Mr. Potato Head

I saw this post over at Make It and Love It (one of my favorite blogs) and knew I had to make one for Sadie for Christmas. I hadn't had much experience working with felt and let me tell you, I didn't really enjoy it. It was so hard for me to cut it straight, to sew it together and make it look nice. I think it would have been easier for me to just use regualr material, but it was good experience for me to work with felt since I want to eventually make some felt food things for Sadie to play with.

Anyway, here is how mine turned out...it didn't turn out nearly as cute as her's did, but I am happy with it and I think Sadie will enjoy it too! But don't tell her...it's for Christmas!

I still need to make arms for it...who knows if I will get that done before Christmas or not!

Here are some of the other things I made for my potato head dude.

I will probably try to make another one sometime since I have more than enough felt left over...

I have lots of other things that I have been working on that I need to post about, but I can't because they are Christmas presents. Maybe after Christmas I will show you all what I made.

Baby shower gifts

My old roommate Lindsay is having a baby and was in town from Denver this past weekend. While she was here, she had a baby shower. It was so great to see her and I just am so excited for her and her husband. They are going to be such great parents! Here is what I made for her little one.

I used freezer paper stencils on the onesies and I crocheted the flowers for the hair clips. The only problem with making things for people is that I always want to keep them for myself! :)

Hairclips. You bet I will be making exact replicas of all of these for Sadie!

I got the template for these little birds at the Martha Stewart website. There were lots of animals to choose from.

This was also from the Martha Stewart website. Next time I will go over it 3 or 4 times so that the paint is even. There are a few spots that are kinda splotchy. Oh well.

Big News

We had some news to share with friends and family so I decided to make a shirt for Sadie to share it in a fun way.

I started out with a plain white t-shirt that I got at DI. Since I got it at a thrift store, it wasn't exactly stain free. So I mixed some fabric paint and water and put it in a spray bottle to "die" the shirt before I used a freezer paper stencil to write the message that I wanted on the shirt.

I think it turned out really cute and she still wears it a lot...mostly because she doesn't have many long sleeve shirts and it is getting cold. And yes...I am expecting! We are so excited to have another little one running around our little house. I'm about 18 weeks along and we can't wait to find out what we are having!

Baby gifts long overdue!

While I was in the middle of sewing all of those jumpers from the last post, I realized that 2 of the babies that I still owed baby gifts to were getting older. They were already 2 and 3 months old, so I needed to start on something quick. I took a couple nights to make these super cute skirts from MADE. I just love how they turned out and I wish I had three little girls to wear them. :) But I don't, so I kept one for my little girl, and gave (still in the process of giving) them to the little girls I made them for!

I will definitely be making more of these skirts as my little one grows up!

And this one is for my friend Katie. She is so creative and has made lots of cool things so go over and check out her blog. Surprise Katie...now we just need to meet up so I can get it to your adorable girl!

Whew!

I finished 6 of the jumpers and finally have all of the cotton fabric ones done! Woo hooo. That was a lot of sewing. I still have about 5 more to do out of courderoy but I think I will take a short break before starting on those ones because I have some things that I have needed to make for a long time. Also, Christmas is fast approaching and I have lots to make!

What I've been busy with...

A lady that I know asked me to do a project for her. She wanted new jumpers for school because she teaches kindergarten and needed some cute new jumpers. So she gave me an old jumper to use as a pattern and a lot of fabric and let me get to work. I have all of the cotton fabric cut out and ready to sew but then she gave me more fabric for winter type jumpers. Anyway, so that is what I have been doing every night. I really enjoy doing it and I'm getting paid for it which is even better. So I just hope I can get them all done so she can start wearing them all the time!

Here are eight of the jumpers all cut out and ready to be sewed. This was after I finished 2 of them.

This I believe was the fourth one I sewed. I forgot to take pictures of all of them, but you get the idea.
And this was what she wanted for her halloween costume. She is going to be mother goose and so this is what we came up with. She will also have a hat and a stuffed goose to go along with it. Anyway, 5 down...11 more to go I think. :)

Sister in law's baby shower!

My sister in law is having a baby boy! And I got to go to her baby shower this last weekend. It was really hard for me to think of something good to make for her little boy because...well...he is going to be a boy. ha ha. But yeah. So I had to look around for something good and I found it here. I thought these were so cute and they looked very helpful in the task of changing diapers or giving baths. I don't have a boy, but I have heard from friends that when you change their diaper you need to take cover! So I used the tutorial on Make it and Love it's blog.

Here is how mine turned out.


I hope they are helpful Evan and Shanna!

Baby girl dress!

