Yoda Onesie & Rattle

I know my last post was about Star Wars, I just can't resist. Actually it took my best friend to have a little boy to get me to do more shirts. And what did I make him?

A Yoda Onesie & Matching Rattle

I found the idea {HERE}. She makes incredible Star Wars shirts; Leia, Chewy, Boba, etc. and they're super cute. The problem for me was the price, when I knew I could make it too. So I bought felt, wonder under, and created my own pattern.

After I made the front, I added something to make it different. The other famous quote from the green jedi master.
Courtesy of a little bit of Freezer-Paper magic.

I'd share it, but I don't want to seem like I'm taking away business. Instead, I'll give some tips.

• Use things around your house to match the shapes for yoda. I used a bowl, bobbins, spools.
• Make a pattern out of paper FIRST before you trace or cut your felt.
• Remember to do the face details BEFORE fusing it to the shirt (or sewing the rattle).
  
• Wonderunder is your friend. My iron plays nice with WU when I set in on the cotton blends setting. First step (fusing WU to the piece) says 3-5 seconds--- count on 5. Wait until it cools down to pull it off. If when you start to pull, set it back under the iron. With the second step (WU to fabric) have the damp cloth (I use old kitchen towels) and I iron it in 10 second intervals; I check every 10 seconds to see if it's fused. Iron until completely fused.
• Work from the bottom up. Here's the order: dark brown middle piece, ears, robe (sand-colored) pieces, head, cane, hands.
• You can sew in on with a machine, but I don't recommend it. I like the detailed look of the blanket stitch.
  

One more Star Wars themed post, something for the budding space pilot.

Linking {HERE}

I'm also attempting to enter this:




maybe it'll give me more 'posting' motivation...

Patriotic Ruffle Dress

Before the Fourth of July (obviously), I made this dress for my 8 month old:


I used the tutorial from Sumo's Sweet Stuff {HERE}. As long as you have a basic knowledge of a sewing machine, this dress is really fun to make. I had never done ruffles or a gathering stitch before (I know, shocker) and now I wonder why I was so afraid to try. It took me a couple hours total.

My sister also taught me how to do a {Kanzashi flower} to match. I L-O-V-E how the whole thing turned out on her (she's with the one and only Mule of this blog).
But, I think anyone would with a model this cute.

Girly Nursery

We finally finished our little girl's nursery and I have to say, it's one of my favorite rooms in the house. I think I love the kids' rooms and downstairs because they're all painted. So---here's the rundown on what I did.

First off---I found fabric I wanted to use in her room. From the fabric I pulled the two paint colors: a light pink and fuchsia-type pink. Then we painted. :)
Second---One the long light pink wall, where her WHITE crib is we painted circles to frame the letters of her name. Don't know how to paint circles? Find a bowl in your kitchen in the size you want and use a pencil to trace it on your wall. Then paint--- it's that simple!
Third---On the window wall I made inexpensive art and the valence for the window. I got plain wood embroidery hoops, stained them the dark brown. Then I put some of the fabric in the hoops used Fabric-Tac to glue them to the inside of the hoops and had three pieces of art for my little girl's room.

Close up of some of the hoops.

Fourth--- I made the mistake of buying wall stickers at Target thinking they'd work on textured walls. They don't. Within a day, almost all of the stickers fell off. To feel as though we didn't waste any money, I found three cheap panoramic frames and put the dots on the plastic outside of the frame. I never took a picture, but if someone really wants to see it---I will. I don't know if I like it enough to keep it in the room.

Fifth--- To finish it off--- THIS and THIS are on the little wall, right next to the closet. Overall, I'm really pleased with how everything turned out, but I'll take a little more time to think things through before I move onto the Knight's bedroom.

I used lavender and light green to accent with dark brown and white furniture.

Past Craft: Heart-felt Baby Toy

Sorry about the absence, my mommy duties have outweighed crafting because of a sick boy. :(
I'm only getting half of things done, so I thought I'd show off something I made last month.

I used the tutorial {HERE} to jump off of and created these for my daughter for Valentine's Day:

They are really simple and she's already had them in her mouth a few times.

All you need is: scrap fabric, ribbon, stuffing, extra jingle bell, krinkly plastic (from disposable wipes container and sewing notions.

I put the bell in one, the plastic cut into pieces in another, and put ribbons on the outside of the third. To connect them, I cut three long strips of a jersey fabric and braided them together. The ribbon also make it so they can connect to a playyard as well.

They may not be perfect, but I made them for her---and that's what counts.

Dress-Up Tie: For Big-Headed Boys

Sorry about my absence, my little girl was blessed this past weekend and I had a lot of family in town. Since she was blessed, I wanted the rest of the family to look nice too, so what does that mean for Daddy & Toddler? Matching Ties!!!

