Search Results for: label/Welcome Baby

I have the pleasure of introducing Jenelle from Echinops & Aster.  Jenelle’s blog is super cute {and new!}, and she has a Holiday How-to Series as well, if you’re looking for some more holiday ideas. So stop by and say hello, you’re sure to find some inspiration.  And thank you Jenelle for sharing this fun project with us!

    

- “Little Chick” Penguin Ornament pattern*
- Wool felt in black, dark gray, light gray (mine is more taupe), white, red, and yellow
- Embroidery floss (6 strand) or perle cotton (size 8 or 5) in black, white, red, and yellow
- Scissors
- Embroidery needle
- Regular hand sewing needle and basting thread
- Polyfil or other stuffing material (optional)
- 6mm safety eyes (recommended) or sew-on eyes**
- Ribbon, baker’s twine, or thicker perle cotton for hanger
- Removable/erasable fabric writing tool to mark felt for personalized embroidery

*Prior to printing your pattern, make sure in your printer settings that your page scaling is set to “none” or 100% to ensure the pattern pieces print true to size.
** Make sure if you use sew-on eyes or buttons that you keep your ornament out of little hand and mouths to prevent choking.

Directions:

- Lay the front body piece on top of the back (wrong sides together) and start blanket stitching around the body using your black thread, making sure to leave an opening if you plan on stuffing your ornament. Stuffing is completely optional, but makes for a more plush ornament. I like this pattern either way really.

- If you do use stuffing, finish by sewing around the edge, closing your opening securely.

And you’re done! This pattern makes the perfect little penguin to hang on the tree, but with some copier magic, you can enlarge the pattern pieces to make a softie as well.

 

Our next guest blogger is Rhonda from Quilter in the Gap.  Not only does Rhonda have a fun blog,
but she’s extra brave and puts out a podcast as well!  I wish I had more time to listen, but the episodes I have found time to follow along with are great.  Especially if I can do some sewing or embroidery while I listen.  Just like having a friend in the room.  So, venture over, leave a comment, and listen to her podcast if you have a minute.  It’s a great opportunity to get to know a fellow quilter and overall great lady!

I Spy….with my little eye….a bumble bee….

Enough rambling….let’s get started.

Quilt Details & Supplies Needed:

Finished Quilt Size: Approx. 40″ x 25″

Yardage Needed:
3/4 yd White Fabric
Various scraps for I-Spy Squares
1 1/4 yd for backing
binding fabric (yardage depends on desired width)

Cutting instructions:
40 – 4 1/2” I-Spy Squares (scraps are great for this project)
67 – 1 1/2″ x 4 1/2″ sashing strips (white in my case)
28 – 1 1/2″ I-Spy Squares (more scraps here)
2 – 1 1/2” x 39 1/2 strips for outside border (white for me) – not pictured
2 – 1 1/2” x 24 1/2 strips for outside border (white for me) – not pictured
30″ x 45″ backing piece (flannel was my choice) – not pictured
+/- 140” binding (width of your choice) – not pictured

I Spy…with my little eye…Bugs Bunny…

Assembly Instructions:
After all the cutting is done it’s time to start the first lay out of your quilt. I simply laid out the top with the sashing and small I-Spy squares so that I could make sure all the colors didn’t seem bunched together.

I Spy….with my little eye…a pink elephant…

I Spy….with my little eye…a snowman….

I Spy….with my little eye…a black cat…

I Spy…with my little eye…Christmas owls

I Spy….with my little eye…a rubber duckie…

I Spy…with my little eye…plums…

I spy…with my little eye…a spool of thread…

I Spy…with my little eye…a quilt shop…

I spy…with my little eye…a yellow puzzle piece…

Our next guest blogger is Chrissy of Sew Lux Fabric & Gifts.  Not only do Chrissy and her mom have a great fabric shop {and of course, I love that she works with her mom!}, but she also blogs lots of fun and easy projects on the Sew Lux Fabric Blog.  And she’s got a great one for us today, a great baby shower gift of a burp cloth and personalized onesie.  So make sure you check out the great fabric selection, and stop by her blog to say hello too, and thanks Chrissy for sharing with us!

Hi everyone!  My name is Chrissy and I co-own a little fabric shop, Sew Lux Fabric, with my mom and I blog here.  I was so excited when Jennie contacted me about participating in this tutorial series.  Of course, I agreed to help and am happy to share two quick projects with you today.  So, let’s get started making this cute little gift set that includes a flannel burp cloth and personalized onesie.

First up, the flannel burp cloth.  You’ll need one 1/2 yard of flannel (18 in x 44 in).  For this project, I am using the super soft Ruby Quirky Aqua Flannel.

