Spring Break Productivity Pt. 3

Continuation. Read Pt. 1 here and Pt. 2 here.


Teething Necklace.
My little Junebug has some seriously swollen gums right now. Poor guy is drooling everywhere, putting everything in his mouth and losing sleep. And, well, we all know when baby loses sleep, so does Mama! We've been working on nighttime, but during the day I'm constantly grabbing big sister Pumpkin's toys out of his mouth. Oh, and if you pick him up, be warned you'll be covered in slobber later!


So, when I saw this on Pinterest, I thought, "oh yay! cute AND functional." So, I got right to it! Rebekah already has written out a very simple tutorial on A Bit of Sunshine, so head over check that out. Here's the one she made:

And mine that I'm loving!

Spring Break Productivity Pt. 2

Continuation. Read Pt. 1 here.

TV Tray Ironing Board.
If you know anything about me you know I'm a complete and total pinaholic.

Over Spring Break I decided it was the perfect chance to actually make some of the things I've been pin, pin, pinning away for months! One of the things I was most excited about was this tv tray turned pressing board [tutorial from Oh, Fransson!] This is of high importance since we moved my entire sewing table and set-up to the office to allow me more access to it. (When it was in the bedroom I was hardly ever able to sew, seeing as hubby was often asleep when I wanted to sew.) Since moving it to the office I didn't have an ironing board nearby.

So, I picked up a TV tray at Target for $9 and picked up some natural batting and an outdoor fabric. Armed with my brand new staple gun (see Pt. 1) I got to work. Literally a few minutes later I was the proud new owner of a personal pressing table:

Cute, right? I love it!

Peek-A-Boo Pull Bag

Made a new product for my shop tonight. It's called the Peek-A-Boo Pull Bag. As with anything the first time I make it I find all my mistakes! So this one will be for my daughter. I'll still photograph it in the morning because I have enough fabric to make at least a couple more just like it. I'm quite pleased with how it looks, just need to tweak a few things!

T-Shirt Skirt Tutorial

If you're like me then you're constantly on Pinterest! I'm always seeing things I want to try but as a working mom with 2 little ones it's hard to get around do trying them all.... unless you're invited to a pinterest party and then you go crazy, hahaha! Our playgroup had a MNO (Moms' Night Out) tonight and we were all invited to bring something from  Pinterest . Sooooo... I brought a drink, a snack AND a sewing project! The project I made was a T-shirt skirt. It seemed like the perfect thing for any busy mom to throw together. And considering the 85' degree temps we've been having here in Illinois, despite it being mid-march, it's an easy wardrobe refresher!

I was inspired by this graphic:

Which I then tracked to this tutorial. So I snuck a peek in hubby's closet, but felt bad about stealing a t-shirt he still wears and I didn't want to try this on a t-shirt that I wouldn't ACTUALLY wear as a skirt, so I swung by Old Navy and picked up a clearance top! It went basically the same, but I had to make some small adjustments since I used a boat-necked top. Full disclosure: I spent more than 30 seconds on this. Haha! But definitely no longer than 30 minutes!

Here's what I started with:

Since it was a sort of boat neck neckline with extra wide shoulders, I had to make a few adjustments. The first thing I tweaked was closing some of the shoulder opening. I knew I needed to do this because I had slipped the shirt on to my waist to get a feel for how it would look and lay. So from the shoulder down a few inches I closed it- but careful, you're not going all the way or you'll lose your pockets!

Here's what it looks like with my new seams:

Then you'll need to stitch your sleeves shut to create pockets. My top had 3/4 length sleeves so I didn't sew at the cuff, rather a bit higher. Here you can see them sewn:

Then you can go ahead and cut your excess sleeves below your seam:

The rest pretty much follows the the graphic at the beginning of this post. So step 1) Cut from the neck to your shoulder- in my case I cut up to the point where I'd sewn at my shoulder:

(in this picture I'd only cut half way to the new seam, but it needed to be cut all the way)

Here you can see it cut on both shoulders and folded down:

I then folded it all the way around and pressed it to have a nice waistline:

My original intention was to have it be drawstring, so I sewed a casing all the way, leaving an opening in the front in order to be able to tie it:

I didn't really like how it felt/held up though so I'm going to add elastic to it and sew the casing completely shut. 

Overall, I love it. So easy, super cute and a one of a kind skirt!

Tutorial: Making a Fabric Basket Lining

When I was a kid we always got those plastic Easter baskets, usually ready made or if not, just stuffed with random stuff. As a kid, they were fantastic. As a parent, I can't bring myself to purchase a cheap (overpriced) plastic basket every.single.year. So after I bought my Pumpkin's Easter basket for her first Easter, I decided we'd be re-using it. Now that our little Junebug has joined our family I needed to buy a second basket. I didn't have a lot of time to shop around, so I bought the first one that I *sort of* liked. Well, it's not nearly as cute as my Pumpkin's basket, so I needed to dress it up a bit. Since this is the first thing I've made in a while without a tutorial from someone else, I decided it was time for a tutorial of my own!

