Sew Crazy

Apparently I've gone on a little bit of a sewing craze since finding out I was preggo. I was going through drawers in the dresser I'm going to use for baby girl the other day and decided I'd rearrange things a bit. So naturally I pulled out all the stuff I've made. I really didn't realize I'd done so much already. =P

Here's {almost} all of what I've made:

Since you can't really see all of it {because holy wow at all the pink!}, I'll break it down for you. Here, we have four rectangle burp cloths. All but one are pink on the front...and all of them have pink flannel on the back. =P

4 more burp cloths. 2 rounded and 2 square-ish. The square-ish ones were a preggo brain accident. The rounded ones match a quilt I made.

Rag quilt and super cute and girly blanket:

Apparently I did a better job on the pink blanket than I thought, because it's the perfect size for a crib!

 {Side one}

{Side two}

Here's a little sneak peek of the quilt I'm currently working on. All I have left to do is bind it, but I have no desire to do so at the moment. That's mostly because it'll require me to be in the floor pinning it together. Big preggo on the floor, pinning fabric....not really a good combo.

Last, but not least, I made a diaper clutch!! I mostly followed this tutorial, if you're interested. I goofed a little on the one I made, but it turned out okay I guess.

If nothing else, at least the fabric is really cute!! And, hey, it will get used. So I guess it's not a total loss. ;-) I'm sure I'll think of a few more projects to do before she gets here, but I think I've done all the sewing I'll need to for her for right now. I think. 

That said, I just got told that they increased Joe's WLC by one week...so I get to spend 21 days a month before my due date by myself ,which could mean more projects to keep me busy. Start praying hard that baby girl won't decide to show up too early. He'll be here on the island, but I don't know what will happen if I go into labor while he's in the field... And I really don't even want to think about it. 

Oh and it looks as if he won't be able to go to at least one of the two child birthing classes I have scheduled... :-/ I have to have a partner to go with me too... Anyone want to go?!

Cute, Cheap Onesies

A while back, someone on Twitter asked me for a tutorial for the onesies I've made decorated using my Silhouette. I did this soon after, but kept forgetting to post it. =P Since I'm all busy with family, I thought this would be a great time to fill up the silence on my blog with a little tutorial!

First, it'd probably be a good idea to get all your materials together. =) These include:

• Silhouette
• Heat transfer material
• Onesie
• Iron
• Cloth {a washcloth or scrap of fabric will do}
• Scissors
• Hook tool {especially if you have a tricky design}

The next thing you'll want to do is pick out your design. {duh}

Make sure you get it sized right and then you MUST flip {or mirror} the image. Right click on the image and click "flip horizontally." DO NOT forget to do this!! It's very important.

I set a bad example here, but to avoid wasting your heat transfer, you should move the image closer to the left. Then you want to "Send to Silhouette."

Then you want to make sure you have your settings correct, so click "Change Settings."

Change settings to Heat Transfer material:

Once you've done that, you're ready to "send to Silhouette" and "cut page." Provided you've loaded your choice of heat transfer first! Do this with the plastic side DOWN. {Side note, I am using what was in the heat transfer kit, so yours may or may not look different.}

Once it's been cut out, get your scissors and cut out the design. Then you're ready to peel off the excess material. This is also where you'll need your hook tool, if your design is intricate like mine.

Once you're done with that, admire the pretty work your Silhouette has graciously done for you. ;-)

Now you're ready to put the design on your onesie! Get out your onesie, iron and cloth. Along with your design, of course.

Place the design exactly where you want it to be, plastic side up.

Place the cloth on top of the design and iron for 45 - 60 seconds. {Sometimes mine even takes a bit longer. Just keep ironing until the design is completely stuck.}

Once you're done with that, peel the plastic off very gently, step back and admire your little creation.

Cuteness! If you've got all the materials, this is easy and quick to do. Good for baby shower, Christmas, or even birthday gifts. Or you can just make some for the little cutie in your life. You're welcome! =)

A Lot Like Christmas

Cue: "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas - Everywhere we go..."

Well, it definitely doesn't look much like Christmas in the Land of Aloha, but it is starting to look like Christmas in my house! Saturday morning, we dug the tree and decorations out of our little storage closet and got to work. With two people working to decorate it didn't really take much time at all. I'm pretty sure it took me most of the day last year. Yay for Joe being home!

