Finally! An Adequate Nursing Shawl

Many breastfeeding Moms will tell you: nursing shawls can be less than modest, especially if you have a feisty, flailing little one.  I found an easy pattern online for a BIG nursing shawl, and whipped it up in no time.  Keep in mind – I’m a beginner.  You can do it!

I can hardly wait to use this one!  Come wind or waving arms, I’ll be covered.  🙂  The best part is, it saves us money.  Most things you make yourself will do that.  Have you seen some of the exorbitant prices companies charge online for a simple square piece of fabric?  As we say in my family, “Good NIGHT!”

The pattern comes from Lindsay, the Mom who writes Passionate Homemaking, one of my favorite blogs.  I’ll add the link to her sewing instructions at the bottom of this post.  My version will show a general glimpse of the process plus my alterations.  Lindsay’s pattern will be more thorough, if you’re looking to sew this.  Give her whole site a browse while you’re at it.  She does a great job!

The project begins with measuring and cutting your favorite lightweight cloth into an almost-square.  It will look huge.  That’s the point.  I chose a feminine pattern that works for nursing a boy but helps me still feel girly.

Yep, that’s my high-tech straight-edge system.  Pot holders.

I have this nice remnant from the fabric now.  Any ideas what to do with it?  It MIGHT be long enough for a cloth belt if I shrink a LOT after the baby’s born…

Lindsay’s instructions include cutting off a long, narrow strip to be used later for the neck strap.  Using a zigzag stitch, the large remaining piece is finished on both sides and the bottom, leaving the top edge unfinished for now.

You’ll have cut off an 8-inch piece of the neck strap for the small loop, where you can attach D-rings.  I say can because I didn’t like them and ended up doing something different.  The neck strap itself is simply sewn together inside out, turned right-side-out, and pressed flat.

Easy so far!

Lindsay’s pattern calls for a piece of boning, so that while you’re nursing your little bambino, you can peek in at his or her sweet face (or flailing arms as the case may be – and if that’s you, don’t give up!  It is absolutely possible to nurse a feisty baby when your own body is not cooperating either.  Maybe I should write a post about that.)

There’s the boning, with a pin to mark the exact middle.  The same is done on the top edge of the shawl, and both are pinned together:

The whole thing fit together wonderfully – better than I imagined.  After pinning the top edge over the boning, the neck strap is pinned to one end of the boning, and the 8-inch loop to the other end of it.  Both pieces are tucked underneath the boning for added security.  I’m sorry I forgot to take a picture of that.

Now you’re free to finish the whole top edge, all the way across, adding an extra line of stitching to the neck strap and adjustable loop to help keep them in place.

As for that loop…  Lindsay’s pattern, like most, requires D-rings to secure the neck strap.  I did put these on at first.  For some reason, mine did NOT want to hold the cloth in place.  I think I bought the wrong size.  My super-strong hunking husband bent the D-rings for me and took them off so that I didn’t have to do any seam ripping and re-sewing.  Thanks, sweetie.  🙂

I already know how I like a nursing shawl to fit, so I just tied a fashionable knot in the loop and neck strap.  Ta-da!  Done!  Thank you Lindsay for posting such a useful project.  I’m looking forward to nursing baby #2 in complete peace and privacy. 

To follow more exact and detailed instructions, please click on this link for Lindsay’s version:

http://www.passionatehomemaking.com/2011/05/make-your-own-nursing-cover.html

Happy sewing and thank you for reading The Full Vine!

Quick Swaddling Blanket

Babies are wrapped up so tight and warm in the womb, it’s no wonder they’re a little mad when we stretch them out flat in a crib and expect them to sleep on their backs.  Some just refuse.  Some respond well to swaddling, which is why I LOVE this blanket project.

I found the pattern at www.passionatehomemaking.com – a very worthwhile site.  I am not a fast sewer, and this only took me two short Riley-naps to make.  If you’re a mom-to-be or want to make a quick, easy, and cute gift for someone who is, check out the details at Passionate Homemaking!  This is not a tutorial, but the PH site has a great one if you’re interested.

