Bib DIY: Fashion + Function!

I'm continuing my quest to get sewing projects both completed and blogged! It seems like I finish one thing and I'm right onto the next (with three more projects being planned in my head).

I had a lot of fun sharing our Christmas stockings and the super fun retro dolls I made. But I'm almost more excited to share the bibs I've been making, which are essential for anyone with a drooling, teething baby on their hands! (Sadie is 9 months old with 6 teeth and possibly another on the way, so the drooling never ends in our house.)

I've loved this waterproof bib tutorial from Our Little Beehive. The pattern is great and the instructions are very clear and concise (because who likes cutting out their pattern pieces and then realizing they have no clue how to sew everything together?).

Now, what makes these bibs extra special is the fact that they have three layers: cotton fabric on top, absorbent flannel in the middle and a waterproof fabric on the back. This works so well for us because the absorbent bibs would always leak right through onto Sadie's shirt and the waterproof bibs tends to just be one layer of waterproof material, so drool/water/milk ends up running all over. Fail. This combination of materials means Sadie can drool all she wants but her shirt stays dry.

The materials are simple and inexpensive. I had fun using bright, colorful cotton fabric for the top layer - I had plenty of options in my stash of fabric so I didn't have to buy a thing. For the middle layer I used a cheap white flannel. The back layer is a waterproof PUL fabric (I got mine from Fabrics.com), which is fairly inexpensive.

It can be time consuming to cut the pieces out as you need to cut 3 pieces for each bib, but once that's done they can be sewn together in minutes (perfect for naptime sewing project). 

The size is great for the under 12 month crowd - if the bib is too small it won't cover her shirt and if it's too big she tries to eat it. This bib is just right. And, obviously she's super excited to now have fashionable, functional bibs! Priorities.

Sewing Project: Retro Dolls

I'm excited to start adding more updates of sewing projects that I had previously shared! I had completed our Christmas stockings, which were so cute hanging in our dining room.

One of my "super secret" projects I was working on for Sadie was kept a secret because if it went well I was going to make it as gifts for some friends who also have little girls.

Well, my first try was acceptable (resembled what it was supposed to, wasn't terribly messed up), so I decided that I could green light the project and make more!

I'd found a pattern on Etsy from Retro Mama - a super cute doll pattern that was retro and fun with quirkly little details. I knew it would be a challenging project but I decided it was worth a try. Her pattern was very well done, the instructions were easy to follow, and she even sells a bundle of felt in the different hair colors. (So, really, if I hadn't decided to make more, I would have been left with a lot of black, brown and gold felt.)

I had some struggles along the way: when it comes to assembling the doll, it's hard shoving all of the limbs into the body in order to stitch them in place. By the time you get to the legs, there is no room for them to go and it's difficult getting it stitched well. I had to re-do a few of them, and some are less than perfect. Sometimes the arms didn't line up well, either. Ah well. Each doll is unique!

It was really fun decided on the different fabrics to pair together. Sadie's was super colorful with the turquoise mary janes, argyle tights and polka dotted dress.

And, obviosuly, Sadie loves her (I hope!).

It was also fun picking out colors and patterns that I thought fit the personalities of the little girls I gifted these to (ok, they're all infants, so really the personalities of there mamas!).

For awhile these dolls were all lined up on our piano, looking a bit like a 1960s doo-wop group!

I am incredibly proud of this project and that I got 4 of these dolls made in a little over a month!

Note: Retro Mama holds the copyright for the pattern, which I purchased from her! You can check out her blog for more fantastic projects.

DIY Christmas Stockings

I've been chugging right along with my current crafting/sewing projects I'd wanted to do! So much to do, so little time!

With the Christmas holiday around the corner, I wanted to make sure we had family stockings! While Sadie won't know/remember whether or not she had a stocking for her first Christmas, I would know. But I didn't really want to spend the money on stockings, especially since fabric is so much cheaper than buying pre-made stockings.

I found a super easy and free pattern on About.com. Their version made not be the prettiest and the instructions aren't the clearest, but free is always great!

I spent $7.50 on fabric (1/2 yard of green chevron and 1/2 yard of pink chevron) along with some solid colors I already had in my fabric stash and some felt I had on hand for the names. With these supplies I was able to make four stockings.

And...voila! (please excuse the poor quality iPhone picture!)

They aren't perfect but they were made with love! And they're bright, cheery, and fun. And, as I said, only cost me $7.50! I've seen similar stockings selling on Etsy for $25+ per stocking. I also have a fourth stocking for our pup Charlie, but with the longest name in the bunch I haven't been able to sew his name onto his stocking. That will probably be a project for January when I have more time on my hands.

So, one project done, a million to go over the next couple of weeks!

Fall and Christmas Craft Projects!

