Nursing Covers

I'm of that age where everyone around me seems to be having a baby and many of those women are choosing to nurse. I love nursing, but was always frustrated by needing to nurse in public. With my second child I practically gave up on trying to cover up because she would invariably pull the blanket off and I'd be exposed anyway. When I had my third baby, a friend of mine had one of these nursing covers. Another friend got me started making them. I love this nursing cover, and they are super easy to make.

Materials

• 1 yard of cloth of your choice, woven cotton, or woven cotton poly works best


• 2 ea. 1 or 1.5 inch D-ring


• 16-18 inches of boning, I usually buy Ridgelene, Walmart doesn't have it, Hobby Lobby does, as does JoAnn's, any local cloth store should have it
  


• thread to match the cloth

Equipment

• Sewing machine that can at least do straight stitches, zig zag is useful if you can find one with zig zag, I recommend using a machine with decorative stitches because it adds a fun touch.


• Scissors


• Iron


• Ironing Board

1. I usually wash and press cloth before I do anything else with it. It allows the cloth to shrink before you try to form it into something. I've also had a tight schedule and haven't done this. Fabrics are made so well today that I'm not sure how much you really need to do this, but old habits die hard.

2. Fold the cloth in half with selvages together, right sides facing each other. The selvages are the sides of the cloth that are specially woven so they won't fray. The right side is the side you want facing out in the end. Iron so the fold is nice and clean.

3.Cut a 3.5 inch piece from the side of the fabric (not the selvage side). This will be the strap that goes around the neck.

4. Fold cut piece in half. I'm going to call this the strap from now on. Pin it and press it.



5. Sew the strap the long way using a 5/8" seem allowance.



6. Attach a safety pin to one end of the strap. Feed the safety pin through the strap, pulling the cloth behind it, and turning the strap right side out.



7. Pin the strap so the seam is on the side, press.



8. Zig zag, straight stitch, or fancy stitch down both sides of the strap.



9. Cut a 3-4 inch section off the strap.



10. Feed this section through the D-rings and straight stitch as close as you can to the D-rings.



11. Center the boning on the large piece selvages of the large piece of fabric. Mark on the fabric where the edges are.



12. Roll up and pin the long strap piece (this keeps it from getting in the way while you sew).



13. Open the large piece of fabric and pin the long strap and the D-ring strap to the cloth where the marks from the boning are.





14. Fold the cloth back, right sides together.

15. Pick a side of the cloth and mark where you would like an opening left. Do not do leave the opening on the selvages!!!!! Make the opening about the same size as the width of you hand, maybe a little bigger.



16. Pin the edges together.



17. Straight stitch with a 5/8" seam around the edge of the cloth, making sure to now sew the opening and that the strap pieces are sewn into the seam.



18. Melt the edges of the boning, this keeps the plastic from sliding out and poking through.



19. Cut the corners of the cover. Turn the cover right side out, poking the corners with the lid of a pen to force them into a nice 90 degree corner.

20. Taking the boning, push it through the hole to the top of the cover. Pin it in place between the straps. I usually pin directly below and at the very ends of the boning. Boning is very hard to pin through.


21. Pin the rest of the edges, being careful where your opening was to make it look like the rest of the cover (i.e. the amount of cloth folded inside should be 5/8". You can press at this point, avoiding the boning side as boning melts easily.

22. If you choose to Zig Zag or Fancy Stitch the edges, just sew right through the boning. If you run into problems, you might have to change needles, but most sewing machines should be able to do this. If you straight stitch, you can sew right though the boning, or you can sew directly underneath the boning and then go back and stitch at the ends. This creates a 'pocket' for the boning to be in. This is also an option if you can't get your sewing machine to stitch through the boning.

23. Roll the end of the strap over twice, using about 1/4" of fabric for each roll. Straight stitch the roll so it doesn't come undone. This is also called clean finishing.

24. Celebrate!! Because you just made a great nursing cover.

Machine Quilting

I've never really liked the look of tied quilts, even though it is fast, easy and popular, it just isn't something that I am drawn to. I went to duvets for a while to avoid tying the quilt. Bailey's and the baby's might end up being duvets, but I really want to quilt the girls blankets. I know that hand quilting isn't going to work for me, unless I can start and old fashioned quilting bee and have my friends over once a week to work on it. Any takers? So, I settled on machine quilting to make the quilts. I've done some machine quilting before. Here is an example:



It's a doll blanket and pillow that I made for my niece. This style is called stitch in the ditch. It is the "easiest" form of machine quilting. You just stitch along the lines that were created by straight line seams. Of course, in this case I cheated and used a preprinted quilt top.

I checked out some books at the library to see if this is something that I really want to do. "Machine Quilting" by Sue Nickels and "Easy Machine Quilting" by Jane Townswick. So far, they look like really good books (I read the reviews on Amazon before I checked them out, which always helps). I doubt now that I will get the girls' quilts done by Christmas, but I should be able to get the baby's and Bailey's done. I guess the girls will just get bedding and their pillows for Christmas. I think that is something I could get done. Besides, the pillows I want to make will give me some machine quilting practice.
The first thing I discovered was that I needed to replace all my presser feet. I lost all but my button hole foot and my standard foot a few years ago. I've been meaning to replace them, but I haven't really had a reason, until now. I also really want to get a walking foot, because they look cool and might make this whole adventure a lot easier. I'll just have to see how much one costs. Maybe I can sneak in a rolled hem foot too, we'll see.
Until I get those feet, I guess I just need to work on the quilt tops. I have about half of the squares for the baby's done. I guess that I will start on Bailey's after that, if I can round up what I need.
I haven't got my plans finalized for the quilts yet, and doubt that I will draw a plan for the baby's since it is so straight forward in my head right now. I will post the plans as soon as I can.

Quilts for kids

So, my first big project for are quilts for the kids. Lucy got a big girl bed about a month ago. Abby has been sharing a room with her brother who loves animals, she is a little starved for something pink. Bailey has always wanted a quilt with animals on it (currently he has one that is just bamboo print, I think it looks really good in his room, but alas he wants one with animals). And for me, I want to make a quilt for the baby that matches the animal stuff we already have in Bailey's room. Currently, I'm making drawings of what I want to do so I have plans. I'm not a very good artist, but it gives me a blue print. I'll post them as soon as I get them done. My goal is to get the baby's done by the time he is born, and the other three, I hope to get done by Christmas. It will be fun to decorate the kid's rooms over Christmas break. Don't you think?

Welcome!

Welcome to my sewing blog. I know, what exactly does a chocolate river have to do with sewing? I chose this name for a couple of reasons. 1) I lived in the south for a few years, and now that I have left I find that I didn't realize it, but it was my home away from home. 2) I love chocolate, except right now because it gives me a major bout of heart burn, but in about 7 weeks, that will be taken care of (I'm expecting my fourth child). 3) Sewing seems to be becoming a lost art. It seems like everyone in my grandmother's generation could sew, mostly out of necessity. Now, it isn't a necessity anymore, but we are losing collective knowledge that I want to try and help preserve. I know, I use a lot of modern tools, but many of them were designed to save time, I'm pretty sure that I could do allright with a needle and a thread. Although, I would probably get bored before I got anything done (that is why I don't cross-stitch).
Besides, you have to admit that Old Chocolate Bayou, is a pretty cool name.
I hope you enjoy my sewing blog! And, I hope that you feel inspired to write about something that you are passionate about too.