Pants problem

What do you get when you add the following?

A giganitc cloth diaper booty that rarely fits into any store-bought pants (except for these)

Cold weather and a need for warm bottoms

A desire to have comfortable, soft clothing

A MAJOR PANTS PROBLEM!

I decided to make some.   I used this pattern, but I lined them, so I followed the directions for the lined quick change pants in this book. Does that make sense?  I used the big butt pattern, but I assembled them according to the directions in Ana Maria's book.  Got it? I was so pleased with how easy these were.  I plan to make more.  Lots more. 

I know it is hard to see in this photo, but there is this extra little gusset fabric on the back.  It really helps house those BumGenius dipes. We use prefolds and wool too which can be so bulky. 

These particular pants are made with fine wale courdoroy (very soft) and lined with flannel shirting. Warm and soft.  Problem solved!

Next problem: drool. Massive quantities of drool. I was changing his soggy t-shirts several times per day! Who needs that extra laundry?  Enter this little kerchief- AKA the drool catcher.  Simple little pattern here.  I was lazy enough to just zig-zag the edges wrong sides together. Micro terry on one side, flannel on the other.  Wa-lah.

Isn't he getting big?

Smooth Sailing

I really only "made" one or two gifts this year. I'm glad that I didn't try to do more, it ended up being a little bit crazy with everyone feeling so sick.

I was happy with the way these little bread bags turned out.

 

The instructions came from Home Sewn.  The pattern called for hemp which I had exactly zero yards of.  I used linen instead. These whipped up quick- maybe an hour for one bag start-to-finish.

The cool thing about these bags is that there is a little compartment of flax seeds sewn into the bottom so that you can heat the bag and keep your bread warm. I gave the bags of bread with some balsamic flavored olive oil for dipping.

What is Christmas without some cookies and fudge? These plates went to our friends. I thought they looked pretty. I bought the plates, ribbon, and ornaments at Target.

Lastly, I made cleaning kits for teachers. (and forgot to take pictures)

The last four days have passed quietly.  I've not left the house since Monday morning. The girls have been happily playing with the neighbors and enjoying an abundance of free time. Ian started crawling this week.  The Christmas tree is coming down on the 26th!!!

The dishes are done. The laundry is mostly caught up.  My house is fairly tidy. The last bottle of amoxicillin disappears tomorrow. There is approx 12-18 inches of snow in my back yard.  We've got sleds, and movies, and cocoa, and THE NEXT FOUR WHOLE DAYS to celebrate together. Ahhh, I'm gonna soak it up.

Reunited...

 

...and it feels so good.  I FINALLY got my laptop back just before Thanksgiving last Wednesday.  Because we live in a fairly rural community, and because my hard drive crapped out (gasp! in a mac???), I had to send it out of town to be fixed.  It was a dark and dreary 8 weeks of separation. There were some moments of axiety along the way when my operating system disks were lost and the fate of my little laptop remained up in the air.  But in the end, it was fixed and sent home to me. It was a joy-filled reunion.  I quickly celebrated by taking my coffee and very portable computer to bed.  I spent several hours resetting passwords, bookmarking pages and generally making it my own again. 

I made a little sleeve for my laptop.  The tutorial is here.

Very easy to follow, it was a quick project (minus several interruptions for baby snuggling, nursing, diaper changing, and fetching lost/dropped toys).

It was also great to be reunited with my sewing machine.  I'm just getting warmed up for lots of Christmas gift-making. Have you seen all the lovely Handmade Holiday inspiration here? 

I'm back Friends...in a really big way.