Toward the end of my pregnancy, I packed away my sewing machine and supplies. I made sure I wrapped up any projects a couple of weeks before Sadie was due, partly because I was getting too big and uncomfortable to sit and sew and partly because I didn't want to go into labor early and have sewing stuff and unfinished projects sitting around.

Now that I'm starting to feel more like my old self again (slightly more energy, fitting into old clothes, thinking of more things beyond laundry and breastfeeding), my mind has been going a mile a minute with projects I want to do! I thought I'd share a roundup of what I plan to work on over the coming weeks; here's hoping I actually get some of these projects done!

Waterproof Bibs
I have a lot of colorful, fun cotton fabric that I've been wanting a project for. I also have a baby drooling a lot while she eats solids and making a mess. The cloth bibs soak right through and the drool just runs off the wipeable bibs. So I love this waterproof bib tutorial from Our Little Beehive. I've bought everything else I need to make these (flannel and PUL fabric) and I'm so excited!

One of my favorite soon-to-be-a-bib fabric is Ann Kelle's "Argyle Bright."

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Christmas Stockings
Now that Sadie's first Christmas is coming up I'm excited for us all to have matching Christmas stockings to use each year. I found this simple pattern and tutorial from About.com and made my first stocking with some fabric I had on hand. It was super simple! This one isn't perfect (the first time I make something it rarely ever goes quite as planned), so this one will be for the dog and the other three will be for me, Sadie and Steve!

Top Secret Project!
I have a super special project in the works for Miss Sadie. If all goes as planned I will be trying to make similar ones for friends who've recently had little girls. Excited to share at a later date (you know, if I don't totally mess up the project!).

Ornament
I want Sadie to have a "first Christmas" ornament for the tree. I thought about buying something through Etsy that's personalized, but part of me doesn't want to spend the money and the other part of me thinks it would be so fun to make something. I found this tutorial through Homemade Grits and it's perfect. I've made a "salt dough" like this before and it's really easy. Plus I love the thought of preserving Sadie's itty bitty hand print (and maybe I'll make two - one hand print and one foot print!). It'll be something we're sort of doing together and could be an easy tradition to do a different ornament together each year.

Flannel Sheet
It's cold out! So, of course, Sadie needs a flannel sheet for her crib. Especially because her room is in the basement. I made all of the sheets we currently use through the Bundles of Love tutorial.So, I bought some flannel fabric (after looking at every single flannel I could find to find just the perfect fabric!) and I'm excited to make Sadie's crib a little cozier. It will soon be stylin' with big polka dots!

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I'm excited to get a lot of these projects underway, but it is terribly hard to find the energy at the end of the day. And, of course, Sadie tends to not nap well on the weekends when she's with me. Her short and sweet 30 minute naps don't give me a lot of time to work on project! 

What projects are you hoping to get done over the next couple of months? And, how do you find the time?!

Baby Sewing Style: Peasant Top

I've become slightly obsessed with trying to make clothes for Sadie. The obsession is despite the fact that I'm fairly mediocre at the sewing machine. I can do basic projects that involve sewing in a straight line, and with these "skills" was was able to tackle nursery projects like curtains, crib skirt, sheets, mobile, etc. Easy peasy.

So why exactly am I trying to make clothing for my child? I have no clue. Nor do I understand how or when I expect to complete these projects while working 40 hours a week (not including commuting time) and taking care of baby when not at work. Regardless, I've been scanning the internet for simple projects that I feel like I can handle that also come with free patterns that are sized for my baby. Not exactly easy to find.

I stumbled across this pattern for making a baby peasant blouse. It seemed simple enough, included the pattern for 3-6 months and had instructions that I could actually understand.

I'm proud to say I was actually able to finish the shirt in one sewing session (probably 1-2 hours), only had to make minor adjustments to the elastic in the sleeves so that it fit Sadie's arms, and only had to rip out some of my work and start over once (when I sewed a sleeve on inside out - typical).

And, at the end of it all, it actually looks like a shirt! It may actually look someone store bought (ok, I might be getting a little too confident, especially as you can see a thread hanging from the bottom of it). But if you're fairly new to sewing/have basic skills (like me!) you can probably tackle this project.

Regardless, Sadie was happy to model the shirt. Her whole outfit comes in at $15:

Shirt: $5.00 for fabric and elastic
Jeggings: $6.00 from Target
Socks: $4.00 from Trumpette ($24/6 pairs of socks)
Drool on chin: Free!

And, for the record, the jeggings are actually long enough for her chunky legs!

Just two models, hanging around...

 

Here's hoping I'll have many more "baby style" posts to share with homemade duds for my little girl.

Big Reveal: Baby Koo's Nursery!

We've been working, working and working some more on Baby K's nursery, and I'm excited to say that everything is finished and I can finally share the room with everyone!

