Sewing for baby!

Hi everyone!!  Hope everyone is having a great day.

Well this post is not going to be very original.  Why you ask - how many times have you seen bibs and burp cloths on a blog post?  See what I mean.

These next couple of months are going to be busy with babies.  Nieces having babies, cousins having babies and friends having babies.  That's a lot of babies.  That also means a lot of sewing is going to be taking place.


What I can tell you is that this has to be one of the easiest things to make.  If you have a pattern that's even better.  I decided to draw some out on poster board.  Not the easiest thing to do.  It was a challenge trying to find something round and big enough for a neck hole.  I finally found a round candle top that was a perfect size.  I'm not going to go into detail about the pattern because there are so many out there for anyone to use.

For the burp cloth you can pretty much free-hand any shape you want - square, rectangle, oval, heart-shaped, eight-shaped  the list can go on.  Totally up to you.   This is a great project for a beginner.

Cut your fabric, put the right sides facing together, and pin.  Then sew around using a 1/4 inch seam allowance.  Don't forget to leave a 2-3 inch opening so you can turn it right side out.  If there are any curves or rounded edges make sure to snip, careful not to cut through the stitch.

I use a chopstick to push out all the edges.  Snipping the curves or rounded edges gives it a nice shape when you iron.  Press with the iron, then top-stitch all the way around. 

I love to sew hand-made items.  So doing the extra work like snipping and pressing makes the finished product look like I just bought it from the store.  I want people to be happy with what I make.  I want them to know it's hand-made, but not look like it's home-made.  I hope you understand what I mean, lol!

I used soft white terry cloth for the backs and sewed on Velcro for the bibs.

If you've been visiting my blog long enough you know my motto:  If you make it, then tag it!

These two sets went to my niece who had a baby on the 2nd of January.  I really hope she liked them.

I can't wait to have a baby myself, I know I'm going to be sewing up a storm when that finally happens.

Everyone have a fabulous week.

Linking up to the amazing parties on my party page and here:

Three Mango Seeds

Claire Justine OXOX

This Gal Cooks

Craft-O-Maniac

Navy Wifey Peters

A Blossoming Life

The Dedicated House

Cherished Handmade Treasures

Be Colorful

Watch Out, Martha!

The Blackberry Vine

The Kurtz Corner

Hope Studios
The Winthrop Chronicles
Funky Polka Dot Giraffe
A Diamond in the Stuff
Its so very Cheri
Do small things with Love
Rae Gun Ramblings
Lil Luna
Clean and Scentsible
Cornerstone Confessions
Savvy Southern Style
Embracing Change
Katherine's Corner
All Things Homie
The Shabby Nest
Fine Craft Guild

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Easy Lime Syrup!

This will probably be the last post for Summer....not the last post ever but the last post about anything to do with Summer.  Labor day is around corner and that usually means bye bye Summer.  The Fall season will start soon and I can not wait.

Okay back to the post.  

Last weekend while running errands with theHubs, he promised to take me to Sonic to get something cool and refreshing while we endure the "awesome" heat here in TX.  Well we totally forgot to stop.  I said don't worry, I'll see what we have at home.  While creeping over the Internet I found recipes for snow cone syrup.  They are all pretty much the same and so easy I decided to give it a try. 

Yes, Yes...I know I'm all late to this band wagon of cold, cool, fresh beverages, but this is the first time I ever tried this. I was super excited and theHubs totally loved it.

This has to be the easiest thing to make EEEEver!!  Well I wanted to to flavor it and all I had were limes.  One of theHubs employees has a lime tree and she gave us a bag full of limes.  I'm really thankful to all our friends who are always sharing their fruits or veggies with us.  I was in the middle of making frozen lime cubes, since I don't like to waste things, I used some fresh lime juice to flavor the syrup.

Okay here is what I used and what I did:

2 cups of sugar to every 1 cup of water.   

Fresh Limes

For this batch I used 2 cups of water and 4 cups of sugar.  Brought it to a boil, making sure the sugar was dissolved and the mixture was clear.  Took it off the burner and while letting it cool, I used 8 limes to flavor the syrup.  Then I added a couple of drops of green food coloring. There you have it, Lime Syrup......YUMMY!

Of course it was complete agony waiting for the syrup to cool down.  But when it finally did I just used my blender to choppy chop the ice!  Served it in styrofoam cups like the snow cone place does it then hand a cup over to theHubs with a spoon and a bendy straw.  

