Black and White

It took me much longer then it should have, but I finally finished my baby's blanket - just before she turned 9 months old.

The main hang up was the binding. I made it and never really felt like getting it made because it takes forever. At least it feels like forever.

 

 When I went to sew at my friend Nicole's house I probably packed 50 projects (not a joke. most were already packed up anyway) but when I got there I had only 2 things I felt like I had to accomplish. 1 - this blanket. 2 - an extremely simple and quick (we're talking 90 seconds max) mending job on my husband's shorts that I found in a pile of projects. He forgot he even owned the shorts! Anyway, this is me at work, laughing about whether or not I should smile for the picture.

 Anyway, I love it. She seems to like it, even if it isn't her beloved blanket that she's had since birth and uses as a pacifier. Better to introduce another blanket now so she isn't a Linus later in life, right?

 While we're going with some black and white projects (not on purpose), here is a refashion I did for my other daughter. I found this strapless number at the thrift store. I loved the ruching on the sides, the sort of rough edged ruffle on the bottom, and obviously, the polka-dots.

 I used one of her dresses as a basic pattern. I eyeballed the sleeves.

 I grabbed this worn out white shirt from my pile of knit "fabric" to add a neckline.

 The first version was lame-o. I redid it and changed my method.

 Instead of folding it over I sewed them right sides together and left one of the edges of the white all rough like. Far from perfect, but still fun.

The accessory, a hanging baby toy you put on car seats and such, was all her doing...

as was the posing!

[Project from the Past]: Buncha Baby Clothes Part 2

The pictures for the next outfit are pretty bad. Sorry about that, but I can't go back in time to change them. This was a gift for my cousin who was having her first baby.

The top probably looks pretty familiar, but this time in white. I made the ballet skirt a little less full on this version.

To go with it I made this knit skirt. I just eyeballed it and fake surged the edges for a rough sort of look.

I added on three little rose-like flowers made out of some of the tulle to match the skirt on the shirt.

This is not one of my best gifts. Sorry, friend. The shirt was a basic applique. And the shoes were my first (and so far only) attempt at these Kimono Booties.

They came together easier enough, but I decided I didn't like my fabric choices (the inside sole was fleece, the rest cotton) and that they didn't seem to lay just right. I never got feedback about them so they might have been just fine on a person (just as likely they were weird and never got used!). I do want to try this pattern out again.

This was another gift for another cousin (I have a LOT of cousins). I didn't have a lot of time, but still though the end gift was pretty cute.

I grabbed a onesie from my massive stack of plain white onesies - all prewashed and ready to go for gift making.

I cut strips of knit (my favorite material for this sort of thing) and gathered them into ruffles. A few quick lines of stitching to attach them and the baby gift was done!

This one might seem out of place with the rest of these. My brother's wife was pregnant with their first boy. My brother loves Ice Cube and I spent many hours listening to it in the car with him as a teenager. I had been wanting to try out this photo transfer idea from Little Blue Boo. It worked pretty well. I think something more like a line drawing than a photo would work better, but I still like how it turned out. (The photos are horrible.)

This last project was actually done quite recently. My son's kindergarten teacher, whom we loved, was pregnant and I wanted to give her something thoughtful. This is what I came up with.

My son is always drawing. He's good too. On his school assignments his pictures of animals (and later army guys) would fill the margins of the paper. So, I scanned in one of his drawings to use it as a shirt design. I cleaned up the color and darkened the edges so that I could trace it onto pellon. I then ironed the pellon on the shirt and carefully stitched along the lines.

Here's how it turned out. I probably should have used a more contrasting thread color, but I was still pleased and surprised how easy this actually was to do.

[Project from the Past]: Buncha Baby Clothes Part 1

So, I've got baby gifts I need to make (2 girls and 1 boy) as well as sewing up some summer goodies for my daughter. It reminded me that there are some baby gifts I made almost 2 years ago that I never posted. The pictures have just been sitting in a folder all lonely like. Let's get to this - summary style.

This little set was for a friend's baby who will be two in about a month. She had three boys and then a girl, so I wanted to give her some girly stuff. Let's talk about the onesie first.

You've probably seen these over and over. I helped my little sister make some for her girls and this was the first one I made on my own. (Tutorial I used)

The faux necklace was made with fabric paint. When making the ones with my sister, she figured out that it's best to put your shoulder dots in and then the one(s) in the center - working your way back up to the shoulders.

I was at my friend Nicole's house and she taught me how to make the flower. (Silky layers of fabric cut in circles, just singe the edges with a lighter so they don't fray.) I think I sewed the flower on by hand, but don't really remember.

The pants started out as big clearance shirt from Target.

