New Fabric/New Find Friday #98

Cleaning house around here on the blog and I found more fabric that I have not shown you that is now out of season. So back to Halloween... two of these fabrics I picked up back around Halloween or probably right after on sale. I liked the little webs with spiders on them, simple patterns, no witches. Sometimes I just am not a bit fan of purple witch heads on my fabric. I wouldn't have minded some pumpkins but I liked these two fabrics the best.

The orange fabric with the black spiders is so much fun and you saw how it looked in a pumpkin shape here Wednesday on the hand towel. The black spider webs have orange eyes in between that make it look like the spider is black and hiding under the web looking at you with orange eyes. The third fabric is a really soft tiger print fabric that when I saw I had to pick up. I think the black background Mizzou fabric here would look great with this fabric as a blanket! Great for little Mizzou fans to cuddle up with while they are watching a game on tv. Could be good to make some mini tiger tails too. ;)

Doesn't that fabric at the bottom look like a tail already?

I hope you are all enjoying the Christmas season! I am so excited to have another set of days off from work to get things done around the house.

Holiday Kitchen Towels

This idea for a set of holiday kitchen hand towels came from a friend of mine after she went to a wedding shower of a mutual friend. I think it is a fabulous idea and perfect for all of the holiday fabric I had been stocking up but had no idea what to do with. I was not sure at first if I wanted to make the towels with the seasonal fabric at the bottom in a strip or ruffle the fabric at the bottom. After thinking about it I thought it would be more fun to cut the fabric out into a shape that goes with the holiday.

This idea was perfect to finally give as a gift to my cousin for her wedding present. Yea, she has been married for four years...opps. Anyway, she loved them and I hope they are put to good use their kitchen. These are made out of honeycomb fabric kitchen towels and then I appliqued the shape to the towel with a straight stitch. 

Here is a close up of the first four towels. There is a birthday towel that you can put out to celebrate everyone in the family's birthday, a Valentine's Day towel, a St. Patrick's Day towel, and an Easter towel. I wanted to do a New Years towel but I need to find different fabric the one I found has a white background and I don't know if it will show up well on a white towel.

The second set of towels features The Fourth of July, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. I have a few different fabrics to try out on every holiday so you might see more sets of these in the future with different fabrics. I also thought about doing a phrase out of the fabric for each Holiday, I hope to do a set of these next year.

These are on sale in my Etsy store if you would like to order a set for your family. They are made to order and I would love to make some for you! I think I am also going to try a softer towel that might be more bath appropriate for all of those holiday parties. You could have one in your kitchen and one in the bath.

A Bib for Baby Julia

I happen to love this baby girl's name. ;) A friend from high school recently had a baby and named her Julia and I couldn't help but love it! I was working with this fabric below and thought it would be cute to use for her bib.

I actually have a feeling that this baby is going to be more of a purple baby but hey you know it is always fun to have pink in your life as a little girl. Something cute to tell everyone that she is a girl (everyone thought I was a boy as a baby) and to help keep all of those clothes free of slobber and spit-up.

I love making this little bibs and hope that there are more to make in 2012.

New Fabric/New Find Friday #97

Merry Christmas to all of you, my wonderful readers! I am posting my Christmas wishes now because this weekend is all about family and staying away from the computer...can I do it?! :) I have a few festive fabrics for you on this Christmas weekend.

The fabric on the top is like a bunch of candies on a red background with polka-dots. It reminds me of a candy dish my parents used to set out around Christmas time for parties. I loved those little hard colored candies. The bottom fabric cracks me up, I love all of the little Santa heads. They just make me smile. I think it would be a great print for the first Christmas bibs (I didn't have this when I made them...maybe next year).

I am so excited to have a few days off from sewing and work to just enjoy my family. I hope all of you enjoy your time with family and friends.

Merry Christmas!!

Eat Local Onesie

A friend of mine was getting ready to have baby #2 and I wanted to make something for her, something small. She mentioned that she really liked this Etsy listing and I thought how perfect to make her something like this!

