holly hobby

This is the first maternity leave where I haven't had a big heavy To Do list hanging over my head like the sword of Damocles.  And it feels fine, friends.

My first maternity leave with Cal, you'll remember, was three weeks into my Anesthesia residency.  So I spent much of that five weeks off from work trying to memorize Baby Miller, or at least, you know, sitting at a desk with Baby Miller open in front of me.  That was...fun.

With Mack, I had the second round edits due on my book--and this was a big edit, since the first round manuscript had the chapters arranged by theme instead of chronologically; it was basically akin to dismantling your entire house and then building it again but with the rooms all in different places, with, uh, new doors and hallways connecting them (that creaking sound is that of a metaphor becoming overly labored)--so that leave was also spent marinating in a stew of low-grade obligation and stress.

But this maternity leave, I think I pretty much cleared the deck.  I'm not even doing those speaking engagements anymore, so there's no more of that "I gotta do my slides, I gotta review my slides, I gotta practice running through my slides" that has catagorized most of last year up until the Spring when I quit traveling.

So I'm doing some sewing is what I'm saying.

Some functional stuff I made for the baby.  That blanket, based on the tutorial here, and that crib sheet, based on the tutorial here.  Both were actually really easy, so fellow novice sewers, have at it, you will be surprised and pleased.

Then I modified the measurements on the fitted mattress sheet tutorial to make a cover for the diaper changing pad here.  This was especially pleasing because I got this piece of red striped cotton fabric from the "scraps" bin at the fabric store for 99 cents.  It was just big enough for the project, which was a happy coincidence.  (Joe also thought it was a coincidence that the cover matched the alphabet print hanging over the changing table, but I disabused him of that notion quickly--THE COLOR COORDINATION WAS PLANNED, DAMMIT.)

Speaking of salvage, my new thing is sewing with knit fabrics from thrift store finds.  Woven fabrics are nice and of course come in gorgeous prints, but in making things for kids, knit fabrics (think T-shirts, stretchy pants, etcetera) are much softer and more comfortable, especially for a baby.  Even for older kids--Cal complained endlessly when he had to wear this button-down shirt for school picture day, but he will wear any T-shirt or polo shirt until it basically disintegrates.  So anyway, I found this soft cotton sweater at the thrift store--not my style, and also not my size, but appealing in its oatmeal and grey stripes.  As you will soon see, I love stripes.  So I hacked off the bottom part and hacked off the sleeves, and made these two new items, respectively.

The internet is full of variations on how to make a dress from a onesie, so I'll just point you to this one here and say that I just sawed off a tube of fabric from the bottom of an adult T-shirt just to make it that much easier.  For comfort I decided to place the skirt part up higher, like an empire waist, so that the inflexible part of the stitching wouldn't be over the baby's stomach, where her width is the widest.

The pants I made out of the sweater sleeves, which was great because I basically had only had to sew the crotch seam and the casing.  (Tutorial for that little project here--but again, the internet is full of similar tutorials and variations therein, just look around.)  The onesies I got from Rock Bottom T-shirts, who I've mentioned before and with whom I have no relationship, but boy do I love them.  (Another plug: I also ordered some polo shirts from them for Mack's school uniforms--they are of surprisingly good quality.)

Using the bottom part of a T-shirt to make a dress was so easy that I just went ahead and made a couple more for the fall.  MORE STRIPES, PLEASE.  (No pants out of the navy and grey striped T-shirt, unfortunately--I would have loved to make them, but unfortunately that T-shirt was short-sleeved.)

And just so you don't think I am totally anti-pink, this last one here, which I'm hoping will fit by around Thanksgiving.

Just an observation--your local Goodwill is where all Gap, Old Navy and Target-branded shirts (your Merona, your Cherokee, your Massimo for Target, what have you) go to die.  It's like the elephant graveyard of soft T-shirts.

