Arm-Saver-Sling

Back when #3 was a fresh baby, I had borrowed this sling or "Peanut Shell" from one of my sisters. It worked like a charm! I used it as he grew older and was able to sit in it as well. I loved it.

But eventually, it had to go back. He was getting bigger anyway, and we had a backpack carrier for him to go in. It turned out that he HATED the backpack carrier! He screamed whenever he went in it or even saw it! I'm not typically one of those moms who lets my baby-child "decide" what he or she wants, but this was just plain irritating, since my ear was not that far from his scream! I was kinda stuck, because he was much too heavy to carry, especially is we ever went walking or hiking!

So I went on an Internet search. . .and found my solution. It was found here, although the link to the instructions is no longer on this page. Hmmm. . .

I wasn't 100% sure on making my own sling, but didn't want to spend the $$ on one, especially if #3 didn't want to be in it! My cousin had one and she had even carried her 3 year old in it (on her hip or on her back), so I thought this might be the answer. But being cautious, I didn't go out and buy the trendiest material for it, just in case. Here is my plain-Jane blue.

Based on the advice from the instructions, I doubled my material because it was only cotton.

I cut my curve. . .2" less on the sides than in the middle.

 I made my super nice french hem. . .

 Okay, so I didn't follow the instructions to a "T." I eventually found the sizing chart, which wasn't 100% clear as I fit into two of the sizes, and re-cut my project and sewed it all over again!

 Here is me, with it on, although he picture seems to show off the kitchen more than me. Oops!
And below is my model, the banister post. . .who does a lovely job of showing it off!

 Here is my munchkin who LOVES being in it!(And who LOVES freezies! How can you tell he is #3? #1 would have never been able to have so much sugar/junk food at that age!) What a great thing to make, and what an "arm"-saver for me! Sorry I don't have any photos of me in it. . .I just haven't thought of taking a picture when I am on the go with him! :)

If I do it again (which I will, when I have time!), I will pick better fabric. Thick cotton with a nice pattern so I don't have to double it. I will also add a small pocket. And a loop to hook my keys on or a toy on. I was thinking that I could add a pocket or some printed bias binding to the current one. . .we'll see.

Update:
So this whole post was written a LONG time ago!!! (My links above disappeared in this time of not posting!!! Oh no!!! So sorry if you were trying to hook to them--I'll go searching again! Just give me some time!) 
Over a year ago! And I have used this sling like crazy! LOVE it. I still use it a bit, eve though baby #3 is past the 2 year mark. He's too old to be in a stroller--according to him--and too young to walk as much as the rest of us can. So this is always in the van, for just those times! And although he is heavy, using this is much easier than having to carry him without it and it frees us my hands a bit!

But I did do some exploring with the pockets, loops for keys and bias binding ideas. . .

dinosaur trim

racetrack trim

Happy sewing for me again!

a few more baby gifties

With summer here, I've had a few extra minutes to sew again!

Aside from just fixing the broken clothing, I've made a few baby blankets for gifts. I missed a few babies being born, and had no extra "boy" ones in reserve, so that was my job for the last few days. I was a little hesitant at first to use this fabric because the matching ribbon was. . . black! It was a risk for me--I'm usually more into the colourful, but I just could not find any matching ribbon! I also tried a "hooded blanket" this time, just to try something new.

 Here is my dinosaur set--hood blanket, bandanna drool bib and a tag blanket.

 See all the black ribbon on this one? But I think it turned out OK!

 And here is my bandanna drool bib. My daughter had one and it worked wonderful, so I thought I would sew a few to match.

 And here is my race car set--hooded blanket, tag blanket, and bandanna drool bib.

This one I was able to find a blue that went pretty well with it, without going to bright and bold with red or yellow. Maybe on the next one. . .

Now it is off to the fabric store in order to make more--I ran out of blanket material!



felt flowers for her hair

It was my daughter's birthday a bit ago and she knows all about parties because of her older brother.

So whenever her birthday comes along, she had a long LIST of things to do!

