Baby Shower Invitation

Recently my friend Camille and I threw a baby shower for a good friend of ours. I made these invitations for the event (with some name changes for the web).

She is having a hard time finding a name that she and her husband like, so I made this cloud decoration with paper rain drops for people to write name suggestions on.

 Camille has a "Midas touch" and everything she touches turns to gold. She made these darling paper strands and garland, and conveniently her walls even matched. (She just painted this fireplace white, isn't it fabulous?).

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Baby Bubble Skirt and Triple Rose Onesie

Earlier this year, a few of my neighbors got together for a picture of our babies.  We thought it would be fun to get a photo of all the babies that were born just last year in our little neighborhood. All FIFTEEN of them.

My boy is #7 from the left.

So now you know we have a lot of babies around here. Which means a lot of baby showers. Which means a lot of baby gifts. 

For the baby shower this week, I made an elastic waist bubble skirt and coordinating satin rosette onesie. I used this same fabric a while back to make this pillowcase top for my baby Ava. And now here it is again on this skirt.

I love tiny little baby clothes. 

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Stripes and Felt Baby Shoes

My friend Merrilee is having her first baby girl soon. I wanted to give her something handmade, because she is a super talented designer, illustrator, seamstress, and do-it-all girl. This was my first attempt at baby shoes, and it was a fun project to take on.

I also made a couple of little felt bow clips, because every little girl needs hair accessories. And her little one will probably have enough hair to actually use them.

For the gold roses on the shoes, I roughly used this pattern from Purl Bee, but I shrunk it quite a bit. The dusty pink rose was made from felt rick-rack and I just kind of twirled and twisted and stitched it together until it looked good. Now I kind of want to make more baby shoes and perfect the art!

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Baby Break

I just had a baby so I won't be posting as frequently for the next little while. Meet baby Ezra. He came a glorious 2 weeks early and weighed in at 7lbs 3oz.

But he is a scratcher, so I made him some baby mittens for his own protection.

I used one of Ryan's old shirts from my scrap pile, and utilized the sleeve which already had the bottom hemmed. I based the shape and size on some girly ones I had for my daughter, only they are too short for his hands so I made these ones longer. I figure he won't outgrow them in a week if I make them a little bigger too. They are a nice soft jersey-knit and I like that they don't have animals or footballs all over them. Pin It

It's Raining Felt

Over a year ago I saw this darling felt cloud and raindrops from Etsy seller Butterflying.

When I started planning baby boy's nursery I knew I wanted to include this idea over the crib. See, I'm paranoid about anything framed or heavy falling off the wall and injuring baby, so this idea was perfect. I customized it to match my nursery and made my own.

Once I have Ava moved into her new room and the baby moved into the nursery, I'll share photos of the whole room. I still haven't shown you the crib bedding, have I? I will.  Pin It

Father & Son Tie Shirts

One last little Father's Day item. I appliqued this shirt & onesie for Ryan and the new little guy, full well knowing Ryan will never wear it, but I just couldn't help myself. At least the baby will wear his.

Happy Father's Day! Pin It

Not Too Shabby Knock-off

I recently saw this dress at Shabby Apple, and loved it. The price, however, I did not love. Especially for the quality. I think if you are going to pay that much for a little kid dress, the quality had better be pretty good.

 

And then today I saw this great tutorial and pattern by Kelly on how to make your very own. And it looks pretty simple!

 

Thanks for sharing, Kelly!

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Nursery Designer

I'm in love. I've just discovered the Nursery Designer website by Carousel Designs, and it's amazing and so fun to play with.

They have tons of fabrics to chose from, and you just drag and drop them onto the part of the bedding you want in that fabric. They'll even show you just the matching fabrics if you want. And you can change the wall color (Benjamin Moore paints—real colors!) and trim colors, change the flooring (so it looks like your room), change the crib color, and so forth. And then you can have them make the bedding for you! What a magical place.

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Ruffle Baby Shoes (Tutorial)

Remember this striped ruffle skirt I made a while back?

Well take a look at these shoes! They are a perfect match--exact same material (and style!) And much better photos. And you can make your own darling baby ruffle shoes in any color, because there is a free tutorial! Head on over to Fleeting Thing for the instructions.

via UCreate Pin It

Little Necktie

So I've now made my first of probably many neckties for my future baby boy, using this pattern from The Little Gentleman's Closet. It was super easy and fast, and I can't wait to make more.