Since we still haven't gotten rid of the other couch {grrr}, we opted for what turned into a Christmas corner this year. It wasn't the original plan, but it turned out nice and I think I like it a bit better than what we did last year. Besides, it's not like I have a window to put the pretty tree in front of for everyone to see when they drive by. {One day!}

This year, I chose to make us some new stockings. The ones we had before were, well, not that great. We bought some decorate-able stockings from good 'ole WalMart the first year we were married. They were cute at the time, but 3 years and some DIY lessons later I was beyond ready to trash them. So what's a crafty girl to do? Order fabric from Etsy, of course! =) I got my fabric in the day after Thanksgiving and have been working on them all week. I finally finished them this afternoon.

In case you want to make your own, I traced one of our old stockings and then used this tutorial. I had found another one, but 1) Melissa suggested this one first and 2) I ended up liking it better. I think they turned out great! I was really probably a little too shocked at how easy they were to make. The only hard part about making them was cutting out the fabric, and that was only hard because it was time consuming. And, yeah, I made one for all three of us. =) Joe's is the one on the left, mine is in the middle, and Charlotte's is the last one. I love, love, love them! I really couldn't resist making one for our baby girl. Plus, I'm sure I'll be thanking myself next year when she's 8 months old and crawling all over the house.

Stockings were hung by the...kitchen? ;-)

Oh, what I'd give for a fireplace.

A few weeks ago, I decided that I'd put some vinyl on our kitchen window to make things a bit more Christmasy upon entering our house. I had a bit of trouble with my Silhouette this afternoon {thanks to the trusty preggo brain!}, but I finally got it to spit out "Merry Christmas."

I'm planning on cutting out some silver snowflakes too. I was just too tired to deal with it by the time these were done. I'd already had a busy day and the last thing I wanted to do was fuss with my Silhouette some more. Also, this window opens from left to right. So when the window is open "Merry" will be above "Christmas." I'm hoping to be able to place the snowflakes so that they don't get all jumbled up when the window is open too. We'll see!

We also put a few Christmas lights around the other window near the door. This is one of the windows in what will soon be Miss Charlotte's room. I'd like to put lights up around the rest of the house {you know, that's ours since we live in a quadriplex}, but I don't know if that's going to happen. 

All that said, I'm loving our Christmas decorations! Have you started decorating yet? Or did you get to Christmas before Thanksgiving? ;-)

P.S. Don't forget to enter the MyMemories Digital Scrapbooking Software giveaway! It ends December 7th.

Creations for Baby

Believe it or not, I've actually been doing a fair amount of crafting lately. I'm just glad that I finally feel like doing something again! I knew I felt awful during the first trimester, but I don't think I truly realized the effect it was having on my life. Thankfully that's over and I feel like being productive again!

A long, long time ago {okay, like a year} I bought some super cute fabric for a baby quilt. Joe was deployed, I was learning to sew...and I was a little bored. Not to mention I had baby fever. ;-) So, I ordered the fabric, had it sent to Melissa so she could be sweet and cut it for me {again, learning to sew}, she sent it to me and I laid it all out. Then it sat in a drawer...

Until I found out I was preggo! I suddenly had the urge to start on it. Imagine that. I started working on it again in September, I think, and I finally finished it this weekend! Yay me! It's a rag quilt similar to the ones I made for my mom and then for my nephew, Harry.

A little over halfway done...

All 6 rows sewn together!

The final product!!!

Baby Girl now has her first quilt. =) I know it's not super girly, but I still love it. And it'll definitely still go with the fabric for her bedding. Well, mostly anyway. 

A couple nights ago, I was going through a drawer and found some extra fabric I'd forgotten about. I actually bought it to do my very first project with, but that never worked out. It was supposed to be a flannel blanket for a baby shower gift. I cut it out, pinned it together and everything... And it's been sitting in that drawer since we moved in over a year ago. Whoops... 

Since baby is a girl, I figured I'd go ahead and make it for her/me. ;-) Unfortunately, my super-novice self did a horrible job cutting the fabric out so it was a little crooked. And my preggo self had no desire to correct that either. I sewed it all together and only ended up having one issue that was easily solved. It took maybe a half hour to do, and I think it turned out well. What do you think?

