Newborn Hat

Here's a baby knit hat I made for my nephew on the way - he was due last week and still hasn't decided to arrive yet :).  It was really easy and fast to make - tutorial here.

I did an applique star on the front to give it more umph - and then did some "x" stitches on the sides to keep the brim folded up.

Baseball Banner

I made this banner for a friend's baby shower.  She's decorating his room in sports theme, so I thought it would be a great decoration for the baby shower and his room.  I decided to make it out of fabric instead of paper so that it would have a longer life.

Here's what I did:

• The white fabric was canvas and the blue was a soft type of denim - I wanted it to have some stability and I wouldn't have gotten that with standard cotton
• I traced a bowl to get the circle shape, and then slid the bowl to each side to trace the line where I wanted the red stitches to go
• I used embroidery floss to hand stitch the baseball lines
• I used wonder under to applique the letters and stars and top stitched around the edge of the letters
• Each baseball and pennant has a back side that I top stitched to the front to hide the stitching on the back of it
• Before I sewed the backs to the fronts, I pinned the twine in place and then sewed through it when I stitched the backs and fronts together.

It was fun to make this, I may end up making another one to match my son's room.  I love how it turned out.

Turning ONE (with cupcake template download)

My daughter turned ONE last week.  And on the day of her party, I woke up at 3:30 in the morning with the realization that I hadn't made her a special birthday shirt to wear at her party!!!!!  Any prepared crafty momma would have already done this - but I guess I like to wait till the last minute.  So here's what I came up with in the wee hours of the morning.

I used wonder under to adhere the appliques to the shirt and added a pink button as the "cherry" on the cupcake.  Doesn't she look adorable?  I also had previously made the korker bow and headband - which matched perfectly!

My birthday wish for her was some hair - I wonder what she wished for?

I drew the cupcake myself, so if anyone wants the template, download it here!  I used the same template as I did for her denim picture book . . .

Tie and Bow Tie Cloth Napkins

When I saw this idea at Our Daily Obsessions, I knew I wanted to make it for my father-in-law for Father's Day. I tried to find plain white dinner napkins at a couple stores but had no luck, so I decided to make the napkin too.

Afer I made the tie napkin, I thought it might be fun to make a bow tie one as well. The bow tie napkin is smaller - finished size 17"x17" and the tie napkin is finished 21"x21". I just traced a tie to get the shape and length. But I freehanded a bowtie.

I google'd how to make the napkins so it would have a polished and "non-homemade" look to it. I used a combo of a couple different links to get the clean corners. I didn't write down the links I used, but just google "how to make a dinner napkin" and you'll have a few choices. Here's a close up of the corner from the back side of the napkin.

4th of July Dress

So . . . Dana MADE me do it . . . Using her pattern and instructions, I made a dress for my daughter out of her Warhol Dress.

I turned this men's shirt into a 6-12 month dress for my daughter. I fits her perfectly except the shoulder strap (the one that doesn't tie) is too loose, so I need to shorten that. Otherwise, the length and shape is perfect. It looks adorable on her.

I applique'd stars on the dress with wonder under. After the white neck line was added, it needed something else to help tie the white all together. I also used red thread to top stitch around the stars.

I also did three rows of topstitching with red thread on the neck tie as well.

Wet Bag

I found this idea to make a wet bag. It can be used to put a wet swimsuit in to bring home or when we are potty training and have an accident out of the house. I can put the wet items in this bag and then not get my diaper bag wet.
I made mine a square - finished size 9"x9" instead of the 9"x12" in the tutorial. I didn't have the waterproof fabric that she mentions, but I did have some of the clear plasticy vinyl. That was tricky to sew with, but using tissue paper between the machine and the vinyl helped.

My fabric seemed too plain and needed something else. I used freezer paper stenciling by cutting out the letters with my cricut and used fabric paint to put the words on the front. I also applique'd the yellow circle on the front with wonder under.

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.

Denim Baby Book

During Dana & Rae's "Celebrate the Boy" month in February, I found this idea. I adapted it for my little girl though. My favorite pages are the front cover and the back. I used cookie cutters and text/images I made for all the pages.

I also rounded the corners and added piping along the outside edges. This was time consuming to make, but I really enjoyed making it last weekend. I also made a boy one for a baby shower I'm going to tomorrow. I used cookie cutters and images I drew for that one as well. I'll post that later this week with the rest of the items I made.

Here is the front: Here are the inside pages: Here is the back:

Car Roll-up

So if you've ever made a crayon roll, this will be a cinch for you. The process is pretty much identical. If you haven't made a crayon roll, this will still be quite easy, but I would suggest making a crayon roll too. The crayon roll and my car notebook have been lifesavers at church or when we're in waiting rooms. It keeps my son calm. So I'm hoping this car roll/car cozy will do the same.

