10 little diaper clutches

Tiger thinks he's so helpful when I'm sewing.

Vanessa from V. and Co. actually came up with the genius idea of baiting her cat Overlord with a decoy piece of fabric to sit on so that she can continue sewing unfettered.

I finally finished some diaper clutches this week--which have been on my to-do list for ages. All but one or two are already given away or spoken for....people are breeding like rabbits, I tell you!!

 I think I finally got a good method down for mass production. These are the boy/unisex ones.

 And the girly ones...the yellow flowery one on the left is for moi.

If you're interested in a pattern and tutorial, check out this old post of mine. All you need is two fat quarters of fabric, some sew-on velcro and you're good to go! These things are so handy!

12 little dresses

 Remember how I said in my last post that I'd cut out a bunch of tiny peasant dresses, and I'd finish them soon if it was going to kill me? I TOTALLY FINISHED THEM TODAY. Boo-yah.

Okay, well, if we're being technical about it, I still haven't stitched the bows in place yet, but I needed to take the pics while it was still light out. I am going to do it tonight, though. Hopefully.

I got the free pattern and tutorial from Pinterest--check out the link to Sew Much Ado here. It's an easy project even for the pattern averse. Putting the casing/elastic in the sleeves is probably the trickiest part. But you don't even have to--you can leave the sleeves un-gathered.

The dress in the middle shows the standard 0-3 month size (although I always add a couple of inches to the length). I used my scanner/printer to reduce the pattern to newborn size, and enlarged it for a toddler size.

So I ended up making 12 of them. If it's worth doing, it's worth OVERdoing, in my opinion, hahaha. I think I'll keep at least 4-5 of them, but the rest are for my gift stash. I made all of them with fabric remnants from Jo-Ann's and so they each only cost a few dollars!

 (That is two identical dresses next to each other, not one big fat one like my daughter thought...)

 I even made one with knit and it wasn't a total disaster! High fives for me!!

I should mention that I borrowed my mom's serger for these. I have one, but the timing/alignment are a little off and I'm always afraid I'm going to lose an eye when I use it. My mom's is like 30 years old but it runs SMOOTH as BUTTER.

 Last but not least, I made a blessing dress! It was from a remnant, too and cost me maybe $10 with everything included.

By the way, it is really hard to photograph white on white.

 It's the prettiest antique white embroidered fabric, 100% cotton from Jo-Ann's.

 My mom sewed my blessing dress from eyelet lace, and Madelyn wore it for her blessing, too. I debated on whether or not to make one for QQ but since I was in dress sewing mode anyway, I went for it.

 It's even fully lined with silky white material--fancy! And I hand stitched the hem to the interior lining so the seam wouldn't show through on the other side. It took forever.

 I can't decide which is my favorite!

For the next couple of days, I'm going to have to tear myself away to do Easter stuff with the kids, but then I've got blankets to sew and a custom jewelry order to put together, and baby clothes to wash, and Luke's closet to rearrange to make room for said clothes, etc. etc. etc.

I need more time in the day. And for someone to come clean up my kitchen/sewing table, because it is a freaking MESS.

Actual Finished Projects

Two months ago, I posted this picture of burp cloths all cut out and ready to be sewn. I was sure that it would only be a matter of days before they were finished. Ha!! They went into UFO (Un-finished Object)/Project Limbo Mode along with everything else I was trying to do at the time.

Two months of things sitting on my kitchen table:

 

It still looks like this, by the way. Only with different piles.

 Usually 2-3 weeks would go by without any progress. It was making me insane in the membrane.

So I am posting this in celebration of the things I have actually been able to finish. I still have much more to do, but this is a start. And I don't have pictures to prove it, but I also finished my DANG MENDING PILE, which had over 20 items in it, so that is something.

 

Of course, some of the problem is because I do things in big quantities. I am trying to build up my baby gift stash because I know about a dozen other pregnant friends and family right now.

 My burp cloth gift stash!

 I had been buying remnants of flannel from Jo-Ann every time I went in, so I had a lot to use up. I made 40 of this kind. They are easy and quick to make, unless you have other responsibilities/kids. Then they take months.

 

With the remaining girly scraps, I cut out 20 squarish burp cloths for myself.

 They turned out all different shapes and sizes, (plus one extra wavy one) but I tried to make them around 8-10 inches. I used the ones I made for Luke like this nonstop for 3+ years, for spit up, drool, and for sticking in the crook of my elbow so his head wouldn't get sweaty against my skin. So handy!

