Category: sewing

More kitchen wipes

We have a set or two of flat fold cloth diapers that were originally the burp cloths and have evolved into the kitchen and kiddo cleanup cloths. After two years, it was time for newer replacements, so I thought I’d get more diapers, cut them into quarters, and use bias tape to close the seams.

I got a bias tape maker (looks kind of like a zipper pull – magical little device. Here’s the pressed coil of bias tape all ready to go.

And the first few in the stack…

And all folded and put away in the drawer.

My two quarter yards of this blue binding fabric made twenty quarter cloths. Neat! Next time, I’ll cut the diapers in half (these are on the slightly chintzy side size-wise and the turn didn’t come out that well – a straight line would look much better, be faster to fold out of the laundry AND be faster sewing).

Vacation Day Sewing

I decided to take an unheard of vacation day to just stay home by myself and sew while Kevin was in Albuquerque and the kiddo was at daycare. I’ve never done that before – it was wonderful. I read a book, listened to NPR, and I worked on the toddler’s crab shirt.

Putting the big mat on the kitchen counter was a whim, but it’s a wonderful work spot. Clear and open, plus tall enough that it’s exactly the right height for cutting. I will be doing more of this.

The finished shirt in the bright backyard by my pretty planters.

And a close-up of the crab.

This was my first attempt at paper piecing – went really well, I think. The points aren’t perfect, but they’re good enough for a kid’s shirt. I’ll have to try this again soon.

Toddler shirts-to-be

I came across this quilt block today, and was smitten.

I don’t need an entire crab quilt, necessarily, but I have a toddler who could certainly use a crab shirt! So I started pulling out fabrics.

You’ll see two shirts in that photo because I got all excited and decided to maybe also make him a plane shirt (since he spends so much of his day pointing out each plane that passes).

It probably would have been smarter to finish one shirt rather than perpetually working in parallel. Oh, well. The fabric is starched and ironed, and now I just need to figure out how to copy the pattern and learn paper piecing… neither should be hard, just takes more than five consecutive minutes. Learning from past mistakes, these are both 3T shirts (not the 2T ones that fit him today) – even though this should be a VERY quick project, I’m sure I can manage to stretch it out for a few months.

Turtle Shirt

I thought I’d try appliquéing cute things on some of the plain toddler shirts we have. So I bought Heat-n-bond Lite (which seems to be the medium of choice for this sort of work on the blogs I read), and happened to also see a cute little bird stencil. While Kevin and the kiddo went to the grocery store last weekend, I set up camp in our office and traced, cut and ironed, and watched three shows of Jon Stewart online. Such a fun use of an hour. When the guys got back, I had this, just waiting to be sewed (I planned to embroider eyes and beaks and branches later):

So we took a break for dinner and bedtime, and then I sewed during the Patriots game. I started by hand – so slow. So then I switched to the machine, but it was hard to keep the shape of the line right on such small pieces, and then I had a string of bobbin catches as I worked. Frustrating – the birds would have been so cute. The last bobbin catch would not come unstuck, and I ended up tearing the shirt. Hmm. Lessons for next time? Bigger pieces (not teeny tiny curves), start on the slowest speed setting, and use the walking foot. Rather than totally giving the shirt up for lost, though, I ended up reverse appliquéing in a turtle print that I love.

Here’s the inside of the shirt – I used the pinking shears on all the edges, shirt and patch. The stitching was just very tight, small zig-zags.

If I did this exact same thing again, I’d do a double (back to back) layer of the cotton, since I think it’s probably more airy and colder than the jerset knit. There’s enough of the turtle fabric to make matching pants – perhaps I’ll get around to that at some point? Love those turtles.

In a pinch

Is there anything you can’t do with painters tape??

We have a wedding this weekend with three events (and therefore three dresses). All of my pre-baby dresses are still too tight in the chest to zip, so it meant some shopping. I had one dress from a wedding in November, found another online, and had to hit the stores for the third dress. I found this at 50% off the day before we left. The top was so flattering, but the skirt had about twice as much fabric as anyone could ever need.

Twenty minutes later, I’d seamed and hacked along my nice straight painters tape lines, and ended up with a nice A-line. Huge improvement!

Curtains!

Sunny mornings are brutal, since H is now frequently up at 5:15. Our curtains more mellow the light than block it, so in a desperate bid for more sleep, I went to the fabric store on the way home from daycare and bought a few yards of blackout fabric to make curtains.

I was afraid that the curtains would be too heavy for my hanging idea if they were a double layer of liner + fabric, but I used some of the remaining fabric from my comforter cover and bed skirt to add a band of accent fabric to the bottom of the panel…

… and a channel of fabric to the top of the panel.

We have a collection of scrap wood slats in the garage (we’d needed two for something, and it was cheaper to buy a bundle than individual ones. They come in handy every now and then.) so I cut three of them down and lined the ends by stapling strips of fabric on.

Those went through the channels like so:

And then I used push pins on the top of the window frame (where we’ll never see the holes) to put up loops of ribbon to hold the curtains. It’s a very wide window, and it’s tricky to find hardware that would work– I was pleased with my ribbon alternative. Then we can just slide the slats into the loops to hang them, and take them down and roll them up during the day. It’s not a terribly fancy solution, but for $20 seemed like a great temporary fix. Here’s to sleeping in till 7?

Pants! (Almost)

I stopped by the craft store today to buy ribbon, and noticed a display of dishtowels. For some reason (and despite needing another project like I need a hole in the head), they looked like the perfect material for baby pants, so I chose a bunch and brought them home. H got a few new pairs of 6-12 mos or 9 mos pants for Christmas, but all of his 6 month ones have suddenly turned into capris, so it’s a timely project. I decided to make lined pants with an elastic waist. I used one of the pairs that currently fits to cut the pieces.

I love the linings (from my stash, no less) and I think I did a really nice job sewing them in. The sewing was easy but I didn’t pay good attention on the first pair and had to rip out 6 of the eleven seams. Dumb mistakes. The second pair flew, but the machine woke up H (oops). I got him settled back on the couch and then gave up for the night with only one pair done.

The only sad part is that they of course don’t fit – too narrow at the top. I’m mulling possible fixes – a panel down each of the sides of the legs would do it. The only question is whether to go buy more dishcloths, or to substitute something (fabric? ribbon?).

What do Lions say? Rooaaar!

The lion costume was finished in time for work Halloween, but we didn’t get photos until Sunday. (It seemed like he’d be happier in the Moby wrap in his pumpkin hat than in full Halloween getup for a few hours, so I brought the costume and baby separately and everyone though he was cute in his hat and cute that the costume wasn’t on. Hard to go wrong when there’s a baby smiling at people — the ultimate distraction.)

He had been low on naps, coupled with a nice full stomach, and so he was out by the time I got him into the costume.

Oblivious kiddo with a hood/mane, tail and little paws:

Snoozing with Grammy while I looked at Kevin’s baby books:

Then more snoozing with Pop-Pop and Great Grandmom (perhaps this should be his standard outfit when it’s time for a nap?? Seems to have a soporific effect…).

Must have been an exhausting day on the savannah. Finally, the little lion woke up.

And delighted everyone with the cuteness.