Sewing for Baby: Another Pillowcase Dress and Headbands

I’m finally getting around to posting this!  The first project on my craft list is a baby craft.

I had another baby shower to attend, another one for a baby girl!  So I decided to make another pillowcase dress (see More Pink for Baby).

This one I made with an adorable red and white gingham print I had in my fabric stash.

I used a soft lace instead of ribbon for the ties and added the same lace across the front.

I used the same eyelet lace along the hem as with the previous dress.

For this dress, I also made a matching bow headband.  It uses the same lace as the dress, and just like the head bands I made for the last baby shower (see More Pink for Baby), I used tights for the stretchy part.

And because it’s hard to stop at just one headband, I made two more.  These are for a different baby I know.  She’s already born, but I missed her baby shower, so this is a late but cute gift for her.

Here’s the updated list:

• Baby
• Blue dress
• Tiny outfits
• T-shirts
• Halloween
• Pink dress
• More T-shirts

One down, six more to go.  I will try to get the next one up a bit sooner.  Look forward to it!

Read More »

More Pink for Baby

This post may contain affiliate links, please check out my disclosures page for more info.  Thanks!

So much for getting my next project up in a timely matter.  I finished this one right on time, but it only took me about a week and a half to post it.  Grrr.

Anyway, some more friends are expecting a baby, this time it’s a little girl!  So more baby stuff.  And because I couldn’t resist, it’s all pink!

First up is the baby dress.  It’s a pillow case style dress.  I already knew how to make it because I’ve made similar tops (including this doll version with a tutorial), but I found this tutorial for baby dresses extremely useful.  It gives you measurements to use based on the age of the baby or toddler.  Useful when you don’t have a kid to measure.

It’s trimmed with eyelet lace at the bottom, and I used some cute pink grosgrain ribbon for the ties.  All I had to do was hang it on a cute pink hanger and it was ready to go.

Speaking of hangers, I bought a pack of pink children’s hangers for a dollar.  I thought that since this was a baby girl who will definitely receive lots of cute dresses from friends and family, the parents will need hangers.  They will need to store it all somehow.

And why not make them cute too?  Simply adding a nice ribbon bow to the top does the job.

And now we have a full set of cute girly hangers ready for use.  I think I might need to do this to my own hangers too.

To go along with the dress, and possibly all the other ones in her wardrobe, I made these cute baby head bands.  The one on the left has a eyelet lace rossette (tutorial!) accented with a pink bow made from the same ribbon as my baby dress and hangers.

The one on the right has a ribbon rose made with some ribbon left over from my Easter dress.

The unique part is what they are attached to, a loop cut from tights.  I got the idea from this tutorial for baby headbands.  It’s stretches enough to fit baby or even mommy’s head, but its soft and gentle.

The final piece is this stuff bunny, because toys are mandatory.  I call it the potato bunny because the shape of the body without legs reminds me of a potato.  Strange? Yes. Cute? Definitely.

The face is just a wee little nose made of felt and two faux pearls for eyes.  Don’t worry, I took extra measures to make them secure and baby safe.  It would take a strong force to pry these eyes off.

To finish it off, I tied on a ribbon bow.  Yep, it’s the same ribbon from the other pieces.  All the baby presents are finished.  And all that’s left is to wait for the baby to be born.

Here’s the updated list:

• Dress
• Accessories
• Jeans
• Baby
• Little dress

Three down, two more to go.  And they both will be almost as cute as the baby stuff.  Look forward to it!

Give it a try:

• Offray 3/8"x21' Grosgrain Solid Ribbon
• Girls' Nylon Tights Cat & Jack – Ivory
• Delta Baby Clothing Hangers

Read More »

Sewing for Baby

As I mentioned before, I have friends who are expecting their first child this month, so I made a boat load of things for their baby shower which I haven’t shown yet. :)

But first here’s something else I haven’t shown here much. My notebook sketches.

Before I do a lot of my sewing, I like to sketch out ideas in notebooks.  This one page is dedicated to all the baby things I wanted to make.  Some of the things I didn’t actually make, this time anyway.  Let’s save something for later.

First up is the diaper bag.  I designed it based on a tote bag I saw someone using at work.  Large and roomy with lots of pockets on the inside and a useful little one on the outside. The twist?

This is the fabric I picked out for it.  I found it at Wal-Mart, have I mentioned before how glad I am that they brought fabric back to their stores?  I just couldn’t resist the little turtles and elephants, plus it works for boy and girl babies.

Here’s the finished bag.  The straps go most of the way down the sides of the bag for security, plus it makes the pocket look good.

Here’s the inside.  There are six pockets all ready to shove stuff in and carry.  That’s exactly what I did.  I crammed it with all the other stuff I made plus some essentials I bought on sale.

Now the blankets.  Here’s the baby blanket…

…and receiving blankets.  The receiving blankets were just a single square cut from a knit fabric and hemmed. The baby blanket involved a layer of sweat shirt fabric sewn with the softer side facing outward.  I used this tutorial as a guide.

Here’s the fabric I used.  I got it at SAS. Dalmatians and fire trucks, perfect for a new little boy. :)

Here are the finished blankets.  In addition to blankets, I made some birth cloths and wash cloths.  The wash cloths are made like the receiving blankets but smaller and using plain white knit fabric.  The burp cloths are made like the blanket only smaller and rectangle shaped.

Now the best part, the teddy bear.  Because every kid needs a stuffed best friend.

Here’s the finished bear.  All ready for hugs

I made the patterns from scratch using newspaper.  It was easier than expected, I must be getting better at making patterns.

Here’s the fabric I used.  It’s fake fur from SAS.  It’s a perfect off-white and super soft.  I have plenty of leftovers so be prepared for more teddies in the future.

Some in progress photos just for fun.

Sewn and turned partially right side out.  The legs were a pain to sew.

And now the jacket.  Sad thing about it, I seem to have lost the finished photo.  I have search all over my computer and it seems to have totally disappeared.  It looked totally adorable and almost exactly like my sketch except I put a turtle applique and an elephant applique on the front.  Obviously I cut the appliques from the bag fabric.

Here’s the patterns I made, they are based on a dress pattern but were perfect for a jacket. 

And of course this the fabric I used, I used it for the blanket as well.  I got it a Goodwill.  It’s always nice to find good fabric at thrift stores.  I have plenty of it leftover so I will probably make another one soon.  Look forward to it.

Read More »