Happy Birthday Midget and Peanut!!!

I am just so amazed at how quickly this year has flown by! My baby girl turns 4 in just a few days and my baby boy turned one a few days ago.















J-dub the hub and I took the turdlets to a small circus a few months ago and Midget was enthralled with the whole experience! She laughed at the clown, ooooooed over the lions and tigers, squealed with excitement to get her face painted, and almost peed herself when she got to ride an elephant!! So, we are having a circus birthday party this weekend and I decided to do their birthday pictures in the same theme.















For the tutu, I followed the directions here and it turned out beautiful! It's so simple if you get the tulle spools. They can be found for less than $2 per spool on ebay. I cut the tulle in about 30 minutes and tied the tutu while I was catching up on some Dexter. Oh, I love that show...















The tie was made using this tutorial, although I made the tie pattern quite a bit skinnier.














The diaper cover was made using the tutorial and pattern found here. Just a piece of advice--do NOT sew the waist and legs up until you try them on your little one. I had to rip out the waist AND one of the legs. Because I was being impatient and wanted to finish. That's why...

I made the suspenders from ribbon and mitten clip clips (does that make any sense?). I thought I had four clips so I would've just made the traditional X in the back, but it turned out I only had three, so I had to improvise. I used an orange hair band and looped it.... I can't really explain it, so here's a picture of it.














I think my two clowns are the cutest!! Stay tuned for Birthday Party Pictures!!

Handmade Baby Gift

Here's a baby gift I made for a friend of a friend. I guess you could say I was "commissioned" to make it, as my friend saw Peanut's tag blankie and me using a handmade nursing cover and she asked me to make her friend one of each. My first paid project! :) It includes a nursing cover, burp cloth, and tag blankie.

I've made several nursing covers just by using an existing cover I have as a guide, but there are several good tutorials out there like this one by made by the mama monster and this one by Sew Much Ado, so I won't bore you with another tutorial full of my blather. The burp cloth is just an inexpensive Gerber cloth diaper with two little strips of material sewn on. I bought a big pack of the diapers (maybe 10 or 12) and have doled them out one or two at a time for baby gifts. I've also appliqued on the diapers when the material has cute little scenes, but this particular crabby fabric was just little squares and wouldn't have looked quite right.

All in all, I spent under $20 (including several inexpensive spools of ribbon for the blankie, the cost of the diaper, and a few bucks to mail it to my friend) for a practical handmade gift that any nursing mom-to-be will love!

Handmade Twirly Skirt Set

I decided to try my hand at my first piece of clothing for our little neighbor girl's birthday! I've done mostly craft sewing and feel like I have a pretty good feel for it, but sewing clothing is an entirely different matter to me. It has to fit. That's kind of important... I used a tutorial from House on Hill Road. The photos are great and it turned out super cute.

I bought twice the amount of fabric needed, just in case, and I guess it was a good move. It took me two skirts to get it right, but at least this way Midget will have a cute little skirt to wear also. Who cares if her bottom hem is crooked, the waistband hem is only half the size it's supposed to be, and the seams don't match up??? Ooops...

I also appliqued a t-shirt and made a little headband to match for the birthday girl. While doing the shirt, Midget was running around and wanted to watch and was generally driving me BONKERS! Well, I learned my lesson not to sew with her around when I was half done with the tree trunk and all of its teensy weensy little twists and turns and I realized I HAD SEWN THROUGH BOTH THE FRONT AND BACK OF THE SHIRT! Grrrrrrrr..... I had to sit and rip out each little thread and take care not to poke holes in the t-shirt material. It'll probably fall apart the first time it's washed, but at least she can wear it once. " )

Car Playmat

I saw this car playmat over a year ago and saved it to my favorites, knowing at some time, I would want to make it. My friend's little boy turned three this month, and seeing his obsession with his cars made it the perfect gift for him!

What is with me and finishing early?? I finished this project fairly early in the evening the night before the party. It completely threw me off my game and I forgot to take pictures of the completed carmat. Then the next day at the party, I left my camera at home and had to have the hostess of the party take pictures of the playmat for me. Thankfully, she wasn't too irritated at me. Well, she didn't say she was...

I actually think the most difficult part of making this playmat was finding cotton car fabric!! What on earth?? I looked all over the internet for fun fabric, scoured JoAnn Fabrics and Hobby Lobby and all I could find was too nursery-like or licensed Cars fabric. I finally settled for flannel, since it was all I could find in brighter colors, though I'm sure my friend will be thanked by the waitress at every restaurant they visit because that flannel will most likely pick up every crumb on their table...

