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Saturday, April 21, 2012

Sew, Baby! Challenge (and other projects)

For those of you in the know, both Kat and myself are expecting little bundles of joy to enter our lives come September. We thought it would be fun to create a bit of a sewing challenge for us and anyone else who wants to join, since we are finding our need for a new wardrobe growing every week!



Allow me to introduce the Sew, Baby! Challenge! It is essentially a way for us to make maternity and baby projects with a few categories in mind to help us maintain some variety in our sewing and still meet some quickly developing needs. It will help me focus, anyway. :)

We've broken down the challenge into different categories:

-Vintage
-Alterations (including refashions and pattern play)
-Dresses
-Separates
-Nesting/Baby


I think that the names of the categories are basically self-explanatory, and there will be clearly some overlap. I already have a vintage dress pattern I'm gearing up to make, and Kat is the queen of vintage dresses. As I've stated earlier, I myself will be working as much from my stash and/or free patterns as I can, which means they will frequently fall into the categories of vintage or alterations/refashions. If we can expand our wardrobe and do it on the cheap, all the more resources we can later spend on our little wiggles, right?

The only category that may need some clarification is the nesting/baby one, as it is set up to catch both baby clothes and things like baby blankets, toys, decorations, etc. There is such a slew of projects out there one could pursue to prepare for a baby!

If you are pregnant or know someone who is who you'd like to sew for, you are SO VERY welcome to join in! There are plenty of ways to reinterpret projects and patterns to account for the changes that come with being mama-belly or baby friendly, and I'd love to see what you would bring to the table. If anything, we can consolidate some online resources here as we're progressing on our projects for anyone else to reference.

Besides the Moon Munkie Make updates and the Sew, Baby! Challenge, I wanted to review some other things I'm contemplating/participating in. I received a nice package in the mail from the recent Sew Weekly Circle pattern swap. :) Thanks, Tina! These goodies will come in handy for the Sew, Baby! Challenge, I think. :D


I also am still trying to figure out if I'm going to participate in the Me-Made-May for this year, as I would love to participate but am a little unsure I'd have enough homemade pieces to wear.  It's really just a matter of deciding on what a reasonable commitment would be. I think I can pull off three me-made-items a week, but I am waffling. But, my impression is that this may be the best time for be to participate because of my stash-slashing and need for a new wardrobe. :)


More updates to come! In the meantime, I'm going to try and explore some of the Garment District in NYC this weekend. Wish me luck! (There are just some jersey fabrics that would work great for maternity patterns that I just don't have access to in my stash, you see. SpandexWorld, here I come!)

2 comments:

  1. Im participating by pledging one piece only because its achievable.
    If I make more, the better but i cannot worry about it as I go so much in my mind. I like your maternity plans, looks like you are going to be busy xx

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  2. This is great! I won't be participating as my little rugrat just hit 6 months old and I'm just starting to think about my next sewing projects for myself. But I wanted to give you something to chew on if you're planning to nurse. Nursing tops. I was shocked at what a difference they've made to me. I thought they'd be a minor convenience over regular tops. But they quickly became my go to staple. Discretion is I suppose the advantage for everyone else. For me, the advantage is much less fabric to "keep out of her way", quick availability when baby's crying, and a warm unexposed stomach. There are lots of tutorials out there for adapting patterns for nursing. Just a thought!

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