Another thing that they have at thrift stores is old sweaters.  Many of them are hideous, but some of them are decent, or, barring that, made of very soft wools or cotton (sometimes even cashmere) that you can rescue and turn into something else.  I found this grey angora turtleneck sweater that I was able to turn into two things for the winter.  (I kind of wish I had taken I picture of the sweater before I started, but this was my first time doing some of this stuff so in the event that it turned out crappy you understand I wanted to hide the evidence.)  First, these pants:

Again, from the sleeves of the sweater.  The angora is really pretty soft, but wool always has the potential to be scratchy so I decided to line the inside of the pants with the remnants of another thrifted T-shirt.  I actually had used that T- shirt to make another pair of soft pants, but I screwed that pair up in that I wasn't playing close attention and ended up sewing half the seams on the outside, half on the inside.  However, all was not lost--I just slipped that whole pair of pants inside the sweater pants, sewed them together and folded up the cuffs, and behold.  Mistake rectified.

The rest of the sweater (meaning the body part) I used to make this little cardigan, and let me just tell you, I AM SO PROUD OF THIS CARDIGAN.  I'd never sewn sleeves before, you see (something about the three-dimensionality of it seemed overwhelming to me) and I'd never drafted my own pattern before (I used a 6 month-sized onesie to approximate the size and dimensions), and while keen observation would undoubtedly reveal the amateur nature of this project, it actually turned out pretty well, and, I hope, very wearable.  (I would have liked buttons ideally, but I haven't figured out how to do that yet, and I didn't want to screw up the sweater with my first attempts.)

I mentioned this was a turtleneck sweater, right?  Well, there wasn't quite enough fabric to make the sleeves long enough, so I used the ribbing from the turtleneck to extend the sleeve length and make cuffs.  YOU'RE GOD DAMN RIGHT I DID.

I also used some of the leftover ribbing from the turtleneck to bind off the collar.  My stitching has its lumpy bits, but it won't be spotted from a trotting horse.  (Remember how Ramona's dad said that about her lamb costume?  I still think about that sometimes.  That and how the older girls colored her nose with mascara.)

And this was what was left of the sweater after I was done.  Every part of the buffalo, baby.

Now you'll have to remember that I only started sewing stuff like, what, a few months ago?  So I'm fairly new at this game.  However, as hobbies go, it's pretty fun.  Someone in the last entry asked me what I thought people would need to get started, and I have a few things that I would suggest.

First: a sewing machine.  I use this one, the Brother CS6000i, because while I didn't want to get the most expensive sewing machine in the universe, I also didn't want to get one that didn't have a good range of functions.  This one is nice because it's computerized (meaning you can change the type of stiches by pushing a few buttons), has a lot of nice convenience features, is really easy to use, and most importantly comes loaded up with basically every accessory that you could possibly need.  So I would recommend it, but it's also the only one I've really ever tried--there are cheaper models out there too, but I can't attest to their user-friendliness.

I'm going to assume you have scissors in your house if you're, you know, a human being, but I would also recommend (because I use it all the time) getting a rotary cutter (basically like a pizza cutter but for fabric and paper) and a cutting mat, unless you want to be like me with gouges all over one end of the table.  Sure, you can use the scissors for cutting too, but for long, straight cuts, the rotary cutter is easier.

You can get thread basically anywhere, and if you're starting out, I wouldn't go nuts--just go to any kind of craft store and get the handful of colors that you need.  But if you're looking for more colors to match your projects, this company called Threadsrus (I keep reading that as "thesaurus" but I think it's supposed to be Threads R Us--whether the R is written backwards is unclear) offers good quality thread at a very reasonable deal.  I am not at the point yet where I am ordering 200 spools of thread, mind you, but I did order a smaller aliquot from them in an assortment of colors, and I've been pretty pleased.

Oh, one last thing.  If you are prone to jabbing yourself with pins while you work (and I don't know how I am so injury-prone when sewing but I am--if I had as many needle sticks at work as I've had at home I would live at employee health permanently) might I recommend these?  They are these little fabric clips that hold your cloth together in lieu of pins in most situations, and they work great.  Don't bother with the small pack, get the big pack of 50, you will definitely not regret it.  They are super useful, and, you know, not so pointy.

