M family outfits

My awesome cousin just had a beautiful miracle placed with her family through adoption. Check out the sweetness!

 

 Let me tell you, this is one loved little girl. The amazing birthmom showed her the greatest love possible by placing her in the M family home. I had the chance to learn a bit more about the adoption process from my cousin. Tidbit of the day, moms don't "give up" or "put up" their children for adoption. They place them in into loving homes so update your lexicon and use place to help change the language and make adoption the positive process that it truly is.

So in addition to all the love from the wonderful birthmom and her family, this baby girl has all the love of the Maidenames behind her too. My excitement expressed itself in a 3 hour manic fit in my sewing room. Goodwill had several girl bed sheets on half off day so I was able to get yards of fabric for $2.50 a piece. I may have bought more sheets than I'll use, but come on, the patterns were ridiculously cute. And it's not like they have a shelf life, right? This is what I tell my husband. And what he tells me when I give him a look after he buys more electronic equipment.

At the end of the late night sewing extravaganza I ended up with all this.

A skirt for big sister

 I used the hemmed sides of the sheet to save time. Then I accidentally sewed it together when adding the tulle. Should have been a 20 minute project if I didn't mess up. It still surprises me how quick little girl skirts are to make.

As I was throwing away a scrap, I thought it would look gorgeous as a little head scarf. (We learned how to make these at a youth group activity. Big hit if you need a craft for teenage girls.)

After combing the internet for a free newborn pattern, I impatiently gave up and may have yelled, "Fine! I'll just make my own!" I grabbed a newborn dress from J's closet and found the approximate width. I had every intention of attaching little sleeves, but then realized there would be no way to get around the newborn "orange on a toothpick" head proportions. I made some tie straps to avoid buttons or zippers, which are waaaaaay too time consuming for saturday evening sewing sprees. Before you pretend to be impressed, it is a 22"ish by 10"ish rectangle attached to two paper bag "bunny" head shapes. I trimmed the hem off the sheet and made those into the side ties. Sew the sides of the bunny heads together with the ties as meat in the sandwich, hem the ears, and gather the skirt along the bunny's neck. Voila!

Of course the wee one needed an accessory too. Apparently some babies have hair in the first year of their life?

(I was running too late to get all the pictures in focus)

Then I figured I should probably make a diaper cover since parenthood has shown me they aren't just for looks. They were invented to minimize poop explosions on your clothes. This stupid thing took a full hour on it's own. But then I thought of it covering a cute little bum bum and forgot about the frustration.

 As I was envisioning cute little girls in matching outfits, I felt bad for the new big brother. My friend Marilyn posted a great tutorial on how to make bowties that I'd been meaning to try. Husband said he thought it would fit an adult, that it was ridiculously huge. I said, "You mean ridiculously cute." I still think it is perfect and any smaller would look like a girl's bow. Plus, it took all of 15 minutes. And you can make it with only hot glue if you want.

 

Congrats M family!