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The baby’s room is done and just under the wire. There may or may not be a whole lot of scary chaos going on in the closet that needs to be dealt with but for now let’s focus on what hasn’t been shamefully tucked away.
First off, I must say that I was planning on going for a zoo theme with orange as a central colour until I saw Norah’s nursery which was itself heavily inspired by Little P’s room. I loved the bright, fresh, fairly gender neutral palate and decided to blatantly rip them off. I used the same paint colour, Benjamin Moore in Robin’s Nest, but only on one wall since we rent and will have to repaint. I wish I could have used it throughout the room. It’s just so perfect. Onward.
It’s a pretty tiny room so it’s tricky to get a photo of the whole. This is what you see from the door.
Underneath the crib sheet is a mattress pad I made by fusing some PLU with some fusible fleece and zigzagging the edges. It took all of ten minutes and saved me fifty bucks.
I made the crib sheet from Lecien Yellow Dots using various online tutorials that were all lacking in some way but once I got the gist it was super easy. I also used the yellow in the centre embroidery hoop. You may recognize the pink fabric from the package Robyn sent and the little dress from my last post. The green print is by Patty Young and is much brighter in real life. The alphabet print is from the Cosmic Cricket line and the lambs are from Scarlet Fig. The infamous Purl Bee Swatch Portraits tutorial is here.
On the opposite wall is the dresser / change table. The print above is by The Wheat Field, as seen in Little P’s room. I want to buy every print in that shop. The dresser itself was a huge ordeal that ended with Chris making a solo, do-or-die trip to the city on Easter weekend where he found forty year-old beauty at a consignment shop in dire need of refinishing. You can see a bit of it in it’s original state in my diaper bag post. He painted many coats of white and then spray painted the handles. I really fell in love with this super expensive dresser and I think we did a pretty good job at approximating it. I made the change pad cover and I’m really proud of it. Instead of following the online tutorials that all seem to be an unshaped slipcover but I ended up measuring all the sides and making a fitted cover. I’m really in love with the Etsuko Furuya print that I used and wish I had ordered lots more. The little pump bottle is recycled from my favourite body wash and holds a homemade wipe solution (scroll down – Aloe Vera Recipe).
The wall opposite the window is a bit sparse at the moment. Chris is planning on building a book case at some point but right now it just has this little shelf with this print from Lovely Sweet William, stolen from Norah’s Nursery.
I made the little valance by hemming a rectangle. Three cheers. Again, I used an Etsuko Furuya print. I also lined them with some blackout fabric.
It took a lot of trips to the city and elbow grease to get this all together but now that it’s finally done I’m really pleased. I don’t know if the cheerfulness really translates here but it’s pretty light and fun in real life. I’ve considered adding some pink pom pom decorations and I have additional fabrics I ordered and a stash of fabric balls that I had planned on making a noren with but I was starting to run out of wall space and didn’t want it to look too cluttered given that it’s such a small space. I tried to give lots of details and links but if there’s anything I left out don’t hesitate to ask.
Now we just need the baby!
I believe I mentioned a few posts back that Robyn sent me an awesome little package with some fabric and patterns for baby. She even included elastic! How thoughtful. To be honest I was on the fence about the outfit pattern, Simplicity 4243 (sorry no link – the Simplicity website never seems to want to load for me). It was a little country cutesy at first glance. But Robyn clearly has more vision than I, because combined with the fun, modern print fabric included and without the bows and lace, we have a real winner.
I mean come on!
The only tricky thing about the dress was making and applying my foe, bias tape, to the armhole and neck edges. Such a tiny opening for neat stitching! The bloomers were pretty breezy although next time I think I would insert the elastic right at the leg edge instead of the ruffle effect called for to make them a bit more modern. You can see I was too lazy to make more bias tape to enclose the elastic at the ruffle and used some purple tape I had lying around which shows through a bit.
I didn’t insert a zipper into to the dress back because I didn’t have one and it also seemed a bit odd on a baby outfit. Instead, I made a little loop buttonhole and sewed on a button. I should have taken a photo but I’m 38 weeks and 5 days pregnant so you’re going to have to cut me some slack.
I’m hoping to get some nursery photos soon as it’s almost finished and I made a lot of things for it. Stay tuned!
I’ve finally checked the last item off my “make for baby” list (yes, there was an actual list. If you’re surprised you don’t know me very well) and it feels like a real accomplishment because I anticipated this to be the biggest headache.
It’s the Everything Bag from Amy Butler’s Little Stitches for Little Ones and, really, it’s more for me than for baby because I want to marry this fabric.
It’s Amy Butler fabric, the exterior from the Love line. I’m thinking I need to buy metres more for dresses and curtains and to upholster all my walls.
I won’t lie and say this wasn’t… involved. I think the thing that helped me the most was what actually seemed like the biggest frustration at first: I kept realizing I didn’t have what I needed and had to put things on hold. This resulted in me cutting all the fabric pieces one week then putting them aside so I could hunt down fusible fleece, then, when that was found, cutting all the interfacings, then putting them aside while I waited to be in the city so I could pick up coordinating thread. I’m positive that if I had had everything at my fingertips I would have tried to plow through and finish everything in one day which would have been INSANE.
The sewing portion took about five hours, which I did do in one sitting but only got crazy-making at the very end when I had to topstitch through all the layers. This resulted in some puckering and creases which drove me crazy but I eventually realized that if people (including myself) are picking it apart looking for faults they’re missing the point entirely.
This is all not to say that we are ready for baby. There is a dresser to paint and clothes and diapers to wash and a shower to attend this weekend and pictures to hang and a chest freezer to buy and fill in the next two and a half weeks before b-day but I’m sure everything will be wrapped up nicely with a bow on top just in time. Right? Right!?!
Whistlepea 