She is a big breastfeeding advocate and the logo is the international breastfeeding symbol. I think she got a kick out of the fact that it says eat local below the logo. She is also a big fan of, eating local food and buying local products. I think it is pretty funny as well for those breastfed babies.

As with all things handmade it has small imperfections but I sort of like the handmade look. The long sleeved onesie sack is a small white and yellow stripe and I screen printed the logo with a taupe/grey color. I like the grey on the yellow, not as harsh as black on the yellow.

I think there might be a few more babies out there that need one of these. I think a local shop would appreciate these and I might have to make a few more to sell here in town.

Embroidered Handkerchief

I am not sure how many men still carry handkerchiefs but I know one who would appreciate it and I can not wait to give this to him as a birthday present. I am sure there are still young men who would like a personalized handkerchief but it seems like older men are the ones who carry them most often. Let's start a new trend! :)

This handkerchief is 100% linen and I just used a straight embroidery font for his initials. Red is his favorite color and I love how bold the letters look on the white. I think it would look so pretty in silver, white, or even grey thread; something subtle for those who do not want to attract attention. I really like the small detail around the outside with the small holes, makes it dressy without being over the top.

I hope to have this posted on Etsy as a custom item in the next few weeks. I am so excited that it is Christmas week and I am feeling a little overwhelmed with all there is to do. I will not be sewing between Christmas and January 7th (baby bee's birthday). I might be posting on the blog but it might not be as frequently. I will be back in full force in 2012 and cannot wait to see what next year holds. See you later this week...or next year.

New Fabric/New Find Friday #96

Christmas is only a week away and I am not ready! The tree and decorations need to go up, cards need to go out, presents need to be bought and wrapped etc. As you can see from this post I am still in fall mode and still not ready for Christmas or winter. I guess I have a week to get myself ready.

I picked these fabrics up in preparation for a new hand towel set that I am going to start making. I needed something for thanksgiving and didn't like a lot of the typical cornucopia fabrics that I have seen so I was on the lookout for something really cute. I stubbled upon these two fabrics and got a little bit of each to try out. The top one is more fall and says Harvest Time on it, I like this one but the white is too light against the white towels. The second one could almost go more Halloween with pumpkins on it and I think it says in my pumpkin patch or some thing like that so maybe it is more of a fall image. I really liked the dark background and the different harvest fruits and veggies featured on the fabric. The third fabric is just a simple cream fabric with brown dotted stripes. This fabric will be great to coordinate with this and other brown fabrics that I already have in my stash.

I will have to let you know next week how my Christmas prep went and maybe I will have a more festive post next Friday. I hope everyone has a great weekend and that your prep goes well too!

Straight Laced and Fancy Free

I can not for the life of me think of good post titles! There are some great bloggers out there with wonderful titles that entice and excite their reader. I, on the other hand, am not so good at thinking of exciting titles. How would you entitle a blog post about a M onesie with leggings and a vintage tie? WAIT one just came to me! Let me explain the new title.

Ties always remind me of a straight laced, respectable man and the pattern on the fabric M below looks so loose and free. Was I stretching it? Oh well maybe I caught your attention...anyway, the tie on the onesie is made from a vintage tie and I think it looks great on this white onesie. It has those golds and greens of days past with a fun paisley...so retro.

This set of leggings and onesies I could not photograph together because the client already purchased and took the leggings with her to give to her friend. They were not sure what they were having and wanted to wait to do the onesie until they knew it was a boy or girl. The boy fabric was a polka dot, blue on teal but the baby ended up being a girl so floral fabric it is! I know that I love a lot of the fabrics but I have to say that this is one of my favorites. The combination of greens with the blues and pinks is so sweet and whimsical.

I hope that these little babies love their new apparel. Guys...the basement is coming along and I can not wait to show you pictures. Right now construction has ended and moving and reorganizing has begun. FUN!

