Baby Prep: Sewing

I love to sew, especially when I am expecting a sweet little bundle of joy that will need lots of little goodies. So far, I've made...

Burp cloths...

A sweet receiving blanket...

Little birdies for the crib mobile...

And today's project was a rice bag for those horrible contractions that last for days after giving birth. Isn't that unfair? It seems like after you have a baby, that should be it. No more pain. I think the afterbirth contractions are the worst part about having a baby!

I still want to make a pair of little booties like these that I made last spring, but I haven't found the right fabric yet.

And if I had the budget for it, I would make a carseat tent--but I really should stop buying fabric!

Christmas prep

Yes, right now it's only September {love}, but it really will be December before you know it! I need to have all my Christmas prep done by Halloween this year--believe me, I do not want to be waddling around the stores when I am 9 months pregnant, nor do I want to go out days after giving birth to finish my shopping.

Hopefully these little Black Apple dolls will brighten my girls' Christmas morning!

My mother-in-law was nice enough to embroider their faces for me so I didn't have to paint them {gulp}. Making the itty-bitty arms with stiff canvas was torture, but beyond that, these were sooooo easy and I think they turned out really well!

The blond doll will be Helena's--she loves wearing her "pocket dress" and putting her hands in her pockets, so I gave her doll two little pockets on the front of her dress. The brunette will be Tempe's--she is starting "ballerina class" in a few weeks!

Accent wall? Check!

I asked a few weeks ago about painting an accent wall... well... I decided to take the plunge and do it!

Ahhhh I love it so much! I'm so glad I decided to do it.

New paint and new bedspread means I need new pillows, too, right? I'm not thrilled with how the dark blue one turned out--I thought contrasting thread would look awesome, but it just shows my crooked gathers. Next time I will go with matching thread.

We got this dresser from D.I. last summer and I spray painted it brown. Love the shape, love the size--unfortunately, it doesn't have drawer runners, so it's not a very nice dresser. But I was going for looks when I picked it out.
Just a note about those framed prints above the dresser: I know you can't see them well in the picture, because I am not good at photographing things, but they are pencil drawings of architecture from the French Quarter and they are very dear to me. My grandparents lived in New Orleans while my grandpa was in school and he drew them while they lived there. Jason and I went on our honeymoon to New Orleans, so not only do they remind me of my grandpa, but also of our honeymoon. I'm really not a big "art" person--I would much rather have nice photographs than most art--but these are very special to me!

Tempe and Helena's bedroom

{Warning: long post!}

About a month ago we took the plunge and moved Helena into Tempe's bedroom. We wanted them to have lots of time to adjust to sharing a room before the baby arrives so that the two events wouldn't seem connected. I had lots of concerns about this transition. I was concerned that Tempe would resent having to share her room and losing her "private" place. I was concerned that the room would just be too small for two kids and all their stuff (it's 100 square feet, but with oddly placed closets and doorways that leave little flexibility in furniture arrangement). I was concerned that the bed would dwarf the room and leave little floor space for them to play.

I'm happy to say that none of these concerns were warranted and the transition has gone very smoothly.

One of the things that I did to make everything work was to divide the room into zones: not only does this keep the room organized and easy to clean up, it also encourages creativity and active play because children can easily see what each part of the room is designed for. Basically, I wanted their bedroom to encourage creative play, reading and writing, organization, and problem solving.

Creative Play

Personally, I think creative play is the most important kind of play for preschoolers and toddlers, so I included a lot of creative play elements in their bedroom. The biggest one is their kitchen. Their bedroom has an alcove under the window, and this is where I placed their kitchen, play food, aprons, pots and pans, and dishes. We also moved their child size table and chairs upstairs so that they can cook, set the table, and serve "dinner". Helena especially loves cooking, but Tempe spent an hour the other day making "Honeysuckle sauce".

Their room also has a dollhouse with dolls and furniture, a toy toolbox, hand puppets, and a doctor's kit. Of course, we have oodles of more creative play elements in their dress up clothes, but I left those in the baby's room.

