T Shirt Butterfly Mobile

I've been doing a lot of things with t-shirts lately, leaving me a nice big ol' bag of these:

T shirt scraps.  They're big enough pieces that I can't bear to throw them away, but too small to use for any of the bags or clothes I've been making lately.

I'm also 37 weeks pregnant, and the doctor says I could go any time...so yes, I am in baby mode.  Big time.  Which led me to make this....

Butterfly Mobile!  (With my two year old Munchkin, of course...who should have still been in bed since it wasn't even 6 am yet!)

I've seen a number of buttefly mobiles lately, most of them made from scrapbook paper.  And I love them all!  But I dont have hardly any scrapbook paper, and even if I did I'd have to go to my mom's to use her Cricut...so I got creative and used what I had on hand.  (Mostly.)

First off, I took this idea from Sew She Sews' polka dot crib mobile tutorial.  (Seriously, click on that link and check out her mobile...if I wasnt so in love with butterflies right now I would have done the polka dots like she did!)  Anyways, I had just found two embroidery hoops at goodwill for $.50 each, and then got home and realized that the screw in one didnt work quite right.  But it would work PERFECT for this mobile!

And, I confess, I did run to the craft store to pick up one little thing that I didnt have on hand...

...miniature clothespins.  This isn't the smallest size they had, I think they are 1 3/4 in.  Then I spray painted them white.

Then there's the T shirt scraps.  Just alone, they would be too floppy to really look like butterflies, so I took one layer of scrap, put some Heat'N'Bond on it, then adhered it to another layer of scrap.

Then I spent what felt like FOR-EV-ER finding a butterfly template I liked (I ended up tweaking a few to make my own) and tracing and cutting out 14 butterflies.

Here they are with the clothespins clipped on:

The most tedious part was tying them on...I just used white thread.  I knotted around the middle of the clothespin, then tied it to the embroidery hoop.  I tried to stagger to create a "random" effect...I'm not so good at random.  But I think it turned out alright.

And this is what the baby will see:

I think I'll be replacing this ribbon with either plain white or light pink ribbon - again, just using what I had on hand.

Well, its a hit with my Munchkin at least!

Sorry, I know enough pics already!  But I just can never get enough of this little blue-eyed wonder (I have brown eyes, so it may be borderline jealousy) and her fascination in anything I make!

UPDATE:  I'm entering this in Iron Crafter Round 7: Clothespins!

And, in case you're wondering...my baby turned out to be a boy.  But he still likes staring at the butterflies!  (I'm thinking of re-doing them but in boy colors.  But we'll see.)

 
 

I'm also linking to Craftastical's Share a Craft Link Party!

Diaper Bag

(Again, sorry for the crummy pics.  Too lazy to edit them!)

I found these pants at Value Village awhile back, priced at $7 but it was a 50% off day so it cost me $3.50.  I would never, EVER wear these pants.  But for some reason I fell in love with the fabric.  The orange-ish coral design, I just couldn't get enough of it!  (Which is weird because usually I'm more into the vintage-y look.)

So I bought it.  I started thinking it would make a really neat bag; a fun, snappy accessory because I could never bear to have that fabric be an article of clothing for myself.  (Although, now that I think about it I'm pondering some cute little girl outfits I could have made out of it...oh well.)

The only type of bag I carry around these days is a DIAPER BAG.  And I'm about due for a new one, I just couldnt find one in stores that I really liked.

So, with a little help from this tutorial (found via Preser Foot) I made myself a new diaper bag! 

I made it wider than the tutorial suggested with a bit longer straps.  I also didnt use canvas/home decor fabric, so I made the lining (which was just part of a white sheet) into quilted fabric.  And I didn't put a strip of contrasting fabric along the bottom, although I did want to.  I just couldnt because the background of the orange coral fabric is actually an off-white and all my fabric was just too white. 

Like I said, the lining is made from white sheet.  I quilted it with some batting (my first time really using batting; it was interesting!).  I also added some little details inside. Like a pocket, just big enough for diapers, with the other pocket being big enough to hold things like burp clothes and stuff.

Also inside is a little zippered pouch sewn on.  (I would have just done a normal pocket, but it was a last-minute addition and this way was easier.)  I was able to use the zipper from the original pants, and some of the leftover fabric from the pants.  Waste not, want not!

The front of my bag is my favorite feature.  When I was planning my bag, I asked my friends on my family blog what they liked best about their diaper bag.  One of my friends gave me the link to her diaper bag to show me this cool pocket thing that you can slide a blanket or coat or something through for easier carrying.

This is my attempt to mimic that genius.  I wasnt feeling up to another zipper, so I just made it a little pouch that I'm hoping will be perfect to hold my cellphone and keys.  But as you can see, the blanket slides right through.  Marvelous.