Our downstairs tenants had a baby a week or so ago and she was just so tiny! Barely over 6 pounds. Anyway...I decided to make her a cute little dress as a gift. I found the pattern on someone else's blog and will link to it soon, I just need to get on another computer to find it. It is super easy and cute. I love it.

I have also finished a few other things that I need to blog about, but I can't yet because I am givin ghtem as gifts...so you'll just have to wait!

This is the tiny dress. It is size 1-3 months. I can't believe that Sadie was once that small!

I also included a crocheted sweater and some cute hair clips. I hope they liked it!

Apology and bean bags

I know. I am a bad blogger. It's not that I haven't made anything to blog about, it is just that I don't like to download the pictures off of my camera onto the computer. And lots of times, I just don't take pictures of the things that I make. So, to the one or two people that read this blog, I'm sorry. I will try to do better.


Anyway, I saw the idea for these bean bags here. It is one of my favorite blogs to look at because she comes up with some of the cutest ideas. My friend Katie made her own version of these bean bags from leftover t-shirt sleeves. I love how she used stitching to make the letters! Anyway, So I was going to make 26 bean bags and put all the letters of the alphabet on them, but I never got around to putting the letters on them. And, I only made 22. I might someday still put letters on them, but I kinda like how they are right now. I used squares that my mother in law had given me from her huge fabric stash. She makes "I spy" quilts and had a ton of fabric squares cut out that she let me have. I was going to (and still might) make an I spy quilt because I still have lots of fabric squares, but now I have "I spy beanbags" Sadie loves them. I ask her to find one with stars on it and she looks through them all until she finds the stars. They will be great when I start teaching her colors too!

Things that need finishing...

I have been working on lots of projects, I am just really bad at finishing them. So here are some pictures of things I have made that need some finishing touches. My back has also been really hurting me lately, so instead of hunching over the sewing machine which I would love to do more of, I have been doing more crocheting on the comfortable couch. So until my back is feeling better, I probably won't have much sewing going on...sigh

Here are some hair clips I made for some family and friends that had baby girls recently. I just know they will look adorable on my new little niece Thea. My friend from refugee crafter made up the pattern for the crocheted flowers. You can find it here. I think I have already linked to that pattern on this blog before, but it is just so cute I had to do it again!

I made this cute skirt from out of white fabric with a vertical blue stripe. It looks really cute on a hanger, but I don't know if I really like it on me. Still debating.

This is a darling little skirt I saw on one of my favorite blogs. I knew I had to make one the second I saw it. It is still waiting for the gathered pocket to be added, but it is adorable. I love it! You can find the tutorial here.

This little sweater was made from a pattern from refugee crafter again. I love how it turned out and I may have to make another one soon. Here is the free pattern.

And here are more of the Bombay love sweaters that I posted about before. They are all just waiting for buttons and then they will be ready to send to friends who are pregnant. I think I'm addicted to these little suckers.

So that is what I have been working on...better get back to resting my back so I can get back to sewing sometime soon!

Refashioning again...

I have been refashioning my old t-shirts again. I figured, since I had about 20 of them, I could spare some to make Sadie some cute clothes. I made a skirt and some shorts for her. Sorry there aren't any really good pictures. I'm not patient enough I guess. It is very hard to catch a one year old in a picture that isn't blurry! So here is the skirt. It turned out really cute and even cuter on her. It literally took me about 15 minutes to make.



I love how the shorts turned out. Perfect fit and I even cut off the picture from my shirt and stitched it to the front of her shorts. So cute! Another 15 minute project. I'm going to go through all of Rob's shirts later and see what else I can make out of them!


I have been working on a lot of projects lately. Some I forgot to take a picture of before I sent them in the mail, and others are just waiting to be photographed. So stay tuned for more of the fun things I have been making!

Recycled t-shirt ruffle dress

I happened upon this lovely tutorial a couple weeks ago and I thought the dress was just so cute that I had to make one. I found one of Rob's shirts with some stains on it and asked him if he still wore it. He said yes. Then I said...well, can I cut it up and make it into a dress for Sadie? He said yes. So I started cutting. It only took a little over an hour to make and I thought it turned out pretty good. I think next time I will make more of a difference in the length of the ruffles, but it is pretty cute.

The nice thing about working with knit fabric is that it doesn't really fray. So I didn't even hem the bottom of the dress, I just cut it to the right length and that is that.

I really need to organize my stuff better because Sadie always seems to find and get into my buttons. Today her favorite thing to do was to dump them out and then step on them because they stuck to her feet. Silly girl.

