Epic Fail

This picture does a much better job summarizing my progress with my baby daughter's swimsuit than any of my words could.

My first attempt at the baby swimsuit failed. Big time. It really annoys me and puts me in a bad mood for most of the day when that happens.

For whatever reason my brain mixed up the torso and height measurements. So then I sewed a size small, which makes no sense because it says "6-12 months" right there next to it!! DUH! My daughter isn't quite 5 months old yet. I was supposed to sew the extra small size for 3-6 months.

So I figured well, I'll just keep going with it since I got this far, then just give the swimsuit to someone with a bigger baby girl. Yeah. Right. That's when I discovered that the straps weren't quite working right. I couldn't fold enough of the fabric over the elastic. I think the elastic should be 1/4" not 3/8" like what the pattern suggests. I'm going to try 1/4" with this next attempt. Good thing I ended up ordering a little extra from Spandex House and also that they give generous cuts. I had enough fabric to attempt this the second time and still enough left over for my bathing suit. Oh, and just to note, it takes FOREVER to sew ruffles on a swimsuit. You wouldn't think so, but it does. AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!! And I have to do this. All. Over. Again.

Since it's the day after I can kind of see just a little bit of the humor in this. I'll see more of the humor once I actually have a functional cute swimsuit for my baby. At any given moment anymore I'm pretty much half-asleep when sewing. It's also hard to concentrate with everything going on.

I'm actually satisfied to get the amount of sewing done that I do achieve. Hopefully this next attempt will go better. I can't work on it at the moment which is a shame since my older daughters are playing happily and the baby is napping. I'm half-blind because my glasses lens popped out and I'm wearing contacts because I can't locate a screw for my glasses lens. I can't see things up close with contacts. This screen is blurry right now and forget seeing the stitching while I'm sewing.

Swimsuit Fabrics Purchased!

The fabrics I ordered for mine and my daughters' swimsuits arrived today! I was so excited to see that box on my front doorstep. The fabric on the left is actually a navy blue (hard to see in the photo I know). I ordered these fabrics from Spandex House. If you've never checked out their website...Oh my goodness! It's sensory overload. It took me FOREVER to decide which fabrics I wanted. It was insane. Their service was great and they sure are speedy getting your order to you! Definitely a lot different than walking into a JoAnn's or Hancock Fabrics to choose from a vast selection of about 8 different colors: all solids of course. Boring! Not only that, but these fabrics were way cheaper even! I paid $8.00 - $10.00 per yard at Spandex House. JoAnn's wanted $15.00 per yard for a solid color. Good grief! I would love to visit Spandex House in person, but since it's all the way up in New York City, don't think I'll be going.

So now I've got the fabrics. Today I'll be picking up the patterns. All of the patterns are Kwik Sew Patterns (naturally!). I'm armed with the best serger and coverstitch machine on the planet, so I should be ok here. I'm so excited to get started, but also nervous since I haven't done a swimsuit before in my life. Here's to fun this weekend!

Adorable Baby Outfit!

Well, I did it! I finally sewed something I'm 100% proud of. I can't believe I had a part in sewing this gorgeous outfit. Yesterday I finished the jogging suit for my baby daughter. The pattern is from Kwik Sew's Sewing For Baby book. I even added some cute embroidery to the outfit with my machine. Doesn't she look absolutely gorgeous in her outfit! I love my baby!

After I finished this outfit some friends of ours got to see her in it. The looks of astonishment I got when they heard I made it just made my day. I'm so used to sewing things and then when I'm done I look at them and say to myself "That's not quite right." You get so sick and tired of constantly tossing out ruined projects and dealing with so-so results. I'm on a sewing high after this success right now.

Since I'm feeling ultra brave after this project, I think I'll try my hand at sewing some swimsuits for my older two girls. My oldest daughter is extremely tall and skinny, so finding her a swimsuit that even fits is a challenge already. And that's without also adding to the fact that most swimsuits in the stores for little girls look like something that a street walker would wear. Ugh! I'm telling you, the swimsuits some people let their little girls wear...it's scary. Hopefully I'll have another sewing success story to post after the swimsuits are done.

I hope.