Baby Gifts

Recently, I have actually been able to sew again! I've made some super cute little snuggle blankies for my kids and some friends who recently also had children. (Seems like when you are at the age that I am now, there's always a new baby being born.) I also made a bunch of burp cloths and bibs. The bibs took about 3 months to cut and sew and that's for only 40 bibs so I kind of took my time on those. Below is a package I sent to a friend, it's pretty much identical to one I sent to my cousin too.

You can't tell but the box is from Omaha Steaks. It was the perfect size box and I thought it would be funny. Hopefully she and my cousin do too!

Ann Kelle Fabric Line

I think I am in love with a fabric line. Okay I'll admit it I am in love with multiple fabric line's, but today's post will be about Ann Kelle's line. Even line is not really fair. She has several lines out that I absolutely adore. The thing I like about her design's are the bold graphics and colors. The shape of the graphic are fun. I love the rounded cars, the round eyes of the owl, the swoosh of the tail on the whale, the squares and the hearts and so much more.

Ready Set Go!

I love the green background on the cars and the roundness of the edges. The blue on the trains is so eye catching. I think I would make pants for Ben with these prints.

Cuddle fabrics... I don't know what cuddle fabric is but I think I am going to have to find out!

Urbam Zoologie pretty much drives me insane! What do you think? I'm thinking lots of fun play pants for Ben and a matching dress for Tesla! Perhaps my new pattern from Oliver + S would do.... hmmm...

Anyway the one I am getting shortly is the Ready, Set, Go! Trains and cars. They are what made me fall in love with this line and I m super excited to play with it!

New Posts

Everytime I go to write a post for the blog something happens to either the 2 year old or the 3 month old. So here I am promising that I will get back to posting again soon. I so enjoy reading all the blogs that I read that they inspire me! In the meantime this is who I have been busy with.

Here's Ben!

Hello world! Here is a pic of our bundle of joy at just 4 days old. His name is Ben. We love him.

Fun Sewn Cloth Baskets

Recently, I found a blog that gives the directions of how to make a "Stash Basket". I had seen these before in a magazine or something and had always wanted to make them. The blogger used some pretty nice fabric, it was a much heavier weight fabric than what I wanted to purchase. I also wanted to make these for my daughter and sons toys and clothes, so I wanted to make them in fun colors, cheapish fabric and I wanted to make a few of them. So I took PurlBee's directions as inspiration and did a couple of modifications and made eight for the kids. They cost about $45 for 8. I just love them and showed them off to friends who wanted clearer directions. So I took some pictures and wrote up the directions below. I hope they are clear enough for everyone, let me know if you have any questions!

Materials:

1 yard of patterned quilting fabric, for outside*

1 1/2 yards of solid color contrasting fabric for inside of basket and bottom (I used an inexpensive polka dot)

3 yards of medium weight fusible interfacing**

thread

*I wanted a really nice patterned fabric and so I spent about $10.00 per yard on this, so I wanted to figure out a way to not use to much of it on the basket while still having a great effect.

**You can get this at any fabric store. It's approximately $3.00 a yard at one store I went to, but if you shop around you can get it for cheaper. It's also sold in different manners. At Pacific Fabric, it's not sold off of a full size bolt, so you'll need to calculate this out correctly for your individual needs. I happen to have had a roll of 12 wide interfacing that I used. The product is called Heat N Sta by Floriani, you can ask the clerk at the fabric store though for the best thing to use.

Directions: (this makes quantity 2)

1. Cut  fabric. With the patterned fabric folded in half cut 2 12x36 inch strips, this will be the outside of the basket. Cut 2 12x36 inch strips of the solid color fabric. Then cut 4 12 inch diameter circles of the solid fabric. I used a bowl that I had to create the circle and traced around it with chalk. It was very easy. You save money by using the solid fabric on the bottom of the basket instead of using the patterned fabric.

2. Iron on the fusible interfacing on to each piece of the basket. Both the solid and the patterned fabric and each side of the circles. (This helps the fabric to be stiff for basket.

3. Sew the disks together with right sides together, leaving an opening for turning the fabric inside out.

4. Sew one each of the 2x36 patterned fabric to the 2x36 solid fabric right sides together, leaving one end open.

5. Turn the disk inside out, pin opening shut and iron. 

6. Turn the strip inside out, being sure to get the corners, and iron, folding the opening in, and pin if necessary.

7. Sew around the outer edge of each sewn ironed piece. 

8. Pin the strip to the basket.

9. Sew the strip to the basket, I tried to stay along the line that I had used to sew the two strips together so that there was not an extra sew line.

10. Pin the vertical seam together and sew. 

11. Since on mine there was an overlap I sewed about one inch down on the overlapped section to keep it from flapping when the edge was folded over.

12. Fold edge over and fill with toys.

I hope you find these directions helpful. It's the first time I have written directions for sewing so I would not mind any kind critiquing. It was harder than I had anticipated and I'm pretty tired this evening so hopefully everything is coherent.