Dolly Training Pants

Bunny, now fully aware of my capabilities and talents, has begun to put her orders in.  Last week, it was an order for this pair of Elmo training pants for her Baby Alive doll (who she has named Jessica).  I dutifully created this tiny pair while she napped.  I disliked making it because it was so small and difficult to maneuver on my sewing machine, so I don't know that I'll ever include them in my shop, but maybe one day, if I ever figure out how to attach my patterns, I'll include a pattern so you can make your own.  In any case, now Bunny's favorite baby doll has matching training pants.  If Bunny's happy, then so am I.

Snow Day

I was very surprised this morning when I went out, fully dressed and ready for work, to heat my car up to find that all surfaces were covered with a thin, slippery layer of ice.  Thanks to a thick fog that's been hovering for about 12 hours (I guess it's called freezing rain) we got ice everywhere and school was cancelled.  God knew this was an answer to prayer for my little family.  I'm only just getting over a nasty head cold that both Dave and Bunny got this morning.  I didn't want to leave my sick little family to their own devices, but honestly, getting a substitute teacher for just half a day is more hassle than it's worth so I was just hoping they would be fine.  But a snow day means that I get to stay with them, nurse them back to health, and recover a bit more myself!

Bunny's running around and playing like life's normal, but complaining here and there about a runny nose and a "yucky" stomach.  Also, she doesn't have much of an appetite.  I'm cramming liquids down her throat and she's taking them happily, thanks to her great desire to always drink from my cup with the big straw! Ha ha! This means, though, that she's peeing every hour and getting fruit snacks (the reward for peeing voluntarily that she know's she's entitled to) just as often.  That's more sugar than I would like, but today I'm not going to fight it.  She's also eaten some pretzels, but not many.  Poor little Bunny!

We're working with her on cleaning up her messes these days.  She likes to start one project and then, with the pieces of that strewn everywhere, she pulls out another, and another until my house is a maze of toys to trip on and step on.  So we're not allowing her to pull out the next toy until she's put the first away.  This usually means that halfway through the clean-up process she gains interest in playing with it again, but that's okay.

The family time of a snow day is unparalleled.  I pray for a couple every year just because it means that I'll get un-interrupted time with a family with very disperse schedules--well, Dave's and my schedules are opposite--they're not fully opposite, but mostly, when I'm home with Noelle, he's working, and vice versa.

But today, we're home together-sick, but together, and I'm happy with that.  Content.

Dave got a second job, too.  I don't know if you read my last post, but his full time job at the church had to be cut to part time for financial reasons and we've really been trusting God about giving us a job.  Actually, this job came almost immediately after the news, but we didn't settle down into trusting that it was the job for us until recently.  It's a job that will pay Dave ONLY with commission and so it's risky.  But we fell that Jesus is calling us, like Peter, to walk on the water and trust him.  If the storms come we only need to look to Him and we won't sink.  With this whole, frustrating situation, we've found that as we let go of circumstances that weren't really under our control in the first place, God gives us amazing peace! In two weeks Dave will no longer receive the paycheck from the church that we need to support us and he has yet to actually start his second job and we should be worried but we're not because God has promised provision and we are at peace with that.  Let me tell you, this is an amazing place to rest--trusting in God and His provision rather than in your own, futile attempts to provide and/or control a situation.  When this "storm" hit and we were thrown into the decision of either trusting and finding peace, or freaking out and finding...well... stress and worry, we decided to trust and found ourselves so close to the Lord's bosom that I almost wished we could be in the midst of a storm and/or fiery trial all the time just to be so close to my God, and in such a sweet place of rest near his heart!  Weird, I know.  Anyway, that's were things are with us...a place of resting in the Lord because He knows our future, and we don't, and we've given him the reins of our hearts and our lives.

Changes

For awhile now, I've felt limited by the Etsy shop name that I chose without much thought a couple years ago.  I chose it while trying to sign in and buy something, not really envisioning a shop later on.  Etsy has given shop owners ONE chance to change their shop name and I have eagerly decided to do so.  Clothdiapermommy is no more (although the links will still work for awhile.  My shop is now called "Making All Things New" and the URL is www.makingallthingsnew.etsy.com or etsy.com/shop/makingallthingsnew

I'm not changing what my shop offers.  I'll still be doing cloth diapers, diaper covers, training pants, and more, but I don't want to be limited by a name including cloth diapers if I decide, one day, to change my product.  I feel this name makes my shop open to a wider audience. :-D

Of course, the name Making All Things New really has to do with my faith.  My faith and I are really inseparable and I want others to know a little of the reasoning behind that.  So, here's the new description of my shop and explanation of my name as found in my Etsy profile:


When I create, I am often inspired by old things, such as T shirts, to make new things, but not always.  Sometimes, new fabrics and materials inspire me as well.  I mostly make things for children--cloth diapers, diaper covers, fleece training pants, and knit wool play food--but occasionally you'll find an adult hat, pair of knit socks, or a Christmas ornament here as well.

I'm inspired by my faith in Jesus Christ and by what he can do with old, tossed out things.  My friendship with Him and the work He did for me on the cross define me as an individual.  At the end of Revelation, after John describes the Apocalypse, God shows him heaven and says, "I am making everything new!"  In 2 Corinthians 5:17 we read, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come."  It gives me hope to know that even when I mess up or when life gets bad, God can make a beautiful new creation from my mess and rags. 

I hope that in my life, as well as in my Etsy shop, I am a reflection of the God who went through death and hell so that I wouldn't have to. 



And now that the holidays are over, I'm back at it, making more things.  My training pants seem to be a hit--as a couple of people have requested custom orders--and any time I put knit play food up for sale, it never lasts longer than a week (too bad it takes so long to make them!)   I'm needing a new foot on my sewing machine before I go back to making cloth diapers so you can expect them again as soon as I get that. 

