make.  Thanks for looking :)

I will be doing a bunch of preposting now so this blog won't be totally abandoned.  As of this writing Nov 19, 2012 there is about 2 weeks to go until my baby is due.   I hope you have great days every day!

Bassinette Baby Basket Bumper

 Try saying that title 10 times fast!  Here is the sweet jungle animal fabric I found at a Fabricland store.  It is copyright 2010 Precious Moments Designer Collection, Inc.; Licence SPF Fabrics. 

 Here is the remaining crib bumper that I bought at Value Villiage for $4, its a bit worn out & way too big, but by far cheaper than buying new batting & backing fabric.  An hour in the recliner with the seam ripper and I had more than enough supplies.  I washed it twice before commencing & was a little surprised to find the previous owner's detergent perfume still came through.  I guess I forgot the vinegar rinse, since that usually kills perfumed detergents.  The panels are cute & may get re-used into something, but I'm lacking ideas right now.

 Here is the finished basket bumper, it is not tied in this picture.  I forgot to show a picture of the backing fabric, it is white, blue, & green plaid backing fabric from the original bumper.  I also reused the ties & bias fold tape on the top edge.  Why not, it all matched perfectly.  If you click on the pictures to enlarge you will see my sewing is not perfect.  I'll admit it was pinned to death to hold it's shape for sewing & still not easily cooperative.  4 rounds of stitch picking didn't really make this project popular with me.  I added vertical stitch lines at regular intervals to keep the stuffing in place.  I couldn't resist this fabric for this purpose, and for about $20, & a few hours time, it is so worth it.  I won't bother with all the boring measuring & sewing details since this is a project blog & I doubt anyone will have this exact same basket or supplies to duplicate this.  It works out that the bumper is a continuous loop, about 10" tall & about 70" long.  The mat in the base is waterproof & I can use a pillowcase or fold burp-cloth flannels over it.  I have some flannel serged but am not sure if I want to put an elastic edge on them to become custom fitted sheets.

This basket was used by my Mom for me & my brothers, and for my son & 3 other family members.  Over 14 years ago I made a different bumper for my son of fabric with cute cat faces.  I remember he would have the sweetest little mumbling baby conversations with them.  Sorry but I have no digital pictures of that to show.  It is said babies can see 7-15" as newborns, and they are most drawn to look at interesting faces.  I seem to do a mix of practical sewing like this or a binge of pattern sewing.  Thanks for looking at what I've been up to!

Utility sewing

Some of you know we are expecting a baby very soon.  This means preparations galore of course.  Here is some practical but boring sewing.  I couldn't resist a picture since it looked so pretty spooling from the back of my Janome machine.  Click on the picture to enlarge if you like.

Nursing shields, to prevent icky milk leakage embarrassment

I used 3 metres of prewashed diaper flannel folded into 3 layers.  The glass ramekin was my template and a regular pen to trace.  I started out by cutting around the ramekin with the rotary cutter but it was faster & easier to ditch the ramekin & just go for it.  Once I had them all cut out I had a tower of disks.  I put them to the sewing machine 3 layers each & zig-zagged around the edges for about an hour until they were all done.  I didn't count them because I just don't care that much, honestly, it doesn't matter.  I did this for my firstborn & they are far superior to the store bought paper shields.  They do eventually get everywhere and some go missing.  Once they were done I snipped them apart & trimmed away rough edges.

An interesting side note:  A family member fixed the filters on Mozilla Firefox for me so I no longer need to use Safari to blog.  I had no idea that was why Mozilla Firefox was so hard to blog with when I first started blogging.  I'm not a technological gal so I am really happy to have this simplified.  Apple Safari browser works well, but I have a PC not an Apple so no wonder it was a slower process for me. 

Baby is due Dec 4, we shall see if the "wheel of fortune" dates predictor is accurate or not.

Cheers & have a great day!