Oopsie

A little while back I saw this tutorial on Moda Bake Shop.  I thought that little Octopus was adorable and simple enough to make for little Rylea.  So, that’s what I did.  Here’s my version of Oopsie the Octopus.

I thought it came out great until I gave it to Rylea and she said, “Oh yuck!  Spidey!”  She then proceeded to stomp on it as if it were a spider.  Great.

I guess it looks like a ‘spidey’ from this view.

I guess this sweet little octopus will just be another addition to the toy box until she’s discovered later and played with.  If you’re looking for something cute and easy then I recommend this pattern.  I hope yours is loved more than mine was!

Emily’s Rag Quilt

This past week my two sisters, Melissa and Emily (or Aunts Melzy and Emmy to Rylea) came to visit on their spring break.  Mel is on spring break from college on Long Island and Emily is on spring break from high school.   So, they hopped on a plane in NYC and flew into Monroe for some time spent with us for a few days.  Emily recently moved into a new room in the house complete with new bedroom furniture and new bedding which, of course, means a new quilt!!

We went to the fabric store (a few times) and got everything we needed (and much more) to make Emily a rag quilt.  This is the first time I’ve made a rag quilt, but I knew it was going to be super easy and super quick and fit into the time we had to get it done.  Emily’s requests were zebra, pink and green with a little bit of black.  So, this is what we came up with.

For a little detail, I added her name to the lower right hand corner of the quilt.  Here’s a close up.

Each square started out at 6” and was backed with a flannel square and has another square of batting in between.  This quilt is so cozy and cuddly and warm.  It’ll be the perfect addition to Emily’s super awesome room.

Here are some of the details:

Size: Approximately 70” x 90” (A generous twin size)

Fabric: The solid pink and green are Kona Solids but I don’t know what the names of the colors are, and I didn’t pay attention to anything else when we were picking it out, but we did get it all at Hancock.

Completed over 5 days.   Melissa and Emily helped cut, pin, design, and fray the quilt.  Sewn by me using about 3.5 spools of thread!  There are 252 quilt blocks in all.  Multiply that by 2 for the front and back square plus another 252 squares of batting = 756 squares were cut, pinned and sewn together.

And, just for the record, this is what happens when you’re trying to get a decent picture of a quilt in ridiculous wind.  Oh well, at least you can see what the back looks like.

And, if anyone is interested, I have more than enough to make a few more of these quilts in crib size or maybe even in this same size.  Leave me a comment, email me, or find me on facebook if you’re interested in ordering one.

Birthday Girl

One of my sweet friends from Naples sent me a bunch of super adorable pink fabric and a white t-shirt and asked if I’d make a birthday outfit for her daughter who is turning 3 soon.   The birthday party theme is Minnie’s “Bow”tique and I just wanted to share a few pictures of the skirt that I just finished.  I used this tutorial over at Made.  If you haven’t visited her blog yet, you’re missing out.  She’s got amazing photos and even more amazing tutorials and DIY ideas.

More photos coming once the whole outfit is complete!

Puff Quilt

Ever since I saw these quilts over on Honeybear Lane, I fell in love.  Don’t they just look so cuddly and warm?  All those little puffy squares are just gorgeous and making me wish I could fit into one of those cribs and take a long nap!

Image via Honeybear Lane

Heidi, the designer and blog owner, orginally had a free tutorial on her blog that you could follow and make your own quilt, and I read through the entire thing and planned on making one for Rylea for her new big girl bed.  Eventually, Heidi took that tutorial and revamped it and now you can get it here.  I consider myself a pretty experienced sewer and I can usually recreate something if I see a picture of it or if someone brings an idea to me and asks me to make something custom for them.  So, once the tutorial was taken down, I decided to continue with my original plan and I started making my quilt per the tutorial in my head.  I just planned on winging it along the way if I had to.  Well, wouldn’t you know, Heidi hosted a pretty AMAZING giveaway a couple of weeks ago where the first 100 commenters on her facebook page were emailed a free copy of her new tutorial.  I was one of those commentors!  (May I just also say that I enter giveaways on an almost daily basis and this is the only one I’ve ever won.)

Using the new 57 page PDF tutorial as my guide, I whipped up this little number for Rylea.

I changed some things up like the size, and the method of piecing and attaching the binding among other things, but Heidi’s instructions were amazing to reference along the way.

I used a fat quarter bundle along with one print from my own stash to make 9×9 square quilt top.

I used some black yardage for the border and then an awesome pink and black zebra print for the back and the binding.  (By the way, make your own binding, it’s so much easier than the store bought kind.)  Here’s a great tutorial if you don’t know how.

Rylea’s reaction to the finished quilt yesterday was “OOOHHHH mommy, I wike it so much!”  which she said on a couple of occasions and she even slept with it in her crib last night (among the 100 stuffed animals and other required sleeping items).  Which just brings me so much joy.  I put a fair amount of time into this quilt so I’m very happy it has been well received.

I highly recommend the puff quilt tutorial if you’re interested.  It’s colorful and really well written and really easy to follow.  There’s also all sorts of tips in there for a beginning sewer that makes this an achievable project.

