warm and cozy : )

A friend of mine is having her first baby, Yay! Got to love babies! and making stuff for them! They didnt find out the gender but she has suspicions it is a boy : P. And from her symptoms, based on my own  experience, I would guess she is having a boy too : ).  Im posting the gift I made for baby here to have a record of the project and to share the method which I personally have never seen made before, so to  me I was being original : D even as basic as it is.

What I did? I made a toddler size blanket and matching crib size (not sufficateable size) pillow with flannel and fleece.  I have never seen nor felt a blanket made out of these together But it is So soft and warm, but lightweight. I need to make one for my little girl (yes, we are havin another girl in January, Yay!).  A really great warmth factor for her November baby. Mommy and Daddy went with a bold green and dark brown in the 'nursery' so those colors were what I went for and I used the most gender neutral print I could find : )

So the process was simple. Cut the fabric,  sew the applique in place, right sides together sew the perimeter with enough left open to turn it out, opening was hand sewed (after pillow was stuffed), then I sewed on the outside (blanket only) two inches from the edge a simple stich border to prevent bunching later.  Lining up the blanket to sew the outside perimeter proved trickier than I anticipated, so beware!
The fleece has it's tendencies to stretch oddly.

And here it is, I love it, and I hope they do too! I know with mine the softer the blanket the cuddlier mommy and baby are!

boppy pillow cover

This was a spur of the moment project I decided I would try, and take pictures along the way, so if it was successful I could share it here : P.

I wasn't really finding prints in the store bought covers that I really liked when I did an internet search, hence the inspiration here. The ones I did like were a little more than I wanted to spend also. I had bought this unicorn flannel a few months ago because I thought it was sooo cute knowing I could use it for something, just didn't know what then. The flannel turned out to be a really great fabric for this. : )

I used two peices of taped tissue paper to make to make my pattern. It's cheap and on hand : ). I traced around a cover I already had and cut it out 1/2 inch wider all the way around for the inseam. I marked the start and finish of the zipper with astericks. The bought cover actually has a piece that is roughly an inch that is in the inside of the curve; in this I thought I'd try making it simpler without that piece and am very happy with the result.

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When cutting the fabric I actually did an additional 1/2 inch wider for the zipper between the marks. This will be obvious, but you cut out two pieces, and you'll want to line up the fabric's pattern if it has one : ). The extra 1/2 inch where the zipper will be only needs to be on one of the pieces. The excess creates a flap over the zipper so if your zipper matches and you don't care if it shows, it isn't necessary.

As I mentioned above, this was a spur of the moment project. This means I used what I had on hand, and that was a black 21 inch zipper from a past plan that never came to fruition : P. I had 1 yd of the fabric 43" wide and used about half of it. (the amount you need may vary on whether you have a print or not) The bought cover's zipper was slightly longer, about an inch or two but I figured this would help to give me some comfort space at the end of the zipper.

Right sides together, I sewed around the case from one asterick mark to the other.

Then the zipper was sewn in one side at a time. The picture below on the right shows the gap between the zipper and the seam that will create a flap that will conceal the zipper.

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Below, left shows the excess open seam because the zipper was shorter than the bought cover.

Below, right shows it pinned for the inseam to be completed. pretty obvious, i'm sure

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Zipper in place, I sewed below each end, perpendicular to it, to have a more secure placing of the flap and zipper itself. I apologize the quality of this picture isnt great but you can see better what I mean by the right side.

Below, left: The excess mentioned earlier is brought up higher than the zipper, pinned, and then sewn to achieve the flap concealing my unmatching zipper : ) shown on the right.

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I've had an extra pillow in the bag since my daughters baby shower (2 yrs ago! :P) so now of course it's time to break it out and make a cover for my little guy : )

I've got to say I do Love these pillows!, they have really saved my bottom playing on the floor with my daughter! She likes them too, and so does our cat : ) Unfortunately the covers you can buy is really limited, but fortunately this was really simple and fairly quick : ) From start to finish it took about 2 1/2 hours, and that was pulling it from nowhere.

pretty little burpies

As I wiped some chocolate milk off the front of my daughter it occured to me I will be using many cloth diapers everyday, again, when my son comes in a little over 6 weeks. : ) Also, the thought came to me that I wouldn't want cross contamination between the two of them. When Katie was an infant she had acid reflux for a while and we used multiple cloth diapers everyday to wipe up the little messies, and we still use them when her 'spill proof' sippies spill : P.

Fortunately, we have a lot of cloth diapers hanging around (thanks to my wonderful mother-in-law). I had made a genuine effort to be eco-friendly by trying to use cloth diapers instead of disposable. Unfortunately, my daughter has sensitive skin, and though I would change her instantly she would break out in these rashes; I'd switch back to disposables and she would heal well, then I'd try again with the cloth and she'd break out again. I'm sorry Mother Earth : ) we tried. Doesn't help she has eczema too.

So, since I dont want to cross contaminate them I'd have to be able to tell their wiping rags apart. This is such a simple idea but I thought it was cute and wanted to share it. : ) Also, making a set and giving it as a baby shower gift would be nice and useful, not to mention thoughtful despite being so simple!

All this project is is giving a printed border to some cloth diapers to make some pretty little burpies. : )
You could use bias tape, ribbon, or like I did - make you own bias tape with a fabric of choice.

First, I measured the dimensions of the cloth diaper and in this case it was 14.5 " x 20.5". I'm sure they vary, so measure yours too!
Of the fabrics I used, one had the full 72" length I would use to make sure I had enough at the end after going around all 4 sides. With the other fabrics I used two pieces 36" x 4" to cover 2 sides at a time. The 4" came because I wanted my border to be 1" around.

before................................................................................................after...................................................................................................




I made my border by ironing the fabric in half, lengthwise, then ironed the outside edges in towards the center (like making a strap). Then I opened it to iron down the starting edge to avoid a corner that may fray.




I folded the corners as I pinned the 'tape' around to have an angle but squared edges would look good too. Afterall, these aren't going to stay as pretty with use anyway : D. At the end I folded under the same as with the start, to prevent fray. I used my machine and sewed 1/3 inch from the inside of the border to be sure both sides were being sewn to the diaper. And Voila! Pretty little burpies! for all of baby's not-so-pretty little messies! : )