New Baby Dress

I made this simple little summer dress for my 10 month old the other day.  It’s a fun, easy pattern.  I got the idea from my friend Melanie and you can see the original pattern here.

I was going to add a little strip of the white and pink polka dot material at the bottom, but I didn’t want to make it too long yet, since it’ll get in the way while she is crawling.  Won’t it be cute with a little onesie on underneath? 

Peek a Boo Pouch

I don’t know what these are really called, maybe a “peek a boo pouch”, “hide and seek sack”, I have no idea.  I made both of those up.  Whatever it’s called, it’s a cute, little toy.

Here’s how you make it.  I didn’t take pictures as I sewed it because I just made it up as I went along, but hopefully you’ll get the idea.

Supplies

• Material
• Thick plastic (like from the packaging of a toy or sheets)
• Rice
• Random small objects to search for in the pouch

First, pick some  material and cut it into a rectangle.  You want to be able to fold it in half and make a square.  Or you can cut two matching squares, one for the top and one for the bottom.

Cut a window in the fabric.  You may want to use felt or some other non-fray material.  Otherwise you’ll want to fold the edges of the window and sew them so it won’t fray.

 

Then find a piece of thick plastic for the window.  Cut the plastic to match the window size.  I save the little bags that toys come in, like this one to use for the plastic.

The plastic I used for this pouch came from a crib sheet package.

Sew the plastic into the window using a zigzag stitch.  Now fold the rectangle in half to make the pouch.

Sew the pouch right-side-in and don’t sew all the way around!  Leave a little two or three in hole so you can turn the pouch right-side-out and then fill it with the goodies.

Pick some small objects for the pouch and take a picture of them before you put them in.  Here are the things for my pouch.  I got a little bag of buttons from Michaels and it had these random things in it too. 

You’ll want to print the picture of the objects so the child knows what to look for.  You can even laminate the picture and let the kid use a dry erase marker to check off the objects he or she has found.

Finally, put the objects in the bag and fill the rest of the space with rice.  You can hand stitch the hole closed or I used a sewing machine to close the hole.

And here’s the final project.  It’s great for church or other quiet times.  The kids use the picture to help them search for each object in the pouch.