Another creative play element in their bedroom is their actual bed. We went with the Ikea Kura loft bed because it's a great starter bunk bed: it's only about four feet high. The scale is also perfect for small spaces. Tempe adored the blue tent that came with the bed, but I couldn't stand how it clashed with the rest of their bedroom so...

I made a new one!

I let Tempe pick out the fabric. She went with a sheer purple with sparkly rhinestones all over it (of course). Honestly, this was one of the hardest things I have ever made, probably because I work almost exclusively with cottons and this sheer fabric was just harder to work with. I omitted the central pole that kept the original Ikea tent taunt, and also made it about six inches wider on the sides so it would gather. I thought a draped, gathered look was more of a "Princessy" look. I'm thrilled with how it turned out and so are the girls!

Anyway, I consider this bed a creative play element mostly because of the tent. With that tent on top, this bed is a spaceship, a pirate ship, a covered wagon--whatever you can imagine! The girls play on the top bunk for hours.

Reading and Writing

Tempe and Helena have always been big readers and I wanted to be sure to continue to encourage that. Their bookshelf/toyshelf has tons of books, but I wanted their beds to be the reading "zone", so I installed these wire shelves (from our pantry downstairs) on the wall at each bunk. They keep books, water bottles, special stuffed animals, and pacifiers (Helena) on them. Each bunk also has way too many pillows, blankets, and stuffed animals than necessary, but it makes their bed a comfy place to flop down and read!

The other major change I made to the original Ikea bed was to paint the hideous blue side panels with chalkboard paint. Can I say what a hit this has been? The girls think it is so awesome that they can actually draw on their bed! We use basic sidewalk chalk because the bigger sticks are easier for little hands to hold and I used some scrap felt to make an eraser glove, so clean up is easy. This is one activity that they are not yet allowed to do without my supervision--the chalk stays locked on the top shelf of the closet unless I'm in the room!

I haven't implemented any other of my writing ideas, but the more writing activities included, the better! Some other ideas are an old checkbook in a purse so they can write checks just like Mom and a shopping list or recipes in the kitchen. Reading and writing activities don't have to be limited to actually sitting down and trying to write the alphabet.

Organization

In a small bedroom, organization is key. I got so tired of Tempe strewing her many collections of tiny toys across the floor, so when we moved them in together, I took that oppurtunity to cut back. I had three small cloth storage bins, and only things that fit in those bins are allowed to stay in the room. With those bins and other various baskets, we are able to fit all of their toys (minus the kitchen toys) on their three shelf bookshelf. The wire book racks also help keep their bunks organized. Since everything has a place and a container, I can tell Tempe to put away all of the marbles or all of the beanbags and she knows exactly what to do--that makes Mom happy!

Problem solving

Some of the problem solving toys we have in their room are legos, marbles and cardboard tubes to roll them through, beanbags, and puzzles--both peg puzzles, board puzzles, and easy jigsaw puzzles. I try to have a lot of toys that can be used and manipulated (Jason will hate that I used that word) in different ways. This encourages creativity in play and problem solving, and besides, Tempe would rather play with her family of rocks from the backyard than expensive My Little Ponies.

Finally, I want to plug one of the best parenting books I have ever read: Awakening Children's Minds: How Parents and Teachers Can Make a Difference by Laura E. Berk. I read this for a child development class and it's one of the few textbooks I am keeping. The chapter on make-believe play is especially good!!

Brown chair makeover

We got this brown chair to fill a void in our living room when we bought our house. It's an ok chair, I guess, but microfiber was starting to get worn down on the arms and cushion and it was just so blah.

So I decided to liven it up.

This is actually the second slipcover I made. The first one was a brown background with a large-scale red, blue, green, and yellow print. I liked the fabric a lot, but when I went back to the store to buy more of it, they were out and then I found this print and I fell in love. Now I smile every time I see this chair!

And a new chair deserves new pillows right? Don't you love the hummingbird?

