First attempt at baby clothes so she can easily wee by a tree

In true Lucy style this is ludicrously- fast- instant- gratification- but -no- one -look -too- close baby clothing. It's the old felt trick, minimal sewing but lots of warmth! As always, there is a little story behind this make...

Life with Ramona is much fun, it is my mission each day to try and catch her drift.It isn't too hard: food and sleep are her main requests, with the odd "play with me" thrown in. But as part of this journey I have discovered "Elimination Communication", it sounds like something with terrible consequences you might find in Willy Wonkers choc factory. But it is a simple idea; babies were born with the ability to tell you when they are "eliminating" (just in the same way that they can tell you with different sounds whether they are hungry or tired) and soon enough they can learn to go in the potty/ by a tree. In fact most of the world's people still practice this, it is only in more developed nations that we instead teach our babies to go in nappies, and then teach them this toilet stuff years later when it's less easy to read their cues.

So, give it a bash I thought. Ramona does three obvious (goes pink -who doesn't- and sounds like a guinea pig) poo's a day. Surely I can catch those, and maybe a couple of wees. Hopefully I'll be able to save a few nappies a day, saving maybe a wash a week. But sheesh, popping off all those moon buttons on these grows and washable nappies sure does make it a bit of a mission. So, I am in the process of felting some jumpers to make some split crotch trousers and easy up/downs, covered up by some nice felted dresses.

So here is the first dress.

Step One- Take a jumper and felt the hell out of it. (Hot wash.)
Step Two- Use the new smaller, felted neck as the neck of the dress. A couple of inches out from the neck start to cut down to make holes for the arms - cut towards the jumpers seam, where upon the existing felted seams become the seams on the side of the dress.
Step Three- You'll probably need to sew the arm hole smaller. I left a three inch hole and sewed towards the seams of the dress, in a diagonal line.
Step Four- Decorate it.
Yep, that is it- pretty budget! But hey it looks nice and they outgrow their things so quickly (well, Greedy Gonzalez here does anyway) that it really doesn't need to be more robust than this.

She loves it: