what I've been up to the last couple months...

I've been just a little preoccupied with the latest addition to our family. Our precious baby girl arrived in late April, and we have been busy loving and cuddling her. She's our little Sweetie. So, that's why I haven't been blogging very much lately. My understandable (I think) and lovely excuse.



In the midst of the snuggling, I have been able to finish a few sewing projects. I haven't been able to make all of my ideas a reality, but I have the rest of her life to make little dresses and girly things, right? :)


I sewed up a pair of kimono-style pjs for Sweetie from Amy Butler's "Little Stitches" book. The blanket in the first photo is also from this book. There are some cute projects in there! I'm excited to sew some more projects from this book for Sweetie and also for baby gifts.


Before Sweetie arrived, in the midst of nesting I decided to give the car seat a good cleaning. Well, after much scrubbing, the car seat still didn't look 'great'. So, I decided to sew a carseat cover. I made a pattern by removing the existing cover and pinning muslin to it. I didn't line or quilt it with any other fabrics. It fits nicely over the existing cover and it comes off easily for washing. Bonus!

Here are a couple 'non-baby' projects:


I sewed an apron for my niece's birthday. I added a little gathered inset for fun - I had to do a little girly sewing :).


I also painted a tree in Peanut's room last week. Slowly, but surely, his room is coming together.

Yep, we're staying busy over here. But it's a good busy - it keeps me out of trouble ;).

I'm back...and with a new diaper bag for me!

Yes, I'm still around :). However, I've been camera-less. I finished a custom order diaper bag several weeks ago as well as a pouch carrier for the new baby. I've decided to wait until I have the baby to post pictures of the carrier. It's hard to demonstrate proper "carrier technique" without an itty bitty :).

I've also been working on my son's quilt off and on. I really need to get moving on his quilt, though, because I'd really like him to be in his "big boy" bed before the baby arrives. He is currently sleeping in the baby room while his new room transforms from the office to a bedroom. It really wouldn't be the end of the world if we didn't move him into his new room until later, since the baby will be in our room for the first while. But with Peanut, I would often do night-time feedings in the baby room to let hubby sleep better. You're welcome, honey :). So, it would be nice to get everyone and everything organized and settled in the next couple weeks. Perhaps the nesting instinct will really kick in one of these days...

Anyways, here's the project I finished last week: a diaper bag for our new little blessing. I couldn't sleep one night, and this bag design worked it's way into my brain. I got up long enough to make some sketches and start thinking about fabric options. Since we don't know if the baby is a boy or a girl, I tried to come up with something neutral. I have to say, now that it's finished, it's a tad on the girly side. But if the baby is a boy I'll probably just take off the flower yo-yos on the front and call it good. Besides, I'm the one who has to carry it - that makes the girlishness ok, right?



It was definitely fun to make some baby items for myself the last couple months. After making so many custom orders for other babies, it's nice to look forward to using some items myself. Hopefully I'll get some ideas for improving my bag-making techniques as well. Sometimes I feel bad making custom orders when I myself haven't tried out the designs. Who knows, maybe there will be some new bag designs in the near future! :)



I also made a diaper changing kit very similar to a custom order from last month. I made it a little smaller and attached the change pad to the bag with snaps.

The Little Diaper Bag That Could

This diaper bag was my first custom order of the new year. My friend wanted a smallish diaper bag that could fit a few diapers, a wipes container and two bottles/sippy cups. She also wanted to have a change pad. Initially the plan was to have the change pad attached to the bag in some way, but in the end we decided to make it detached. (I'm still mulling over the idea in my head, though. I may try to come up with a design that has a change pad that is attached but can be removed with a zipper, buttons or maybe snaps.) Hmmmm. But anyways, I digress, here's the bag we came up with:




My friend sent me a picture with an idea of what kind of bag she wanted. The front flap in the picture had a funky curve in it. I decided to make a curved flap and also added some embroidery since the flap drew attention to that part of the bag.


The back has a pocket for the change pad.




The change pad has a layer of clear vinyl to protect the fabric from baby messes.

This bag was so much fun to make! I'm also really liking the design. I may make one for myself. I'm also contemplating making a few for my Etsy shop.

