Zipper Tutorial

Did I mention my son was born?  Oh.  I forgot about that.   He was born on Friday August 24th after a long 18 hr labor and 2.5hr push.    I'm in love.  More on that later.

A mama from my Real Diapering Circle was curious about sewing in a zipper.  Here's a simple tutorial of one type of zipper.

I'm making a simple zipper pouch.  I will be showing you one side, after you finish, repeat with the other side and then sew it together in whichever fashion you deem necessary. 

As shown above, you will need:

- a zipper foot ( this one is for bernina)

- two pieces of fabric (mine are 5x8 pieces) Birds: outside fabric, dots: Inside fabric.

- a zipper about 8 inches long.

1

Step 1:  Pin your two pieces right side in to the opposite side.  Visualize how it will fold over.  The birdie fabric is the outside fabric, and the blue dots is my inner fabric.make sure the match up.  I line them up to the edge. it makes it easy to keep everything even.

2a

2b

Step 2: Make sure your zipper foot is all the way to the left and the needle is really close to the zipper.  The foot will allow you to scoot as close to the zipper as you can. On mine, the part of the foot that is flat (where the 4 is) sits on the flat part of your zipper.  Picture 2a shows how i hold mine, making sure the zipper stays under the sewing foot.  2b shows what it WOULD look like if the top fabric wasn't there.

3a

3b

Step 3: When you get to the zipper pull, it can sometimes make your stitch look all wonky.  So, set you machine to that your needle is in the down position and your foot lever is up (3a).  Then wiggle the zipper past the needle to the other side (3b) and continue sewing. 

4a 

4b

Step 4: Admire your work (4a), and then press the edges down. Careful, since my zipper is just plastic, i don't want to burn or warp it (4b)

5

Step 5: top stitch the fabric in place.  Notice the placement of the zipper foot:  The back is on top of the zipper, and the flat foot part from the front is flat on the machine.

6

Step 6: Needle in down position, foot lever in the up position, and move that zipper to the other side and then continue sewing.

7

The finished stitch.  Now go do the other side.  

DIY Cloth Wipes

So today I reached 41 weeks.  and no sign of my little man.  What better way to celebrate then another nesting project!

Now, I made these weeks ago, but I'm just now getting around to organizing photos and such.  So don't think i'm waddling around 7 days over due wasting away at my sewing machine.   I was 38 weeks pregnant waddling around wasting away at my machine. HA!  I had previously stated that Tad and I are jumping head first into Cloth Diapering and creating cloth wipes seems like a logical next step.

I really like this idea mostly because its part of the three-fold reason why we want to cloth diaper.

1.  Its Economical.  buy once, wash and reuse unlimited times.
2. It's Eco-Friendly.  I don't have to worry about putting more and more things into a landfill.
3. It's cute.  In this case, it's not that its cute so much as - it's something I get to be creative about.  And I get to pull out my sewing machine. And I get to use the yards and yards of flannel sitting in my fabric stash.  So its win-win-win. For me.

This is so easy its crazy!

First... pick out your flannels. Then decide on a size.  A friend gave me a stack of them, i decided to make mine a little smaller for no reason then I wanted to make sure they would fit in a container.  I decided upon a 7x7 square.  I assume after the wash and trimming some edges, they may slightly smaller than that.   Then sit with your cutter and cutting board and cut away.  this takes a long time and I did it over two or three sittings.

There you go.  A nice stack of about 50 or so flannel squares.  

Next, find your matching sides, I choose coordinating sides, face them right sides out.

We aren't going to turn, press and top stitch in these suckers.  

You could, but can you image how long THAT would take????

Then, sew like the wind.

I left about a quarter inch on the edge.  I used a zigzag stitch all the way around.  (Mostly because I can't sew straight lines.  Who needs that? It's not handmade if there aren't imperfections, I say.) 

If you have a serger, now is the best time to serge the edges for a cleaner edge.  You could also zigzag all around the edge.  Many options here. You decide.

Next my fav tool: pinking sheers.

In retrospect, I probably didn't have to sew that far inside. You live and learn. 

Lastly:

Sit back, admire your work.

As a friend said: That's the cutest thing even made to wipe a butt.

Beyond this, i'm working on a cloth wipe solution that will moisten these guys up.  

Generally, Most recipes call for the same thing just different types I've found:

 cups of water

tbs of oil

tbs of soap

couple drops of essential oils

then sometimes other additives.