Side 1: super cute polka dots. Squee!

Side 2: hot pink plaid with lady bugs. =)

It makes my heart happy.

Now little miss Charlotte has 2 blankies and I am feeling like a pretty accomplished momma. =) I'm still working on a diaper clutch. And I'd like to make a few more burp cloths... Oh and I need to make another blanket with some minky fabric. I'll tell you the story behind that one later.

Maybe I'll get to work on those after I host Thanksgiving. Oh yes, it's going to be interesting for sure! Stay tuned! 

Friday Project

Joe had today off, but he chose to spend the day at the range, shooting with his battle buddies. {I won't even mention that he's going to be at the military range on Monday.} That left me plenty of time on my hands today. So after some urging from Melissa, I started on a craft for my kitchen.

You see, I bought some coffee themed fabric almost a year ago and I'm pretty sure I've only used it once. Sad, isn't it? Although what I made with it was pretty darn cute:

Melissa and I got to talking about what I should make and she mentioned a dish drying mat. I don't do the dishes much anymore {thank goodness!}, but my pots and pans aren't dishwasher safe. We have a small drying rack in the opposite side of the sink, but that gets crowded sometimes. Plus, Melissa also mentioned that once Baby gets here I'm likely to have pump parts and bottles that need to be hand washed. Dish drying mat it was!

So I ironed my fabric, cut up and old {and really ugly} towel, and then cut my fabric. I made mine 18x14, but I almost wish I would have made it bigger. I guess we'll just have to see how it goes. It's really simple to make, but if you want a tutorial this is a pretty good one I found via trusty Google. ;-) In the tutorial she uses one piece of fabric and a towel, but I used two pieces of fabric and sandwiched the towel in between the two. This is how mine turned out:

Front (or top...)

Back

{Just pretend you don't see my crooked stitching.}

Oooooh.... Aaaaaah.... ;-)

I think it turned out pretty well, if I do say so myself! I've thought about going back and tacking it all together (think big X) but I can't decide. Anyway, I like. =)

Then Melissa suggested I make one for my SIL. Anna told me recently that she's decorating the kitchen in her new house around the potholders I made for her for her birthday.

Well, I just happen to have some scraps of that fabric leftover! So I made her a dish drying mat today too. =)

Front

Back

For hers, I did just as the tutorial I posted above did. I thought I'd have enough to do one like mine, but I didn't. Hers is simpler, and a little less bulky than mine but I think it'll do the trick just fine! 

I think it'd also be cute to take a bunch of scraps and do a patchwork one. I'd do that, but none of my scraps go with my kitchen and I'd kind of like things to match. So I guess I'm just going to have to figure something else out for them!

Anyways, these are really easy to make. If you're looking for a good project or just find that you need one, definitely go make one!

Craftiness Prevails!

You may {or may not} remember one of the dresses that I bought with my birthday moneys last week. One of them was ever so slightly...revealing. I loved the color and the style, but just couldn't deal with sooo much cleavage just being out there. I'm not the modesty nazi or anything but - call me crazy - I just don't want the entire world seeing all my cleavage. Some things are better left covered up! Anywho. I decided {with help from my hubby} to alter the dress and make it more modest. Today, I tackled that challenge. =)

Rarely do I buy clothes intending to alter them, but I liked this one so much... Plus, it was birthday money. That's what it's for! Well, sort of. So, here is the shot of the dress in its original state.

You probably can't tell that there's a really deep V...but there is! I promise you! So, the task was to cut a small piece of fabric and sew it into the lining of the chest portion of the dress. The hardest part about doing it was that I wanted to make sure not to sew it into the outside of the fabric. That would mean that my stitching would show... As a mostly novice seamstress {who am I kidding? I'm definitely a novice.} my sewing is rarely straight. Not to mention I hadn't really prepared for this project and I didn't have matching thread. I had "well this is mostly the same color" thread. =P


I cut out two pieces of fabric and sewed them right sides together, leaving a little bit open to turn right side out. I sewed up the whole and then attached it to the dress. Luckily, there is elastic right where I needed to attach the bottom part of the "modesty piece." I sewed that part with the machine and did the rest by hand. Yes, by hand. ::pats self on back:: I'm a little proud of myself for that. If you'd like to know how I did it, I used this tutorial for a blind stitch. Worked like a charm! See for yourself. =)

Looks pretty good on the hanger!

