Finishing Things

 Because of the new baby coming we have been emptying out the basement so we can finish it. Three kids in one room is squeezy enough. We can't do 4! Anyway, I was using a corner of the basement for my sewing space and have been evicted. I pulled out some "current projects" and sorted them in groups of things that could be sewn with the same thread.

Anything that isn't needed or can't be done (like altering a dress to fit a not pregnant me) before the baby got labeled and put on a list to wait until post-baby to even think about. There are 2 boxes full of this type.

I nicely folded my fabric around comic book cardboard (like suggested on this post at Smashed Peas and Carrots) so that when I can put them back on the shelf they are ready as mini bolts of fabric. And, I sorted my fabric by types and make great lists so that if I do NEED something, I know where to find it fairly easily. So, what have I done from my pile of things to finish? Quite a bit. Some of it small and some bigger.

Using some fabric that was given to my by my sweet neighbor Marie, I made my baby girl some much needed warmer weather PJs. I bought a 3 pack of undershirts (used the white one with these), and just added some little cap sleeves (thanks to the great instructions at Make it & Love it) to match the pants. The pants I just drafted by tracing around some bottoms she has that fit her. I think these are her favorites that I have made for her. she even started super posing for the pictures.

This is a pair I started a long time ago and just needed to hem, put in the waist band and sew the  applique down. They look like they are really comfortable.

Another pair for my daughter. This time I used some t-shirt left over from a pack I bought from my boys when they were smaller. As far as PJS are concerned, I think using cheap (and I mean cheap as in 5 shirts in a pack for $5 or less cheap) is just fine. For her shorts I so just didn't want to hem them, so I found some left over trim (I think I bought it to make hair clips that I never got around to) and just sewed that on. I think it makes the pajamas look a little more girly.

I'm short, but I don't like short skirts. Well, I should say I don't like really short skirts and quite frankly, no one would want to see me in them. So, when I ordered some jersey skirts from Old Navy (like the olive colored one below) earlier this summer, I was sad to realize after I had worn and washed it, that I had accidentally ordered a petite size in one of the skirts (no wonder it felt like I was flashing people!). Anyway, I had seen these extender slips around and though that would solve the length issue and the "this is a little too see through" issue. Well, it looks weird with the jersey shirt, but I can use it with other things. The lame thing is that I bought a slip from a thrift store for practically nothing, but to find the trim I really liked, I spent too much. Normally I don't buy anything without a sale or 40% off coupon at the fabric store, but I had neither when I found this. So, hopefully it will at some point serve me well and will be worth what it cost.

There are still projects left in the "current projects" pile. I also have a few other things I was going to add to this post, but they are maternity related, so I decided to post on their own so someone looking for that type of thing doesn't have to scroll through my other rambling projects. 

Also, I have a ton of recipe reviews queued. Watch for another post about that tonight or tomorrow...or Sunday. I'll try to do 2 a week for awhile. there really are that many and they have 3-4 recipes on each post!

Recently...

I've already told you I am back-logged on posting projects, so here's a glance at some of what I've been up to recently.

 Eating loads of cherries. These are ones from my dad's cherry tree and were gobbled up instantly. Since then we have had many bags more from the store (and when you can find them for less than $2/lb. why not eat to your heart's content?).

 Attempting bleach spray t-shirts. I'd find the source for you, but there are so many I don't know which I actually used. What I can tell you is that I used a 50/50 mix of bleach and water, freezer paper for my stencil and in the middle of the shirt to keep the bleach from soaking through. Less is more with the bleach. I though I hadn't sprayed enough when I didn't see anything happening and then BOOM, I couldn't get back inside to rinse it of fast enough. (I made one more for me, but I also altered the shirt and it isn't done, so no sharing yet.)

 This is me at work on sewing projects in February while having an overnight with the females in my family. I completed but never shared the headband. I got the pattern free from Happy Together. I like it, except next time I will make it a little narrower. It does this weird stick out thing on the top of my head that I don't love. So, back when I made that, I also started some PJs for my boys. I cut them out and partially sewed them. I needed them with me to figure the waistband and hem. So, being the on top of things kind of girl I am, I finally finished them this month.

 Characters from Peanuts. (And since being washed the heat-n-bond peeled. I guess it wasn't true about "no-sew!"

 Dogs.