Of course there's a ton of other stuff that you can get if you're in the market and have money to burn, but for a start, that's what I would recommend.  Anyway, sewing is fun, cutting up old busted clothes to make new cute clothes is fun, so let's all do it and humiliate our children by forcing them to wear our lumpy, ill-shaped handiwork into school!  It'll be awesome!

Feel free to discuss other sewing recommendations--either for projects or tools--in the comments section, and we will all share in the goodness.  And just so we don't get too far off course into turning this into a total other species of blog, my next entry will be the oft-requested "Day in the Life" post about private practice anesthesiology, or at least my experiences in that realm.  It'll be a real humdinger!

Hope you had a good weekend.

the first step is admitting you have a problem

OK, so this ain't no craft fair or anything, but just humor me on this one, because I am so proud of my ingenuity which is probably not at all ingenious and no doubt detailed in similar form in at least 100 different sewing blogs, all probably featuring the word "upcycling."  I'm talking the talk you guys!

I think we've probably established that Thing 3 has no pants.  First of all, she's going to be born in July, and second of all, the clothes we got for her were on sale after Christmas, when we thought she was going to be a boy.  I have been on this sewing kick lately (YOU THINK?) and have thus been trying to make her little things here and there, but one night when I was lying in bed awake (because that's apparently what I do now in glorious third trimester fashion) I had an idea that was beautiful both in its economy of time and money.  I could turn my old T-shirts into baby pants.

See, because I have a lot of old T-shirts that look like this.  Especially in the winter, I wear a long-sleeved shirt to work under my scrubs, and despite the fact that I have quite a few colors in my rotation (I prefer getting long-sleeved kids T-shirts from Target in a large size because they're cheaper, come in a lot of colors, and because they're for kids have slightly shorter sleeves than adult long-sleeved tees, which seems somewhat more hygienic for work), after a year or two of weekly wear they get a little icky.  Note the lovely underarm deodorant patina--I almost didn't post the picture because I thought it would be unseemly, but look, this is real life, and it's not like I'm running for president or anything like that.  Anyway, they're nice T-shirts, soft and comfortable, but you have to retire them at some point, right?  Purple T-shirt, your time has come.

It is a factory-made T-shirt, though, so as such is has a nice factory finish, with machined hems and whatnot.  Hems are a pain in my ass.  So it occurred to me during one of my many insomniac nights, I could not only repurpose the fabric of the T-shirt itself, but I could preserve the hem at the bottom and save myself some work.  Less work means more time for tomfoolery!

So see, I sliced off the bottom of the shirt just under the fossilized armpits (some deodorant sludge still remained but fear not, they will be excised in the next step), leaving basically a tube of fabric.

I folded the tube width-wise (keeping the hem on the bottom even--it's on the right side of the picture) so that I basically had four layers of fabric with an axis of symmetry down the long way (oriented parallel to the top of the screen)...

And then using a folded in half pair of 3-6 month baby pants that we do have as a guide (they are baby blue, of course), I cut out two symmetrical pieces of pants from the T-shirt fabric.  The sides that I cut off were where the side seams of the old T-shirt were--I figured the fewer the seams, the more comfortable--and I allowed a little extra fabric up top for the hem and elastic casing.

I'm not really good at this kind of thing, nor do I need to re-invent the wheel, but the way I sewed the pants together after this point was based on this tutorial--it's for leggings instead of pants, but the concept is the same--I just like a wider leg because I figure it will fit better for longer.  As for the results, I'll let you judge for yourself.  The pants on the left were the store-bought pair that I used as a model, and the purple ones on the right were the ones I made.

Even for a novice like me who was kind of flying by the seat of her (ho ho) pants, it was actually pretty easy, and didn't take that long, so then I went ahead and hacked up another old T-shirt (this one wasn't stained but it was always overlarge and unflattering so I never wore it) and made these.  Like I said, this T-shirt was slightly bigger, so I was able to make the pants a little bit bigger too, for room to grow.

