2015-November/December: K Mini Quilt

This was my second quilt, a small one -- but super complicated!  It took plenty of design skills, mathematics, and patience!

I made up my own quilt pattern and it came out just how I wanted, so that's something to be proud of!

I gave this quilt to my friend K., to show support while her family was/is going through some tough health issues.  All their names start with K.

It was quilting cottons on the front and super soft minky on the back.

Process photos below!

I planned out my design, then grouped and cut and grouped and sewed a bunch of squares and half-square triangles.  There was much grouping going on, and keeping piles in order.

I laid everything out the way I wanted every step of the way, so as not to mess up!  Everyone knew not to touch my desk!! (although, looks like a My Little Pony snuck in there!)

Here is one of the blocks.

Four "K heart" blocks sewn and laid out with middle pieces

Sewing the middle

More middle

Look!  I get so confused with these things, I wrote out the order of sewing everything together, took this picture, and worked from it!

I added the border . . .

Once I had the top, I zigzag sewed the edge to the batting.  This step is probably not necessary, but I do it for extra insurance against the batting shifting all over the place. I have anxious visions of this!

Then I pinned (right sides together) to the minky back, sewed my quilt sandwich, trimmed a bit, and turned and topstitched!

My quilting lines were "in the ditch" along the border and nine large squares in the middle.

It came out just as I'd envisioned it, and I'm quite proud of it!  All the Ks liked it too, and I'm always thinking of you guys. <3

2015-November: Patchwork Elsa Dress

I made a special dress for E. last Christmas!  She was really into Frozen, and I knew she loved the playdresses I had made her (Love Notions pattern), so I combined the two!

I did the patchwork skirt out of wovens, and the top is knit.  It was a huge hit, and she still wears it now, almost a year later.

The shop I bought the Elsa knit fabric from had some lacy trim, so on a whim I bought some for the bottom.  It adds a nice touch, and I'd like to dabble in fun trims in the future!

Process photo time!

Picking fabrics, making sure I have the width

Little rectangles cut, having fun arranging them!

Sewing the rows

Sewn together!

Other panel sewn up

Two panels!

After ironing, trimmed each panel to size

Don't forget the bodice!  Crossover neckline in progress.

Bodice!

I lined the skirt panels with an old T-shirt.  Here is one panel, gathered.

So pretty!

It was a lot of work, but I'm so happy with it.  So was E.!

2015-November: Butterflies and Doctor Who AIO Diapers

I wanted to make some new sized diapers for C. (medium!), so I made these, based off of some sized mediums I was loving at the time.  The "London/Doctor Who" one has a sewn-in microfiber pad.  Both of them accommodate an additional pad that snaps in the back, and both of them are a sleeve design so everything agitates out!

I really liked my design modification of no inside flaps (front or back) to get messy.  I tried a back flap a few more times on future diapers, but this "flapless" style turned out to be my final design. :)

2015-October: Cloudy Sky Halloween Costume

I call C. my little cloud, so I thought I'd make her a little sky costume for Halloween!

It was pretty simple; I found a really nice (organic cotton on huge sale!) romper on Amazon, and appliqued on a bunch of fleece clouds.

The hat is a knit cap (again, thanks Amazon!) with pretty shoddily-made sun rays coming out.  The rays are an old T-shirt colored with yellow Sharpie! Yes, I can get pretty fancy. ;)

front

back

Look at this cute little bun!

The romper is huge and she still fits it, though we don't really put her in one-pieces anymore.  But it's getting colder -- maybe I'll bundle her in her cloud suit on an upcoming outing!

2015-October: Rainbow Scales and Buzzy Bees AIO Diapers

I made two size medium diapers from a modification of Arfy's pattern -- my new favorite!  These fit C. really well!

This is the only good pic I have of the bees one

I had a lot of fun with all the rainbows!

Star snaps are where the inserts snap in

These diapers had the first version of my snappy AIO design: a pocket diaper where the inserts agitate out, but they are snapped on for no-confusion stuffing!  Inserts are made from hemp-bamboo-cotton blend fabric, and sewn together at the top.  The inner of  Rainbows is suedecloth, Bees is microfleece.

I used both of these until they didn't fit C. anymore!

2015-September/October: Unicorn Rainbow Pants!!

These pants were epic!  They ARE epic!  I made them as per E's request, one leg rainbow and one leg unicorn.

She wore them a bunch until a "bright" idea of mine started bothering her: the snappy hem!

I thought it would be oh-so-clever to make these superlong pants (The Parsley Pants again! Take 1, Take 2 This time made in size 8 knit so they'd actually fit!) with an adjustable hem.

Because they were about 8"+ too long for E, I added two levels of snaps, so they could easily unsnap as she grew!  And the snaps look cute! What a great idea, right?

Nope.

At first she didn't mind, but ultimately the hem really bothered her.  Both the scratchy snaps (girl plays outside/scrambles about/falls down a lot) and the "loose" part of the hem inside (remember, it's only held on by 4 snaps per row) made them annoying to wear and difficult to put on.  Sadness!  These pants are so cool!

Luckily she didn't complain about those aspects until a few months had passed.  She had them in heavy rotation at first, but NOW (when I could probably unsnap them at least one level), she wants nothing to do with them.

This will require some thought!  Obviously a simple REAL hem would do the trick.  But if I try to take the snaps off, there will be icky holes.  Perhaps a lining of some sort is in order.  I'll update you when I get to it!

AND . . . . WAIT FOR IT . . . .

I totally forgot that I had made her a shirt with the same fabrics, and she paired them one day this past March.  EPIC I TELL YOU!

***Update!! The Parsley Pants pattern is not small!  Read this!

2015-September: Snowflake Fold-In Fitted Diaper

This project was two ideas coming together:

1) I had gotten some hemp-bamboo-cotton blend fabric, and I wanted to see how it worked in a nighttime fitted!

2) I was checking out Arfy's fold-in fitted pattern, and it looked so cool and different, I had to try it.

So I made this!  It just has a knit print outer.

Ultimately it didn't work out so well, because it STILL didn't hold enough and was on the snug side.  The absorbency issue could be that I didn't prep it enough.

Still, it's a cute diaper and I like the fold-in design in theory.

The shape of the fold-out "inserts" is limited by the curve of the diaper itself.  (See below)

In progress, turned, no elastic

Otherwise, I think longer inserts may have worked better.  Or sewing more layers into it, but then it would take too long to dry.  Anyway, it wasn't quite what I wanted!

That hemp-bamboo-cotton blend fabric turned out to not be my favorite, either.