First ever baby dress

 Look at Baby Cuteness in the dress I sewed for her!

Including the most perfect vintage buttons found in my stash from the People Give Me Stuff bounty!  Check out the personalized stitched initial inside.

Another home squirrel

Had a home squirrel onesie hiding in the breeder section of my gift closet and since Carny's gestating child is to be a feminine child, I stitched on some tiny seed pearls because what's funnier than a squirrel sporting a pearl necklace?

Recycled!

Ernest and Eileen had another baby!

So, how surprised was I to receive a photo from Eileen with New Baby Cuteness in her older brother's recycled fleur-de-lis onesie I made 2 years ago!

As we say in Louisiana when we see something cute ~~ shaaaaaa!

Flannel burp cloths

Made a stack of flannel burp cloths for my breeder friend and embellished with owl appliques and stitched initials.
Here baby, puke and spit up on my hand wrought work.

Baby pants!

Watched "The Baby Show" on Martha Stewart's television show and Heather Ross demonstrated how to sew baby bloomers from her Weekend Sewing book which I just happened to own. Woo Hoo!



Will totally make more but next time, I'll sew French seams instead of the prescribed pinked seams. The elastic thread in the bobbin trick was super easy. And of course, I couldn't leave well enough alone so I added a tattoo inspired bird on the back. It's almost like baby's very first tramp stamp!

Baby stuff

A gal in my Girl's Night Out group had a baby last week and we showered her with gifts at dinner the week before.

While I'm no fan of babies, I actually like making baby gifts. Go figure.

Her first child was to be a male child so off to fabric store in search of masculine fabrics to sew a stack of reversible burp cloths. (No more sewing diapers for me. The diaper fabric slips and slides to make for a jumbled sewn mess.)

Oh Fuh Gawd. Have you shopped for baby fabric? It is the worst. Little cars, little trucks, and girly fabrics galore. Oh, and John Deere shit. Tractor brand for a new born baby? Get this, there's even John Deere motifs in pink. Sure, pink tractors are great for future dykes and farmer chicks but I'm not digging the lame-o bambino themed prints. Wonder if style and good taste disappear with gestation?

ANYwho . . . .so not impressed with the fabric choices.

Found a flannel plaid (you KNOW I loves me some plaid) in the apparel fabric section and combined it with a flannel polka dot print. Boy-like but not hokey.


Used a cloth diaper as a cutting guide, sewed the coordinating flannel prints face to face around 3 sides, turned inside out and then top stitched around all 4 sides plus two lines to emulate (simulate?) a true diaper. It gives a bit of body to the burp cloths plus "quilts" the fabric so it lies flat.


The onesie is a quick reverse applique with T-shirt knit scrap. So dang easy. Click HERE to see my tutorial.


The gift wrap was my favorite part. Most baby gifts from me are in the "special delivery" theme. Brown paper packages tied with string, a vintage diaper pin embellished with a blue scrapbook flower sticker plus a rubber stamped paper package tag. The stack of burp cloths and onesie were folded and placed inside brown paper and SEWN closed with a zigzag stitch. Edges were trimmed with pinking shears.



Fast, simple and (as Elizabeth would say) so stinkin' cute.

Birthday T-shirt

Embellished a couple T-shirts for Baby Cutie's first birthday. Eileen and Ernest are hosting a crawfish boil/birthday party for him so motif shirts were in order. Please to enjoy.

Crawfish/lobster motif drawn onto back of WonderUnder paperbacked fusible web. Image trimmed. Ironed to shirt. Appliqued with fast and sloppy stitching. After laundering, the orange knit fabric will curl up and look even more distressed (in a good way).

Numeral drawn onto shirt with water erasable pen. Outline stitched and filled in with little seed stitches. Super fast and super easy. Just like your ma.

Special Delivery Package

Brown paper packages tied up with string

Baby gift wrapped in brown kraft paper,

stapled and tied with waxed twine.

(Next time, I'll sew it closed instead of stapling.)

Rubber stamped my own "postage" stamps.

Added special delivery tag with an old school diaper pin.

Burp cloth baby gift

Needed a quick baby gift so figured I would just back a diaper cloth with one piece of fabric instead of just the edge, as I've done previously. Pulled the fabric out of the stash and nary a one was large enough. Hellfire! Pieced coordinating fabrics and sewed to diaper. Truth is, I like mixing, matching and piecing fabrics. Unable to stop myself, I added decorative top stitching and accent stitches.

However, sewing on diapers is bitch. The fabric is squirrely, moving this way and that. After turning inside out, I tried top stitching on one and resorted to hand stitching on the other.

(Anyone have a recommendation for tightly woven diapers that are less like gauze? These are Gerber pre-fold.)

What's up, Home Squirrel?

Y'know how your family or friends have their own special language and shorthand? They do, I tell ya! Well, amongst my and sister's female friends, we used to call each other "home squirrels" instead of "home girls" so when baby sister Rikki Tikki Tavi's friend had a baby last week, I opted for a home squirrel embroidered onesie.

The orange knit fabric is cut from an old t-shirt of mine. Sulky transfer pen used for tracing image and ironed on to fabric.

Left squirrel - split stitch. Right squirrel - backstitch.

Both with (securely stitched) bead-y eyes.