 This is a new item I came up with. It's an 8x8" square with ribbon taggies and a crinkly interior. This was my first attempt, which I gave to my niece Nora to test:

Babies are like cats. They love stuff that crinkles.

Then I made one for my niece Sky (I have a lot of older nieces on Mark's side), who is having her first baby a couple of weeks after me:

And also this awesome Star Trek blanket because she is a Trekkie:

 And this diaper clutch.

I love sending homemade gifts. (I also sent her a bunch of Luke's old baby clothes.)

Next on my to-do list:

 

Little tiny peasant dresses!

I am going to finish these soon if it kills me. 

Baby blankets du jour

I just finished sewing a few blankets for my friend Lauren, my cousin Rachel and my sister Maria.

Oh, and I bought a light box.

You know, to help get diffused lighting for still photography.

Not to be used as a private movie tent or anything.

Look how pretty! I'm nerding out over the lighting. This is a car seat canopy I made for Lauren's baby Charlotte. I got the chevron fabric at Ace Hardware. They seriously have a gorgeous fabric selection.

This is a blanket I made for Rachel's baby Charles. This adorable pirate material was designed by Sarah Jane for Michael Miller Fabrics and I got it here on etsy. I hurried and made these two blankets and shoved them into the mail right before I left for my SLC trip. I'd been putting them off for ages. It helps me to create arbitrary deadlines like road trips.

Then, last Friday, after hearing that my sister Maria is going to have her baby any day now (even though she's not due for two more weeks). I decided to make her some last minute gauze swaddling blankets. I had been meaning to do those for a while, too, but hadn't bought any fabric yet. So I went to Jo-Ann and got a few yards of printed gauze, some plain off-white gauze and then some pink dye to dip-dye a piece of it.

If you want a tutorial on how to make gauze [muslin] blankets--although they are SUPER simple--you just turn the edges under and stitch, look here. Dana always has the best tutorials and pictures. Love her blog.

I didn't follow any sort of tutorial to make my dip-dyed blanket--I just sort of winged it. I didn't start the process till 9:00pm, that's why the lighting is bad. I did hem the blanket before I dyed it, that's the only sort of advice I would give.

I used Dylon Flamingo Pink dye. It said that total soaking time was 50-60 minutes. So I decided to dip 1/5th of the blanket (which was folded into fourths) into the dye, wait 10 minutes and then slide in another 1/5th until the whole blanket was done.The directions say for you to stand and stir it for 15 minutes initially, but since the gauze is so thin (and I was busy finishing the other blankets), I just made sure it was getting through all the layers and then let it sit. This is the lazy way of dip dyeing.

Finally, all the sections were dyed. The last section only sat in there for 10 minutes while the first section had been in for about an hour.

It took about 10 minutes of rinsing in cold water before most of the excess dye was out--and then I threw it in the wash (by itself).

Love!!!!! Love the ombre, love the shades of pink, love the scalloping. It's almost as if I planned it that way, haha.

 I just think it will look really pretty with a little baby swaddled up in it for a photo shoot. HINT HINT, MARIA.........

Here's the other blankets I made her that night.

Commercially bought gauze blankets are ridiculously expensive. I made these for half the cost! The dark pink one with the flower print is an oversized one that is a square 1 1/4 yards. That's the size of most that are sold online. The rest that I made were smaller.

 The gray and pink striped blanket is a yard of knit from Jo-Ann. I just squared it up, rounded off the edges and did a stay stitch 1/2 inch from the edge (although that probably wasn't necessary). Maria really wanted lightweight, breathable blankets because she lives in St. George, where it will soon be boiling hot.

So I rolled them all up and took them to her on Saturday. She was so excited!

Oh, and I also made her this car seat canopy. I am sort of amazed at myself at being able to finish six blankets in one night...and if I remember correctly, that was the same night that Mark was out back, stargazing, and between dip dyeing and sewing, I ran out and saw Jupiter--it's my favorite planet--and the Orion nebula, the Pleiades, and Taurus, and Betelgeuse. We saw the stripes on Jupiter, people. And three of its Gallilean moons.  Having a telescope is awesome. Mark took some pictures of the moon, too. They're on film, though. Nothing to show you yet.

Anyhoo, I really lucked out finding this Dwell Studio material (albiet it was twill, not my preferred quilting cotton) on clearance for $5 a yard at Jo-Ann. I don't remember ever seeing Dwell Studio stuff there before?! This could be a good omen.

Perhaps if I announce this, it will help kick my rear into gear....I am opening a second etsy shop to sell my baby blankets! It is nowhere near being ready, but I have been working on it for a lonnnngg time. Hopefully things will be up and running this summer. Stay tuned!! :D