Crinkle/Tags

I have made a few crinkle toys for the babies of friends or relatives, but never for my own kiddos. So, a couple months ago I made a crinkle toy with tags. (I had also never made any tagged toys for my babies.)

 My little girl loved the sound of the wipes container, so instead of cereal bags like I used on the others, I cut the square out of the empty wipes wrapper.

I added 12 ribbon/ric-rac pieces along the edges and sandwiched them all together. Then I sewed along the egdes, leaving a small opening to turn it right-side out. 

photo from pjtool.com

People have a lot of methods they use turn things right side out. My trusty tool was given to me by my mom. With hemostats (mine look like those in the picture above) you can actually grab the fabric and pull it through the opening. And then as a bonus, you can close them up and poke them in each corner or the fabric to make sure you get the corners as square as can be.

The top was my favorite silky black with white polka dots.

The backside was some super soft white minky that I had left over from the nursing cover I made.

She has liked it well enough, but I probably should have made it earlier in her life.

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.

Chalkboard

 Last year I saw this hammered looking chalkboard at the thrift store. I knew my kids wanted one, but I passed. A week later it was still there and I decided it was meant to be so I got it. It was super cheap and needed some serious clean-up.

Because I had some supplies on hand, this really was an inexpensive project. My mom had a big container of chalkboard paint and she let me have some. I washed off the junk that was on there and then painted a few coats of paint on it. Once that was dry I used a little wood glue to stabilize the corners of the frame where the two sides came together. Then I covered up the new blackboard and brought it outside to spray-paint the trim. (Sorry that there are no pictures of these processes, but really, you can easily imagine it.)

Once I finally got some chalk, the boys were so excited to be able to sit down and  scribble all over. Originally I was going to staple or glue some ribbon on the back and hang it at the foot of their bunk bed. Eventually I figured that was a bad idea. So, finally, I found a way to put it up in the kitchen without making any permanent damage to the doors in there.

I attached it to the door with these adhesive strips. They are amazing, easy to put on, and so strong. (We've got some of the same brand of hooks to hold the boys coats on in their room. Our house has very tine closets and certainly no coat closet!)

Now the boys have a little spot in the kitchen to go draw and I have a little more color in there. (Plus I get to look at cute drawings like this one of "dad" by my son when my husband was out of town.)

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!)

Rabbit for Reese

More baby gifts? Sorry, it's just what I've been working on and they have a tighter deadline, not only to be finished, but to be photographed. So, you've seen some of these ideas on the site before...

An appliqued onesie.

A picture holder on a set of links...

A cute little tag with the baby's name on one side and their sweet face on the other...

But here's my newest creation. It's a baby rattle! I just drew out a rabbit shape, sewed it up with a few bells and stuffing inside and then hand stitched the outside. I really liked making it and have some ideas for future rattles. (The rest of the gift was these store bought shorts, and a burp cloth/bib set that had a rabbit stitched on it.)

Ready, Set, Jet

My friends named their new baby boy Jet. It is the perfect name for him, I think. Not that I have met him yet, but just knowing their family I know it is perfect. I wanted to make something for him and I couldn't help but use his name as my jumping off point.

A simple appliqued shirt.

A crinkle toy to match.

A freezer stencil painted shirt. Originally meant to be just his name, I accidentally got green on the shirt lower down. So, I busted out a potato, cut a little plane into it and stamped away.

I added another traveling photo album on links. 

 Tied it up with metal tag (name on one side, picture of him on the other) and sent it all off!

Zebras

My cousin and his wife are having their first baby. I couldn't make it to her shower, but I did send this little set her way.

 The blanket is actually one I had started for someone who used to live down the street from me. I waited until the last minute to sew it for her shower. When I went to the fabric store I fell in love with this fabric and should really have bought more. I decided because I was short on time I'd just buy the binding instead of make it. I messed up on it as I was making it and got so frustrated that I just skipped it all.

I decided to get it back out and fix it, over a year later. My original idea, and the one I stuck with but maybe shouldn't have, was to have the stitching sort or match the stripes of the zebra. Does it look like a mess? I'm not sure, but it will just have to do.

I also added a little fabric on come cloth diapers for burp cloths. I forgot to use Wonder Under on the zebra applique, so hopefully it will still stay ok. I liked the added binding on the bottom of that one too.

And to complete it all, I tossed in another one of my Martha inspired mini picture albums. I hope she liked it. That's the worst part about sending a gift instead of actually being there. You never get to see the receiver's reaction.

Swords and Capes

Another old project, but not as old as a few I still haven't posted. This was a gift I made for the boys for Christmas.

 I was hoping to post it sooner, but to get them to hold still long enough for pictures has proved rather difficult. But in light of two of my favorite sewing sites Made by Rae (you might remember I participated in her Spring Top week last year) and Made's "Celebrate the Boy month, I thought I'd post them.

(Also, without some mending I wouldn't be able to later - you'll see at the end of the post.)

After making the pirate set for Henry, I wanted to make my boys a variation of it. They've been begging for swords so I thought I would make each of them one.

 I liked that with these swords they could hit each other like crazy (and like I figured they would) and not really get hurt since there is just stuffing inside.

Unlike the shorter pirate knife, I made these more like a traditional sword - long and straight.

They are made with felt and on the handles I added each boy's initial.

 In addition I made each of them capes. My older boy also got Zelda hat. He was super into Zelda after watching my husband play, plus his first initial is Z, so I borrowed the Zelda logo for the cape. 

 My younger son is the one I made the pirate set for, but he refuses to wear the hat and barely would wear the cape for these pictures. The red stripes match the inside of his pirate hat. (For the capes I used the basic idea found on another site, slightly altered. When I can remember where I will post the link!)

 

 They have LOVED the swords.

  And they held up really well...until we had some friends over this week.

I guess I made them tough enough for my guys, but not all boys play the same, so it looks like I need to revamp and reinforce my stitching!