30 Minute Shorts Baby Gift

I made another of the Create H.O.P.E. Designs patterns. You can find out more about them from my last post here. This time I used the 30 Minute Shorts pattern. I decided to make them part of a baby shower gift for a friend's shower next week. Since I was combining the shorts with a heart onesie, I kept them simple with solid colors. I think they turned out pretty cute. The pattern was easy to follow. I ended up using 3/8" elastic instead of 1/2" since it fit better in the waistband.

The headband was made using the tutorial here by Oxford Family guest posting on Craftaholics Anonymous and the flower on it from the tutorial here at Action Hero.

The flower embellishment on the onesie was made using the tutorial for the last onesie here at 2 Little Hooligans.

I love making baby gifts. I'm expecting my second child any day now.

There's still time to enter the giveaway this month at Hopeful Threads. Just buy and sew a pattern from the Create H.O.P.E. Designs pattern shop and link up a blog post about it.

Huggable Slug

I made this cute little slug using a pattern created by 7 Layer Studio for Create H.O.P.E Designs. The money received from pattern sales is used towards different organizations helping children around the world. Several designers have donated patterns. You can find their shop here.

The slug turned out okay for my first try. I couldn't seem to get all the points of the tale to match up and the antennae aren't quite parallel. I think with more practice I could perfect it. I also made the mistake of cutting the 2 side pieces for the slug facing the same direction and had to cut another piece facing the opposite direction to make it work. You'll see what I mean if you decide to purchase the pattern. I haven't decided what I'll do with the slug yet. It'll either be a birthday gift for Boo's friend or a Christmas gift for Boo.

There's a giveaway at Hopeful Threads this month for those that purchase and sew patterns from Create H.O.P.E. Designs. You should check it out.

Gift for a Baby Niece

My sister-in-law had a baby girl back in July. This is what I gave her before the baby was born.

This dress is the Itty Bitty Dress from Made by Rae. I really learned a lot making it. I rarely make clothing. I'd never sewn on piping or bias tape before. I think it turned out really cute. I'll definitely be making it again.

The matching headband is crocheted using the tutorial here. I think I made the flower from that same tutorial, but I can't remember for sure.

The booties are from a pattern by Little Birdie Secrets. There were a couple of mistakes in the pattern, but I was able to make them work anyway. I ended up making 2 sets of booties since the first set didn't end up the same size.

I always enjoy making baby gifts. It's especially fun to make them for girls.

June 2011 Handmade Gift Exchange: Gift Received

Last week I received my gift from the Handmade Gift Exchange at Craftaholics Anonymous. I got some awesome things. Since I'm expecting a baby in November, my partner even included some baby things. I'm not finding out the gender, so she made them gender neutral.

For the baby, she made a bear hat with ribbon ties, an embroidered guitar onesie that says "My Mom Rocks" on it, and a striped bib. Aren't they cute?

She also gave me a zippered pouch, a tissue pouch, and a bird necklace. The pouches will be perfect for the diaper bag. I've been wanting a tissue pouch for a while, but have never gotten around to making one.


Here's a close-up of the bird necklace. Very pretty.

I love all my gifts! I plan to participate in the exchange again. There's one coming up in November, but I think I'll have to skip it since the baby is due then.

Diaper, Taggie, and Bib Baby Shower Gift

I attended a baby shower back in May. The mom-to-be was expecting a girl, so I made some cute pink gifts.
I decided to make her a fitted cloth diaper since she had registered for some cloth diapers and I'm in love with them. I used the pattern from La-Di-Da Diapers. The fabric is flannel from my stash along with one layer of jeans in the soaker pad for extra absorbency. I like how it turned out.

Next, I made a star taggie blanket using the tutorial from Sew a Straight Line. I had some problems getting the point in the middle to match up. I re-did it a few times. I'm not perfectly happy with the end result, but I wasn't sure what else to do in order to have the points match up in the middle. I used flannel, fleece, ribbon, and ric rac from my stash.

Lastly, I made a bib using the tutorial from Made by Marzipan.

I wrapped the gift up in kraft paper and stamped lavender hippos and ducks on it. You can't really see the stamps in the picture since they are so light.

Lisa's 22nd Birthday Gift

My younger sister Lisa had a birthday back in May. I made her this sweater sling purse using the tutorial from Make it and Love it. I found the sweater for the outer fabric of the purse at Walmart on the clearance rack. It only cost $1 and was a size 3X. I love the clearance rack! I only used about half the sweater for this purse and I already have pieces cut out for another one. The lining and fabric strip are from Michael Miller Pretty Bird Ground Cover in Aqua, which I already had in my fabric stash. The fabric strip was added to hide a seam where I attached more of the sweater after deciding the purse wasn't long enough. I think it adds a nice touch. I love when mistakes end up making something better. For the crocheted flower, I used the tutorial here at The Pumpkin Patch.

June 2011 Handmade Gift Exchange: Gift Given

I participated in the Craftaholics Anonymous Handmade Gift Exchange in June. My partner was from Texas.

Through emailing, I found out she loves to cook and bake and her favorite color is purple (same as me). I followed the tutorial here at Domessticated to make a Help H@nd which is a knock-off version of Rachael Ray's Moppine. It's a combination oven mitt and kitchen towel. I made it out of a bath towel I bought a few months ago. If I were to make it again, I'm not sure I would use a towel. I had a hard time sewing through all the layers.

She lives on a mini-farm, so I decided to also knit this cow dishcloth. The pattern is from the 2011 Dishcloth Calendar and written by Elaine Fitzpatrick of Down Cloverlaine. I love all of her patterns!

