Off the Clock

UPDATE:  My daughter has been using these diapers on my granddaughter for a year now and it is time for an update.  These diapers are not sufficient on their own, even when granddaughter was very small.  The pads can't soak up fast enough and leaks abound.  So instead daughter bought flour sack toweling to use as diapers.  Yes, they need to be folded, but she felt they worked really well and were easily adjustable as granddaughter grows.  She decided against having me make them out of flannel because she didn't want to use diaper pins and the plastic clasp hooky thing she uses doesn't grab the flannel as well because the flannel is too tightly woven.  She does use these shells along with the flour sack diapers, and they have worked out really well for her.  As far as the inserts go she uses them to supplement the flour sack diapers for overnight. A diaper with one main soaker snapped in at the top. The bottom snap is to add a booster.  Now that I'm well on my way

Now that I've made the prototype diaper and got my daughter's approval (she loves it), I can now go ahead and make a stash of these for her.  Once I was partway through the first batch I thought I should make a tutorial post so that if I don't get to them all right away I will remember how I made them lol.  I'm not including the actual pattern because there are already lots of free patterns out there - Google is your friend.  The one shown here was done with a commercial single size pattern that I converted to a one size pattern, but for the next batch I am going to try this pattern  from this site  (which has a ton of great resources and tutorials).  The reason for this is that I have read complaints that many of the commercial diapers aren't quite long enough for older babies/toddlers and the linked pattern is a little longer than what I am currently using.  I bought a meter of PUL in each of three colours.  By staggering the pattern back and forth I can get eigh

So it's been since April that I've posted.  I guess it's true what they say about retirement being so busy! lol  I have worked on a number of projects from the garden to the garage to the sewing room that I really should have posted about.  Maybe I will do a catch up post one day. In the mean time, today has been spent in the sewing room working on cloth diapers for my daughter's first child due early in the new year.  She was given some hand-me-downs from a family member and they are a whole lot more complex than what I made when she was a baby.  I spent the first part of the afternoon replacing worn out elastic and velcro on the hand-me-downs which was a good opportunity to see how commercial cloth diapers are put together.  Then I spent a crazy amount of time making my first prototype - the million dollar diaper based on how long it took me to put this together! lol  The pattern I had bought was for a pocket diaper but it turns out she prefers the ones with a snap

First, an update. I kind of left you hanging with the black bathing suit coverup . The problem I was having with this top was that the white interfacing showed through the sheer black fabric at the button bands and collar. I resolved this with a packet of black dye. After the top was completely finished I dyed it and it turned out beautifully. I have proudly worn it on vacation since. I will definitely keep this in mind when working on sheer fabrics in the future. Now for the new news - it seems the current title of my blog, "Off the Clock", is more appropriate than originally thought. I'm retiring! Yes, I am only 53, but there are a number of reasons for me to take the plunge now.  I am looking forward to having much more free time to spend with my loved ones, as well as getting into my hobbies that often get left on the back burner. I am not saying I will never work again, because if the right thing landed in my lap I would certainly consider it. Being reti

When I travel I usually use ziploc bags to pack my clothes inside my suitcase. I find it helps keep things organized and I like that I can see through the bags to see what's inside. The downside of ziplocs is that they don't lay flat when packed. That's not so bad if you are leaving them in the suitcase but they tend to slide all over if you try to put them in drawers or on shelves such as on a cruiseship. A bit of googling showed me travel cubes, but they are a bit on the pricey side for what they are and I would need to order them from the states. So of course I decided to make some. This is the first prototype. I used two layers of broadcloth with one layer of medium weight fusible interfacing and a layer of clear plastic for the top. I thought about using a double ended zipper but I was trying to make this as frugal as possible, and therefore found that two long zips opening towards each other would work just as well. I will take pics of the process as I make the next

You'll have to forgive my formatting as the computer I am using has a hopelessly outdated version of IE that doesn't play nice with Blogger and I don't have admin privileges to install an updated browser.   I've gotten back into the sewing room a bit this week. I've been working on a bathing suit coverup using Vogue 8927 and a somewhat sheer black crinkly weave that frays easily. For this reason I was initially thinking about doing French seams, but then thought that's what the serger is for. I serged all my seams and used the coverstitch for the hems so that in theory I shouldn't end up with fraying. At this point all I have left to do is attach the collar band and do buttons and button holes. The main problem I've run into so far is that the interfacing is very obvious because of the sheer fabric. I could probably live with it on the outside (the camera flash makes it look worse in the pic than in real life), but the inside of the but

I know I haven't posted in well over a month, but that's just a sign of the time of year.  Yes, things get crazy in December.  I did manage to do a little sewing but I didn't get any pics.  Everyone in the family got jammie pants and I repaired my stepson's snowmobile cover.  That counts, right? Anyway I went to the fabric store to buy another ruler cutting guide this week and I saw this purple knit faux leather that I just had to have.  I could immediately see it as contrasting sleeves on a (what else) New Look 6735.  I wasn't even deterred when I read the label that said hand wash only.  I took in the top a bit in the sleeves and the bodice because I keep finding my tops are stretching out after being washed once or twice.  The bodice is actually a much nicer fabric than what I usually buy so that may not be a problem here but I took it in anyway.  It looks great in the front, although it shows my bra lines in the back.  Hmph.  Oh well.  The other change