And then that went pretty well, and was pretty easy, so then I made these, out of another unflattering T-shirt (teal makes me look like the undead, and an overdeep scoop neck is not a good look for the flat-chested--that shirt had a more narrow cut, so with less fabric I made these more leggings-like than the other two).  Why do I have so many clothes in my closet that don't look good on me?  These are the mysteries of the ages.  At least they're proving their usefulness now.

I think you can see where I'm going with this.

SOMEONE HELP ME I'M TRAPPED IN A PANTS MAKING VORTEX.

The good (bad?) thing is that we actually live right near (I mean right near--we could walk to it if anyone in Atlanta ever walked anywhere) a consignment store, where you can get a whole mess of pretty decent soft T-shirts in all kinds of colors for, like, a dollar.  Jersey knit fabric bought by the yard at the fabric store is kind of boring, not to mention expensive, but for little baby sewing projects, you don't need a whole lot of fabric.  So in order that I don't slice up all the rest of my clothing, I also have a reserve stash of thrifted cotton T-shirts for future projects.  Don't worry, I'll make something other than pants at some point.  But oh, I do love those stripes.

HELP SEND LITHIUM.

edna mode (and guest)

I wonder if it's a more common phenomenon for medical bloggers to update on a reverse schedule, meaning updates exclusively on the weekends, and rarely during the week.  Because who has the time?  Anyway, it's been a particularly hectic week at work, stacked with all the things that make life exciting (occasionally to excess): codes, emergencies, various Oral Board scenarios brought to life.  But at least I had the weekend off.  I'm on call next weekend, my last weekend call before my scheduled maternity leave, so if I can just get through that (weekends on call are always rough, because aside from the weekend itself, you're basically working two weeks in a row non-stop without a break) I think we'll be OK to sail into the home stretch.

The thing with having a busy job and working full-time is that you really feel that you don't have enough time with your kids.  That's just the fact of it--if that's the path you're eyeing, male or female, you will feel this way, it's simply a matter of resource allocation and during the week, especially, the time just isn't there.  In the medical field, particularly, even nights and weekends at home are not a given, so you just have to kind of carve out time when you can.  Weekends here, post-call days there.  Usually nights don't find me at my best--after work usually I'm in a state of fatigue that brings me to "I wash myself with a rag on a stick" territory, but you know--sometimes there are earlier days off, and sometimes you get a break to do something fun.

I got out from work a little early on Wednesday this week (post-call of course, because ain't nothing in life is free), so I decided to do this with my time:

I know, it doesn't look like anything, but the inspiration was this: I got Mack these super cheapy superhero costumes at Christmas (actually I can't remember who actually got them for him--I get enlisted to get gifts for the kids from various relatives, and it might even have come from "Santa" himself, who can remember now).  They were ignored for months, until one day, suddenly the kids decided that superheros were THE COOLEST and dressing up like superheros and making laser sounds while fake-punching your brother in the head with your Bat Fist was OMG THE BEST GAME EVER.  So the costumes have been getting some use.

As you can see, they are pieces of crap.  Thin, fraying nylon, just a simple apron-type construction with a back tie.  All the kids can see is the logo and the Superness, but now that they've got some miles on them, all I can see is how much they are falling apart.

I was at the fabric store the other day when I saw this crazy metallic fabric on sale.  It was a reflective polyester, which is as sleazy as it sounds, and I thought to myself, "Who would buy that shit?"

And then I realized: I WILL.  I WILL BUY THAT SHIT.  WITH WHICH TO MAKE SUPERHERO COSTUMES.

I think I've already explained my affection for Things Reversible when it comes to kids, not the least benefit of which is that if I'm going to put in the effort to make one superhero costume, I might as well get two out of the deal.  The other benefit is that you can be two different characters--I made one costume each for the boys, both identically reversible (red with a gold cape on one side, blue with a silver cape on the other) so that they could choose to be on the same team, à la "The Incredibles," or on different teams if they preferred.  So far they've mostly chosen to be on different teams.  So they can FIGHT.  And make LASER NOISES.  And I personally have been unable to stop saying, in the voice of Samuel L. Jackson, "Where's my super suit?"

So anyway, that's fun.