 And even though I didn't finish the last pair (the sharks), I did start and finish a whole pajama set for my daughter in the same day as I finished the boys' PJs.

 My nice friend Marta let us come over and pick apricots from their tree. I soaked a batch in water slightly spiked with lemon juice, put it on the food dryer (they are supposed to go cut side up - so don't do what I did in the picture. I fixed it later), and then enjoyed dried apricots!

 I completed a jewelry project within days of buying the supplies! I don't love the necklace, but I was quite happy with the earrings. Thankfully (or not) my daughter pulled on the necklace a little too hard and broke it. So, I have to restring it - this time with wire instead of line, so I do have an opportunity to change it up a little.

Last thing to share today is the massive amounts of salt water taffy we have been eating. I occasionally go to Sunflower Market to buy produce because it is really inexpensive. They also have a bulk section that has taffy set out in individual flavors. In the last month we have consumed nearly 4 pounds of it. I let the kids pick their grosser flavors and stock up on rum, Neapolitan, orange cream and peppermint for me.

[Project from the Past]: Fancy Clothes

I have been terrible at posting projects as I do them. I have like 4 just sitting there waiting. Maybe I will have to label all of them "Projects from the Past!" 

Easter is just a few weeks away and if you are the kind of person who likes making fancy outfits for the occasion, I thought I would share some more fancy things I have made from store bought patterns. This was when they were much younger.

 For my boys I used Butterick 6030 for the shirt and pants.

Even though I made them twice, I didn't learn from the first time to shorten the top so their pants wouldn't be so tall. It was the first time I even made a waistband with a flat front and I loved how they turned out. It was also the first time I even made a button down shirt (though I used snaps because I am terrible at buttons/buttonholes).

The tie was from my own brain. I just used basic ribbon and sewed it to elastic that stretched enough to go over their heads.

For my daughter I used New Look 6877.

 I used fabric that was left over from my wedding dress that my mom made. I quickly learned that such delicate fabric require a very sharp fine needle so that it would make snags in the fabric. lined the top piece with some sheer decorative fabric. I also made booties with the same lining and satin underneath. (You can see being kicked off in the upper right photo) I believe I used the basic idea from this bootie, minus LED lights, of course!

It turned out that even though they all seemed complicated at first, they ended up being quite doable and I was really proud of myself for making them. I may just get ambitious and make an Easter dress for my daughter.

Hello

Hello, nearly forgotten about blog. I remember that you are here and I keep meaning to utilize you for more things. I have a folder full of project I did months and months ago (some even a year ago!) that I haven't put up. In part it is because I am doing other things (aka lazy) and also because somethings I fell like I need all these photos instead of just a final project, which is usually all that gets photographed. I hope to visit you more often this year, blog. 

I have a few other hopes for the year too. I haven't made resolutions in eons, but for some reason this year I feel like I really am wanting to turn over a new leaf. Could it be that 35 is looming ahead just a few month away? Maybe subconsciously. Is it because I feel suffocated in my house with all these unfinished projects, do-tos not done and just too much stuff? For sure. 

• One of my biggest goals for 2012 is to be better at managing my time, to be organized at least enough that I don't feel so scatterbrained. 
• I want to finish a slew of projects or just toss them out.
• I want to live my life in a more focused way. (If you have not read Organized Simplicity by Tsh Oxenreider, you should now. It's about living a better life, not just cleaning stuff.)

There are other ideas I am toying with putting on my "official" list, but I don't feel like I need/want to share them here. So, let me just end my post with something I made so that I feel like I am getting the blog back on track...

I made some freezer stencil shirts at the end of the summer. I don't make them often enough and they are incredibly easy. (Well, I still don't love the xacto knife work and long for the simplicity of a Silhouette machine, but alas...)

 Bike for the hubby who loves to mountain bike (a little too high on the shirt, but now I know for next time).

For the son that prefers a scooter over his bike, a scooter. A revers of dad's bike for the son who loves to ride is bike too.

