Little Projects

So I have been doing a few little projects to keep myself busy and thrifty.  Besides the ones here I finally stitched Quentin's name into his quilt. 

I found this awesome wrapping paper at Target and was so sad when I ran out of it when I was wrapping gifts. I had a few scraps so decided to.....

.....make some ornaments with them. I just started collecting lids from jars and cover those with the paper. I think they are cute and have helped to round out our tree. I get so excited when we finish a jar of something because it means I get to add another ornament to our tree.

 I also made salt dough ornaments. I should have thought this one through a little more. Once I rolled out the dough I realized I didn't have anything to cut them out with. (I have cookie cutters, but they are some where in a box in Colorado...no help here.) So I used a knife. My stars turned out a little wonky, but you can't really tell on the tree. Maybe next year I will toss these out and make new ones. I also made one for Daphne to paint, and one for Quentin's foot and one for Johnny and I to decorate.

My big project was this changing table. I found it outside our apartment in a pile of dressers and book shelves that looked pretty "used", but the table was redeemable. The top was coming off one of the legs so I glued that. Then after a little spray paint and some fabric it turned out like this...

I'm pretty happy with the result. I think the total cost was about $20. So worth it! I can't believe how nice it is not to have to get down on the ground to change the kiddos little bums. I am also using it for toy storage. Daphne's toys are no longer sprawled all over the floor in her room. They are nicely tucked away on her shelves. Win Win!

Stuffed Animals

So these little guys were my most recent project. They took me a little longer than my typical projects because I did them all on my own. I had to make the pattern for each of them, meaning I had to DRAW them out. If you know me, you know I am no artist so this was a big deal. I had to redo the drawings a few times, but they came out okay.

If you couldn't tell I am really loving using my sewing machine, but I'm running into a  problem. Well maybe two problems. Here they are: Funds and New Projects. I think the lack of funds is obvious. Fabric costs money and I don't have very much extra cash lying around. My New Projects problem is a little more difficult. I don't mean to say there are a lack of projects for me to do, but that there isn't anything we need right now that I can make. The more things I sew the more I think I would love to make things for other people. I keep thinking I should make stuff and sell it, but if I started a little sewing business I would rather do it by special orders than me making what I like and trying to sell it to other people. Another problem with that idea is that my sewing skills are still elementary. I also don't know many people and how how do I get the word out? So many issues. 

Penefore

Hi, my name is Tracy and I'm a sewaholic. 

I know, I have a problem. After I finished the Bapron yesterday not only did I make a whole other bapron, but I also made this little top for Daphne. If you want to make it, it was super easy and came together fast. Go here for the tut.

Bapron

I know you are probably getting sick of the tutorials with the lack of real posts, but we really haven't had much going on We are either sitting at home playing or we are out walking around stores with no money to buy anything. So that is what is going on, now on to the tutorial!!!!!

This is again is a tutorial I got from Pinterest. This is the link I followed. You will need to go there for her pattern for the main part unless you thin you can eyeball it. It is free and easy to print so I would just get it from there.

You will need...

1/4 yard of your main fabric

1/4 yard flannel or canvas(this is for sturdiness)

One 34x1.5 inch for bias tape

One 31x1.5 inch for bias tape

Two 10x1.5 inch bias tape

1/4 yard plastic fabric

 (this is optional, the tut I followed didn't, but I thought it would be a nice touch so your child's clothes won't get wet)

Thread 

The hardest part of this is making the Bias Tape. I do have a little trick though. This may be a thing all real sewers know, but I thought it was pretty ingenious. Cut out a template from a cereal box. I made mine 1inch thick because I was making a 1.5inch Bias Tape. 

Now after you cut out your bias tape and you are ironing the bias tape you put your template in the middle of the fabric and fold over the edges an iron them down. Believe me it makes it much easier than trying to do it by hand just eyeballing it. 

After ironing the edges in then you fold them in half and iron them flat. You should end up with them looking like the strips in the above picture.

Now using the pattern found here you cut out one from all of your fabrics. Now sandwich them together, pin and sew around the edges to hold them together.

Now your going to take your two 10 inch bias tape and pin them in the "arm pit" part of your bapron.

Sew.

(Be careful to make sure when your sewing the bias tape you sew the front and back of it to the main fabric. I missed a couple time and had to go back over it. Oh and by the way if you don't know, you stick the main fabric into the open side of the bias tape so that there is the accent color on both the front and back of the main fabric. The bis tape is meant to hold in all the raw edges.)

The next part you need to pay attention. Take the 31 inch bias tape and pin it to the shoulder parts of the bapron. (make sure its NOT twisted). 

Then you need to fold the bapron in half to find the middle of the bottom and fold the bias tape in half to find the middle of it. Now pin them together and pin the rest of the bottom together. Should look like the picture above.

Sew around the entire thing.

Find the middle of the last remaining 34 inch bias tape. pin it to the neck part of the bapron. 

Sew the rest of it and you will get...

A Bapron! The baby apron!!!

Isn't she so cute in it! 

It was really easy and didn't take very much time to make.

 Sew enjoy!

T-shirt Blanket

So I did another sewing project. I have known I wanted to do this for awhile. I love all our shirts from Dominica, but they are not the type of shirts that I would love to wear for the rest of my life. So perfect solution.

Now I got the tutorial for this on Pinterest of course, so if you want to make t-shirt blanket too then head here for the full tutorial.

I do have some pointers. 

Be careful when your cutting out the t-shirts. They all have different fabric and some are stretchier that others. Also make sure you have a lot of seam allowance. You want to have wide seems so you have room to cut the fringe. Oh speaking of cutting the fringe. Make sure you cut the fringe when the tutorial says to. I didn't and it mad it so I couldn't cut fringe on the corners because they were sewn down.  

I think that is all. This was a very simple quilt. You really have a little room for error. For me this was just to save some memories more than having a "perfectly beautiful" quilt. So if the seams aren't perfectly straight or your X's are crocked. So have fun with it. That's why we sew anyway, isn't it?

X for stability.

Make your rows first then sew them together to get a.......

Quilt!

Scripture Case

We all know about Pinterest and I found this gem there. I wish I had better skills, some of the seems are not that straight, but I think it turned out pretty nice. It was really easy and someone starting out in the sewing world can do it, so if you have some scriptures that need to have a cozy place to call home, try it out.