Ruffled Diaper Cover Tutorial

 

 

We have a lot of close friends and relatives who are currently preggers.... Lately the Hubs and I have been thinking about kids, so my pinterest is full of kid crafting tutorials. I have been having a lot of fun making gifts for all our expecting mothers! Recently we found out that one of our friends is having a girl! YAY! There are so many cute girl ideas... I honestly have no idea what we'll do if we eventually have a boy... the crafts are just not as appealing...

 

So living vicariously through our friends I decided to check their pinterest pages for some hints as to what I should be making for their baby shower gifts... One cute idea I found was for a ruffled diaper cover (pinned via etsy... no tutorial) and a pair of lace leggings (again, etsy!)...

 

A while back I printed a diaper cover pattern from MADE. To be honest I was a little lazy and a little overwhelmed by the leg holes... But now having much more sewing experience under my belt I decided to give it a try.

 

I purchased a half yard of "Baby Girl" Kona Cotton from Joann's and 3 yards of lace trim ($2.49/yard).

 

To get started... wash, dry, and cut out the pattern from MADE.

 

Then I pinned the lace to the 'back' side of the diaper cover, and sewed each row before pinning the next... I just free-styled this, just making sure that the layers slightly overlap.

 

 

 

When you're all done sewing the lace it should look something like this:

The last layer was probably over-kill... I would definitely not add another... This should leave you room to finish the waist band later.

 

Sew the front and back together per the pattern... make sure you pin your last layer of lace out of your way.

 

I like to press my seams... just be careful because the lace you choose may not handle heat well and it may melt on your iron (I may be speaking from unfortunate experience)...

 

I don't have a serger so I rolled the top edge over by about an 1/8 of an inch before rolling it down the 1/2" for the waist band... I might have done slightly more than a half inch... again just free-style here... this will ultimately give your cover a more professional finish.

 

I do the same 1/8" roll over for the leg holes and then 3/8" for the leg holes... basically follow the instructions!... but the lace complicates things a bit... just roll with the punches and don't worry if it's not perfect.

 I would recommend that you check the lace side of the leg holes before sewing... you can see that I pinned the lace in a really awkward bunch when I was setting up my leg hole casing...

 

Just re-adjust it before you start sewing like this:

 

 Finish the elastic waist and leg bands like the pattern says... that part is pretty simple... my only tip would be to mark the sides of the elastic that you want to sew together before you thread it through the casing... that way you can prevent sewing a twist into the elastic... I also trimmed the lace here and there if I felt like it was going to look weird later... trust your gut!

When you're done, enjoy the new diaper cover... they're so simple and cute... and the lace is very forgiving so just roll with it!

Ariel Swim Robe

So this weekend I had a super creative spurt of energy and decided to tackle a project that has been on my Pinterest "to-do" list for a while now. I saw a pattern listed for sale at one of my favorite craft bloggers site. I was very interested in making it with my brand new sewing machine, only problem is I don't really know how to sew....

But, I got the Pattern ($8) and it was a 29 page PDF with 17 pages of colorful instructions that made it very easy to follow along. The remaining 12 pages are the pattern which you can print on 8.5" x 11" paper on your home computer.

Here's how it turned out:

To make the Swim Robe I purchased the following supplies:

1 Pattern - $8.00 / 8 Robes to be made = $1.00
1 Beach Towel @ Walmart = $5.77
3 Packages of double wide binding @ Walmart (3yd ea) = $4.50
1/2 Yard Ariel Fabric @ Walmart = $2.25

(I already had white thread - so technically no cost)
---------------------------------
Total Cost : $13.52
One towel was enough to make the largest size pattern (3T-4T) but I had to be VERY careful to lay all the pieces out just right. This robe was intended for my niece who turns 5 today! I made the largest size and tried it on a neighbor girl who is also 5 and it was very roomy - thank goodness!

Here is a close up of the hood - before I was 100% finished.... I went back and cleaned up the seam where the hood is attached. I also re-worked the trim - you can see I missed a spot if you look closely

Here is a closer look at the ties - I also lined them with the Ariel fabric... I think that 1/4 or 1/3 of a yard of trim fabric probably would have been adequate, but at least I had more options to maximize the number of Ariels that you can see... I love how the pink in the towel co-ordinates with the pink in the coral... too cute if I do say so myself! Oh, and doing the binding around the curve parts is clearly NOT my strong part... Seriously that binding was tough!

And here is one last look at the back side of the robe - I did the wrap all the way across the back, but I could have sewn in two straps at the seams where the back panel and the front panels come together... but I opted for the continuous look because I had enough towel to make it work.... Plus, you can't tell that the Ariel fabric is not continuous along the back, which is why I think you could get away with less trim fabric.

Not bad for my first ever sewing project!