So, I hope to be back again soon. :)

To Match Striped Pants part 2: The Sock Monkey

Remember like a hundred years ago when I posted striped pants part 1? Well, here's the other gift set I made to match the second pair of pants. This was for one of my favorite friends who had a baby girl (who is now like 5 months old or something - see how awesome I am at keeping this blog updated?!) I actually really like what I did here and I think that is okay to say sometimes. :) A couple of years ago when I bought the monkey fabric below my big plan was to make all these blankets to sell on etsy. I thought I'd make them into sets with mini sock monkeys and they would be a giant hit. I ordered a dozen mini sock monkey kits online and guess what - I didn't make any of them. I started, but they just weren't working, so the kits were in my "to get rid of" pile, until this idea came along!

Totally perfect for making a sock monkey applique. I intentionally went for a sort of rough/frayed look and I loved how it turned out.

Because I like this friend so much I didn't stop at cute monkey kimono. Nope, she got more!

The red fabric on the monkey blanket is super soft. The burp cloth is pretty standard. I always pre-wash my stuff before I give it to people (because you can't return a home made gift, now can you?) but it always makes the diaper of the burp clothes look a little used. Anyone know how to help that?

The whole gift kit set. An actual sock monkey really would have fit in perfectly.

To Match the Striped Pants part 1: Bubble Gum Machine

While Old Navy was having one of their sales where the clearance is marked down an additional 40% off, I went to go pick up some clothes for my kids. I found these adorable striped pants. The only size that had was 0-3 months. I was so bummed because my daughter had already outgrown that size. I bought both pairs anyway, knowing I would need baby gifts down the road, plus I loved them too much to NOT buy them.

When I decided they needed a cute onesies to go with them, I immediately thought of a gumball machine. I used the same fabric I did for the car seat cover and canopy blanket, thinking that the circles sort of looked like gumballs. The shirt didn't turn out exactly as I envisioned and I couldn't settle on which color of thread to use for the outside of the globe part of the gumball machine, hence the double layer.

But in the end, I liked how it turned out overall and combined with the pants I thought it was a cute gift.

Stay tuned to find out what I paired with the other pants...

Dress-up Case

When I saw this idea on A Girl and a Glue Gun last spring I decided I must make one. I thought it was such a clever idea and created a way to put a cap on the number of dress-up items to have. (Well, ours might not all quite fit in it!)

I found an old suitcase at the thrift store. It was in pretty decent shape as far as the exterior and the latches were concerned. Plus, it was only $3 or something like that.

The inside was falling apart, but that didn't matter since it would be torn out anyway.

I covered up the shiny parts of the suitcase with tape and then went to town with some red spray paint. 

As you can see it didn't cover perfectly even, but I like it. (Maybe I needed more coats or else I am just not a good spray painter). And you can see in the picture below that the handle is black. I just used a permanent marker for that.

I didn't photograph the process of adding new lining, but the original tutorial does a great job. My glue gun broke in the middle of the process, so mine is have hot glue and half some kind of tacky fabric glue. It wasn't hard to do though.

I love having this as a place for my boys to put their play clothes. There are a few Halloween costumes in there that are WAY too small for them, but they still try to wear them and play with them. 

And if you are looking for something more ambitious and really cute that also displays the dress-ups, you have to see this storage set up.

Un-Abandon

My poor little abandoned blog. I actually have projects I haven't posted, but admittedly haven't been working on much lately. Last night I wrote up an entire post and with one accidental keystroke and Blogger's mostly nice auto-save feature (which was not so nice in this case) it was deleted. Awesome. You may feel like you've seen the next 2 items. The first one you sort of have. A friend of mine was helping with a gift shop for the Festival of Trees in December and the proceeds went to a local children's hospital. She asked if I could make a few things. I whipped these two up with stuff I already had on hand and wish I was less lame and had made a few more.

I love these. I still had rick-rack left over from the other shirt I made. The striped fabric was originally used for a pair of PJ capris for me (that of course have not been blogged about) and also used for the turtle on the other shirt. (Again the idea was from Homemade by Jill, although she fancies it up one step further with added buttons. I might need to try that next time.)

I liked my little caterpillar and am getting better with all those stitches around such a small area.

I love argyle. If you look in my sock drawer you will see that it is true. When Dana from Made posted this a couple of years ago I figured I could use the idea for my own boys (It's true, look at the comments). I haven't yet (and it also put an idea in my head for a really cute idea for a skirt for me that I will make someday too).

The pink fabric was left over from some receiving blankets and burp cloths that I made this summer. I don't think I would have normally chosen this color combo, but I wanted it to stand out from all the other presumably similar looking items in the gift shop. In the end I liked it a lot.