Here’s a few snapshots of the process:

Pinned two pieces of cloth together, outsides facing in.  One was cotton, one was flannel.

Needed to trim the edges to make a nice square.

Sewed the two pieces together, leaving a 6″ hole.  Used the hole to turn the thing right-side-out. 

Ironed the edges in my dungeon ironing spot (which I actually really like – the basement is nice and quiet and cool). 

Tested out a few decorative stitches with a great contrasting thread.

Went to town sewing a cute border around the whole thing.  Easy, right?

I mean, how cute is that?

It was so much fun picking out fabric (with Mom!) that was boyish, babyish, and stylish all at the same time.

It is a very BIG blanket.  Have you ever tried to swaddle a baby (particularly a thrashing, strong one) in one of those inflexible, tiny “swaddling blankets”?  So frustrating!  This blanket is large and luxurious. 

I couldn’t wait to try it out.  But since I happen to have one of those thrashing, strong ones, who is now almost 14 months old, I chose a more willing subject for my experiment:

He seemed pretty happy about it.  Hopefully the baby will be too. 

Happy sewing and baby holding, especially if you’re around here in about 6 weeks!

Mom, Midwife, Movement

Two weeks in a row of rain, clouds, and drizzle…followed by today.  I have to thank God for the incredible difference it makes just to see the sun!

And then there’s a morning like this one, when I get three incredible blessings all put together:

1. Mom time!  I don’t get to hang out with my Mom all that often, so a trip with her to the midwife, the fabric store, and Dunkin’ Donuts is a real treat.

2. Midwives are awesome!  This is my first time going the midwife route and it’s been just what I hoped for.  She helped me feel the baby’s head position, talked with me candidly about what I did and did not want during labor/delivery, and discussed diet and herbs with me.  Made me feel like a million bucks and sent me on my way to get larger.

3. Movement!  Every time the nurse asks me “Fetal movement?” I have been able to answer “yes” – and I know that’s not something to be taken for granted.

So I don’t think it’s the caffeine in my iced coffee (which I forgot to request as DECAF) that’s giving me a buzz today.  It’s a breath of fresh air – blessings blowing in all directions. 

 

And a reminder from God: Next time my day is cloudy, drizzly, cold, boring, achy, exhausting, or annoying, I should pray for someone else to have a great day.  Really pray.  And then trust that God knows what’s best for me, including the timing of sun and sweet mornings.

ps.  I’m also thankful that in about 6 or 7 weeks, I’ll be able to bend over again like the guy in the photo below (imagine: Weeeeeeeeeee!  My knees!  My toes!  My shoelaces!).

Cloth Nursing Pads

Webster’s Dictionary defines frugal:  “characterized by or reflecting ECONOMY in the use of resources.”  Our nation’s economy is in trouble.  My wallet doesn’t have to be if I choose wisely and with economy.

Last Tuesday I wrote about sewing, cleaning, and storing cloth napkins.  Many readers were excited about that topic, so I thought I’d follow up with another “cloth something” post.

One of the best gifts I ever received was a sewing machine, followed by lots of good advice on how to use it.  Many thanks to my mother- and father-in-law for the machine, and to both moms for their expert advice! 

WARNING!  This post is completely girly, if the title didn’t give it away.  If you’re one of the guys who might be reading this, don’t worry.  There aren’t any gory details – just how to sew circles together. 

Riley nursed happily for 9 1/2 months before self-weaning when he was good and ready (he’s always had his own time table for progress).  Those months taught me valuable lessons which I’m excited to use with Baby #2 in a few months. 

I learned that disposable nursing pads, while convenient and thin, are potentially hazardous to a woman’s health.  The companies that profit from our love of convenience are hardly going to be the ones to say, “HEY LISTEN UP!  If you wear our products you can more easily develop sores and breast infections!  Yee HA!”  (oh yeah, sorry – no gory details.  That wasn’t too bad, was it?)