I didn't have time to visit {this marvelous shop}, so I used THIS tutorial to make my son's tie. I was very excited until I went to have him try it on and I could barely get it over his head AND once it was over his head, it was too big around his neck. For a few minutes I wondered how I would fix this...then three words popped into my head: Sew-On Snaps.

To do this you'll need: a tie, matching embroidery floss, needle, two Sew-On Snaps (size 1)

1. Follow the elastic-type tutorial, until you measure your little stud's neck. Then do this:
2. Take the measurement and add an inch to the neck loop of the tie. Then, cut in the middle of the loop.
3. Blanket stitch the new edges so they won't fray too bad.
4. On the edge, about an half-inch in, sew on one side of the snaps. Snap the other half back in as an easy way to match it up on the other side, then sew it on. Repeat with second snap.

You've now created a new tie for your little man!

Linking to:
Market Yourself Mondays at Sumo's Sweet Stuff &
Just Something I Whipped Up at The Girl Creative

Hair Clips & Holder

Before 'Princess' was born I went a little crazy making hair bows (a girl can never have too many) and all of these pictured went to VT sister who also recently had a girl, so I don't feel too bad for making so many:

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

Since I made so many bows, I needed to make a place to put them. Enter Exhibit C:

Here's what you need:

an old frame, ribbon and a glue gun---That's it!

Strip the old frame down. Throw away all the photo backing stuff and use pliers to take out the little metal pieces. Then flip the frame over and lay out your ribbon. Glue the free end to the frame, pull tight then cut. Glue the other end of the ribbon. Continue gluing ribbon until you reach the end. Then put the bows on the holder and hang it up for the world, your kids, to see.

My First Thanksgiving

What happens when you have a baby right before Thanksgiving and you forgot to get her anything with the 'my first thanksgiving' phrasing on it? (True Story)

Well... you make it of course. With a little muslin, floss, turkey iron-ons, felt, snap clip, and one long-sleeve gerber 0-3 onesie. A crisis can be averted. Your baby will have a onesie and hair clip for a happy turkey day.

Yay for a happy Turkey Day.

My First Quiet Book

About a month ago, I spent two weeks of my extra time sewing, hand-sewing, ironing, cutting, cursing felt and a missing zipper foot, I did what I set out to do--- I made a quiet book for our kids.

It's not perfect, but I made it and that makes it all worth it.

I used a lot of resources, most stemming from the blog: How to Make a Quiet Book. I changed a bunch of things to my liking, however, I recommend this site for anyone who is silly enough to attempt their own.

I just recently finished a gospel-themed Quiet Book (yes, two in two months and my husband and child are still alive) for my best friend's daughter, but I'm not posting that until I send it off... so stay tuned!

I'll expound on them at a later date, maybe even throw in a couple of templates (especially the gospel one because it's more of my brain-child), but, for now, I have a few other things I want to accomplish while my son attempts to sleep... we're having a rough day.

Here are the pages:

All of them pre-sewing binding

The finished numbers page (props to my husband and his mad knot-tying skills or this page would still be unfinished)

Past Craft: Nursing Wraps

I was only mildly aware of this trend when I first had 'J' (what he'll be known as from now on) and by then I already had a blanket which worked rather well. I say rather well because once he could grasp the blanket I had a few awkward Mother's room moments. So, when we found out #2 was joining us I priced check these bad boys, all costing around $40. I knew from the little sewing experience I had, I could beat the price with my eyes closed; the only thing left was to find a pattern.

With the invention of blogging my task became simple because I found template here and here. I did a combination of the two because 1---I wanted D-rings and 2---I wanted it to be reversible. I also changed the length of the boning to 13 inch. 18 inches was WAY too long. The first one took maybe 6ish hours and the second only 3!

So, for the same price as one store bought 'hooter hider' I made four! Now I just have to wait 6 months to use them! ;)

What Started it all... My Little Knight

About a year ago, my adorable son was about to experience his first Halloween. I had previously made curtains and pillowcases for my living room and decided it was time to branch out try a Halloween costume. Mostly I wanted to try because our mom made costumes for us when we were kids and I wanted to do the same.

After a month of frustration, many seam rips, and crying over my sewing machine, this was the result:
I failed to recognize my son's huge head, nevertheless, I did it. If I remember right it was a McCall Baby Costume Pattern.

As I look back, this project is what started my desire to naptime craft. Since then, I've made a lot more crafts and have a 'To-Do' list a mile long. I'll post pictures of what I've done so far, and continue to do so with my newest creations.

This year, with our daughter coming a month after Halloween, I decided to do something smaller for Halloween... but that's a whole other post.