The next step in the plan was for them to design their own superhero logos and for us to glue them on the chest with felt shapes, but we ran out of time, so it's still a work in process.  Still, even plain, they're very super.

The other kids project I did yesterday was to make a freezer-stencil T-shirt with Cal.  (Tutorials for freezer paper stencil techniques are all over the internet, just Google it, but I will heartily endorse the pursuit, it is easy and satisfying and as you can see, even a child can do it.  Well, maybe not the part where you cut out the design with the razor blade, but otherwise.)  Cal chose the design himself--it's Boba Fett, for you non-nerds out there.  He actually requested Jango Fett (Django?) on the basis that Jango is cooler ("He has two guns!") but since they look the same I think this tracing of Boba Fett (originally off a pumpkin carving tutorial) sufficed.

I made a shirt for Mack too, but I just kind of did it myself since he's a little young for the whole activity.  I toyed with doing a different Star Wars design but decided in the end on this, since Mack, as a three year-old, lives in a world not unlike that of John Malkovich after going into his own portal in "Being John Malkovich."  Malkovich Malkovich Malkoviiiiiitch.

Anyway, this has partially been in answer to the people who ask how I have time to do all the things that I do.  The short answer is: I don't.  My honest assessment is that I probably don't spend enough time with my kids, but luckily, I work as part of a team, and between the time that all of us put in, the kids are OK.  Otherwise, I just try to maximize the quality of the time that I do have to spend with them (as energy allows), and like I always say, they'll tell me in the end if it was good enough. But we try hard, and it's what we have for now.

And at the very least they'll have some really cute clothes to wear to family therapy.

Speaking of having kids...hey, let's play this game now!

34 weeks:

35 weeks:

36 weeks:

About a week ago Joe observed independent of me (this lends validity) that he thinks Thing 3 has dropped down a little bit--engaged herself, if you will--and I have to agree.  Since it's my third kid, I don't think it means anything much (meaning it's both less and more comfortable, but I don't think I'm going into labor tomorrow or anything) but it's certainly the next thing, for what it's worth.  Also I enjoy going around saying "ENGAGE" in the voice of Jean-Luc Picard, so who says the third trimester can't be fun?

Have a good super week, everyone.

making it work

I have to write this in a hurry because it's A SCHOOL NIGHT but I realize that after that last entry and at this point in gestation, not checking in is just inviting people to think that I'm dead.  So.  Hi.

The mild hypomania that characterized my initiation into sewing is nothing--I say nothing--compared to how it's been since I started making those little baby pinafores.  Joe is alternately amused and throwing around words like "obsessed," because frankly, once I figured out how to make a few of these easy sewing projects, it's been like, "I CAN'T BELIEVE I'VE BEEN PAYING FULL PRICE FOR THIS STUFF ALL THESE YEARS."  (I wear a lot of skirts.)  Here's a little of what I've been doing.

Above is the second skirt I made for myself.  It's just a regular elastic waist skirt, made based on this very good tutorial here.  The first skirt I made for myself actually turned out even better (it was with a lighter weight blue shirting fabric, so, you know, more flowy and such) but I dropped a forkful of Chipotle on it earlier this week so it's in the wash.

This was a flat front pleated skirt that I made based on this tutorial that turned out pretty well.  It's elastic in the back, so, you know, nice for the pregnant ladies.  Also, can I tell you how proud I was that I made a pleat?  And it was easy!  Again: I think I have been overpaying for simple skirts for the past two decades.

These pants I made for Cal based on this tutorial were kind of a fiasco.  I made my own pattern, so I think the inseam turned out a little bit small--also, even though I measured about a trillion times the waist was still too big for him.  They are flat front elastic-backed pants, but I sewed the elastic itself in so I can't cinch them up any more--next time I think I'll use that kind of button hole elastic like they do for all those Old Navy kid pants and leave a little more leeway for the crotch.

Every novice sewer needs to make a tote bag, right?  Also: no matter now many tote bags we have around this house, they always end up getting filled with detritus and then scattered to various corners of the earth, so what the hell, more tote bags for everyone.  Liberally adapted from this tutorial here, though I eschewed the outside pocket for two inside pockets and improvised a contrasting lining.