The life of one free shirt

Brother-in-law received a freebie shirt for participating in a golf tournament but never wore it so sis Rikki Tikki Tavi gave it to me to add to my thrift store drop-off but I had an idea for it. Remembering a sewing revamp online, I cut it into an easy and casual skirt.
With the remaining fabric, I made a This Mama Makes Stuff baby gown and sent it to Baby Cutie, son of Ernest and Eileen.
Eileen told me that Baby Cutie wore it as a small baby and just today sent me a pic of him (9 months) wearing it as a shirt with jeans.
Hey, exactly what is Cutie sneaking out of that wine 'frig? He's a quick learner, I tell ya!

Baby gift idea

For my sister Rikki Tikki Tavi's first baby shower, Dad and I worked together to make a couple baby clothing wooden hangers with pet heads on top. When hanging, the cat or dog head appears at the neckline.

I printed out a dog head and cat head.

Dad used the paper print outs to trace and cut the wood.

Wood was painted white.

Cat head and dog head decoupaged to wood.

Metal hook installed.

I made a cat head hanger for myself to model my "coming home from the hospital" outfit that my mom saved all these years. My Sammy-head-wearing-my-baby-dress hanger is on display in the laundry room.

Funny thing: each time Rikki would remove the dog hanger from the closet, her Welsh Corgi dog would bark like crazy.
Was the dog scared of her own image or mad that her likeness was sporting boy's clothing?

Baby onesie ideas

Just found a sheet of paper with lots of funny baby onesies ideas that lil' sis Rikki Tikki Tavi and I listed.
Feel free to stitch, stencil or embroider our smart assery.

I'm not a girl

I'm not a boy

I'll eat anything off the floor

I can't read

I'd rather be a monkey

Food in, poop out

I'm the boss of you

They shake me

I have no neck

My parents are breeders

I can ruin a plane trip

Don't talk to me like I'm a baby

Ceiling fans are cool

Hippies stink

Check out my baby onesie creations

Don't you hate it when

babies get stuck in the spider webs?

And yes, here in Louisiana, we have a bigger pest problem with crawfish than spiders.

(Pretty sure I spied this interloper before.)

Neato keen-o

My favorite thing to do is to use items for other than their intended purpose. And I am so impressed with this use of random unrelated needlepoint canvases. I found the image on a French blog Nain de Jardin and can only read every other word but still unable to understand the text. Oh wait, there is a Google translator. Eh, it was more fun when I couldn't read it.

Take a look at the blog to see some adorable baby clothing made with vintage linens and napkins.

Quilting for the hard headed

After completely failing on my first quilt endeavor, no way was I gonna throw away those pieced fabric scraps so sewed them together to make blanket binding and attached it to my semi-quilted blanket. I kinda like it because the color combos make me happy.
Knowing that I would hoard the scraps, it became priority for me to use every last piece. Here are the remaining pieces attached to diaper burp cloths.

Here baby, spit up on the quilted fabric

that took a week to construct and destruct.

Baby gown from recycled shirt

Remember this shirt?

Cut off the sleeves and used the remaining fabric to make a baby gown from a tutorial by This Mama Makes Stuff.

Learning the lessons the wrong way

But having fun anyway.

My great grandmother quilted and so did my mom. And I have always wanted to but just didn't feel ready for the commitment for classes, instruction, and the mess.
When I read the Gee's Bend book, I decided that when I did get around to trying a quilt, I would just wing it and play.

First attempt: a baby blanket

Tried quilt piecing with random scraps and cut those to hell and learned that curves are not for beginners. Decided that all that work would not be for naught so cut and pieced it into binding strips. If ever you gave me a piece of fabric, it is probably here in my very scrappy mixture.

Forget the pieced quilt. A fabric blanket might be better for first attempt. Tried to quilt in triangle type patterns but the fabric was too unwieldy in weight and size so quickly decided that random lines in various thread colors would work. Bored after only color, I stopped quilting.

Last night, I ironed and pinned the super long strip of binding.

Next step: sewing it on the faux quilt.

Am I gonna look for instructions for attaching binding to a quilt? Nope.

Diaper burp cloth experiment

Got on a roll last night in the SkitzoLeezraStudio and stitched a diaper burp cloth with my endless supply of blue and white polka dot fabric. It looked good but I thought it would look better with a little personalization.

Because I am so incredibly blessed with craft supplies of every ilk, out came the letter stencils and disappearing ink pen.

Easy machine sewing on the line and looka, a nice quilted and puffy "C"!

(Next time I will stitch in a brighter contrasting thread.)

Whatchathink?

3 bears 3 burp cloths

And my first attempt at crayon tinting! I perused the tutorial offered at Pimp Stitch and made some lazy girl shortcuts, below.
The embroidery Pattern glommed from doe-c-doe's site. She graciously shares embroidery designs and while I am no fan of "cutesy", the three bears were perfect for a 3 pack of baby burp cloths. doe-c-doe's illustration had all 3 bears in one illustration but I split up the kvetching family by downloading the graphic, printing 3 copies, trimming each bear individually, tracing with an iron-on transfer pen and ironing 1 bear each on 3 burp cloths. Note: I did not use the mirror image option on my printer but should if image is directional.

Skipping 2 -3 steps in the crayon tinting process, I simply filled crayon color after the transfer was ironed. Then I placed a clean sheet of paper over the tinted graphic and ironed again to set color.

Next was stitching. With a little touch of femininity for Mama Bear.

After completing the first bear,

I realized the stitching could be hidden in the many layers of the diaper with only knots on back. My next lesson to learn is how to use waste knots.

(I still maintain burp cloths were wrongly named.)