Do you remember my ten dresses project? This is the dress that stalled it. I won't go into all my problems with it again (you can read back on them by following that link if you feel like it) but I will say I'm very glad to have it done and finally photographed. The print looks like balloons to me so I always think of this as a party dress and the reason it didn't get photographed last year when I actually finished it is because I wore it out for our anniversary and got tomato juice on it. The tomato washed out but by then my belly was starting to show and my dress didn't fit (Wow, that was Maisie!). I haven't worn this dress this year except for it's little photo shoot the other day. I'm very happy to report that even with my new shape it still fits very nicely but it's just not a style you can nurse it.

Know what is a style you can nurse in (and just five rows of shirring short of being finished)?

Dress number nine.

Maisie took a nice long afternoon nap in her swing on Tuesday and I put together this little dress for her. It's a pretty funny way to sew: stitch a seam, check to see if she's awake, press a seam, check to see if she's awake, …  At every point expecting to put away my project until some unknown time (now I suppose since she's napping on the bed at the moment) but being given just a tiny bit more time to do the next step. The neckline is just a drawstring on the ribbon so this should fit her as a dress this year and a top next year. I'm hoping to have some pictures of her wearing it (and maybe even a simple pattern) sometime soon. But don't hold your breath. Everything depends on the naps.

I'm sure it would be rational for someone who knows she has limited and unpredictable crafting time to work on projects in a one-at-a-time fashion but I seem incapable of that sort of planning. I think of something and go hunting around to see if I've got the stuff and if I do (or almost do) I rush right into cutting and sewing.

This is a project I worked on last weekend. A ring sling for me and Maisie for those times when the Moby wrap is impractical. Times like walking out for lunch or going to sit in a park. Times where I know the chance she'll need to nurse is high or where I will want to take off and put on the carrier quickly and without dragging any of it on the ground. I was going to buy a sling and was lamenting the high price of the ones I'd seen when I remembered that I'd bought a bunch of sling rings a few years ago for some project that never got finished and chances were good that I'd be able to scrounge up two metres of fabric somewhere (at the very least it is something I can get in town). I think this fabric was originally going to be a tunic … or a skirt … I don't quite remember … but it is just right for a sling and the plaid pattern was very handy in cutting and hemming and making sure things were lining up.

There are lot of instructions for ring slings on the internet but I worked from a Japanese craft book I got a couple of years ago (chances are good it was purchased about the same time as the rings but there's no knowing really). The book has instructions for four styles of slings plus some cute baby projects and some really great instructions for putting your sling on and getting your baby into it. All the text is in Japanese of course but, like every origami set I've every bought, the book also has detailed pictures to walk you through each step. For the sling wearing instructions the pictures are especially great because they used a special sling made of translucent fabric with coloured ribbon sewn along the rails so you can really see how everything works and how the baby should be positioned.

Maisie is a bit of a stiff baby for this type of carrier. She likes to be able to push her legs straight when she is awake and it's taking a bit of patience on my part to get her used to a carrier that requires her legs be bent. Having her in a cloth diaper helps a bit because it gives a lot more bum for the fabric to wrap around. One big advantage of the sling carrier though is that we can now do front facing carries and Maisie is starting to get pretty keen on seeing what's going on around her.

I took Maisie out into the back yard to get some  pictures of the two of us using our new carrier. I set up my tripod, grabbed my camera remote and stood in the same spot I stood every Tuesday for so many weeks last fall and winter. The weather was certainly much nicer than the last time I was in the back yard for a self portrait session.