The ruffle bum. I love the ruffle bum. This time I used jersey fabric from an old t-shirt (that was also used to help make a sweet earth costume that I will get around to posting too, though maybe at this point I need to wait until early October!).

I think the jersey will look better after washing than the plain cotton has. I used the pink thread to match the front fabric for a nice added touch. 

Hopefully both my items sold and that some happy girl & boy are wearing these right now. I am glad I could contribute just a little bit to such a good cause. I know many people whose families have been blessed by the services of those at Primary's, including my own. It is nice to have a hospital dedicated to helping kids so close to my home.

Other People's Babies

I have had so many friends and neighbors having babies in the past couple months that I literally have had a hard time keeping up. I know I keep posting baby gifts, but hey, if that's what I'm sewing, that's what you get! Some people were having their first baby (or babies!) and others were on their second or third. I loved making stuff for all of them, and try as I might, I couldn't just given them something direct from the store. So, what have I been working on?

For the Twins in Texas:

My long time friend Jamie and his wife were expecting their first two kids in May. A boy and a girl! I made a little set of gifts for each baby and added a little photo holder to go along with it (they will just have to share!)

I sewed each baby a little carry along blanket, matching onesie and burp cloth. My favorite item in the boy set was the whale shirt.

And for the little girl my favorite item it one that I made along time ago to sell - the super soft and furry blanket.

Lily in Maryland

 When I was in 5th grade I developed a friendship with a newer girl named Sara and we became inseparable best friends. Her dad was in the Navy (or Army?) and they moved a lot. She spent a few years in good old Iowa before moving on again. Despite her living in Maryland and me now in Utah, we have maintained contact all this time, which I love. In honor of our Midwest times together, I made her some burp cloths (actually enough for her and like 6 other baby gift sets!) from some cute farm fabric that I fell in love with a year or so ago. (It is always so nice to go to the stash instead of the store!)

I used a pattern from Homemade by Jill and copied her edging technique. I ran these through the washer just a few times, but know they will soften up on the edges more as they get used and washed.

And since Sara was having a little girl, I decided it was time to try out another sweet idea I'd seen, but first, simple appliques on the front to match the burp cloths

And then flip over for fun - the ruffle bum onesie! (from Crap I've Made, found through U-Create) ! I loved making these. I used the pinking shear technique. (I think next time I will line the ruffle rows a little closer together.)

I added in one of my favorite baby books (that just so happens to color coordinate too!) and shipped it off in the mail just in time for baby Lily to arrive.

The Neighbor Babies

These two gifts were fairly similar and inspired by this awesome birthday party favor. My original idea was to make a Lowly to go with each of the Richard Scarry books, but decided that was an undertaking I'd save as something to keep for my own kids. So, instead I made shirts that matched the cars in the book. (And tossed in more photo holders.)

Obviously Lowly in the apple car was a must.

And who can resist a pig in a pickle car? (The pictures in the smaller book are a little different. The ones I chose for the background came from the must have "Cars and Trucks and Things that Go," if for nothing else than to find goldbug on every page.)

The next gift was for a third child who already had a big brother and sister. My guess is clothes were probably well covered already, so I just "made" a simple ric-rac kimono as seen here also from Homemade by Jill. I thought it needed a touch more so I added a turtle and sewed up a soft turtle with a few bells in it. (This was one of many project put together while I suffered through insomnia!)

A family who was adding child #2 to the family and the first boy got a gift set similar to what the Texas Twins got. I BOUGHT part of it at the store! I was so shocked at myself. Well, obviously the onesies from the other gifts come from the store and so does fabric, but these were items I hardly touched, but couldn't resist adding just a little to them.

I had bought this flannel previously and thought it was perfect boy fabric. So, I backed it with some dark green (which actually matches the small darker parts on the blanket very well) and should have stitched it with orange for fun, but I couldn't find my orange thread until I was all done.

As for the slightly jazzed up store bought part, I found this little set that matched the colors in the fabric and I thought it would be fun to add a little bit on the blanket fabric on the shirt and shorts.

So, I think I am all caught up on other people's babies, which is a good thing - my baby will be here around Monday sometime and I have a few more projects for me to finish up first. We'll see when I can get them posted. And then maybe we'll move on to something non baby related (I did make PJ bottoms for me!)