Baby Couch and Alphabet Magnets

Now that we've finally gotten settled in our new house, I've been able to do a little sewing. Here's a few of my latest projects.

I got this little baby couch for free at a baby clothing exchange. It's a Dora the Explorer couch and in less than pristine condition so I decided to try my hand at making a new cover for it since I have no love for Dora and I wanted something that could easily be removed and washed.

At first, I was just going to make a simple slip cover to put over the couch, but Zara really loved pulling out the couch and playing with it so I undid everything I'd done and recovered the whole thing so you could still pull out the top and convert it into a little bed. There was a lot of trial and error involved.

I thought the pink and green elephants were pretty fun. I like how it turned out even though there are certainly some problem areas.

But Zara doesn't care.

She loves sitting on her little seat, especially when we watch episodes of Phineas and Ferb together.

A few Saturdays ago, we had a Relief Society craft day. I made this magnet board for Zara's room and a "Countdown to Candy" block set which you can use to count down the days until a holiday. (I picked Halloween.) Anyway, I've been wanting to make this plush alphabet magnet set for awhile but I didn't have a magnetized surface to put them on in Korea so I was just going to make a plush alphabet set minus the magnets. But once I made this magnet board, I decided it would be fun to actually include the magnets.

It turned out to be a fun and easy project. It only took me two days and was a great use for my fabric and batting scraps. Zara really likes pulling the letters off and trying to put them back on.

My next project is to make curtains and new pillow covers for the living room, kitchen and Zara's room. I've made one curtain so far. Hopefully I'll finish those up soon and can post pictures of my cute new home and cute new living room decor.

Sewing Fun

When I sew, I normally set up my machine on the kitchen table and take up more than half the table with all my stuff. So when the machine gets put away and the table is actually clean (which, let's face it, even when the sewing machine isn't there, the table is still a mess), I usually don't break out the machine for awhile. But I've been in the sewing mood lately, so out came the machine and the subsequent mess and it's stayed there for the last month. But at least now I've got a few cute sewing projects completed to show for it.

Now that this has been delivered to its recipient, I can share the baby quilt I made for my sister, who is expecting a boy in May.

I turned to my fabric stash and Oh, Fransson!, my favorite site for quilting inspiration for a quick project. She does beautiful, modern quilts and I just bought her book because I love her stuff so much. I really wanted to showcase the fun car fabric I bought awhile ago and I loved the punch of color and contrast the panel of blocks provided. (Fabric is by Riley Blake, whose fabric collections I love and always pick out without even meaning to.) I cut out pieces on Friday, sewed all day Saturday and Sunday and bound the quilt on Monday. (Which shows me that it doesn't take a year to make a quilt, like my last baby quilt took me....) Here's the finished product:



I machine quilted the entire quilt along the road. The binding was a pain but I think with more practice, I'll get much better at it. I machine sewed the entire binding, and I think in the future, I'll hand sew it which will leave me with better results. But, this is only the second time I've bound a project this way and I can already tell I've improved.

My sewing group has been working on sloper patterns. Basically, it is a very simplistic pattern that is fitted to your exact proportions which can then be modified and tweaked to create any number of garments that will fit your measurements each time. This is an ongoing, long-term project (it's really hard to get garments to fit well) so we've started making short goals that have to be finished in a month. Our project for the month of March was to make a skirt.

I used a fun sunburst fabric in my stash (again from Riley Blake) and designed my own skirt. I played around with pleats (never done them before) and put in a waistband with black piping. Since I didn't use a pattern, I had to improvise as I went along and my waistband doesn't fit as well as I'd like. I learned that wide waistbands are generally cut along a curve so that they are narrower at the top. I'll have to try that next time.

Otherwise, I'm quite pleased with my results. We had to wear our skirts to church on Sunday but since David had to work, I didn't have anyone who could take my picture, so I snapped this one in the mirror. I'll have to get a better photograph next time I wear it.

And I had to make Zara a coordinating outfit. I used this tutorial for a onesie dress which was fantastically easy and fun.
It's so fun to see something you made being used by the people you love. I have so many other projects I want to work on, I just wish I had more time to sew each day.

