nursery projects: curtains, diaper stacker and baby mobile

I have a few nursery projects I'm excited to finally be able to share. One thing at a time, I'm knocking my plans off my mental checklist for everything I want to get done... Finally, I got the curtains finished and hung! My mom was generous enough to spring for the curtain ring clips I wanted/needed - they were on sale at Joann's yesterday, so that was a great deal. (We FINALLY got our own local Joann Fabric & Crafts store in Huntsville and it opened this week - this is going to be a problem for my spending budget in the future, I can already feel it.)



Anyway, I am so excited to have the curtains DONE and UP. I like making my own drapes from the price and style aspect, but honestly, I do *not* enjoy the process of actually having to cut and sew them. I just don't like dealing with all that yardage of fabric...it is such a pain when you don't have a nice big area to use. The dining room table is okay enough, but still - ugh. Glad to have that project finished.



The other thing I finished last week is a diaper stacker in my nursery fabrics. I am beyond proud of myself for this one; it's not often I'll start and finish a bigger sewing project like this in a decent amount of time (2 nights after work). It murdered my back, which is becoming a bigger and bigger source of pain for me as my belly grows, but the result was worth it, I think. I love it.



I used a pattern from a book my employer published, Precious Baby Daygowns, Round Yoke Collection. I really liked this pattern in particular as compared to other patterns and tutorials I found because it had simple lines - I didn't want anything frou frou or huge. I also liked that it hung from a hanger top instead of ties, because the way our changing table is made, there are no rungs or anything to use ties for hanging anything. It was easy to follow and only required one pattern piece for the top yoke; the rest was simple rectangles and bias strips. I did change a few things from the original, including adding a little elephant applique to the top. I'll probably get more in-depth about the project for our work blog, so I'll be sure to link to that when it gets published (later this week I hope). I wrote more in-depth about the project on my work blog at Sew Beautiful magazine, so you can check that out here!


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I'm just pumped to have gotten it done, honestly, and I love that it feels nice and substantial -- thanks to the quilted, padded top yoke and the drapery lining I ended up using as lining for the inside. The inside bottom is a chunk of cardboard covered in matching fabric.





One last thing I have to share is the baby mobile-in-progress. I used the inside ring of 2 embroidery hoops for the base, covered in wrapped ribbon, and stitched all my little stuffed elephants out of wool felt. I still feel like it needs a little something, though, so it may be a combination of ribbon streamers and/or felt circle garland. (I bought myself a Sizzix Big Shot die cutting machine a couple weeks ago with some extra cash I had from a custom order, and I am dying to get to use it!!!)



Anyway, they days are counting down as I passed over into the third trimester last week. We have another ultrasound at our checkup appointment tomorrow morning to make sure her kidney is looking okay (it looked enlarged at our first anatomy u/s). I'm about 29 weeks right now and I am automatically feeling like the third tri is going to be way more intense than the second. I swear, Georgia had a growth spurt over the last week - my stomach has been getting super tight and has been so incredibly uncomfortable over the last few days, especially last night. I was wracked with back pain and belly discomfort and exhaustion - I feel asleep on the heating pad by 10:30pm. (Don't worry, it has an auto-turnoff that kicks in after about 15-20 minutes.) Today we're going to pick up a plastic gym/slide that we bought from someone local on eBay for $5, and they are throwing in a play kitchen for free. We're soaking up every last bit of FREE that we can these days. I've discovered some awesome deals on parenting/baby magazines over the last few weeks as well, and I got 3 different magazine subscriptions (one for 3 years) for $13 total. Woohoo!