Baby Apron Bib

      I love Pinterest.  All the best things are on there.  This pin lead me to Craftiness Is Not Optional, and her pattern for a baby bib to beat all other baby bibs!  

     The pattern is just $ 6, and since I wanted to make some for us and some as a gift, that was no big deal.  I knew from babysitting for over a decade that this bib had some excellent potential, because it doesn't velcro (to be pulled off easily by small hands), or button (cute, but can be a pain), and it goes behind the baby's arms so that ideally the bib doesn't get pulled straight up quite as easily either.

     I went to JoAnn's armed with a coupon, but found that they had a sale on flannel for a much better deal than my coupon. Yay!  I definitely bought more flannel than I had intended to that day, haha.  The friend for whom I'm making this as a gift has a new foster daughter who is 8 months old, so I got some cute girly fabric, and also some gender neutral fabric since we didn't know what we're having. (I made mine essentially reversible, with flannel on both sides. The fronts are pink and green, with the cute brown on the back for both.)

     The pattern is easy to follow, and the bibs themselves are super quick! I was surprised how fast I was able to churn out three of them (in one night).  I love the results, and my friend reports that they work well for her little one, who's a messy eater to boot.

     My only comment on the pattern is that the binding you use for the outside edge really is 'too short' on purpose! It made me nervous, but after you try it, you realize it has to be shorter so that the bib curves on baby's shoulders the right way. If you made it longer, it would work, but would fit more loosely and thus not be as effective. See?

Burp Cloths

     I did warn you I'm going a little nuts on the baby projects, right?  Well, I am.  Today's pin is about burp cloths.  There are lots of kinds of burp cloths, and while you wouldn't think that the shape matters so much, I spotted these from Homemade by Jill and immediately knew they had potential to be better than most.

     I loved the peanut-shape, and that they focused on absorbency without sacrificing it for cuteness.  As an example, some people have made burp cloths as gifts from prefold diapers (flat cloth diapers, with a thicker middle section) that have fabric added to them, but they don't always think about the fact that the fabric they add, often quilting cotton, decreases the absorbency of the cloth.  I love that these are both cute and absorbent, because of the flannel.  Note: when I printed the pattern from Jill's website, I thought it printed too big, because it seemed huge.  I didn't think about seam allowance, shrinkage, and just generally wanting more coverage, not less, while burping an infant.  Thankfully an experienced mom made the pattern, not me. :)

 

     For various reasons, I made some changes to my burp cloths compared to how Jill does hers.  Instead of using batting, I used two extra layers of flannel; I can't comment yet on how they compare as far as absorbency, but I'm not fond of using batting and I got the flannel on a great sale.  The other thing I changed was to have finished edges instead of ragged edges.  I love flannel rag quilts, but I know how much they fray, and I thought these might be nicer as gifts with a more finished look.  Because I was using the extra flannel layers instead of batting, it was easy for me to sew the burp cloths with the outsides facing in, flip them around, and sew once more.  I have no idea how I would have done that if I had been using batting.

     I found that my edges looked nicer on the cloths I sewed a bit further from the edge the second time around, but either way (whether you have a 1/8" allowance or 1/4" allowance) they look great.  Aren't these fabrics cute?

Monster Coloring Totes

      It's probably no surprise to any visitor of this blog that I am an avid Pinterest user.  I love the sharing of good ideas, whether they are for date nights, kids' activities, recipes, or crafts.  I also love the way that people in the blogosphere can inspire creativity in each other.  This pin links to a blog with these adorable monster coloring totes, but they're actually the second version of them (she links back to the original blogger).  Since creativity is not exactly my greatest strength, I basically copied the second poster's design.

      Since I am also cheap, I picked up two tote bags on clearance at JoAnn crafts instead of making the bags too.  This ended up being the harder way to do it, in a way, since I had to sew and then attach the monster face to the bag with more difficulty.  I made mine to size for crayons, but you could make the faces and slots longer for colored pencils too.  Here are my two, all laid out, pre-sewing:

      I don't have kids; I am actually making these to put in our two shoeboxes this year for Operation Christmas Child.  Operation Christmas Child is a ministry of Samaritan's Purse (originally Billy Graham's ministry, now run by Franklin Graham) that packages and sends millions of shoeboxes filled with small gifts and basic necessities to children all over the world.  I have been involved with OCC since I was in junior high, either through packing shoeboxes or volunteering at the processing center here in Orange County.  Last year, my husband and I packed two shoeboxes, for a boy and a girl in the 10-14 age range, filling them primarily at back-to-school sale time, when you can get school supplies really cheaply.  This year, our boxes will probably be for two boys in the 5-9 category.  I picked up some flip-flops on sale for about $1 each, and plan to pack these two totes, along with notebooks and/or coloring books next month.  The great thing about this project was that it was very inexpensive; the gusseted tote bags I got on clearance were just 30 cents each, and I was able to make each monster face from one sheet of felt at 33 cents each!  The crayons were the most expensive part, and an 8-pack was only 99 cents.

One finished tote (so far):

Baby Door Muff

 
      So a friend of ours is having a baby this fall, and that is all the impetus I need to go nuts with all the fun baby craft and sewing projects!  I have tons of them pinned to my sewing for kids board on Pinterest, but I thought I'd start off with this one, since I expected it would be a quick project and something I could make with materials I had on hand.  This baby door muffler or 'door muff' is available for sale on Etsy in various colors.  It lets you open and close the baby's door without the click, so you don't wake the baby, and keeps toddlers from locking themselves into a room.

