WallabyBags and Rosie Cheeks

So here an entire week has passed and I have barely mentioned what it is that I do. Well, other than mother, cook, clean, sew, can, and thriftshop. I have a shop on Etsy with recycled wool longies and diaper covers, and WallabyBags. The brand name for my longies is "Rosie Cheeks", and, well, they kind of speak for them selves.

I also do wrap style Velcro closure diaper covers.

Wool makes such a great diaper cover. It's anti microbial so it doesn't need washed after every wear. Just air it out between uses and the lanolin in the wool naturally neutralizes odors. It allows air to circulate to baby's bum, so hit helps cut down on diaper rash, and it is a natural fiber, which many moms like to keep next to their baby's skin.

I also designed and produce the patent-pending WallabyBags. In our home we have switched to reusable almost everything over the past couple of years. We use cloth diapers, towels, shopping bags and the thought of cloth tp is playing in the back of my mind. My husband might not go for that though. But we still went through a lot of plastic baggies. I pack my husbands lunch every day, and several days a week the boys and I are out around lunch time and I try to pack ours as well. I knew there had to be a better way. And thus was born the WallabyBag. They're laminated on the inside with polyurethane so they're water proof and keep your sandwich fresh. They fold over the top like the old school sandwich baggies to keep snacks contained with out Velcro to catch and hold crumbs, and they have a flat bottom to stand on their own for easy snacking. I put everything from peach slices to cheerios in these. I use them in the fridge to store cheese or cut veggies. My aunt had me make her several large ones and she uses them to store washed and cut greens for salad. And the best part? They're machine washable and dryable.

Thanks for taking a minute to check out my stuff. Hope you like it!

Sweater: Deconstructed

And then reconstructed to fit much better.

I get 99% of clothes for myself and the boys at the thrift store. I love my thrift store. I have so many good things to say about thrift shopping that it deserves it's own post. Soon. But today we're talking about a sweater.

It's a beautiful sweater. The colors are so earthy and warm, perfect for fall. I love the rolled neck line. I hate the fit. I can never try things on at thrift stores because I always have a baby on my back and a preschooler in the cart and honestly, for $.50 I can afford for a few things to not fit quite right. Usually things that don't fit get turned around and immediately re-donated, but I thought this sweater deserved one last chance. It's a size Large, and I need it to be about a medium. I had already taken in the side seams by about two inches, but it fit very poorly in the shoulders. It really needed to be taken apart and overhauled. So here is what I did:

First I took out the serging from the previous attempt at taking in the sweater. Then I created a new arm scye about an inch inside the old one.

Next I trimmed the excess from the sleeve. Here are all my pieces once they've been cut down to size:

I also opened the sleeve about half way down the arm. The sweater was baggy under the arm too so I made the new arm scye a little smaller. When this is sewn up it will blend gently into the rest of the arm. Then I opened the sweater flat, and pinned the sleeve to the shoulder, right sides together.

For most projects that use the serger, I don't bother to sew before I serge. It's an extra step and I have very little patients. But for a project like this I do sew first. That way I can try it on before I serge. A single sewing machine seam is a lot easier to rip out then a serged seam if for some reason it's not quite right.



I tried it on at this point, to make sure the shoulder seams were in the right place. You want this seam serged before you sew up the side seam and underarm, so better to make sure it fits now. Once you're sure the seams fall nicely, go ahead and serge or zigzag stitch this seam.

Next you'll sew and then serge the side seams. Start at the hem and sew toward the armpit. Once to the point where the body meets the sleeve, line up your seams and sew on into the arm seam. Side seam and under arm seam are done in one long seam. Again you may want to try it on before you go back and serge this seam.

To finish your seams, thread all of your loose threads through a large eye needle and thread back through the first half inch of serging.

And you're done!!