savoring the details

Meet Lily...

If you love to make soft toys and dolls in particular, then I am sure you are familiar with the fabulous Hillary Lang of Wee Wonderfuls.  I have been a long time visitor to her blog so I was ecstatic when I saw that she was publishing her own book of dolls to make.  I immediately pre-ordered it from Amazon and it arrived last week.  It is fabulous!  Every project inside is cuter than the last and the directions are clear and easy to understand. The patterns are terrific without any enlargement needed...I love it when I don't have to run to the copy store to enlarge a pattern.  

Today is my mom's birthday and wanted to make her a doll.  I chose to create the 'Tag-a-long' doll in the book.  And here she is...Lily.

 

She was so fun to make.  I always love how dolls/soft toys come to life when you add the facial features and a little stuffing.  We visited Grandma today and she loved Lily.  72 isn't too old for a homemade doll, right?  Good thing, my mom doesn't think so!

 

Next on the agenda is a doll for Jackson.  Hillary has a pattern in the book for a boy doll named, Eddie (you can see him on the front cover).  I love that she included boy dolls.  

Pumpkin Bumpkin...

I have been wanting to make some fabric enhanced onesies for Jack for a while now and finally got around to it.  I decided to go with a Halloween theme and made him a pumpkin onesie. 

Now, this is not a tutorial per say, but I have a few photos to show what I did in case you are interested in making some of your own.

First I used Heat n' Bond which is an iron-on adhesive that will allow the pumpkin fabric to adhere to the onesie prior to sewing.  Following the instructions, I just ironed the Heat n' Bond onto the back of the orange fabric and brown corduroy.  Once you have this on the back of your fabric, you can draw your shape etc. onto the fabric and easily cut it out.  In this case, I drew a pumpkin onto cardstock first and got it just the way I liked it and then moved onto my fabric.

Once the pumpkin was cut out, I removed the Heat n' Bond paper backing and ironed it onto the onesie.  With both the pumpkin and stem in place, I'm ready to sew. 

For sewing something like this, I just move real slow so that I can go around corners and tight areas.  Once the sewing was done, I just pulled my thread through and tied the threads in the back. 

And that is that...super easy, but fun and cute for little ones.

Now, here is our model showing off his new shirt.

 

Thank you + handmade teacher gifts

Thank you so much for all your kind words about my 39-week belly shots.  You all made me feel so good.  I apologize that I don't have the time to personally respond to all your kind comments, but I know you understand.  We appear to still be in a holding pattern with this baby.  I had a doctor's appointment today and not much progress is being made.  That's okay with me, though.  I am not really uncomfortable yet and if the babe needs more time in the old belly, that's just fine.  If I don't have the baby this week, I will be having another sonogram next Monday, to check my fluid levels, etc.  I'll keep you posted.

In all the holiday craziness, I realized that I never shared my handmade teacher gifts for the boys' teachers this year.  I really try to make the teachers something useful, yet somewhat personal.  This year, I made covered notebooks with matching tissue holders.  Sean has 1 teacher and 3 aides (it is a job-sharing situation) and Luke has 1 teacher and an aide, so I had a total of 6 sets of gifts to make.  I bought moleskin notebooks and covered them with some of my favorite fabrics.

Here are some images:

The linen tissue holders have matching fabric to the notebook on the bottom.

Inside the fabric pocket, I just added a little personalized note.

 

 

Edited: Here is a link to the tutorial I used to make the covered notebooks.

 

Baby Gifts + Cards

It seems that sweet babies are being born to several of my friends right now, so I have been making some baby gifts and just picked up some more supplies today to make some other gifts.  My super talented friend,Erica, welcomed a beautiful baby girl, Izzy.  I am so in love with that name.  It was so fun for me to make something pink and use some of the gorgeous new fabrics by Amy Butler.  I made this bib.  It is big for a newborn, but once the solid food stage begins, it is so nice to have a big bib for maximum coverage.

I used another Amy Butler fabric to make this blanket and the reverse side is some minky fabric...so soft.

Here is the baby card I made to go along with the gift. 

