Baby Shower gifts

I already posted the self-binding receiving blanket I made for my sister-in-law.  Here are a couple other things I made her as well:

Tie Onesie - There are 2 patterns I like here and here. . . one is smaller and works better on infant onesies and the other is a bit bigger and works best on 12month + sizes in my experience.  I don't remember which one I used this time since I just have the patterns cut out and use them over and over.

Denim Baby Book - more info here.  I love the piping added around the edges - it gives it a softer look.  And Kari had given me some of my brother's old shirts to re-purpose, so I used them in the applique shapes of the book.  How fun is that - the baby will have a book made from his dad's old clothes!

Army Bunker Tent

This Army Bunker Tent came out awesome, but I had it in the works for almost a year...I just couldn't ever get excited about working on it since I knew it would be an intense project.  I saw the idea on Obsessively Stitching last year and knew it would be something I wanted to make for my son. 

It's made out of a twin sheet set from Wal-Mart (I don't know if they still carry the same one anymore...I bought mine a year ago when this tutorial came out - just in case they stopped carrying it by the time I got around to making it.)  The frame is out of PVC pipes - and my table scratches really easy, so I cut up a scrap of fleece and used that as a "table cloth" under the pipes.  And the best part...the fabric and pipes all fit into the pillowcase when you take it down.

Since everyone's table is different, the tutorial doesn't give dimensions, so that's what took me a year to get in the mood to make it.  I had to measure and fit it to my table, and I had a hard time with that, but now I'm happily done!

I basically copied everything Care did when she made this...the freezer paper stenciling on the pocket of the pillowcase and mini drawstring bag to keep the army men

...and the freezer paper stencil t-shirt. 

It was a bit tricky to make, but well worth it - my kids love playing in it.

Super Hero Cape

My son doesn't check my blog - so it's safe to post his Christmas presents on here.  But I'm getting antsy for Christmas to be over so that I can show you all what I've been making.  Everyone else checks my blog, so it's not safe till Christmas is over.

I started this cape about 9-10 months ago (made the pattern and cut out the fabric).  And then I finally got around to sewing it in the last month or so.  I just wasn't excited to sew on the plasticy pleather fabric.  I tinkered with different designs - starting out with a bunch of papers taped together to get the length and width and then made about a dozen different designs for the neck/closure section before I got something I liked and that fit him good.  It has a velcro closure at the neck and the length just brushes the ground - I figured it was a good length to start with so that it would grow with him and last longer.

Then I found a mask template online- and knew that needed to be an addition to the outfit.  I can't remember where I found the template, but I just google'd "superhero mask pattern" and looked through the options till I found one I liked.  This was my second attempt.  The first one was a horrible mess - I don't have a teflon foot for my machine and the stitching was horrible and the fabric stuck to the foot and wouldn't move.  Then I remembered reading a blog that suggested using baby powder on vinyl to help the sewing process.  I figured if it works on vinyl, it should work on this.  And it DID!  It's just really messy and I had to wait till the kiddos were asleep to do this.

I backed the mask in black felt since that gave it more stability - but after my first horrible mask, I realized it was better not to cut out the black felt in the mask shape before sewing it.  The red pleather stretched and it was better to cut after it was top stitched.

Baby Shower Onesies

These are 2 onesies I gave as a baby shower gift.

The tie onesie was made using the template from Trey and Lucy.

The striped onesie has the number 3 on it because this is their 3rd child. On the back, I also appliqued "OTTO" and a big "3" for his last name like a baseball player . . . but my computer decided to shut itself down when I was trying to rotate the picture and now it's lost. So you'll have to use your imagination on that.

Dana's 90 Minute Shirt - I tried . . .

I tried Dana's 90 Minute Shirt - which meant making my own pattern. But it was free - I used an old t-shirt that used to be my brother-in-law's (which I intercepted on it's way to goodwill) and the red ribbing was from an old tank top of mine. It lookes better in the picture than in person. When he moves, it bunches up around the neck line and at the shoulders. So it looks like a bunched up turtleneck :( So while he was watching Cars, I took my "mark-b-gone" pen and drew on the shirt where I need to cut and re-sew the neck line. He kept looking at me funny since I was drawing on the shirt while he was wearing it.

So that means that tonight I have a date with a seam ripper and the couch. And this took me from about 10am till 5pm today (with many, many stops to feed the baby or help Ethan with whatever he was doing. The longest part was trying to create a pattern. The sewing went really easy and fast. So I can see how once you have a pattern set, it would be a quick shirt to make. But then you have the problem of your children growing, thus your pattern will always need tweaking.