This chair makeover was just a part of my ongoing living room makeover. I also recovered the windowseat cushions that my mom helped me make last fall. Now I need to recover a huge stack of pillows and find some accessories and then the room will be done!

My first dress

When I saw this tutorial at My Mama Made It, I knew I had to try my hand--finally--at clothes making. I've been swooning over a grey-black-and yellow home decor print at JoAnn for months, but I never knew what to use it for. This tutorial was a dream come true!

I started with a plain grey t-shirt that had been hanging, unworn, in my closet since I got it last spring. I added a ruffle around the neckline and cut it at my natural waistline, just as instructed in the tutorial. Then it was time for the skirt part.

This is where I started making mistakes. And I made a lot.

Do you want to hear the stupidest one?

Ok. But don't laugh at me.

I measuring around my natural wasit and cut out the appropriate length of fabric, neglecting to realize that my natural waist is a good 6 inches narrower than my--to put it nicely--child-bearing hips.

So I added a strip of leftover fabric to make it wide enough.

Now, I thought I was smart enough to do an elastic waistband instead of a drawstring like on the tutorial. I didn't want a drawstring poking out, and the tutorial doesn't really explain where the drawstring is or what you do with it when you are wearing it--is it just a bow on your hip? Is it hidden somewhere?

But guess what? The elastic drawstring didn't work.

So when I put it on it was the most shapeless potato sack I have ever worn.

Luckily, the original grey t-shirt came with a matching scarf, and when I tied that around my waist, the dress actually looked ok. So just don't look too closely and don't make me untie my sash.

Windowseat re-do (again)

A few weeks ago, my mom emailed me asking for Christmas lists for me and Jason and our girls. I gave her a list for everyone else, but couldn't think of anything for me. Finally, I told her all I really want for Christmas is her help in making windowseat cushions for the corner windowseat in our living room. So that is one of the things that we did while she was here visiting last week!

We didn't use a pattern for these--she came up with them all by herself! I was going to document the process and turn it into a tutorial, but I was too overwhelmed and didn't take any pictures. And I don't remember how she did it. But I love them! They are pocket slipcovers, so I can change the fabric when I feel like it. I'm thinking about having two sets, one in autumn/winter colors and one in spring/summer colors so I can change the look of my living room with the seasons.

I also whipped up a few pillows to go on the couch (brown ruched silk) and these two to go on the windowseat. I miss my beautiful bird pillow, but it just didn't go with the colors for these cushions... I wish I had taken a close-up of the bigger pillow. You can't tell in this picture, but it's a button-tucked pillow. The smaller one is an update of my outdoor ruffle pillow. I would love to make drapes (not for these windows, for the massive almost-wall-sized window in the same room) but man! fabric is expensive! Even using the clearance, $3/yard brown ruched silk that I used for the couch pillows, I would have to spend about $50 just on fabric. No way.

Ahhh bliss... doesn't that look wonderful?

dressing up my windowseat

Guess what? I was going to post my first tutorial for this project. But I can't. Because I was planning on taking pictures of Round Two, so I didn't take any pictures of Round One, and now. my. sewing machine. is. broken.

Augh!!!

What am I going to do? I am having sewing withdrawals. I don't know what I did. I was just stitching up my opening on the baby pumpkin you see in the background of the pictures when my needle got caught (which happens a lot). So I turned the knob to move the needle out of the fabric and the knob clicked twice and then twisted off in my hand. I don't know how to fix it. My mom is coming in October, so maybe she can help me, but until then I am going to have to actually do my homework for Psychology and Physical Science instead of sewing during naptime.

Well, on to my non-tutorial.

I wanted to make some fabric pumpkins because all of my other decorative pumpkins are wayyyy too breakable for this family. So I picked out three fall-ish fabrics (at Wal-Mart, of all places) and got 1/3 of a yard of each.