The first step is to trim off the selvages and straighten up the long edges.

Next, starting on an 18″ wide edge, fold over one edge 4.5 inches (wrong sides together).  I used my ruler to make sure I was straight with my fold.

Press the fold and pin the folded section down to hold it in place.

Now, place the flannel wrong side down and fold the pinned edge up 8 inches. (Right sides will be together.) Use your ruler to check the length.

Pin along the edges on both sides.

Next, measure 4 inches above the first folded edge, again using your ruler as a guide.

Bring the fabric over the ruler.  Carefully remove the ruler so you keep your folded section nice and even. Press the fold.

Make sure to overlap the section that is folded up from the bottom with the section folded over from the top.  Trim the excess fabric away, leaving a 1/2 to 1 inch overlap beyond the folded edge.

Pin all the way up both sides.

Next, stitch the sides closed.  I used a 1/2 inch inseam here. Make sure to backstitch at the beginning and the end.

Clip the corners.  Be careful not to clip the seam stitches.

Now, you are ready to turn your burp cloth right sides out.

Carefully push the corners out.  (I like to use a bone folder from my papercrafting supplies – it isn’t sharp so I know I am not going to tear through a seam. Press the edges well.

Pin all the way around again.

Topstitch around the outside edge.  I used a 1/4 inseam and switched to my 1/4 foot on my machine.

Once you are done topstitching the outer edges, pin the flap down to keep it in place.

And then topstitch the flap down.

Next, measure the distance from the outer edge to the flap topstitching.  (Mine was about 4.25″.)

Using the measurement you just took, mark the other side of the burp cloth with a disappearing ink pen. (My line is kind of hard to see in this picture, but the marker is pointing to it.)  Your lines should be the same distance from both outer edges. Pin along the line to keep things in place.

Stitch along the line.  (I switched back to a clear foot for this as it makes it a little easier to see where I am going.

You’re all finished!  A soft and cuddly burp cloth.

Now, let’s make the personalized onesie! You’ll need a onesie, a 4″ square of lightweight fusible interfacing, a 4″ square of fabric, FrayCheck, fusible web tape, and coordinating thread.

The first step is to create your pattern.  You can print a letter out or draw your own.  I prefer to draw my own.  I first drew two lines with my ruler 3.25 inches apart and then sketched out my letter with a pencil.  Once I was happy with my letter, I went over the outline with a marker. Trace the pattern onto the WRONG (bumpy) side of a piece of lightweight fusible interfacing.

Fuse the interfacing to the back of a piece of fabric. Bumpy side and wrong side of fabric together! I am using Ruby Swoon Aqua.  Note – your pattern should be backwards when looking at the wrong side of the fabric.  It will be correct from the front.

Cut out the pattern and FrayCheck the edges.  (FrayChecking the edges is optional, but I always do this as I think it keeps the edges nicer longer.)

Position the letter on a onesie or shirt and tack it down with some fusible web tape.  You may want to hold up the shirt to make sure you got it on there straight.  Just sayin’   Adjust if needed.

Whenever I machine applique, I always adjust my stitch length.  The photo below shows the regular/default setting for the zig zag stitch on my machine.  It also shows how I prefer the stitches when I machine applique.  I shorten the stitch length and density … of course, this is personal preference.  (Click on the photo to enlarge.)

Ok, let’s stitch it to the shirt. Take it slow and keep the needle in the down position.  Pivot often being careful not to stretch the shirt. I like to use a clear foot so I can see where I am going.  On a tiny little onesie, this can get a little tricky keeping the rest of the shirt out of the way, but just take your time. 

When you are done, clip the threads and press.  Cute, right?! 

Now you have a fun little gift set for the next new baby in your world.

I want to thank Jennie again for having me guest post today.  I am so excited for Jennie and her family’s new precious little addition … congrats y’all!  :-)

I hope that you all enjoyed my project tutorials.  I’d love for you to stop by and visit me sometime and join in our Sew Lux Stitch & Share Challenges.

Happy Sewing!

Today I’d like to welcome Kat from Diary of a Flutter.Kat. Kat is an Australian quilter and sewist, mom of two beautiful little girls, and just all-around creative. On her blog you’ll find a variety of pretty tutorials, interesting series, inspiration, and encouragement.  She also has a shop full of personalized of kids wear, that would make great gifts as well.  So, stop by and say thanks for sharing one of her great tutorials with us!

