Daddy Shirt

I don't think a week goes by that I don't hear about how much Ryan looks like Darren (deja vu for me...think it was the same with Ava).

So seeing as I have been wanting to try freezer paper stenciling, I decided to make Ryan a "Daddy" shirt so that people really could compare the two. Especially when Darren is not with us. I originally intended to save this as a surprise for Father's Day but sadly I am bad at keeping secrets.

Oh well, Darren liked it anyways (even if he found it a bit funny that his face is now on his son's shirt).   Ava, of course, saw Ry's shirt and said that she too, needs a Daddy shirt. Maybe I can make her a cute "Daddy" tshirt dress?

My "Things"...Ha!

Awhile back, my sister-in-law's sister-in-law (say that 3 times fast!), gave us some of her twin boys' old clothes. Included in this stash were 2 "Thing" onesies (you know, Thing 1 & Thing 2 from Cat in the Hat?). Anyways, I almost got rid of both since I don't have twins but then figured that I could do something for the kids with them.

Obviously, I did not have to do anything with Ryan's since he can fit in the onesie. But for Ava, I used the Sienna Dress pattern from Lil Blue Boo (that I have used before and LOVE) to upcycle some old shirts into a dress. I then appliqued the "Thing" onto it. Needless to say, she was very excited and told me all day how she & Ryan were twins. And everyone else that would listen (her teachers, classmates, daddy, etc.)

So here they are, my "Things". Ava is "Thing 1" and Ryan is "Thing 2."

I have such nice, cute "Things" don't I?

Wearing the Onesie

Finally got around to snapping some photos of Ryan in his onesie.  Almost waited too late to put him in this (I forgot I used a Gerber onesie to make the pattern and they run small).  He probably will only get to wear it a handful of times before he grows out of it.  Oh well. 

And then I made Darren put on his new grey shirt with black & white stripes and pose with Ryan in his matching shirt (no, they won't ever do this in public nor would I expect them to).

And btw, I used a 60's filter on these in case you were wondering why the photos looked different.  Just changing it up a bit.

Another Onesie

I finally got around to making another onesie from one of Darren's shirts.  I said when I made the first one, that I would make more so here the second one.  This time I switched it up a bit and added the button panel and used some rib knit on the color and near the snaps.

 I actually made this a few months back but forgot to post about it and at any rate, Ryan was too small for it since I made it based on a Gerber 6 month onesie size.  He actually may be able to fit into now...will have to try it out this weekend to see.

Here is Darren back when he used to wear this shirt.  He actually bought another shirt that is very similar to this one (same color scheme but stripes are slightly different) so maybe I can get the boys to wear them and match?  Ha ha ha!  Not sure if D would go for that or not.

Little Man's Onesie

Remember this post?  The one about me making a onesie out of Darren's old shirt?  Well here is said onesie in action:

Little man gets lots of love and kisses from his sister.  Times like this make my heart melt.

A Whole New Wardrobe

So I went a little overboard on making stuff for the new baby.  I originally intended to make one or two onesies/burp cloth sets but once I got started, I guess I could not stop.  Part of the problem is that I won a set of fat quarters over the holidays from one of my favorite blog's giveaways and since it was mainly blue fabric, I just had to use it for my own son.  And I couldn't just pick one!

I ended up making 6 sets (onesie, burp cloth & pee pee teepee) and 2 other onesies.  Hard to tell from the photo but I made 2 whale onesies, a "r' one, a robot one, a small fry on, a zebra one, an elephant one and a bulldog onesie.

Close up shot of the pee pee teepees...Ava always thinks these are party hats for dolls.  They do look like it! Think she will be surprised to see how these are actually used.

And a shot of my nice burp cloths...I used leftover chenille and minky dot for the back and they are random sizes as a result. I love the way these look -- it will be a shame when they get all dirty. :)

I am really slow at posting my projects these days...I made these about 2 weeks ago.  I have a list of things to make before I have this baby in 4 weeks and for some reason I keep adding in random projects before finishing my list.  For instance, I just painted a Hello Kitty picture for Ava's room this weekend (photo to come) as well as made another tank dress for her.  And the other week I made a tank dress for myself that can be worn now and should work post-pregnancy due to the empire elastic waistband.  We'll see if I get around to posting all these photos...so little time and so much to do!!

Appliques!

So I did another order for a friend of a friend.  I took a break from sewing stuff for my own kids (who are we kidding, I have been procrastinatin anyways) to make these onesie/burp cloth sets.  Sometimes it's just easier to make stuff for other people in a timely manner.

