Vee gifts

Long story, short, or not told at all. I decided it was high time to make my son the goldbug I've been planning to do for a year. I had no idea what I was doing when I started. I just randomly cut, and sewed. Then I unpicked, and sewed some more. His antennas have a pipe cleaner in them to give them shape. One leg is quite a bit longer than the other but that's what you get with homemade toys, made by me. Not to mention his head/face is lopsided. I was laughing about it to my husband, and he said that's ok that how he looks in the book.

I decided to give it to him as a Valentine present, because for one he already had enough birthday presents. And for two, I wanted to try my hand at making doll rattles for the girl. And I thought he would appreciate getting something handmade when she got something. She isn't quite old enough yet, but soon. They are kind of ugly, but it was a first attempt, without a pattern. Sadly enough I made the green one second, but yet its the worst. They match her baby quilt.

Then I felt bad, that my husband didn't have a valentines present and the kids did. Since he is quite literally my valentine (his birthday), I decided to just make something stupid and stuffed for him, like the kids got. Sadly, his present is made with scraps. But true nonetheless.

Lastly, I made myself a present, but I didn't wrap, mine up. A valentines apron. Once again, I didn't buy trim so I had to look at what I had, and what I had was left over pink satin quilt binding trim. So that's what won.

A holiday of homemade. I should take the handmade challenge for valentines I could accomplish that! J is going to think that February is just as excited as December. Cake, cookies, presents multiple days in a row. And snow! blah, that's the most depressing part of Valentine's Day. By the way, I do think Valentine's is a stupid holiday. But I do love the valentines candy, much better actually than Christmas candy. Other than the candy and cookies its good for nothing. I never once celebrated Valentine's Day with a boyfriend, I never even had a date on Valentines until I got married. But part of the fun of kids is doing fun things on all the holidays I think. Anyway. By the way, since my husband's birthday is on the 14th, we've always celebrated valentine's day on the 15th. Some may wonder why we even celebrate, after 4 years I do, seems like his birthday is the perfect excuse to ignore it. I think it has something to do with being newlyweds 4 years ago, and just be so excited to have a date on Valentine's Day. I really couldn't tell you why, I can't even remember why. Probably has to do, with I really wanted these kissing frogs from Hallmark, so my husband planned to buy them for me, but on Valentine's Day we got about 4 feet of snow, so even with skipping class, and only going to work, he spent the whole day other than work, and pie shoving the neighborhood. Ahh, to be young and in love, I doubt my husband would still go down to the hallmark store to pick up stuff animals, and I doubt I would even ask for them anymore.

Birthday Sewing

This crown is roughly based off of this lady's site. I decided I needed to make something for my son to not steal his three year birthday thunder, and I immediately thought of a picture of me in kindergarten with a HUGE pink construction paper Birthday crown on, holding cup cakes for my class. I thought yeah a birthday crown. I didn't actually read the tutorial, I just printed off the patterned, then barely used that too.

The whole reason we needed the crown was because I made the birthday apron. I am so excited about this. About a year ago I saw an birthday apron for sale for $40, a little much in my opinion, although it was quite fancy. Ever since I have wanted to make one, but you would be surprised at how hard it is to find birthday material at JoAnn's. Maybe you wouldn't, and I wasn't about to start searching quilt shops, for $15 a yard material. This was made for less than $8, plus my time. Anyway, I found this material a few days ago, and bought it, not only that it was on sale. Its not the cutest birthday stuff I could ever imagine but, beggars can be choosers. I've been looking for a year.

When I came home to cut out my material, I realized I didn't buy an trim for my apron. I had to scrounge around to see what I had. I think it turned out well with the scraps I found, it reminds me of frosting decoration. Plus since it was scraps it was paid for months/years ago. I love the pockets, I used elastic in them to make them feel/look 50's-ish.

When I was in the middle of making the apron, my son said, "whata doin mom?" I said making a birthday apron. He said "for dee?!" I said no for me. He totally didn't understand why his mom need an a birthday apron for his birthday, and you know I can understand why he didn't understand my logic. That's where the crown came in. I wanted to embroider a cupcake on above Happy Birthday, but my son said no a star. See I had shown him the website with tutorial, and he said yeah, a birthday crown with a star, for me. So I had to go with what he wanted and not with what I wanted. But I had to show him the site because there is no way I was going to make a birthday crown if he didn't want one. It was pretty easy to do, I didn't use wool felt, because well wool felt is expensive, and I only had white at home. And I was not about to go buy any, I used fabric scraps, that my son picked out.
Hopefully in a few years my son will not think I'm stealing his birthday thunder by wearing a birthday apron, but instead be excited when he sees it. Oh its party time, the birthday apron is out. Yes, I know I'm weird, frumpy and old lady like, did we already have a post about that.
But at least I have mad sewing skills.
Moral of this post, I don't imagine anything, I just copy everything.

a dollar and half

I bought some clearanced long sleeve onesies with christmas phrases on them for 75 cents each, and crafted them.
Well because.. a girl needs her glam
(whether that glam be a crafted clothes, diamonds, or a plain black t shirt)

But my husband liked this one better. "Green is the new Pink" that's a throw back to Gilmore Girls, season three episode six for all you who don't know. My husband knew what it was from.