Thank you to Gayle, the incredible nurse who taught me this fact.

Right at my fingertips were these little treasures that I could use, throw in my regular laundry, and reuse as often as necessary.  I’m really not a hippie.  I just like to find the highest quality option at the best price, and that often means ignoring advertising.

My first time through breastfeeding, I used store-bought cloth nursing pads, white handkerchiefs (a personal favorite), and flour sack towels, cut into strips and folded to size.

The flour sack towels, which can be purchased super cheap at Walmart or similar stores, made the best homemade nursing pads.  Old white T-shirts from my hubby’s stash were a close second, although they didn’t lie flat as easily.  Too stretchy.

Here’s the process I tried.  May yours be shorter if you’re in the market for these things:

1. Tried cutting strips out of men’s white T’s.

2. Folded them down to size and pinned them together.

3. Sewed several together before realizing they’d be pretty visible through clothing, given their shape.  These will be good for night time 🙂  Hacked several into circles and serged them together.  These looked much better.

Starting over…

1. Decided to move on to the flour sack towels (hereafter known as FST’s).

2. Spent time folding and sewing like before…until I realized all I had to do was cut out several circles and stitch them together.  Duh.

(Should have used a brown paper cut-out, but used a pre-made nursing pad instead.  It is now covered in Sharpie.  Learn from my mistakes, readers.)

3. Created large stacks of FST circles, leaving behind scrappy remnants.  Anyone have ideas for how to use these?

4. Tried both a zigzag stitch and serging, trying to get these crazy things to lie flat.  Zigzag worked/looked fine, but serging created a more thorough finish.

5. In the end, the very simple process went as follows:

Put together 6 FST circles.

Use a straight stitch all the way around, about 1/4″ in from the edge.

Serge (or zigzag) all the way around, attempting to line up the stitching.

Done!  Toss it in your collection and make another one!

My goal was to have a nice finished collection before the baby was born.  Go me!

From left: hankies, homemade round pads, homemade square pads, store-bought pads.

Hopefully this will free up a little more time in my day, as I won’t have to fold ratty-looking FST strips every time I have to change pads.

They may be a mish-mash of styles and material, but who cares?  They’ll be hidden! Many of them were free and upcycled (recycled into something of greater value rather than getting tossed in the trash).  And my body won’t be prone to infection by wearing what some big company said I “have to have.” 

Cloth nursing pads get softer and better with age.  They’re like the fine wine of breastfeeding.  🙂  Whether you sew your own or buy them pre-made, I encourage you to make the investment for your own sake, or for someone you know who could use them.

Check: One Converse shoebox full of ready-to-wear nursing pads.  Bring on the baby!

Cloth Napkins: Never Old-Fashioned

Think of the feeling you get when you sit down at a fancy restaurant for a special meal, and the table is set with china on fine white linens…  It makes you sit up straighter, dust off ye old manners, and savor each sip, slurp, or bite like it was meant to be enjoyed slowly.

The elegance and charm of a good “old-fashioned” cloth napkin is hard to deny.  It says, “This meal matters.  It was prepared FOR YOU.”  Every meal should feel like that! 

When we were first married, we used paper napkins at every meal (and often paper plates for at least one meal a day).  Then the waste and dollar cost became evident, and I started looking around for cloth napkins.

Our first batch came from Savers, a huge thrift store like Salvation Army.  They were white, mismatched, and exactly what I was looking for. 

As we got used to using them, I realized how often we’d used napkins without needing to, and then thrown them away.  How much $$$ were we spending on flimsy, scratchy paper squares that ended up in the garbage, along with the plastic wrap that would not decompose in a landfill within our lifetime?

It was a GREAT, easy, and frugal change to make.  Now that I have more time for sewing, I’ve been making all kinds of napkins and having so much fun doing it!  We’re saving quite a bit of money by doing this (especially by using gift cards and coupons for fabric).  And our table setting looks BEAUTIFUL, even if all I’m serving is eggs.