 I used a pair of my daughter's pants to measure the leg length for the new pants and cut them out of the sleeves. With no hemming these came together fairly easy.

I'm not impressed with my waistband work here (and couldn't quite even out the elastic in the casing, but figured with enough putting on and off it would stretch around more even).

Using some more fabric from the shirt, I made a few ruffles. It was my first time adding a ruffle bum on pants instead of the bum of a onesie. It's a little crooked, but overall I thought it looked fine. I liked the outfit all together. The next gift I made for her is one of my favorites.

 When I only had my boys I envied mothers of daughters who got to make all this cute stuff and keep it for their own child! So, when I found out I was having a girl, I did some sewing and made some cute stuff. I also bought a bunch of fabric to make more stuff that I never got around to. This fabric was part of that stash.

 My idea started as just a simple onesie dress. (Tutorial I used ) Then, I got inspired by the print.

 I figured ballet shoes need something ballet-y to go with them, like a tutu. So, I added some tulle to the hem.

 And my very favorite part - the skirt on the shirt! How did I make it? Uh, just trying a few things out. It took a few tries to get it right, but eventually folding the tulle just so and tucking it into a folded black ribbon and sewing them together. Add a little bow and sew it on to the onesie. Ah...I guess it is not too late to make something like this for my own girls.

 This next set (I told you I was back-logged!) was for my husband's cousin. I still feel a bit guilty when I look at this because I put some work into this (loving all of it, if that's ok to say) and her older sister had her first baby like 6 months later and I gave her squat. Timing is everything on good gifts from me (and apparently gifts at all. :( ) Anyway...

 I had been wanting to try making rolled flowers. These are no sew and held together with glue (I used fabric glue.) They came together pretty easily and quickly. (Tutorial I used)

I made a matching headband too. Notice how the leaves match the green lace of the headband?

This was my second time making "baby legs" (basically leg warmers/substitute baby pants). I don't know if I ever blogged about the first pair.

Here's a terrible picture of them.

Anyway, the are very easy to make. There are several tutorials online, but I can't remember which one I used.

This baby was going to be born in Texas. There's nothing like hometown(state) pride so, a personalized onesie was in order.

At this point I was still a pretty novice applique-er. I still sort of am, but am getting better.

This is another favorite baby gift. I think is is the fabric that wins me over so much. I used the same onesie dress tutorial as above.

I added a little ribbon on the bottom to bring out the aqua "stitching."

A little bow up top out of the same ribbon.

And to make it a complete outfit, a little headband, complete with bow to match the skirt.

I've got more old baby stuff to post, so, stay tuned for part 2 when I can get to it.

Mix & Match Onesie/Skirt Set

A friend of mine has been very generous giving me the clothes her daughter outgrows. She even gave me a pile of really nice maternity stuff - half of it still with the tags. The clothes are super cute and it has really helped me out. So, my friend was set to adopt a baby girl and I was very excited to feel like I could return the clothes favor (especially since I had all the clothes this new baby would have grown into!). So, I made this little mix and match onesie-headband-skirt set...back in August.

The onesies were pretty simple. I've done this ruffled collar style before. It's pretty quick, especially with knits.

For the skirts I broke into a few thift store/garage sale jackpots. I used the fabric from the shirt on the top of that pile on the right (I know you can't see it, but it was an XL camisole style tank top and the fabric was high quality knit.)

 I had scored all of these trims in a notions grab bag from the thrift store. I actually just bought it for that lace that I couldn't seem to find new. The pack of narrow light blue bias tape found its way into my project.

 So, here are the two skirts. I didn't hem the blue skirt. I knew that would give it a bit of a rough frayed sort of look, so I cut out a bunch of circles and basically just sewed an "x" across them. As the skirt gets washed, the circles should fray too, completing the look I was going for (which also matched the ruffle from the same fabric on the onesie). For both skirts I tried out the colored elastic that is gaining popularity. I think it is fun. I just bought some more this week in red to finish up a skirt for my daughter. As for the other skirt, I used Dana's circle skirt pattern. Super easy. Instead of hemming it I used the narrow bias tape. I really loved how the skirts turned out.

 

When I make baby gifts I like to make them feel complete, so I whipped up a couple of headbands. The dark brown one is left over from my brown skirt and inspired by Delia Creates. The other is just a simple stretchy lace headband with a flower thing on it. I just stacked some circles and sewed an "x" though them.

Here's all the mixing and matching. This is seriously one of my favorite baby gifts I have given in awhile. It makes me feel bad when I can't/don't have time to make gifts for other moms-to-be and just buy something. It also reminds me that I should be doing this for my OWN kids.