Nursery

Pretty much all ready!

Ghost says "Boo!"

This morning, Maggie and I made some ghosts to hang in the window. I cut some shopping bags into squares for her to color on with permanent marker. Then we stuffed the heads with the handles and printed-on pieces of the bags, and tied them with black yarn.

We just tied them to the blinds in the front window.

Snoopy Jammies

I whipped up a pair of Snoopy pajama pants for Maggie for Christmas. I got this fabric from Mom's house, one of too few that I kept. This is one of my lesser regrets though, because I have a feeling most of the fabric is still in a box at my Aunt Sharon's house.

Anyway, I made a one piece pattern by tracing a pair of PJ pants folded in half, and it hardly took any time at all to make them. In fact, Maggie has been asleep since I started. 14 1/2 hours ago...

Tree Skirt

Another thing that didn't get made last year was a skirt for our tree. This is the fabric I picked out for our stockings before John pointed out we don't have anywhere to hang stockings so they don't have to match our tree. We bought 48" of 44" fabric. I folded it into fourths and trimmed the corners so it's an oval shape. We decided oval was better than a 4" smaller circle, or piecing it. Our tree is not very wide so it looks fine. I trimmed about 2.5 inches off the inside corner of the fourths to make the center hole, then cut straight down to the back. I did a rolled hem around the entire thing and sewed on the trim (it took almost 5 yards). Then I sewed 4 1" squares of velcro on for the closure. I have just enough trim left to do the center circle, but I kind of want to use it on my stocking.

Maggie says the skirt is "tree-sized", but it fit her tiny waist just fine.

Christmas Stockings Tutorial

I made Christmas stockings for our family this week. I never got around to doing it last year. They were very easy and quick to make, and don't require any special sewing skills. The snowmen one is for John, gingerbread men for me, Pooh for Maggie and Snoopy for baby. I tried to convince Maggie she wanted the Snoopy one. She would not be swayed... until she saw me making it for the baby, of course.
The stocking fabric is cotton, with fleece cuffs, except for the fluffy stuff on John's. Not sure what that really is. It was in the fake fur section and I had to zigzag around the edge to keep it from shedding everywhere.

To make a pattern, trace an existing stocking. Be sure to add seam allowance all the way around.
Fold your fabric in half, right sides together, and pin the pattern. I cut my fabric out using pinking shears to cut down on the unraveling. I used 3/8 yard of fabric for the fabric that could be cut in either direction. For the one way prints, I needed 5/8 yard. If you were using the same fabric, you could get two from 3/4 yard of a one way print. Make sure the pattern on the fabric is facing the right direction.

Sew the stocking together from the top, around the bottom, back to the other side of the top.

To make a strap to hang your stocking from, cut a 5x2 inch piece of fabric. Iron it in half, then open it up...

and iron each side to the crease.

Then fold in half again and press.

Sew as close as you can to the open end. Sew straighter than I did...

For the fleece cuff, cut a piece twice as wide as you want the cuff, and twice as long as your stocking (Mine was 9.5x13.5 inches). Fold the cuff piece in half, lining up the shorter ends. Pin the strap in the middle of this seam, and sew. The loop of the strap should be in between the right sides of the fleece.
To attach the cuff, turn both the cuff and the stocking right sides out. Put the cuff over the stocking, with the wrong side of the cuff against the right side of the stocking.

Make sure to line up the cuff seam and strap with the back seam of the stocking. Pin and sew around the top edge.

Pull the cuff up wrong-side out, then fold down halfway so the strap is on top.

Press the whole thing, right-side out.

Also, apparently they also make good "socks".

Little Birdie

Baby Rattles

I made two little wrist rattles out of fabric and ribbon scraps. The Peanuts one (from a Leonard boxers scrap so small I can't believe I saved it) is for our baby. The other one, from Wonder Box scraps, is for a friend who is expecting a girl this week. I also made her a pair of baby shoes. The baby shoes fabric is from the wallets I've made.

The wrist rattles were quick and easy to make, other than some hand sewing. Here is the free pattern (PDF).Maggie thinks these are a lot of fun, so hopefully the babies will too.

Am I a Traitor?

