Dusting Off The Cobwebs

Everyone Jared works with is having a baby. Not really, but enough that they're doing a joint baby shower at work on Monday for the four families in Jared's section who have recently or will soon welcome a baby to their families. Jared asked me to "whip up some baby gifts" for him to bring to the shower. I've not done any real sewing for a while; it's mostly been mending things here and there which isn't nearly as enjoyable for me. I was looking forward to actually creating something again and to taking these plain pieces of fabric and turning them into something both functional and beautiful. 

I kind of have a standard baby gift that I give to people when they're expecting. It's a fabric strap to corral diapers and wipes is a bag and a coordinating changing pad.  If you've known me for the past ten years or so, chances are you've received this little baby gift. It's nothing fancy, but it really is useful plus I like to think that anything handmade is just a little bit special. I briefly considered just buying gifts or making something different before deciding to stick with my tried and true present. I spent much of yesterday afternoon sewing away and listening to podcasts about leadership to pass the time.   

Our base has a pretty decent Arts and Crafts Center compared to what I've seen at other overseas bases, but it's still really sad compared to a craft or fabric store in the States. The selection is very limited and the prices are high but when you want/need craft supplies right away they're kind of the only game in town so it's just one of those things (like gross produce at the commissary) that you get used to. These simple gifts only require about three fat quarters of fabric and I'm a sucker for fat quarters. There are so many amazing prints out there and they're often bundled together in beautiful coordinating sets that are perfect for lots of fun projects. Besides the fabric, all I needed was some quilt batting, sew-in Velcro, and a small piece of elastic for each set. 

Those are all really basic supplies and it should have been easy to find them but there was no quilt batting to be found when I went to get my supplies. I knew I didn't have any in my meager stash at home because I'd used the last of mine while working on a project with Jared's mom last month. And instead of fat quarters, which measure 18" x 22", the craft store mostly had these weird 15" x 20" pieces of fabric. I had to do some digging through their "fat quarter" display to find true fat quarters and I was only able to find more feminine prints - the floral ones in the picture. For the masculine fabrics, I had yardage cut from the regular bolts of fabric and cut them into fat quarters when I got home. 


It took several hours of sewing yesterday to get six of these little sets almost completed. It should not have taken nearly that long. First, I had to figure out a solution for the lack of batting. I had about a yard of white felt from some other project. It's not nearly as fluffy as quilt batting, but it still provided some structure and loft to the changing pads. Then I needed to cut the fabric down into fat quarters, iron everything, decide which fabrics looked best together, and cut the pieces for the diaper straps. Another thing I love about this gift is that the changing pad uses two full fat quarters so you only have to measure and cut the batting. All of that prep work before you can actually start sewing usually takes some time, but man I was a SLOW worker yesterday! I think I've actually gotten a little rusty and need to spend more time being creative with fabric so I don't totally lose what skill I have.

As parents we spend so much time encouraging our children to develop their talents, but do we ever really think about our talents? I just googled "why parents should develop their talents" and all of the results were about why it's important for parents to identify and develop their children's talents. But come on, we've got talents too and we can show our kids by our example that it's important to keep growing. What's your talent and how do you put effort into developing it?

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