Ruffle Bum Onesies

I got these onesies done in the nick of time before a baby shower last Friday. Since I won't be making anything ruffled for this baby, I had to get my girly fix crafting for someone else. I wish I had known about these when my girls were still small enough to wear them. I think they're so adorable!

They were a hit at the baby shower. I just love it when the recipient asks if I made the item, and when I say yes, there is a chorus around the room of "You made that?!" Don't you other crafters just love that reaction? It gives me warm fuzzies for taking the extra effort to do a handmade gift.

There are tons of tutorials online for doing these (so of course I used one-- no need to try to reinvent the wheel). I ended up using THIS tutorial I found on Ucreate by Crap I've Made. She gives three different options for how to do them. I used the third because I don't have a serger or pinking shears (sigh- someday). And since I'm not the most experienced at gathers (the only time I've gathered fabric was for the gathered clutch I made in January), I decided to try a couple different methods to see which I like best. For the lemon onesie, I used a traditional gather; you can find great instructions on how to do that HERE. And for the red striped onesie, I used a method I found taught by Couturier Mommy using dental floss and a zigzag stitch. I found that the traditional method took longer to work the fabric into gathers, but it stayed in place fairly well once you had it gathered. The dental floss method was a cinch to gather, but it tended to flatten out if I didn't get it pinned in place right away. For the last onesie, I decided to use the traditional method again because it was easier to have the gathers stay in place when I was trying to pin to the stretchy onesie fabric. I don't know if you can see a difference in the ruffles based on which method I used.

I lucked out on the fabric. Both Joanne fabric stores in our city are under liquidation while they prep for a new location to open at the end of June. When I went in to get fabric, they had all their bolts wrapped in plastic except for two small rows. These fabrics were some of the best they had left, so I took what I could get.

In other news, I haven't been up to much other crafting. I've been working on one of my classic receiving blankets for baby boy, but my nesting for him so far seems to consist more of hoarding potential projects rather than actually completing any. I've brought my husband to the dark side with me: he has seen some of the designer fabrics online that I like, and when I drag him to a fabric store now, he doesn't like anything he sees compared to what is available online. Mwa ah ah! We've chosen a name for the little guy, but I'm too paranoid to share my kids' names on this blog :( sorry. My oldest wanted to name him Pudge Puppy. I told her that was more of a nickname than it was a name you would call him his whole life. She loved that idea and has dubbed it his official nickname. I doubt she'll forget about it by the time he's born, poor guy.

So many of my friends and family are pregnant right now that I can't decide whether to make things for myself or for them. I keep telling myself I'll finally brave the clothing frontier and make some skirts for the girls, but that has yet to happen. I have been searching like crazy for a car seat cover pattern-- one that will teach me to make a gorgeous new car seat cover for our infant car seat like Dana makes without telling me to pick my original one apart. I just don't have the guts to destroy my car seat cover if it depends on my skill to put it all back together! Have any of you seen a pattern like this out there?

What have you been crafting lately? Is it summer where you are yet? We seem to be having a very late spring around here. You're always welcome here. Leave a comment. Follow along. Thanks for stopping by!

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*Personal note: given to Melynnda/Brynlee