Hair Bows for Valentines

Whipped out some little fabric bows for some Valentines this year. Super fast and easy! 

Basically like this. 

Pink and Grey

I was so blessed to be asked to make a baby quilt for a friend's little girl due this summer. She picked out some great fabrics and sent a picture of something similar to what she wanted and I got to take it from there! I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out! (Forgive the little wrinkles. I knew it was about to be rolled up and that ironing it again would really be pointless.)

 

I kept track of my measurements, so here they are:

Car Seat Makeover

My mom was here a couple weeks ago and it's kind of amazing how much more productive I am when she's around. ;-) We had two sewing projects, both unnecessary, but I am SO THANKFUL that we were able to do them! So much more cheerful.

The old car seat was a minty green and very pale orange, with brown binding. It arrived in the mail a week before the little man was due, so I didn't want to risk returning it even though it was most definitely *not* the color scheme I had thought I was purchasing.

We saved the brown binding, but went a little more cheery on the rest:

Hanging Laundry Bag Tutorial

Little Boy is getting ready to move into his Big Boy bedroom in a couple months (already?!) and one thing he'll be needing is a new place to put dirty laundry. I found this laundry bag tutorial on pinterest, I think, and borrow a good bit from it. I like that it can hang in the closet, on the door, and even on the door knob, if you don't make it too long. The hanger can come out and there are no rough edges (french seams) so that the whole bag can be thrown in the wash. I added a couple ribbons to the inside of the bag too so that it can be taken in a suitcase and tied up a little.

You will need:

Round Oven Mitt Tutorial

My little brother is moving into his very first house with five other guys and there's not a potholder to be found in the place. So I took it upon myself to make him a couple.

For one mitt (I made two, so sorry if one or two of the pictures are confusing because of that) you will need:
2 outside fabrics measuring about 10" x 11"
2 inside fabrics (I used cozy flannel, but I think it would have looked better if it was closer in color to the outside fabric) measuring 10" x 11"
Inside binding (mine is yellow) measuring 8" x 3"
Outside binding (mine is blue) measuring 30+" x 2 1/2"
lots of batting for the inside

Baby Tutorials and Links

I always email myself links and then save them for when they come in handy some day. I have a whole bunch of pregnant/nursing/baby links and tutorials that I thought I'd throw out there for the blog world.

Tablecloth Diaper Changing Mat Tutorial from The Polka Dot Umbrella

The Nursing Cover that I already made I got from Diary of a Quilter's Tutorial

Boppy Cover Tutorial from Katie J. Gibson

Christmas in July

I had this pretty awesome idea for my kitchen that involves a whole bunch of Dresden plates, so I thought I'd experiment with some Christmas fabrics before I went ahead and dove in to my big decorating project. 

Dresdens were so quick and easy! 

And, I think, very cute. 

I used this template from this tutorial from SewMamaSew. 

Since it turned out so well, I'll definitely be moving along with my kitchen project. I ordered this handy-dandy $13 cutting guide off Amazon (I LOVE AMAZON) to make things go even faster. Can't wait to post about it!

Headbands

Yesterday my little sisters-in-law and I started working on some reversible headbands. This was my little girl size tester. I started with the template from Happy Together (love this blog, btw!). We made the band a little skinnier and a smidge shorter for the smaller heads. This one turned out great! 

Memory Card Game

I want so bad to make this scrap fabric memory card game but I know it's gonna be at least a couple more years before we'd get any mileage out of a matching game around here. But I'll post it just because it's so awesome.

Cheaters Never Prosper

The nursing cover turned out fabulous. Except that I cheated and now I seriously wish I hadn't. I didn't have any boning on hand, so I cut up a wire hanger. I don't know what I was thinking. The hanger makes the neck stick out, sure, but then it promptly tips forward for the world to see what's going on in there. So, I will have to tear it all out and do it again with boning. But I didn't want that to keep me from posting pictures, because it still *looks* good. It is green because that's gender neutral-ish. It has flowers because I myself am not gender neutral. And flannel. Because then it can double as a receiving blanket if it must. Another big reason NOT to use a hanger, but rather boning. Also, so that it can fit in your diaper bag without getting bent out of wack. What was I thinking?!

Grow Chart

I finished this grow chart a while ago, but I only recently got it all hung up properly. It's made from a moda charm pack (Punctuation, I think?). I found the idea on Moda's Bake Shop website. 

I cut a long dowel and slid it into some fabric pieces sewn to the back (one dowel at the top and another at the bottom).

Then I used some orange yarn to tie it to the door like this. I'm sure there's a better way, but this will do for now!

Andy was 21 1/2" when he was born. I hope to make it part of our birthday tradition to go measure the kids on the grow chart.

Knit Dish Rags

Here's the pattern I like to use for dish rags from here.

Size 7 or 8 needles

Worsted weight cotton, less than 1 ball

K = Knit

P = Purl

K2tog = Knit two stitches together

K2tog tbl = Knit two stitches together through back loop.

Inc = Knit in front and back of same stitch

Cast on 3 stitches.

Increasing Half:

Row 1: knit

Row 2: K1, inc, k1. (4 sts)

Row 3: Knit

Row 4: K1, inc in next 2 sts, k1. (6 sts)

Row 5: Knit

Row 6, 7, & 8: K3, yo, knit to end. (7, 8, & 9 sts)

Row 9: K3, yo, k1, purl to last 4 sts, k4. (10 sts)

Repeat Rows 6, 7, 8, & 9 until the cloth is your desired width, ending with Row 9.

Corners: (I use short rows for a neater corner. If you do not wish to make your corners this way, I put the short row corner in brackets, so you can eliminate that portion and just do the row as written.)

Row 1: {K3, turn; sl 1 st, k2, turn; k2, turn; sl 1 st, k1, turn; k2, turn, sl 1 st, k1, turn; k3, turn; sl 1 st, k2, turn}; k2, k2tog tbl, yo, k2tog tbl, knit to end.

Row 2: Repeat Row 1.

Decreasing half:

Row 1: K2, k2tog tbl, yo, k2tog tbl, knit to end.

Row 2: K2, k2tog tbl, yo, k2tog tbl, purl to last 4 sts on needle, k4.

Rows 3 & 4: Repeat Row 1.

Repeat Rows 1, 2, 3, & 4 until you have 7 stitches left on your needle.

Row 1: Knit.

Row 2: K1, k2tog tbl, k1, k2tog, k1

Row 3: Knit

Row 4: Bind off, knitting last 2 sts tog before binding them off.

I had these all rolled in a bundle to give someone and they won't lie flat now, so I folded them in half for the pictures. :D