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10.04.2011

new blog...

I have moved onto new blogging adventures with my friend Alexis over at 1 Stitch at a Thyme.  It's brand new!  Go check it out and follow me over there!  



thanks!!

2.15.2011

Baby Burp Cloths with Tutorial!!

 

Big surprise, 2 days until my due date and I am posting yet another baby project.  This one has includes a little tutorial.  Since I don’t really do tutorials, let’s see how this one goes.  It’s simple, so it shouldn’t be too hard.  Are you ready?  I think I am.  Here we go!

Remember those cute bibs I made a while back using Rae’s tutorial from Sew Mama Sew?  I decided that I wanted to make some matching burp cloths.  IMG_0400

Here’s what I did:

BABY BURP CLOTHS TUTORIAL:

1. Make yourself a pattern.  I traced a Gerber burp cloth to make my pattern, but if you don’t have one, no worries!  All you need to do is draw a rectangle that is 7” by 18” and round the corners.  Easy, right?  (So that it would fit on a normal size piece of paper, I just folded it in half so that it was 7”by 9” with a fold line.)

2. For each burp cloth, I cut out 2 pieces of terry cloth using my pattern.  You could use 1 if your material is thicker, but I wanted to make sure these were extra absorbent.  You will also need a pack of bias tape (or you can make your own, like I did- here’s a great tutorial from Dana) and any embellishments you may want to add.  I chose simple strips of fabric that matched my home made bias tape.

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3. Decide on the placement of your embellishments and pin and stitch in place to one layer of your terry cloth:IMG_0392

4. Grab your second piece of terry cloth and stitch or serge to your pretty top piece.  I serged mine as I love any excuse to use my serger.  But I would think any stitch close to the edge would work.  We’re just doing this so the next step is easier as this stitch will be covered up by the next step.

If you serged them together, you could probably stop here and have fully functional burp cloths, but I’m not quite done yet!

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5. Attach your bias tape and you are done!  Wait!  How do you attach bias tape?  I’m not going to re-invent the wheel here, so I’m going to direct you to another one of Dana’s tutorials.

And there you have it!  Super simple burp cloths that are pretty and functional!

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I have been working on more than just burp cloths recently.  I made yet another of my simple baby blankets.  This time I made a Snoopy one for me:

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The print on it makes me happy! 

Oh yeah, you may have noticed a new name up there ^.  Sew Fancy.  I’m trying it out.  I think I like it, what do you think?

I have a few other things in progress that I will post when I get the chance.  But if you don’t hear from me, hopefully that means our little one has decided to show up.  She is due to arrive any day now!  We are so excited!

Thanks for stopping by!

~Christina

2.02.2011

Boppy Time!!

Since I’m iced/snowed in today I decided to knock at least one thing off my to sew list.  This morning I made a cover for the Boppy Pillow I bought at Joann’s.  Well, they don’t call it a Boppy since that is a brand name…they call it a Nurture Nest.  I was so excited to find it on sale for less than $10 a few weeks ago!!  I believe a real Boppy  costs around $30 and then you have to buy a cover for at least $10-$15.   Bonus:  I got the fabric for the cover out of the remnant bin!  I love when projects come together for so little money!!

Here’s my Boppy!!

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The front is a cozy flannel:

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And the back is cotton:

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The cover is easily removed since it has an invisible zipper attached to the back seam.  I will probably make a few more covers.  A pattern for the cover was included on the packaging for the pillow.  It also suggests a couple of Simplicity patterns if you prefer one of those.  I think one of them may use Velcro instead of a zipper, but the zipper was actually pretty easy… I just followed the instructions on the package.  On to more baby projects!!

Thanks for stopping by!

~Christina

2.01.2011

Baby things I made for my husband to enjoy.

 

I made yet another pair of Big Butt Baby Pants and another one of my super easy baby blankets.  I used leftover Sponge Bob Squarepants to make the pants.  I may get around to making a matching top, but if not they’ll go perfectly with just a onesie.   The blanket is made from a skull and cross bones fabric Rick picked out at Joann’s and the remaining fleece that I got out of a remnant bin.  The other half was used for one of the Care Bear blankets from my previous post.IMG_0329

I got a little creative with the quilting on the blanket….

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Can you see the heart and crossbones?  Rick really likes it.  Smile

Oh yeah, almost forgot…. the backside of the pants!  I fussy cut the back panel so that it features Patrick in a bubble!!!

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I have a few other quick projects I hope to get to before the little one gets here.  I would like to make a boppy cover, her name in felt, a snoopy blanket, and some other things I can’t think of right now.  But of course I would have to wait to show off her name in felt until after she’s born….you thought I was going to slip and give it away early, didn’t you??  I also hope to start some clothes from the patterns and the Sew for Baby book my aunt gave me.  The book was my grandma’s and both my aunt and mom used it when we were all babies.  I am so very excited about this!!

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Sew for Baby the Fun Way is by Kerstin Martensson.  From what I can tell, it is out of print, but Kwik Sew’s Sewing for Baby looks to be very similar.  I can’t wait to get started on these great patterns!!

Thanks for stopping by!

~Christina

1.17.2011

Baby Blankets!!

I know I have been M.I.A. from this thing, what can I say?  I have been tired and the only things had had been working on for the last month or so had been Christmas presents and I couldn’t post those.  And then Christmas was over and I took a little break from the sewing.  Well, I picked up some simple projects recently and finally have something to blog about.  I may get around to showing off the Christmas presents I made, but that will have to be another day.  This is meant to be a short and sweet post (and yet I started it with all of this rambling…let’s see how this turns out…)
I had been meaning to make some baby blankets for my baby that is due in about a month and yesterday I finally got around to starting them.  I found some great Care-Bear and Sponge Bob Squarepants fabric at Wal-mart and decided that these must become my baby blankets.  I purchased these fabrics and some flannel to go with one of the Care-Bear prints.  I decided that I had enough cozy fabric at home to go with the other 2 prints. 
For each blanket I used a cotton print for the front and some sort of soft and cozy material for the back.  2 of them are backed by a soft flannel and the third is backed by fleece that I think I got from the remnant bin at JoAnn’s.
Here are my cozy baby blankets:
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Here’s what I did:
  • Cut out a piece of cotton and a piece of flannel or fleece into pieces that were about 30” x 40”.  Round the corners if desired.
  • Place the right sides of the fabrics together and stitched around the edges, leaving an opening so that I could turn them right side out.  I used my serger for this step  :-)
  • Turn the blanket right sides out
  • Iron the blanket so the final steps are easier.
  • Top-stitch along the edge of the blanket, closing up the hole.
  • Finally, quilt the pieces to each other.  Just do something simple like a few straight lines or wavy lines or whatever floats your boat.  I used the walking foot that I got for Christmas for the last 2 steps, but this is not necessary…I just wanted an excuse to try it out.
The Care-Bear blankets were quilted with simple freehand wavy lines and the Sponge Bob one just has straight lines forming a grid on the blanket.  As you can see I also left the corners on the Sponge Bob one square…I thought it was appropriate...  Very simple and very quick.  It was a perfect project for a very tired pregnant lady that still wants to be crafty.
I have some more fun fabric set aside to make a few more.  These were so easy and I have a feeling that they will get a lot of use.  I can’t wait for my little one to get here so I can wrap her up in these!  Thanks for stopping by! 
~Christina