sewbaby: one-of-a-kind clothes for your little one

Need a baby or birthday gift? Want to dress your own baby or toddler in something you don't find on the racks? Check out these adorable pieces from Sewbaby.

Moms who resort to shopping via the "add to cart" button on babygap.com or oldnavy.com should especially take note: Sewbaby onesies, tops, pants and other offerings make a far more unique and personal purchase and can be customized. That's something that's hard, if not impossible, to do elsewhere. Whether it's choosing your fabric or your design, Sewbaby can do it all.

Rachel Weiner, a graphic artist turned preschool teacher and now the mom behind the line, started making baby clothes a couple of years before she had her now 2.5 year old daughter Ella.

"After I quit teaching and had Ella, I wanted to use all of my background interests and started sewing presents for my friends who were having babies," she says. "I started doing T-shirts and then people started asking me to make some for their newborns, and that's how it began."

It's no surprise that Weiner has a passion for clothes. "I grew up as the only girl in a family of four kids, so I owned 25 Cabbage Patch Kids. I would act like their mommy and dress them up all the time!"

Weiner searches the garment district and online for amazing fabrics and uses her Upper West Side Manhattan apartment as her workspace. She says, "My customers are mainly friends and family who have babies/toddlers themselves or are giving presents to others."

While all of her pieces make you stop and admire, some of the most popular include the gift sets which may include a letter shirt and bib for a new baby, or a number shirt for a child turning one or two. She makes clothes for Ella and recently made her a personalized doll stroller too. She explains, "I wanted to make her doll stroller stand out amongst those of her friends at the NYC playgrounds."

Remarkably, her biggest challenge isn't creating the designs or giving customers what they want but finding the space to sew. "I only have one table in my NYC apt so I have to clear everything off to use the sewing machine! And finding storage space for all the onesies and fabrics I buy isn't easy either!"

But when a customer sends her a photo of her baby wearing Sewbaby clothes, it's all worthwhile. She hopes to one day expand her business from blog to website to make it easier for customers to order. For now, check out her entire collection at http://sewbaby.blogspot.com.