Giraffes, and pink/gray

Hi.
I've been away for awhile, taking some much needed time off work, working on a separate grant for the kids' school, and celebrating my birthday. Yea! My twin and I turned 70 together (35 individually). I had a pretty good birthday which I will try to share about later.

Anyway...
I don't always just make things for my kids. I do make things for a few friends when they ask, and sometimes even provide fabric.

I made this sweet giraffe outfit for a friend's little girl. It is her birthday outfit.

I found a giraffe silhouette online and used it to make the applique. I made the giraffe print ruffle pants using Dana's KID shorts pattern. Those pants are adorable. I hope the baby has a great first birthday!

I also made her this CUTE pillowcase dress. The fabric was $2 a yard at JoAnn's! Hard to pass up.

For my other friend that I have made more outfits for, we found this fabric and pattern at Hobby Lobby. The pattern is Simplicity 1793A.

So much cuteness! We could just stare it because it is so pretty. The matching ruffle pants are just too much. Gah!

I love how it ties in the back. Her kiddos look amazing in the outfits as well. Although, they did require some alterations. Somehow both of the girls' pants ended up too short. I did add another ruffle to the bottom of both pairs so that they would fit better.

I mean, it's just so pretty! Love it.

Random sewing

So, what do you do when you are at home in between housework and taking care of the family and you have a few minutes to fill? I do some sewing!

I picked up some cute fabrics from JoAnn's after my dentist appointment recently. I wanted to make a few more burp cloths for my kids daycare director's new baby boy, and a couple of over-sized receiving blankets that she said she really liked for him.

For the burp cloths I used some flannel remnants from my stash: the city-scape blocks and the fishing frogs. I bought a 1/3 yard of the chevron and puppy dogs to make burp cloths. The backs are just some pieces of cotton fabric that I found in my collection.

I bought 1 yard of flannel in robot fabric (love!), and brown with blue elephants (sweet!). I love cute boy fabrics. These were especially fun.

These ended up being the over-sized receiving blankets, and once I got the yards squared up as best I could, I used the whole yard of both fabrics for blankets.

I did these projects by the time school let out so I could drop them off on the way back from picking up my son from school. I bundled then up and we dropped them off. Lucky for us she was right inside the door when we walked in. She was very happy. 

some baby things

Remember when I made some baby things for my kids' daycare providers? 

I am happy to report that they absolutely loved what I made for their new bundles of joy.

One of the girls, that had a baby girl, started following me on Pinterest and sent some pins to me that she liked, and would like me to make for her baby.

Burp cloths are simple enough.

All I needed was some fabric, which should not be hard to find. 

The only problem is deciding which fabric to make them from. I had many options, but some of the fabric I want to use for projects, though I don't know what project yet, and want to make sure I have enough for these unknown projects. Make sense?

Remnants to the rescue! I sewed some up for her. So cute! I just used whatever remnants that I had that were the size I needed (approx. 10x18 inches).

Now, we just got to meet up so she can have her baby goodies. Her baby has been very sick so the timing hasn't worked out yet. 

I feel so bad for winter babies because if they get sick there isn't much that can be done for them because they are so young and tiny and just can't fight off the bad stuff like everyone else. If they get worse they end up in the hospital, which is where they went, and then there is still at least a couple more months of cold weather and flu season to contend with. Poor baby. I hope she gets better soon so that mommy and daddy can be less worried about health issues.

I also made a tiny pair of baby shoes. The inner fabric didn't quite turn out like it was supposed too. It's kind of bunchy and not tight enough. But they are still cute. It was the first time I have used this particular pattern so there is always something to learn and fix for the next time.

The other daycare provider, the daycare director, returned to work and I got to meet her sleeping baby boy, another winter baby. She mentioned that she loved the oversized receiving blanket (left) because it was perfect for his crib, or whatever he sleeps in.

He can't be swaddled (because of reflux?), so the blanket in his crib has to be tucked in on three sides, and regular receiving blankets just aren't big enough.

