More Baby Projects

Since I am back on my sewing kick, I decided to knock out a few more baby projects...including several that have been sitting around waiting for me to address them.

First up was a pillow case.  You see, they say you should bring your own pillows to the hospital so you are more comfortable and you won't have to go without if it's uber busy and they are short on pillows.  But, you aren't supposed to bring white ones, since these will be easily confused with the hospital ones.  So I toyed with the idea of buying some brightly colored pillow cases that would cheer me up (hopefully) and provide some comfort while I am in labor and recovery...but then I came across this tutorial on my new favorite blog, Make It and Love It and thought, I can do this!  And I have a ton of this silky soft knit fabric from our wedding photobooth background that would work perfectly and be unmistakably ours!  It was definitely challenging working with something that large (cutting, pinning, and sewing), but I managed to knock one out!

I still need to make one more (which I already have cut, just have to pin and sew), so I'll save that for another day. 

I also finished up the other two Wee Wee Wigwams I had started a while ago (if you recall, I accidently cut whole circles instead of half circles, so I ended up with more than I meant to).  Here is his complete collection, unless I get bored of those designs and decide to create a few more.

Also, I bought this book a while back that is filled with all kinds of cute baby projects, but I had yet to try making any of them.  There are definitely some booties, burp cloths, and a hat I want to make, but I figured I would start with some a little different.  I decided to try making a fabric block for Nash to play with.  I basically cut 4" squares out of 4 coordinating cotton fabrics and two 4" squares of yellow fleece I bought from the remnants bin.  Then you sew it all together (minus one side), stuff with filling, and then hand sew the last side.  Here she is:

You can see from the pic that it is slightly larger than you would expect (or at least, larger than I expected).  I already cut out enough squares to make another one, so we're stuck with the larger size, but I think it should be more like 3" squares.

Finally, I have made two different bibs in the last few weeks and wanted to share them with you.  The first one I made using a pattern from this site.  However, I think it came out too small.  Perhaps this is due to my inability to maintain a seam allowance or if I just screwed something up, but I didn't like how it turned out.  So, I borrowed one of the bibs I had bought from Target and used that as a pattern.  This one turned out much better, and I even appliqued on a little tie design that I got from this site. 

Here you can see the two bibs side-by-side and notice the size difference.

Something to keep in mind when using patterns in the future...I really should use my judgment once I see the pattern and decide if it's going to work or not BEFORE I start sewing.

Time to Decorate the Household!

Since this is my very first Christmas actually living here, I was so excited to begin decorating.  I must say, it took some convincing to get Joe to haul all the Christmas stuff out and begin decorating yesterday (he even googled when decorating is traditionally done), but in the end my enthusiasm prevailed and we started the festivities.

First we put up the tree, minus the decorations (this always takes more than one day for us, even when I'm not 9 months pregnant and practically worthless).

Joe Assembling Our Tree

Scooter Really Wanted to Help Out

Our Tree - Minus the Decorations

Then I began working on spreading out the household decorations and knocking out some holiday crafts I'd been dying to do. 

Our "Mantle"

I wanted to create some sort of mantle display, despite the fact that we do not have a mantle or a fireplace.  However, we have this cute little table right below our TV in the family room that works perfectly AND we have a "fireplace" DVD that crackles and pops and looks pretty damn real.  So we're set!  I found this sign on another blog, so I took to recreating it in Photoshop, but added in the line that reads "December 25th" because I wasn't digging the spacing without it.  Here it is up close:

I also created this paper ball from another blog, which took forever, but it ended up being perfectly cute for this display.  Can't seem to locate the tutorial, but will credit it once I do.  Here's the paper ball resting on top of our old vase:

It's basically just a foam ball that I bought at Hobby Lobby covered with little tissue paper circles that I bunched up and hot glued all over it.  It was tedious, but the end result is quite beautiful.

I also want to add some holiday spirit to our couch, which is currently sporting a "south-western-ish" vibe with red, brown, and brown accents.  So I decided I would sew some Christmasy slip covers for all the non-red pillows using the tutorial I found here. 

 I added the little flower rosette in the top corner because I felt like it was too much of one pattern (but wanted to make sure I could do the simple pillow cover before I attempt any fancier detailing). 

This is much easier than sewing a pillow because there's no hand-stitching the opening, it's just an envelope type closure that encases the pillow.  Here's a view of the back of the pillow where you can see the little flap.