Little girls, little girls

Everyone I know that is pregnant right now is having a girl! Actually, that isn't true, but practically it is. I really do know about 5 people right now having or recently had baby girls. I found this pattern for a cute little sweater that I wanted to try. They turned out pretty cute and they are addicting to make. I have made 4 and am working on my fifth right now. The only problem is, every one that I make I love. So I think...I'll just keep this one in case I have another girl sometime, but if I kept them all, I would have nowhere to put them. So I will be giving most of them away. I only have my first two finished sweaters pictured here, but I will post more when I get around to taking pictures.

Button detail.

I especially love this one...probably because it was the very first one I made.

Father's Day Gift.

I saw this online while I was surfing through other people's blogs. I forgot to bookmark this particular page so sorry to whoever was the creator of these cute notes. I think she sells them on etsy so if you do a search, you should be able to find it.

I decided to make one for my husband for Father's day. Unfortunately I started it too late and he just got it a couple weeks ago. he he. It took a lot longer than expected.


This was my first embroidery project, well, without my mom coaching me through the whole thing. I made something when I was a teenager, but this one was easy. Lots of straight lines. I think we will frame it and hang it in the house. Someday. For now, it just sits on a table. :)

Sorry...this is supposed to show you detail of the stitching. I need to learn how to use photoshop or just take better pictures.

Cute Idea....

I had just finished reading this post and drooling over how cute the dress turned out when I walked into my room and saw a size 12 month onsie thrown on the floor. Why it was in my room I have no idea, especially since I don't think my daughter wore it more than once and not for months. Size 12 month stuff is way too short for her long torso-ed body. I saw it lying there and thought, hey that would be good to make a dress out of. I threw it over in a pile of my sewing stuff not expecting to touch it for weeks, but then I saw that it had landed on an orange shirt of mine that I was thinking about making into a skirt for her.



PERFECT. Just put the two together and you have a dress. There was even orange in the onsie so I, of course, stopped cleaning and got to work. Then my napping daughter woke up. So it had to wait for evening time.

I got it out after she was in bed and was expecting it to be the only thing I worked on that night. Literally 10 minutes later I was done. Seriously. It is so easy and it was good practice for me. Now that I know I can do it, I might try to make a super cute dress like the one in the link above.


Here is my beautiful little girl being a great model. She's not very good at posing for pictures yet. She is always on the move, but maybe when she is older I can get better pictures. For now, this is all I've got.

4th of July Skirt

I got this fabric last year sometime for a dollar a yard and knew I would use it for the 4th. I decided to make a cue little skirt for Sadie. It came together really quickly because I used the ribbon at the bottom instead of hemming it. I think it turned out pretty cute.


It is just a rectangle of fabric almost twice as long as Sadie's waist measurement. Then stick the elastic in the top and fold the ribbon over the bottom and ta-da. You are DONE. I love fast and easy projects.

Sorry it is blurry...it is hard to take pictures of things while they are moving.

I got this fabric last year sometime for a dollar a yard and knew I would use it for the 4th. I decided to make a cue little skirt for Sadie. It came together really quickly because I used the ribbon at the bottom instead of hemming it. I think it turned out pretty cute.

Hair clips.

I love to do projects that are quick and easy. I don't have a craft room or anything like that and most of the time my daughter is running around getting into everything. So I love things I can make during her naptime and put them away when she wakes up. Little hair clips are a perfect project for me.

Sadie is just barely getting enough hair to actually be able to wear these, but they don't stay in for long. She loves to pull them out and give them right back to me. Sigh. But I do know about 4 or 5 friends having baby girls soon, so they will be getting some of these from me!

Close up. The pink one with the brown button is probably my favorite.

I also like to throw in some little crocheted flowers to make them even cuter. I use lots of different patterns that I have found, but my friend has a great pattern on her blog.

I made all of these in about an hour and a half. Well, I already had the crocheted flowers made so that didn't add to the time.

First Post!

Well, a lot of my friends have separate blogs to post the crafty things that they make. So I decided to do the same. Being a mom of a 1 and a half year old, I don't have much time to start and finish projects, but I hope to at least post once a week with a new thing I have made. I love everything crafty...especially sewing and crocheting. It amazes me what someone can make with a simple hook and some yarn. Who discovered that anyway? I would love to shake his or her hand.

Anyway, here is my first project that I have finished. It is a diaper bag. I found the pattern online somewhere and I have the link somewhere on another computer. So if you want the pattern, just leave a comment and I will be happy to share it with you.

I really like the bag...it is way better than my old bag that was falling apart. I think it would make a better diaper bag if the top opening wasn't so narrow. Having to fit diapers and wipes and toys and snacks makes it hard to get to everything with a small opening. But overall it is a great bag!