More Pink for Baby

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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

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How to Make a Ribbon Bow

I’m still working on the last two projects on my list and both of the projects actually involve making one or two little ribbon bows. 

A simple thing indeed, but I realized something.  Not everyone actually knows how to make these simple adorable little embellishments.  So I thought, why not tell them how?  So I made this quick little video tutorial showing how to make a ribbon bow.

Enjoy!

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Finally Finished on the Fleece

As the title says, I finally finished my November project list.  In December.  A week late. 
Well, a few things kind of popped up.  Very important life altering things, but I can’t talk about it. 

Anyway, the idea of making little fleece bows popped in my head while doing some cutting.  What better thing to do with small scraps of fleece?  All you really need are three rectangle pieces and something to stick the finished bow to like a clip or something.  I wanted to stick these bows to hair elastics, but for some reason I couldn’t find any.  I’m sure I had a ton somewhere.  I just used strips of elastic, they are actually more secure this way.

The next one is an idea I have been toying with for like a year.  Little cat-shaped purses.  I made them in two colors/patterns and two of each.  In the picture it shows the front and back view of each.  On the front of each one is a little bitty heart made from a scrap of the back pattern.  Think of it as the kitty’s nose.  I would have put eyes too, but I thought it might look to cluttered.  How is it, are they fine the way they are or do they look weird without eyes?

Next is sunglasses cases.  I found a piece of fleece with this interesting red pattern and thought it would be perfect for a case of some kind.  Just a simple pouch shape, slanted at the opening with a fabric cord loop attached, not too hard to make.  I decided to make a second matching one with white fleece.  It would have been black, but I seem to be lacking in that color.  Oh well, it still looks good.

And the last project is these cuffs.  They are pretty easy to make.  I just cut the fleece in the strips and braided them.  Then I sewed the ends together, of course that was the hard part.  Sewing the ends without making them look messy or ugly.  I think I did a good job on that part, but just in case I added little bows to hide any goofs.
Here’s the updated list:

• Hair accessories
• Tiny teddies
• Tiny birds
• Bags
• Tiny sweaters
• Tiny hats
• Yoyo’s
• Cases
• Key chains
• Cuffs

Ten down and out.  It’s funny.  Usually in December I start working on my big old Christmas list of gifts and decorations and stuff.  This year, thanks to all the stuff I made for this list and the Christmas stuff I made last summer, I have no need to make anything for December.  My crafting is done for the year.  Nothing left but to enjoy the month and maybe get a leg up for next year. 

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More Pretty Stuff

I had a bit of trouble getting started with my list, partially due to problems mentioned previously.  But I managed to get a few of the smaller cuter bits done.

These were those cheap stretchy gloves you can get for $1 practically everywhere.  I had a hard time finding white ones which I prefer over other colors.  I wanted them to look a little less plain and cheap.

With a touch of lace and some ribbon, they aren’t quite so plain now.  They were pretty easy too.  I stitched on the lace with the glove stretched out, it instantly gave it a ruffled effect.  I was lazy with the bows and glued them on with a washable fabric glue. 

I got a 4-pack of cheap plastic headbands at Dollar Tree figuring I could use them to make cuter ones, at least cuter than the ones at Dollar Tree.  Grant it that there are a ton of cute ones at that store and the largest selection ever, but it’s cheaper to decorate the plastic ones myself.  This one was made by wrapping the headband with satin ribbon while gluing it down with a glue gun.  I made little flowers and glued them on too.  It’s simple to do once you get the hang of it

This second headband was made easily by gluing faux pearls to one of the plastic ones.  I’ve seen similar ones before, including at Dollar Tree, but again this is cheaper and more fun.  It did take some time to glue all the little pearls on, and I found that glue gun glue just doesn’t cut it for this.  It isn’t flexible enough, they just popped right off.  I used Aleene’s Jewel It,  it is meant for beads and stuff after all.  I haven’t had any problems with it.

I have a tendency to “collect” hair elastics, you can get them in 36-packs for a buck and I can always find uses for them.  Although they are handy and useful for my hair, I find them to be quite dull looking on their own.  That’s simple to fix, stick pretty fabric or ribbon bows on them.  Really perks them up and uses up scraps of fabric and small leftover bits of ribbon.  Plus it isn’t too difficult to hand sew these so they make for a very portable sewing project.

Here’s the updated list:

• Pretty up gloves
• Ribbon headband
• Doll makeover
• Pearl headband
• Hair bows
• Pouches
• Alter shirt
• Yellow dress
• Hearts

Four down, five to go.  I’m a little behind schedule so far, I’ll blame it on the seasons.  This time of year makes me sleepy. 

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Shoulder Pads Be Gone

I tackled another makeover of a thrift store shirt.   This time I actually managed to get a before photo.

I got this shirt for 25 cents at the thrift store up the street.  It was too big for me, had shoulder pads (shiver), a pocket I didn’t like and buttons and beads on it that I hated.

The redeeming quality is this lovely decorative stitching around the collar.  The back of the collar came to a cute point along with this thing, I think it’s suppose to be an embroidered star or flower.  Whatever, it is still cute.

Here’s the after shot, much better right?  I ripped off the buttons, beads, and pocket.  I think the beads will work better for jewelry, maybe rings.  I then removed the sleeves and chopped off a few inches on the hem, did I mention it was a little too long on me too?  I took it in on the sides and trimmed the arm area before reattaching the sleeves.  The final touch was to add some elastic to the sleeves, I have been really into puffed sleeves lately.  I also replaced the buttons of course, can’t go around with an open shirt, well I wouldn’t anyway.  Now it looks really cute on me.  What’s great is that I have a pretty vintage skirt I got from the same store that would look great with this shirt.  It’s the perfect look for Fall.

Since it wouldn’t do to waste fabric, I found a good use for that pocket.  I made it into this sweet little bow, I just haven’t figured out what to do with it.  I could attach it to a headband, or a hair elastic, or even wear it as a pin.  I even though of making it into a bowtie, now that would be odd.

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Charmed and Bowed Over

I had managed to collect a few charms, lockets and pendants from broken jewelry and didn’t know what to do with them.  One day I thought, “why not put a bunch together on one necklace?”, so I tried it.

I wanted a heart theme, so I used two heart shaped lockets to start, an upside down heart charm with a paw print, and a pendant for a set of friendship necklaces.  My sister has the other friendship one somewhere.  I filled in the gaps with some flower charms and a butterfly. 

I stitched them to some braided trim, added some clasps, and then added some faux pearls because it needed something.  Now I have a totally unique looking necklace that’s chock full of memories to boot.

I mentioned yesterday that there might be a bonus, and this is it.

To make the necklace and yesterday’s bracelet, I had to search through my box of scraps and embellishments to get some ideas.  I have tons of these pre-made ribbon bows I got a while back, and I have been trying to find ways to use them.  I found a scrap of brown bias trim that I thought looked kind of nice with the bows and maybe some faux pearls, and since I was already making jewelry I automatically made the connection between the bows and making a bracelet with them. 

Just stitched them on the trim, add clasps and faux pearls, and voila!  An unusual, yet pretty cuff.  I think it looks pretty interesting when I wear in backwards too, it looks sort of like ruffled lace.  Maybe I’ll try that too in the future.

Here’s the updated list:

• Pillow
• card bracelet
• charm necklace
• netbook sleeve
• doll swimsuit
• bum bag
• sleep mask
• picture frames
• dress

Three down, six to go.  I’ve been needing the next one really badly.

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