Friday, February 27, 2009

Nursing Cover


Made a couple of nursing covers yesterday. These are the ones
that have a length of boning that pops the fabric out and away
from one's body so there is ventilation and a
nice view of baby while one nurses.



The ladies in our church were all walking around with these
and one of them was nice enough to let me examine hers
(first removing it from her person, of course). It was simple
enough to sew just from that once-over itself but I googled it
and found it all over the internet. How wonderful not to
have to guess at dimensions myself! I used this wonderful
tutorial but if you are disinclined to make it,
you can buy the originals here.

I discovered something about myself when I went shopping
for fabric for this project - I don't care much for prints,
particularly florals. Some day when it is easier to leave
the kids at home, I plan to venture to faraway chic fabric
boutiques. But for now, I shop at the faithful old chain stores
that are are closer to home. So there I was in JoAnn, staring
at the print section (i.e quilting cottons and whatnot) and
it was excruciating. All I remember was desperately scanning
row after row of prints, trying to find one I liked a bit.
Finally pounced on this apple-pear one and gratefully
had the staff measure what I needed.

Isn't that weird? I never realized that about myself. Looking
back now, though, I've always preferred working with solids
or embellished solids (embroidery). I also remember going
through an odd phase about fifteen years ago when I
suddenly decided I liked small florals and sewed numerous
chiffon ankle-length A-line skirts in small florals for work.
Mum was a little frightened (chiffon? work? flowers?) and
seriously thought there was something wrong with me.

Perhaps for this reason I haven't dabbled in online fabric
shopping much. I've bought oilcloth online, and some
stretchy powernet that mum wanted to sew undergarments
with but that's it. I think I've always liked the physical
shopping experience - it's fun to feel a fabric between my
fingers and immediately see in my mind the entire garment
/project that it is going to become. And some of my favorite
shopping experiences are for bizarre materials like ripstop
nylon, neoprene and marine upholstery fabric. So much fun
to work with! I very, very rarely buy fabric because I like the
print but don't know what to do with it. Pity, because I
think I could really become dangerously addicted to
online fabric shopping if I let myself order all their little
sample swatches. Someday soon I will post on one of to
hose bizarre non-cloth fabrics so you'll know the sort of
crazy things I do with them (no, not dresses).

But back to those nursing covers - I almost wish Kate were
still an infant so I could use them. But we're close to
being weaned, so these are for gifts. And I know of at least
two other friends with Spring babies so I know I'm going to
be making more, provided I get over the
fabric shopping hurdle first!

3 comments:

  1. No way, Lorraine! Guess what I made yesterday. And planned to post about today... A nursing cover!!!

    Have some other comments and questions but will send that in a separate email. Talk to you soon!

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  2. Hmmm...how did I miss this post in Feb?

    Like you, I wish I had thought of/heard of one of these back when I was still nursing Nikhita :( So much more convenient than trying to keep very still so that the big old scarf doesn't accidentally slip off while in public...especially here in tudung/hijab land!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wow! Thanks I wish I had thought of making one of these while my kiddos were tiny. I could've bought one.....but I'm way too cheap. (I guess I secretly liked it when my babies showed my boobies to strangers :)

    ReplyDelete

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