Baby Boom!

Wha... what?!  More baby stuff?  Yep. Having a bit of a boom lately. Happened to me with weddings... I was in 3 in one year once... Now everyone is having babies.  This time, my brother and his wife are expecting their first boy, Blake.  Baby Blake is due any week now too... just like Lexi... who, as of today, is still baking in her mama's oven. Can't blame her... warm and cozy in there.


So what'd I make?  All kinds of stuff.  First up, a "BLAKE" blanket just like I made for Alexis.

I did everything exactly the same except there is no strip of fabric behind the name. I saved the stripe fabric design for blanket #2.

Cute receiving style blanket with rounded corners this time.  I think if I make this style blanket again, I'm going to try and make it reversible.  This one is just folded under twice and hemmed.


Then I made some burp cloths.  Why didn't I have an interest in sewing when I had kids?!?!  I could have made so much cute stuff.  Probably because I wasn't sleeping and breastfeeding 24hrs a day.... yep, that's probably why.  Never mind.

No Heat N' Bond on these.  Just washed and dried everything before I started... Burp cloths shrink and shrivel up a lot when you wash them.  Just press everything before you start sewing.
Blake's nursery theme is Lion King so I was excited to find a fabric that had little lions on it. I used a blanket stitch to hold him on.

And the last thing I made, which is a GREAT first time quilter's project, was a changing pad.

I used the same flannel from the blankets and cut it to size (about the size of a baby?) using cereal bowls to trace the rounded corners.  Then I cut a piece of batting the same size.  Pinned everything together and did some meandering or free-motion quilting.  I used the same technique in the quilt I made for baby Levi. It's really not hard!  And, this is so small it's the perfect thing to practice on.  After all, the baby is going to poop all over this... does it really have to be perfect?

 See the quilting?  So soft.

Last thing to do is add bias tape. 


I played with all of the decorative stitches again.  So simple and makes it look so finished.

Done. Cant wait to meet my new nephew!

Let's be friends!

Baby Blanket and Burp Cloths

I have a group of friends from college that I'm still pretty close with.  All of us are married (or just about married) at this point, but for a while there I was the only one with kids.  What can I say, my husband and I were quick to get started.  Now everyone is catching up and having babies and I love it (mostly because I'll get to hold the baby and marvel at it's cuteness but not have it attached to my boob 24 hrs a day while not sleeping... ahh the joys of newborns).  Since I know #3 is not in the cards for me, it's fun to get excited and make gifts for friend's babies.  


Little baby Lexi should be arriving in the next couple weeks and like any good friends, we showered her mama with all kinds of baby goodies a couple weeks ago.  I decided to make a receiving blanket with her name and some custom burp cloths, because wiping up barf should be stylish too... right?

I made the blanket with a yard of pink polkadot flannel I got at JoAnne's.  Then I cut a rectangle from the cotton bird fabric the same width as the flannel and pressed the top and bottom edges under about a 1/2 inch.  Once that was pinned in place I did a blanket stitch all the way around the bird-tastic rectangle. You can see the stitch below.

After that was attached, I hemmed the blanket all the way around by folding the edges under twice and sewing with a straight stitch.  Above you can see the back and what the hem looks like.


After that, I printed out the letters for ALEXIS on regular paper and cut them out.  Then I applied Heat N' Bond to the pink gingham fabric. I laid my letters on the paper backing of the Heat N' Bond (that was now attached to the pink gingham) and traced them. (Remember to trace your letters backwards since you're tracing on the back of your fabric)  Next I cut out my fabric letters, peeled off the paper backing, and adhered them to my blanket using my iron.

Once they were stuck on I sewed around each one with a blanket stitch.  You can use any stitch really, I just liked how this one looked.

For the first time making something like this, I think it turned out pretty good.


The burp cloths were made the same way except I did not use Heat N' Bond.  The fabric pieces I attached were pretty small so I felt the stitching would hold everything just fine.

I did a lot of experimenting with all of the different stitches my machine can do for this project.  It wasn't hard at all and makes everything look so much nicer :)

That's it.  I hope baby Lexi arrives soon... I need a quick newborn fix. : )

Let's be friends!

New Camera

So I got a new camera for Christmas!  Well, new for me camera... it was used on ebay.  And, I already had lenses from a film SLR I had way back in the day, so I just bought the body (and a remote!). But I'm still really excited.


Up until this point, all of the pictures on my blog have been taken with my point and shoot Nikon and my phone... Including the pictures in this post of the new camera. No really.

Nice huh? That's what I'm working with. (I've since upgraded to an iPhone too. It's been a big December for me).

Notice the shattered screen on the camera. Nope, that's not glare... that's what it looks like when you look at the screen.  Most of it is completely black thanks to a Halloween party incident where I may have dropped the camera after a couple Halloween beverages dressed as Mrs. Incredible. (heh... nervous laughter) Sooo, you just kind of have to aim the camera at what you are trying to take a picture of and hope it works out.  Needless to say, I could use a new one.


So I'm very excited to begin learning all about my Nikon D80.  I'm hoping it improves my blog photography and gives you something prettier to look at. (How can it not?)