The easiest have been self-finishing: types of cloth that will fray right down to the stitching, which means I don’t have to carefully pin, iron, and hem the edges.  Here they are, pre-trimming:

A little lazy to do self-fraying?  You bet! 

A little extra work beyond throwing a big plastic package in the shopping cart?  Yup.  But I want to have things around the house that were built to last.  This is not a thing of the past.

Now I have the chance to hone a skill that should NOT become a lost art form. 

Even I, the queen of squiggly lines, can sew – and the more I make, the better I get at it.

My goal is to have an enormous collection that gets used at every meal, all year round, with special fabrics for holidays, seasons, and even birthdays.  It’s an economical way to decorate and a space-saver for those who can’t stash away lots of holiday decorations.

These are pasta napkins.

I sewed them after I heard several people say “I CAN’T WIPE MY MOUTH WITH that!” when I presented them with a crisp white cloth napkin and a steaming plate of pasta and bright red sauce.  Understandable. 

And these are so country-ish it’s awesome.  Makes me want steak and eggs.

The best part?  Freedom and creativity!  There’s no limit!  No art teacher telling you which colors are “right” – your table, your imagination, your picnics, your feasts.

Our napkins even get used at the end of the meal for wiping a small mouth and hands before they can smear food on our shoulders.

If you don’t sew, or the idea of buying cloth anything from a thrift/second-hand store makes you gulp loudly, I’d be willing to bet you would still save money by purchasing a set from Target, Walmart, etc.  Do the math: Compare your one-time purchase of a few yards of fabric or a set of ready-mades to the cost of buying paper napkins for a year. 

You’re on the hunt!  There’s so many options out there.  Have fun 🙂

Send an invitation without saying a word: Home matters, and you’re part of it.  Come sit, linger, and savor.

Have you made the switch from paper to cloth, or are you considering it?  Please comment!

A Chair Becomes a Lair

I promise I will post some more “artsy” projects soon – but there’s been a problem in my living room, and I had to fix it.  We acquired a nice gaming chair for free.  I love free.  I do not love black, and this is what the chair looks like.

This chair says grab a Dew and a headset!  Not even the addition of book baskets made it inviting to me.

I used to drape a quilt over the back, and that… sort of worked…  But the quilt kept falling down behind me every time I plopped my pregnant butt down (I mean, there’s considerable impact when a chair is so low and a woman carries such momentum).

Right now is not a good time to spend money on upholstery weight fabric.  Someday.  Someday when we’ve filled a swimming pool in our backyard with 20’s, 50’s, and 100’s, I plan to re-cover and redecorate like Suburbian Martha gone wild. 

For now, I have a fleece blanket, a quilt, my husband’s baby blanket (awwwwwwww!) and a packet of safety pins.  Here’s the result:

The fleece blanket seemed to be unevenly cut.  No matter how tightly I pinned it and how hard I tried to get it symmetrical, there was always a lurking bald spot.  This method of overlapping and pinning at the top corners worked the best.

I love drapyness, if that’s a word.  So I left the blanket alone, just pinning twice under each armrest so the thing wouldn’t slip off.  Next I folded the quilt into thirds, so that the underside was showing.  Nothing against the front, where the beautiful design is located, but I’ve been staring at it for years.  It was time for a change.   I pinned the quilt at both ends so that it, too, would behave.  Jon’s baby blanket added a sweet touch.  And…

PRESTO!  A gaming chair becomes a reading lair!  The only thing missing is a funky pillow with some finger-lickin’ texture.  I shall create and post that on a future Studio Tuesday.

The pins are all attached from underneath the fabric and carefully concealed.  The only thing showing is coziness.

Again, someday, a cash-filled pool, a zip line, and pony rides…  Today, a child-filled reading chair, for zippo, and grand rides for the ol’ imagination.  I like today.