Reversible toddler wrap dresses

This has been my major preoccupation of the last month - hence the lack of updates. It's also something I've been holding off on, firstly because I knew documenting the project was going to be somewhat epic, and secondly because I didn't want people to stumble across their daughters' first birthday gifts online before they'd been gifted.




These are four fully reversible, crossover-back dresses/tunics - these pictures are the two sides of each dress. I patterned them myself, working out kinks as I went along, and I am unbelievably proud of them!

I got my measurements and basic outline from a button down the back tunic I got at a garage sale and made a mock-up out of old sheets. The lovely Mummy to one of the little girls who would be receiving let me borrow her daughter to check that my size and pattern was right (Thanks Tracey, and thankyou to my lovely patient model, Lucy!)

This is the first dress I then made (Lucy's Mummy likes to bake).

One side is printed cotton, with silver glitter decoration on some of the cupcakes. Unfortunately you cannot see this, because the weather here has been despicable lately, and thus the lighting is trashy. That, and I need more practice taking decent shots of my own handiwork.
The other side is pale purple polyester dug out from my stash (I bought several metres years and years ago!) which had a nice weight and matched the purple on the cotton. On the front of this side I hand-stitched a circle cut out with a cupcake.

The back two pieces cross over, and it's all sewn together like a simple Gordian Knot (perhaps I should call it a Gordian Knot dress?), which is what keeps the garment on. I'm possibly proudest of this detail, as it means there are no press-studs or zips to catch on sensitive skin or have to wrestle with whilst holding a squirmy child still. There's also no buttons for the small recipients to suck on and possibly choke.

Since two of the dresses are made from quite busy printed cottons they didn't get any sewn detail, but the last dress was made from red and neutral tone linen-cotton blend that had me salivating in the shop but is very plain.
I left the red as it was, since it's such a fantastic colour, and spiced up the neutral side with a little freehand embroidery in backstitch and running stitch. The more I do it, the more I'm enjoying exercising my embroiderer's needlework skills, these days!

Habitual Kimono top

Before I started working on my latest I sewed up a little something for my own little boy, in the past fortnight. I've been wanting to try the Habitual Kimono top pattern for ages but couldn't seem to kick myself into gear. I was very afraid of the bias binding, and having to potentially make my own. Then I found some green bias-binding in an op-shop for 50 cents and remembered the froggy fabric I picked up on sale several moons ago. I'd bought it with no particular project in mind, under the influence of fabric lust.
This was because fabric is kind of like my crack, and Spotlight is my dealer. I mean this in that I casually run into Spotlight on the street and mean to "just say hi", thinking it would be rude to pretend we didn't know each other. But after spending longer in each others' company than I ever intended, I inevitably stumble home with a hit, feeling wretchedly guilty and strangely elated at the same time. The long-suffering Wicked Fairy.... is not so long-suffering actually. He's usually egging me on in my fabric lustiness, throwing money at me and cheering me to the registers.

ANYWAY

I'd seen this fabric, bought a swatch and put it in a corner until inspiration struck. It was super cute - here it is in close up, so you can see for yourself.

I stuffed up a little, and made the crossover parts as wide as the back, so the whole thing is a little big on my boy. This was due to the fact that I am very impatient and tend to skim-read instructions until I feel I have the jist of things, and then go to. Hopefully I'll be able to rectify my mistakes in version two! And in the meantime, version one is still EXTREMELY cute.
See what I mean?

Pink & Yellow Prefold Nappies

I have just this very minute finished ironing some prefolds that I have made for friends who are expecting.



I've never used them, nor seen one in person, so after googling and examining a bunch of different tutorials I dove in.

I pulled out some of the flannel sitting around in my stash, which just happened to be pink and yellow (that being what was on sale). Found some REALLY cute cotton print that matched the colours. Pulled out some old towels donated to me by my MIL, and acquired a couple of microfiber car towels (that 'pull' the moisture away) for the padded panel.
Baby-To-Be has no determined gender, so hopefully I won't get too much guff about the pink if it ends up threatening to shrivel baby's penis by its abstract femininity or somesuch.



I have no idea if what I've ended up with are newborn or toddler size, I cannot draw a straight line to save my life, and that has sadly translated into sewing. So they're somewhat wonky (for that authentic "handmade!" look), very adorable and delicious, my first prefolds!
Now to find some instructions on how to fold them, to include a printout of for the Parents-To-Be.