My plan is a 2, 2, 2, 2 plan.  or half that for a 1, 1, 1, 1 recipe:

1 cup of water

1 tbs of coconut oil

1 tbs of baby wash

1 drop of tea tree oil

1 drop of lavender oil

I'll get back to you with an update on how that solution goes.  

For MORE DIY nesting projects: go here!

DIY Crate Book Shelf

As a stated earlier, This is the first in my series of DIY nursery projects.

First on the list is: A colorful bookshelf.  Since I went with a grey dresser instead of changing table.  But because of this i need more and more storage.  I really like the idea of open storage and use of baskets.  So i saw this pin (i'll also have you know that I would have had this post up 20 min. earlier, but as I searched for this pin from the past, I was caught up in all the new pins from today...it happens). ANYWAY - i saw that pin from Crazy Little Projects.  

There's the finished project.  I decided to go with a dark green to balance out some of the neon-ish colors.  When coming up with my theme of my nursery, I didn't want to lock into two distinct colors, i wanted it to just "feel" warm and cheery.  So while my MAIN colors are ORANGE AND TEAL (officially) I love love neon green, threw in some turquoise.  

And some surprising colors like that deeper green.

The MOST difficult part of this shelf is finding the large wooden crates.  At least in my town.  I first tried joann's (on recommendation from this pin) and  I FOUND ONE!!!  When I asked when they'd get more, the gal told me: "Well, we don't usually carry this, someone probably returned it."

So later on a completely unrelated day, I drove to Michael's.  I FOUND ONE! I asked when they would restock.  "Maybe this Tuesday, Maybe next Tuesday" oh.  I finally found the last two across town at the OTHER Michael's.  

Over the course of my hunt, somehow i picked up the paints. Just those 1.00 acrylic paints. I used two bottles for each. If i remember, there was a massive sale, and each bottle was 40 cents.  The first coat SHOULD take up the WHOLE first bottle as the wood just soaks up the paint.

To save on paint, don't paint the side that faces the wall.  It doesn't see the light of day.  In addition to that - if you have the foreknowledge to know which crate will be on the top, i guess you wouldn't have to paint sides (the parts that will stack on top of eachother). So in my case, I would just pain the top of the orange one since that's my top crate.  But I had no idea what order so i painted it all.

Let it dry.  

Tell Margo not to lick the paint.

And stack.  You'll have to secure the crated to eachother.  I have yet to do this.  But I've been a bit busy.  I'm thinking brackets, or little screws and eventually strapping that baby to the wall.  

 So there you have it:  

D-Day.

Today Is our Due Date.  Everyone knows this except for my little man.  Who is comfortably feeding off my meals.

Weeks ago, when friends who had due dates around me were giving birth early, (Like in July, and early Aug)  was was nervous.  I AM NOT READY! please baby stay in there longer.

Now...  I'm just ready for him to be here.

Lots of choices about him will be made from here and over the next ten days.  All of which I hope will NOT be options if this little man just moved his way down and made an appearance.

You can offer advice, you can offer your stories, you can offer me your wives' tales, but i just don't want to hear them.  It's not that I don't care for them,  I just ask your prayers instead.

Everyone's different.

As of now,  I'm feeling ok.  I'm having no contractions, but I'm aching all over. I can't sleep at night, but I'm sneaking in naps all day.  I have zero energy, and have to run to the bathroom every 10 min.

They come out eventually, right?

A Blank Nursery

Way back in June, we cleared out our spare room for our little man.    A clean slate.   The room was our overflow room.  The room that held those last few boxes from our move two years ago.  No wait... 3 years.

And there it sat. blank.   

I had plenty of fragments of ideas. pinterest nursery posts that took are not linked together at all.

  The one thing i KNEW i didn't want was a nursery in a box.  No pastels, no monkeys, no zoo animals, no baseball bats.  Which are apparently the only things you can buy at babies R us.  

Like if you are a boy, you must be interested in sports. baby blue, and sage green.  

sigh.  I digress.  

I wanted something bright and cheerful.   After Tad shot down my only two ideas: yellow/grey and owls.  I had to go back to the drawing board. 

I went with my nerd side and embraced that no child of mine would be put in a box.  Which then means I needed to find, organize and/or create everything myself.

