Handmade

This page is for posting things I've made and a description of how I made them.... If you would like to know more about any particular project, feel free to send me an email, I'd love to share!

These were made four months ago! My first sewing project for DS was the sleep sack -- at the time I was all about having him only wear organic clothing so I bought some organic fabric from http://www.organiccottonplus.com/ [sherpa and flannel] and from http://www.nearseanaturals.com/index.php [Fleecy White Knit Velour, Cirrus Stripe Jersey, Medium Natural French Terry, and Light Natural 2x1 Rib Knit ]. To make the sleep sack I used the fleecy velour and the rib knit for the cuffs. I just outlined one of his old sleep sacks and followed directions for a baby bunting from epatternscentral.com - contact me if you'd like the pdf for it. As for the body suit, I broke down and got the 1-hour body shirt from New Conceptions and used that pattern - for 9 mos old. Although I got some tracing paper from JoAnn's and traced the pattern first so I can reuse it for other sizes later on. By the way, New Conceptions has a bunch of free patterns on their site as well :)

Then, in May 2010 I heard about wool dryer balls and how they are supposed to shorten drying time for cloth diapers [and other things I assume as well]. I found a great tutorial on how to make my own from GoodMama. I bought some 100% wool yarn from ACMoore and JoAnn's and made three natural color ones that I now use whenever I wash my cloth diapers. For fun I also made two that are for DS to play with jingle bells inside although they just kind of rattle around instead of really ringing. And since I LOVE teal, I bought blue/green wool for these.  :)

May 28, 2010: DH just graduated with his PhD and for graduation, I made DS a graduation gown! I did look around online to find an infant cap and gown but to no avail so I made my own! Took about 3 hours the day before graduation to make it. The cap I reused from my Master's graduation and just made it smaller so it would fit him. For the gown I got some black shiny costume fabric from Walmart  (about $2 for the yard) and I had some leftover red felt that I cut little strips from to make the sleeve stripes. As for the sleeves themselves, I had a pattern for a baby jacket that I modified making the sleeves flair out more so it would be looser. I decided to make it contrast with DH's so it would stand out more since he actually got to go up on stage with his daddy! And they even announced his name - so does that mean my little man has his PhD now too?  :) 

June 28, 2010: A friend of mine has a 17 mos old girl who just started walking and she had a cloth snacks pouch for her little puff snacks. So I decided to make my own! I had this wonderful stars and sun printed cotton so I just cut out two 5"x12" strips and sewed them right sides together, put some plastic snaps on (with my new KamSnaps pliers :)  ) and topstitched the sides.. Voila! Home-made snack purse!

June 28, 2010: Babies loooove tags and soft toys, so I made DS this taggy block. I got a couple of different printed fabric quarters from JoAnn's and cut out 5" squares from each, then I used scrap ribbons I had lying around to make the tags which are about 4 inches when unfolded. Pretty simple really. I was looking for natural stuffing for the block but couldn't find any in the fabric store, maybe will try elsewhere, but for now its filled with polyfil :(  . The block looks pretty huge in comparison to DS... but that's ok, he'll grow into it  :)   DH by the way, looooves it - he was playing with it yesterday :)