Hi Everybody!
My name is Kat.
First up I’d just like to thank Jennie for having me over to visit today & contribute this awesome series! And of course congratulations to her as well. It sure is an exciting time for you at the moment Jennie and I know we all wait to hear the happy news of baby’s safe arrival

Today I would love to show you all how to make a super easy onesie tutu…

Today I’ve just made it using a very basic white onesie that I happened to have on hand, but these also look fabulous when made with a coloured/printed onesie, and you can really make the top look so pretty by adding more rosettes, some ribbon etc…

I also like to make a coordinating hairclip or headband and wallah – such an easy princess outfit (which would have cost me less than $10 to make – bonus!).

You can use the same technique to add a cotton skirt as well – just hem the bottom for that rather than doubling it over…
Soooo many possibilities!

So, to make this onesie tutu you will need:
**  A basic onesie in the size of your child – I was using a size 1 here.
**  Some soft nylon netting – WOF x (double the length you would like it + 1 inch) – I’ll explain this more in a moment.

Optional additions for embellishments
**  Some petals or washable flowers/decorations for inside the skirt (found these at my $2 store)
**  15+ inch length of satin ribbon
**  24 x 4.5 inch length of netting for the rosette
**  fabric glue
** small circular scrap of felt
**  rhinestone or decorative button
**  small scrap of velcro (hook & loop) (if making rosette removable for washing)

Step 1: Working out your measurements & how much netting you will need…
To do this you need to measure the length you would like the skirt to be on your child – so from their hip down to the length you want.
Then double this measurement & add an inch for seam allowance. That is the length of fabric you need by WOF.
E.g. my daughter needed hers 9 inches long – so I cut my nylon 19 inches long by WOF.

Step 2: Cut your netting…
The easiest way I found to cut mine was to use my rotary cutter & cutting mat (I’m a quilter can you tell ) But if you don’t have these tools you can just use scissors & a ruler.

This is how I cut mine:

Put the surplus aside for your rosettes if you are choosing to make those.

Step 3: Making the skirt band…
Now we need to join the short ends of the netting together so it is in a continuous circle. I used my overlocker/serger (just because it’s a new toy & we’re still in the honeymoon phase where I want to use it for everything ), but if you don’t have one of these then you can just sew a simple 1/4 inch seam – netting shouldn’t fray.

sew down the short sides to join

Now we need to fold the skirt length back over on itself again and if you are using petals down in the skirt you can stuff those in now…

You can see that I found it helpful to pin the netting together at the bottom fold to stop it moving around everywhere.

I then serged the top opening closed (round in a circle with only 2 layers together – not all 4 layers closed like I have pictured below – it just looks like that since it’s all a circle).
This step isn’t entirely necessary but I found it made it easier for me to work with tutu that’s all.

Now we want to gather the top of the skirt. So increase the stitch length on your sewing machine to the longest length it goes (mine is 5) and sew a scant 1/4 inch gathering stitch around the top of the skirt…

Once you have finished cut off your thread, then gently pull your bobbin thread at each end to gather up your skirt. You want to make it so that it is about 1.5 inches bigger than the width of your onesie and make sure that the gathers are very evenly distributed around the skirt…

Step 4: Joining the skirt to the onesie…
First we need to draw a line on our onesie where we want the skirt to go across. I have to confess that I just used a regular pencil for this (look away sewing police) but you can use a chalk marker or whatever fancy erasable sewing notion that strikes your fancy . The mark is going to get sews into a seam so it’s not that big a deal to use a pencil…

Draw your line about waist height – I actually drew mine a little low in this example so don’t copy my photo exactly… I should have done it about an inch or so higher than I did… more waist height.

Then take your tutu piece and place it upside down over your onesie over the line like so…

Now we want to pin the tutu to the onesie at each side seam. Only 2 pins total. Too easy.

**  Please just note: because we made the tutu wider than the onesie it won’t fit exactly. Therefore you just need to be careful to make sure that when you pin it at the seams half the skirt is at the front & half at the back. Then as we sew it we are going to gently stretch the onesie to match it up to the tutu.
We do this so that it has some give and that when the baby wears it a) the stitches don’t all get stretched while they wear it and get broken & b) so it’s more comfortable for the baby.

So with that in mind are you ready to sew your skirt to onesie? So close to finishing this part!

Reduce your stitch length back down to about 2.5-3. If you have a stretch stitch you might want to use it now… and slowly sew the tutu to the skirt using a very scant 1/4 inch seam or 1/8th seam and also gently pulling the onesie so that it stretches to the same width as the tutu as you sew.

I start at one seam & work my way around…

Make sure that you have the arm of your sewing machine in between the top & bottom layers of the onesie at this point so that you’re not accidentally sewing it completely closed

Also make sure that you reverse your stitches at the beginning & end to secure them in place.

Once you have gone all the way around then fold the bottom part of your onesie over so that you can see the underneath of the seam you just sewed and so that you have the tutu trapped in between the fabric of the onesie.