You Asked For It: Sesame Street Cloth Trainers

For sale in my Etsy Shop:  Bert, Ernie, and Elmo cloth training pants!  

First of all, I have to apologize because I promised templates/patterns for the Sesame Street monster faces and I tried but couldn't get them to show up right.  I since lost one of them and will have to re-draw it (which isn't a big deal since I never use a pattern anyway).  But I do apologize if you were banking on those.  I'm thinking of just selling fleece face applique sets on Etsy anyway.  What do you think?  All the fleece pieces of Elmo's face for $3 shipped?  Bert's and Ernie's for $4?

This is all beside the point.  Sufficed to say, I'm sorry about that.

So, I've been neglecting my blog and my Etsy shop for awhile because I was putting my family first and settling my priorities.  For someone who only works part time, I'm SUCH a busy girl!  I'm always knitting something for someone, working with my husband in the church, doing piles of laundry or making dinners for the week, writing my book (it's my secret passion), sewing, writing for Diaper Junction's Cloth Diaper Blog...and on top of all of that I want to be the best Mommy possible.  So, my blog and my Etsy have been on hold. 

Well, our church just realized that they can't pay my husband full time anymore and reducing him to part time is almost worse than firing him because we can't support ourselves on that income.  I know, it seems awful, but it's not.  God's given us amazing peace and we're really okay with it! Now, Dave's looking for another job and I've decided that I should step it up with Etsy again to help supplement his income.  Since the Sesame Street trainers

When I posted my tutorial on how to make these trainers, a couple of people asked if I'd be selling them.  I didn't have plans to up til that point, but they're such a hit with my daughter and really pretty simple to make so I've decided to do so.  I didn't go out and buy fabric for all the monsters--sorry.  I only had the right fleece for Bert, Ernie, and Elmo.  And I have an Oscar in the works, too.

 Oh, and by the way, I also made a new listing for some wool fruit--fruit that I knit AGES ago and then never listed because I kept giving sets away as presents instead :-P

A White October

 I had a delightful surprise when I looked out the front door at about 5:30 on Saturday morning.  Snow! I thought the first picture would be the end of it--that it wouldn't amount to anything more, but an hour later we had this:

By around 1pm, we had really good coverage on the ground, and when it was all over we had maybe about 4 inches of wet, heavy snow. 

My husband was saying that had it been a bit colder we would have even more but since it was so wet, it really packed down hard. 

That was perfect in my opinion, though, because so often snow is too powdery to do anything with.  But not this snow! We did all the wonderful things that one is expected to do on a snow day and we have the piles of wet boots and outerwear to prove it!

I hope those of you in the path of this weird storm enjoyed it as much as we did! :-D

Tutorial: Insert for Fleece Training Pants.

If you read my blog post on Tuesday, then you already saw the tutorial for fleece training pants.  However, the training pants are not done until there is an absorbent layer in them.  In my opinion, with out the absorbancy, it's sort of silly to make training pants out of fleece, since fleece contains moisture.  So, without further ado, here is a SUPER easy tutorial to put the absorbency in these little training pants. 

First, I pulled out an insert I already had--a non-perfected one from one of my first pairs of training pants.  But, if you want to measure, then you can measure the width of the crotch of the training pants, and then make it the length you want. 

Then, I cut one, long strip of fabric that was the length I want, and the width multiplied by six.  If you do not have a strip of fabric long enough, you can cut out two pieces that are the length of the insert and the width multiplied by three. 

If you have only one strip of fabric, sew it together at the one end.  If you have two, sew it together at both ends. 

It will look like this. 

Now, turn it inside out. 

And fold it into thirds. 

The ends of this folded insert are rough.  You're going to sew them together. 

Your insert now looks like this. 

Clip the corners and trim the edges...

Then, turn it inside out. 

Voila!

Now, all your rough edges are hidden, but you don't have six layers of fabric to force a snap through either. 

Pull out the snaps (or the velcro) that you want to use.  Since I didn't want my snaps to stick out, I chose the colors of Ernie's skin and his nose---which is where my snaps ended up. 

Pinch the insert in half hotdog style to find the mid point, then mark where you want your snap/velcro along that line. 

Fold it in half hamburger style (see below picture) and match your first mark or snap to where you want the second snap/velcro to be.  Mark it and add the snap or velcro.  If you are using snaps, make sure you put the STUDS on the insert.  That way, if you decide to use the training pants without the insert, then the snaps won't irritate precious little skin. 

And if you're doing velcro, you might want more than just two.  You might want to consider doing a lenghwise strip of velcro, or just three or four little squares.  THat's up to you.

Now, you need to mark where your snaps are going to be in your training pants.  Fold the insert in half again, hamburger, and stick it inside your training pants. 

Like so. 

You'll be able to feel the studs of the snaps on the insert. Mark where they touch your training pants, making sure it's centered.  Since I've already centered the nose I don't actually have to measure the center for this part of my training pants.  If I hadn't put a nose, I'd be making sure that I was putting the snaps in the midpoint of the butt. 

Mark the spot.

Add your snaps--the socket--to the training pants, being sure that the socket faces the inside of the underwear.  If you have no applique here, you might want to consider adding a little extra square of fleece for snap stability. 

Now, we ant to do the same thing to the front of the training pants.  With the insert still inside so you can feel the snap, measure the halfway point of the front of the training pants, and then mark your point.

I have no applique on the front, so I"ll add a square of fleece to make my snap more stable. 

Now, attach the snap and you're ready to insert your soaker pad and put the whole thing on your baby!