September 30, 2012

Sew: Breastfeeding Cover

On my first public outing with Mr N, I attempted breastfeeding him (all 4.1kg of him) under a wrap whilst sitting inconspicuously in the corner of a cafe. It was an absolute disaster!! The wrap kept falling off, I couldn't see my breast or where his mouth was, he couldn't see me and to top it all off I dropped the breastfeeding shield on dirty Degraves Lane. In full public view...


As soon as I got home, I googled breastfeeding covers and found they were simply a rectangle of fabric with a strap. A few hours later I had a cover that served me well for my two short breastfeeding careers. I made some modifications to the simple fabric rectangle to improve the usability. I included boning and some stiff interfacing to keep the cover open at the top so I could see what I was doing. I also included two towelling pockets to hold the shields while feeding and to wipe up spills.

Multiple friends saw me feeding in all sorts of places with the cover and when it came to their time to have a baby, it became my go-to baby present.

A friend of mine is due in a month and had her baby shower this afternoon. I made her a neutral cover in a Victoria & Albert Museum craft cotton from Spotlight. Mr N picked it. I think he's got a very good eye for fabric!




Project Details
Fabric: 1m Victoria & Albert Museum craft cotton from Spotlight - cut to 90cm x 70cm &  7cm x 90cm
Notions: 0.5m boning, 2 x D-rings, thread, cotton towelling


It has been a very sad week for Brunswick, so it was nice to spend some time with a group of lovely ladies celebrating the impending birth of a beautiful baby. Boy or girl, it does not matter.


L x

6 comments:

  1. Very cool! I must admit I breastfed Little M until she was 14 months old with no cover ..... but I did prefer to wear a singlet under a loose shirt that gave me some cover.

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    1. It was the shields that stuffed me up. They required too much coordination for me! It also doubled as a sunshade over the pram. Very handy!

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  2. Great idea with the interfacing. I couldn't believe it when I saw some of these are sold for $50!

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  3. It's hard to find the adequate words to express how tragic the Jill Meagher case is, but it is wonderful to see the Brunswick community coming together in such solidarity. It's lovely that you were able to spend some time with friends to celebrate an impending baby!

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  4. What a great gift. I also had my challenges with breast feeding publicly with two of my three children especially and one of these would have helped tremendously.

    Brunswick has made the headlines in New Zealand for all the wrong reasons over the last week. It is very sad and not at all nice to think that people like that are walking amongst you.

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  5. good heavens, what a rigmarole that shield seems! I have to admit to having just thrown a very light bunny rug over boob and babe and never having a problem. But if you say it's a tried and tested thing, then I suppose you're right. (But how does it work? No, really, I can't for a minute figure it out.)

    If if were possible to send a group hug to Brunswick, I'm sure we'd do it.

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