Adorable Applique!

    I spent this past rainy weekend sewing another project.  I decided to try my hand at some applique.   I found a great link on the Cottage Momma's blog - The Cottage Home.  She was making appliqued onesies as part of a baby gift and they were so sweet.  Of course, her project had a little more detail than mine with frills and ribbons etc., but I used the general steps she had to create an easier 1st time project for myself.  I had left over fabric from the burp cloths and I found some more that would match my design ideas.  I used 2 different brands and sizes of the onsies, and ended up liking the Circo brand ones I picked up Target best.  They were not as stretchy as the Gerber brand, so they were easier to sew.  I also found a great new tool for sewing - fusible interfacing!  I love this stuff!  While I was using it I had like a million ideas for its future use in T-shirts, aprons, tote bags...great stuff! 

These cuties are going to go with the burp cloths I made a few weeks back.  They are for a boy and I had fun using more blues and boy themed fabrics.  I'm sure if the recipient reads my blog she will now know what is coming her way for their lil' guy, but hopefully she will appreciate its handmade! :)

    This is a joint gift and my MIL Teresa also made something to go with the bundle.  She found some new deliciously soft yarn and decided to knit him a newborn blanket.  It is in some fun bright colors and is so cute.  Maybe I can get her to knit me a blankie from this yarn too!  :)

Burp Catchers!

I took on my 1st home made sewing project today.  I found a great burp cloth tutorial a while back here at Chickpea Sewing Studio.  The directions made it look extremely easy for a start project, so I picked up the items needed and set to work.  I have a few people I know who are currently expecting some bouncing babies, and burp cloths are a perfect gift in my mind.  I remember buying them for Emily before she was born since I didn't receive any as a gift, and I found the cuteness/functional factor lacking.  These directions use pre-made cloth diapers (I picked up a pack of six Gerber brand premium diapers) as the base and ask you to pick up the middle design fabric.  I found a few fat quarters that had some great designs and followed along. 

The longest part of this project was measuring the fabric, cutting, and then pinning it down properly.  I did it the night before, after Emily went to bed, so it would be ready the next day for her nap time ( I usually get about 2 hours a day to do what I want during this time...lol).  I took my time to get it as perfect as I could since the directions said to expect pulling and puckering of the fabric regardless.

  The next step was the quickest.  I think it took me more time to measure and pin than it took to actually sew all 3 cloths.  I won't pretend that I didn't have to stop on my first cloth a few inches in and rip it out (I used a different stitch than directed because I thought it looked like it would work better...it didn't...lesson learned: follow directions from the experts!).  I jumped back to the directed stitch then and was rolling along.  I also won't pretend that it was perfectly straight, but as I moved from the 1st to the 3rd cloth I got progressively better.

Not too shabby if I say so myself!  I think this project is a keeper! 

To those of you who are expecting...I hope you enjoy!!!!  I enjoyed making them!  :)