Christmas projects

We had some fun Christmas projects this year. I hope the people who received them enjoyed them as much as we enjoyed putting them together.

First up was the Super hero aprons. I first saw these on Pinterest and loved them, but couldn't really afford the price tag. I looked up the Etsy shop and saw that she had patterns for sale that looked incredibly similar to the super hero aprons and thought I could make the necessary changes, so I bought the pattern from Modern Vintage Designs and tweaked away. I love how they turned out. Although time consuming, the details definitely made the aprons.

 

(Don't you love my apron model? He can be bribed.)

We also made some other little things. I made boo-boo bags out of wheat, flannel and essential oils. Meg helped me fill them up and choose the fabric for them. Meg got an 18 inch doll for Christmas, to replace the porcelain doll with the shattered face. Along with the doll came clothes from Grandma Cozy, a bed made by dad and a quilt, mattress and pillow made by me. If you want to know how to make the mattress, try here. I also made Fort Kits.  I first saw them about this time last year and knew I had to make them for my nieces and nephews. Find the tutorial and printables at Saltwater-Kids. Adam and I worked on the quilt for Grandma Cleo for some time. It was first featured in this blog post. I am glad to be able to say I finished it all the way and did get it sent off in time.

Last of all Justin worked long and hard on a gift for Adam. It started a couple of months ago when he mentioned that what he really wanted for Christmas was bigger maps. He has just about worn is Atlas out. He's into geography lately. Justin found a discarded train table on a walk one morning and magically transformed it into a command central table complete with storage area, white board, removable plastic top and all the maps the kiddo would need for the foreseeable future. It's really very cool.

I do love doing handmade Christmas gifts. I think it adds something to the spirit of Christmas for me. Maybe it's the service oriented part of me, but I love making gifts with love and thinking about those who will receive them. I hope you all had a great Christmas this year. I know we did.

A Mug Rug

After messing around on Pinterest for far too long the other day, I found myself at a favorite quilting blog I had forgotten about. I used to pop in there all of the time, but somehow I forgot about it over time. Ryan Walsh over at I'm Just A Guy Who Quilts has some fun, easy ideas that are very do-able and turn out amazingly well. He is also great at reviews and I love his occasional post with his boys helping him out. I found this post about a Mug Rug. It's supposed to be like a quilted place mat big enough for a cup of something decadent and a cookie. So cute.
    So last night I took some scraps I had from a previous project and adapted his pattern and made my own Mug Rug. I didn't have big enough scraps for the full Dresden pattern, so I got triangles instead, which I think turned out really cute. It took less than 2 hours, start to finish, which is the perfect amount of sewing time in one block for me. I am going to share the pattern and a quick how-to in sewing class this week. Hopefully someone will come this week. I might just make some more for quick, easy gifts.

I can't pass up a deal like this...

I do love a good deal. Especially on something I know I will use or I really love. While wandering around a store I hardly ever go into anymore the other day I found some of their fabric on the clearance rack. It was Christmas flannel, and it was marked $.86 a yard. Yep, Eighty six cents a yard. Amazing. I have been known to stand in line at JoAnn's Black Friday sale for flannel at $1.75/yd for hours. Really- hours. I took all there was- a little over 5.5 yds for less than $6.00. There's always a use for cute Christmas flannel and I will find a place to stash it. Can't wait to find it again next Christmas sewing season and be happy about a great deal all over again. It's easy to make me smile.

Cute new dress

I have posted before about Dear My Kids patterns and I just finished up another one. This is the reversible tunic pattern, although I didn't make it reversible. I love that her patterns are so easy to modify. I tried it on my little one for size before she went down for her nap and she was very serious when she told me "I need a pocket on this before I will wear it. And it needs a button." She loves, loves buttons. It did call for a button on the back, so she was lucky. I think I will try and whip up a head band to go with it soon. I can't believe she's so particular about her clothes already.

   The pattern comes in tunic and dress length and one of the alterations I did was to add some more length to it. Dad wasn't satisfied with just above her knees the way she plays and pays no attention to her underpants showing or not showing. I also wasn't wild about the elastic in the arms, so I just made straight sleeves, which I like much better. I didn't have enough of the contrasting fabric to make it all reversible, so I just made an inner yoke to make it all lay right and look cute. They are very easy patterns to follow and very easy to change up to meet your needs. Love that.