Floral Napkins

While I was doing my 30 day challenge I made these beauties. Did I ever talk about my 30 day challenge? Maybe because I feel like it was sort of a flop in the end. I did end up making at least 30 items in 30 days but I did not always make one thing a day, some nights I just had to go to bed and was too lazy to get sewing. These napkins are 8 of the 30 things...see I wouldn't call it a big victory.
Even if it was not a victory I love how they turned out. I think they would hide a bunch of stains from everyday face wiping and are bright and cheery.

This first set is my favorite and if I didn't already own a TON of napkins I would love to use these in my home. They would also look cute in a picnic basket for a day at the park.

This set of two napkins sort of reminds me of something that would go well in a retro kitchen. Something with green tiled walls. This would also be cute for a picnic for two. I could monogram an initial on these so you are sure who's napkins is who's.

This set of two napkins might be a little bright but wouldn't these be great for a little girls tea party? I can just see a little girl using these as napkins, or towels for her play kitchen.

These sets of napkins should be for sale on Etsy asap!

New Fabric/New Find Friday #95

When I was at the Cotton Babies Holiday Bazaar this past Saturday I met a these great women who were also selling their items. I wanted to show you what they had to offer and tell you a little bit about them.

This woman's company is called Cozy Crochet and she has so many cute items. Look at that white hat on the front left side of the table with that knit flower. HOW CUTE! I also really like that brown owl in the middle of the table and the little lion that is peaking out of the basket. You can get contact her via email at cozycrochet(at)att(dot)net.

This woman's company is called Sew Precious Creations and she makes all sorts of cute items.It seems as if her most popular item is her elephant made out of minky fabric. So soft. I really liked that little grey bunny with pink ears sitting right in front of the yellow elephant. I just think he is sweet and I had to stop myself from buying him but might just have to do so in the future. She has her items for sale at local boutiques and you can also contact her via email to order. Her email is rudyju(dot)hmbase(at)yahoo(dot)com.

This young mother makes wool diaper soakers and leggings for your babies and her company is called Wooly Babies. She started making them after she needed something to help keep her little girl dry at night. I think those little soakers with the skirt attached is so cute. She has also made a pair of paints with a skirt attached which was also so cute. She said that she can just make wool leggings and let me tell you that her wool is SOO soft. Not scratchy or rough at all and some felt like silk. If you would like to get in contact with her at woolybabies(at)gmail(dot)com.

Last but not least is Clean This Place, a woman run cleaning business geared towards families welcoming new babies. She specializes in cleaning your home in preparation for baby, so that the house is clean when they arrive at home. One time cleaning is an option and so is repeat cleanings. She uses only natural cleaning supplies and to learn more and see what kinds of packages she has to offer check out her website. http://www.cleanthisplacestl.com/ or email her at wendy(at)cleanthisplacestl(dot)com. I think this would be a great present for a new mom. Go in with some friends to help pay for a package or just put money down towards a cleaning. I would have loved this with baby bee.

Holiday Items

Since St. Nicholas day was yesterday I thought this would be a perfect week to continue talking about Christmas gift items for sale on Etsy. I have a few pairs of leggings with snowflakes on them and thought it would be cute to create sets for them for the Holidays. I wanted to have something a little versatile for those that want to use these for more than just one day, these can become more of a winter more than Christmas item.

This one shows the leggings and onesie set with the snowflake cut from red and white fabric into a snowflake. I think this is so cute! I would totally use it over a long sleeved red shirt with the leggings on under a red skirt for a girl.  For those of you living in warmer climates just the onesie and leggings would be cute.

 Here is a close up of the onesie so you can get a better idea of what the snowflake looks like. The red fabric has white dots that almost look like snow...perfect for the design. This set is a 6-9mon onesie and is on sale in my Etsy store.

For those of you that might not want to layer a short sleeved onesie in the winter time or live where it is just frigid try this bib and legging combination. You can layer this bib over any top and again put the leggings under a skirt or pants for a warmer combination.