It was sooooooooooo good and I want to make them all the time now.  

 I just used a jar to store the rest of the syrup in and popped into the fridge.

*edit - You can flavor the syrup with kool-aid packets....I sooo totally didn't believe this.  But yesterday I made some more syrup and added a cherry flavored packet...oh my....it was yummy.  Two thumbs up from the hubby as well.

Everyone have a fabulous week! Thank you for stopping by.

Sharing at all the awesome parties on my party link page and here: 

It's So Very Cheri

2805

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Spray Paint project!

I ♥ spray paint!!!  Why, because this stuff can pretty much change anything into something pretty to look at.  Frames, furniture, glass, even shoes!!!!  I'm still trying to convince theHubs why I have so many spray paint cans or why I keep buying more....lol!!

I spent one of these past Saturdays spray painting outdoor plant pots.  They were due for a upgrade.  When we first moved into our new home we had no plants what so ever, the front door looked sad and lonely.  My mother-in-law gave me this potted plant, it is a type of Ivy.  The pot was painted white, probably with house paint not sure and after 7 years the paint has chipped away.  I sanded down as much as I could as you can see from the picture below.

It's no secret, I love easy projects.  This was super easy too!  I didn't remove the plant, because I was lazy and I said I loved easy projects.  So I just covered the plant with a plastic bag, tucked in all the long Ivy arms and pushed wooden skewers in around the bag so I wouldn't get spray paint all up in there. 

Ta-da!!  Fresh and white! 

I picked up this salmon colored pot at a garage sale for $1.00, yay!!  I washed and dried this baby and it was ready to be painted.  I loved the shiny color it had, it just didn't go with the outdoor color of the house.  So I just chose another shiny color to make a statement in the entry way.   

LOVE IT! Who doesn't love a nice turquoise?

Now, they are ready to show off!

I just put them here to take the picture.  They have since been moved, the blue one is on the walkway now.  

Everyone have a fabulous day, stay cool if it's hot out or stay dry if you're getting the rain! 



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Crafting the midnight away! Embroidering

Where has the year gone?  It's May and there are a little less than 2 months before the 4th of July!! CRAZY!!  We were just popping fireworks for New Years.  I really hope we don't have a ban for the 4th of July, we were on a fire ban and water restrictions last year. 

I've been busy these past couple of weeks with different projects...the sewing is easy to get done and show it off.  It's the bigger stuff that takes a bit of time - like furniture.  Slowly but surely its happening. It doesn't help that we're already getting the humidity....it's taking forever for my spray paint projects to dry.  After last years super smart idea of spray painting in the craft room and the big fail, I have to stick to the garage from now on...lol!! 

So, while the other projects get finished and pictures are taken and edited, I will show you what else I do at the midnight hour besides getting my beauty sleep.

I make things like this in bed with my lamp on because I don't want to wake theHubs.   

I made this one for my craft room!!  It's my blog name.  I hand drew the whole thing and used colored thread, it was not easy because the thread is too thin and kept knotting.  But I finished it!

This one is also for the craft room.  I used embroidery floss here.  Sometimes a gal needs some motivating words.  These are from a song...don't songs sometimes speak to you. Or don't you think wow... story of my life.  I traced the star from my lap top and wrote out the quote by hand.

The above blue one is for my side table in my bedroom....It's my wedding date.  Yes, I know the date to my anniversary, it's just a reminder of our LOVE.  Don't worry I'm not gonna talk about our gross, mushy love!! Who wants to here that!! lol!!  I used a iron on for the heart,  I couldn't draw that perfect.

Not to be rude or mean, but for a loooooooooooong time I thought of embroidering as a old folk craft...Sorry!  It was always old English letters, or the country cat that I saw and I was not interested at all.  If it was cooler or more modern maybe I'd try it.  I know now that there are about a million things that can be embroidered.  There are tons of iron ons that are cool enough for me, or I can draw whatever I want.

Well, I hope you like them.  If you've never tried to embroider give it a try...it's super easy and it's fun to pick all the colors.

Everyone have a fabulous day!!

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Crochet Covered Jars - Mother's day gifts or whenever gifts!

Well I took a break from all the scrap busting this week! I wanted to do something else so I decided to cover some jars with some really bad crocheting.....as you can see from the pics below I'm not the worlds best crochet-er.  I did get the affect I was looking for though. This is what I will be making for Mothers day gifts for my mom, sisters, M-I-L and S-I-L's.  