I had some help from two different fabulous Aussies making this project. The original link has great pictures, but is not very specific with measurements. Thankfully, cookyousomenoodles posted some estimated measurements that were SUPER helpful!! Created by Cathy drew out some templates for each of the four sections that were also very helpful. You will just need to email her for the templates. I was feeling lazy and used the templates more for sizing purposes and didn't cut out the templates and then pin and cut the corresponding felt out. It would have looked much neater, I'm sure, but I think it still turned out pretty good!

Taggie Blanket (Tag Blankie) Tutorial

I know I could completely get away with not telling you all how long ago I talked about doing a taggie blanket tutorial here. But, I'm just not that kind of girl. I prefer to berate myself publicly, even though it doesn't seem to help me in any way... It was almost two years ago. eeeeeeeek. How on earth does time fly like that?? I finally am getting around to it now.

To be fair, I haven't made a blankie in that long and last week, I noticed Peanut mesmerized at the tag on a stuffed monkey. Since poor Midget never got one, I decided to rip a tag blankie out for Peanut to try to make up for his second child photo syndrome. Surprisingly, I remembered that I said I was going to do a photo tutorial on here. Funny, since I can't seem to remember to put on my undies some days...

First, gather your materials.
Two 14 x 14 inch squares of fabric: I prefer fleece and flannel because they are fairly easy to sew and nice and soft, but you can use whatever material floats your boat.
Sixteen 6 inch long lengths of ribbon: I like to use varying textures, colors and widths of ribbon. You can coordinate them with your fabric or just use whatever you have on hand.
Coordinating Thread: I didn't worry too much about this because my non-patterned flannel fabric was light colored, so I used white thread. If you use a darker colored solid panel, you'll want to coordinate your thread.
Empty cellophane candy bags (Optional): I sewed in some crinkly panels, but once I realized I wouldn't be able to bring Peanut's tag blankie to church, I was sad I'd done it. : (

Here's my two fabric squares.








First, I sewed in the crinkly panels. I just took two empty candy bags (by the way, I LOOOOOOOOVE Everlasting Gobstopper Heartbreakers and wish they made them all year long but it's probably a good thing they don't because I'd have broken teeth and lots of cavities and I'd never look good in that strapless bridesmaid dress I have to wear in November) and cut off the end pieces and opened them up and cut them a little bit bigger than where I wanted to sew them onto and zipped around them. If your fabric has a right and wrong side, you would want these on the wrong side of the fabric. Midget was insistent her hand be in this picture. Silly girl!








Here's a front view of the fleece with the two crinkly panels sewn in.








Now it's time to pin on your ribbons! You'll be putting four ribbons on each side. Fold each ribbon in half and match up the raw edges of the ribbon to the edge of your fabric. The loop should be in the middle. Take your ruler out and lay it next to your material (if your fabric has a right and wrong side, you'll want the right side up) with the 0 at the end of the fabric. Place the middle of each of your four ribbons at 3 1/2 inches, 6 inches, 8 1/2 inches, and 11 inches on each side. Here is my blankie all pinned up.








Here's a step that isn't 100% necessary, but after making several blankies, I realized it makes everything a billion times easier than just pinning the ribbons on and sewing the two fabric squares together with the ribbons pinned inside. You don't have to worry about your ribbons being crooked, or poking the crud out of yourself trying to remove your pins by sticking your hand in the little opening, and it triple reinforces the ribbons, so (hopefully) your little one will have a harder time ripping the ribbons out of the blanket! Take a nice long stitch (I had my stitch length at 3 because some of my ribbons were only 1/8 inch wide) and sew just along the ribbons at 1/4 inch. Lift up your presser foot after you sew through each ribbon and put it down before the next ribbon. You can see the extra thread on my picture below. Clip your threads and proceed to the next step.








Next, put your other piece of material directly on top of your ribbons, making a ribbon sandwich. If your fabrics have right and wrong sides, match up the right sides.










Now pin your sandwich together and sew a 1/2 inch seam allowance around the outside, leaving a 3 inch opening for turning. I used a stitch length of 3, but you may need to vary yours depending on the fabric you choose. Remember, the thinner the fabric, the lower the stitch length. If you use cotton and flannel, you'll probably want to do a stitch length of 2.








Clip your corners about 1/8 inch from the corner so you'll have nice sharp corners. Clip off your threads.








Turn the entire thing inside out and poke out your corners. I use a chopstick to make nice square corners.








