baby projects

I've been making lots of gifts for the recent baby boom of friends having children. It's been so fun. I love making something special for my friends to show them how excited I am about their new arrival. Here are some of the recent projects and links to tutorials I used (cause who needs original ideas anymore? .... thanks pinterest)

This was a blanket I made for a friend of Jeff's from work. I got this idea from a gift that one of my friends gave me when H was born. That blanket is his favorite and he takes it with him to daycare everyday. It is actually a really easy project. It only requires a yard of flannel and a yard of the soft, bumpy fabric. I've made a few of these but this was my first attempt to embroider...I used this book to learn the stitches, but I totally free handed it, so that was not the best idea.



Since I have a boy, it is really fun to get to buy/make girl things. I've been wanting to make a tutu for a while and found a great tutorial on you tube that I used. The best part is there is absolutely no sewing involved! So when I found out my friend was having a girl I immediately ordered some spools of tool on Amazon. Just an FYI it is much easier to use spools than to get a yard from a fabric store.



My next project was a onesie for my nephew Bryce. I had my sister's friends all make her or buy her a special onesie for Bryce that symbolized them. I saw this one on etsy a while ago and knew I had to make it. Since there wasn't a pattern this was my first time drafting my own pattern and figuring it out myself. I ended up making two of these in different sizes and on one I left the edges raw and on one I pressed all the edges. The one with the pressed edges turned out better.



Finally, I saw this adorable tutorial over at Lil' Blue Boo (I totally have a blog crush on her) for a sock bunny and decided to make one for H for Easter. It turned out so cute! I don't have a good picture of the one I made for H, but here is his holding it at the Easter egg hunt today.





I've got a few more baby gifts to make, but don't think I'll be able to get much done until after my comprehensive exam on April 25th. So, please don't come early babies!

Recent Projects

Here are my latest sewing creations. I'm going a little craft crazy right now. Currently, these are the projects I have in the works:

- refinishing a coffee table
- painting a weathered looking silhouette/fabric picture
- knitting a scarf
- making fabric flowers
- Christmas place mats with matching napkins
- Christmas bows for our tree
- aprons made out of kitchen towels
- beach bag
- new pincushion

That's all I have materials for right now. The project list in my head (and in my bookmarks on the computer) is endless!

After I made those cute beanbags for my friend's daughter, I decided to make some for H.





They turned out really cute and H really likes to chew on them. Maybe someday they will help with spelling... and maybe I'll get around the rest of the alphabet.

I also started making some reusable grocery bags. I was inspired by all of the crafty blogs I read where people go to Goodwill and find hum drum things and make them into awesome new things! So, a couple weeks ago I went and got some sheets, pillowcases and a kitchen valance and took the seams out to turn them into fabric for grocery bags! Here are the first two I made.





This bag is made out of a kitchen valance


This bag is made out of a sheet and a pillowcase.

I used this tutorial to make the bags. The directions were a little murky and I didn't follow them exactly, but I really like that this is basically a regular grocery bag but fabric instead of plastic.

I'll post the rest of my creations as I finish them. Happy crafting!

Beanbags!

I'm so excited about my 3rd sewing project! Never mind that my seams are a little out of control, my letters crooked and my bags different sizes... I love these bean bags! I found this tutorial over at Lil Blue Boo and had to try it!
She gives an awesome tutorial, so I'll just tell you the changes I made to mine and let her tutorial be your guide. You need to check out her blog - it is fabulous!



Here they are! They have uppercase letters on one side and lowercase on the other side. I couldn't find freezer paper so I just free handed my letters and used puff fabric paint and thinned it out with a paint brush. This is the biggest change to Ashley's tutorial. If you can find freezer paper, then your letters will turn out a lot more equal in size than mine did.


Here are the lower case letters


And the upper case letters

The other big change I made was that I did a zig zag stitch for the top stitch instead of a straight stitch. In hindsight, that was not the greatest idea. It is cute, but since you have to leave an opening to stick the beans in it is really hard to go back and match up your zig zags correctly. I ended up having to straight stitch over the zags (or the zigs) to close them securely ... and this ended up looking kind of messy instead of cute. But since I made these for my friend's daughter who is turning 2 - she probably won't notice.




Here is a close up my favorite letter


Yay for sewing! What should I make next?

headbands!

Sewing project number 2 (number 1 was for Father's Day, so that one will have to wait) was these awesome braided headbands I saw over at Cakies. I don't really have many original ideas because everyone else is making such awesome stuff already.



Seriously, this is like the ultimate instant gratification craft project. It takes like 20 minutes tops and then bam - awesome new headband!