And it looks pretty good on the bod too!

{Please excuse my lack of makeup and hairstyle.}

So take that, silly immodest designers!! =P Personally, I think I improved the look of this dress. And, come on, who needs to go around town with their goodies showing? I don't! I also don't need a wardrobe malfunction!! I'd rather be safe than sorry, thank you very much.

Needless to say, I feel pretty good about my crafty side today. Have you altered clothes to make them look/fit better? Or am I the only one who buys things at full price and makes them into something they love even more?

P.S. Stay tuned for a giveaway! =)

Operation: Pretty House {Continues}

Homecoming is getting closer by the day...although I still have no real idea of when exactly he'll be home. There are rumors of early homecoming and late {like past the year mark} homecoming, but I'm still focusing on the original idea we have which makes the Donut look like this:

SO. This translates into a lot of things needing to be done around the house. I really planned to get a lot more done this weekend, but...well... =) I think this whole homecoming thing plus not knowing exactly what's going on is really making me overwhelmed. Being overwhelmed doesn't really lend to getting much accomplished!!!

Friday, I ran errands with Annie. We went to Ross first, where I just planned on getting some decorative bowls to use for jewelry...and I ended up getting bowls plus a dress. =P I got a few necessities from Wally World {aka WalMart} and then Annie and I had lunch at a local place called Maui Mike's! She has raved about it for forever, so I suppose it was about time I tried it. Haha! And, of course, I liked it. =) After we hit a shoe store and made our haircut appointments for Wednesday, I came home and got rid of my old jewelry box! {And by that I mean I shoved it in the top of our closet. =P}

Before...

The crazy mess that was my jewelry box...

And after!! =)

Up close. 

All cleaned up and organized!!

{Turns out I did need 3 bowls, Annie. =)}

I never thought of using bowls to hold my jewelry until I saw it on a blog somewhere. And let me tell you, I am loving it! I don't have a ton of jewelry, but it makes it much easier to find what I want...plus, it just looks really cute. =)

Yesterday, I spent a good chunk of the day on the couch watching Harry Potter movies and Say Yes to the Dress. =P Around 1300ish I decided I might actually need to accomplish something since my husband is coming home soon. So I got off my comfy couch and decided I would finish making pillow cases for the pillows on the couch. After I finished those, I decided to make coasters for the living room.

The pillows...plus Jasper. =P

Don't worry about the mismatched pillows and couch.

That'll be fixed soon. ;-)

I LOVE the way these turned out!! I made envelope pillow cases/covers for the pillows I was already using for the couch. {I used this tutorial if you're interested. It's super easy.} I bought 2 yards of that fabric while I was home and it's good thing. I have some scraps left over...but that's about it. 

Of course, I used the scraps of the polka dot fabric to make the coasters. Along with some flag fabric Melissa gave me back in December. I knew I'd find a use for it!!! I still have some left over of each... I'm thinking of making 2 more coasters {I made 4 if you couldn't tell} and then a little basket to hold them. And I'm sure I can find something to do with the rest of the left overs. 

Aaand that's all I've done this weekend!! 2 pillow cases, 4 coasters, 3 bowls for jewelry...and a bad batch of chocolate chip cookies. =P I did have some girlie time with Annie this evening though. She came over for pizza and Army Wives tonight. And then we ended up moving those ugly tough boxes out into the garage storage closet. That's something, I suppose. =) Tomorrow, I'm heading over to Annie's for a sewing party with her and Miranda!! I'm really excited about that. =)

In the next couple of weeks, I've got a lot to do. I'm seriously considering not going back to the museum after this week too... I mean... I really have a lot of things to take care of and going to the museum takes time out of my days. I know I only go for 3 hours 3 days a week, but I never want to do anything when I get home and I don't ever do that much before I go. I guess it really all boils down to laziness...but I'm thinking I might be able to do more if I don't have anywhere to go and have to stare at my house all the time. Haha! 

What do you guys think? Stay super busy and do both? Or take it easy on my brain and just focus on household things until he gets back?