Two posts in a month...what?!?!?

I might as well try to stick with the blogging again for a little while, especially since I have so much on the go right now.  With E's First Birthday approaching, I went through the mounds of onesies and sleepers he has grown out of over the course of a year.  It is mindboggling (a) how quickly he has grown and (b) just how much stuff a baby can have.

Both my husband and I are a little sentimental about some of the onesies.  Rather than donate them or hand them down, I selected between 50 and 60 of our favourites and made a quilt.  Admittedly, not my finest quilt job (there is definitely a reason I prefer the "rustic" nature of rag quilts to traditional quilts), but it means a lot to us and it is something that we can hang on to for years to come, without starting down the dangerous path towards hoarding.

Baby sewing projects - Soft Blocks

I'm a binge seamstress.  I won't sew for long periods, sometimes years, and then once I start I binge big time.  I had not sewed anything since Christmas when I decided that I would be able to sew a couple things while also managing lil' E.  As previously posted, suddenly that meant making headbands, a car seat cover and I also made soft blocks that E will be able to play with over time.

I was inspired by this website (Smile and Wave).  Her's are gorgeous and I loved the material.  For E, I went with simple black and white checker board and two different colours of baseball patterns in basic cottons.

When E gets bigger he will be able to grab them and throw them without causing any damage.  For now, he stares at the checker board pattern during Tummy Time.

Baby sewing projects - Car Seat Cover

 
Hubby is very protective of anyone trying to touch Little E, even more so than I am.  Whenever we have gone out, we tend to keep a muslin blanket draped over the car seat.  However, it was light and whenever there was a breeze, it would be havoc.  We started using office clips to hold it on, but it was a sorry solution.

(Said office clip)

I kept seeing car seat cover instructions every time I looked for sewing projects and initially I didn't think they were necessary.  Now I know better.  One of the best sites for instructions is here - I particularly like her reference to the cover being a "greeter deterrent".  Exactly what I was going for.

I bought a couple meters of broadcloth and printed cotton and strips of velcro.  I followed the instructions linked above.  The trickiest part is getting the straps placed onto the cover.  You can either mark your material or attach the straps to the car seat handle where you want them and then pin them, loosely, to the cover.  I did the latter.

I did not iron the material before making the cover, but obviously that's a good idea (the cover has a pretty well defined crease in it, but that can be fixed).

I'm happy with the results and the Hubby was happy to have a greeter deterrent.  All in all, it was pretty quick to make, especially since Little E actually cooperated and decided to nap (you will note that he is not swaddled, since he has decided that swaddling is for sissies this week).

Baby sewing projects - Headbands

We are starting to get into a bit of a routine that works for us as Little E is 7 weeks old.  As a result, I have been able to work in some time to sew some simple projects.  Over the next few days I will post the results of a few recent projects, including in process photos where I remembered to take them.  Where applicable, I will also post links to great websites where I got the instructions from.

If you have seen other entries on the blog, it is clear that my baby is a boy.  However, my best friend was also pregnant this year and had a beautiful little girl.  On Pinterest I saw a link to instructions for very simple jersey headbands for babies.  Included in the instructions is a chart providing the approximate lengths of material that work for different ages, up to and including adult - and yes, I made a couple basic headbands for myself.

I bought a few pieces of solid t-shirt jersey material in light blue, navy blue and purple.  One of the benefits of using jersey is that you don't have to be perfect, since the material naturally rolls up so you don't have to hem the edges.

I followed the instructions in the link above, so I won't bore you by repeating them and there are really good pictures included.  Below are a few in process pictures. I did not however glue the rosettes on to the headband, rather I sewed them on.

The one on the right has a felt rosette.

Christmas Crafting - Rag Quilts

December has been a whirlwind.  I did a lot more crafting than I have blogged about and I have not been really on the ball about taking pictures.  My apologies.

Any ways, after making a rag quilt for a friend's soon to be new born, I decided to make quilts for my sister and my sister-in-law.  I picked out four colours/patterns in flannel for the front and a fleece for the back of each quilt.  I bought 2 metres of the fleece and 1/2 metre of each of the flannel colours/ patterns.

In a prior post I provided links to a couple tutorials that are really good explanations of how to make a rag quilt, so I won't provide details here.  Here are a few pictures from the last go round, but I realized that, brilliant me, I forgot to take pictures of the final products.  Sometime in the future I will update this post with final pictures of the blankets in use by the girls.

Somebody found her sewing machine!

Let's start by addressing the obvious question - how does someone misplace their sewing machine.  Easy, when we moved into the house, it was not unpacked right away.  I've been busy with work and haven't needed to sew anything until recently.  My husband wants new drapes for the front door and a few months ago he started cajoling me into looking for the box with the sewing machine.  I couldn't remember where it was!  So, I just let it rest for a while.

My friend's wife is pregnant and I wanted to make a few gifts (in addition to the diaper cakes that will be in the next post), so the search for the sewing machine began again.  Of course it was in the most obvious place (I have a spare room that was originally intended to be my home office but has become a bit of a storage space).

Anyways, sewing machine found, I bought some cotton prints, towels and flannel and have been sewing away each night this week.  I've made burp clothes, a bib, and a rag quilt.  I learned how to sew by age 5 but I haven't quilted in any style in YEARS.  I'm tickled pink with how the burp clothes turned out but I am particularly proud of this little rag quilt. 

I didn't remember to take pictures during the making of the burp clothes or most of the way through the quilt but here are some pictures of the final product.

Burp Clothes and Bib (Cotton prints and towels, patterns were free-styled on newsprint):

 Rag quilt:

 (This shows the rows of the squares of cotton, with flannel backing, lined up ready to attach each row together.)

 (Almost done, all rows together and time to cut into the edges to facilitate the fraying.)

 (All edges have been cut to help the fraying.  I hate this part, it feels like it takes forever!)

 (All washed and dried and frayed! Yea!!  Done!!)

I can't wait to give these to the parents-to-be!