New Cover for Your Boppy

When I was pregnant with the Sprout, my sister gave me her old Boppy.  This pillow made it through her three babies and my little Sprout.  I love this pillow and it's still in great shape!  But I decided that it really needed some freshening up before baby number 2 comes along.  The recover was very easy to do and took less than an hour!

(In my posts, I assume readers have basic machine sewing skills.  But if I'm clear as mud, please post a comment or email me - I'm happy to answer questions!) 

Supplies needed:  One yard of cotton fabric, 45" wide AND 3/8 yard contrast fabric 

OR  1-1/4 yard cotton fabric, 45" wide

One 22-24" zipper that matches your fabric.

Sewing machine & matching thread

The cover has a zipper so I just unzipped it and used a seam ripper to remove the zipper in order to reuse on the next cover.  

I had "owls" as my baby shower theme and my mother-in-law spied this piece of fabric.  She bought a yard, ended up not having a use for it, and gave it to me.  The one-yard piece was just the right amount to recover the boppy!  

Using the seam ripper, also rip out the band at the inner curve of the boppy.  

I laid the old boppy fabric on top of the new and used it as my pattern to cut out the top and bottom.

And this is the part where I got in the sewing groove and forgot to take pictures so I'm going to do my best to describe what I did.  Put your new top and bottom right sides together.  Using your old cover as a guideline, mark where the zipper went with pins and baste shut between your pins.  Sew the new zipper in following the manufacturer's directions.  

Remove the basting.   

Use the old band piece as a pattern to cut out the new band piece (you only need one).  Make sure you cut it on the bias/diagonal as shown otherwise the fabric won't stretch into the curve the way you'll need it to.  

Use the fold lines from the old band to help create the folds on the ends of the new band and pin it, right sides together, to the new top and bottom.  Sew it into place.  I used only a 1/2" seam for this part.

Pin the remainder of the top and bottom together and stitch the rest of the boppy closed.  Work the zipper to open it and flip it all right sides out.  Put your new cover on and admire your handy work!.

Now, if you used your pillow on your own baby, reminisce.

Here's the Sprout at 1 month old in the old Boppy:

Sniff, sniff!  NOW here he is at 8 months in the new Boppy, keeping it warm for his new sibling on the way:

My gosh, they do not stay little!

Airplane Hat

For Labor Day weekend I made another little hat for the Sprout.  He wears a lot of baby blue and brown and I happened to find a cute airplane print for a hat.

This is another hat using McCall's 6575.

Another super easy pattern to follow.  I did this one in about an hour, including two interruptions by the Sprout for feeding and cuddling.  I don't believe the directions call for using buckram in the brim, but I wanted it stiffer so I stuck a piece in.  I also added the chin strap which was not part of the original pattern.

It's also a bit too big for infants, but I just added a strip of elastic to the back so he'll be able to wear this for a good long time.

He looks cute, if a little bit sleepy - he was napping in his Moby and I took this picture right after he woke up.  

No Frilly Dresses

So, I had a little Sprout.  Why no pictures of all the baby clothes I made?  Well, I didn’t make any.  The Conductor and I decided not to find out the gender ahead of time.  But at about my sixth month, I began to have really strong feelings that it was a boy.  I couldn’t explain it, there was no science behind it, I just kind of knew. The Conductor confessed that he, too, thought it would be a boy.  

I secretly hoped that it might be a girl anyway.  I am a seamstress, after all.  Think of the things I could make!  Dresses, short sets, pinafores, smocks, and bloomers!  And matching hair things!  There could be appliqués and rick rack and eyelet and ribbons!  Plus all the Mommy-and-Me matching stuff – like aprons and church outfits – and matching winter coats!  Endless possibilities like this one from Smashed Peas and Carrots.  

Still, when the conductor peered around the operating curtain and announced, “It’s a boy!” I wasn’t surprised or disappointed.  After all, I suspected it was a boy for three months.  The Sprout is adorable and from day one my heart melted every time I looked at him.

And then I went to the fabric store for the first time since he came.  They had the new pattern books out.  Time to see what kind of baby things I could make for my little guy!

Friends, there is NOTHING fun to sew for boys!  There’s about 27,348 patterns of cute things for girls.  There's maybe two patterns for boys - one for a long sleeved shirt and pants and another for a short sleeved shirt with shorts.  Big whoop. 

I was bummed but it shouldn’t have surprised me.  Boys don’t care about clothes.  They don't need ruffles and rick-rack and matching outfits for their dollies.  Boys are basic when it comes to clothes and fashion.  It shouldn’t have surprised me that sewing options for boys would be just as basic (and boring!).  

That’s when it really sank in.  There would be no aprons.  No pinafores.  No dresses with matching bloomers.  Eyelet?  I think not-let.   A cute applique?  Not today.  

Reluctantly I picked out one of the two boy patterns in the book.  I walked around the store trying hard to convince myself that sewing on bug fabric and car fabric and superhero fabric will be way more fun than sewing on eyelet and flower fabric.  Trying hard no to think about the pile of pink fabric in my stash, I took it home, laid out the pattern for a hat on some very non-girly paw print fabric and finished the project.  I put it on the Sprout's little bean to try the sizing as I wondered how on earth a paw print hat could possibly compare to a frilly dress with zig-zag trim and a matching apron and then I got this:

OH MY GOSH is he cute or what?  This is McCalls' 6575 which features three boy hats and (pathetically three girl hats, too.  How sad is it that they could only come up with three boy hat patterns?) I put this on him for a ride to visit the gals at the office - they all thought it was adorable.  

Here's the side view.  Is that not the cutest?  I've never made many hats before.  This was super easy.  If I didn't have to stop every 2 minutes to tend to the Sprout, I could've made this in about 20 minutes, including cutting time.  

 And here's one more.  He looks like he's ready to go for a drive in his new paw-print, very boyish - yet very stylish - driving cap.  Maybe sewing for a little boy won't be so bad after all?  (See how I coordinated his outfit with a onesie that had a doggie on it?)