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.
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. : )
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?