Sew around again, this time using a generous 1/4 inch seam, so that the top tutu seam is now trapped nice & neatly in the onesie… hopefully you can just see what I mean from the photo…

How seam looks inside after sewing

Clip your threads, turn the right way out and you should have a lovely onesie tutu to admire!

Now just for the decoration…

Step 5: Embellishing your tutu…

To make a rosette find a long scrap of netting. Mine measured 4.5 inches x 24 inches but it doesn’t have to be exactly this. Fold it so that you have doubled the long sides over…

Increase your stitch length back up to it’s maximum and sew 1/4 inch gathering stitch down the whole length…

Gently pull your bobbin threads so that you have tightly gathered up the netting as much as you can & wrap the bobbin threads around the bottom of the rosette…

Now at this point I decided that I wanted to make my rosette removable using a velcro attachment, so I cut a circle of felt and glued my rosette onto it using fabric glue, then I glued a piece of velcro (hook & loop) onto the back of the felt.

If you choose to make yours removable also then please just be aware that it could form a choking hazard for infants under 3 – so you need to do so at your own risk…

Otherwise you can glue it onto the felt then hand stitch it onto your onesie.

Then I sewed the soft piece of the velcro into the middle of the onesie where I wanted the rosette to sit (I eyeballed it) and glued a rhinestone to the middle of the front. You could just as easily sew a decorative button onto the front instead which will help keep it all together.

You could use a brooch if you wanted instead of the velcro – but I wasn’t keen to do that to Abbie’s because knowing her she would figure out how to undo it and stab herself with the brooch needle!

Yay our rosette is finished:

If you would like to add a ribbon to the tutu then tie a coordinated satin ribbon into a bow & handsew it on.

Step 7: Stand back & admire your cute cute creation!

Now at this point I would usually show you gorgeous photos of my beautiful peaches & cream model showing off her new wears, but unfortunately yesterday she just wasn’t playing the game…

Have you ever seen such an attractive face on a tutu’d princess?! I think not…
Poor tired Abbie was so.not.interested in playing to the camera for Mummy!
A little too much “it’s my party & I’ll cry if I want to” and a little less of her usual “look at me I’m a beautiful princess” poses!

Even when bribed with chocolate this was the best I could do I’m afraid…

half a smile with a mouth full of chocolate and a face full of tears…

These were minus the bow too – oops, my bad. You’ll just have to use your imagination

Anyway thanks so much for having me to visit today & I really hope you have fun with making a gorgeous tutu!

Feel free to stop by my blog & say hello, I’d love that!
I’m having a special feature linky party today too which might be of interest to you called “Nosey Parker in the Neighbourhood” – it’s all about getting to know other bloggers in our crafty community, so feel free to come & check it out and link up if you can

Take care

Our first tutorial guest is Kim from My Go-Go Life.  In all honesty, I’m less acquainted with Kim, even though I’ve been following her blog for a while.  However, her blog is packed full of inspiration in all shapes {and quilty} sizes.

Hi, I am Kim from My Go-Go Life.  Thank you Jennie and CONGRATULATIONS!!!! I am so happy to be invited to guest post on something I really love to do, make baby items.  I  have always enjoyed making and giving bibs. Bibs are so very useful and can be made easily and less expensively than purchasing them.

You can start with either a bib you already have and love by tracing it (adding in a seam allowance) to provide a pattern or you can use the pattern I have been using for years. There are two sized patterns I have. One for smaller babies and one for bigger babies into toddler years. For this tutorial I will be using the pattern I have here.

After you have your pattern printed , line it up and tape it together

If you are tracing your own, feel free to skip ahead )

Cut it out

I am making the smaller bib, and I will be making it with two super cute fabrics

Right sides facing sew the two pieces together

Flip the pieces over and topstitch

Place the sewn piece on top of your backing right sides facing. You can use chenille, minky or fleece. If you are making a reversible bib you can add a layer of flannel in the middle for absorbency.

Pin the pattern down

Cut out the bib

At the top of the bib leave an opening to be able to turn the bib right side out

Sew around the bib using a 1/4 inch seam, starting and stopping at the top of the bib

Pin the top opening together

With a coordinating thread topstitch around the entire bib

The closure is up to you. You can use velcro or snaps. I have a standard size snap press but I was at my local fabric store and saw their new baby section and bought this hand held snap press. They even have poly resin snaps in different colors. Pretty cool!

You will need two backs and one male and one female piece

Push the back into the end

this is how it will look on the opposite side

Place the male piece on top

and let the snap pliers to do the work!

Repeat the process fro the female side and you are DONE!!!!

You can make these bibs as simple or a fancy as you like.

Happy bib making!!!!!!!
Kim )