Adorable Baby Sweater

Don't you just love this sweater. Well, I adore it, and you should too.  I started off really wanting to crochet something and challenge myself all while making a baby gift. Ive never crochet much more than straight rows for scarves and blankets or spirals for hats, bowls and eggs.  I watched a few YouTube videos and settled for this one by Mickey. I liked there was room for a bit of creativity and I didn't need to count stitches much past the second row.  I loved this pattern and and see how easy it would be to size up. Ended up not being so challenging but, more eye opening. Here she is with no trim/border:

Looks so much cleaner with the white trim. I am flipping out I love this so much. I think my dear friend will too.  I want to make another one out of cotton yarn a bit bigger. This is out of acrylic from my stash. I went for the green I had on hand, since they want to go with gender neutral baby items, even though they know they are having a girl. 

I am over the moon also that it only took two evenings while trying to cool off in front of the T.V. Good thing it's a baby sweater since I would be melting while trying to finish this project up. Hopefully it will keep the little one warm in Fall. Maybe Hat to match? I think yes.

Homemade Baby Stuff

I started on the collection of baby stuff I want to make for my friend. She is having a baby girl and wanted a fairly gender neutral baby room. She lives in Boston and the baby will be born in October. I am thinking she needs some warm items for her first winter. So I pulled out the flannel to go shopping for more flannel. I started to cut samples and realized that I had about 10 yards of this awesome zigzag flannel (I got it 75% off when the local Jo-ann's closed). I determined it was gender neutral enough with the blue flannel. I ran with it. I am pretty certain she will think I have lost my mind. Its okay she did a long time ago. I am rather broke for the summer so I figured I should use up what I have. So here we go...

This is about the 8th baby sensory ball I have made. I love them, they are super easy to make, wash up well and look expensive. My mom purchased the pattern for me years ago when everyone my age started popping their babes out. I have remade the template for the two pieces but, lost the directions. I always seem to be able to make one after thinking I wont remember how. This one is 2/3 sewn together. I will say I dont think Ive ever made an all flannel one, and I dont love it. It came out really bumpy on the seams. Still learning on the 8th try.

This one came from Pinterest land. I don't spend any time with infants, but the few times I do, I get spit up on. I saw a similar design and looked at the tutorial and adjusted it to what I had on hand. I know I have seen some sad looking burp cloths in stores. I wanted super thick and absorbent pad with a shoulder cut out. I had white wash cloths I got at wally world in a huge pack with colors for a few dollars for ever ago and made travel toothbrush holders. I needed to use those up. I sewed two together and liked the size and then cut batting the same size and two pieces of flannel with a 1 inch allowance. I stacked them in the following order: batting, washcloths with seam down, backing flannel face up, top flannel face down. Pin all side then lay a plate down in the center and cut a semicircle. Stich edge closed twice by using and 3/4 seam allowance and leave a 2" opening on your longest side. 

Before flipping right side out, I trimmed the corners and excessive batting and washcloth from edges and snipped the inner curve so it would flip smoothly. 

I made two and plan to finish them by topstitching and basic quilting. Love them and hope to make a "Daddy" set, because I found more wash cloths I had stashed away. Only if I can find Celtics, Patriots or Red Sox fabric in the Pacific Northwest.

Pink Bunny For Emily!

My niece turned 1 years old today! Happy Birthday Emily, we love you very much.
I made her this bunny and blanket last week before we went on a family vacation. 
I know she will love the snuggle bunny! I looked at a few images on flicker and then freehand cut the pattern. I was really happy with the way it came out. I embroidered the eyes and mouth. She is slightly sad looking. It grew on me. I made the blanket from a scrap from the quilt I made for her when she was born. She has unstuffed arms and legs with knots tied at the ends. Her ears are also unstuffed which makes them super floppy. She would be fun to tie around your arm or stroller. She also has a a sweet dress that can be removed. No bunny is complete with out a fuzzy tail. I almost forgot....but found a scrap of santa hat trim. It worked perfectly. This project in total took me 4 hours. I loved every minute of making her. I will be making more very soon.

Ohhh Babies

Not Me Folks but, I found out two people I know are having babies. My Step-sister and her hubby are having their second and our good friends are having their first. We are so happy for them all! Of course I am excited for rather selfish reasons, other then getting to hold sweet little babies in 7 months... I get to make super  awesome baby gifts! I love baby stuff. I worked in the baby section in a dept. store. It was awesome inspiration. I all ready have a few ideas floating in my head. Baby stuff is also super easy to make and always makes it that much more special. I have made a few items for my niece and nephew (who are almost 1 now!). I made a flannel quilt and baskets and these soft baby toys. How about a bag with a changing mat? More baby stuffed toys? How about a little outfit? Maybe these precious booties.

Summer Beginnings

I woke up and decided that I wanted to hang out with the dog. I think that she had a different idea, she got pretty muddy in the back yard, she was very proud of herself. She has taken a liking to digging holes when no one is watching. She stayed in with me in the ac while the storms passed. We had some pretty threatening thunder storms today. I worked on getting some baby  gifts completed, my two step-sisters are pregnant. I am going to see them soon at the lake. I had done the machine sewing a while ago for all three. The pieces went to the beach with us and have rode around in the back of my car for a whole week. I kept thinking I would work on them on my lunch break. I did finish all of them today. I bought a set of 24 of the plastic links and have used them now for 5 balls and have enough left over for two more. I really enjoy this project.  This is my mammoth sunflower plant. It grows noticabilly everyday. I am so happy we have a small garden going; tomatoes, jalapenos, lettuce, basil, cucumbers and yellow squash and a few flowers.

This is precious! Wow, I think I am in love. This is the type of baby stuff that I love. I am going to try to create some birds to see if It can be done. Oh I remember making hanger mobil when I was in elementary school. I was a pain to keep balance! Super whimsical!  I wonder what she used to make the ring?

Baby Toy

When my mom came to visit last week for my b-day we went to new a fabric store. My mom is very supportive and willing to do what ever I want (she took me and 3 other teenage girls to a bush/no doubt concert when I was 13! Wow!). I know she was not particularly into the fabric store scene, but she made the best of it. She picked out the kit/template by sew fun to make "baby brainy ball". The finished product seemed slightly daunting, but surprisingly it was simple. Mom picked out the cute fabric from the fat-quarter bin.  She wanted them to give as gifts for co-workers. I also will make a few for the babies to come this summer. This was a fairly simple project until you have to hand sew the wedges together. A lot more hand sewing than I really wanted to do. The end result is extremely cute and practical (gotta love machine washable, handmade soft toys!). I love the idea of mixing up the contrasting fabrics and textures! Think ill stuff the next one a little more. Can I put a bell in there? or does that make it a dog/cat toy?

 I also made this bag out of super cheap christmas fabric from Jo-ann's. For now it holds all of the christmas fabric for a quilt. It will eventually be given as a re-useable gift bag.