2014-December: Doll Carrier

I wanted to make a doll carrier for E. for her 4th birthday, right before her baby sister arrived!  I admit, I didn't have much of a plan beyond looking at various doll carriers online, and coming up with a design I thought would be easy to do. And it was!

The only "problem" is that she just wasn't that into it.  I had thought she could carry dolls around while I carried the new baby, but she didn't feel like it.  This is also why I can't find a photo of her actually using it!  In a sea of new baby sister photos, the neglected Mommy-made doll carrier is nowhere to be found.  That's OK; they won't like everything you make for them!

Maybe Baby Sister will play with it someday. :)

2014-December: Book Club Bag

My book club was having a Christmas party/Yankee swap/White Elephant gift exchange/celebration, so of course I chose to make something!  (I always make something!)  I had found instructions for a cute little bag in a library book and decided it would be perfect.

Supercute finished bag; scroll down for process photos!

First, I chose a bunch of fabrics to use, and cut them to size.  This project was great for using my "charm packs".

I stitched the various rectangles together

And through the magic of rotary cutters and further stitching, I made these little checkerboards!  I LOVE this process -- it looks like you did a ton of work, but it was really MAGIC!

Then the sides of the bag got sewn on.  I don't remember why I was measuring, but the whole bag was really small.  And CUTE!

Then through some other process, a lining was added. (Helpful, I know.  Hey, it's been a year and a half since I did this; I can't quite remember everything!)

And the bottom is on.

Ta-da!  We have a bag!

Ooh, but what's this? Making handles for the bag?

Handles are snapped on! I actually remember the book saying something about buying leather handles for this project, but where the heck do you get those?  Good thing I make cloth diapers and have plenty of snaps (and improvisational skills)!

See?  It snaps shut!

Cute bag, ready to go to its new mystery home!

Here it is, fluffy with a scarf I was also passing on to the swap.

The bag was a hit!  I know because it got "stolen" a couple times through the absolutely unfair rules of the swap . . . I hope you found some use for the bag, V., and I know, J., that you still want one!  I definitely plan to make more of this ilk!  Possibly in a slightly larger size, too.

2014-November/December: How To Make Your First Quilt, or, QUILTY!

Aha!  My first quilt!  I wanted to make a quilt for E. before her baby sister arrived, just as something special from Mommy that said, "I love you, please cuddle in this soft and perky quilt!"

I'm going to include a lot of process photos, because making a quilt is literally a big deal!  If anyone out there needs some help or inspiration, I want to say to you: it's totally achievable, it's fun, and you don't even have to do this "binding" thing!  My quilt is turned and topstitched. :)

You can see the giant piece o' minky under the top in this process photo

I knew when I saw a giant piece of tie-dye minky on Spots' Corner that I had to buy it, for it would be my quilt backing.  The whole quilt size was determined by this one piece of fabric!  It turned out to be bigger-than-twin, but not-quite-full.  Definitely huge for a then-4-year-old, but nice and big to cuddle with always. :)

My goal: finish the quilt before the new baby's birth!  My mom was visiting and helped me plan things out and calculate this and that.  I used this color values quilt tutorial/example (among other internet research) because I just thought it looked so fun!  And it WAS fun; SO fun to make, came out AWESOME, and E. LOVES it.  She calls it, "Quilty" and has it on her bed.

OK, I don't have a photo of every step of the way, but here's how I did it.

First, with my 6" square ruler and handy rolly knife rotary cutter, I cut out a ton of squares of fun fabrics.

Then, I separated them out into three piles: light, dark and medium.  Those already-cut triangles were from some doggy bandannas that were already big triangles.

Oooh, piles!

Then I made pairs of them, one lighter and one darker, and drew a line down the diagonal.

This step is SO COOL.  Even though for experienced quilters it's probably a "well, no duh" mental moment, I still think it is COOL!  You sew two lines down either side of the pencil line.  Because you're going to CUT on the pencil line, making TWO "half triangle squares" from all your hard work on one square!

See?  When you cut, it is two!  Two of the same thing, of course, so I made sure to place all these twins far away from each other in the quilt.  I'm sure you could purposely repeat them in a cool pattern, but I wanted happy random variety.

I took a looooong time arranging the squares on the guest bed!  One thing about quilts: you need a lot of space to lay them out.  We didn't (and still don't) have the luxury of wall space, so beds it is!

Then I sewed on down the line, piecing all the squares into rows, then the rows together.  I kept it all sorted with strategic piles and a command for no one to touch the guest bed!

Coming along

Checking it out on the backing, now on my bedroom bed.  Plenty of room for my border!

I added a border of KNITS so it would be soft on the edges.  I also didn't want the turning and topstitching eating into the sides of my squares along the edge.