I saw the idea on Homemade by Jill. I used my cricut to cut the numbers out of freezer paper. I didn't have any felt for the road, so I used flannel - which meant I had to use wonder under to adhere the yellow road stripes since it's not as sturdy of a fabric. It was basically free for me to make since I used a pair of jeans and scrap fabric I already had on hand. I love thrifty projects!

I didn't topstitch around the edge because my fabrics were too thick. I used some "outerwear" fabric for the front (the red fabric) and it's pretty thick, so paired with the denim pockets, my machine wouldn't like me.

Guitar Onesie and Tutu

I had a baby shower I went to over the weekend, so that means the week before was my creative time. I always try new things when I have a deadline - like a present to give. So that way I don't put off the project.

I used the guitar applique pattern and tutu idea here - and i used the tutu technique of wrapping it on cardboard here - made it much easier.


The headband is a knee high that I cut the toe and elastic top off and sewed together - adding a ribbon loop at the seam so that the hair clips can be interchangeable.

I keep a pack of onesies in my fabric stash so that I can use them when I need them - it's hard to not grab from that stash to use on my kids instead of doing laundry when they run out of clean ones :) I suggest getting a pack of gerber onesies at Jo-Anns when you have a 40% off coupon. Some days I'm just wandering the store with nothing imparticular that I need so instead of letting the coupon go to waste - I buy some onesies. They're usually in the isle with the fabric paint - in my store, it's next to the yarn isles.

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.

Receiving Blanket

I found this flannel material at Jo-Anns and instantly knew I wanted to make it into a blanket for my baby girl.

First, make it square - I think the fabric was 44", so I just had them cut that same length. But you could fold it diagonally in half and cut the edge so that it's a square. Then I traced a salad plate around the corners to get the nice rounded corners.

I scanned the giraffe on the fabric and enlarged it to the size I wanted for an applique. So I used wonder under and fused it to the bottom corner and then hand stitched it with a dark thread so that showed up.

Place it right sides together with the back flannel piece and sew around the edges (leaving about 4-5" open to turn it right side out. Then, iron it flat and top-stitch around the finished edge (I used a decorative stitch to make it more girly.

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.

2nd Feature in "Utah Baby Guide"

My second "craft" article for Utah Baby Guide was a side fasten bib . . . found on page 51 of the online magazine. The tutorial is listed there, so for now, I won't make the tutorial into a post on my blog.
Here's the pattern to download as a pdf if you prefer that instead of printing the magazine pages.

Rounded Burp Cloth w/ Pattern

I have a lot of burp cloths left over from my son, but I wanted some cute ones for my daughter and I can't find really cute ones . . . then I stumbled upon this pink heart fabric at Jo-Ann's and fell in love with it. So I decided to make some cute ones for my daughter - ones that I wouldn't be embarassed to use in public since my others are all stained or plain and boring.

Fabric

• For the front, I used flannel - depending on the layout of the print pattern, you can get about a 1/4 of a yard or less to make multiple cloths. I bought 1/4 yard of the pink fabric and would be able to get 5 burp cloths out of it
• I cut up some kitchen waffle towels to make the back - they are microfiber and really absorbant, plus they don't slip around since the towel clings a bit. I found a 2-pack of these plain white ones at Wal-Mart for about $3.50. I got 2 pieces out of the one towel with some left over if I wanted to make a smaller rectangle one.

Steps to make 2 burp cloths:

1. Cut 4 pieces of fabric from pattern (download pattern here). I used flannel for the 2 fronts and 2 backs out of microfiber waffle towel.
2. Place right sides together and pin the pieces to eachother
3. Sew at 1/4" seam allowance (or at the presser foot) . . . BUT leave a couple inches on one of the sides un-sewn
4. Turn the cloth right side out through the hole you left in the side seam
5. Iron edges
6. Top-stitch around the entire edge to keep in place and to close the hole in the side - I sewed it pretty close to the edge

Optional - I added a white circle with a green heart on one end with wonder under (applique). After ironing the pieces on, I stitched around the edge of the circle to add detail.

Bubble skirt and applique tank top

I made this outfit for my 5 year old niece for her birthday. I applique'd the hearts on the tank top to match the fabric for the skirt.

The skirt was a headache for me. I loved the idea of a bubble skirt and tried to alter and do it myself. The waistband gave me the most trouble. I think it was partly because the fabric I used was thick, heavy, and stretchy, so it wasn't easy to sew. Next time, I'll take pictures of the process and make a tutorial out of it, but I'll use a t-shirt knit fabric or cotton next time.

I didn't get a picture of her wearing it to post since it got tossed to the side in favor of the new toys she wanted to play with instead. But I love that it bubbles out at the bottom since the inner lining layer is shorter and thinner so it pulls in the top layer to bubble out.