If you’re interested in more stuff I’ve made click the “You Made That?” tab on the top of the page or check out my Etsy store here.

Sewing for Baby D

Well, I’ve been super busy sewing away for not only myself but for a couple of other pregnant mommas too.  I thought I would share all the things I’ve made for our baby so far 🙂  So, prepare for a photo overload.  Feel free to ask questions in the comments about how I made something or whatever.  And, if you’re looking for a tutorial on anything specific then let me know and I can put one together.

• Reversible Boppy Covers with 24 inch zippers:

– Each cover is made out of two different flannel fabrics and I sewed in the biggest zippers I could find so stuffing that big pillow in the cover isn’t too much of a challenge.  I made my own pattern                        from a cover we used for Rylea.

Side 1

Side 2

Motorcycles

Baby Boy

• Reversible Snap Bibs (2 different styles):

– Each bib is made out of two different flannel fabrics.  I just cut two of each piece, sewed them right sides together, turned them right side out and sewed a top stitch all the way around the edge.  For                 the ones that snap in back, I made my own pattern and for the ones that snap on the side, we used a pattern that Cali bought at JoAnn.  Devin put all the snaps on for me because it involves a                               hammer and hammers intimidate me.  🙂  I have  a lot more bibs that I sewed up, these were just the ones I grabbed for the picture.  A couple of these have baby’s name on the other side of them                       too.

• Pee Pee Teepees:

– I made these out of one layer of fleece on the outside and flannel on the inside.  These babies are designed to put over little man’s privates when you’re changing his diaper so you don’t get peed on                in the process.  Not sure if we’ll actually use these, but I had some leftover scraps so I whipped some up anyway.  They are insanely easy and take about 5 minutes each to finish.

• Taggie Blankets:

– Made out of flannel and double stitched to hold all those little ribbons in there so they don’t come out and become a choking hazard.

 

• Blankets:

A receiving blanket made out of owl flannel on one side and solid blue on the other. Click on the picture to enlarge.

Fleece baseball print on one side and a red cotton gingham on the other. The binding is a red satin pre-packaged binding.

• Burpies:

– Made four of each of these, so 8 all together.

• Clothes:

– My most recent project has been sewing up some pants and outfits for the little guy.  We only had about 2 or 3 pair of pants so I took matters into my own hands with some scrap fabric I had.  I                        used a pair of newborn pants that I had on hand and made a pattern from those extending the length.  I just gave the pants a generous hem so that as he gets longer I can just let the hem out and                        get a lot of use out of these.

Baseball fleece newborn pants with elastic waistband

Fleece monkey pants with elastic waistband. I love the look of these without the hem, and they're Devin's favorite so I think he'll just wear these rolled up.

The fabric for this outfit came from my carseat recover. I just made some pans out of the stripe and took an existing onesie I had and put a little lion applique on the front. I'm thinking of adding the words "mane man" to the onesie too. This might be the coming home outfit 🙂

• Car Seat Recover:

– You can read about this project here.  I just finished the canopy a couple of weeks ago and put the whole thing back together.  I think it turned out pretty good.

• Car Seat Tent:

– Made from two layers of flannel and some velcro to hold the whole tent to the car seat.  Saw this idea online and I really liked it because we’ll be heading to NY from Dec 20-30 to see my family.  I                     think this little cover will help in keeping snow/rain/wind out of the car seat and keep those nosy strangers out too!

So, I guess this is how I do nesting.  Nesting of the sewing kind.  🙂  I think the only thing left on my list to sew for the new baby is his bedding.  I’ve got all the fabric but I figure since he’ll be sleeping in our room for a while until Rylea outgrows her crib and he moves in, then I have  a few months to get that done.  Right now we’ve got about 5 days left until we leave for Naples to have sweet baby D, so I’m just using up fabric I’ve got lying around and making things here and there as I think of things to make.  Thanks for checking in!

Car Seat Progress

Here is a picture of what Rylea’s car seat looked like when she used it.  I forgot to take my own before photos so this one is just one that I googled.And here is a picture of the same car seat that the little man will be using:

I managed to get the seat covered and bound last night.  I think I said something like this to Devin in the process, “The rest of our kids are sitting in a car seat with this pattern or else we’re just buying a new one.”  That about sums up how challenging it was.  I know now why women sell covers like this on etsy for $90+.  There were buttonholes, darts, and all sorts of other crazy things involved in the sewing of this bad boy.To be honest, I’ll probably tackle this thing again for the next baby, I’ll just do things in a different order so I’m not trying to shove 4 inches of padding into my sewing machine and get a straight line stitched on it!  All that I have left to recover is the canopy and that should be finished tonight!

Baby Updates and More

Well we’re now technically 28 weeks along if you go by the original due date of November 11.  But, if you remember, our last ultrasound was putting us around November 5th (one week earlier) and then at my next appointment I was measuring another week early and that’s putting us somewhere at the end of October now.  So really, God is the only one that knows when this baby is going to show his little (or big) face around here but we’re bracing ourselves for an early arrival!

