Bun covers
I’m making bun covers, no– not the kind that keep dinner rolls warm or are delicately crocheted dainties for a lady’s hair– the other kind.
You know, the kind that cover training pants.
I actually like making pilchers, soakers, training pant covers and so on– they are cute (come on, anything that goes on a little kid is cute), they are reasonably simple, you can finish several in a day, they come in endless configurations, and you can use almost anything to make them. Use cotton ones to let the little wetter know they’ve wet, use wool ones to prevent open leakage, use acrylic ones for easy clean up, use a combo for night wear, and just have extras on hand.
I’m partial to actually sewing the training pant part and making the covers out of whatever interests me at the moment. I was cleaning up last night and found some bulky green acrylic that’s fairly soft so I knit up a cover. I think I might have just enough to make a second one.
I don’t have a pattern for the covers, I just knit the approximate shape and sew up the sides, or if I’m sewing I use an existing training pant for a guide. It’s kind of funny how much I originally fret over the fit of training pants and covers– only to figure out later that it doesn’t matter much; if they fit perfectly then the child won’t be able to pull them up or down, or said child will somehow manage to magically change shape in two weeks rendering all that careful fitting and measuring totally useless.
I also learned that any i-cord, braided yarn, and crocheted cord closures were less than ideal, mostly due to the fact that one handed untying of wet cord is not possible. I have maybe seven or eight vintage magazines with soaker patterns and all of them use a cord fashioned from matching yarn to hold the soaker or cover up.
I wonder how many mothers who innocently (like me) followed the directions for making those fancy cords with the adorable crocheted curliques on the ends, faithfully threaded them through the holes in the prescribed way only to end up severing the cord with nail clippers in a restaurant bathroom because the darned thing would not release the baby in a timely and reasonable manner?
Clearly the designers of those patterns had special children that do not pee.
It’s interesting too how the times have changed soaker fashion, there are some from the 40′s that have snaps or buttons and the waist goes nearly up under the armpits of the baby, others from the 60′s that look like the college wrestling outfits with suspenders, and the low rise cuts that are almost bikini like in the 70′s.
Even though I’m glad we’re on the final leg of the whole potty training thing, it makes me a little sad too. Lexi resembles a child much more than a baby now. She wants to dress herself and brush her own hair. She likes to pick things out for herself and put her toys away on her own. These training pant covers will probably be the last ones she needs me to make for her to wear. I know that she might want me to make a few for her dolls but that’s just not the same.