      I had some denim scraps left over from the denim quilt I finished recently, so I thought I'd use some of those.  I also wanted my door muff to be gender neutral, and denim works pretty well for that idea.  Basically, the door muff ended up being three layers of denim, with the ends sewn down around two elastic hair ties.  The elastics serve the same function as the ribbons, but are a little less girly, and perhaps more straightforward if you ever want to take it on and off.  It sounds simple, but it took longer than you might expect to get the measurements right.  Also, my sewing machine was being extremely uncooperative.  Anyway, the basic finished product was boring, so I added two felt stars to hint at a night sky theme.  Here it is!

Doily Shirt

     One thing I would love to get more into is refashioning.  It's a great way to upcycle thrift store clothes or hand-me-downs, and some people make things incredibly creative and chic.  It takes a certain eye to see clothes' potential, and I'm not sure I have that, but I am capable of copying others' work! ;-)

This is one example of something I have been able to do -- here's theirs: 

Here's mine:

I used leftover doilies from my wedding, and I mostly got those on eBay, in case you were wondering.

Christmas Stockings

      This pin links to a wonderful tutorial over at Sew Like My Mom, which I painstakingly followed to make Andrew and myself stockings for our first married Christmas. Her applique part would've been great if I had had the right materials.  Since I live in a small town where apparently no one sews, I was hard pressed to make it work.  Hers are a lot nicer than mine, but possibly because she's also quite a bit better at sewing than me!
     Here's how mine turned out:

Tutorial: Dress Shirt Aprons

Alright, so this post is a tutorial for those dress shirt aprons circulating on Pinterest, that I showed you in my previous post. Here we go.

1. Find a dress shirt that you want to use. I recommend going one size up from your regular size. It's okay if it has a blemish or two (thrift store finds are great for this!), especially if they're going to be covered, which you can determine from reading through this tutorial.

1. Check the size on a helpful friend or the person for whom you're making it.  Check how you want it to lay and how much extra you have in the back.

2. Mark with chalk & measure to check the evenness.

3. Cut back panel up to 1-2 inches from the collar or to the horizontal back panel. Plaid is great for this because you have lines to follow! Love it.

4. Check that the head opening fits so you know how many buttons to keep buttoned. (You will sew up the front, so you want to make sure they can slip it on and off their heads easily.)

5. Mark where you want the sides to be, measuring for evenness from the armhole and collar. Make sure you leave seam allowance. You can use something long and straight to mark it, but it's not necessary because the edge will curve along the body and isn't going to really show if it's not straight. 

6. Mark the back, angling down slightly and meeting in the middle.  You can also just use the seams, but I like letting it wrap around so the wearer can lean a hip against the counter and protect their clothes.

7. Cut where you've marked. On the front I cut just slightly in from the side and then cut the top layer (front panel) only. Cut the back panels.

8. Mark the collar, leaving seam allowance. Pinking shears would be helpful here to lessen how much you have to fold into the seam. 

9. Mark the bottom of the side panels if you want to trim them straight, leaving seam allowance.

10. Fold all your edges over, iron, and pin down. I do sides first, then side panels, then collar, making sure the collar lies flat and evenly (start in the center if you need help keeping it even).  Another option at this point is to use bias tape for all the edging. If you want to do that, check out this tutorial for bias tape. 

11. Sew up the front, avoiding the buttons. (Seriously, my needle caught the edge of a button and snapped it in half on one of the previous aprons!)

12. Sew around the sides; I started at the bottom left (looking at the wrong side).

Pockets

     In general, I use the sleeves for the ties and use the cuffs as pockets, though if you use bias tape it takes care of the ties.  On my first apron, the cuffs were the style you have to use cufflinks with, so they were stiff and large, perfect to use as pockets.  For the second apron I made, the sleeves had those pulls that let you shorten the sleeves, so I used those and the buttons on them as decorative accents on my pockets. This third apron had pockets with pleats and two buttoning options.  The pocket style you choose really depends on the existing style of the shirt sleeves, because each is different and lends itself to a different look for your pockets.

13. Iron pockets once you cut to size; lay them out to match size and position, marking with chalk.  Since I used the cuffs, I'll sew up the "fly" on my pockets so they don't gap.

Sewing pockets: I usually attach mine by sewing the bottoms, hanging down, right sides together, and then fold up and sew the sides, wrong sides together.

Ties

14. Using a long segment from the back panel, cut two long pieces. Mine are about 26 inches finished.  (If you keep side panels, it doesn't matter so much that they're long.)  Fold the strips into itself like bias tape, each side in, then together, iron and pin.  Sew down but leave about 4 inches at one end to connect to the body of the apron. Fold one end over and sew down. I kept the finished edge (from the bottom of the back of the shirt) to connect to the apron. 

15. Connect the ties to the aprons by slipping the apron corner inside the fold of the tie. I sewed the ties around in a square to hold it well.

Enjoy your new upcycled apron!

Dress Shirt Aprons

Today's post is about these aprons pictured on Pinterest, tutorial to follow:
 

The website this pin links to has several styles of these aprons, (all credit for the idea goes to her) and I liked this one best, so I used that idea on the first apron I made, for my husband. I used a mens' large shirt that he wasn't wearing anymore, turning the use-with-cufflinks-style cuffs into the pockets.
I think they make a great apron style for men; the cut accentuates their wider shoulder and narrower waists.

I also made two for my friend (mens' large) and his 8-year-old daughter (women's medium):

They're really not difficult, and I find them fun to make. I think they take around an hour or two to complete. I made a tutorial for them in another post here.