Loving the Zwergenverpackung

I seem to have not gotten any good, plain shots of this first shirt-turned dress... but there's more later.. first, I will lure you in with cute pictures!

Daughters 3 and 4 (age 4 and 2.5 months) doing an excellent job of posing...

And now for more! And more words!

Turquoise and red is one of my favorite color combinations. There's something so sweet and vibrant about it!

So I used them on a baby outfit. I took the Farbenmix "Zwergenverpackung" pattern for the lap shirt and made the sleeves short and added a little skirt at the bottom to make a dress! I was quite pleased to actually remember to attach the Farbenmix tag that comes with every pattern -- and it matches so well!

Modeled by sweet Hazel Jane along with a matching pilot cap from the Ottobre 05/06 issue. (I did make the background quilt too... for daughter #3 about three years ago or so).

First Communion! and more!

First... a baby picture to draw you all in.... Here's Hazel Jane in some sweet pajamas I made her. She's *gasp* already two months old! Where does the time go!? (for those curious, the top is from the New Conceptions Baby Essentials patterns and the pants are Little Comet Tails Cresent Moon Yoga Pants)
Next, I have a baby shower to attend tonight for a dear friend I've known since the fifth grade. She has a little boy and just had a little girl, so of course, pink was well in order....
First, an outfit made of a shirt from the Zwergenverpackung pattern complete with pants from the Little Comet Tails Cresent Moon Yoga Pants pattern. I love these two patterns DEARLY!

Next, I took the Zwergenverpackung shirt pattern and lengthened it (as I have done many times thus far!) to make a sweet sleep sack. I love NO SNAPS, especially for the bazillions of diaper changes newborns require!

And now... First Communion! My oldest made her First Holy Communion on May 2nd and I had promised long, long ago to make her dress, though I'm certain I didn't think of the logistics of a tiny baby and sewing... and that made things a little tricky, but I got it done!

I chose to use the Manhattan pattern from the "Sewing Clothes Kids Love" book (I don't have it right by me but I think it's by Nancy Langdon and Sabine Pollehn). I had never sewn this pattern before and.. oh my... the sheer number of pieces (44 in total) was enough to nearly make me faint! But I knew it would be beautiful and perfect, so I did it! The dress really is amazing and it's fully lined too, which is why there are so many darn pieces. Some pictures pick up the detail of the white-on-white fabric I used and I think the butterflies are just perfect.

One of my favorite parts was the back detail...

Full back shot...

My model, fanning out the fullness of the dress (note, it wasn't quite finished here.. I hadn't added the lace around the bottom hem, but she was so eager to try it on that I had to let her!)

All decked out with veil and all... the lace trim on the hem IS here now!

And for all the fanciness, this is a much more accurate portrayal of my sweet, oldest daughter!

bit of sewing... bit of baby....

Sewing with a newborn is tricky at best, but I needed to get two dresses out quickly for my midwife's granddaughters (since I said I'd do it.. um.. probably two months ago), so I turned to my trusted Olivia pattern by Farbenmix and got to work!
First, a super feminine request...

And then I did this one because it's one of my most favorite fabrics!

But THIS is why I can't get anything done these days..... Sweet, smiling, five-week old Hazel Jane...

(shirt is from the Zwergenverpackung pattern, pants are Little Comet Tails Cresent Moon Yoga Pants)

She's here!!!!!!!

Sweet Hazel Jane was born on March 6th at 4:11 p.m. weighing 8lb 10oz and 21.5 inches long!!

She's perfect in every way, of course... and her birth? Amazing. Painful, long, hard, but amazing.... Everything I hoped with a homebirth with the midwife.

And hooray that I get to use all those sweet baby girl clothes ;)

Gosh.. this barely touches what I've done...

So.. I was feeling in a girly mood a few nights ago while sewing... or maybe it was sheer laziness. I didn't want to change out the pink serger thread. So, I just went with it.
First up, another lovely shirt from the Zwergenverpackung pattern. And even better? Something about the two of these fabrics together makes me giddy inside. The main body of the shirt is from Rachel Ashwell Shabby Chic rib knit. It's lovely and drapey and perfect. And the neckline fabric is some lovely Campan jersey (Euro import) and it's lovely. Dreamy. I love this shirt!

I'm pretty sure every gender-specific outfit I make leaves me saying, "Oh gosh, I hope I get to use this!" .. because I go and make a sweet outfit like this and it makee me lust for a girl. Sweet purple fairies and a gorgeous velour that even has a bit of a fine sheen to it. Shirt from the New Conceptions Baby Essentials pattern.. so is the hat (just modified.. quite a bit).. and the pants are Little Comet Tails Crescent Moon Yoga Pants.. minus the crescent.

More gorgeous Rachel Ashwell Shabby Chic fabric. *swoon* Same pattern as the above.

And.. for fun...

ME!

