Baby Tutorials {for my boy}

First of all, I made this blanket in about 5 minutes last week in my sewing class.

If I had a serger, I would make blankets for every single baby in the world.

Here are some other things on my list

more baby pants, because I don't think it's ever going to really be Spring here

Can you believe after all the baby shoes I've made, my guy has zero.

This tutorial has served me so well over the years.

I'm really liking the shape of these burp cloths, makes the most sense of what I've seen so far.

Freezer paper stencils have been on my list for a while. How adorable is the guitar tutorial?

Dana is amazing and there are two things I want to make from her arsenal of tutorials.

the 90 minute shirt

and this recycled sweater vest

Also, he has a large shelf in his nursery, so I though some of these soft boxes would be nice

And for Easter, I think he might need a manly version of one of these.

39.5 weeks. Can you believe it?

This is before the anesthesia prom I told you about last weekend.

Dancing did not induce labor.

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The Nursery: Chapter 6 {DIY art}

Last week I tackled some DIY art I had planned for the baby's nursery.  My very, very talented and creative friend Laura was the originator of this DIY. She posted pics of her baby's nursery on Facebook several months ago and I immediately emailed her to see if I could commission her to paint me the same painting she had hanging over her changing table. Laura is beyond a crafter like myself, she is an artist. One time after Mr. Sabbe and I had visited with she and her husband at their house, Mr. Sabbe made the comment "I think she might be better at this design on a budget stuff than you are." We almost divorced that day:)

When I found out that Laura's art was not a painting, but a manipulation of free online clip art paired with a bottle of decoupage, I decided I would give it a go. First I purchased a 24x36 canvas at our local art store for $8. Second, because I knew that the orange that I was trying to pull from in my rug would not come in an acrylic tube, and I am not a professional paint mixer, I matched the orange in the rug with a color in a paint deck. Then I took it to Home Depot and had them make one of the $3 sample paint jars in that color. Then I painted the canvas.

For the tricycle I took the same image Laura used into Illustrator and ran the live trace tool. Then I flipped it because I wanted my tricycle facing the opposite way on the canvas. I took the image to Kinkos and had them run a 20x30 black and white plot for around $3.50. HERE is the image if you are interested in giving this DIY a try.

I cut out the tricycle, covered the back in decoupage, and laid it on my dry canvas. Then I painted all around the edges of the image with more decoupage. You have to be pretty aggressive about smoothing out all of the bubbles during this stage. And because I wanted the tricycle to look as integrated as possible on the canvas, and the fact that decoupauge dries a little shiny, I then covered the entire canvas with a coat of gloss varnish (which I already had). And whaalaaa, DIY nursery art, for less than $20.

 See how well it goes with his rug.

I really like it. Our little guy does not have a window in his nursery, so I really wanted to do something bright. For a little girl I thought it would be cute to use the same image and have colorful ribbons, that looked like streamers, coming off the handle bars. Let me know if you give it a try!

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A Valentines Party + A Story

A couple of years ago Mr. Sabbe and I had the pleasure of hosting a Valentines Day couples shower at our house in Memphis. It was so much fun to have an adult Valentines Day party with all of our best friends.

bleeding heart cherry pie tutorial

 I had purchased a heart shaped cookie cutter that year. As you can see, I used it liberally.

And if I could have boxed up this crew and moved them with me to Boston I would have. I think between the 5 of us we threw about 2 dozen showers while we were in Memphis. I miss these people.

Last year I made mustache pops.

Now for the story:

Being the crafter that I am, I so wish I could show ya'll what I made Mr. Sabbe for our first Valentines Day. We still have it somewhere in storage. We had been dating 1 whole month when Valentines Day rolled around. Mind you, I already knew I was probably going to marry him. I was a sophomore in college and he was a junior. So to show my affection, I drive myself to Joann's and buy a round hat box and a jar of decoupage. Then I proceed to go home and cut out every pink and red image from every fashion magazine my roommate and I had in our dorm room. I also cut out words like "romance" "like" "date"...etc {bleeh, I know} and glued them all over the box. Then about an hour before he picks me up I attempt to bake cookies in our scary sorority dorm kitchen. I burn them to a crisp. I pick out the ok ones, put them inside the cardboard box {still hot} and head on down for my date. It was actually a group date. Two of my friends were dating Mr. Sabbe's friends at the time, so they got together to cook dinner for us. And here I come rolling in with my huge decoupaged love box, smelling like burnt cookies. And in front of all of his friends I present him with the all time greatest cheesy gift and the sweet boy receives it with pride. And that's when I knew I was definitely going to marry him. I found the box in his closet 6 months later, cookies still inside.

Remind me later to tell you about the time I made him a hand painted, collage, quote mirror for his 21st birthday. I mean, what 21 year old doesn't want a puff painted mirror with famous quotes?? What is wrong with me?!

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Tutorials: For Her Edition

I definitely have not been sewing as much this summer as I was last, but I am still an avid reader of many wonderful craft blogs. So I thought I would share with you some of the great tutorials floating around the blogesphere these days. Last year I posted my favorite baby crafts. This list is for us.

Tops

Ruffle Tank Top

Bow Halter Top

Ruffle Neck Tee

Rose Petal Tee

Skirts/Dresses

Summer Skirt

20 Minute Skirt

Ruffle Skirt

Two Hour Tunic

Beach Cover Up

Accessories

Zipper Rosettes (for headbands)

Rosette Headbands

Anthro Inspired Necklace

Fabric Necklace

Bags

Yoga Bag

Messenger Bag

Reversible Bag

Shoulder Bag

And here are some of the aprons my class made last week. This group is very talented and so much fun!

