Love

I have been wanting to do some more sewing for quite some time, but I always find something else I feel needs done first.  I had a bunch of projects I wanted to do all winter but I was constantly spending any spare time I had cleaning since our house was on the market, then it was packing then unpacking, and now trying to get ready for baby.  Well finally this last week I got out some fabric, got it all washed and some projects cut and finally sewed yesterday.  I only finished 2 receiving blankets and 2 burp cloths. but once I start I'm usually hooked for a little while. I'm hoping the little taste of sewing will give me the motivation to finish a lot of stuff I have been wanting to make. I just had to show off this adorable fabric.  I just LOVE it so much.  I thoguht Carson needed a few n new things of his own that wasn't Noah's before so here is a picture of the receiving blanket I made and he also has some matching burp cloths. 

Hooded Towels

I have been wanting to make some of these for so long.  Finally today I did it.  I was up super early this morning and started doing some sewing prep work so that they would be ready to sew during Noah's morning nap.  Everything didn't work out quite they way I wanted but I still got them done in the afternoon.  They were actually really easy.  I'm sure I will be making more, I enjoyed doing them!  I would like to try doing some different stuff with them but I will have to wait until I know someone that needs one because Noah really doesn't need anymore now!  I didn't really know how to fold them so you could see so sorry they are weird pictures.  If anyone else wants to try them I used the tutorial from this blog,

http://www.prudentbaby.com/2009/10/diy-hooded-baby-towel.html

Very easy instructions with pictures for each step

Love these

I just fell in love with this fabric when I saw it! 1) I love argyle and 2) it's just got the cutest colors. However very girly though, so I decided to make some burp cloths and a bib for a friend with a baby girl and this fabric is good because it's a flannel. I found pink flannel to match so everything is flannel, a lot better for this type of stuff than cotton fabrics!

More Sewing Projects

I am really enjoying sewing, probably a little too much because I have been quite addicted the last couple days. I have actually been a little lax on cleaning, nothing usually stops me from cleaning until now! Tonight I was so excited to try something new, a bib! Noah uses a lot of bibs and now that he is eating lots of solids, they are getting stained very quickly (thank you to the carrots and sweet potatoes mostly). For these bibs I just used cotton fabric, with terry cloth on the back so they would be more absorbant. Now you have to excuse the picture, these aren't quite finished. Tomorrow I have to get some velcro or snaps (haven't decided which to use yet) and put those on. Then I need to stitch the openings I left to turn them right side out shut. Then they will be finished and I'm hoping they fit around Noah's big neck, if not I will just have to adjust the pattern to make them bigger. I love them!


Also tonight I did some more applique's. I love, love, love the N for Noah on the brown onesie. I had bought a set of dark colored onesies for this winter and when I saw this dotted fabric I fell in love and thought it would look great with brown. And the tie one, I had to redo since I messed it up the other day so here is another (I decided to do new fabric that I got this week instead). Tomorrow I am going to get some embroidery thread and try to hand stitch around these (I think) instead of doing the machine this time. I saw one online like that and thought it was cute with thick thread.

Now here are the burp cloths I made yesterday, I made 8 (2 of each one). The first picture is some like the others I made. I put a thin layer of batting in between the layers of fabric like the first ones I did and I tried a thinner batting then the first set. I still think they are too fat though. They are like mini blankets instead of burp cloths, quite puffy. On all the next ones I just did cotton fabric on one side and flannel on the other to be the absorbant side. These are pretty thin, but seem much better for the purpose. I just love finding cute fabrics!!

My First Applique

I tried my first applique onesies today. I have bought 2 tie onesies for Noah on etsy and have forgotten about them each time until he has outgrown them. This time I was attempting to make my own. I found the templates for both of these on a blog.

Here is a pictures of the onesie after I bonded the fabric to the onesie. Good so far.....


Then I started stitching around the edge. I started with this one first since it was a lot more straight lines. Well I got halfway done and the top thread was doing something weird so I took out the onesie from the machine and realized I made a stupid mistake. I was stitching through both layers of the onesie. So now it's sewn shut! There will be no Noah inside this one, haha! At least I didn't waste my time and get it completely done.

The stitches all the way through to the back. Whoops!

Next the guitar onesie, I just love this fabric! Bonding process went fine on this one as well. The stitching around this not as easy as the tie, it's almost all curves. Noah was in the room with me while I was trying this so I did a lot of starting and stopping, not a good idea on all these curves because I lost the flow each time. Overall it's okay, but there is lots of room for improvement. I'm still a beginner sewer so I need practice in just about everything and to learn more patience. I do everything quickly and that isn't the best way for a beginner to sew!

More Burp Cloths

After our shopping trip this week I was so excited to finally get some cute fabric! I couldn't wait to get started. I again started with something easy and made some burp cloths all by myself.
The last ones I kind of cheated and just made some already finished burp cloths cuter. On the first two pictures I used flannel on both sides with a layer of batting in the middle to make them more absorbant. My favorite is the last one which just has cotton fabric on the top and terry cloth on the back. I just love that fabric so much! I am really having fun with the sewing and have been making quite a mess in the office. If I keep it up we will definetly be converting that room to an official sewing room! There just isn't space to work in there. I haven't decided what to do next. I'm really wanting to do some cute applique onesies, bibs, wipe case covers, and cute blankets. Hopefully this next week I can pick one of those projects to work on. I still have to improve a lot more on the sewing skills I'm not very good at sewing in a straight line but I know after more practice I will get better.

The beginning of a new hobby

I have been wanting to learn to sew for awhile. When I was pregnant I had fallen in love with tons of products on Etsy. I thought it would be a fun hobby to be able to make cute baby stuff for Noah and other people. So for my birthday this last June I wanted to get a sewing machine. My husband knows me all too well and thought that before I put any money into something like this I should find out if I actually even like to sew. So my mom taught me a little bit and is letting me borrow her sewing machine right now, so I have been able to work on my first project. The first thing I decided to start with were some burp cloths. I had ordered a couple of these off of etsy and they looked very easy so I tried some of my own. I really enjoyed making these and are going to try some more projects soon. There isn't really much in town as far as fabric choices so I'm planning to hit up some fabric stores next week while I'm in Champaign and then I plan to make a few other things on my wish list of projects. Once I've decided if this is something for me I might turn our spare room into a crafting room, which I hear really makes sewing a lot better if you have a place where you can leave the machine out. I have seen many wonderful looking craft rooms in the blogging world. Mine would be nothing compared to those but just a room to store items and a large workspace and possibly half playroom so that way Noah could play some while I worked on things. We will see how it goes though with the next few projects. I haven't always had lots of patience so we will see if I'm different with sewing.
Here are some pictures of my first burp cloths.