Just took photos of the appliques, they are all ones I have done before except the excavator which had to be resized for an infant onesie.

Giraffes (always a hit!)

 Doves

 Construction equipment (bulldozers and an excavator)

For My Boy

Well the nesting period has definitely begun and I have been busy working on some projects for my soon-to-be born son.

First up, a onesie made from an old shirt of my husbands (wish I had taken a before photo but since I cut this shirt up a few months back, it was out of the question - basically this was a men's polo shirt with collar).  I used an old gerber onesie that I cut up for pattern pieces and then just cut out my pieces and sewed it up!  I think it is pretty cute and super cool that it used to be Darren's.   And then I made a pee pee teepee to match (no photo of that though).

 Then, I decided to make a nursing cover since I gave my old one away to my friend who had her baby in January. I was thinking I would not need one this time around but then realized it would be nice to have one around just in case.  I didn't want to ask for mine back (that would be rude!) so I used this super easy tutorial from Freshly Picked's blog.  Easy peasy and a good excuse to use a yard of fabric from my overly full sewing drawer.

2 items down and a few more to go!

A Little Upcycling

I've probably mentioned it before but Ava has been outgrowing a lot of shirts lately.  They basically still fit except that they are too short.  So instead of throwing them out, I have been upcycling them in various ways. 

This time, I used a tank top that I had appliqued for her last year and added some fabric I shirred and voila!  A new tank dress.  Thankfully I still had the matching fabric to make the skirt.  (Quick side note: If you have not shirred fabric before, it is pretty easy once you figure out how your machine needs to handle the elastic thread.  There are various tutorials online about it if you want to google it, but like I said you have to play around on your sewing machine to see what the correct tension, etc. is.  I highly recommend it.  Btw, I plan on making myself a few tank dresses this way once I'm not in maternity clothes and have the time).

 She was pretty excited about her new dress and insisted on going outside in the 55 degree weather to take a few photos for me.  She asked me "Is this for Spring?"  Guess she'll be excited when I make her a few more of these (which I plan to do...I have 10 weeks before baby gets here to do it).

 And speaking of the baby, I took one of Ava's old tshirts (it actually was a boy shirt but since Darren is in construction I sometimes buy her things with dozers and other equipment on them) and cut it up to applique a onesie for our little boy to be.  The onesie was kind of a grey color (hard to tell in the photos below but you get the idea) and for some reason I thought it would be cute/funny to applique the word dirt on my baby boy's bottom.  I like it...but maybe I'm weird.

Christmas Gifts

I can finally post all the Christmas gifts I made this year.  At the time it seemed like more, but really it only ended up being a few things.

First up, are the 2 Kindle sleeves I made for my mom and my mother-in-law.  If I only knew at the time that I was getting a Kindle, I could have made my own!  Guess that is my next project.

Front, closed view.  (I used fabric scraps I had to piece these together and I love the final funky result).

 Back view with pocket (diagonal line part is the pocket for the charging cord)

 Front, open view (I used plaid flannel and houndstooth flannel for the lining plus some fusible fleece for extra padding)

 Another view with Kindle inside

And finally, I made a big pile of baby stuff for my new nephew (who will be born in January sometime).  I made a few knit infant hats (from my husband's old shirts), 2 pairs of comfy baby pants (flannel & fleece) using this free pattern, and 2 onesies with matching burp cloths.  I also made 5 pee pee teepee knockoffs.  So simple to make!  Seriously took like 2 minutes a piece!  Guess I need to start making my new baby some of these so that when he comes in April we will be prepared.

Rosemary's Baby Gifts

This past weekend I headed down to Houston to throw my best friend Rosemary what I like to call a "non-shower" baby shower.  Basically, me & another friend of hers took her to lunch and spent a day shopping and having fun instead of having an actual shower.  We did bring gifts and I did want it to feel kind of like a  real baby shower so I made a diaper cake in addition to putting together a little gift basket.

 Close up of her gift basket which includes blankets, towels, washcloths, stuffed lamb, handmade onesies & burp cloths and a handmade dress.

My version of Dana's Warhol dress.  Since Rosemary is from Lewiston, ID, I decided to make her daughter a special little Idaho dress out of some old t-shirts we had saved.

And a close up of the diaper cake.  My friend Michelle made an awesome diaper cake for one of her friends and passed along this online tutorial to show me how it was done.  It really was SUPER easy and I highly recommend making one this way as opposed to the ones I've seen that use rubberbands.  It took around 15 minutes!