When we first moved into our house last November, the room that we knew would be the nursery was, well, a little sad! As you can see from the picture below, it's a teeny tiny little room in the basement with low ceilings. It was just kind of "blah" and made me sad to think that this was going to be our baby's room. Fortunately, it has gone through quite the facelift over the past few months!

Here's the room from the same view as the picture above, but so much brighter and cheerier! (Note: all sources and links to patterns used are listed at the end of the post.)

At the back of the room you can see a circle shelf that we have the baby monitor set up on. I made super simple panel curtains for both of the windows.

We had paint tinted to match the turquoise fabric I'd used throughout the room. Steve painted an old shelf (once upon a time this shelf had been in my mom's childhood room!) and we put fun little odds and ends on it. Oh, you've probably noticed the question mark hiding something, right?

On closer inspection, you can see that it's our little family! For our wedding, we'd had our cake topper made by Goose Grease, and before the wedding we'd done a little photo shoot with our "mini mes" that we used for our table numbers. A couple of months ago Steve and I were looking at the pictures and I thought about how fun they were. But, obviously, we needed an updated version of our family! So I contacted Goose Grease about doing a custom family for us and I absolutely love how they turned out! Me, Steve, our pup Charlie and Baby K are all represented! Of course, you'll have to wait until after Baby K arrives to find out if they made us a little boy or a little girl!

I knew I wanted the dresser to be the focal point of the room, and love the custom dresser we had done by Mint Home (conveniently located in Chicago but don't worry, they can ship to you!). And, of course, it also doubles as our changing table.

Above the dresser we have a little collection of pictures and other things. The frame in the bottom right corner - currently displaying fabric - will hold Baby K's hospital bracelet, and we'll update the photos with other shots (probably newborn photos). Right now it's just photos of us!

To the right of the dresser it's all set up with things we'll need for diaper changing, including cloth wipes, wipe spray, lotion, etc. It's super convenient and right within arm's reach! Tucked away underneath is also our dirty diaper bin.

I made a few different crib sheets as well as the simple crib skirt. Sitting inside is a stuffed owl that I also made.

Because the nursery ceilings are so low, I was afraid we wouldn't be able to hang a mobile. But we were able to hang something high enough that should stay out of baby's reach! This mobile was a fun, easy and inexpensive project for me.



I love our little rocking nook with the pillow and Moroccan pouf made by me, and the books all within arm's reach. It was hard to find a tree decal that would fit for such a small wall - we love the one we finally chose and that it has a fun, modern feel to it. To the left of the rocker is a table that was here when we moved in. Steve painted it with turquoise paint (also used on the shelf) and it was like a brand new table!

Baby K received a lot of books at both of our showers! I love that we have a good start to our library. And, of course, the room would not be complete without a plush little camera (made by me) for Baby K!

So, there you have it: Baby K's fun, bright, turquoise, yellow and gray nursery! Even though there are things that I would change or wish I could do differently, I know that Baby K's nursery is absolutely perfect because Steve and I have put so much TLC into every little detail! There were plenty of things we could have purchased for the room, but it was much more special to us to DIY so many of the details.

Beyond sentimental reasons, DIY'ing also meant we were able to control the costs a bit. The rocker and the dresser were our big splurges. Projects like the mobile and the pouf cost absolutely nothing (as I already had the fabric) and other projects (like the crib sheets and the table and shelf) were relatively inexpensive - you only need 2 yards of fabric for each crib sheet and the table and shelf only needed two coats of paint each.

Now we're just excited to have Baby K arrive and start using the room!

Baby Monitor: Motorola Digital Baby Monitor
Beatles Print: Ex Libris Journals
Bird Mobile Pattern: Spool Sewing
Bookend: CB2 (already owned)
Camera Pattern: Pink Stitches Blog
Changing Area Items (shelf, containers for wipes): IKEA
Changing Pad: Summer Infant Contoured Changing Pad
Changing Pad Cover: Land of Nod
Clock: Decoylab
Cloud Decals: Monkey Threads
Crib: Baby Mod Modena from Wal-Mart
Crib Sheet Pattern: Bundles of Love
Crib Skirt Pattern: Young House Love Blog
Dresser: Mint Home
Fabric - Tulip Pattern (for pouf, curtains, etc): Jessica Jones "Tulip, Dusk" Fabric
Fabric - Crib Sheet: Lotta Jansdotter "Choma Golden Rod" (difficult to find anyone selling it)
Fabric - Miscellaneous: Odds and ends left from other projects
Lamp: Land of Nod
Moroccan Pouf Pattern: Bromeliad Living Blog
Picture Frames: IKEA
Rocker: West Elm
Stuffed Owl Pattern: Toad's Treasures Blog
Tree Decal: Wordy Bird Studios
Wall Paint: Leftover from painting the rest of our house (custom color)
Wall Shelf (for books): IKEA
Wall Shelf (for monitor): Land of Nod