I had fun participating in the gift exchange. I hope my partner likes her gift. If you want to see what others made for it, check out the Handmade Gift Exchange Linky Party.

Linked to:

Sundae Scoop @ I Heart Naptime

Mother's Day Gifts

I decided it would be fun to make something for Mother's Day this year. This is what I came up with.

First, are the cotton face rounds. I used the tutorial found here. Since they're so small, they were really easy to crochet. I made a bunch of them.

Next is the cupcake bath bomb. I got the idea for the cupcake here from Little Birdie Secrets. I actually used the tutorial here at Homemade Mamas for the bath bomb recipe since it had more common ingredients. For the frosting on top, I just used royal icing. I made sure to clearly label that these were not edible so no one would try to take a bite.

Lastly, is the bath puff. I tried a different pattern originally and it never dried. Luckily, I found a pattern here at Fresh Mint Rain that makes a bath puff that you can untie to allow it to dry. I tested one out before making ones for gifts and it worked well.

Well, I spent a fair amount of time making these gifts, but I think they turned out cute and they were well-received.

Easter 2011

So, Easter was over a month ago, but I still wanted to post about it anyway. Boo and I were in Utah visiting my family for Easter. We went to spend some time with my brother before he left on his 2 year mission for our church. My mom bought Boo a cute book for her Easter basket with a bunny puppet inside it. She likes it and even kisses it sometimes.

I made this skirt for Boo using the tutorial here from Ameroonie Designs. I don't think mine looks as cute as the original, but I'm still happy with it. I had to do some math to make it a bit smaller so it would fit. My mom bought the cute sweater to go with it. I tried to make a couple of fabric flowers for a matching hair clip and sweater pin, but they just didn't turn out. I couldn't seem to keep the stitching even, so instead of the bottom being flat, it was a bowl shape. Not so pretty.

Boo was intrigued by the Easter candy. She was happy to just hold it while it was in the wrapper, so I didn't bother letting her actually eat it.

My cousin is working at Edible Arrangements and was kind enough to bring us this beautiful bouquet for Easter. It even had some chocolate covered bunnies on it. So yummy.

My mom with her two grandbabies. At first, Boo was a bit jealous of her cousin M taking all the attention from Grandma, but she soon warmed up to him.

A Car Trash Bag for Joeyman

So, I don't know how many people know this, but I belong to a family of superheroes. All of us kids have a superhero costume made by my mom. Sorry, but I don't think I'll be modeling my costume for you anytime soon. Too embarrassing.

My brother Joey (aka Joeyman) isn't at all embarrassed to be seen in his costume and was the first superhero in the family. I think my mom made it for him for Halloween once and he's been Joeyman ever since. It was his 28th birthday last month and I wanted to give him something special. Well, what better gift than something with the Joeyman symbol appliqued onto it. I was looking at tutorials online and saw this one from Make It and Love It for a car trash bag. I thought it would make a good gift. I first tried to make a couple pleats in the front of the bag as described in the tutorial and applique the symbol over them, but that didn't work so well. The pleats were held in place by the symbol and were visible through it. So, I redid the front of the bag without the pleats and just made it the same size as the back. I also used fabric instead of ribbon for the strap.

Joeyman liked the gift. He did say he wasn't going to ruin it by actually using it as a trash bag, but I think I saw it hanging in his car. As long as he likes it, I'm happy.

Baby Shower Gifts and Cookies

It's been a while since I blogged between being sick, vacation, and just plain laziness. I decided it was about time to post something. I actually made these things a few months ago. The burp cloths above were made using the tutorial here from Homemade by Jill. This is the first tutorial that brought me to her blog and I love it! I used the same fringe edging for the matching bibs. They were a gift for a member of my church ward.

I made my first hooded towel! Boo has a couple of these and I love them. It's so nice to wrap her up in one after a bath. I used the tutorial here from Infarrantly Creative. I believe I shortened the hood since it looked long to me. My husband was kind enough to take a picture of it for me before I wrapped it up and gave it away to another member of my ward. When sewing it, I used a heavy duty needle since I read a few places about the needle breaking when sewing through all the layers. I had no trouble going slowly over the thick areas. I added a strip of fabric with a car print to the hood to make it more fun.

For the same baby shower as the hooded towel, I made these "Cute as a button" cookies. I followed the tutorial here at Bake at 350. I used fondant instead of royal icing. I like how simple and cute they are.

Bow Tie Neck Pillow for Birthday Gift

It was my mother-in-law's birthday today. I wanted to make something for her and I found this tutorial for a bow tie neck pillow at sew4home and thought it would make a great gift. I used some fabric from the Pretty Bird line by Michael Miller found here. I think it turned out really cute. Instead of using ribbon straps suggested in the tutorial, I made some 1" double-fold bias tape from a coordinating fabric. The straps are supposed to help you reposition the pillow. The instructions said it should take less than an hour to make, but between chasing Boo around and my slow sewing skills, it took me more like two hours.

My husband also picked up a gift card for her. I wanted to dress it up so I made a cute gift card holder using the tutorial here from Make it and Love it.

Ruffled Newborn Skirt from Men's T-Shirt Sleeves

I bought a t-shirt on sale at Wal-Mart a while ago for $1. I used most of it to make a fitted cloth diaper. I saw this tutorial at kojodesigns and just had to make the skirt. Since my baby is now 17 months old, I'll have to either give this skirt as a gift or save it for another baby. I'm really happy with how it turned out. I ended up using the hems from both sleeves with one as the casing for the drawstring and the other as the hem at the bottom of the skirt. I love re-purposing clothing. Now I keep an eye out for the great sales on clothing so I can cut it up and make it into something new.