But we keep it small--and crafty! Here is what we did:

felt flowers on headbands or barrettes.

My sister and I had made some cute rosettes out of felt to put on headbands or barrettes once, and I thought they were cute, so I kinda went off of that idea and made these layered felt flowers.

(supplies above)

First I found all the different colours of felt I had in the house.

Then I found some flower patterns on google. These ones were great! I also found more "daisy" type ones with pointed petals as well. I sided them differently and then started tracing and cutting!

 Then I chose a few to try--pink and grey for now. I layered them up. Now, you can just layer them and glue them--some of my daughter's friends did that. These flowers were bigger, so I put one tiny "x" stitch in the middle (see the yellow?) to gather them just a bit.

 Next went the rhinestone. . .

Oh the girls were in heaven with those things!!!

 And then finally the little circle patch to help glue it onto the headband.

I gave the girls a choice--so here is how it is if they wanted to use a barrette instead.

I wish I had taken pictures of the ones they had finished/made. Some of them were so cute! I had also cut out some tulle flowers and circles to add in and little leaves if they wanted to add those as well. They just stacked flowers and started gluing! (and then I used the glue gun to finish them all off!)

It was a cute and easy party idea!



Christmas done

Happy new year to all!

As celebrated by Princess A! (Her glass is soon to be filled with milk for supper!)

 I got my little Christmas tree skirt done. . .on January 1st! Even our Christmas decorations were taken down already! I took a picture or two and then packed it into the box for next year!
That stitching sure takes forever!

 I changed a few things about it. . .I had originally used embroidery floss as the centre of the stars, but didn't like it, so I changed it to ribbon bows there instead.

 I also made some ties, for if I don't just overlap the circle around the tree.

 A maroon star. . .and the edging of the entire circle.

Project done! It only took 3 days to post about it! I'm a little behind on a few things!

Tutus

So. . .my daughter is a ballerina. Or rather, she runs around to music with ten other girls and THINKS she is a ballerina. It is all so very cute!

Since her talent has not been discovered yet, I have a hard time forking out the $$ to get her an unbelievably beautiful dancing costume (Oh, and I may have a hint of frugal blood in me!). Since all that was required for her little class was some soft-soled slippers, I just didn't give in to the $50+ leotards sold at the same store. Instead I found a raging deal--$2 (second-hand!), I believe! And of course, she thinks she is a princess just because she gets to wear pink!

But she had no tutu. And she was the only one with no tutu!!!

But during Halloween, the little preschoolers were allowed to wear a costume to their dancing class. "Oma" was sewing a costume for Princess A's cousin, so I think she felt she wanted to make something for Princess A as well. So, a tutu it was!

I found two websites/blogs that showed exactly what I wanted, so I passed them on to her to try.(Blog 1 and Blog 2) Oma went with Blog 2 (I probably would have too--it is no sewing and it says easy! I won't re-tutorial you because you can go to the link. . . or you can google "no sew tutus" and find a link of your own, but the whole idea is cutting strips of crinoline or ribbon and looping them onto the waist band:

Here is the end product:

The crinoline had sparkly spots on top of the black. The ribbon was shimmery gold kind. And since you may be wondering why it is not pink, here is the rest of the costume it had to match!

Oma also found another second hand tutu that she passed along to Princess A for the rest of her dancing classes. According to Princess A, "purple and pink is princess colours, so this makes me a princess."

However, the fact that it was a second hand tutu proved itself after the first class and it pretty much started falling apart at the seems. Oma came over another day with a new sewn pink one (with a waistband that didn't fray!) and attached the special "rosies" from the first one to her new one.

And of course, the above it what happens when you have a snow day and a tutu!

. . .a crazy looking snow princess!

Baby Bib & Tag Blanket

I did some sewing again!

Little a has been agreeable during the evenings, and I've had my hubby home to keep him company, so I pulled out my old little sewing machine again!