Does it seem like Christmas is coming fast this year? It does for me. I have half of my shopping done and have no idea what to get some people on my list. How are you doing with your shopping? All finished or still need the last min item? Last year while 9 mon pregnant I went to target and bought something for everyone. HA

Christmas Bib

It seems as if having a baby has inspired me a bit this year with some of the baby items I have been making. I also have great friends that share ideas with me too. Thank you to all of you! I wanted to make a First Christmas bib for baby bee and it was a bit of a progression but I like what I ended up with.

This is version 1: Christmas fabric cut into a 1 and then embroidered st and Christmas around it. After making it I really didn't like how the word was distorted too much over the 1 so I did a second one with the word Christmas below the one.

Here is a cute picture of my little one modeling the bib so you have an idea of the size. Sorry that is about as much of a picture of bee as you are going to get on here. ;)

This is version 2: I like that the word Christmas is not as obscured as it was on the first one. Much easier to read.

Version 3: This is the same idea with just a different fabric. This might be better for those in the crowd that would rather have a more modern feel to Christmas. I also had someone who asked for a 1st Hanukkah bib. Great idea! I might just have to search out some fabric that I like and make one up.

These bibs have been posted on Etsy already I am placing orders through Dec 13h for Christmas or if you are desperate shoot me an email and I might try to squeeze you in. I am trying so hard to get things finished and move my sewing area to the basement so we can finally get our Advent items out and get ready for Christmas.

New Fabric/New Find Friday #94

It is time for some pink girly fabric!  I feel sometimes like I am surrounded by boys and boy things and every once in a while I like to just go all crazy with the pink. I never was really a pink girl, I have always liked blue or green best but over the past five years or so I have developed a love for pink.

I got these fabrics when the Ben Franklin by my house was closing and I was so surprised to find pretty fabrics like this there that I snatched them up. I have always looked but never really liked anything that they had but this time they had some great modern patterns like these.

I think that I like the brown one on the top the best, the brown with a little bit of pink and yellow really pop. The other three go so well together that they would be great to cut into squares for a quilt or even for an apron or something. I would probably use the cream floral with the small amounts of pink with the small printed pink for an apron and then the large pink and creme floral for a breastfeeding cover. I think the brown floral would be great as part of an apron as well or maybe even some napkins. The dark color will help hide the stains. 

I hope you have a great weekend, it sounds like it is going to be nice and warm here (in the 60's). I guess these fabrics will fit well with the feel of the weather. 

Basement Part III

You have seen parts I, II, and the design boards and layout and I just realized you should have seen part III before the design boards. I hope seeing these might give you more of an idea of how the space is coming together but maybe you just need to wait until the end to figure it out.

Here is an image from the far right corner of the basement looking towards the stairs. The double door are leading to the unfinished basement which will be a storage area with lots of shelves and bins with out of season clothes and other such items. I love to organize so I can not wait to get my hands on this area and show you the final result. The door to the left of those double doors leads to the furnace. We decided to put a door there so that we can access the ac/furnace unit until it dies. It is old and we know that will happen soon. Once that does happen and we are forced to buy a new one we are going to have it face the other direction (toward the unfinished side). We are putting vents in that small section of wall between the doors so that there is airflow for the furnace.

Do you see those small paint swatches hanging to the right of the double door? Those are the ones we were looking at to make our final paint decision. We went with the top color, nice and bright apple green.

This is a view from the same spot looking towards the stairs and bathroom door. The wall between the room and stairs we decided to open part of it so that you the stairs do not feel as closed in as you walk down. It is nice to see the basement as you walk down the stairs. The door to the left in the corner is the bathroom door. There is already an old not usable bathroom under the stairs that we have to gut and redo in a year or so. The door that was there before was a bi fold door and I just hated it. This door is going to be much better and feel more secure.

Here we have a view of the entire wall. The walls needed to painted and the doors and woodwork. Look at that mess!

The stairs used to be open on the left side (looking into what is now the unfinished side). We closed that up and put up the half wall (has to be 3' off the stairs for safety) to open it up a bit like we are used to. It felt so closed in and tight when we first walked down them after closing the space up but now we are used to it and love the concept of compression and release as we go from walking down the stairwell and then it opening up to the basement.

