Baby Swaddle Blanket

So as you know I've been wanting to get back to creating but avoiding my sewing room. Well Fox is in need of some 5t clothes and I came across a lovely mama wanting to swap a box full of 5t Gymboree boy clothes. One of the things she wanted was one of the wrap around swaddle blankets. So I figured this was a good opportunity to kick my butt into gear and start making some stuff again. Especially since we swaddle and could probably use a couple of them as well.

So on the hunt I went for a great swaddle blanket pattern. This is the one I found. I believe it is a free one offered to get you interested in a book of children's patterns the maker is selling. I got to it through a few pinterest links so I'm unsure of the original source. I'll gladly update this if anyone would like to provide that information.

The pattern is great. The swaddle blanket looks really nice. The only thing I had difficulty with is printing out and putting together the pattern. For some reason when I try to print it out at 100% it did not fit the paper correctly and left off pieces. I had to change the seeings to landscape and then print instead of the standard portrait. I didn't see where anyone gave this tip but I seen where a couple people had issues printing. So if you try to use it and have difficulty then try changing you settings to landscape instead of portrait. Beware that when you do this the little lines to line it up become irrelevant though. I managed to line mine up correctly by looking very closely at each piece to see where a line on one page was identical to a line on another and would overlap. Not exactly fast or easy but it does work and is totally possible. I'm sure it's much easier to buy the book and cut out the pattern but again I'm not sure what the name of it is (plus that's not free).

I will say this, it does look a little big to me. However I always think new baby items look big when I'm pregnant, lol. I think the idea that something of that size is taking up residence inside my body distorts the way I look at newborn stuff. Know what I mean?

As you can see mine doesn't have the velcro yet. I left it off for now so if the mama I'm swapping likes this one then she can tell me which side she would to be the outside and which side to make the inside.

So do you think you'll try this pattern? Who will you make one for? Any baby showers coming up? If you do try it I'd love to know how the printing and taping part went for you. 

How to Kill Creativity

Not that you would want to but if you would like to know how to both kill creativity and also give someone a bitter resentment towards a type of animal they have always adored in one fail swoop then I have the answer. Put a litter box in their teeny tiny craft room and then populate it with 2 stinky cats that track litter from one end of the room to the other and enjoy spending the rest of their time laying in the middle of and scratching holes in whatever you are currently working on.

 

This is the beast cat that I hate the least like the most between the two. 

I spent several months not wanting to even think about anything sewing or craft related. It bugged me so much because I have never been that way. Then it hit me. It's not really a creative slump I'm in. It's not that I don't want to create anymore. It's that I can't stand going in that stinky little room and having two cats walk directly under my feet with each and every step. It's that I can't stand picking up a project that I spent so much time and effort on and it looking like a swatch of orange shag carpet regardless of what the fabric started out as.

My entire life I have grown up with cats. I love cats. I really do. Or at least I did..... Now I find myself resenting them for taking over my room. What we all USED to call "the sewing room" which has been re-dubbed "the kitty room". I used to tell the kids to stay out of the sewing room because there could be stray sewing pins somewhere in there. Now I tell them to stay out of the kitty room because that's where the litter box is. YUCK!

So do I dislike cats now? Or is it just a temporary resentment until we find a different kitty solution? Is it all cats or just these stinky hairballs?

Granted it's been 6 years since we had a cat before we got these two. So is it that I just never realized how yucky they can be? Or are these two cats just not what I'm accustomed to from the feline world? Is it because now I have kids and now I'm more germ-a-phobic for their safety? Am I alone in this? Has anyone else had an experience like this?