Baby Shower Gift Set

I made a baby shower gift set last week . . .

Side Fasten Bib - my own pattern. Download the pattern here, and the instructions are linked from this post. The red square on the top, right of the bib is the velcro attachment (which doesn't show when it's being worn)

Rounded Burp Cloths - my own pattern. Download the pattern here, and get the tutorial from this post.

On the bib and the burp cloths, I used wonder under to attach the strip of brown fabric and the red fabric dots to the base piece before I sewed the backs on. It's hard to see in the pictures, but the red dots are different sizes - they get smaller from left to right.

Pacifier Clip - instructions in the previous post.

Tie Onesie - I used the pattern & instructions from Trey & Lucy. I've also used the pattern from Crap I've Made too. They are my 2 favorite patterns out there, but they are different sizes. One I like using better for new born/infants and the other better for toddlers because of the length difference. But that's just my personal taste.

Here's my son wearing the one I made him to wear to church on Father's Day.

Big Brother Shirt

I found a blog where someone made a "big sister" shirt for their daughter, so I decided to make one for my son. I didn't write down the blog where I got the idea, so if it was you, please let me know.

I am going to be having my baby girl right after Thanksgiving, and when my Mom brings my son to the hospital to see his new little sister, I want him to wear this shirt - he won't know what it means (he'll only be 20 months old), but others will know that he now has a new sibling.

What I did:
1. Cut the fabric letters out on a Cricut (or you could print them out, trace them onto the fabric and cut them out if you don't have a Cricut)
2. Attach them to the shirt with Wonder Under
3. Keep looking at it day after day to decide if you want to add stitching to the letters to hold them down better and to add detail

It was a great way to use all those tiny scraps of fabric that I've been saving but not knowing why.

Baby Boy Baseball Set

I made this set for my brother's baby boy that's on the way. I also included the baseball bib from the previous post that was featured in Utah Baby Guide.


For the tie onesie - I used the pattern from Trey and Lucy (pattern located on her side bar). It is already set perfectly for a newborn size, so I didn't have to tweak the length or anything.

For the baseball toy, I made it a crinkle toy . . . here are a few pictures of the process to make it:
For the top, I traced around a bowl for the circle and used embroidery floss to hand stitch the baseball stitches.
For the bottom layer, I traced around the bowl again on the printed fabric, and I cut and folded ribbon and stitched them to the right side of the fabric
I took an empty baby wipe package and traced 2 circle pieces from the bowl (but I scrunched the plastic up a bit before cutting so that it was bulky and would make better crinkle noises)Then I put all 3 layers together (fabric right sides together and the plastic crinkle wrap was on top.) Sew all the way around - leaving a couple inches unsewn so that you can turn it right side out. Then topstitch the finished edges to seal the opening and finish off the baseball.

Recycled T-shirt --> toddler pants/capris

I like the idea of turning t-shirts into other clothes . . .

I've done this once before where I took a t-shirt and cut it up to make a ruffled cardigan/short jacket for my niece. It was hard to do since it was for a kid, but I think the task would be easier on adult sized clothes. Here's my finished jacket and here's the link to the tutorial from CraftStylish. It's hard to get the idea from my pic, so check out the link to see a better picture from CraftStylish!

Toddler pants:

I got this idea from Ashley on Lil Blue Boo's blog and fell in love with it. The full length pants would work for my son, but I love the idea of the cropped length for goucho pants for a little girl. The t-shirt I used was from the teenager's Junior size, so I was limited by length to make full length pants for my son (I made the 6-12 month size). So this will one day be for a daughter I may have.

I don't know if my son is built different than most, but once I was done, the pants were quite low-rise on him - or he just had a very full diaper and that was making the pants lower than were meant to be :) So when I make these again, I will probably add an inch or so to the top measurement to make sure my son doesn't dress immodestly :)

The shirt had a "Hershey's" logo on it, so I cut that off the shirt and applique'd that to the leg.

Luckily, I have a full box of t-shirts I had in HS or college that would be great for an idea like this - Slinky, Sesame Street, Strawberry Shortcake, My Little Pony, and several others. And I just may steal my husband's Transformer shirt to make my son something soon - but he still wears that shirt. . . I wonder how long it will take him to realize it's missing and my son has something that looks like the same shirt :)

Next, I'm going to try the skirt that Ashley has a post on as well . . .