I have about 100 empty jars and bottles in a spare closet waiting for future crafting plans.  When I get to them is another question and theHubs is getting a bit worried with all the jar hoarding going on. "Men", sometimes they don't understand.

I know the big thing that's going on around blog land is painting and tinting glass jars, but I don't want to do that just yet.  I don't want to do it because everyone else is doing it. Sometimes I want to be the oddball when it comes to crafting. ('',)  Yes, I know I'm not the first the crochet cover jars, but I'm showing you the jars that "I" covered. 

I used some yarn that I had bought at the $ store...and used some jars from my stash and cut some knock-out roses from my backyard.  Doesn't it feel great to be able to use what you have and not go out and buy anything.  The jars can be used as plant holders, candle holders or what ever you decide to do with them.

I hope everyone has a great week!  Look out for me I'll be linking up to lots of parties this week.  Check out my I ♥ to Party links page to see where I link up and where you can link up as well.

One of the places where I'll be linking up at is Craftbotics

Rosie is having a month long link up, so what'cha waiting for go over there and link up your AWESOME projects.  She also has co-hosting opportunities if you email her.  Go and check out her cute and crafty blog.

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Scrap Busting - Yes....more! It's a desk pad.

The Scrap busting fool is back!!  Since all I'm using is scraps I didn't have enough to really make something more glamorous, like fancy place mats for the dining or breakfast tables. But I did have enough scraps to make a desk pad for my laptop.....yay!!

Here's what I did...

1) I cut up 2 x 2 inch squares

2) I arranged them the way I wanted it to look, stacked them by rows,then sewed them to make the strips.

3) Sewed the strips together and now you can see it what it will look like.

4) Here you can see what the back will look like.  I used a white on white paisley print.

5) Now to baste, bottom and top sandwiching some batting.  Then I pinned to keep it all in place.

6) Since this is a hodgepodge of different scraps I just top-stitched squares on the inside of every square on the top. (boring)

7) Whew....I was close to not having enough scraps for the the binding.  I had to sew lots of little pieces together, then cut to make it about 2 inches in width.  Make 2 folds towards the center, press with the iron....then fold that in half and press with the iron....done!

8)  I pinned the binding allllllllllll the way around.

9) Sewed the binding on and mitered the corners....at least I didn't mess those up because that sucks!

10) Done......It's not perfect but it will work for me.

11) Now my Laptop can sit all fancy on its new desk pad.  Perfect fit too!!

11)  Just had to show off my little desk top too!  You can barely see my plant on the left side. I've had that ivy for about 13 years now.  It stays on the desk in my craft room...why?? Oh because I have 2 really bad and sneaky fur babies that like to shred my plants.

Hmm....I wonder if I'll have more Scrap busting posts!  Maybe, I do have lots of it.  You might get too bored with it.  We'll see, lol!

Thank you for stopping by!! Have a great day!!

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Scrap Busting - Scrappy Table Runner

Well sadly I was not one of the winners of the $$MegaMillions$$ 
<insert sad mopey face here> lol!  
But I'm happy that I'm super blessed to have what I do have and I am not without. I have the things I need and most things that I want.

Okay, there has been a lot of scrap busting going on in the craft room.  I have bins of scraps that I just don't want to get rid of.   So, I decided to get busy with the scrap busting.  

Without going into too much detail - the hearts were made from scraps of a quilt (not so mellow yellow) I am still working on from last summer <sigh>, the top is a piece of muslin fabric, the bottom is a piece of white on white paisley print and batting for the middle.  

I never tire of seeing what people are making or creating.  So I hope you all never get tired of seeing the things that I post.  If you really read and visit most blogs you'll see the same things, just different spins on it.  Bags, totes, clothes, pillows, curtains, mug rugs, painted furniture, recipes - you name and there are about 3 zillion different variations of the thing. Which is why I never get tired of seeing so much inspiration.

Here is my spin on one of the many things that I have made.

Tumbling Hearts

Scrappy Table Runner

Thanks for stopping by!  
Let me know what you think.... I ♥ comments!
(I try to e-mail to all my comments, I want you to know that I do read them and
appreciate them.  If you still have no-reply set up, I reply to the comment on the post.)

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Does this even work for anybody?

I saw a pic on Pinterest (duh..where else could you find awesomeness that inspires), it was a macaroni box.   I don't think I laughed so hard.  I thought to myself this is so true. How many times have I tried to open a box with the simplest directions "EVER" only to want to throw it against the wall or stab it with a knife!

