Full price? or "fool" price?

Look, I understand we all want the best for our kids, and sometimes that means forking out a large chunk of money for things we can't make ourselves. But I also think, at least for me anyway - part of being a mother is learning to be resourceful, and sometimes, buying brand-name stuff at overly inflated prices is going against every grain of my motherly-instinct. I just don't like the thought of being taken advantage by some corporate brand-name retailer just because I have an inherent need to keep my kids safe and comfortable.

There is this thing out right now called the Boppy Newborn Lounger...OK, to be perfectly blunt - it looks like a dog bed for newborn babies:


Am I wrong? =)


Having said that, I'm not going to lie, it still looked pretty cozy, and I can see the benefit to having one if you are limited on space. And in our case - we are VERY limited on space. Anyway, when it came down to it - I wanted one (for the baby...not me), but at $40-$50 a pop - no thanks! So again, I naturally tried to take a stab at making one with some remnant fabric I had lying around. I had no pattern to go off of - I pretty much looked up the product dimensions on a retailer's website, sketched out the shape on some fabric, and cut away. And it definitely didn't come out too shabby:

One side:


Other side:

With the stuffing, I think this was about $7 to make, and mine is reversible - one side cotton, and one side flannel (but that was purely done out of necessity - I didn't have enough of one fabric for both sides.).

Flannel:

Cotton:


And thankfully, this only took me about 45 minutes to make from start to finish. I am sure if someone was an advanced seamstress, they could make this in about 20 minutes or so, if not less time. Thinking about how easy/cheap this was to make makes me wonder why they are being sold for $40-ish dollars each (retail)....oh yeah - brand-name price inflation! Oh - you sneaky, sneaky corporate giants....I'm on to you......

The Adventures of Suzie Homemaker

Well, I am about 34 weeks pregnant and counting, and so far so good. I have had about a billion ultrasounds (Well, realistically, it has been about 20. They have been closely monitoring me since about 20 weeks since I was at risk for preterm labor during my last pregnancy - yep, had to have surgery for the last one and the whole nine-yards, but it all turned out alright) and I have had numerous tests done - I can't tell you how many times they have drawn blood from me during the last nine months. And then I've had the added pleasure of doing a 24-hour "collection" (mothers out there who have been through the same testing will know what I mean by that.) Despite all of that, there is no room for me to complain - the baby is healthy and growing well, and I am not in any serious discomfort.

Anxiousness has been my main battle thus far - so naturally I have been looking for things to keep my mind completely occupied for the past month or so. When I am not doing the usual mom-thing, wife-thing, art-thing, or church-thing, I am always looking for something to clean, organize, sew, or write (as in - this blog, which explains the vast increase in our blog posts over the past month!). Some would call that "nesting" but I just call it "keeping my sanity."



Well, one thing is for sure, I have never done so much sewing in my life. I don't really "enjoy" doing crafts per se, but my drive to not pay full price for something that I know I can make myself is the real reason behind all of these projects. First was the baby blessing dress, then I started a combination car seat cover/nursing cover. I really had no idea what I was doing, but I just let the artist within me take over - I just get a vision then work with it until it comes to fruition.

Here is the car seat cover I made. It also doubles as a nursing cover though, so it has multiple uses. The fabric cost me about $5 total (on clearance for $2 a yard) and the buttons, ribbon, velcro, suspender clips, zipper, and charm were about an extra $10 total. So this cover was about $15-ish dollars to make. Not bad for 2 items in 1.



I installed a zipper (my very first attempt at one) to allow easy access and air-flow to the baby while she's in there:




And here is a pocket I made to hold a pacifier and the strap to convert it to a nursing cover when needed:




I found this charm on clearance and couldn't resist putting it on the zipper - it says "Lil Sister":


Here it is as a nursing cover. It is basically a piece of matching ribbon that I sewed onto a pair of suspender clips. It is removable so that way it doesn't pose any hazards.


There is more stuff to post, but I've gotta go and do the mom-thing and tuck my son into bed...then I've gotta do the wife-thing and clean up this huge mess I made in our room...oddly enough, I made this mess while trying to clean....