The camera makes it hard to see the pink on the green. Not to mention I picked a light pink.

baby crafts

Before my baby was born I made a nursing cover up for myself. The positive thing about this past year is after at least six aprons, and six nursing cover ups, and probably ten or more baby blankets, I vastly improved the straightness of my sewing. I'm down right impressed with this. (Things made in the first 3/4 of the year left no such impression on myself.) I have yet to use this cover up, and probably never will but I loved this material and wanted to use it, and had the exact amount for a cover up. I could have made a purse with it, that was my original intention, but a cover up is so much easier than a bag.

Homemade Presents

I always have dreams about taking the hand made only Christmas pledge, so I start early and plan ahead, but I never make it. This my attempt for the gift exchange family, on my husband's side.

I ended up really loving this apron by the end, and wasn't sure she would like it. I made it back in November or October, but then by December she kept mentioning that I had never made her one, so I ended up making the perfect present.

Best part, I sewed so straight! and the pocket magically lined up with the other material.

Her daughter got a flower tutu. I had no idea what I was doing when I started out, I just had a picture in my mind. I was happy with the results.

P.S. The Pledge doesn't quite work for me anyway, because I'm a cheapskate so I don't buy handmade, I only make handmade, and the site is buy not make.

Apron Craze

If you haven't noticed I've sort of been on apron kick. I made one for my son, he picked out the yellow material, yellow is favorite color right now. And he picked out the button and told me to put it on the top, and picked out the ribbon I used for ties.

I probably should have not used it for the trim on the pockets. My husband said oh well he will use it twice then his sister will use it all the time. I have been planning to make him an apron for a while now, I use to make him wear bibs when we baked but the bibs were all put away when we moved since he had boycotted them for eating. (Which is fine because now he doesn't need them.)

Here is my latest apron. We have quite a few roosters/chickens in our kitchen when its not christmas time. Not to mention it goes with the color scheme of my plates.

Close up now, Teresa might start charging me royalities, with as many aprons as I have made.

another one bites the dust

I recently acquired another sister in law, to go along with the other ten I already have. I made her a lovely apron for her bridal shower, which I did not attend since I was in the hospital. I have only met her twice so it was hard to pick out material because I don't know her. My husband told me after I went shopping to get pink, I said does she like pink? He said have you seen her of course she likes pink. (He in no way means that as a derogatory comment, he often picks pink things out for me.) (Although I am pretty sure I don't like pink as much as some of his family thinks I do. I'm much more a purple girl.)

Here is the matching card I made, because I'm a cheapskate and don't like to spend $3 on a piece of paper. Which is the whole reason I made an apron in the first place instead of buying something off the registry.

The last holiday craft of 2008

These little pillows are pretty self explanatory I think. The buttons are about 1/2 inch tall. I decided to put the phrase 'believe in hope', from Elder Uchtdorf's talk in October. There is no point in celebrating Christmas if we don't have hope in the redeeming power of our Savior, right?

Here are the wise men

Together next to each other on the mantle. They are too little for the couch, they would get lost under someone when they sat down.

Here is the back material, I absolutely love it. It is so unlike anything a chain store like JoAnns would sell. I bought it two years ago in March on super clearance at a quilting shop. I usually can't afford quilting shops.

Now its time for the baby to come. Sure, since I'm over due I bet some of you faithful readers are waiting in anticipation to figure out when the baby is coming. I'm boycotting talking about it, because the baby is boycotting being born. She is getting close though, and when she is done with her boycott, I will post a terrible picture of a newborn, and your anticipation will be over. Tonight is a full moon, and it is suppose to storm all weekend. Both good signs in my opinion, my first was born in the middle of a snow storm, so I've been waiting for the storm to come.

Happy Holidays

As I have already mentioned I have way too much holiday material in my house. So I used some of material to make a fall/thanksgiving apron, and a Christmas apron. The first is thanksgiving if you couldn't tell.

My favorite part, the jack o lantern on the back of the neck. It was no accident.

The Christmas one.

The material was rather dark and busy and needed something to break it up, so I used the lace I had bought but decided not to use for something else. I love the way it turned out, maybe its a little grandmaish, but I think it adds to the retroness of the print. Plus it reminds me of a scalloped design on a cookie, or frosting trim on a gingerbread house.