1) measure the inside diameter for the bottom of your liner. This is just to give you an idea of how much fabric you're going to need, because unless you have a big enough circle cutter you'll probably just end  up tracing the bottom to cut the fabric, like I did.

2) Measure from each end of the handle to find how long your inside pieces of fabric need to be.

3) Measure the height of your basket to know how wide your fabric pieces need to be. Keep in mind if you want it to fold over like mine, you'll need to include that in your measurements.

Add 1/2" to your measurements from steps 2 and 3... so if you measured 15.5" x 7.5" like I did, you'd cut rectangles that are 16" x 8".

4) You should end up with 3 pieces of fabric: a square from which you will cut your circle and two rectangles for your inner sides.

5) This is where I got bummed, my circle cutter wasn't big enough to cut the perfect circle I needed so I had to go old school. Darn it! So, here's where you'd trace your basket. This actually works out quite nicely, because the outer edge of the basket will measure slightly larger, thus giving you your seam allowance. After tracing your circle, cut it out.

6) Press the edges 1/4" in on 3 sides of your rectangular pieces. Yes, just 3 sides.

7) Pin the unpressed (bottom) side of your rectangular piece to half of the circle (right sides together). It should look something like this. Pardon the pinning, I get overzealous anytime I'm not pinning straight, like fabrics together!

8) After sewing this is what it should look like:

 

9) Repeat step 7 and it should look like this:

10) Sorry I don't have a picture for this one but now you're going to double check the inside height of your basket and determine where you want your inside pieces to split to allow room for your handle. You saw at the beginning of this post that my basket was roughly 5 1/2" tall, so I chose to sew 4" together and leave the rest open at the top.

11) Now, on your previously pressed corners of your rectangular pieces you're going to created tapered edges. This allows some space for your handle on the finished product. Simply fold, at an angle, from the corner to where you stopped sewing and press again. You'll also press 1/4" of the top side down, to give you the finished look without any raw edges. Beginning in the middle of the "V" you see below, stitch from one opening to the other side. Repeat on the other rectangle/inside piece.

12) Slip it into your basket and voila! You're done. I whipped this out in under an hour so I'm sure anyone could do this quickly =)

Remnants

I love, love, love the remnant bin at JoAnn's. I never go there with out digging through the bins! You can score some seriously awesome fabric for cheap, and if you make a lot of little projects it's perfect. When I was there on Friday I picked up some NFL fleece for just a couple bucks and I got enough to make 2-3 scarves! Hellooooo Christmas presents! Totally going to pick up some more and have that on hand for easy gifts for next year =)

By Request: Tooth Fairy Pillow

So I've been seeing about 3,139,723,186 different projects on Pinterest that I want to try. But of course every time I go to my board to pick a project I get overwhelmed and quit, haha. Then a good friend asked if I had any plans to start making tooth fairy pillows. Well, indeed it was a project on my infinitely long to do list! So it seemed like as good of a place to start as any other.

So, this afternoon I got the little Junebug down for a nap after a hearty lunch (first time having a quesadilla, his little tummy is full!) I decided to see what I could whip up! After browsing Pinterest some more and sketching out exactly what I wanted, I got to work!

Using fabric scraps made this project both quick but economical as well ;) I'm looking forward to being able to knock these out a few at a time and have them as a regular listing in my shop!

Baptismal Outfit

Today my mom and I shopped for Junebug's baptismal outfit. After two stores we headed to JoAnns, which is probably where we should have just started in the first place! After just a minute we found the PERFECT pattern from Burda. It was a new brand for me, and it pleased me to see it was from Germany =) Ah, nostalgia...

Anyways here's what I got:

I won't be making the shirt or the bow tie and I'll be altering the pants a bit (no cuff, a bit longer and maybe wider). I got some lovely linen, which I'm thinking is going to look fantastic! I can't WAIT to see how this turns out!

so tutu-lly excited!

I'm diving into the world of tulle and tutus today LOL! Special request from a friend so I'll be making my first birthday tutu & onesie set. If it goes well and seems easy enough maybe it'll become a regular item in the etsy shop!

*UPDATE*
Here's the finished product! Can't wait to get the pics from Jacqui to see her lil' girl wearing it:

hemming the short length

I am one of those people who is SO short I have to hem even the short length pants I purchase. Well despite all the sewing I've been doing the past year +, I've always been so afraid to try to hem my own pants. Partially because it's hard to measure them on yourself, partially because I'm afraid of screwing up and wasting a pricey pair of pants. Well, I finally took the plunge and I think they turned out pretty ok.... They seem a little short, but they're a very wide legged pant so I might be fooled by the "airyness" I'm feeling....

the "pillowcase" dress

Surely you've seen pillowcase dresses, they're all the rage among toddler wardrobes these days! The styles range from simple to more elaborate with multiple fabrics and bias tape and what not. So which do I choose for my first attempt? The elaborate one, of course! ;) It took me a few hours to complete, especially with my repeated checking of the tutorial from Little Big Girl Studio (I'm kinda hyper vigilant). But I'm THRILLED with the way it turned out! I only wish it wasn't 11pm when I finished so that I could have Pumpkin try it not right away!!! But that will have to wait until tomorrow after work I guess =(

The best part is I have more of the brown polka dot fabric that I will use to make a necktie onesie for my Junebug =) Yay for matching sibling sets =P

the "simple skirt"

For months now I've been bookmarking tutorials left and right of various projects I want to make. The past few weeks I've now taken to "pinning" things. Finally, tonight, I made some stuff! And I'm so in love =). This simple skirt tutorial was such a breeze. I knocked it out in about an hour- would have been faster had I not been tending to a toddler and newborn and stopping to re-read directions in between!

