At 23, I finally learned how to sew. :)

Brandon and I decided to make our list trip to Medford before the baby's born over Halloween weekend. It was pretty productive if I don't say so myself!

We don't have any blankets big enough to swaddle Aspen and I knew that we would need a bunch. However, swaddling blankets also cost $25 each, which is really ridiculous for a blanket! I thought it would be fun to make them myself, except I also know that I don't know how to sew. Luckily, my mom is an expert and I figured it wouldn't be too hard for her to show me how to use her sewing machine so that I could hem some fabric and make them into blankets. :)

After I made the first swaddling blanket, I had to show Sarah how to use it to make a baby burrito. :) The bear in this picture was our pretend baby.
After swaddling the bear, Sarah thought it would be hilarious to see if we could swaddle each other. Soooo... we did. Obviously this was the best choice for a Saturday afternoon. :) Luckily my parents have a big bed, so the blankets that go on their bed are big almost big enough to effectively swaddle a full grown person. haha Sarah could just roll out of the blankets ... but it was more difficult for me since I have a protruding belly!
Since mom was teaching me how to sew, I got even more ambitious and decided to make some homemade baby legs. If you don't know what they are, baby legs are pretty much leg warmers for babies. They sell for $10+ depending on where you buy them and whether or not they're a knock off brand. They're like leggings, but supposedly make changing diapers a lot easier because you don't have to pull the pants down/off. We will see!

Mom and Sarah helped. Well, Mom helped and Sarah watched and did weird things like tie socks around her head. haha
Sarah also used the scraps to make ankle warmers. Like I said, she was really helpful. :)
Here is one of the pairs after I completed them! The pattern was really easy to follow, though Mom definitely helped me out. She did the first pair and then I finished all the rest. I did, however, discover that I am NOT good at pinning things -- she had to do that for me so that we didn't end up with a bunch of pairs of baby legs with holes in them! haha
And the finished products ... 8 pairs of baby legs! They were really fun and easy to make. This is the website I used: http://everythingyourmamamade.com/2008/01/21/make-your-own-baby-leg-warmers/

I used women's crew socks, and I think they'll be fine for when she is a newborn ... but they aren't as long as I would like them to be. Tube socks are a little long, but I think it's better to just cut them to the length you need. It's okay though because it will give me an excuse to make more! :) They worked out to less than $1/pair since I bought 5 pairs of socks for $5 and then Sarah gave me 3 pairs of her socks that she never wears. :)
Here are the blankets I made. One of them is fleece and the other five are flannel. They were really easy to make too. For swaddling blankets, we were told we needed 1 1/4 yard x 1 1/4 yard squares of fabric ... then I just hemmed the sides. It was pretty easy. :) They were ~$3/each. So for ~$27, I made 8 pairs of leggings and 6 blankets! Like I said, it was a very productive Saturday. :) Not to mention the fact that I am pretty proud of myself for finally learning how to use a sewing machine!