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?

DIY Thread Holder

     I'm pretty sure I saw this pin ages ago, and I'd been meaning to get it started for a long time.  At first, I was intimidated because I thought I wouldn't be able to do the drilling at home, but I figured it out, even in my little apartment!

     So Melissa at Melly Sews did her project by cutting out a piece of wood into her custom logo, but I didn't care that much about making it a particular style/font of "S" (for my last name), so I just bought a precut unfinished wood S at Hobby Lobby.  I also found a great website to buy them from, if you do care about the specific font or size, but Hobby Lobby was cheaper for me.  My letter S was 0.5" thick, and 18" tall. 

     I bought some long skinny dowel rods (0.5 cm thick) at the same time, and went to work.  First, I sanded the letter S with a hand-saving sandpaper sponge, and then I decided where I wanted my dowel rods -- make sure you use some actual thread spools to help you determine spacing!  I got a drill bit that was the right size (3/16" I think), and started drilling.  I didn't drill straight on all my holes through like she shows she did; I thought it worked better to drill only partway in.  The dowel rods I cut with the sharper section of pliers, and then sanded the ends down too. 

     With a little Gorilla Glue wood glue in the holes, the dowel rod pieces were ready to go in (plus a little pressure for adherence), and then it's just a matter of letting the glue dry.

      I decided not to paint mine, since the wood was the same color as my desk in my sewing room, but it'd be easy to spray paint a fun bright color it if I ever change my mind. Ta da!

     Of course, the first thing I wanted to do was go buy more thread to fill up those spots, but I guess I will wait and just have room to grow. :)

DIY Baby Wrap (Moby Wrap Style)

     I'm pregnant! Cue all the baby craft projects!! Actually, I haven't held back all that much, but now I'm really not holding back!  Seriously, my craft budget has been...flexible lately. ;D

      Today I'll show you the DIY baby wraps I made, for about $14 each!  I found this pin on Pinterest, linking to Mile High Mom's blog. 

     Her instructions and photos are straightforward and easy to follow, so I'll just make a few comments on how my project went.

     First, if your baby's father is interested in babywearing (hooray for involved dads!), you will probably need at least 6 yards of fabric.  I almost got less than that because my first choice of fabric had less than 6 yards on the bolt, but I changed my mind and I'm glad I did.  Since we have no baby to practice on yet, we are estimating how it will fit, but I think it's still helpful.  For me (5'7", normally 120 lbs), 5 yards probably would have done just fine because as it is I criss-cross in back and tie in front.  For Andrew, six yards gives him enough to tie in the back, with no additional criss-cross. He's 5"11", and around 190 lbs.
[Here's Moby's instructions, so you know what I'm talking about.] 

     The fabric I chose was a jersey cotton material, and with a coupon at JoAnn's, 6 yards cost me about $ 28, for enough to make two wraps.  It has a good amount of stretch, but not too much (no spandex), and it won't fray so I didn't bother to hem it (score!)

     I did cut triangles off the ends, like she suggests, and I think that helps reduce the bulk at the ends. 

     One additional thing I did was sew on a ribbon tag where Moby puts their tags, so that Andrew and I can find the center easily.  I just used a simple gray ribbon, but it looks pretty nice with my dark purple fabric.  If I were making this as a gift, I would put a "Made with Love" type of tag there.  You can always tie your wrap with the tag facing in, too. 

     I can't wait to use our wraps! Andrew is excited, too, and was kind enough to model my finished product for this. Just pretend there's a baby in there.

Felt Needlebook

      I really enjoy working with felt, so when I stumbled onto a Pinterest board dedicated to a ton of felt crafts, I had to do at least one.  I found this pin that inspired me to make a needlebook.  That way, I made something cute and useful with felt.  Here's my inspiration:

Here's mine:

      Of course I wanted mine to be purple, and it worked out well to use some scrap fabric as a bit of decoration.  I thought I'd need a pocket for my cross-stitch needles, which are more blunt, but my felt is not as tightly woven or something; they were fine.  I made some labels for mine since I wanted to keep track of the several kinds of needles I have.  There's also a blank page at the front for basic hand sewing needles.  I really like how it turned out!  Cute and functional, if I do say so myself.

Springtime Grassy Yarn Wreath

      I know, I know, it's definitely not springtime anymore.  The fact is, I've been wanting to make this wreath since March and have been looking for the supplies for this craft for months now.  The pin basically shows you how to make it; it's simple enough to figure out.  Apparently, no one carries yarn that looks exactly like this, and I haven't seen any ribbon with flowers like those either.  In June, my sweet in-laws gave me a Michaels gift card for my birthday, so I was determined to find something to make this work before the end of summer.  It's a very springy wreath, but I think it carries over into summer pretty nicely.

      So I found some yarn that I thought would have a similar effect, and I stumbled across a plastic can of flower confetti (the Brides brand that Michaels has, I just wish they'd had white), I added the flowers using some yellow-tipped quilting pins, and voila!  Here's mine:

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):

Stegosaurus Softie

      Ever since I saw this pin and attached tutorial for a felt stegosaurus, I knew I'd have to make it eventually.  I am married to a huge paleontology buff -- we have dinosaur toys models on shelves in our bedroom; I'm not kidding.  Then my sister sent me fabric scraps from Africa (she's been volunteering as a teacher in Tanzania, and will be returning next month -- shameless plug for her blog here) and I knew I had to figure out how to use those. 

      The tricky thing about this project was that the tutorial gives you a pattern for a felt softie, but I needed one with fabric in mind.  I ended up drawing my own pattern (don't do that, just use the printable one the tutorial gives at the end of the post) and adjusting it for fabric.  It was certainly a challenge to have to think about how to make this work with seam allowances.  I knew from the beginning there was no way I'd use anything but felt for the spinal plates!  I screwed up the sewing of the felt to one fabric side of the body, so I was trying to fix that for awhile afterward.  It turned out alright, but I wish I'd had little black beads for the eyes like the original blogger had.  Since I wanted my stego to have a face as soon as I finished him, I made do with what I had.  My husband approved, anyway. :)

      Isn't this African fabric great?  I used a solid green portion of the same fabric for the underbelly.