And speaking of blanket, I did make a baby blanket for this next kid.  Since we dont know for sure if its a boy or girl, I tried to choose colors that could go either way, but I just cant handle the yellows and greens.  I thought this blue with a chocolate brown would look great.

Too bad Joanns didnt have any chocolate brown in the silky that I wanted, and I was too impatient to wait.  But I found a remnant of that ivory color, so at 50% off I decided it would work fine.  OF course, sewing them together was another adventure...I've never sewn with slippery fabrics much!!  I thought I pinned it enough, but it still had issues.  Oh well, the baby won't care, right?  Plus I went ahead and appliqued a butterfly on it, in hopes that I'm right and it will be a girl.  If I'm wrong, however, we have enough of the blue to make another blanket and I'll get some more silky stuff....and then give it all to my mom to sew for me!!!!



So, there you have it.  My amazing diaper bag...not really.  Everytime I look at it I see something I could have done better or differently at least.  But right now I have no inclination to fix it, so it is what it is!

Baby outfit...I hope!

First off, sorry these are kinda crummy pics.  These projects are just kind of stay-busy-so-I-dont-get-too-anxious-for-this-baby-to-come, nothing special so I'm too lazy to take the time to Photoshop them. 

I'm hoping this will fit the baby when it comes (I'm also really hoping that the baby is a GIRL, but thats another matter altogether).  I keep looking at it and thinking no way is the baby that small!  If not, I guess my daughter's doll is getting a new wardrobe.

Before - a napkin from Goodwill.  $.50 

The napkin was a little thicker and rougher than I would like, but I fell in love with the strawberry plant design.  This was the first time I tried using elastic thread, and it was ...interesting.  If it had been different fabric it would have worked better I think.  (Plus it probably should have been a little wider, but I didnt want to piece in any fabric.)  As it is, I'm still in love.  My husband keeps saying how "adorable" it is!

Can I just say, my sewing machine does NOT like to applique?!  I had SO MANY issues trying to applique that little scrap onto the onesie - and I tried all the tips I could think of.  Iron-on interfacing, fabric underneath, paper on top...still it looks pretty crummy.  And its not centered, but at that point I really didn't care.  I just wanted to be DONE.

And the long strip is hopefully going to be a headband -I'm just waiting to see how big the baby's head is before I add elastic.  (My kids tend to be big but have small heads.)

Maternity Shirt makeover

A few months ago, when the weather was starting to warm up, I broke down and bought myself some new maternity shirts.  (Both my other kids were born in April, so all I had were winter maternity clothes; plus they were getting a little worn out.)

Still trying to be thrifty, I chose from the clearance rack at Motherhood Maternity.  I found a shirt very similar to this one, but all white:

Now, I know this shirt looks fine on the model here.  But we're not all models, are we?  Thanks to my ever-expanding rack, I was just barely too big for a Large, so I went up to XL.  I'm glad I did in the fact that it was loose enough in the chest so that it wasnt uncomfortable, but it just was not fitting right in the sleeves. 

I think I wore it for a whole 15 minutes one day before I decided I couldnt handle it anymore.  After another month I got brave and decided to refashion it; if it didn't work out, I wouldn't be any worse off since I wasnt wearing it anyways!

Luckily, it DID turn out...its now one of my favorite shirts!  (Except for it being white...I always manage to get something on the belly!)

I actually made these flowers from the maternity shirt I had from my brother's wedding 2 1/2 years ago.  The shirt got some weird brown stain on the belly at the reception, so I've never worn it since.  But I love the color, so I kept it in hopes of finding a use for it.

And, as you can see, I changed the collar.  I was a little nervous about doing that, but I was just not liking the usual collar.  It was really easy, I just had to unpick the seam, remove the offending collar, and then I slid some ric-rack in there and topstitched it.

As for the sleeve, what had been bothering me was the cuff.  It was 3/4 length and so it hit below my elbow.  But because it was so big it just always looked too poofy to me.  (And it had some buttons which didnt look good.)  So I cut it to a short-sleeve length, and then using some of the material I'd just cut off, I made some new cuffs.  And, of course, slipped in some more ric-rac before topstitching!

My favorite thing about this project is that it didnt cost a dime to make - I had everything just sitting around!  And, actually, the ric rac is VINTAGE...ever since I've started really getting into sewing my grandmother keeps bringing over little bundles of goodies that she's found.  (She's got lots of sewing stuff herself, but then both her mother and her mother-in-law died within a few years of each other and she seems to have gotten most of all THEIR sewing stuff too.  And they lived through the depression, so they kept EVERYTHING.  I am getting so spoiled living so close to my family!!!)

This morning I tried to have a "photo shoot" with my Munchkin in one of the new dresses I made for her.

It didn't go so hot.

But, at least the dress is finally finished - its been sitting half done in my craft area for almost a month.  Maybe we'll try the pictures again tomorrow.