I plan to use this Joel Dewberry fabric for the next one, but first I have to use the bulk of it to make baby's crib skirt.

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Plum Rose Headband

Made another satin rosette headband, this time for a friend. I put just a teeny bit of adjustable elastic on it, since her baby is a newborn and her head is still growing rapidly.

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The Little Gentleman's Closet

Is there anything more adorable than a little man in a necktie? I hardly think so.

If you have a little gentleman of your own, check out Etsy shop the little gentleman's closet. These ties is that they have an adjustable neck strap so they will fit your little guy for a loooong time! You can buy one that is already made, or you can buy the pattern and customize it with your own choice of fabric. She even sends you the clip and adjuster strap when you buy/download the pattern! You can order extra clips and parts, which I will probably do because I plan on making like 10 of these. Bow tie's are also available!

This is the first pattern I've gotten from an Etsy shop, but I have to tell you, I'm super duper impressed. It's so much better than a standard store pattern! It has tons of great photos to walk you through every step. So if you are a beginner and still a little nervous about doing your own projects, this is a great pattern for you! 

Plus, no hand sewing required! Hooray! I don't like hand stitching things, it seems like it takes so long. Plus I'm always nervous about it coming un-done. Never has yet, but I'm still always nervous. Most of the necktie patterns out there require some hand stitching, but not this one!

You only need either 1/4 yard of fabric or a fat quarter (which I seem to have an endless supply of), so you can make tons of these. I can't wait to get started. My baby boy is going to be well stocked when he arrives. Oh yeah, and the pattern is for size 6 months up to 9 years old, so I can prepare now for the next few years. Or if you have like 4 boys of different ages, this will work for them all.

You can check out the facebook page or the little gentleman's closet Etsy shop!

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Bobinette

I'm loving the kid's clothing designer Bobinette. So many fun & stylish things.

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DIY Thrifty Baby Art

Found this cute idea on Ohdeedoh, one of my favorite kid sites. How fun would it be to make a project like this? You can find the link to the tutorial here. Pin It

Celebrating Handmade

My sister-in-law made this cute onesie for a baby shower and I wanted to share. She decided to skip the sewing machine and stitch it all by hand. She cut out her pieces and roughed up the fabric and then hand stitched it on. Idn't it sweet?

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Baby Hat & Blanket Tutorials

I'm a little scared of sewing knits myself, but these are so cute I might just have to cowboy up and try it. You can find step-by-step  hat tutorial here.

And the step-by-step blanket tutorial here.

She ordered Michael Miller knits (design by Patty Young) from Etsy, which explains the cuteness. I haven't see such cute knits around here locally. Not that I've been looking, but I periodically browse, you know. Pin It

Made It: Tea-Dyed Eyelet Baby Skirt

A few months ago I saw some darling skirts on Zulily's website. {EDIT: Guess who showed up again on Zulily today! This very skirt! The company that makes it is Hazel, and for the next few days you can buy one on sale for $28.99 at Zulily. Or you can make one, for like $7 ish. But you really should check out their other clothes because they are sooooo darling, all of them!}

From the baby blessing dress I just made, I had some leftover eyelet that was the bottom section of the fabric that was unused. But it was white. White white. So I got this little idea in my head to try something I've been hearing about. Tea dyeing. I had a boxful of lemon-ginger tea that I didn't care for, so here was a great opportunity to use it up.
I found some instructions here, and loosely followed them. My tea gave me a satisfactory ivory color.
(Sorry, most of my photos are at night--the only time I can do much is after little {A} goes to bed).


I dyed the eyelet fabric as well as a lining material:

Then into the dryer it went, to help set the color.
Next, I measured the elastic and sewed it together:

Then I measured and cut my fabrics (about double the width of the waist band). Hemmed the bottom of the lining fabric:

And sewed a basting stitch along the top of each of the 2 layers.

Gathered each layer, sewed the side seams.

Finally, pinned the 2 layers upside down and inside out to the elastic band.

And sewed it on, using a zig-zag stitch to allow for stretching of the waistband.

Flip it over, and Ta-da!

I tried to get Ava to model it for me, but had little cooperation. It's still a tad big on her anyway.

Now you try one and send me a photo! Pin It