So until I get around to photographing a sewing project (and I have several backed up), I'll keep practicing on my kids.  Not bad, eh?

Let's be friends!

Scrappy Kid Christmas Ornaments

Growing up, we always had a real Christmas tree.  The first few years of married life I had a real tree too.  My husband wasn't so keen on the idea.  Logically it makes more sense to get a fake tree... cheaper in the long run, that whole bursting into flames thing, less mess, yada yada.  However, sentimentally, I was pretty attached to having the real deal.  Last year he convinced me it was time to take the fake tree plunge.  I agreed on one condition: we were going to get the best fake tree we could find.  And thanks to the American Express points we had built up... money was no object.  (Well, it was, but I wasn't getting a $1000 tree or anything) I scoured and found the one I wanted online. A few clicks later in showed up via UPS.

Houston, we have a problem. This tree is HUGE.  Apparently things look different in tiny pictures on the internet.  I had no idea it was going to be so large. Let's just say our living room is very festive... and half taken up by a massive tree. Oh well... one day we will have a house with a living room big enough to non-ridiculously accommodate our Time Square-sized tree. In the mean time, I'll just make ornaments to fill it up. Cue Scrappy Kid Ornament!

Like it?  My 1-year old made that. Well, I made the bow, but he did everything else. : )

Here's what you need.

• Styrofoam Balls (with or without dirt... doesn't matter) Mine were used as make shift golf balls in the backyard, naturally.

• Fabric Scraps

• Glue (Any kind of kid-friendly craft glue that dries clear will work. Mod Podge would be great too)

• Ribbon scrap to make the bow

• Thin string or ribbon to make a loop

• Hot glue to attach those

Step 1

Set up kids and supplies (minus the hot glue) in a glue proof area. My kids worked on paper plates.

Step 2

Help kids cut scraps into 1" - 2" pieces. (I tried to give my daughter coordinating girly scraps, and my son coordinating boyish scraps)

Step 3

Generously coat a 2"-3" section of your styrofoam ball in glue. Apply a scrap or two and smooth it down with your finger.  Glue should get on top of the scrap too and on the edges.

Step 4

Continue covering the entire ball with glue and scraps, working in small sections.

Step 5

When dry, poke a small hole with a pencil about an inch deep into the ball. Put a dot of hot glue in the hole and poke 2 ends of a thin ribbon or string in there with the pencil to make the loop. (Adults = hot glue, not kids)

Step 6

Tie a bow with a ribbon or fabric scrap and hot glue it at the top. Done.

Kaley takes her ornament very seriously. (And yes she had a hair cut in between photos)

Austin is a little more excited.

Let's be friends!

Easy No-Sew Circus Jacket

The Big Top took over my office this year for Halloween.  No really, we are crazy.  You've never seen cubes transformed into a giant tented circus land like this.  Last year was fairytales (I was Peter Pan), this year was Circus.  My "act" for the big show was Tightrope Walker (not to be confused with street-walker... you might be inclined to lean towards option 2 when you see the amount of makeup on my face).  I remodeled my cube into a circus tent ala lots of color toner, hot glue, streamers, and a rope from Lowes. See? Yes, that is my cubicle.

So the cube is done.... what does a tightrope walker wear?  Probably spandex, but since body-clinging, leave-nothing-to-the-imagination wear is not what I'd like my co-workers to know about me, I went for vintage tightrope walker.  After some Googling, I made up my mind that a tutu and parasol were the way to go.  First stop, Goodwill with my friend Christy from Through My Looking Glass.  She actually found the tutu/shirt combo I ended up wearing and highly suggested I buy.  Great idea... $4.99 later, it was mine.  Just one problem, it had spaghetti straps.  I probably could have gotten away with it for Halloween... but still, it's work and I wanted to be a little more covered.  That's when I decided to make a jacket.  Here's what I did.

I started with a long sleeve T-shirt in my closet.

Then I bought some shiny trim from Walmart. (PS. I only ended up using the braided trim)

Next, I cut the shirt like this.

And then, I eyeballed and cut some rounded edges on the front. 

Then I started hot glueing my trim.  I started at the collar and worked my way down the front of the shirt/jacket first.  Keep going around the back and back up the front of the other side, ending at the collar again.  If you run out of trim, just start a new band right where the other one ran out.  You can't even tell on mine where the trim starts and stops.

Then I started around the collar. (oh yes, that glue gun has been well used)

After finishing the collar, I had a tiny piece of braided trim left.  I unbraided it and used the 3 strips to make loops on the front.  I just hot glued those suckers right in place too.  The last thing I did was take two silver buttons off my tutu and glued them to the top... you can see them in the next pics.

And there I am in all my Tightrope Walker glory.

Yup, added leggings too.  Tulle is quite see through ya know.

And since I was going for a vintage look, I  had some fun with Photobooth and took some vintage-style pictures.

Nice looking jacket, eh?

And so you know I'm not the lone crazy woman dressing up at work, here's a picture of our entire department.

PS: I work without a net. :)

Let's be friends!