A bunch of months ago, I showed this project (baby burp blankets):

I made a few more for the other babies being born to friends and family. Then I also tried to make a matching bib. This baby bib project I got from a website I found "Homemade by Jill." But like all tutorials I follow, I had to change it to make it my own.


However, this time, I wasn't 100% happy with my results. I liked it enough to still include it in a gift, but I didn't LOVE it. Jill's were cuter and nicer. Maybe I should have followed hers exactly.

Here was my pattern. I cut out the flannel--same stuff as the receiving blankets I had made. Then I used the same trim and went around the bib (instead of following the tutorial). I ended at the neck back and stitched the rest without the trim. When I made a second one, I did the same, but put a few embellishments on (a button with a tie for decoration on the bottom left corner--where was my camera that time??? It was a bit cuter!)

So, yah. It was cute, it was fine, but it wasn't one of those projects I am jumping to make more of immediately.

Then when I had little a, my friend gave me this little pacifier blanket that she had made. I LOVED it! I had seen one a few weeks before (compliments of my little nephew from the Midwest) and thought that this was a project I could find on the net and make, but then little a came a little too early, so . . . that never happened!

Thankfully my friend is so super creative and crafty and gifted one for little a! (And I love, love, love the soft minky material!!!) Little a is now at that age where he is holding it and sleeping with it, so he love, love, loves it too! A super great gift!

So, a bunch of months/weeks/days later, I decided I wanted to still give it a try--to try to make one of these, but to make one that matched the blankets I had been making. So, here is my go at it:

The first thing I learned is that you should not sew if you still have a super bad case of mommy-head and lack of sleep. I made a huge obvious mistake that I can't believe I am actually admitting to on my blog. I sewed it all wrong!

The following is step two--not step one as I tried!

I sewed the binding on to the sides first. This obviously doesn't work when you need to sew the tags on the other sides later. Oops!

So here is my binding (see the unfinished white edge?). . .that I needed to take apart on all the corners later on. It still finished nicely, just double the work. Next time, I'll do a better job!

So, this part would be your first step. . .

Cut the ribbons for your "tags" or loops.

Have your fabric right sides together. (I used a square that was about a foot or a foot and a half square.) Pin one of the ribbons (folded as a loop to the edge that you want to sew). I pinned four tags on one edge. The "bad ends" were even with the edge of the fabric.

Then sew across the edge of the fabric. I tried taking a picture in the light so you could see my tags through the fabric. I did this to opposite ends (the top and the bottom).

Now is the time that you would want to turn the fabric inside out so the good side is showing and the tags are sticking out as shown. Then you want to sew the binding onto the sides of the blanket! Finishing the corners. . .you'll have to fold them under and hand-sew them if you want a neat, tidy finish, or you can just leave them with a cut edge at the end.(I opted for the neat edge; the original tutorial I used for the burp blankets, she made her edges just raw and cut). Then I finished off the tag blankets by stitching across the top and bottom edges about a 1/4 inch down from the edge.

And the finished project:

Baby Bib &Tag Blanket, Part 2

Just wanted to show some follow-up work. . .

Above, on the right is a burp cloth and a tag blanket as described in above previous post.
On the left. . .I had a bit of fabric left over, but not enough to do anything with, so I used it as the tag blanket "background", and made it with no cute border and a bit smaller. It is just top stitched around the entire deal. It still matches, so I am happy.

And above, is the boring part of all this blanket making. . .the creation of the binding. Lots of ironing and folding and measuring (Using an old, rickety, stained mini-ironing board. . .it was great back in my college days, and small enough to easily store. Maybe next on my list of sewing projects should be an ironing board cover. . .)

Pillow Covers

I'm finally finding time to sew again!
I'm finally getting around to making these things! I bought the material a bit after little A was born. . .and it took me about about 3 1/2 months to finally have time and energy to make these simple pillow covers.

We have these big, big, big pillows in out playroom, but they are quite multi-coloured with a very loud print. I'm not a big fan, so I found some soft flannel that would match the walls. Because of the lack of floor space, I had to do some measuring for it all on beds!
See the ugly pillows? See the new material, cut out now, but not sewed. . .