So, in the mean time I’m trying to get all my sewing for the baby done in between hanging out with Rylea and working for Devin’s golf course as the “from home controller.”  I’ve decided not to buy anything for this baby that I can’t make myself because it’s much cheaper to use my sewing machine, so here’s my ever-growing list:

• Crib bedding (including the bumper, sheets etc.)
• Receiving blankets
• Burpies
• Bibs
• Recover Rylea’s infant carseat/swing/stroller to make them man-friendly (unless someone awesome buys us new stuff which we’re not planning on happening) I’ve started on the car seat and I’m excited to see how it turns out
• Boppy pillow cover

One thing I have FINISHED is his quilt.  Which also happens to be the first quilt I’ve ever sewn and I have to tell you, I’m hooked.  I actually finished it before we ever left Naples, but I just took some pictures of it today to post.

Zig Zag Quilt

Front and Back

Close up of quilting and binding

Quick synopsis of the quilt.  I used solids in green, orange, and blue and also patterns in the same colors for the alternating zig zags.  It’s hard to see in these pictures, but I’m happy with the patterned mixed with the solids and the look it ends up with.  I quilted 1/4 inch from each edge of the colored zig zags leaving that same pattern on the back of the quilt.  I made the binding myself using a red solid and pattern fabric and hand stitched the whole darn thing onto the quilt.   I love that method and think I’m going to use it every time now.  I used a couple tutorials from across the blog world like this one and this one and this one to help guide me in the right direction.

I am aware that baby #2 has a handmade quilt before baby #1, but Rylea’s going to get one too as that is also already in the works.  🙂  Can’t wait to start on that one!

First Sewing for Baby Boy

We still haven’t picked a name for our little one, but I did start sewing for him!  I have been wanting to do a quilt for a long time and then I came across a zig zag quilt and thought that would be so fun for a little one to play around on.  He can even use the colored lines as roads for his cars.  I’ve made all the blocks for the quilt top and here they are all laid out on the kitchen floor ready for piecing. 

It might be hard to see, but the colors are orange, green and blue solids with a pattern in those colors as well.  I chose really bright and fun colors, and it was a challenge not to stop and get every single cute pink fabric I found.  Switching over to boy mode is harder than I thought!  Each block is 5.5 inches square and consits of the white and then a strip of the colored fabric, then the way that you lay them out makes them into that really awesome zig zag pattern.  I bought a super soft microfiber sheet from Walmart for CHEAP that i’m going to use as the backing, and I think I’ll do a red binding.  I’m really excited about how this is turning out!

Introducing…

…the newest member of the DeWitt family!

We’re so excited to have seen the heartbeat and see our sweet little baby even moving around some in there!  Because the ultrasound technician was not a doctor, she was legally unable to tell us anything about the measurements or the ultrasound itself because that means that she’d have to “read” the results and she can’t do that without a license.  So, we asked a bunch of questions and got no answers really except that there’s only one baby in there (Devin literally let out a very audible sigh of relief), and that there’s a beating heart.  I’ll be calling the midwife on Friday to find out more like my official due date and how far along we are.  Because this baby was a bit of a surprise I wasn’t keeping good track of my cycles and I really have no idea how far along I am so we’re kinda still in the dark on the details.  There’s just something about seeing the baby for the first time that makes it so much more real and exciting.  God is good!

GO COLTS!

Thanks to my Google Reader I keep up with a TON of crafty blogs.  I have mountains and mountains of bookmarks (carefully organized into different folders of course) of things that have inspired me or things that I plan on trying that I just haven’t gotten to yet.  One of my favorite blogs is Made.  Dana is an A-M-A-Z-I-N-G pattern maker and seamstress, you name it, she does it. 

Well she’s over there celebrating the boy this month.  I know there a lot of readers out there that are loving this boy theme, but I’m a little less than thrilled but only because my only child is a baby girl so I’m totally biased.  Well, I saw her tutorial for the 90 minute shirt and had a lightbulb moment.  (Let me just say, that her little one, Owen, is just too stinkin’ cute for words).  I was going to make this shirt but girl-ify it and turn it into a super bowl outfit for Rylea.

One shopping trip to JoAnn and one search through our box of garage sale items and I had all the stuff I needed.  What do you think of the final result?

Back with applique numbers

 

Front with applique horseshoe

I of course made a bow to match, but this pic was taken around 7:30 at night right before Rylea’s bedtime.  (Note, Ashley had to let Rylea have her watch so we could get this picture taken).

So all I did was follow Dana’s tutorial and then I sewed some tulle on the bottom to make a mini tutu.  I had her little diaper cover already from another dress, and I just drew the numbers and horseshoe and sewed them on.  Oh yeah and did I mention the fact that I actually made 2 of these?  The first was one was far too small and I couldn’t even get it over her head.  I think I might be in denial about how big my baby is getting!  I’m not sure what I’m going to do with the other one yet (it’s just plain white), but it would probably fit like a 0-3 month dress so if you know of someone that could use it let me know!