And then I bent my sewing needle, because apparently when you try to sew through, like, four layers of heavy fabric, you need to switch a thicker needle.  I know, duh.  I'M A DOCTOR, GUYS.  Also: can you tell I like chevron fabric?

The elephant bag was my failed attempt at making a flat-bottom bag that could stand up on its own (I love these canvas bags that we have from Lands End beyond all reason, but my own attempts at reproduction have been slouchy at best.  Then Cal decided he wanted to make a bag too, so we worked on that this evening.  I must be getting better at this, because it only took about two and a half hours, even with all the "help" I was getting.  He picked out the fabric himself (that is my diplomatic way of telling you that I did not pick that girl-ass fabric for him, he went for it himself--I just brightly told him that it looked "very Christmas-y") and the young master has already filled it with nerd accoutrement.

Next up I think I'll revisit the boy pants with hopes of improved outcome--I have this beautiful blue seersucker fabric that I think would look great on Mack for the three minutes that he'll be able to wear it before spilling something irrevocably staining on it.

So!  Craftiness!  It's fun or whatever!

I've felt basically normal after our scare on Wednesday morning.  A little woozy at work on Thursday morning but I took my blood pressure, and since it was basically normal I just drank some water, ate some crackers, and went about my business.  For what it's worth, I'm staying away from high-fat foods just in case my gallbag is to blame (again, there's nothing definitive to say that it was, but it's as good a guess as any), and so far, there have been no more surprises.  I have been a little...touchy, I guess...with people in my life (there are just a few) who imply that I overreacted or say stuff like OH YOU PREGNANT PEOPLE ALWAYS WORRY SO MUCH PROBABLY JUST HAD REFLUX I HAVE REFLUX TOO SOMETIMES AND ANYWAY YOU PROBABLY JUST ATE TOO MUCH because--well.

One of the very first lessons we were taught in medical school--one of the most important lessons, I suppose--was being able to distinguish a patient who is Sick from a patient who is Not Sick.  Meaning: the difference between a patient who just has a fever versus a patient who is septic.  A patient who is just bleeding versus a patient who is in shock.  A patient with abdominal pain versus a patient who has volvulus.  Even if you can't make the exact diagnosis right away, that's the key first step: distinguishing Sick from Not Sick.  I was Sick.  I say this as someone who hates going to the doctor, avoids the hospital (as a patient) at all costs, and as someone who has had two prior pregnancies and spent a total of two weeks hospitalized for periotonitis in medical school.  Maybe I wasn't Sick in a lasting way (and thank goodness for that--certainly I'm not looking for trouble), but if I saw a patient like me as a physician, I'm pretty sure I would say that I was Sick.  I have some perspective, and I like to think that I don't catastrophize. Certainly the episode was transient, but certainly it was real and it happened.  And also certainly I'm all sensitive about it because I try to live my life not complaining and being a good sport about things and trying not to be That Pregnant Lady that thinks every creak and pain is OMG THE BABY IS CROWNING.  But give me a little credit, people.  One should never voluntarily go to the ER unless they're fairly concerned that they might be having a medical emergency, but if they are, that's exactly what the ER is for.

Anyway!  If you want to follow along with some of the easy sewing projects I've been collecting, you can follow me on Pinterest--the sewing bulletin board is the only one I have going right now, but who knows, maybe I'll get obsessed with something else, such as, uh, collecting pictures of cats that I like.  Hope your weekend was as good as mine: that is to say fun, relaxing, and a little bit too short.  Have a good week, all.

feel free to tell me if this is counts as my psychotic break

One of the few things I've learned about having a girl baby (and granted she hasn't arrived yet, but preparatory efforts are underway, after all) is that girls clothes are more expensive than boys clothes.  With the exception of color most newborn clothes are basically the same (schlumpy variations on windsocks with arms, essentially) but when you start getting into real clothes, you see that girls clothing costs more because girls clothing is fancy.  Seriously, the variations and accessories are endless.  Little dresses and skirts and pinafores and hair bows and ruffle butt diaper covers and little baby legwarmers and oh internet, tell me what else that I never knew existed but now apparently need.

