Sew much for more nesting

I haven't touched the sewing machine for two days now. I think I really am officially done. I even began putting away the fabric that has been sitting on the ironing board begging to be used somehow. The other day I organized all my fabric by color so when I do go back to making things perhaps it will be easier to know what I have to work with.

So, here are my final projects:

I had come across a blog/tutorial for making gauze swaddling blankets like you can buy for a LOT of money at the store. I decided to pick some of the fabric up at Joann's and make my own. I ended up getting four different colors (white is not pictured here). All I did was hem the edges. Simple, simple. My favorite is the tye-died blue/purple one. It just so happens that I received a package in the mail with the very swaddling blankets I was trying to make. I was glad to get them though so I could compare the fabrics. I would say the bought ones are a softer fabric, but gauze is also supposed to soften with each washing so mine may catch up over time. Either way, this baby will have a lot of nice blankets to be wrapped in :)

My MIL made a bean bag frog YEARS ago and gave me the pattern so I could make them for the boys. The pattern  has sat in my sewing cabinet for just as many years. I finally decided to do something with it because I wanted to make something for them. I made three - Jared's is the camo frog, Aaron's is purple, and Baby's is green like a frog. Aaron and Baby's are made from flannel so they are nice and soft. The camo is from Matthew's old BDU's. I think they turned out pretty well. 

They're supposed to be a surprise for them, and when I first started working on them I'd tell the boys it was a mess when they'd ask what I was doing, but by the third (baby's) Jared finally recognized it as a frog. I filled them with poly fil beads, and I love the way they turned out. I was going to use buttons for the eyes but I would have had to add them before sewing them all together. Even for the stuffed animal eyes I ended up emptying some of the beads in order to get the eyes done. If there is a next time, I would do the eyes either before filling or even before sewing the whole thing up. Jared's was filled from the side which makes for a cleaner stitch, but it made it much more difficult to do the eyes. The other two were filled from the top back - much easier for filling and doing the eyes.

Once the frogs were done, I had some leftover beads and decided to make some bean bags. I ended up making a total of four. They have been quite the party favor! If I had more beads I'd make more. We spent a good couple of hours today playing bean bag games.

This isn't much to look at, but it is a T-Shirt swaddler. I used an old college bookstore tshirt. I liked the video tutorial, but there were just enough unanswered questions in it that I was kind of making it up as I went along too. I am curious how it will actually function in action. It is fairly simple to make once you know what you are doing. 

Sew what have you been up to?

My nesting bug has been going really strong the last two weeks. Aside from packing bags and cleaning house, most of my time has been spent at the sewing machine. The funny thing is that except for the items I already made and posted, none of it is for me! I am finding all these cute fabrics in my stash for baby girl stuff and not a lot for boys so there's isn't a lot of motivation to make anything for myself/baby.

It began with a phone call from my mom about a baby carrier I made and gave to my sister in law who did not want it. We decided to see if my friend M wanted it, which she did. So I decided to make a coordinating bag to go with it.

One side

It was a fairly quick project to put together but I ended up spending all day on it because I had to make it smaller than the pattern called for and didn't reduce the size of the casing for the strap. I ended up having to take it all apart so i could fix that. The sad thing was I'd figured all that out ahead of time but still forgot to account for it :/ Oh well. I like the final product.

other side

inside (and totally reversible)

I get a weekly email from a quilting website with different project ideas. Normally when I look through them I don't find anything I really want to do, but this time I saw one that was simple and kept it in an open tab for awhile before deciding to tackle it. Again, for my friend M because she's having a girl and I have so much cute girly fabric and I wanted to start downsizing my stash. It is called Paisley Squares and Bars.

Instead of quilting the squares I tied them with pink thread.

I had hoped to surprise her with the blanket but ended up needing her opinion on whether or not to use the polka dot fabric and what to use for the binding. I am pretty impressed with myself that I finished it in about a week.

Back view

tagged

Once the blanket was finished I had all these scraps and material pieces left that I wanted to use up, so I decided to make some coordinating baby toys: fabric blocks and links. The boys helped me stuff them :)

And then, I had also been wanting to make her a circle skirt. And since our babies will be here in time for the 4th of July, I decided to make her a holiday skirt. I couldn't quit there though and decided to include a hair bow and shoes.(I didn't include a band b/c she makes her own and I didn't have the right kind of elastic so I figured she could finish it off.) By the time I was done with the hair bow I was tired. I had spent everything in me, so I didn't end up making the shoes. Oh well.

 I mailed her package off yesterday and it should arrive sometime tomorrow. I sat at my sewing area last night trying to figure out something to sew for myself, but didn't come up with anything. I think I am done. I am tired and the desire is pretty nil. Guess it is time to focus on my boys and enjoy the summer with them before little one turns our world upside down.

Sew Busy

Part of my nesting has been utilizing my sewing stash - fabrics I bought when Jared was tiny that have sat unused taking up space and weight. Since we're having another boy they might as well get used even if it is dated. Baby won't care. So, here are the goods so far...

Boppy Pillow Cover (tutorial courtesy of sewleelaa.blogspot.com)

Top of boppy

Bottom with an opening flap to slip the cover in and out. There are lots of tutorials that include a zipper, but I just wasn't interested in going there. Fold over flap was much more my speed.

Aaron insisted on sleeping with it that night :) He looks kind of cozy snuggled up with it.

Baby Blanket

Baby Fabric Rings/Chains (instructions courtesy of http://www.makeit-loveit.com) 

These were pretty simple in concept and execution but a major pain to actually sew shut. I have three more links I could have added but decided I was done. Next time I make them I will add the step of folding down the ends when I sew the strips. The ones that happened to already have a sewn edge seemed to be easier to work with when I linked them.

