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.

Tooth Fairy Pillow

I have been wanting to make one of these for so long...ever since I saw this post on mmmcrafts 2 years ago.  I finally have a reason too.  My niece Sawyer has lost 2 teeth and is about to lose another.  So I decided to go ahead and make her a pillow.  Of course, this means I also should go ahead and make all the kids I know (my kids and all my nieces and nephews  - that's 8 kids total) one too.  Thankfully only Sawyer and my nephew Ian have lost teeth so far so I have a bit of time before I have to make the others. But Ava has already been bugging me for hers so I am sure she'll get one sooner rather than later.

So here is Sawyer's tooth fairy...so cute! I love that the mouth is also a pocket for the tooth and can be used by the tooth fairy to leave some coins or small trinket.  I added a little S on the skirt but other than that it's pretty close to the examples that mmmcrafts did.  So great that this was a free pattern and really fairly easy to do...hardest part for me was embroidery since I don't usually do that and attaching buttons but it was not hard to figure out how to do those.  Here she is:

More Upcycling

Awhile back my sister gave me this cute sun dress since she was not wearing it anymore.

 I had borrowed this dress several years ago when I went to Mexico as evidenced here.

 I decided to try to wear it the other day, and really just wasn't feeling it.  Not sure if it's because I just had a baby or if it's because I'm super pale but it just was no longer flattering on me.  Not to mention that the lining on this dress only came down so far (the last 2 ruffles did not have lining and you could see that) -- it always bothered me.  So I was going to try to turn it into a top for me.  BUT when I tried that on, it too did not look flattering.

So what's a girl to do? Answer: turn it into a dress for their 4 year old daughter.  I just took in the seams in the top (I did not even mess with the skirt part...it actually looked good full) and adjusted the straps.  She of course loves it since she only wants to wear dresses every day.  Nice free way to give her a new one.

A Busy Week

After awhile of not really doing anything creative, I whipped out 3 new dresses this week...crazy!  That never happens.  But I once again bought an amazing pattern from Little Blue Boo.  This time the pattern was for me--yeah!  It is called the pieced tunic dress and here is my first attempt.

Front:

Back: 

This was made using all old shirts of mine (4 total, the red Cross Canadian Ragweed shirt, a striped Old Navy shirt, a purple shirt, and a brown shirt).  I love the funkiness of it and think it turned out really cute.  I did modify the pattern slightly with the waistband part to try to lengthen the dress a bit but it still ended up a little short so I think this is more of a tunic or I might use it as a beach cover up.  I also made the size medium (which I normally am) but since I am only 2 months post partum, I probably should have gone up a size as my chest is a bit bigger than normal.  Also the red shirt I used was probably not as stretchy as it should have been (it was a bit stiff due to the print on it) and that did not help.  But I modified the chest part before I sewed it by adding a few scraps to it.

Would love to show you a photo of me in it, but since it is kind of short and I am super pale right now, it wouldn't be pretty. :)

Dress #2 was for Ava using some of my old shirts.  It's a bit crazy as I don't have too many coordinating shirts on hand but I still like the overall look and since this was the first time to make this LBB pattern (the Sienna dress), I figured I should use what I had rather than possibly mess up stuff I buy.

This used my old Hula Hut/Keep Austin Weird shirt, a shirt we got from the Duck, NC fire department 2 or 3 years ago and a black shirt of Darren's.

Front:

 Back:

 And then I made another dress like this one. Loved that one last year and wanted to do another one.  Ava actually fits in the one I made last year since I ended up adding a white layer at the bottom to lengthen it.  Here is her new one (I think she likes it!).  This one was just 2 shirts (one of them being the rest of the purple one I used in my tunic).

 The 4T size on this one is a little big in the chest part for her but that just means she can wear it next year too.  Besides if you tie it higher (which I did) it fits just fine.  That or I can end up adding the loops on the back like last time.

So excited about these and want to make more...just need more cool shirts.  I'll be on the lookout!

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.

Teacher Gifts

So it has been awhile since I have posted anything on this blog...sorry about that.  But in all fairness, I have not done much that is worth posting about here, what with giving birth to this guy about 2 months ago: 

Such a cutie...but he kind of takes up a lot of my time these days (in a good way).

Anyways, I finally did do a little project about a month ago for A's teachers as an end of the school year gift. And yes, I am just now posting it...procrastination may be my middle name.

  I whipped up these little gathered clutches (amazing tutorial from Anna at Noodlehead, see here) to hold the gift cards I got the teachers, and I really should have made myself one too as they are too adorable and are pretty easy to make.  Oh well at least I finally tackled this project since it has been on my to do list for quite some time now.  Maybe when I find time again, I'll make myself one.  I highly recommend this tutorial by the way.  Very easy to follow and such a quick project!

I finished these off with little "handmade with love" tags with A's picture on them.

 And inside, in addition to the gift card, I included a little photo of Ava saying Thanks. (see below for photo).  Always think it is nice to include a little personal photo with the gift. (I try to put A's photo on valentine's cards as well as birthday presents to friends so they can easily see who it's from -- especially helps since most 4 year olds cannot read yet.)

 Apparently I like polka dots since both clutches were lined on the inside with that pattern.  Best part was that I used some of my fabric scraps to make these.

Photo that was included.

Hopefully, I'll have some time to do more projects soon!!

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!!