So I decided to make my own picture.

I definitely know that I'm not the only one out there that has this same issue.

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oooh..S'mores!! Okay fake yummy not so good for you s'mores!

A s'more (sometimes spelled smore) is a traditional nighttime campfire treat popular in the United States and Canada consisting of a roasted marshmallow and a layer of chocolate sandwiched between two pieces of graham cracker .

Well, I only used one of the above mentioned ingredients.

Here's what I used chocolate cake frosting, marshmallows, and shortbread cookies!

These are easy to make and no outdoor fire needed!  I made these using the flame from the stove.  Some people don't have outdoor pits, or it might me too cold out....so the stove works great.  I added a little frosting to the cookie, put about 5 mini marshmallows on a skewer and toasted.  (adult supervision when toasting marshmallows, if kids are not old enough)

Yummy.......

Yes...I know cake frosting is like lard but it's soooooo good,  plus it said made with Hershey's chocolate, lol!!  

linking up at 2805 : Potpourri Friday
Making the World Cuter
An Original Belle
Savvy Southern Style
TodaysCreativeBlog

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Trying things from blog land! Today it's Salt Dough

I wonder what's gonna be all the rage this year.....

Last year seemed to be "Salt Dough". This stuff is great and super easy to make.  I finally got around to making some and I was really surprised at the outcome.   

While making the dough was easy, finding items around the house with textures that I could use was fun.  I pressed the dough with stamps, fancy patterns on our silverware, lace, I used a small pillbox that had a design on the side.  Endless possibilities!!

I was finally able to use my 1 billion cookie cutter set, that sits all by its lonesome in the bottom cabinet with all the other stuff that hardly ever get used, lol!! I bet they're jealous of the coffee maker.

Ok, it only has 100 cookie cutters not a billion. When I'm searching for the small heart cutter it feels like I'm searching through a billion! (",)

flour, salt and water

Cute, huh!

I really ♥'d making these.

I definitely will be making more stuff with salt dough through out the year!

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Pillowcase Dress - Tutorial!!

Here is a tutorial for the Pillowcase dress....technically I used bandanas!  So, I guess you can say Bandana Dress....whatever! lol! It's super easy to make....once you make one you can't stop!  These are not the greatest pics.....there was just too much natural light coming in through the window.

I washed all the bandanas and pressed them.

2 bandanas and a yard of ribbon.  

This is why I use bandanas, finished edges.
My sister say's it's cheating, but I told her I didn't have a
serger so it's not cheating, it's working with what you got.

Put bandanas right sides facing together, you want to align them, you can pin at the bottom and the middle if you want.  This will help when you do the folds to iron and sew. (Aligning will let you know how much you need to fold, sometimes the bandana is a little wonky or off a bit.)  

Find the tag, this will be the top part of the dress and also a indicator to tell you if this is the inside or
outside of the bandana.  On both bandanas  make a 1/4 inch fold (towards you), press and sew along existing thread line of just above, also back stitch. The tag will hide inside the second fold.  Or you can just cut off.

On both bandanas make the second fold (towards you) about 1 inch and sew close to the edge. Make sure you do a back stitch on both ends. The inside will look like it has (2) seams once you've sewn the folds (*see pic below) , while the out side will have (1).

If have labels, tag it!  You made it didn't you?

After you sew up the folds, align bandanas again right sides facing each other, this will help to have a symmetrical dress and make it easier to sew up even sides. *hint folds and tags are on the outside of this bandana sandwich (",)

I measured down about 4 inches and pinned, you can decide how big you want the arm hole area.

Start sewing a 1/4 inch seam from the hem line up to where the arm hole pin is.  When  you are close to the pin pull it out and sew a small curve out then back stitch, like the picture above.  

I didn't add a picture of this but, it's up to you how you want the outside side seam to look.  After sewing up the sides, I ironed open the seam, then closed, folded and pressed to one side and sewed up from the hem line again. It just makes it look nicer and makes it a little more durable. Again you don't have to do this.  (*I had already given the dress away so no pic) 

Use 1 whole yard of ribbon.  Pin one end and push through one side , then the other.  

Once  ribbon is through , align tails and tie a bow. Adjust as needed.  I even out the tails by cutting just a small piece off, then a quick burn with a lighter so the ribbon won't unravel. 

See, easy peasy!!  Let me know when make one, I'd like to see it.  If you have any questions leave a comment or shoot me a email.

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