H helped me model my headbands



Even Jeff got in on the action... but he insists they are sweatbands



You can check out the great and simple tutorial for these here

For Elyse

I made a present for my one and only twin sister. I saw it over at MaryJanes and Galoshes and knew that I had to make one. Since we are currently 'homeless' so to speak and Jeff has requested that I quit making/purchasing things for our future home, I thought this would look great in Elyse & Stephen's bedroom. Stephen probably isn't as wild about the butterflies as I am ... but he's a good sport.
This is made entirely out of paper! My mom is bringing it when she goes to visit next week but here are some pics until then.






It's a good thing I'm in love with this wreath, cause I might have given myself a few 2nd degree burns making this. Hope you like it Leesey.

old things new

I've been saving H's old wipe boxes to turn into toy boxes. H has a bunch of little toys - rattles, teethers, keys, links, etc. and I figured they needed a better home than strewn across the living room floor. So, here's what I did:

First, I soaked the boxes in hot soapy water to get rid of the wipe smell.

Then, I traced the sides of the box and made a pattern for the sides and top.

Then, I traced the pattern on the back of a sheet of scrapbook paper and cut it out.

Then, I applied the paper to the box using a layer of Mod Podge and let it dry.

After it was dry, I put a layer of glossy Mod Podge over all of the paper and once it dried I applied a second layer.

And Viola! new toy boxes instead of old wipe boxes. H has already figured out that all of his toys are in there and loves to take his toys out and put them back in... or at least try.





Also, stay tuned for another furniture project. I found a GREAT coffee table at the Salvation Army. It is just desperately in need of some paint, or a stain... I can't decide which. I've never stained anything and it seems kind of complicated?

Ta-Daa!

We finally finished H's new dresser. You can read the first post about the project here

Jeff helped me a lot with the finishing of this project. It took more work than I was anticipating. I had to starch the fabric twice and then it still wasn't sticking very well so I went to Lowe's and described what I needed and they recommended a clear sealer for me to use. After that Jeff cut holes in the fabric and drilled new holes for the new hardware. Then we had to cut off the excess fabric on the edges with a really sharp exacto knife. The final step was using beeswax to wax the drawers so they would open and close easier. And here is the finished product...





It didn't turn out exactly like I had pictured, but I still really like it!

H's new dresser!

Well, it has taken me longer than I wanted to get my final project finished.... so I thought I'd show you my progress. I decided I wanted to cover the front of the dresser drawers with fun fabrics so brighten up the room a little. Since the dresser had 1 smaller drawer and the bottom 3 were the same, I picked 2 coordinating fabrics.



Here's the before picture

First I had to sand the dresser so I could paint it. I found a pretty brown Ooops paint at Lowes that was just $1.



After I sanded it I painted it, but I didn't take a picture of that part.

Because this dresser had grooves in it I had to fill them with putty so that the fronts of the drawers would be flat. Oh, and I took the hardware of the dresser and bought some new hardware to replace it so I also filled those holes with putty.



Then I had to sand the drawers so that there would be a little texture to the drawer fronts. Then I cut my fabric panels to be about 1/2 inch on all sides of the drawer.

Then it was time to soak the fabric panels in liquid starch. After they were soaked through I put the panel on the top of the drawer and smoothed out all of the bubbles using a wallpaper smoother.





They will dry overnight and then I'll cut the excess fabric off and cut holes in the fabric for the new hardware. I plan to have this finished by the end of the week. So, after pictures to come!

DIY Project 2

I found this TV stand at Goodwill and decided for $15 I could dress it up and make it work!


Here is the before, it is just a wooden stand with 1 shelf and a leather top on wheels.

First we sanded all the sides and then started painting everything. Since our paint color was light it ended up taking 3 coats. Then we took the wheels off and painted some feet for it and put the feet on and wallah!


Here is the After. I cleaned the leather and polished the brass sides, but you can't really tell.



This was an easy and inexpensive fix and I really like it...now we just need a living room to put it in.

Project 1

The first of 4 DIY projects is complete and I love it! I made a decorative mirror for our living room. Here's how you can do it to. You will need:

24 X 24 thin piece of plywood

3 sheets of 12 X 12 glass tiles

12 X 12 mirror

mirror glue

clear drying silicone adhesive caulk

paint color of your choice ( I used a light khaki)

Step 1: paint the plywood with 2 coats, make sure to paint the edges also as they will be seen.

You don't need a gallon of paint obviously, but we found this in the ooops paint section at home depot and it was only $5.

Step 2: cut the tiles to the desired size. I forgot to take a picture of the tiles. But they come in sheets and you can cut them in half into 6 inch pieces if you are only going to use 1 color. I chose to use 2 colors and so I cut mine into 3 inch squares and alternated the colors.

Step 3: using the caulk glue the tiles to the board. I put glue on the back of each small square so that not much leaked out onto the board.

Step 4: glue mirror to the center of the board with mirror glue

allow everything at least 12 hours to dry. Then use some sturdy picture hangers to attach to the back and you are ready to hang your mirror! Here's the finished product.


Coming up next... taking a TV stand from drab to fab!