Here you can see the set of stairs that was there already (the grey part) and then we had to put new backs on them because they were open, and then also put baseboard on the sides of the stairs to finish it off. It took a while for the husband to make all of those cuts but the stairs are so sturdy now, no creaking, and look great!

Oh I am so excited to show you guys more. Be ready for Part IV which includes all the painting, baseboards, flooring and rugs. 

Where's Waldo?

I loved that book growing up! I could spend hours looking for Waldo in all of those crazy places. Well I wanted to let you know where you can find me and my items for sale.

I will be at the Cotton Babies South County store this Saturday for their Holiday Bazaar. I will have my baby items with me and be sure to stop by Friday night as they will have other local vendors with things just for Mom's.

To keep track of where I am going to be check out the right side of my blog under "Where to find me?"

Cover Up In Green

I am pretty sure that this is a new favorite color of mine. It is so bright and happy during these dreary winter days. We FINALLY finished painting the basement and I just realized that it is about this color. Don't freak out, it is not on all four walls and it looks great. I hope to show you another basement update this week and then the finished product in the next few weeks! It is coming together.

Here is a very neutral but feminine breastfeeding cover. I this the slight flowers in this fabric are rather pretty and feminine for the woman wearing it but it is not in bright bold pinks and purples so that it can be worn with either sex child if the mother is concerned about strangers not being sure what her child is. Don't worry that happens even if they are dressed in all blue or all pink. Go figure.

This was for a friend of a friend and this baby came to this world with a minor issue and I am not sure that the mom was able to use this. If nothing else it is a great cover for when pumping and even over the car seat to keep the sun out of baby's eyes.

I hope everyone had a great weekend, back to the daily grind.

New Fabric/New Find Friday #93

I am taking it easy today so this post is going to be really short and probably not as exciting. BE WARNED. I am trying to figure out today...black Friday...if I need to buy these two items for my business or not. I told myself I wouldn't do it yet but they are calling to me! AH Do you ever have that problem where you want to spend money but know you shouldn't but know if you did it would make everything you do easier?! The day is not over and I could still click the buy button...we will see.

Anyway this fabric I picked up when the local Ben Franklin by my house went out of business. I was making THIS Halloween costume for my cousin and used the ribbon and blue felt for that vest. These items were perfect and I think the vest turned out pretty good.

The black and yellow I was going to use to make a Halloween costume for baby bee. I even bought a little hat I will have to show you later. I decided to do something easy and use a sleeper/costume that I already had. I might make the bee costume next year when he can fit into the hat a bit better and we can take him house to house for candy.

I hope all of you aren't too full from yesterday's meal and that you are enjoying the day off, if not the weekend is almost here!

Basement Design Plans

I wanted to show you the basement design plans. I have a feeling that a few of these images are going to be too small so try clicking on them to make them larger so you can read the labels. First off we have three pieces of materials that are the main focus of the basement. The antelope carpet (small square with white dots), the faux wood foam floor (small puzzle piece), the futon cover (stripe) and the carpet for the office area (large stripe carpet under everything).

These were the pieces that I had to work with when designing the space. I knew I wanted to use the antelope rug and you heard how the faux floor came about here, and the stripe rug I had a small piece of so I thought that would be perfect in the office area. The futon cover I saw at Bed Bath and Beyond one time while shopping and it was on sale and I just liked the way it looked (better than the old black cover) and thought the colors would go great with the two carpets that I already was using.

 So here is my design board of the basement, it is sort of a mish mash and I will do my best to walk you though it. Using the pieces that I already had (the carpet, floor and futon cover) I started working on the space. Let's start at the top left of the image and work our way around. The image of the shelves with the desk coming out of it gives you an idea of what is going to be back in my craft area. The shelves are going to be white with a white Ikea desk coming out from it and a white ikea 2 x 2 shelf on the end where they have those clear plastic shelves. I am going to put my sewing machine table to the right of where those clear plastic bins are to create a U shaped work area.

