A Homemade Babywearing Coat for The Pure Baby

The Pure Baby (PB) and I have a new winter coat - to share!  Following some great instructions on TheBabyWearer, I was able to alter an Eddie Bauer parka into a babywearing winter coat!

My Eddie Bauer parka, prior to alterations:

The parka is a size "small".  I usually wear "extra-small".  The pictures show the parka's fit on me pre-babywearing coat.

 
After measuring/marking with a fabric marker and after attaching layers together with zig-zag stitching:

After cutting out the back panel, leaving the bottom attached:

The side panels:

The side panels were my most difficult part of the project.  The original German instructions are no longer available, and I completely had no clue what the TheBabyWearer instructions meant regarding a "curve".  In the end, my curve below was very inadequate. I was able to design a curve, with the side panels sewn to the coat flap, by holding out the coat flap and making it into sort of a box (as you will see in my final result, further down).

The side panels attached to the back flap of the parka:

With both top and side panels attached to the back flap of the parka:

The inner top flap with the fleece attached:

The inner top flap fleece sewn into place:

The finished exterior:

The pouch opening:

The finished interior:

The Pure Baby (PB) in our new babyweaing coat:

PB is being worn in our Kanga XT.

We're looking forward to a winter of wintry cold weather and lots of snow!

The Pure Baby Loves His Homemade Play Dough!

The Pure Baby (PB) has become a big fan of homemade play dough!  Play dough has become a fun part of PB's mornings, while his brothers do their homeschool work :)


Our Recipe for Homemade Cooked Play Dough:

1 cup flour
1 Tablespoon oil
1 cup water
1/2 cup salt
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
Vegetable-based food coloring, such as India Tree Natural Decorating Colors

1- Mix dry ingredients in a sauce pan.
2- Add wet ingredients (except food coloring) and combine.
3- Cook over medium heat.
4- Stir continuously, until a ball forms.
5- Cool at room temperature.
6- Knead until smooth.
7- After deciding on food colorings, divide play dough into the necessary number of parts.  Put play dough into bowls.  Add chosen food colorings to play dough.  Knead until food coloring is evenly spread.
8- Have fun!

For PB, we divided the play dough into 3 parts, making 3 different fun colors of play dough:  yellow, red, and purple!
With his brothers' old Play Doh tools, PB is having lots of fun with his safe and healthy play dough!