Monday, December 7, 2009

LA Originals Knitted Baby Hat GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

LA Originals Knitted Baby Hat GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

I wish I could knit like this!

Nieces Christmas Gift

OH I AM SO EXCITED!  I love these butterfly wings.  I found the tutorial here, from one of the sewing blogs I follow.  The only thing I really did any different is I used a black fabric marker to draw on some butterfly wing patterns.  I really like the result.  And it was super easy to do.

Quick, I Need a Hat!

I had about a quarter of a yard of white fleece I've been carting around forever (I have a hard time throwing cloth away) that I finally found a use for.  We were asked to be on a float in our town's Christmas Parade, and, although this is Texas, I knew it would be cold (unfortunately it was so cold and windy that Ellie and I ended up not doing it, but still...).  So the night before I googled for a baby fleece hat pattern and used this one (basically), to make this cute little cap.

When I first made it I centered the earflaps directly on the sides, but when I put it on her I realized they would work a lot better if they were a little farther back.  So when we got home I picked out the flaps and adjusted them back about an inch.  And I embroidered a cute little snowflake on the front.
So here it is in its finished state.  Instead of string that tie under, I attached a snap to the end of the tie and the other side of the flap so it just snaps together.  I would have prefered to use some velcro, but I'm all out.  I also used a decorative wave stitch on my machine in pink to edge to ear flaps, the tie, and the top of the brim.  I love it and it was super easy to do.  I would say all total it took me about 30 minutes.

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Nephew Gifts: Check



I decided to make capes for my nephews this year for Christmas.  It was super easy and I know they'll get a lot of use out of them.  I used flannel, because it was on sale mostly.  I appliqued the monogram emblems together using iron-on fusing and then topstiched around them to secure them.  As a side note, when doing letters, next time I would trace the letter, cut it out in a square, do the iron-on and then cut out the letter.  I accidently nearly fused the letter to the ironing board because I cut the letters out first and then attached a square of iron-on fusing.  Anyway.  I hemed the edges and then made ties and attached them.  I took me perhaps 4 hours to do all three. 

But I'm mostly excited about the bib.  My nephew Preston is only a few months old, and he obviously couldn't use a cape right now.  But my mother-in-law suggested the bib idea and I thought it was perfect.  If I were to make another one, I'd do a few things differently (like attach the velcro before I sewed the whole thing together, whoops).  And this time I cut out the emblem and the neck loop seperately and then attached them instead of making it one whole piece.  I just wasn't thinking clearly, obviously.  Anyway, I think they turned out great.  Now on to make butterfly wings for my nieces!