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Friday, June 25, 2010

Happy birthday, necktie onesies!

I spent last weekend making more necktie onesies. I have a baby shower to go to tomorrow and my friend Candace also wanted some for a baby shower she was going to, so I think I made five in all. Here are the ones I made for Candace. I was glad she brought me colored onesies. I wouldn't considered doing anything other than white!
How did the whole babies-wearing-ties thing get started? Here's a trip down memory lane for you. More like memory dirt road where you have to navigate cow patties...

One year ago we had a girls' getaway to my uncle's ranch house to celebrate my friend's upcoming motherhood. You can see little Liam there in the baby bump next to the cow.
We spent about an hour on 4-wheelers (very ranch-y, yes?)
And the rest of the time inside eating, playing board games, painting nails, watching movies, and much to my uncle's dismay, sewing. Poor guy probably thought he was going to have some help tagging calfs or something.

I brought my sewing machine and we made burp bloths, bibs, onesies and t-shirts for Little Liam, all with appliques on them. The necktie process has since been improved, but they turned out really well for the first time! In addition to ties, we made this Great Dane camo collection in honor of big (dog) brother Jake, who sadly died shortly after baby Liam was born. And my reason for this post? Liam just had his nine-month pictures taken in one of the t-shirts we made!
Isn't he adorable?



Shout out, ladies! (And thanks for letting me steal the pics without permission, Em!)

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

A cent'anni!

These are a couple pics I took in Ohio where we celebrated Huzz's 29th and his fave great aunt's 90th! The birthday gal seemed to be having a blast along with the rest of us.
We also got to spend time with our ah-mazing friends who drove over from Indiana and let me take 675 pictures of their little Shirley Temple. Oh, and I was right. It's a boy!Does anybody have advice on keeping photo qualities high on blogger? It seems they always get grainy after I upload them...

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

My, that's one cush bracelet

I saw this tutorial on Tea Rose Home and knew it would be a quick and easy project that would make a good stocking stuffer-type gift for a special sewer in my life.

I am giving 100% credit to Tea Rose Home, but I found her instructions hard to read since they were interspersed with huge photos, so I'll retype them here with my trial and error notes.

  • Small silk flower (I pulled one apart to make two)
  • 5" diameter circle of fabric
  • 2" diameter circle of cardboard
  • Fabric for wrist band - wrist circumference+2" x 3.5"
  • Velcro (or a snap!)
  • Fusible fleece (I used plain old fleece) - mine was 7.5" x 1.5 "
  • Stuffing
  • Glue gun
  • Sewing machine
  1. Fold fabric rectangle in half, wrong sides out. Place/iron fusible fleece on one side and sew around permimeter, leaving a 3" gap along the long open end.
  2. Turn the fabric inside out and sew around the perimeter from the outside, creating a pretty top stitch. I think it would be cool to use a contrasting thread but I was too lazy to change out what was already in the machine.
  3. Sew the silk flower on to the center of the strap.
  4. Sew velcro at ends. I had snaps on hand from another project and was -- again -- too lazy to look for my velcro.
  5. To make the pin cushion, sew a running stitch around the circumference of the fabric circle. Tighten it and insert stuffing, then put in the cardboard circle before pulling it tight and sewing it shut.
  6. Hot glue the pin cushion to the flower. Insert a pearl head pin and commence photo shoot.

And, scene.

There is no photo for #2 because I forgot to upload it and I am... what's today's theme, class? "Lazy, Mrs. Kellerwoman." Good.Yes, they're a little out of order but they still correspond to the instructions.
Next time I'll have to include my nasty mini glue gun in the photo of materials. It's coated in glued-on dog hair from when I used to sit on the dirty carpet in our old apartment and get crafty. I now try to stick to the dining room table.