The "pattern" I used was REALLY easy--all just measuring! Imagine a duvet cover. . .pretty much the same thing. After measuring the fabric to fit the pillows, I just sewed a simple square (sewed three sides) with one side open. On that open side, I sewed in about 3 inches on both sides, then attached Velcro to the opening part. Of course, it has been so long since I have sewed, and lack of sleep does wonders for your brain, that I first attached the Velcro to the wrong side (ie: the Velcro was on the outside of the pillow, not the inside so that it would close nicely and stay hidden!). After taking that all apart and attaching it correctly. . .

They are finally done! What a simple, simple project that took, like, a whole week to do from start to finish! (With only short blocks of sewing time in the evenings IF the baby is happy. . .not so much for sewing time!) But I LOVE the way they match the playroom walls, and the kids love the "softness" of it compared to the old ones!

See the Velcro closings? Now I can take them apart to wash when needed. . .

Simple, and finally done!

Some Room Decorations

Ever since we moved E to his new room (and painted it a bolder colour--rather than our typical "some shade of brown"), I've been looking for some ways to decorate it. Because he is getting older and I don't want to be doing this very often, I wanted to try to find something that could stick around for a bit. Something that was not too old and not too baby-ish either.

Here was some artwork I kinda liked, from HomeSense. But I never got it--it just wasn't quite right.
In talking with my sisters, I was first thinking about trying some of those vinyl stick-ups or so. None of the ones I found really suited what I wanted either. My sister, Helen, made these cute wall-hangings. She bought the material from Quilt Essential Fabrics (in Abbotsford, BC) a year or so back, from an Eric Carle line. (Based on the book, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do You See?). I really liked them and she gave me her extra material to do the same kind of thing.

However, my hubby wasn't a big fan--he thought they might be on the baby-ish side, or not too fitting for the room E was currently in, so I had to do some thinking again.

I did sew some curtains for him to match the comforter (sorry for the sideways picture!), and we did hang up some bulletin boards for all of his "stuff" (he is a collector of stuff--anything--he NEEDS to keep, so this is a good place--otherwise it is all over the house!)

I still liked the idea of the frames my sister had made, so I decided to check out Quilt Essentials as well. I'm terrible at matching colours and prints. I just don't have an eye for that, so the ladies there helped me out a little. E picked the one fabric he liked (the transportation one!) and then the other ones were "matching" ones. I picked up a fat quarter of each, and then went home to decide what to do with them.

I did a little searching, and ran into a tutorial here about fabric covered wall canvases. So I decided to give it a try. I didn't like the brightness of the fabrics I had chosen just because the rest of his room was grey and navy, so I tried to incorporate some of the fabric from the curtains into it. . .but I didn't have a bunch of it left! So here was the new plan:

First I got my hubby to build some frames for me. . .

Then I followed some of the advice from the tutorial to wrap the fabric around the frames. Some of my staples didn't go in all the way, so I got to go a little crazy with the hammer too. E had to inform me that he didn't know mommy knew how to use tools. Did I show him! :)

With a little help in the idea department from an old IKEA catalogue, I finally came up with a "set-up" I liked:

Here is a close up of my "solution" to the fabric being too bright. . .and not having enough pieces of curtain fabric. This is actually two small pieces sewed together, and then I made a band that kind of matched the bands holding the curtains back. I figured this might look nice with the curtains, and add enough dark colour to the colour scheme. If I were to do it again, I wouldn't have chosen the orange that they recommended, but gone with a reddish or green instead.

So here it is on the wall (the most time consuming part was hanging it all up!) The big "canvases" are 17x17--perfect for those fat quarters! The small frames are 7x7. There is 3 inches of spacing between it all. Notice how this lay-out doesn't match the above one? Not sure which one I like better. . .but I suppose that can be changed. . .

And here is my happy kiddo.

So. . .that is one of my Spring Break projects completed.