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Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Nursing Cover

A close up of the top. You can see the D-ring and the boning. Don't you just LOVE this fabric.
Cupcake Cover

This is my version of the Hooter Hider. My wonderful sister-in-law just had a cute baby girl!! I was sitting with her while she was nursing the other day and she had a cover up, but she said that she felt like it was a bib more than a cover up. I took that as a hint, and made her one that would cover everything even with her other boys pulling at it.
I just love the fabric, she has 4 boys so she needed something girly. I got about a yard and a half, way more than I needed but it was the last on the bolt so I got a deal ;) I folded a square, cut it out and sewed the edges under. Then I cut a length of fabric about 24 inches long and about 5 inches wide. I folded it over, sewed it, then turned it right-side out. I put a 12 inch piece of boning in at the "top" and sewed a hem over it. I stitched it in place so it would have the bend to see the little baby. I sewed the strap on one side of the boning and then made a loop, put a D-ring on, then attached that on the other side of the boning. It was a little bigger than I thought it would be, but the bigger the better, right? I love these so much and wish they had been around when I had my kids. The other thing I love is that they aren't lined, it's only one piece of fabric so you and your little one won't get too hot while trying to feed.

Look how big it turned out! Nothing will pop out with this Cupcake cover.

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Fixing Tent Zipper with Velcro

 This weekend we went camping to Bryce Canyon. Last camping trip our tents zipper broke, so I had to figure something out. The tent is only a year and a half old and we have really liked it. We got it at Kmart for about 150$ and it has been really good for our family. There is lots of room, it is really easy to set up, and makes it through the weather without leaking. We have even had it in a foot of snow and it was good. So being cheap like I am, when the zipper broke I was determined to fix it and not have to buy another tent. Every tent we buy the zipper is the only thing that goes wrong, people have told us that maybe we are too hard on the zippers, but I think that the kind of tents we buy aren't really meant for the amount of camping we do.
So I bought 6 feet of fabric Velcro from walmart for about $6.00, put my sewing machine in my garage, and started pinning on the Velcro.
 I cut the velcro into about 4-6 inch strips and pinned it to both sides of the door. The reason I didn't do the whole 6 feet in one long strip is because I thought that if one part of the velcro started to open, the weight would pull open the whole door. Once they were all pinned I started sewing. I sewed each piece around all the edges with a straight stitch, I did a couple with a zig-zag stitches but it made the velcro not quite as effective. It took a lot longer than I thought it would, but it saved me $150!


The Velcro before it was sewing on.

 I was a little worried that it wouldn't hold up to my families in-and-out for 4 days, but it did AWESOME! I like it better than the zipper. It is easier for everyone to open and close, and we had no issues of the side of the tent getting stuck in the zipper. It wasn't that windy at Bryce, but I think it will hold up to most weather. We had a small sprinkle and there wasn't even a drip of water in. It worked just as good as the zipper, I think. I have a few other tents that I think I will have to change over to velcro.

The finished door. Even the campground at Bryce is pretty.




See how well it closes.


Funny little side note. I was in the garage sewing (which was weird enough) and I had the door into the backyard open to cool down a little. Soon enough, my little flock of chicks had made it in to hang with me! I sat for an hour with my 5 chicks sitting around me, they were sitting on the floor and would look up at me occasionally making their cute little cooing nosies. It was the weirdest sewing experience I have ever had.

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