Fleece Blanket for Christmas?

I’ve been putting off doing any of the projects on my craft list for so long, it seems fitting that the first one is a project I meant to do months ago.

Last Christmas, I received several wonderful gifts including one in particular.

This kit.

It’s one of those no sew fleece blanket kits you can find in most crafts stores.  Pretty handy.  They usually have really cute prints coupled with a solid color fleece in a coordinating color and they’re pre-measured, packaged and ready to start. 

This one came with this adorable owl print fleece and I really could have used a nice warm throw at the time.  But I put off making it, and put it off some more, and more, etc.  Now it’s the end of summer, and I finally got around to putting the darn thing together.

The instructions are super easy, here they are if you’re interested in making one yourself.  Just click the picture to enlarge it.  I didn’t actually need to look at the instructions myself.  I’ve made tons of these blankets at church, so they are a piece of cake for me, normally. 

The problem I had was finding a large enough place to spread out the fabric.  At church we have these great large tables to work on, I have no such luxury at home.  I had to settle for a large-ish patch of floor.  Even then I had to fold part of the fabric and basically cut and tie half the blanket at a time.

I did have some help.  I got my niece to join in with the tying, this is a great project for kids to do after all and she needed to learn.  Maybe she can make one for herself someday now that she knows how.

Despite a few problems, we manage to finish the blanket in well under an hour.  Makes me feel a little silly about putting it off for so many months.  Now I need to figure out what to do with the scraps.

Here’s the updated list:

• Purse
• Bag
• Mini-bag
• Dress
• Vest
• Fleece

One down, just five to go.  The next one should be up by Monday, look forward to it!

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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.

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Kitty Blankie and Another One

Been a little busy lately with class and stuff, but I have made at least a couple of things.

First off, some of you may be aware that last Sunday was my cat’s birthday.  Yay!  Midnight is now eight years old.  Is it really a problem?  Well, I have seen bags of cat food in stores formulated for “senior” cats that say “for ages 8 and up”.  They think my cat is a senior.  But she still acts like she’s two!  Anyway, for her birthday I made her a cat sized fleece blanket.  It’s one of those knotted ones.  Pretty easy and she actually likes it.

Next up is this dress, you can tell it’s a dress right?  It’s photos like this that make me really miss my camera.  Yep, still haven’t found it and still using the web cam instead.  Anyway, I’ve had the fabric in my stash since last spring.  For some reason I never got around to making a dress with it until now.  I had trouble deciding what to do with it exactly, in terms of patterns and such.  I finally sat down and started drawing a design.  I put a little extra effort in this one.  I used three different kinds of lace and plenty of ribbon.  In fact a lot of the lace and ribbon was sewn by hand.  Mostly while watching anime videos.  The problems I had with it was making the bodice fit, that’s always the problem. 

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