Custom Baby Items - Finished!

I finally finished a custom order for a stroller quilt, matching stroller bag and a change pad cover. These are all for the same friend who had me make the pink and brown crib quilt.





She wanted the stroller bag to fit a water bottle and a few small baby items. I used plastic canvas between the layers to keep it nice and sturdy.



The water bottle compartment has an elastic band since water bottles seem to vary in size. I also thought if she's jogging the band will help keep her water bottle in the compartment :). The other compartment just has a flap to keep things inside and dry.



All the snaps are reinforced with plastic canvas. I've never made anything like this before, so I wanted to make sure the snaps could handle the weight of a water bottle.



I also made her a change pad cover to match her crib quilt. I used just about every scrap of fabric to make this cover. I hope she's happy with how everything turned out!

Better than nothing!!!

So, it turns out the camera that needs to go in for 'repairs' just needs a good cleaning. Well, I don't mind a few specks on my photos if you don't! Hopefully I can get it cleaned this weekend, but for now, this will do.

I am excited to show you my latest project - Mary Jane slippers! I picked up this pattern last week at Quilt Essentials great sale. It's a pattern for 'Ballet Slippers', and you can make basic slippers or add cute straps (i.e. Mary Janes, cris-cross straps, and pretty ribbon straps). I've needed slippers for so long, but I was waiting for something cutesy. As soon as I saw the pattern I knew I wanted Mary Jane slippers :).




I love the little tab on the back - such a cute detail!



I've also been working on a custom order quilt. My friend (who ordered the pink crib quilt in previous posts), also requested a stroller quilt. With the fall weather coming upon us, she wanted something to bundle her baby in while they go out for crisp fall walks. She picked out the two main fabrics and the fuzzy backing and gave me free reign with the design. How trusting of her! :) After I made a few of the quilt blocks I realized it was going to be a bit busy, so I purchased the gray fabric to break it up a bit. I hope she likes it!


The quilt is actually a nine patch, but it's hard to tell from the photo :).

I'm disappointed I can't show you the quilt I finished or the apron I made for my sister-in-law, but I was camera-less and the projects are now out the door to their 'new owners'. At least I was able to post a couple of pictures and give a quick update. Hopefully, more projects will be finished soon!

Quiltin' Away!

It's been a little while since I posted last, but that doesn't mean I haven't been sewing! In fact, I have several sewing projects that need doing in the next month, so you should be seeing more pics in the future. But right now I'm working a custom order for a baby quilt.

The expectant mom and I got together and talked about what she wanted. She was open to patterns, but liked the one I made for Peanut. She also mentioned that when her girls were babies they loved cuddling anything warm and soft. She was willing to buy the fabric herself and have me do the quilting, so that's what we did! While she was at the fabric store she found a gorgeous waffle weave fabric and some great brown microfleece for the backing. She did an amazing job picking out the fabrics. Her little baby girl is going to love it!

It's not finished yet, but here are some progress pics:

Finished squares!


More squares


The top is finished and now it's time for pinning the batting and backing.


Baby is going to love the soft pink border fabric!

Baby Stroller Cushion and Quilt

Happy 4th of July everyone! I hope you have fun plans to celebrate. I'm just glad the weather perked up a bit after the thunderstorm and torrential rain yesterday! I'm not going to complain about that bought of rain because we did need it, I'm just glad it's sunny today :).

Here's my latest completed project. It's a custom order for a stroller cushion. My friend recently had a baby and bought one of those great jogging strollers. She loves the stroller but thought it didn't have enough padding for her baby. There is a metal bar right under where the baby is supposed to sit - poor baby bum! So she asked me to make her a cushion.

She picked out the fabric which is brown, maroon, pink, and lime green. I found a coordinating minky dot fabric in pink. The cushion has two sets of holes for upper straps and a funky hole thingy for the buckle strap. I made it this way so it would fit both the stroller and the car seat as well as be adjustable for when baby gets bigger.

What my friend doesn't know is that I made her a matching stroller quilt as well! It will fit the stroller nicely and not be too bulky for carrying around. I hope she likes it!