All of these aprons are from first time sewers.

Amazing right!? 

If you are in the Boston area and would like to learn how to sew, sign up for my next class at the BCAE.

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Mustache Art Tutorial + WonderUnder

Some of you asked for a little how to with the WonderUnder. It actually comes with some really great directions on the package, but just to get you to go out and buy some, I am going to show you some kitschy art I made this afternoon. Have I mentioned...ever...my fascination...with the mustache come back? Does this paparazzi style photo I snapped of this stranger clue you in? I don't know why, I love the mustache. It makes me laugh every time, and Mr. Sabbe and I were thinking we needed some sort of mustache related art in our apartment.

So I started with four of these hoops. Very cheap, $1 a piece.

I cut a piece of WonderUnder and ironed it to a solid fabric. Then I traced a mustache on the paper and cut it out.

  

If you rip the paper it makes it easy to pull off the fabric. The fabric will now have a sticky "iron on" backing.

After you have ironed it to your main fabric, do a zig zag or straight stitch around the applique. Zig zag is better for making sure it never frays, but straight stitch will work and make sure it never falls off in the laundry. I didn't stitch my mustaches, because I will never wash them.

  

They do make us laugh. What is your favorite 'stache style? I don't think I'll keep them up forever. Luckily these little hoops lend themselves nicely to rotating art.

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Tutorial: Contact Paper Chevron Wall

Like many city dwellers, we live in an apartment where we are not allowed to paint. At first, I was a little thrown off about what I could do to make the apartment unique and fun without painting. During that same time I had been searching high and low (unsuccessfully) for a navy blue chevron fabric to use for pillows on my sofa. This past fall I was on a big chevron kick. Then the idea came to me... I'll do a chevron on the wall with contact paper! The entire process was very easy, 1 hour start to finish.

Materials:

1 roll of contact paper

ruler

measuring tape

scissors

pencil

painters tape

exacto blade

optional: architectural triangle

Steps:

1. Measure the width of your wall.

2. Roll out contact paper to that length, add 2 inches.

3. Contact paper is gridded on the back, so if even if you do not have a triangle, you can figure it out. The triangle made it VERY easy. I aligned it with the bottom of the paper and drew one triangle. Then I took my quilting ruler (you could use a regular ruler) and drew a parallel triangle.

4. Cut out your first chevron and tape, centered, on your wall. Leave the extra inch in the crack of the wall on each side.

 5. To apply to the wall, peel one triangle at a time, ripping the paper off of the backside and smoothing to wall. This is the part that takes a little patience. Once you get it smooth, take your exacto blade, score both ends in the corner, and peel off excess contact paper.

6. Once you get your first one on the wall, measure from the bottom points to where you would like your next row to start. Measure every point and mark with a pencil. This is how you will align your next row.

7. Do the same for the rest of the wall.

 Two people would have made this project easier.

UPDATE: I should have mentioned that in both houses I have tried this in (I did birds in my last house), the walls are lath and plaster, not drywall. Some people have commented that this does not do so well on drywall, so please proceed with caution!! The birds were up for two years and peeled off no problem when we sold the house.

Also, BIG thanks to Design*Sponge for featuring this tutorial! That made my day.

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Tutorial: Welly Warmers

Sorry everyone! Google+ deleted all of my photos several months ago and I am still working on getting them back. This was a tutorial that I only had saved on my blog:( I will post and update when I get it restored.

 pattern

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

UPDATE: These amazing craft blogs featured my tutorial on their site and I just wanted to say a BIG thanks! If you are a crafter, these are definite daily reads.

 

 

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Tutorials: Baby Edition

I have been quite busy this week, working on my portfolio and teaching vacation bible school. On top of that I finally received Eclipse in the mail, after leaving it on the train {errrr, three weeks ago} and re-ordering it on Amazon. So I'm probably going to be finishing that up in the next day or so. And Friday I'm headed back to the Big Apple! So much excitement I don't even care that it's raining....again.

But I couldn't leave you with no crafts for a whole week. Some of you had asked for tutorials for the onesie crafts. Know that hardly anything I've made is a completely original idea. I don't use a ton of tutorials {except the cloth baby shoe one, it rocks} But usually after I've made something {I think is original} I'll browse around the web and almost always find something just like it {or better} and often with a tutorial. So here are some of my favorite baby tutorials. I may add more as they come back to me. But this should keep you busy for a while.

Onesie Applique

Ruffle Butt Onesie

Cloth Baby Shoes

Bity Booties

Swaddling Blanket

Fabric Crib Toy Bag

Birdie Mobile

Soft Baby Cube

Ribbon Teething Ring

Baby Legs

Tag Blanket

Burp Cloth Tutorial I

Burp Cloth Tutorial II

Hooded Bath Towel

Girl's Pillowcase Dress

Messenger Style Diaper Bag

The Mother of All Diaper Bags

Cloth Diaper

Baby Bloomers

Baby Bibs

Diaper Changing Pad

Travel Wipe Case

Hooter Hider

Seat Belt Cover

Cloth Baby Rings

Lucy Goose

Ruby Doll

Purl Frogs

I don't see one with a ruffle skirt attached to the onesie, so you can stop by next week and I'll post a tutorial for that one. Maybe I have an original craft {but I doubt it}. Happy sewing!

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Tuxedo Ruffle T-Shirt {a tutorial}

Rain or Shine...Tuesdays are for crafting.

The fabric will ravel a little bit in the wash, which I think will give it a neat look {we'll see}

The only thing I would do differently next time is start the ruffle directly at the top of the neckline (not leaving the banding exposed) I think that would look better

and p.s. it's still raining

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