for a new mom.

i recently decided to make my sister in law, who just had a baby, a super chic nursing cover (i actually much prefer the term i read once on a blog, "hooter hider"). though there are lots of great tutorials out there (here, here, and here), i thought i might play around and come up with a design which addressed my own insecurities needs as a nursing mama. it is similar to one i used, but with many improvements.

i made this one go around the back of your torso. that way, if you're not wearing a nursing top, you can just hike up your shirt and not worry about showing off your muffin top (not that my super fit sister in law will have to worry about that).  plus, not having the edge be right next to baby's head makes it less likely that he'll be able to expose you. i left one side open, however, so that mom can still hone in on her mad multitasking skills. although, if you wanted to, you could easily turn the slit to the back.

another thing i thought about was fabric choice. as my babe got older, i hated throwing a cover on that blocked out all the light, and he didn't like it either. especially since at home, i just flopped out my milk makers and he ate in broad daylight. so for this one i used a really light weight jersey material that lets in plenty of light, but still blocks your booby from popping into the public's view. because this fabric was so light weight, i thought that it could use a little bit of a heavier fabric around the bottom to keep it from just floating around should there be a draft. it also happened to cuten it up a bit!

most of the nursing covers i've seen out there have boning in the front, so the nursing mom can easily peer down and check on her sweet infant, which is sweet. however, in my experience, the boning was a great handle for a slightly older infant to grasp onto and pull the cover down, defeating its entire purpose. so instead, i stitched in a line of elastic thread (first time using it--awesome!), which made a sweet little ruffle right up around the top.

lastly, i stuck a little pocket on the inside of each bottom corner to stash things like binkies, nursing pads, or a tiny tube of lansinoh.

this is the first time i've ever really sewn something without following some sort of pattern, tutorial, or at least general guidelines. maybe if i ever get another good excuse to make more, i'll go ahead and write up a tutorial.

:)