Today I am joining a group of lovely sewing bloggers around the world on a virtual baby shower for Jenya - from While She Was Sleeping blog - who is expecting her second child!
Jenya and I live on opposite sides of the planet. Me in Europe and her in Australia. We share a lot of the same tastes. I could easily make and wear everything she makes!
We have never met in person but we have become good friends. Sewing has this funny thing you know? It connects people from all over the world in true bonds of friendship and camaraderie. It's amazing! I feel so blessed for being a part of this community!
All my three kids were born when I started taking sewing lessons. My baby girl was about 7 months old but I didn't had the chance to sew anything for her while she was still a baby. My sewing lessons - from a dressmaker with over 30 years of professional experience in both the fashion industry and as a dressmaker by herself (working from home) - were focused on women sewing. She taught me how to draft a pattern from my own measurements, how to cut fabric and how to sew with both couture and industry techniques. It took me a while - one whole year - until I ventured myself to sew for my kids. By that time I had no more babies, so sadly I never got to sew any baby stuff... Now I can only take comfort in sewing for my friends babies! And I love it!
When Renee (from Nearest the Pin) and Alisa (from A Stitch In Between) asked me to join this virtual shower I immediately said yes! On one hand, of course I was going to make a little something for my sweet friend Jenya and her baby, and on the other hand, I really couldn't say no to the chance of sewing baby stuff. :)
I looked on my "Sewing for Babies" board on Pinterest and my brain just couldn't stop... So many ideas, so little time! It's a real drama in my life guys! Sometimes I feel like a seventy year old lady because I have already realized deep in my soul that I won't have time in this life to do everything I want to do, to sew every.single.thing I would love to sew... There is just not enough time... Do you feel the same already? Is this what they call the "middle life" crisis? :)
Well, back to the virtual shower and baby sewing. :)
So, I had a difficult time making up my mind on what to make. I always do.
I ended up going for a crib pouch to keep diapers, a clothing change, a burping cloth, maybe an extra blanket or some softies, at hand. And since I have no more babies around - so, no more cribs... - I had to take photos on a chair to be able to show it on this post. :) And the good thing is: after the baby grows up this pouch can be used with other purposes! It can become a chair pouch to keep toys! Or coloring books and crayons. Or dolls and cars. :)
I came up with my own pattern so I will be sharing it along with a tutorial these days. Stay tuned!
Jenya is not finding out the sex of the baby so I had to make something gender neutral. And please let's not start a "but that are no gender specific colors..." debate, okay? I don't like seeing baby boys in pink and that's it. :)
Red and blue are my favorite colors and together they are my favorite color combo. And I think they are both great colors for both girls and boys.
Polka dots are all about babies, right? Oh, and I *had* to use piping! Because, you know, one of the things me and Jenya have in common is that we love piping! :)
As the main fabric I used a Japanese cotton-linen blend print that was sitting on my stash since 2008 (which was pretty much since I started this blog and began sewing simple things, way before I had sewing lessons and started to make clothes).
I love it when I find the perfect project for the perfect fabric. Sometimes it does feel like there is some sort of sewing magic and sewing fate. The thing is, and you may not know, the print on this fabric are matryoshkas, a traditional Russian doll and Jenya has Russian roots! There are even some Russian letters and some Russian words on it. I made something that relates to this baby's family roots and genetic heritage. My heart felt warm when I realized this!
Take a look at all the stops for this Virtual Baby Shower!
Happy sewing!
Que idea tão gira! A Jenya vai adorar! É usar muito com certeza...
ReplyDeleteOh those dolls are so cute! What a clever idea, love it.
ReplyDeleteThis is so fantastic! Really practical. How perfect is that fabric?
ReplyDeleteWhat a great idea Sara! I can think of so many uses for this pouch in my house - I'll be looking out for your tutorial Sara. Thanks so much for joining in the fun :)
ReplyDeleteWow, that is awesome! I'm not quite done with having babies and I can see this being so so useful, I cannot wait until the tutorial. Thank you so much for joining us for this shower and providing such a thoughtful and useful git.
ReplyDeleteSara, this is awesome! I cannot believe this gorgeous fabric waited for so many years to be transformed into something so perfect. You know what? I would not have missed an opportunity to add a little bit of piping to this pouch either ;) Love the fact this pouch can be used for ages! Thank you dear friend :) As for the gender specific colours... I would not put pink on boys. Everything else is optional haha R had a lot of brightly coloured outfits when she was a baby - purple, red, green, blue. A lot of people assumed she was a boy because I was not dressing her in pink :) Funny, hey?
ReplyDeleteCan't go wrong with polka dots and the matryoshka fabric is perfect - a great combination with the piping finishing it off perfectly.
ReplyDeleteSo very Jenya! Lovely!
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely thing to make! And I love the colors you chose (I feel that way about pink on boys, too. Unless it's salmon pink). Such a perfect gift <3
ReplyDeleteThat is so perfect. I saw the fabric and thought: "oh, this is so great for Jenya's russian roots!". So good Sara, so good!
ReplyDeleteGreat Site! I love the patterns!
ReplyDelete-Kay