Tuck your opening inside and pin it closed. Sew 1/8 inch seam around the entire blankie (I used a stitch length of 2). TA-DAAAAAAAAAA!! Tag Blankie!!








Peanut immediately fell in love with it. Not as much as I'm in love with his utter gorgeousness...

Need a Quick Present Idea??

These Hot/Cold Therapy Packs are quick and inexpensive!! I made three in less than 30 minutes for less than $2.00 each!

Gingerbread Midge

Have I mentioned that Midget started preschool? She goes two days a week for two and a half hours and let me just tell you--we BOTH love it! She is really enjoying the constant stimulation and I am reeeeeeeeeeeeally enjoying not having to be the one stimulating her little brain for a few hours!! She is such a vivacious and curious little girl, but if she doesn't have something that is keeping her attention, she sure can be a naughty little terd.

In November, we purchased a new book from Scholastic through school--"The Gingerbread Man." In the middle of the month, she did a wishbone with her Daddy and her wish was for Gingerbread (so sweet). Midget's Auntie bought her a HUGE gingerbread man pan for Christmas last year, so after she won, I pulled out the pan and made the gingerbread recipe on the back of the book. She thought it was pretty neat that we decorated it like the gingerbread man in the book!

Her preschool had a Gingerbread House float in our town's Holiday Parade this year and all the kids were encouraged to dress as an elf or a gingerbread man. I knew right away that I could make a Gingerbread Girl costume pretty easily, but wasn't quite sure how to do it. I just made her lay down on a piece of 72" brown felt and traced around her with chalk. Then I put a GIANT bowl over where her head was and traced... that (so it would be cartoon-ish) and free handed the rest. I sewed the bow first all by itself, then sewed the details on the front piece of the costume, attached the bow to the front piece, and then sewed the front and back piece together--leaving the armpit area unsewn. If I'd had more time, I would have just measured out two 3-4 inch strips to sew under the arms and along the skirt area so there would be room for movement. I also ended up sewing a little dart under the chin so I could make sure the head stood up on its own.

It's a bit rough, but I learned some good lessons, like you need to leave room for the arms to move (imagine that) and don't cut the giant rick-rack because it frays like crazy.

It took about three hours from start to finish and the materials were less than ten dollars. I used one yard of 72" brown felt, two yards of white giant rick-rack, one sheet of hot pink felt, one sheet of yellow felt, and one sheet of light pink felt.

People at the parade loved it, but more importantly, Midget adored it! Can't you just see the excitement in her eyes??

Turkey Day Fun!

I'm finally starting to feel human again! Now that Peanut is on a schedule, I have a little bit of time every now and then. Midget is at such a fun age. She loves reading and doing crafts and is very into imaginative play. I've had fun the last few days looking for fun ideas for Thanksgiving.

When I saw this in Family Fun Magazine, I knew I had to do it. Theirs looks a little bit cuter, but it calls for stuffing and hand-stitching. I took the easy way out and didn't stuff it and machine-sewed it. I still think my finished set below is pretty cute and will be a fun way to teach about a few less common vegetables in play sets like turnips and acorn squash. It was super easy to do! I made it in about two hours.
Want to make your own? Templates for the cornucopia and veggies are available on Family Fun's website at the link above.








We took a quick food craft over to a friend's house this weekend. Midget was much more interested in eating the cookies and candy than making anything with it, but she finally took a few seconds off of her own gobbling to make a cute little gobbler. You'll need golden oreos, rolo candies, chocolate chips, and candy corn to make these. You may want to swap out a little bit of white frosting tinted red for the red decorator's gel that I used to avoid looking like your turkey's head was already cut off and reattached...






















Thankfully, her little buddy let me take a picture of his turkey cookie when it was done, because Midge tossed hers in her mouth the second it was completed.

Buggy for You Quiet Book

My friend's son turned two at the end of March. When I was showing his Mom the progress I'd made on the quiet book for my niece sometime in January, she remarked that she would LOVE having a book like that for Church. I knew that making a quiet book like the one for my niece was much too involved and difficult for me to pull off in a few months (especially considering my niece's took almost SIX months to finish). I started looking for patterns and found one that was perfect for a boy on YouCanMakeThis.com. It is made by CopyCrafts, was $7.95, and is called Buggy For You!

Here's the finished pages of the actual book I gave to my friend's son. I didn't take a picture of the back cover because there isn't anything on it and the firefly page is actually two little squares on the collage--the purple flap with stars and the firefly itself, which hides under the flap.