First I cut two "football" shapes out of each piece of fabric. I didn't have a pattern, but I figured it would be pretty important for every piece to be exactly the same size and shape, so here is the technique I used: I folded the fabric in half length-wise, right sides together, and then used a crayon to draw a half "football" shape on the fold. That makes both sides of your piece identical. Mine was about 12 inches tall by 3 inches across the widest part of the middle. I cut it out and opened it up and it became 12 inches by 6 inches across the widest part. I then used this first piece of fabric as my template for the other five pieces. You'll choose measurement according to how tall or fat you want your pumpkin.

After I had all my pieces cut out, I put them in pairs, right side together. I obviously didn't want any of the same fabrics right next to each other, so I didn't pair them together. I sewed the fabric together along one side, backstitching at the top and bottom.
After all three pairs were sewn together, I started sewing the pairs together. The easiest way to do that is to "open" both pairs of "footballs" and put one inside the other (right sides together). Then stitch along one side.

After I sewed two pairs together, I made my stem. I just cut out two stem-shaped pieces of fabric, sewed them right sides together, turned it right-side out, stuffed it, and stitched up the bottom. When you sew your last pair of footballs to the half-finished pumpkin, stick the stem in there at the top with the points (pointed down, of course). Don't forget to leave an opening for turning and stuffing as you sew your last pieces together!

After it's all sewn, turn it right-side out and stuff. I didn't fill mine completely, because I wanted it to be a squat sort of pumpkin.

Stitch your opening closed and voila! A stuffed pumpkin perfect for your kids to kick, drop, squish, and cuddle to their hearts' content.

crafty weekend report

Jason's dad took all of the boys in the family on a father/son outing to Atlanta last week, leaving me home alone with the girls for the first time ever!

Aughhhh!!!

Luckily, things went really well. And it's over. And I'm never letting him leave me again.

I dedicated myself to crafting while he was gone. And, oh yeah, taking care of my kids.

1) Finished my Christmas cookie sheet advent calendar.

2. finished my Halloween cookie sheet advent calendar (picture wouldn't turn, so turn your computer sideways to view it better)

3. finished two autumn banners--the top one is fake autumn leaves (the same autumn leaves from Tempe's first Halloween costume--a pile of fallen autumn leaves) and the bottom one is indian corn and cornhusks.

4. My fourth pillow for my red bench. That's an A on it, not a teepee.

WE INTERRUPT THIS CRAFTY REPORT TO BRING YOU PICTURES OF INSANELY CUTE KIDS JUMPING ON THINGS.

Ok, now we can get back to the crafting.

5. While the boys were gone, we girls in the family got together for an even more fun girls' night. On Friday we went to a bounce house (hence the jumping pictures) and on Saturday we made marble and clothes pin magnets and cookie sheet magnet boards.

6. Finally, I embellished a few ready made canvas bags. Here are some trees...

7. and a pair of pears.

throw pillow mania

I have officially found my new favorite thing to make: throw pillows. They are so versatile and easy! They can be as simple or as dressed-up as you want them to be. So far, my red and white outdoor ruffle pillow and this blue bird pillow are my favorite. I made these two pillows to dress up my living room. I even have an idea to dress up our horrendous mirror wall--but you'll have to wait to see it.

Anyway, these two pillows are made out of an old dress that was hanging in my closet. I loved the dress but it shrank and it was too short on me now, so it became pillows.

The blue pillow was originally blank, but it was so blah that I added this bird. My method is not the "correct" method of doing this, but I didn't have any Wonder-Under and I didn't want to go to the store. First I found a clipart of a bird silhouette that I liked online and printed it off. I cut it out and laid it out my fabric and used a sharpie to trace around it. Then I carefully cut the bird silhouette out of the fabric. I pinned it in place on the blue background and very, very carefully stitched it in place. I like the raw edge instead of the more finished edge that comes from using an iron on. It was a pretty easy project and only took me half of naptime--even with the pillowcase tearing as I tried to stuff the pillowform in.

one project down...