First Step:

Picking out the fabrics were what sealed it for me.  Teal, orange, and... i later I added lime green.  Really a brightly colored array of jewel tones.   Plus awesome robots.

Enter Next: the crib.

Well, technically, before that was the gliding chair.   There was quite a bit of time between setting up the chair and setting up the crib, so alone sat the chair.  Like mother from psycho.

The last major part of this room:  The dresser/changing table.    Of course, the artwork is lovingly done by two amazingly talented co-workers of mine. They won't stay there, they have a place on the wall.

So there are the bare bones.   More to come for sure.

Wait... did I just post two days in a row???  

The last weeks, and nesting projects.

I have one more week to go before our little man gets here.  And I have been working on a ton of projects to help him feel at home when he gets here though, he hasn't gotten the memo that its go time.

I've been trying to document everything to share with you including awesome iphone shots, so here's the run down of this list some are pinterest inspired some are Alisa brain-spired. Some are finished I i should have links to soon, and some are still a work in progress.


1.) Crate Bookshelf
2.) Cloth Wipes
3.) Cloth Diaper Pail Water proof Liner
4.) Robot Mobile
5.) Paper Lantern installation
6.) Chevron curtains.  (this i MAY not get to).

Adventures in Cloth Diapering: The Beginning

FLASH BACK:

For a long time i hadn't even thought about whether or not to cloth diaper future children.  No strong opinions, no manifesto on pros of one way or the other.  Believe it or not, I didn't spend my time pre-pregnancy scouring google for comparisons.   One day Tad turns to me and declares, that yes, he'd LOVE to cloth diaper our baby.  (this is early in our pregnancy, like month 1 or 2.)

I had nothing against it, I mean, it's inexpensive (which appealed to my cheapskate side), its environmentally conscious (which appeals to my norcal roots).  I figured, I Tad feels so strongly about it, I should give this a try.  

But I knew NOTHING about what that means.  Do I just throw a sheet around him and pin it in the front?  who knows...  

Come to find out both our parents clothed us as babes. Tad for the whole time, the main appeal being how cheap it was. Me; only for a few months until I got too many rashes.

FAST FORWARD TO 3 MONTHS AGO:

A friend introduced me to a facebook circle of local cloth diaper-ers (surprise: One of my co-worker's girlfriend is a part of this circle and clothes!)

I lurked around up until a few days ago.   When i got there, I was overwhelmed.  Some of these ladies are superwomen!  And they were using language i didn't understand!!!!   Pockets, AIO AI2, Stripping, complicated laundry procedures, prefolds, hybrids, snappies, thirsties, and on and on and on.  DONT EVEN GET ME STARTED on acronyms! 

I gave up even thinking about it.  I mean, it was overwhelming. I think I said that already. I left it alone. I had enough to worry about, I wasn't going to let this consume me.

FAST FORWARD to A FEW WEEKS AGO:

I think something just hit.  The close arrival of my LO.  The fact that i was on summer vacation. something.  I started researching.  Now, I KNOW if i would have asked, the ladies in the group would have helped. But I needed to feel confident in the basics, with procedure, and with a direction of what I wanted to do.  I found the resource page on Diaper Jungle to be particularly helpful. 

  NOT that there aren't other sites out there, I just found it easy to navigate and clear and to the point without searching through tons of blogs and review etc. 

THE CURRENT RESULT:

From the research I have done, I find that method I am most comfortable with and will fit our lifestyle are hybrids or AI2 (All-in-2).  These are shells that have a place to put a cloth insert that is removable and washable.  The shell can be quickly wiped off (if needed) and used several times before washing.  Like a pair of jeans.  Most of these covers can be washed normally in your own laundry once a week or so.  The inserts are washed when you get enough of them (every 2-3 days).  Beyond that, I can use certain disposable inserts in case of travel/long days/babysitting.

Source: gro-via.com via Alisa on Pinterest

You might recognize gdiapers as one type of hybrid diapers.  I am also looking into grovia AI2 hybrids.   (If you are interested the gro-via site has a great explanation on hybrids and the best cost comparison I've seen yet)
Plus Look how adorable these are!

Source: gro-via.com via Alisa on Pinterest

Now, Only time will tell.  But Now I am feeling more confident about what to expect, how to launder, and I'm even getting ready sew up some cloth wipes!   

SAVING THE ENVIRONMENT ONE BABY BUTT AT A TIME!!!