And a close-up.  I just love those velvet brads from Making Memories.

I also had to make some thank you cards for Sean's birthday party.  Whenever I have to make multiple cards, I try to come up with a simple design that I can replicate quickly. Here is the entire batch.

And here is the card.

Have a great day!

A fun project...

I found this sweet project for the Kidlet Wall Pocket on Jennifer's fabulous blog a while back and just got around to making one for Luke this weekend.

It is a great little bag for little hands to store things in and/or use to clean up books and toys. It then fits perfectly on a doorknob or hook in his or her bedroom.

Luke loves his and has been using it to carry books and his stuffed dog love, Rusty. 

Of course, I have to be a fair momma and make one for Sean.  I have the fabric picked out and I am hoping to work on it today. I am going to try making his with denim rather than linen.  Let me know if you try your hand at making one of these.

A little crafting...

Our weekends seem to be so busy lately with Sean playing hockey.  I did manage to squeeze in a few crafts, though. 

For some reason, I love to make mini cards.  This is a simple set of cards I made using fabric and a little sewing.

There are five in the set, but it was difficult to get all of them in a single shot, so here is a photo with three of them.

 

I also have been wanting to make fabric bookmarks.  I gave it a whirl this weekend. I am still tweaking the size and the embellishments, but I like the look of the linen with a little patchwork.

Sewing again...

I still cannot believe that I haven't sewn anything since Christmas.  I'm not sure where the last month and a half have gone, but time has flown by.

Before Christmas, I found this wonderful tutorial for covering a mini notebook and knew instantly that this was what I wanted to make for the girls in my bookclub.  Each year, I try to give them a handcrafted gift.  Due to scheduling of our meetings and sicknesses, I only just now completed making them their gifts to give to them when I see them this week.  Perhaps I will also give them some Easter candies to really throw them off!

So here is one of the mini notebooks I made.

This is such an easy project and the tutorial is fantastic.  It makes such a nice little gift and what woman isn't always looking for a piece of paper to write on in her purse?  I know I do it all the time.

Here is a photo of the notebooks stacked up with gift tags ready to be delivered.

Ahhh...it feels so good to be sewing again. 

After photo + bibs

I have had a few requests for 'after' photos from Luke's first haircut.  The reason I didn't include one in that last post, is because I honestly didn't think he looked any different in the 'after' photo.  HA!  The reason for that is I gave him a bath right before we left to get his haircut, so his hair was soft and manageable to start; normally, it is 'out of control' and always in his eyes.  But without further ado, here it is:

I have been making some bibs lately...a few to give as gifts and a few for Luke.  Now, I know what sewers mean when they say it is just as easy to cut two of something as it is one.  I figured as long as I was cutting the fabric and threading the machine for one bib, I may as well do it for two.

Here they are:

I adore this Alexander Henry fabric.  It is so fun and the colors are so vibrant!

Here is my reluctant model not really willing to show off his new bib:

I used another Alexander Henry fabric for this camouflage bib.

And here it is doing what it does best...protecting clothing from mac and cheese (Luke's favorite lunch!).

And lastly, this bib made from some fun boyish fabric!

 

Been sewing...

I never seem to carry a true diaper bag anymore...I have a few tote bags in the car that have a boatload of toys and snacks in them, so I decided it was time to make myself a little bag to house a few diapers and wipes so that I'm always prepared...just in case.

Here it is:

I love the flowers on this gorgeous fabric by the fabulous, Anna Marie Horner.  The fabric just makes me happy looking at it.  It is big enough to hold two diapers and a package of Target travel wipes.

   

I also made myself a tote bag thanks to a wonderful tutorial sent to me by the lovely, Charlene and many questions answered via email by the amazingly talented, Lisa.  I took it to a meeting I had to go to last night...it felt so nice to actually use something I had made.

Originally, the above photo was going to be the inside/lining, but after I had completed the bag, I found that I really love the Amy Butler polka dots, so the photo below is now the lining.

Thank you again, Lisa, for all your help.  I couldn't have done it without you!