So I Started to Sew

I actually took a sewing class with my good friend Christine almost 10 years ago.  Sadly, it's taking me more than 10 years to finish that first shirt!  Maybe I'll find that half done project one day.  Since then, I would just bust out my sewing machine when I needed to hem my pants.  That machine was probably one of the most frustrating things ever.  After many hours (or minutes?) of blood, sweat, and mostly tears, I thought hemming would be all I could do.

When I found out I was pregnant with Logan, I was so inspired all the crafts I saw for babies. One of the first things I made was a nursing cover from the tutorial here.  It was surprisingly not bad.  It was pretty much sewing a bunch of rectangles together, so it didn't seem as daunting as using a pattern.  And, it was the first time I used notions (I'm still not sure what makes something a notion.  ex:  a button is not a notion, but a snap is?) 

This is actually the nursing cover I made for Simone.  I had made a flannel blue one for Logan, which ended up being a bad idea.  Flannel in California = sweaty nursing baby.

I was afraid that I would mess up so I ended up buying extra fabric.  Fortunately, I didn't, so I ended up making a little bag for quick diaper changes - diaper, wipes, hand sanitizer.

This was super easy to make and has been quite useful!  This is how I made it:

Materials: rectangle fabric of desired size, thread, parachute cord, cord stopper.  Instead of a parachute cord, you can use ribbon, yarn, etc.

Fold fabric in half, wrong side together, so the fold will be on the long side.

Sew together 1 short side, 1/4 inch seam

Sew  together the long side, but leave 2 inches at the end, next to the opened short side. (This is for the parachute cord)

On the opened short side fold and press 1/4 inch

Fold again and press, but this time make it 1/2 inch.

Sew as close to the fabric edge as possible (as close to 1/2 inch seam)

Thread the parachute cord through the hole and loop into cord stopper

Knot the ends of the parachute cord and use a lighter to keep the ends from fraying