I'd highly recommend this and the other quiet book patterns available from CopyCrafts at the website above. It took me less than a week to get the entire book done and the instructions were clear and pretty easy. I think you could be a relatively inexperienced sewer and still be okay making this book. The most difficult part was doing the sewing required for all the letters on the cover. It took the longest, by far, of any page.

Midget was happy to help open the book and show her little buggy buddy his present. He really enjoyed the last page, which featured his picture! I got a call from my friend the very next day (Sunday) and she was THRILLED that he sat all through church without making a peep!

Finished Quiet Book

I FINALLY DID IT! I finished the quiet book I started back in October!! My brother called the same day I started my last post and confirmed that he and his family would be heading our way to visit. I finished the book the very last night they were here. How's that for procrastination??

I used two fat quarters and quilted the cover. I used extra wide double fold bias tape to bind the edges. All in all, I was pretty pleased with the book. I think the hardest part of all was just deciding what to do on each page inside of the book!



Here are the two previous updates I've posted on the quiet book.
Quiet Book
Quiet Book Update

Quiet Book Update

I can't believe I'm still working on the Quiet Book for my niece, but I'm getting close to being finished. I finished the last three pages and have started quilting the cover. I really hope to be done within the next week or so. For the final pages, I made a hairstyling face and a Mr. Potato Head.

Quiet Book

For the last month or so, I've been working on a Quiet Book for my niece. My brother, his wife, and my niece are in the process of moving to Rwanda to do missionary work. I wanted to make a gift for my niece that would keep her occupied on her long plane ride to Africa. Soooo.....

This has been a labor of love and I'm still not finished, but I hope to have it completed in a few weeks.

Here are the pages I have completed so far in the order they are posted. Well, I haven't titled any of them or sewed them togther, so technically they're not completed at all. Sheesh! Quit complaining! This has been a TON of work!

• Button My Flowers (three felt flowers to button)
  
• Dress Me Up (velcro shirt, skirt, and shoes)
  
• Put Your Hand in My Mitten (open on the bottom to place hand inside)
  
• Traffic Light (velcro lights to put in the right order)
  
• Snap on My Shapes (snapped shapes to match to sewn on shapes )
  
• Telephone (moving dial and velcro handset)
  
• Chalkboard (two pages--chalk oilcloth, chalk, chalk holder, yarn secured sponge eraser, and eraser holder)
  
• Noah's Ark (zippered ark with six animal finger puppets from IKEA)
  

If you need a crash course in sewing--do one of these! I've learned to applique, put in a zipper, sew on velcro, attach snaps--all in one project!

I still have three pages left to do, so I'll update you along the way!

I've used LOTS of inspiration, but here's a few of my favorite places to gather ideas on how to make your own quiet book.

Quiet Book Instructions in PDF format with patterns
Homemade by Jill's Quiet Book with templates
An entire blog dedicated to making Quiet Books

Handmade Fabric Barn

For a little boy's 1st birthday and my niece's 2nd birthday, I decided to torture myself and make a little travelling barn using the UK Lass in the US's tutorial. It's a great tutorial, but I would only recommend this project if you have some sewing experience. It makes an amazing product! These pictures are from the first barn I made. I'd like to say that the second one turned out perfect, but I waited too long in between making the two to remember what I'd learned from making the first one! Not perfect, but filled with character!

Taggie Blanket

So you all know I sing, right? But did you know I play the violin?

Yep.

I started when I was 10 years old. A few years later, I was in a full-blown war with a violinist in my 7th grade class in Helena, MT named Teresa. We couldn't stand each other! We were always competing for first chair, didn't like the other's playing style (she was a very technical player and I was more on the artistic side), she practiced all the time and I practiced as little as possible, and we were not very nice to each other. At one point, our teacher even separated us on each side of the room because she was tired of listening to us bicker!

During a summer orchestra program, we were in an orchestra filled with older and unfamiliar faces. That summer, we began to respect each other and work together. We played together all throughout High School and never fought again. She always played First Chair, 1st violin and I played First Chair, 2nd violins. It worked beautifully! Her technical ability suited more difficult portions in 1st violin and my deeper sound added richness to the 2nd violins.

I didn't intend to write a Kumbayah post here, but my friend Teresa (who coincidentally lives about an hour away) is having her first baby sometime around the end of August.

I wanted to do something special for her baby, but I'm low on time these days (hence the lack of posts in the last month). I decided a taggie blanket would be an easy handmade project that I could finish in one evening. I found a celery green flannel remnant at JoAnn's and decided to base the blanket around that. I found a brightly colored flannel that matched and some coordinating ribbon of different textures. I spent less than $10 and have enough materials to make three blankets!