More Birds

I made these birds for my brother's family for Christmas. Each one is certainly unique in the way it comes out. I like them though. My aunt made us a stuffed animal every year for Christmas. I could see me getting into that - though she had a lot fewer nieces and nephews than I do to worry about.

Birds

I have been in the mood to create and though I have plenty of projects I could finish, I wanted to do something new. I had high hopes for creating things this Christmas season, but have gotten a really slow start. I was searching through www.allpeoplequilt.com looking at the handmade ornament patterns and came across two that were particularly interesting: a star and wild bird ornaments. 

apqshop.com wild birds

I had hoped to get the pattern for the bird but discovered it would cost $5.99. I figured for $6 I could figure it out close enough. I dug through my stash of fabric and with Aaron's help began my version. 

My first task was to figure out a way to create a pattern. I thought about printing the picture displayed but it seemed too daunting to try and manipulate the sizing with the printer and scanner. It finally occurred to me it would be simple to do the manipulating with just the computer screen. So I zoomed in on the picture until I got the size I wanted, put my white cardstock on the screen and traced the bird like a transparency. 

Once I had my template it was pretty straight forward. Put right sides together, stitch leaving a hole to turn inside out, stuff and piece together. I did realize that the wings had to be sewn on to each side of the bird before stitching the body together. I also sewed in a ribbon on the top so the bird could hang like an ornament. My biggest challenge was getting the sewing machine foot over the big  poofy wings and having some rough looking attachment seams. I don't know how the designer was able to have no seams showing on the wings. It is a mystery. I thought about just doing a topstitch all the way around so that the seams would just be part of the end product and maybe give it a more finished look but decided against it. 

I have never made a stuffed animal before, but I think it isn't bad for a first time. Aaron was pretty happy with it :) The only thing I still need to do is give her some eyes and a family. 

I used polyfil to stuff the bird, but I am wondering if just putting a layer of batting would give it the filled look but also soften the poof enough to make it more like an ornament and less like a stuffed animal.

Card Chart

In Jared's Kindergarten they use a card chart as a disciplinary tool. The color of each card has a set consequence with it, and they progress from one card to the next. Green means they were good all day. Yellow they were given a warning and had to sit in time out. Orange causes them to miss recess or centers. Red they are sent to the principle's office. Blue is a call to the parents. When they stay on green they get a superticket/sticker at the end of the day. If the whole class stays on green, they could fill a jar with marbles or some other thing. When the jar was actually filled they could watch a movie as a class. This system was very effective for Jared. So, we've wanted to use it at home too.

Matthew has been trying to figure out how we wanted to do our own card chart, and finally Sunday we did it. Here is the result:



I kind of winged it in the putting together, so I learned a lot as the project progressed. We had debated each person choosing a fabric for their pocket to individualize it, but we couldn't think of how to do it easily. By the end, I realized I could/should have used the bias tape to reinforce the pocket seems. In doing so, the edges of the individual fabrics would have been hidden. Oh well. Maybe there will be a next time.

We had a family vote on the fabric, and these pencils won.

Materials used:
fabric glue
fabric
clear plastic vinyl
bias tape (extra wide double hemmed)
grommets
matching thread

We measured the size of the fabric and vinyl and cut. We intended to just fold the vinyl up to create the pockets, but it was too challenging to get the bias tape over it, so I ended up cutting the pocket piece off so the vinyl would lay flat - much easier!! So, next time I would measure and cut the back piece and pocket piece separately. To help keep the fabric and vinyl lined up, I used the fabric glue to attach them together around the edges - just enough that the binding would hide it.

I did the pocket piece first. I attached the fabric to the vinyl with glue, then sewed binding only along the top. Next time, I would also add strips of the bias tape where I plan on sewing the pocket seams to create a more finished look as well as reinforce the seams. I'd probably glue them down so I could save the actual sewing to the end. Those strips would need to be done before attaching the top tape so that the ends would be hidden.

Once the pocket was prepared, I then attached it with pins to the back piece (which I'd already glued the fabric to the vinyl). Starting from the bottom, I pinned the bias tape along the outside of the whole chart. I put the edges all the way against the crease of the bias tape, but it didn't have to be that way if we needed more room on the pockets. After the binding was pinned, I sewed it on.

For the pockets, we used index cards as a guage for how big the pockets needed to be, marked it with a dry erase marker (since it's vinyl it would wipe right off with some water and a paper towel), and sewed a straight stitch from the bottom up to top of the pocket binding.

The final step was adding two grommets to the top of the chart - one on each corner. I played with hanging it up with ribbon. Stringing one piece of ribbon through both holes and hanging it from the middle did not work because the chart wasn't sturdy enough to lay flat. Two smaller ribbons tied on each grommet would have worked just fine, but we ended up just hanging it on our front door using clip magnets. For now, that will work well enough until we find a final spot for it.

Blue Skirt

Green Skirt

Soliciting Opinions

I wanted to scratch that itch to make a skirt, so I pulled my stuff out tonight to do it. I'd prefer to practice before messing up my better fabric, so I tackled the skirt I started two years ago. I ironed and measured for the difference. The ruler is the new line - see all that fabric to the right that's going bye bye?

It's always a good idea to try something like this on, so I did. This is what the end product is supposed to be like:

However, look how small the waist really is. I could trim it off to fit at the waist, but I kind of like the high waist. I could add a band so it'll stay up. It could even be used as a halter dress because of the way it fits.

But I also thought about sewing a top to it. All that fabric that I trimmed off could be put to use. The idea was to make a sort of criss-cross top - a dress with an empire waist.


Now, here's your part - tell me which one you'd vote for.