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 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.

Reverse Appliqued Shirts

I wanted to make shirts for the kids to celebrate them being big brothers/sister to the new baby. I looked at iron-on letters, thought about doing freezer paper, and even free-handing like I did on the boys' shirts a few years ago. I didn't love any of those ideas, so I went with a reverse applique and fabric marker version.

I went through my fabric and scraps and puled out this plaid from a stash I got at a garage sale the summer before. (Total side tangent, there was an entire greenhouse full of sewing supplies - fabric, trims, etc. These seemed like the most practical pieces for me to buy, but I could see someone who likes to sew go crazy there. In addition, they had filed the entire garage, front yard and back yard. Super well organized garage sale put together by the family members of a hoarder who had died. They said that the whole basement was still full. Anyway...)

The fabric on the two blue shorts were left over from projects I had done. The Big Brother stripes were what I used to make the curtains, crib skirt, and diaper organizer for my first born (and the others too as they came along.) The Big Sister fabric is the same that I used on a skirt for me and a gift I made for a cousin.

Lastly, and not on purpose, but I love the connection now the fabric on the Little shirt was from my neighbor Marie. She had given me a stash when she was still alive because she knew I liked sewing. I like that even though the two of them never got to meet, that my baby girl still started out her life with some kind of link back to my pseudo grandma.

Once my baby was born and her gender revealed, the "sister" portion was added on with a fabric marker.

I was actually surprised how very easy the reverse applique process was.

I used this great tutorial at Sweet Verbena (she has a lot of other good ideas on there, another of which I'm hoping to do as soon as I feel like I can get back into sewing.)

I enjoyed making the shirts for my kiddos so much that when I was making a baby gift for a friend, I made him a personalized onesie too.

Paired up with a mini flannel and super soft minky-ish fabric, I hope it was a good gift.