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Saturday, December 29, 2012

Reacquainting Myself with the Seam Ripper

Last night I decided to reacquaint myself with my seam ripper. In actuality, I had hoped to just be reunited with my sewing machine but you know how that goes...

I haven't touched my machine since July when we learned our big news and promptly began the voyage through morning sickness.  Luckily, my morning sickness has been long gone, but I feel like I've just been overwhelmed with everything going on and haven't had the time to plan out a sewing project.  I swore to myself that over this winter break (my company shuts down for a little over a week during the holidays) that I would at least get some knitting done.  There's still a few days left of the break and I have not yet touched my knitting needles, but I did tackle a few sewing projects!

So, here's the back-story.  One of my co-workers has been kind enough to lend us her bassinet for our little Poppyseed due in March.  She has a little girl in the toddler ages and didn't currently need it.  I was stoked as I didn't really want to spend the money on a bassinet that is generally only used for a couple of months.  She passed the bassinet on with a few related items - bedding and a bumper.  Did I mention she had a girl?  The bassinet came with a hot pink animal print bumper with brown backing.  I debated just flipping the bumper to the backside so only a hint of pink would show through but said to myself 'you could totally make one of these yourself!' Sometimes I'm too intense for my own good.


I already had a fabric on hand; a minky type print in green and brown with little farm animals, including the sheep that fall into our theme.  My mother-in-law had also been kind enough to get me a gift card to JoAnn's so I was able to get some additional supplies for this project.  I knew I had enough minky to make the main piece, but I still needed the underlining and base.  I went with some basic green gingham.  While I was there I also stumbled across an actual pattern for the basket.  Score!  Simplicity 4636 had a pattern that matched the moses basket shape.  I headed home with my goods in tow.

Now I don't know if I'm just rusty or what, but the pattern instructions for what should have been a simple basket were in Greek or something.  I decided to loosely follow the instructions and use the pattern primarily for the cut-out pieces.  Problem solved... somewhat. Ok, then I had to deal with the minky fabric combined with the cotton.  The cotton cut like a dream but the minky was slightly stretchy and 'slippery' in the sewing machine.  Nothing was lining up! Somehow I managed to get all of the side pieces together but again, as I wasn't following the directions 100%, I butchered the bottom.  I spent at least 30 minutes cursing the pattern while ripping out the seams from the entire bottom piece.  Of course as soon as I finished, it then fit perfectly.  The hubby later remarked that he heard an awful lot of muttering and cursing coming from the sewing room so he decided to leave me alone.  Wise man.

So, what I was left with was a decent fitting bassinet cover.  It doesn't look 100% like it should, but I don't think Poppy will care too much.



Now, as I've promised for the last few months, I'm doing a giveaway this week. No, for real.  I'm composing the post immediately after this one launches.  It'll go live on New Year's Day - a little treat for 2013!  And I'll cover both knitting and sewing.  Intrigued?  Come back during the beginning of the New Year and you could win some fun stuff -  my treat for being such a slacker with the blog!
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