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!  

http://1stitchatathyme.blogspot.com/

thanks!!

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. 

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.

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

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!

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!

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:

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

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!!

The front is a cozy flannel:

And the back is cotton:

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

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.

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

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

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

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!!

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

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:

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

Pink Polka Dot Ruffle Butt Pants!!!

I have been working on Christmas/Birthday presents, so there hasn't been too much that I can blog about.  But I did make myself a new purse that I need to share with all of you but today I am sharing with you more baby sewing!  I used Made By Rae's Big Butt Baby Pants pattern again to make these adorable pink polka dot pants:

Now these aren't just any ordinary pink polka dot pants, no sir!  These are pink polka dot ruffle butt pants!!

Rae has on option on her pattern to add knit ruffles, but I wanted to use the same material that I used for the pants to make the ruffles.  And I decided to stop after 3 ruffles.  I love the results!  I think every little girl needs a pair of ruffle butt pants, don't you?

Basically what I did was made a tube out of the fabric and pressed it flat.  I gathered the top edge of it using  the longest stitch length I had on my machine (4) and set the thread tension to the highest number (9).  This created an instant ruffle.  I pinned it to the rear panel and stitched it along the gathered stitches.  I used Rae's suggested placement for the ruffles.  Then I continued to follow the pattern as normal.  Check out these cute ruffles!

  I can't get enough of them!  I will be making more of these!  I figure these pants will go great with a cute onsie.
Thanks for looking!
~Christina

3 Baby Bibs

I decided that I wanted a simple project to make, so I decided to make so baby bibs. Rae of, quite possible my favorite blog, Made by Rae, shared this tutorial over at Sew, Mama, Sew. I decided that these would be the bibs I would make. They were super easy to make.  Rae shows you how to make your own pattern using found objects. I did get lazy while I was hand sewing the snaps onto the second one and bought myself a little snap fastener.  It was cheaper than snap pliers and I get to use a hammer. Double bonus! 

I used some pink and brown fat quarters for the tops and pink terry cloth for the bottoms.  All fabric came from Jo-Anns.  I think my daughter will be stylin' at lunchtime while wearing these!

Now I may have to take a break from baby things and get started on Christmas presents.  I have been going back and forth as to whether or not I was making them this year.  Right now I'm feeling ambitious and think I can do it.  We'll see how that goes.  Third trimester is approaching...
Thanks for looking!
~Christina

Lady Bug Jammies

I have definitely caught the sewing baby clothes bug!  They are so cute and don't take much time and I get excited with the completion of project thinking about how cute it will look on my daughter in a few months!  Last night  I finished up a cute set of baby jammies.  You might recognize the material from the PAJAMA PANTS I made for myself earlier this year when I taught Rick how to sew.   I made these tiny jammies from material I had left over.  The material is a cozy soft flannel that I purchased at Hobby Lobby.

Tiny Jammies!

I used the pattern called  Lucy's Kimono from HEATHER ROSS'S WEEKEND SEWING.  It was so easy to make.  I think I will have to make more!  When I showed it to my mom, she said this style of top was her favorite for a little baby because you don't have to pull it over their head.  In fact, she made some for us girls when we were little babies.  If I can find a picture, I may share.

Here it is with the top flap open.  I may use Velcro for the inside flap instead of a bow so that there is less bulk and I can be extra lazy :-) 

All bundled up!  All that is missing is a cute baby!

The pants were made using the BIG BUTT BABY PANTS from MADE BY RAE again.  This time I added the optional fold-up cuffs.  I used the 0-3 month size to go with the sizing of the kimono.  I love the little lady bugs!

Big Butt Baby Pants!  One cuff is folded up and the other down so you can see the options available:

And here's the back view:

I can't wait to try these on my daughter in February.  Ooh!  she just kicked me in excitement!  Now I have to decide what to sew next.  There are so many great patterns and tutorials out there.  What shall I make next?

As always, thanks for looking!!

~Christina

Big Butt Baby Pants

I went to Wal-Mart and, of course, I was drawn to the corner of the store that has cute little socks and onesies and dresses.  And on this day there was a cute little sweater that called my name.  I had to buy it.  My daughter will be born in February and she is going to need things that will keep her warm.  So, I bought it!

Isn't it cute?  I was looking at it and thinking that baby girl is going to need some pants to go with her new sweater.  Rae of MADE BY RAE had finished up a great pattern for her BIG BUTT BABY PANTS not too long ago.  So I went over to her awesome blog and purchased it  and was oh so excited to download it and get started!

The sweater is a 3-6 month size, so I went with the 3-6 month size for the pants.  I didn't want to go out and but more fabric, so I checked out my stash.  I found some purple material that matched the purple on the sweater.  If you have been following my blog, you might recognize it from a previous project for another cute girl.  Remember THIS?  That's the fabric I used!  And I have to say that my niece approves of the fabric choice!

The pattern was easy to follow and was very quick to put together.  I can't wait to put them on my little girl.  Are you ready to see them?  Here they are!

Front View:

and Back View:

Aren't they cute!  I love the back panel because I'm sure that will make them fit so much better over a diaper.  Comfy and cozy for a little baby.  I think I need to make a ruffled butt pair.  Ever little girl needs a pair of ruffle butt pants.  Oh,I have one more picture for you.  Here is the complete outfit:

Now that I have started sewing for baby girl, I'm not sure I'll be able to stop.  I have been checking out all kinds of great blogs for patterns and tutorials and I just need to pick something to make next!
Thanks for looking!!
~Christina

New Fall Purse

Happy Fall!  I made myself a new purse to celebrate the changing leaves and cooler weather.  Rae of Made by Rae posted a really cute owl bag that she made using her Lickety Split pattern with some modifications.  I loved what she came up with and had to make one of my very own.  I started this last week and officially finished it today.  (I should add that the pattern is simple; the only reason it took me so long is that I couldn't decide on what to use for the closure and I was being lazy about finishing the top-stitching.)  I love all the pockets!  It has 4!

  Here's my Happy New Fall Purse!

 

Instead of a button and loop for the closure, I used a fabric flower and loop!  I used the Rolled Rose tutorial over at Portabellopixie to make the fabric flower.

I love my new purse!  I  love this time of year.  :-)
Thanks for looking!
~Christina