In the Making

So my cousin is a photographer and I'm a... maker of things. She had her first baby in March and we decided to do a trade. I make her some baby stuff and she's doing pictures for us. She did a sisters maternity shoot for Gina and I just a few days before Gina had her baby and in the fall after our baby is born and isn't so... squishy and red looking we're going to do family pictures. Here are some pictures of the things I made (sorry, the picture quality isn't that great...).

The first thing I made is a sling baby carrier. This is the only kind I can use with Alaina right now with my planetoid protruding from the front of me. But it was also Raelin's favorite kind when she was a baby. So simple, so versatile, and so compact!

And I realize my head is cut off in this one, but how can you resist cute baby kisses!

Next, I made a car seat tent thingy. I love the fabric she chose!

And the other thing she wanted me to attempt was a diaper bag. She really likes this Petunia Pickle Bottom bag and I said I'd give it a shot. First, I tried it with some random fabric I had on hand to make sure I could do it before I used her nice fabric. I call it the froggy bag. It could use some improvements...

I learned a LOT from making the prototype and the final product turned out SO much better! I got the first two projects done in a week or something, but for this one, I cut out the fabric and just had it sitting by my sewing machine for months because I was too scared to make it! I've never sewn something so intricate! And I wanted to do lots of pockets and some with zippers, which I had a hard time figuring out. So I had sewer's block for a long time. Then my cousin said that she wanted to come bring me the CD of pictures from our sisters maternity shoot because she's moving to California for the summer on Monday. Uh, oh. The pressure was on! So I decided to just go for it. And I was shocked at how it turned out! Whoa! Who knew I could do this?? (for some reason, these pictures won't rotate. Bummer...)

I love that it has LOTS of pockets! There's a pocket on each side panel, one on the front, two on the back, two inside, and one on the bottom.
There's a long pocket inside that can hold a wipe case and a couple diapers, and then there's the zipper pocket with silky lining--that was tricky! But not at tricky as the zipper pocket on the bottom. If you click on the PPB link to see the bag I copied from, you'll see the changing pad pocket. That one took me a while to figure out, and while it's not perfect, it works!
I think I might have to make myself one...