I used these instructions, but didn't really find an exceptional tutorial (clear step by step pictures). I was in a hurry when I made this one, but if enough of you are looking for instructions, I do have more material and would be happy to make a tutorial. Just let me know in the comments if you are interested. I think it turned out great!

My Blanket of Belief Quilt

Did you miss me? I purposefully didn't read any blogs while I was quilting. Well, except my political blogs because I needed something to take the edge off of bloggy withdrawal. Here's the reason I was gone for so long!! Now you experienced quilters may look at this simple quilt and laugh your basted bottoms off at how long this thing took me! Go ahead, I'll give you some time.
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I have sewed a few little quilt kits (here and here), but neither were GI-NOCEROUS like this one, nor were they actually true quilts, where you go through the actual process of quilting. So for me, this thing was a BEAST! I had to look up everything past sewing the quilt top together! What the hell is basting, sashing, batting, you ask?? Weeeeeell, I found out last week!

When Conservative Belle issued her challenge, I decided to make my first true quilt. After all, who could be a more deserving recipient of hours of toiling over a sewing machine than a soldier, bravely serving our country overseas?

I had to find a very easy pattern that fit within Soldier's Angels guidelines as far as dimension and theme. I searched and searched and finally found one that fit and was supposed to be easy. It was for "absolute beginners," so I figured I could handle it!

When I went to JoAnn's to buy my material, I brought along my directions because I still had some questions. I went and chose my fabric, but I needed to find someone that could answer my questions before I had them cut it.

I asked at the cutting counter if any of them quilted and the two girls standing there said no. There was another woman behind the counter who was helping someone, so I waited to find out if she quilted. When she was finished with her customers, I was so happy to hear her answer my question with a definitive yes!

I asked some dumb questions, which she happily answered for me. When I told her I was making the quilt for Soldier's Angels, she immediately teared up and said, "I know about Soldier's Angels. I have two sons. One returned from Iraq a few months ago and one is serving there right now. It's things like this quilt that you are making that keep their hopes up, that remind them of why they're fighting, and let me just tell you--you are the angel. Thank you!"

It was such a neat experience! Thanks to Conservative Belle for challenging me!

This is going to be my last sewing project for a while. My house can't take the neglect!!

My First Blanket of Belief

Conservative Belle issued a challenge earlier this month to make blankets for our troops through the Soldier's Angels Blankets of Belief or Blankets of Gratitude programs.

I took on her challenge and finished my first blanket a few moments ago! Take a look!!

This was my first no-sew blanket, and it was really easy! I would say it took me a total of one hour to complete, but I probably could have gotten it done faster if I'd done it all at once.

Just in case you think you can't do this--do you remember I have a one year old?? You can do this--easily! So take on the challenge and send a blanket to our troops!

Look for my second blanket sometime next week. It is my first true quilt, so I hope it turns out okay! I can't wait to tell you the story of the lady at JoAnn's who helped me, but I will, just to keep you in suspense...

Make Your Own Baby Legs!!

Look at what I made!!!

Baby Legs are so nice to keep your little ones legs warm in the fall/winter/spring and add great cushioning to those little knees on hardwood or tile floors.

I love the real thing, but sometimes, there are designs in regular socks that you just can't find in Baby Legs! Enter in this fabulous Flickr tutorial on how to sew your own!

I made two pairs because when it comes to sewing, I always have to do a test-run! I'm glad I did because my first pair--one "leg" was longer than the other by about two inches and I sewed the cuff on inside out! haha I will never be a great sewer, but as long as I can make something that doesn't look completely wonky, I'm just fine with that!

Godmama Chris's Pirate Baby Shower Cake & Quilt

I've been a bit behind on posting and commenting this week and here's why (don't even ask what my house looks like because it is baaaaad).














The midget's Godmama Chris is having a baby boy and decided to decorate his nursery in a pirate theme. Holy crow, this is one FLIPPIN' cute nursery!!











I designed the cake around her nursery colors and theme. The cake is a half-sheet with a molded cake placed on top (Wilton Pirate Pan). The ship is sitting on a corrugated cake board, cut to shape, and supported with dowels. The sand is crushed graham crackers and the treasure chest is molded chocolate. I dug a small hole to bury the treasure chest into the cake. Don't look too closely at the cake because it is a little rough in spots, but overall, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out!

The quilt turned out much better than my previous venture into quilting! I only made one little boo-boo on this one, so that's a big yeeeeee-haaaaaw!