I've been planning to make this one for a while now so I actually planned in advance and took my daughter (a.k.a. Pumpkin) with to JoAnn's and let her choose the fabric. This make the skirt 100x more exciting, trust me! Here's our finished product:

Pumpkin showing off the fit:

Tried to photograph her wearing it and all I got was a blur from her twirling... she's in love with this skirt!

Etsy

I've been working on quite a bit of merchandise for my Etsy shop which I hope to launch this weekend. I'm crazy excited about it but also sad because I'm not able to devote a whole lot of time at the moment, with school starting soon. I'm excited to get back to my kids (my big kids), but also sad to be leaving my babies home. *sniff*

i-spy bag

Last night I finished my first i-spy bag... and i LOVE it! I took some quick pictures this morning before giving it to my Pumpkin. She loves it =) Definitely be looking for these in my etsy shop soon!

Scrap Monster Lovie

As usual I have about 23,687,865,169,876,345 projects started... not so many getting finished! Haha! When you're working on lots of little things, though, you end up with lots of scraps. So, I wanted to make something that was quick and utilized all those little bits of fabric that were piling up (literally). I decided to make a monster "lovie".

This isn't a detailed tutorial, per say. All I really did was gather some fabrics that somewhat coordinated, but really they don't have to. I did try to stick to bold, fun fabrics that would be eye-catching for my son. Honestly you could just lay out your fabrics and start pinning and sewing. Since, I'm a perfectionist and way too high-strung I had to first sketch it out and make a big fuss (maybe this is why I never finish projects?).

Here's the final product:

Adorable in an obnoxious sort of way, isn't he? His body is made from some flannel I got in the remnant bin, and the rest is scraps I had lying around. These guys are a great way to use up those scraps you having lying around that aren't big enough for other projects! Enjoy!

Keep checking back for new about my etsy shop which will feature clothing and accessories for mama and baby!

The latest thing I've made....

...is SO cute! Have a look:

hee hee... my lil' Junebug was born 6/2/11 at 5.24am weighing 6lbs 6oz and measuring 19 in long. he's been keeping me busy the last month, but I've still gotten some projects in and I've even taken on the task of opening at Etsy shop! Delight! I'll be sewing all this month to build a "stock" and then open August 1st! =)

More Flannel Blankets

I've made two of these for Junebug since they're  so easy, and quite frankly kind of essential. Well, now that Junebug has arrived and has been monopolizing much of this Mama's time I needed to ensure that my Pumpkin wasn't feeling left out or pushed aside. So, one afternoon Gammie came over to sit with Junebug while he napped and Mama and Pumpkin went to the "fabric store" (a.k.a. JoAnn's).

My Pumpkin got to pick out her fabrics and we spent some time together. ♥ That night I made Pumpkin her very own blankie that she now sleeps with every night =)

 

Father's Day Craft

Here's a project for father's day. I've often seen it done with "DAD" but Pumpkin & Junebug call hubby "Papa" so we did ours slightly different. I also usually see this done with those wooden letters you can pick up just about anywhere, but to be honest, I forgot to buy them and was too lazy to go back to the store. So I decided to make them out of fabric, and then they'd be a toy for later anyways.

To make the fabric letters, simply choose your favorite font in Word or some other word processing program. The best fonts for a project like this would be something thick, to accommodate stuffing. You, of course, could hand draw the letters too but if you're OCD like me, that just wouldn't work.

Type the letters you need and blow them up until they're as large as possible (one letter per page). It also helps to make the margins as narrow as possible. Print and cut out your letters. Trace each letter twice, once the right way and once backwards. Cut out your letters.

Pin your fabric letters together, right side OUT. Top stitch all around the edge, leaving a small gap for stuffing. Fill with batting. Stitch closed.

The edges will fray but it's part of "the look" ;)

Take pictures with the letters to create a montage like above, or make the whole alphabet to teach letters, or maybe just enough letters to spell out your child's name. The possibilities are endless! =)

Taggie blankie

I made this last night.... soooo easy! I even knocked out another one today. These just might be my new "go to" gift for friends with new bebes! I skimmed a tutorial in one of my sewing books before knocking it out freestyle on the fly. It's really pretty simple. I'll type up a tutorial shortly =)

Baby Blankets

My latest completed project is a flannel baby blanket using abmatic's tutorial found here. Super simple to make and so soft and nice =)