Saturday, October 29, 2011

Baby Class

So earlier this month we stopped by Crafty Planet in Northeast Minneapolis and my husband insisted that I take one of their classes, specifically "Baby 101:  Diapers, Bibs, and Burp Cloths."  I hesitated a bit, because I am already a bib-making maniac, but he thought I should crawl out of my cave and be more social.

So that's where I found myself last night, despite the fact that I felt a bit sickly.  There were a bunch of other first time expectant mothers in the class and one of them brought her mother.  We used The Nappies pattern for the diaper, the instructor gave us a bib pattern that she had created, and the burp cloth was made with a prefold diaper.

First things first:  Shopping.  I had grabbed some of my own materials on my way out of the house and since I rarely buy new fabric (mine all seems to be yard sold or thrifted), I took advantage of the class discount.  In addition to the fun fabrics below, I picked up some light blue flannel to make future diapers.  They also required us to use something called PUL, which is used as the waterproof lining of the diaper, so I bought that too.
So for my projects, I used a vintage-y yellow fabric found at a yard sale by my mother.  
I used a yellow rosebud calico flannel for the lining and soaker pad of the diaper.  The soaker pad attaches via velcro and it's lined with two layers of cotton batting.  
I didn't want to do a bib with the flannel, so I brought one of my thrifted towels to the class.  All reports that I've had in from bib recipients indicate that the towel-backed bibs are the best for cleaning up after the kid and for preventing seepage through the layers.  I slipped in some ric-rac (or is it rick-rack?) before sewing the thing together.  
As for the burp cloth...we did not have enough time in class to do that, so I finished it at home this morning.  I bought a pack of prefold diapers and then took some of the coordinating fabric and just folded the edges over and sewed it onto the middle section of the diaper.  It feels a bit thick, but maybe that just means gross drool and vomit will not penetrate.  

So there you have it.  The class was good, instructor was super nice, and I'll probably go back for another class to continue on this fancy road to socialization (or just to get out of the house after the baby comes).  There's another fabric store a little closer to home called Treadle Yard Goods and they offer fun classes too.  I'm looking forward to someday taking one of their classes on how to recover an umbrella or how to make a roman shade.