I made a fleece University of Utah blanket for John's brother's birthday. He was pretty excited about it. The licensed fleece was really expensive - $15/yard at Jo-Ann, although Erin said she saw it at Wal-mart for $10. Definitely a good purchase to use a 40% coupon on. I bought 1 2/3 yards, but I didn't realize it was 60" wide. You really just need 1 1/3 yards for a good snuggle blanket size. I cut 1" wide strips 4" deep along the top and bottom, and knotted each strip. No sewing involved.
Since they'll take this blanket to games, I embroidered his last name on one corner. I did it on the machine, but it was freehand so it looks like I wrote it. Excuse my sewing-hand-writing.
Since Jo-Ann also carries BYU fleece, it was suggested I could make one of these for just about every member of the family. Not a bad idea!

Paper Pumpkin Decorations

I got the idea for these from Parents magazine. They were quick and fun to make. Just cut out six circles or ovals, fold them in half with the pretty side inside, then glue the halves together. Then you trim off the bottom so it stands up, and cut out a stem.
To get one pumpkin out of a 12x12 piece of paper, use a 4x6 oval.

Playing with Knives

Fishie Coat (times two)

I couldn't find a fleece hoodie for Maggie when I was buying her winter clothes, so I decided to make one. I accidentally bought more than twice the fleece I needed, so when the first hoodie I made didn't turn out quite as nice as I'd have liked, I decided to try again. The second time I lined the whole thing (not just the hood) with flannel, as well as adjusted the pattern a little bit.

The girls both love their fishie coats and wanted to wear them all afternoon.

I made the pattern myself by tracing one of Maggie's sweatshirts. Since fleece isn't stretchy, I had to make some adjustments, mainly make the sleeves and the hood bigger. You can tell that the hood is farther back from the collar on Colette's. And Maggie's sleeves are too big and have to be rolled up.

Here's what I did:

Cut out a back, two front halves (half the back, plus an inch on the straight side, for the closure), two sleeves, two hoods, and two pockets. Remember to leave seam allowance, on every side if you are doing a lining.
Join front and back at shoulder seams.
Pin sleeves and sew to shoulder.
Sew seam from wrist to waist.
Sew 2 hood pieces together
Attach hood to neckline.
*repeat above with lining* leaving a gap in one side seam for turning.
Topstitch pockets into place.
Sew in zipper.
Pin lining and outer fabric right sides together
Sew around bottom, up one side of zipper, around hood, down other side of zipper, and around the bottom. Turn through gap.
Sew the sleeve and lining together, here are the best instructions I found. You can't just sew them together when you are sewing the rest of the jacket right sides together, unless you want to make a straight jacket. Believe me, I tried it. Luckily, I just basted to see what would happen.
Close gap in lining.
Last, topstitch along both sides of the zipper.

Some additional helps:
Craftster hoodie tutorial - good basic instructions, especially for creating a pattern, but I sew my sleeves on differently.
Fleece Hoodie from a baby blanket - hmm, I did the sleeves differently from this one too.

(This cute face is what comes of saying "Auntie Rachel!" instead of "Cheese!"

Winnie the Pooh

Sometimes she says "Kanga and little Kanga" and we can't tell if she is being silly on purpose.

More Awesome Dinosaurs

I made a pair of cloth baby shoes using the Stardust Shoes pattern. I used scrap fabric, and stuff I already had, so it only cost me 19 cents for 1/2 yard of elastic and a little bit of interfacing, maybe 50 cents worth, to make them. Not bad considering Robeez and Pediped are around $30!The dinosaur fabric is scraps from a pair of boxers I made Leonard, and I used muslin scraps for the lining. To make the sole I basted together a layer of yellow fleece and a layer of brown felt, both of which I already had.This is one of the most well-made things I've ever sewn, having my iron handy, and following an actual pattern (one made by someone else). It wasn't difficult at all.

Happy Birthday to Me!

We bought some artwork for our kitchen wall today. We were looking for a clock but there weren't any big enough that we could agree on.

Maggie helped hang it up, with her own stick (the handle to a W&S spatula). She was so cute helping daddy measure.

Ta dum! It's more vibrant in real life.

The place looks better already.

Excuse our water storage rotating mess.

One more month

1, 2, 1, 2

Woah, what's that?

It's Maggie doing laundry in Japanese.

The Great Salt Lake

Little girl, big lake.

Last week, I took Maggie to the Great Salt Lake, with my cousins Jill and Sarah Whitney.

See how far we had to walk?? That's Saltair in the background.

At the Salt Lake Marina.