Next is the wall color, bright green! I pulled that color from the futon cover and since it is really only on one wall and two posts of the basement we thought a bold color would be great. I am excited about this color. Next you see again the futon cover and an image of what our futon (from the hubby) looks like now. I think the new cover will be a great improvement. Especially since it will be sitting on the antelope rug that you see a picture of just below the futon image. I love this rug and it will be on half of the basement floor.

The squares of carpet where discontinued from work and I had them put together to make a fun rug for baby bee. That rug is going to go under his small table and chairs which should be great to hide the marker and paint stains, or at least blend right in with the bright colors. There is another picture of the faux wood floor, I think it is going to look great.

The green stripe rug almost has a sisal textured look to it but it will be much easier to clean and it is in the same color palate as the wall color and futon cover.

Then there is the really awesome craft table that I bought one just like it on craigslist for a steal! I am so excited about it and can not wait to show you this particually when the basement is finished. It is counter height wich is going to be great as a cutting table and I will probably make an ironing surface and iron there while I cut. The sides will hold all of my fabrics in bins. 

This is a rough floorplan of the basement so you can get an idea of where everything is going. Not all of the furnature is labeled but you get the idea. I just can not wait to finish it so we can move things back in and show you how it turned out.

I hope you have a Happy Thanksgiving. We are going to be working hard on the basement!!

Holy Family?

Ok not really. I just thought it was too cute that I made two bibs for a Mary and a Joseph, just in time for Christmas. I really am starting to love these personalized bibs and they make me so happy each time that I make one. I really hope they catch on for new babies.

One of my friends had baby #2 named Joseph. I was already working with this fabric and thought it would be great for a girl or boy so I decided to use it. I also saw that a friend "my muse" used a lower case j and I wanted to give that a try. I like how it turned out but maybe I should have used the lower case j in the name as well.

Baby Mary is the sweetest thing and I have gotten to spend several visits with her and she is such a cutie. I used again this fabric and instead of pulling out the red or orange I decided to pull out the sweet ice blue that is in the fabric. I really wish it was a bit bolder of a combination but I think it is okay and I also wonder if the name was in script font if that would have looked better. There is always next time.

I had a great weekend with a lot of exciting things coming down the pike that I can not wait to tell you about and LOTS of work done on the basement. I am so excited to be near the finish line with that.

New Fabric/New Find Friday #92

Just a reminder that you have until the 20th to enter this giveaway for the ruffled scarf.  If you haven't gone to this Facebook page to win this breastfeeding cover her page is only 100 likes away from picking a winner.

Today I have some fun baby fabrics, I picked these up in hopes of turning them into blankets when I catch up with myself. I think they would also work for applique on kids shirts depending on the age.

I really just love the animals on the top fabric, they have those cute big eyes and look like cartoon versions of the animals. This would be a fun "boy" fabric with out being over the top blue. I think it would also work for on a girl's shirt for those who don't really like pink everything.

The small flowered green fabric is just such a sweet print. I think those mom's who hate pink might be able to get over the small amounts of hot pink in this fabric since the main focus is on the green and purple. Couldn't you see this with a purple fabric on the back?!

I hope everyone has a great weekend. Are any of you going to shop local this Saturday and most importantly next Saturday for Small Business Saturday? I love local boutiques and can not wait to go out and see what I can find. Feel free to shop my small business via Etsy or email me for Christmas orders....I can still make things in time.

Georgie Porgie

This set is for a new little baby whom I finally got to meet a few weeks back and he is a cutie! My husband has done some work for them and we are becoming friends and he thought it would be great to make them a little something and I agreed. :)

Just a simple bib with a matching burp cloth for cleaning up what I hope will not be a lot of spit-up. I like the way this set turned out, the burp cloth is not a coordinating pattern by the same maker but I think they look great together. The name George is so cute and it seems to fit the little man. Hope this little man is doing well and enjoying his new wears.