High Chair Cover

This blog is probably really boring to anyone who is not interested in babies, sewing, and cooking as that seems to be all I really write about these days. But that's pretty much all I do these days so what can you do? I've been working on several sewing projects lately and I wanted to share my newest finished creation.

My friend Kathryn bequeathed me her high chair before she left Korea. It's still in great shape but the cover was definitely a little worse for wear. So using this tutorial for some tips and guidance, I set out to make a new high chair cover. I mostly used the old high chair cover as a guide and made up things as I went along, but I had a lot of fun creating this cover. It gave me some good practice with binding (which I still suck at....don't look too closely at the pink border) and I had to re-teach myself how to do button-holes. I had to made some modifications along the way but I think it'll still work with them.

My only pre-requisites were that the fabric needed to be dark enough to hide all the stains and would match with the lime green straps already attached to the high chair. (I wonder if you can just order new straps? I'll have to look into that.)

This was the only fabric I already had on hand which fit the bill. I have a couple of really cute fabircs with apples and other fruit on it but they have mostly cream or pastel backgrounds and I feared that they would be too easily destroyed and stained. But if this cover holds up pretty well, then I may make another one. At least this one is machine washable, so I may not have to stress over too many stains.
I generally like to buy very gender neutral baby items so that they will last me through multiple children but I like that I can make a new high chair for each child while still using the same high chair frame. It took me awhile to put this one together (from acquiring the right kind of batting, to figuring out how to cut the right shape and fit it into the chair) but I think the next one will go much quicker. I had a lot of fun and can't wait to see Zara use it today.

Signs of the Times - A Finished Quilt!

In what is surely a sign of the Apocalypse, I finally, finally, FINALLY finished this quilt.

Are you as amazed as I am? You really should be.

Here's the front in all its red, white, and blue glory.

And here's the back. I've been debating about whether or not I wanted to quilt the stars around the border, but I thought that was maybe a little bit too ambitious and then the quilt really would never get done. So after nearly a year of planning, prepping, sewing, and stewing, I'm declaring this quilt officially done.

David has been after me for many many months to finish the quilt. But, as with any large quilting project, I grew really sick of looking at the dang thing. I didn't love the fabrics anymore, I made too many mistakes. There were things about it I wanted to change but just couldn't. I wasn't sure how I wanted to bind it and I had had one too many fights with my sewing machine over quilting the center squares. So it sat in my tub of fabrics for many months, imcomplete and untouched while I had a baby and pursued other sewing projects.

But since my goal for 2011 was to set aside time every week for sewing, I knew I couldn't start a whole bunch of new projects (of which I have many ideas) before I finished the ones I'd already started. And since I like to make arbitary schedules for myself, I decided that Sunday would be my sewing day. With David off at work and a moderately well-behaved baby playing on her mat, I set to work this past Sunday binding the quilt. I was so energized by that successful endeavor, that I spent the majority of Monday morning finishing the actual quilting of the blocks. I got into a good groove, and before I knew it, I'd finally accomplished what had been eluding me for months.

And what once filled me with disgust, now fills me with profound joy. I finished something. Sure, there are things I still don't love about the quilt, there are things I wish I had done differently, but ultimately, now that the finished product is in front of me, I can't help but marvel at what I created. There is real joy in the process of creating--and finishing--something to be used and loved by my family.

A few things I learned along the way:

- Be patient. I often wanted to cut corners or speed through certain steps and would then be disappointed by my less-than-perfect output. When I actually slowed down, and took my time, my results were always better.

- Don't worry about perfection. I am a classic perfectionist and it is often difficult for me to accept results that are less than stellar. But now I look at my quilt and all its tiny flaws, and enjoy them because they were my mistakes and no one else's. Meaning, I made this quilt; I didn't buy some mass-produced product. And so every flaw is a testament to my work and effort and I can see very clearly how I improved as I went along.

- Plan ahead and visualize the finished project but don't get so caught up in that vision that you can't accept when changes must be made. The finished project will always be different than you imagined, but no less amazing once it's complete.

- It's okay to walk away when you are frustrated. You won't hurt the quilt's feelings.

- Use fabric that you love. Even if you love it when you start it, you'll find yourself hating it while you're making the quilt but when it's done, you'll love them all over again. But the fabrics I only moderately liked still have not grown on me. And now I will forever have to look at them and wish I'd picked something different.