I decided to steal another idea from the same blog that I got the subway art idea from, so I also bought some foam cone-shaped trees from Hobby Lobby and covered them with Modge Podge and glitter (one red, one silver) and set them near the pool room.  They are so pretty and festive!  Will take a pic of them when that whole display is complete.

Sewing Projects Update 2!

My next sewing project was one I had considered buying, but then I noticed this tutorial and thought, OMG, how easy and perfect! 

Project 5:  Wee Wee Wigwam (or Pee Pee Teepee, if you prefer)
All I needed was some cotton fabric and some soft fabric for the lining ( I used some white fleece like material I got out of the scrap bin at Joann's).

I accidently traced a whole circle onto my fabric and lining before realizing I only needed a half circle, but I ended up messing up the first one, so I had another half circle to try again!

Here is what my finished product looks like:

Yayyy!!!  Now I just have to make a few more so I still have one while one is in the wash!

Poject 6:  Tissue Case
I don't usually carry tissues around with me, but I figure I should...especially with a baby on the way.  So I decided to try this little tutorial.  My first obstacle was that the measurements were in cm, not inches.  So I tried to convert, but ended up with weird measurements, so I rounded up.  Well, it turns out my case is a little big.  Here is what it looks like:

I later found another tutorial with measurements in inches AND that featured a slightly overlapping lip (this one busts open and the tissues are exposed.  I ended up keeping my first one (for now), but adding some thin elastic and a button along the top to keep it closed up.  May try making this again in the future.
Project 7: Boxy Little Pouch
This was the original tutorial that my makeup pouch was based on (according to that website), but it comes out smaller and more boxy than the makeup pouch did, so I wanted to try it out.  Again, this called for a 12" zipper, but only used a 9" one and didn't have to trim it at all.  Other than that, all I needed was two kinds of fabric (outer and liner) and some interfacing (I chose a quilt batting for this one, just to experiment with it).
Here is my finished product:

I think it's super cute!  You can see I am not that skilled at sewing straight lines, as the pouch is a little wonky, but I can improve on that for sure.  Again, though, this tutorial leaves the raw edges inside the pouch, so I have to figure out a way to get rid of those.  Notice I used two different fabrics for the front of the pouch on this one!  Trying to test out my limits!  It is a little off-center and I only did one side to avoid having to line up both sides evenly (yikes)!
Project 8: Ruffled Checkbook Cover
Here is the tutorial I used for this one.  I wanted to create a cute little ruffled one like I found on the Pleated Poppy, so the actual tutorial I used told me how to do the ruffle part.  I chose to do a plain red fabric on the outside and a bright dot fabric on the inside and for the ruffle.  Here she is!

Issues I had:

• The size of the cover did not allow the vinyl part of my original checkbook cover to fit inside (which I don't think it's supposed to).  However, I did not like how floppy the whole thing was without the vinyl, so I just cut my original vinyl cover down a bit to fit inside.  This of course covered up the pretty lining fabric, so maybe the best bet is just to include some sturdier interfacing or start with a sturdier fabric. 
• Also, I used black thread (being lazy so as to not have to wind a new bobbin with red thread), so it would obviously look better with coordinating thread.

So cute though!  Even Joe thought this was awesome.

Project 9:  Zipper Coin Pouch
This is the last project I am going to list here, but I have so many more brewing, I can't wait to share!  This is the same general idea as the other zippered pouches, but smaller and with no boxy angles cut into the corners.  I also included a small piece of ribbon so I could hook the whole thing up to my keychain and throw it in my purse.

You can see from the top picture that I did my measurements a bit off (it really shouldn't be that tall, but more like those small little pouches you see in stores).  But it does its job just perfect!  Only other thing of note is that I used a 4" zipper here so as to not have to trim anything (I still don't feel advanced enough for those kinds of things).

I think my next sewing projects will be:

• Envelope-style pillow slipcovers in Christmas fabrics (need to jazz up the house)
• A new case for my phone (current one uses felt and is a wee bit small, so will redo with fleece and proper sizing)
• Ribbon belt for Baby Nash (I did this, but only with one layer of ribbon and it really needs a double-sided pattern, so reworking).
• Water bottle sling
• Some kind of hobo-esque purse (going to consult several tutorials and just wing it)
• Soft minky blanket for Nash

Then I may start trying to make some gifts with my new found skills!