I finished the makeover of my junky park bench and I LOVE IT. I spray painted it Cherry Red, wrought iron and all, and made a few outdoor pillows to soften it. Here is a picture overload of how awesome it turned out!*

*I am going to give it another coat of spraypaint--but you get the idea.

my new {green} craft

If you are looking for a quick, easy, inexpensive, Earth-friendly baby gift, I have the perfect thing! The only problem is that they are super addictive. Once you start making them, you won't want to stop.

1. Quick. The most time-consuming part of this project is embellishing the squares before they are sewn together, and even that only takes a few minutes at most. In fact, it's not even necessary. Sewing and stuffing the blocks take about 5 minutes, so you can crank out a whole bunch in a short amount of time. Here is the tutorial I used to learn--I make my squares 5x5.

2. Easy. Can you sew a straight line? Good. That's absolutely all you need to know how to do for these blocks. My favorite embellishments--ribbon "taggies", and fabric flowers and yo-yos--are very easy to make. For taggies, fold 3 inches of ribbon in half and pin on the right side of the fabric square with the open edge lined up with the edge of the fabric. Or you can do inside-out taggies--pin with the fold lined up with the edge of the fabric. For fabric flowers, I simply cut out several flower shapes--sometimes all the same size, sometimes descending in size--and sew all of the centers onto the fabric block. Finish it off with a button in the center. Here is a tutorial for yo-yos.

3. inexpensive. Because the blocks are made up of 5x5 squares, you can use scraps from other sewing projects. The taggies and fabric needed for embellishments can all come from scraps as well.

4. Earth-friendly. Like I said, these can be made completely of scraps. Instead of stuffing mine with cotton batting, I stuff them with plastic grocery bags for several reasons. First, it's recycling. Second, it's free (because if you're like me, you have a zillion of them crammed into your grocery bag organizer). Third, they hold the cube shape better than cotton batting. Fourth, they are crinkly and squishy, which babies love.

These are the first blocks I made for a boy, and when I tried choosing fabric I was at a loss. First of all, maybe it's just my JoAnn store, but most fabric is very feminine. It was hard finding anything for a little boy. I usually like to use three fabrics--two squares of each--but I could only find these two. I also didn't know what I would do embellish the squares--flowers and yo-yos are pretty feminine.Then I remembered the hole-y jeans I was about to throw out. What's more reminiscent of a little boy than torn jeans? I used the denim to embellish squares--don't you love that bright green peaking through the torn knee and the star cutout? Using denim also added some texture to the blocks. Another way to get texture without spending a billion dollars on minky or chenille is to use old terrycloth towels or washcloths, t-shirts, or corduroy pants.

And reusing jeans saved me some money, too!

Christmas in July

Remember this post about my goal to do a homemade Christmas this year? Well, I combined that goal with my goal of getting all my Christmas gift preparation done in July this year.

Yeah. I know that's a little ambitious. So I changed it to getting the bulk of my Christmas presents for the girls done this month, and guess what, I did it! I might make some more things (for their stockings and dress-up box) but at this point, I feel like I am ready for Christmas. Well. For my kids. But not in any other way.

Here is Tempe's crazy rainbow wand.

A set of six doll diapers for Helena. I might buy her a new doll to go with them.

Can you guess which shirt belongs to which girl?

Another purchase--pots and pans from Ikea for Tempe. I still need to find a set of cooking utensils for Helena.

A family memory game for Tempe.

I'm not too happy with how this turned out--specifically that the fish look like whales. It seems wrong to let Lena fish for whales. But, Tempe played with it while I was cleaning up, and she loved it, so I guess it doesn't matter how it looks.

Crayon rolls for Tempe and Helena, and one for their cousin Libby's birthday this week.

And now for my crowning achievement in crafting. I can't claim credit for this myself, because I saw the idea on this blog and copied it shamelessly. But I am happy with how it turned out.

I took this...

... to this!

As usual, it is not perfect. But, remember, I am embracing my imperfection! I made a kitchen for Tempe and Helena! I made it myself! And it cost me less than $30.