- And always remember: the intended recieptent is going to love it, no matter what.

Hand-made Gifts

This past year, I took up sewing again and I really enjoy it. One of my goals for the year is to set aside a certain number of hours each week to spend sewing. I've got several projects in mind, from quilts to purses to pillowcases to toys and clothes. But since I'm really good at starting projects and not finishing them, I'm hoping that having "sewing hours" will induce me to actually finish some projects, like Zara's baby quilt and my quilt blocks for my Quilting Group. For Christmas, I made a few gifts to give away. And I actually finished them! So I have to document this momentous occasion.

Zara has two cousins (and 3 second cousins) who were born within a month of her. My brother and his wife welcomed their first baby--a girl--on August 24th. Zara followed a week later on August 31st and my sister had her third child--her second boy--on September 21st. (And my other sister just announced that she's expecting her second next year.) So for Christmas this year I decided to make everyone a diaper and wipes case. I used a tutorial from Make It and Love It, one of my favorite crafty sites. It's not the best tutorial, but now that I've made so many of these things, I can whip them out in under an hour. I love quick and easy projects that can be finished in a day.

These don't use a lot of fabric so they're a simple project to do with your scraps or other fun fabrics that you're not quite sure what to do with yet. I made the one on the right side for myself. I just couldn't help myself.

The insides. I actually started working on these quite some time ago (I did the one in the center during the summer) but I had just never finished them. But I got them all done and sent off before Christmas. I was insanely proud of myself.

Well, I had so much fun finishing that project (finally!) that I decided I wanted to do another quick and easy project. And since I've got this really adorable little baby now, who's suddenly very interested grabbing and holding onto things and shoving them into her mouth, I wanted to do some simple toys she could play with.

So I turned to Make It and Love It once again and found tutorials for cloth blocks and cloth teething rings.


I made 6 inch, 5 inch, 4 inch, and 3 inch blocks using lots of fun, vibrant fabrics. The 3 and 4 inch blocks are easier for Zara to hold and play with now.

Here she is with her 3-inch block clutched tightly in her hand. Next up, the cloth baby rings. These were another pretty quick project, but I think I stuffed them with just a little too much fabric because they were kinda a pain to sew together. And I broke two needles in the process.

Luckily, black fabric hides a multitude of sins.


And Zara certainly doesn't seem to mind my less-than-perfect sewing projects.

She's just that awesome. Also, she really will stick anything into her mouth. At least these are easy to wash.

Projects!

I'm happy to report that several of my baby projects are coming along. I finished the blocks for my baby quilt tonight. I've got to sew all the blocks together and then sew on the border and backing but it's fun to see that I'm making progress, especially since I've never taken on such a large project before. (There were probably be many more quilts in my future. I really enjoy doing it.)

Of course, I've rearranged all the blocks a million times and I even re-did several blocks just to have a better selection of fabrics. Even now, looking at this photograph, I want to change about 3 blocks but I have to restrain myself and let it be. Otherwise, I'll never finish this project. Hopefully I'll be showing off the finished product soon.

A few weeks ago, my friend Amanda showed this cute animal hat idea to our knitting group. Since I needed a new knitting project--and since I already had a skein of the perfect tan yarn in my knitting basket--I decided to do it. I started knitting the hat in the round and by the end of the week, I was nearly done. But, as I was transferring my hat from the circular needles to sticks (which you need to do when you have less stitches to work with as you decrease at the top), I dropped a few stitches and couldn't figure out how to fix them. I decided to wait until our next knitting group to have Kathryn, the knitting goddess, fix the mess I had made. But as my luck would have it, sicknesses and cancellations and other events got in the way, and we didn't have any of our weekly knitting group get-togethers during March.

Today we had our knitting group (which often seconds as a group therapy session for all us crazy displaced military wives) and Kathryn was finally able to fix my hat so I could finish making the bear on top. I think it turned out pretty cute.

Here's a monkey (which my mom just sent me) modeling the cute bear hat.

And here's a closer view. It's a little silly but also ridiculously cute. I just hope it'll fit my little baby so I can admire my handiwork more. It's always nice to finish one project of the many I want to do!