   Can I say one more thing about my new sewing machine, which I LOVE? I never in a million years knew there were so many presser feet or had a clue what they could do. I put on the overcast foot and found out I could do nearly perfect top stitching. That is amazing. Love that. I am going to try the specialized foot for pin tucking next. I have always wanted to learn how to do that. Stay tuned. While I am adding one more thing... a big thanks to my Grandma Cozette who encouraged me to learn to sew and even bought my first machine a million years ago. She's a hard teacher who will not tolerate "good enough" in her sewing.  I have ripped out as many seams as I have put in, but I have learned so so much from her. Thanks Grandma. Love you.

I tried to make a skirt today too but darling daughter wasn't crazy about it. I guess it needs some modifying. She's just fun to sew for, even when she isn't crazy about my creations.. The big kid isn't crazy about me sewing anything for him to wear. He's so over that he told me. Sigh...

Sew busy

This week has been a long, long week. This poor kid has been sick, sick, sick.

He didn't move off of the couch except to bed from Sunday through Wednesday. He has bronchitis. Finally, today, he is feeling better. Except now he has a mysterious rash.

So, what did we do to keep busy while being house bound this week? Meg played and tried hard to antagonize her brother, which didn't work well. I sewed. In between bouts of coughing, orange juice fetching, temperature taking and everything else, I sewed. I had a couple of project I wanted to finish up.

First was this cute coat I did in a sew-a-long with Christine at From an Igloo. That was wonderful. It took me a while to finish because of the embroidery design. I knew what I wanted, it was just a matter of figuring it out. The pattern is from Dear My Kids. Her patterns are easy to ready and follow and run pretty true to size. Very fun project, finally finished. I picked up the fabric from Michael Levine's loft at the fabulous $2.00 per pound pricing. Also from Christine, I did these easy peasy no pattern knit pants that are under the skirt. I ended up cutting the skirt fabric wrong due to inattention (i.e. sick kids, phone calls and my sister having a baby) but the cut fabric turned out to be the perfect size for these cute leggings. I told Meg they could double as jammy pants. She's happy about that. And I learned a few things about sewing knits along the way.

House on Hill Road has has this Twirly Skirt Pattern up for some time. I have loved it for a while, but just now got around to making up a skirt from it. I love that people are so creative and so willing to share. I can duplicate almost anything, but coming up with it myself is just too much for me. I did make the extra ribbon embellishment to add to it, and I debated on it for a while. Too much? In the end, the wearer loved it, so I guess it was a good call. She just loves to twirl around in it.

Sew, what's next? I do have a brand new niece, Cambrie Linda. I am sure she is in need of something made with love from her Auntie. Then again, there's that mailing thing. I need an assistant, just for post office runs. We will see what happens over the next few days. Hopefully the Good Health Fairy will visit us tonight and everyone will be well and happy tomorrow. I surely hope so. Justin has a final to take.

Sew Cute

Hey look, I actually finished the whole thing, binding and everything. It's even cute, at least I think so. Except the back, of which you will find no pictures here. At least I learned a few things about how to do that better next time. It's my first free motion quilting attempt, and despite and learning curve, I think it turned out adorable. My favorite part is the scrappy border. It really made the quilt. And the best part is: the cat and the kiddo love it. Can't ask for better praise than that.

Bag of Tricks

I am not an overachiever, let's just clear that up before I start. I did a comment the other day while browsing someone's blog about beginning of the year teacher gifts. What? I am lucky to say thank you at the end of the year for all of the drama she put up with. This year is different though. We are moving sometime during the year and I just wanted to say thanks ahead of time. So when I found a tutorial for these really cute pillowcase bags, I had to give them a try. Even a novice like me can whip these out in no time flat. Seriously, 30 minutes or less start to finish. And how cute are these? I put notes on them for the teachers saying "This is for your 'bag of tricks' this year. Have a great first day". Fun, huh?