I was going to post all these photos last week since everything was done but thought that Rosemary might check out my blog and see them.  Sure enough she told me this weekend she was looking at my blog to see what I might have made her...sneaky girl!

Baby Gift

One of my friends, who I have known since 1st grade, just had a baby boy this past weekend. So my mom and I sewed up some stuff to send her way.

Here is the whole set laid out: a baby quilt (sewn by mom), a tote bag (also mom), and 3 onesies a burp cloths (me!).
My friend and her husband are into animals so I decided to do all animal onesies this time around. My go to onesie for boys (and one of my faves anyways), the whale:

A zebra (this one does not actually match the quilt fabrics but I included it b/c the baby's room has zebra stripes on the wall and I just happened to have some fabric left over from the chest I refinished awhile back & from the dress I added fabric too--this is now one of my favorites):

And a duck (because my friend's husband gave her a pet duck years ago!):

And here is the beautiful quilt my mom sewed. I still need to attempt to do a quilt sometime soon but just have not found the time yet. I love that my mom uses a pre-quilted solid fabric for the back and just sews it together like a regular blanket. Much faster than doing the actually quilting and it looks great too!

This is on it's way so I hope she ends up liking it!

Rodeo Baby Sets

My friend Jennie, who works for Austin Rodeo had me make a few onesie/burp cloth sets for a friend of hers who used to work at the Rodeo...she wanted them kind of rodeo/country themed so here is what we came up with.

One with the Austin Rodeo logo (the upside down A made to look like cattle)

And a cute little cowboy boot.

Infant Tutu

Just wanting to show off the newborn/infant tutus I did for a friend of a friend recently. I've done a ton of toddler tutus but never thought to do one for an itty bitty baby. And this tutu was itty bitty. Quite hilarious I think when you actually saw it in person.

The "A" newborn onesie with tutu.

And then a larger tie-on tutu for a 6-9 month old outfit. This onesie has a horseshoe and although it is hard to see in this photo, if you zoom in, you will see little hearts on the horseshoe itself. Wasn't sure how the horseshoe would turn out since I have never done one, but I thought the hearts were a nice touch and definitely made it girlier.

First Birthday Outfit

My sister in NYC wanted a birthday outfit for her adorable daughter Griffin who turns one on April 28th. She knew she wanted a tutu and onesie outfit and wanted it to be blue but other than that did not really have an exact thing she wanted.

So I whipped up this cute cupcake number with a tie-on tutu. I usually do the no-sew tutus that you have to pull on. This time though, I decided to tackle the tieon kind as it probably is easier to get on babies who don't walk/stand yet. It's pretty much like the no-sew tutu except that I sewed ribbon to both ends of the elastic and then after tying on the tulle strips, I sewed them to the elastic so they won't move around.

End result: Super cute, black & blue cupcake tutu outfit! Now I am just wishing I had a time machine so that Ava could have this when she was one. Oh well!

PS. I apologize for the lack of posts recently but it has a been a busy month of surprise parties, furniture refinishing (post on that later), toddler birthday parties and the great sickness of 2010. Needless to say, I've been exhausted!

Twins

I received an email with this photo from my friend who bought the Hamburger and Fries onesies for her boss' newborn twin sons. Apparently the onesies were a huge hit with family and friends over the holidays. Always nice to see my stuff in action!

Hanukkah Shirts

My friend Amira contacted me about doing a Hanukkah onesie for her 9 month old daughter. She had a great idea that she had seen about doing a Peace, Love, Dreidel shirt. So here is the end result. I also ended up doing 2 navy blue toddler shirts for her friends' kids as well. And because these were so cute, I also did a Peace, Love, Christmas Tree shirt for Ava (although I did not get a photo of it...yet).

Science Onesies

I did these custom onesies for a friend in NYC..apparently there was a science theme going on...

here is the atom onesie...

and the beaker onesie.

Twin & Unisex Baby Onesies

I made these in September as well for Brooke who had 3 friends having babies. The first set was for twin boys so we went with the hamburger and fries theme... Then I had to do 2 unisex onesie/burp cloth sets. Here's the new & improved owl...

and the most requested one, a giraffe.

Brothers

Monica wanted some t-shirts/onesies for her 2 adorable boys, ages 2 and 6 months. They like animals and construction trucks so I came up with these coordinating outfits. They live in Colorado so it's actually cool there already so we did some long sleeve shirts -- lucky boys! Don't think we'll be wearing long sleeves for at least another 2 months.

A lion and giraffe...

and an excavator and a bulldozer.