Carseat Covers

I have two sister-in-laws having babies this spring, so I made carseat covers for them. The one on the right is supposed to be for a boy. The one on the left is supposed to be unisex, but it was so hard finding fabric! I ended up thinking the mushrooms were a little girly, and the other was a little too boyish, but oh well. I love how they turned out either way.

 I found the pattern on Etsy. I love that it has a button front so you can peek in, but still keep the little ones covered if you want. Her pattern was great, but I made a few changes. She used Grossgrain ribbon everywhere, but I decided to pipe it. I'm getting more confident with my piping skills. For the red one, I made my own bias tape and covered store-bought piping to make it a little more special. (Thanks to my sister for the idea)

 Buttons! Sometimes it's the embellishments that end up costing the most. 

Straight from Little House on the Dairy.

Moo.

Will's Pilot Costume

I offered to make Will's costume this year. I thought it would be fun to try to follow a pattern, and Annie's costume was already done. I was happy to do it!

It's from this McCall's pattern. It was pretty idiot-proof, even for a non pattern-sewer like me. Except I messed up even before I got it home. I was very meticulous at the fabric store, buying the right notions and fabric, calling and texting reinforcements before I committed... 

I got it home and I had bought the wrong size.

Ooops.

Luckily JoAnn's was still having it's $.99 sale on McCall's patterns, so I just went and bought another. 

 The hardest part was the collar, but Kat helped me with it. We thrifted the white turtle neck. I think it totally makes the outfit (as do the sunglasses).

 JoAnn's had some amazing iron-on patches. I think little touches like this really make it look professional. And that is my first real zipper. Thank you, thank you.

Handsome boy.

I think he really liked it.

This whole thing makes me appreciate my mother and how talented she is at sewing apparel. Quilting is so easy compared to all the technicalities of a pattern. I enjoyed learning it though.

High Chair Cover

By Kathryn

(Sorry, I don't know why the pictures are being crazy...)

My friend wanted me to recover her high chair cover. 

It was girly, and now she wanted it for her baby boy. 

I had never attempted this kind-of project, but my friend was sure I could figure it out. 

I found basic instruction from this website, then tailored it to fit my needs.

We choose dark brown for the seat, to make the food hide better, 

and all the fabric is washable.I made button holes so the straps could still fit through, and secured them through all layers. Following guides from the original cover, I ran a stitch where the seat would need to fold, making it fit nicely into the high chair.

We added rick-rack trim for fun, and bias tape to finish the edge. 

Next time I would use larger bias tape because it is easier to work with. 

It was fun to help my friend with something I had done before, 

and she was so excited with the end result. 

Chapter Book Bag

By Kathryn 

For birthdays lately, I have been making purses for my daughter's friends. It's cheaper, cuter, and way better than some toy that will be lost or broken. 

This one is for Hannah- she loves fairies and baking.

It has a ruffle flap. 

And a pink, secret pocket

This is the strap-- a trim I had leftover. 

Using trim or rick-rack is SO much easier and quicker than making a strap from fabric!

We personalized it with an appliqued "H." 

(I didn't do a "D" last time- curves are much harder!)

I interfaced the orange square, the letter, and the fairy fabric, to add strength. 

My favorite part about this project is working with my daughter on it. She really wants to learn to sew, and it's fun to share the skills. 

I also loved that we used no pattern, just ideas I had done before.

It's great to be able to make it just the width and length we wanted.

One more thing that made it nice? All the materials were from my stash. 

It's a quick, unique, personal gift we know she will love!

More Fabric Flowers

I whipped some of these babies out the other day to send to Carrie's little girl, River. They were super easy. The best part is that if you don't sew, no worries. Shh, they're hot glued. There's a bazillion tutorials out there for stuff like this, but I kind of just made it up as I went, and I like how they turned out.

Fabric. I used scraps. I recommend using something that is on the same front and back, like a check or solid. Fold it roughly into fourths like so.

Cut out circles. Your biggest ones will be close to the finished size. These were for a baby headband, so they were only around 1 3/4". I did four big ones, four smalls, and a couple middle ones. They don't have to be perfectly round, nothing is exact here.

Fold a large circle into fourths.

Glue it to a smaller circle. You could make the bottom one felt.

Glue four quarter circles to the base.

Then just fold the smaller ones and stick them in between wherever looks good.

Fill, fill, fill.

There you go. 

I attached them to headbands. You could clip them to a cardigan or put them on a shirt or whatever. Easy peasy. Oh, and when you do use hot glue, you only need a teeny dab. I didn't even really squeeze the trigger on my glue gun, I kind of just dabbed the fabric into it. 

I Vowed Never to Do Piping Again

But then my friend asked me to make some bumpers for her nursery, so I attempted it once more. It really is a sweet story. They adopted two little girls, and they recently found out they were expecting their first little girl. So exciting for them.

The friend who I made them for is quite thrifty herself, so she actually found some really nice boy bumper pads at a yard sale and bought them before she found out what she was having. I ripped the whole thing apart and I used the existing piping and ties and recovered the pads to come up with this. It really cut down on the work (and the cost).

I basically just sewed a huge tube of fabric, added piping and ties, on one side, and voila. 

She loved them. As in, almost went into tears when I gave them to her at her baby shower. It's always nice giving something away when you know the person you're giving it to really appreciates it.