I've been wanting to make a birthday apron for months now, but haven't been able to find any good material for it. I saw one at a store for a large lump sum and thought it was a cute idea. I thought my small children would think it was fun if their mom had a special birthday apron for their birthdays. I know that sounds cheesy but none the less, I decided to jump on board. So now I'm well on my way to having an every holiday apron. I now need to go get some clearanced Halloween material so I can be ready for next year.

Ladybugs

I finally made the pillow case out of the ladybug material. Yes I admit it took me forever to get around to a 15 minute sewing project. It turned out a little big, because I didn't feel like trimming extra material. (By the way, that is not his blanket or bed, that's way too girly for a little boy.)

Which means my son can use it as a sleeping bag. He loves it. He went to bed the other night in it.

This is what the picture turned out like after my husband said, pretend like you are sleeping.

I thought he was so cute, in his lady bug bag. Once again, good thing he found manly looking beetles.

First Holiday Post

For some crazy reason I made a Christmas dress for my unborn daughter. I've been wanting to try this pillow case dress, From Freshly Picked.
Obviously a newborn is too small to wear a full size pillow case, but I didn't have a Christmas pillow case anyway, I made a small one out of this material. My real problem is not having a baby girl inside of me, my real problem is way too much Christmas material in my house, because this is not a holiday were I can go spend money at JoAnn's every time I turn around, its about making due with what I already have.
When I finished it looked like a potato sack with holy berries on it, so then I took it some under the arm pits, to give it an A line appearance, instead of a square pillow case.
For the record, Making your own bias tape is about the most ridiculous thing in the world.

Needing love

As I think I've mentioned my son has had a hard time adjusting to this mom not picking him up. A few weeks ago I figured since he needed some love I would make him a bag. His grammy had bought him this material in fat quarter a while ago. I would have never bought the material I don't like it, but I guess that is what grandmas are for.

Unfortunately in my attempt to use every bit of material from the fat quarter I made the handles too long for him. I based it off the bag we use the most in our house for our son, we got it at a family reunion a year and half ago. All the kids got one. It is the perfect size for my two year to carry. He was very happy with is bag, he immediately went in his room and put treasures in it. It has not been the great second utility I hoped for, because he has deemed it for treasures.

P.S. 6 more weeks until my due date. I hoping I get all 6 weeks.

Comissioned Works.

My cousin isn't the only who is commissioned to create things. My aunt asked me to make her some nursing cover ups. My husband thinks they should be called booby blockers. Here is the first that I made.

Made 4 in all for her. I used this site as a pattern for hooters hiders, sort of, I don't know what type of boning she used I used the only stuff I could find. By the way, I though 18" of boning was too much, I think I finally used 12-15" by the end.
I think this is the end of my crafting for money. As other people before me have figured out, hobbies aren't as fun when you aren't doing it for fun. Although my husband loves when I sell stuff for whatever reason. These weren't too bad, the worst was when I sold a clock, ahh! I hated the looming deadline over me, even though my aunt didn't give me a deadline, I still felt a looming deadline.

Curtains

My son's room has recently gotten its latest update. New curtains so he doesn't destroy the blinds. I had a hard time finding material I liked, Jobo immediately picked this stuff out, but I didn't know if it was too expensive. We went around the store twice trying to find something unisex but all they had was florals or dark colored stripes. I could have done the stripes if I was having a boy, but they just didn't look unisex. So we stuck with what my son liked and figured it was on sale.

Half of his room is windows. The closet takes up a whole other wall, and then the last wall has the crib next to it.

Here is a close up. I was afraid it wasn't unisex, but my husband said it was and it was a good pick. I figured it had to be, not to mention, it was the one my son wanted. Although he has been known to pick out really girly material just because it has ladybugs on it. Remember red means good bug, black means they bite you. (Now I just have to make the pillow case I didn't make 3 months ago. But first I have do the work my Aunt commissioned me to do.)

He is so happy with his new curtains! Yeah! for mommy' s sewing.

Getting Girly

This is the first girl thing I've made for my baby. I got the pooh material at DI for $1, and since its blue I wanted to make it girly, so I added the pink blanket satin stuff. I found it challenging to use. I can't turn down cheap classic pooh.

It is kind of a dumb size. Its about 5 inches wider than a stupid store bought receiving blanket that is useful for nothing. I guess store bought receiving blankets are useful if the baby likes swaddling, but my first born only wanted to be swaddled for about 5 days, after that he would fight and cry until he freed himself. I figured this would be a good size to tuck in around the baby in a car seat.
This took me way too long, almost 3 hours, to only machine sew store bought binding. I had issues with the pinning, and then with the machine, and about everything else.