Lots of commercially available girls' baby clothing doesn't really appeal to me--either the print is unsavory or the pattern is too frilly or it falls into the category that I have dubbed "baby slut"--but there's lots of cute stuff out there too.  Cute stuff which, unfortunately, tends to cost a lot of money.  With the exception of winter jackets and this one grey cotton blazer I got for Cal as a two month-old that make him look like mini Kim Jong-Il for the two seconds that he actually fit into it (classic rookie move--never buy a blazer for a two month-old unless you just have money to burn) I don't think I spent more than $10 on any single item of kids clothing for the first year of either Cal or Mack's life.  For Thing 3, though, we could spend that amount on any one piece of clothing easily.  Hell, we could easily spend five times that amount for one clothing item, and that would be par for the course when it comes to girls' clothes.  

I've become especially enamored of these reversible pinafores that I've seen on Etsy, because--well, look at them.  First of all, they are adorable.  Secondly, you can wear them over anything--short sleeves and leggings, long sleeve and pants, bareback in the summer.  Thirdly, you can get a lot of wear out of them, because an outgrown dress can just as easily be worn as a shirt.  Fourth: DID YOU HEAR THE PART WHERE I SAID REVERSIBLE?  Spill your pureed peas down one side and you still have a whole other side to work with.  

The downside, of course, is the price.  Prices vary by vendor, but look, I'm not going to spend $50 on any vestment for a baby, unless it plays calliope music and turns baby poops into rainbows.  The dresses are cute as all get out, but the expense is just impractical.

Or, I thought to myself, you could just sew your own damn dress, it's not like Etsy is some kind of magical baby dress generating machine.

For those of you who know me in real life (hello, real-life friends), I think you would agree that "makes her own baby clothes" is probably not a real accurate description of my, uh, life schema.  I am not one for the domestic pursuits.  I can sew in a central line and I can sew up a simple laceration, but that's about it.  I don't know how to use a sewing machine, for one.  I don't tend to craft--strike two.  But I am fairly stubborn, and after a while, I started to think, you went to med school, for chrissake, surely you can sew some stupid little baby dress.  What are you, chicken? (That's how I berate myself, by the way.  Like Biff to Marty McFly.  Now make like a tree and get out of here.)  

So I did some research online and read some tutorials and thought, huh, this doesn't look too hard.  I found my sewing machine (this is the one I have, which seems to strike a nice balance between being pretty affordable yet advanced enough to be reasonably idiot-proof) and actually read the instructions.  (Those are the words printed on the paper that comes in the box.  Yes, I too have learned something today!)  And then I went to a discount fabric store--one of those that's fun to browse, but it certainly has more than its share of giant bolts of football team logo polyester fleece, that kind of place--thinking I wouldn't find anything appealing, and actually walking out with some nice cotton prints.  So I decided that I was just going to go for it, and started and finished my first sewing project last night--my first sewing machine project ever, mind you--and came up with this:

I would put a step by step here, but I don't see any point in reinventing the wheel, I basically followed this tutorial exactly.  The only minor modifications I made were that I squared off the straps instead of rounding the ends, and used snaps instead of a large button so it could be truly reversible.

You can see from the pic some imperfections in the stitching (like I said--it was my first sewing machine venture EVER), but I was actually surprised to find that the whole thing was...pretty easy.  My first attempt took me about three hours--for someone with experience, it would probably take less than half of that time.  I was surprised at how easy it was, actually--so easy, in fact, that I went ahead and made another one.  This one turned out a little better, what with the practice under my belt and the choice to use two more similar weight fabrics (the blue checkered fabric on the first one was much more lightweight, almost gauzy, and had the tendency to pull and pucker).

So...that happened.  And now I'm like Zoolander looking into a puddle wondering, "WHO AM I?"  I thought the minivan was game changer enough, but just who is this person who is sewing her own baby clothes?  Is this normal or a sign of my spiral into madness?  

Also...what else should I sew now?