Did I mention I was sort of winging it, and leaving a lot of room for error?  Because I was. :)

Once the top was all together, I attached the batting to it, first with pins, and then I sewed it.  I don't know if this step is neccessary, but I did not want to deal with bunchy batting and the insanity of trying to turn the quilt with mostly loose batting getting all ripped and messed up.  I know myself.  Things like that just happen to me, so I need extra precautions!

I sewed everything together around the edge, right sides together, and turned it.  I felt the need to topstitch the edge right away, to avoid any wonkiness of pushed-out fabric if I started at the center.  I probably should have started at the center, because on the back there was some skipping and catchiness.  Do you love these official quilting terms, or what? ;)

Then, as seen above, I taped out the continuing lines of "stitching in the ditch" (that really is a quilting term) on all the diagonals.  Then I ran that through the ol' machine and I was done!

There it is!

You know, I didn't take many photos of the finished quilt, because as soon as I gave it to E., she was using it, we were washing it over and over, etc.  She still loves it now, a year+ later, and I think she always will.  Aww!  I should add an updated photo of what it looks like now -- much the same, but nice and soft!

Now I need to make a big quilt for little sister sometime . . .

2014-September: Embellished OS Pocket diapers (covers)

Another upcycled diaper project!  I got two "play condition" Blueberry pockets on Spots' Corner, which turned out to be in better condition than described.  They really only needed some elastic replacement, so I did that and decided to have more fun with them.

I embellished them wing-to-wing with fun woven quilting cotton prints!  It was tricky to cut everything to size, AND keep the edges from fraying, AND keep the snaps exposed and usable, but I did it!!

I really like how they came out.  The only weird thing was I couldn't sew across the front of the woven (by the rise snaps), so they had a little "pocket" there on the outside.

With the woven cotton NOT touching the edge of the leg, I thought they wouldn't wick like most hidden-PUL diapers do.  Well, they did end up wicking a bit, and if I didn't add enough absorbency, they did leak out the top through some very sneaky cracks in the PUL.  They were OK as covers.  I ended up donating them!

2014-September: Upcycled AIO Cloth Diapers

So, at this point I was pregnant and made a bunch of wacky diapers to both "test out" on my friend's twins, and then eventually use on my girl!

These two were Franken-diapers made from some old size small Sposoeasys that I got off Spots' Corner.  They were AIOs and in pretty bad shape, so I pretty much took them 100% apart and completely changed them.  They had had cotton inners with a sewn flappy soaker, but none of that was salvageable since it was just thin and crunchy.

My Franken-diapers!

To both of the diapers I added a wing-to-wing woven print, and a front knit panel out of my old T-shirts.  Why the front panel?  For fun and MORE COLORS!  The diapers had had velcro closures, so I got rid of that and snapped them instead.

This one had pink PUL, which is still visible on the finished design.

I added a microfleece inner (water-repelling -- and also upcycled since it had been a baby blanket!) and snapped in a modified trifold insert I had laying around (Cocalo).  So this one was more like an AI2.

The Cocalo insert had a booster, so I added snaps for that, too, and cut everything so it would all lay flat.  The insert came with a center section of stay-dry, so I wanted to keep that on top and not fold the sides on top of it.

The second diaper was a pale purple PUL, but that got completely hidden.  I think this one came out a wee bit better.  It wasn't as bulky because I disassembled it in a better way.

I added an inner of stay-dry suede material that I got at a yard sale. I made this one into an AIO/pocket design, where the Cocalo pad was snapped to the inner and flipped into the pocket.

Of course it was a sleeve design (my favorite)!  Anything else you put in there would agitate out in the wash.  To really take the design up a notch, I'd cover those insert snaps so they wouldn't touch baby, but hey, she didn't seem to mind it.

I'm completely blanking on which one my friend liked better, but once my little bun was here, I liked the yellow and striped one.  Hubby liked how narrow the tabs were on the pink/purple one.  I like that, too -- there is something to be said for not having excess material in your tabs/wings.

Hooray for giving new life to old stuff! :)

2014-September: Layered Skirts

I wanted to make this skirt for E's friend's birthday, because I had a lot of fat quarters laying around and a pattern that used small strips.  I figured I'd make one for E., too!  E. picked out the fabric for the friend, and then more for herself.

The gift skirt

E's skirt

I will say that the skirt came out really cute, but it had a couple of flaws.

First, all the glitter on my glitter tulle came completely off after one wash!  Oops.  (Luckily it magically didn't get all over the rest of the laundry load.)

Then, over time E. would play with the tulle and rip it and just kind of destroy it till it was all ragged and I cut it off bit by bit.

Second, the layers or tiers on the skirt are sewn together just so so that the overlap on each row wrinkles up really badly and flips up, showing the inside and somewhat covering the row above.  It just looks messy.  Not sure how to fix this, because without the overlap it's just sort of patchwork stripes.  The overlapping layers do add to the cuteness!

Way later on, I added a couple rows to her skirt so she could keep wearing it, and she's still wearing it!  That will be a separate post. :)