My due date calculations put me at 40 weeks today. My midwife came up with a due date of February 27th. I'll go with that (which means 39 weeks, 4 days today). Either way. Full.freakin.term. And I'm so ready. Although I guess I could just keep on sewing..... What else am I going to do to fill my time?!?

I can't wait to meet this little one! Hopefully soon!

a six pack (of shirts) and more...

More baby sewing has been accomplished today... and then a few goodies that hadn't been photographed before ;)

I'm thinking that next week or so I might try to gather up every piece of clothing I've sewn or tie-dyed and take a picture of it all together... it will be interesting to see whether I've actually sewn as much as I think I have!

So, first up is kind of on the boring side... except that they're not! Cloth wipes are VITAL when it comes to cloth diapering.. and really, who WOULDN'T want sweet, soft organic bamboo velour gently gliding across their skin?! Yeah. Babies have it made. Some of these are from scrap pieces of bamboo velour (leftover from other projects) and some were cut into just for the purpose of being wipes. There are a few that also have some organic cotton velour on the other side (which actually feels much more terry-ish than velour-ish.. I was very disappointed when I got this years ago... and was told it's "long-loop velour" .. which is just.. terry!). I really do love the 'natural' color of the velour when paired with the YLI Jeans Stitch Variegated in Earth Tones. It seems quite... earthy ;) And these make me smile!
Next up is the boy batch of Zwergenverpackung shirts. On the left is an aqua baby terry, the middle is helicopters, though now I can't recall the manufacturer of the print, and on the right is some beloved Ooga Booga... I really love working with the Ooga Booga fabric because it's quite a thick rib knit. It's not so ribbed that it completely loses its shape (something that sometimes irritates me when working with a rib knit).. and it's almost like a ribbed interlock. It's dreamy!

And then the 'girly' batch of Zwergenverpackung shirts! The cherries by far have stolen my heart.. but gosh.. something about those brilliant bubbles.. and then! Oh! I'm such a sucker for stripes too! I swear, after completing something girly, I'll say, "Oh, I hope I have a girl just so she can wear this!" And then I'll go and make something boyish and hope for a boy...

Next up is a creation made this afternoon.. and I love it so much more than this picture could ever show. An organic bamboo velour sleeper gown. It's dreamily soft and sweet.. and if you didn't think it could get any better -- it did! Because Heather Ross on ANYTHING makes that item That. Much. Better. Oh, and to make this, I used the Zwergenverpackung shirt pattern and simply made it really long. And then added some Lastin elastic around the bottom to make it easy for diaper changes.

So of course I know you want to see the chihuahua up close! (such a mom-ish story, but my current youngest calls them "chica-wah-wahs" it's cute, believe me).

And tomorrow is a new day.. full of sewing opportunities galore... I hope...

Just ducky

Bad slacker blogger I've been lately. Shame! Because I have been sewing.. especially since we have laundry drainage issues and I have to be down there whenever I'm washing a load to empty out some water... lucky for me, the laundry room is right beside my sewing room, so I might as well pop on over and sew while I'm doing laundry!

I've recently acquired the Zwergenverpackung pattern from my beloved Farbenmix. Because I certainly didn't have enough patterns already.

There are more options for clothing than I've explored yet because I can't get over how cute and fun the little shirt pattern is to sew!!

So first, a ducky sort of outfit made with a tiny, remnant scrap I got in a scrap box long ago with the PRR "Duck, duck, goose" on it. A.dor.a.ble, I think. The remnant piece is so narrow though, that I was worried I wouldn't even be able to get a sleeve from it! But I *narrowly* managed to do so!

So, the whole outfit in its sweetness....
And then a close-up of the sweet little applique!

And then.. oh my! I love that I thought outside of my normal hurry-up-and-sew-to-get-it-done mentality and really upped the cuteness quotient here!

Another shirt from the same Zwergenverpackung pattern and sleeves and applique piece are again from fabric from the PRR line!

I hope it's clear, especially in the close-up, that this says "BEBE" ...

The pants are more from the Little Comet Tails Crescent Moon Yoga Pants pattern. Easy peasy.

And dangit, sooooo darn cute!

My "guestimated due date" is three weeks away... and from here on out, I have the 'green light' by my midwife to birth at any time! Wow!

(but really, I'm okay if this babe bakes a bit longer.. I'm still torn on names... and really, I'd love to get a bit more sewing done first!)

I've really been sewing and preparing for this baby more than I've been posting! Life gets a bit hectic sometimes... between homeschooling, a part-time job (which I'm working on quitting.. just down to one day per week now), growing a baby in my womb and trying to clean up this house... yikes!
But.. I HAVE to craft! It helps me maintain my sanity.
One day I looked at the plain, sad-looking white onesies and decided they needed color and lots of it! Out came the procion dyes and I had a blast dyeing these up... but my favorite? Oh.. it has to be the socks. They are the teeniest, tiniest baby socks ever and they make your heart melt.
On to the photos!!

I've done more sewing for this babe, but I'll save that for another post! A teaser? A Heather Ross quilt!