Monday, February 28, 2011
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Burp cloth mania!
I have been putting out a lot of sewn baby gifts lately and am having so much fun! My best friend is having a baby in June and I am trying not to go too sewing crazy for baby Eliana but it is very hard to control myself!!! My favorite baby gift is a monogrammed burp cloth.
I love giving these because every baby needs a burp cloth and it is so handy to have a burp cloth with your baby's name or initials on it to send with your baby to church nursery, daycare, or wherever there are a lot of other babies. They are also very easy and fast to make. All you do is find fun ribbon and use the baby's initials and you have a great gift that is completely functional! Write the baby's initials on the burp cloth with a washable fabric marker and sew over it with a zigzag stitch. The marker will come out with some water.
If you do not know the baby's initials (and please don't give the mom a hard time if she does not share it!), just monogram the last name like here
or the first initial of the last name like this one for my friend whose last name is Gainor.
This double-sided burp cloth is a little bit more challenging because the ribbon wraps completely around the burp cloth so you need to make sure your stitching on one side of the ribbon lines up just right with the other side of the ribbon (aka you need to make sure your straight stitch on one side catches the other side).
Another fun idea is to make a burp cloth that matches a pair of baby shoes and a romper like these here. Check out how to do it!
I love giving these because every baby needs a burp cloth and it is so handy to have a burp cloth with your baby's name or initials on it to send with your baby to church nursery, daycare, or wherever there are a lot of other babies. They are also very easy and fast to make. All you do is find fun ribbon and use the baby's initials and you have a great gift that is completely functional! Write the baby's initials on the burp cloth with a washable fabric marker and sew over it with a zigzag stitch. The marker will come out with some water.
If you do not know the baby's initials (and please don't give the mom a hard time if she does not share it!), just monogram the last name like here
or the first initial of the last name like this one for my friend whose last name is Gainor.
This double-sided burp cloth is a little bit more challenging because the ribbon wraps completely around the burp cloth so you need to make sure your stitching on one side of the ribbon lines up just right with the other side of the ribbon (aka you need to make sure your straight stitch on one side catches the other side).Another fun idea is to make a burp cloth that matches a pair of baby shoes and a romper like these here. Check out how to do it!
Friday, February 18, 2011
Matching corduroy
These matching dresses for my girls put the biggest smile one my face because I think they are just so adorable. This McCall's pattern is very easy and I have made dresses from it a few times. I made Isabelle's dress a while ago as part of matching set with her cousin and also for her Christmas dress.
This is the second time I used this Butterick dress pattern for Grace. The first time was her Valentine's Day dress. It is such a simple pattern!! This time I used the dress fabric for the bias tape on the armholes and neckline instead of buying bias tape. I think the accent is really great!!!
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Happy Valentine's Day!!
Love is in the air! You know I just had to make some matching Valentine's dresses for my girls.
I had a lot of fun making Isabelle's dress from the pattern in a book called Absolutely A-Line. It uses one simple a-line pattern but gives you a bunch of different ideas for changing the dress up. The book had a cute idea where you put snaps on the front of the dress and then cut out felt shapes (the book used flowers) and then put the other half of the snap on the flowers so you can snap the flowers onto the dress in different patterns each time your child wears it. I built on that idea and decided to cut out hearts and attach them to the dress in the middle of each heart with a heart button (instead of a snap). I made the two hearts at the bottom of the dress into pockets and monogrammed one of them for Isabelle. I used a straight stitch for the "I" instead of a zigzag stitch so it would be a bit more feminine and delicate.
Grace is getting big enough now where she can actually fill out a dress and it doesn't look silly.
I used this Butterick pattern which I have fallen in love with because the dress and underwear patterns are so simple! Butterick does a great job rating their patterns according to difficulty and I really appreciate that because sometimes you just need to start simple and sometimes you feel frisky and want to try something advanced. It's nice that the ratings help you focus on the type of project you want to accomplish.
The only time-consuming part of the whole dress and underwear was using the bias tape on the neck and armpits. I would highly recommend this pattern if you are looking for a great baby dress. I love the pleats!!
Want to see some other matching outfits? Check them out!
I had a lot of fun making Isabelle's dress from the pattern in a book called Absolutely A-Line. It uses one simple a-line pattern but gives you a bunch of different ideas for changing the dress up. The book had a cute idea where you put snaps on the front of the dress and then cut out felt shapes (the book used flowers) and then put the other half of the snap on the flowers so you can snap the flowers onto the dress in different patterns each time your child wears it. I built on that idea and decided to cut out hearts and attach them to the dress in the middle of each heart with a heart button (instead of a snap). I made the two hearts at the bottom of the dress into pockets and monogrammed one of them for Isabelle. I used a straight stitch for the "I" instead of a zigzag stitch so it would be a bit more feminine and delicate.
Grace is getting big enough now where she can actually fill out a dress and it doesn't look silly.
I used this Butterick pattern which I have fallen in love with because the dress and underwear patterns are so simple! Butterick does a great job rating their patterns according to difficulty and I really appreciate that because sometimes you just need to start simple and sometimes you feel frisky and want to try something advanced. It's nice that the ratings help you focus on the type of project you want to accomplish.
The only time-consuming part of the whole dress and underwear was using the bias tape on the neck and armpits. I would highly recommend this pattern if you are looking for a great baby dress. I love the pleats!!Want to see some other matching outfits? Check them out!
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