I made a couple more burp cloths for her as well, but I want to make one or two more, and maybe some more blankets once I find flannel that I like. Looks like a trip to the fabric store is in order. I'll go if I must. :-)

In other news...

I've been working on spring projects for my girl. Spring can not get here fast enough! Also, spring children's consignment sale season is approaching and THIS GIRL is totally excited about it. I haven't even started my sorting, was waiting on warmer weather but that looks like that is not going to happen any time soon when I need it to. Thus begins my busy pre-spring/spring season.

Oh, did I mention that three of the four people in my household also have spring birthdays approaching? And that one of them gets a birthday bash this year? (More planning and busy-ness). And that t-ball should be starting soon? And that I have fabric that I need to match with a project so I can do some sewing? And school is more than half way over? And summer is coming and I want my kids to learn how to swim? Wait, what happened to spring? Breathe.

Oops, sorry for the rant. 
I am looking forward to the next few months and all of the fun they entail. So if you don't hear from me, you'll know what happened. My life got busy, and that is a good thing.

Have a great day.

Baby Goodies

A couple of the ladies at my kids' daycare are/were having babies. Each their first. One lady had a baby girl around mid-November. The other lady is due in December with a boy. She also has a step-daughter, so now they will have one of each in the family.

They've been wonderful to my kids since they started working there. And I love a chance to sew for babies since I don't have any littles like that any more. It also gives me a chance to get feedback on what I make.

Boy and Girl Baby Goodies

Most everything came from fabric I already had on hand. Some of these projects were remnants from other projects and there was just enough leftover to make baby things.

Baby Boy Goodies:

puppy dog plush.

 Flannel oversized receiving blanket and a fleece ruffle-y blanket.

As my girl got older she still liked to be swaddled, and the regular size receiving blankets were just not big enough, but the oversized ones worked great later on.

I used an oversized receiving blanket as a template to make my version, then just serged the edges to prevent fraying. I bought this flannel fabric at JoAnn's on sale.

The cute argyle fleece was in the remnants bin. Hooray for 50% off listed price! I used some brown ribbon to make the ruffle and just sewed it to the fleece. Easy enough. The end result was bigger/longer than a normal baby blanket. He will be able to use this one for a few years before he outgrows it.

It's ok to put a ruffle on a boy blanket right?

Of course it is.

I thought so.

Burp cloths: Mostly extra fabric I had on hand. I did buy the doggie fabric because it was boyish and super cute. All are made of flannel and cotton. The sizes differ a little depending on how much of a remnant I had left.

Taggie blanket, hat, and bow tie.

Let's take a closer look: 





Loving the bow tie. The baby is due before Christmas. I thought the bow tie would make for some cute photos.

Baby Girl Goodies:

Oversized flannel receiving blanket and fleece ruffle-y blanket. I left the ends of the ruffle "open". It won't fray there and the ends overlap somewhat so when you use open it up you can't really tell it's not closed.

I made this purple ruffle with some fabric from the free-must-get-this-stuff-out-of-my-mom's-house person in one of the buildings I work in. It frayed so much until I could sew it together with the serger. I am happy with the way it turned out though. Fleece and flannel came from JoAnn's, just like the boys'.

Cute pink elephant fabric from JoAnn's.

 Burp cloths: Flannel and cotton fabrics. Sizes varied depending on remnant pieces.

Taggie elephant. Pretty cute. I could have done a little better job on it, but this was the first time I made something like this so it's fine.

Circle skirts: I made these for when the baby turns about 6 months old and the weather is warmer. 

So tiny and cute! Love 'em.

Everything was finished and ready to go.

I found some plain brown bags for the goodies.

Packed and almost ready to go. 

I placed a note card in each bag detailing the items made and that most everything could be washed and dried in a normal laundry cycle (toy excluded for obvious reasons). I added some tissue paper and took them to the daycare center.

Since one was out on maternity leave I just left hers in the office. They will get it to her. The other lady was driving the bus so I left hers in the office, too. Won't she be surprised when she comes back. I love leaving surprises like this.

I hope they like what I made.