Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Crafting in January

This past January I had the entire month off! As most of you know I’m finishing my last year of podiatry school and I had the option to have one month off before February! I opted to have January off so I could study for interviews and enjoy a break from driving in the snow! I was able to catch up on my sleep, do a lot of running and be creative! I’ve always loved creating things especially with fabric (surprise, surprise I love Project Runway) but it has sadly been over a year since I’ve had time to make anything. This past month I was able to create several things! First a tutu outfit for my only niece who turned one in January! She is such an adorable girl and since I know she loves prancing around in tutus I decided to make her one!



Here is the onesie portion of the outfit. I bought a plain white onesie from Walmart and then added the appliquéd number one and a felt owl. The owl took some time to put together but it was worth it!


Here is the tutu. . . I just love how it turned out! I had never made a tutu before but it was super easy! Angie Neil on her blog http://treasuresfortots.blogspot.com/ had the best tutorials on how to cut and put together your tutu.

How to cut tutu so you don’t end up with all different lengths:
How to put the tutu together:
For my tutus I decided to use elastic since it seemed more durable and higher quality, but you can also use ribbon as your waistband.
I bought crocheted ribbon headbands from walmart and attached a rose made of the same fabric as the number 1 on the onesie. Here is where I found how to make the rose: http://littlebirdiesecrets.blogspot.com/2009/08/make-fabric-flower-and-flower-tutorial.html. I just love the name of the blog: “Little Birdie Secrets” how cute is that!

Finished Project #1:


My second project was also a tutu, but a tutu for a newborn! It is so tiny and adorable! I made it for Jon’s cousin’s baby shower! 
Finished Project #2
This onesie was similar but simpler with only an owl on the front.

This tutu was constructed the same way but I satin wrapped the waist band to make it less scratchy for baby! This tutorial was also found on Treasures for Tots at:
See:


The headband has felt brown and pink pedals formed into a flower and attached to the headband (sorry, blurry).


To top it all off I had been thinking how I could wrap this gift for the shower and being frugal and not wanting to buy anything I creatively reused a Victoria Secret bag by covering up the “Victoria’s Secret” with “Baby’s secret” and gluing scrunched up pink tissue paper around the boarder.



 I love reusing these quality bags, just remember to save the tissue paper too! I think I got more compliments on the bag than the tutu, pregnant mom even had to pause to have a picture taken (it wasn’t me, seriously)! Hooray for creativity! Jon’s cousin loved it; she said she couldn’t wait to doll up her baby girl!


The last couple projects I worked on were baby blankets! I made one for a good friend from school whose wife just had a little boy and one for a baby girl (Jon’s cousin’s baby). I have yet to finish the one for Jon’s cousin's baby since I need to monograph it with her name and birth date once she is  born. I recently heard that this baby girl was born but didn’t hear an official name so I guess I’ll wait a little longer J

One of my favorite parts of making a baby blanket is picking out the fabric! Since I fell in love with this blanket by Joel Dewberry (http://joeldewberry.blogspot.com/2010/07/project-idea-and-giveaway.html) I went in search of some fabric like it at Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft store. Disappointment, nothing was as handsome and modern as Joel Dewberry’s fabric so I found it for a good price from fabric.com! This is my favorite fabric right now! For the back I like to use dotted minky which is always so soft perfect for baby blankets.

Finished Project #3







On the minky side I appliquéd an “L” for Lucas and down the long side of the “L” I monogrammed with embroidery thread baby’s name using this technique: http://www.needlenthread.com/2006/10/embroidery-stitch-video-tutorial-stem.html.

 Along the bottom I put baby’s birth date!


With all my blankets I try to create a not-so-baby blanket with fabric that doesn’t have animals, blocks or other baby type patterns so if the blanket lasts till they are grown it doesn’t look dated! I still have a blanket with my name on it but the pattern screams “I was born in the 80’s.” Maybe my blankets will seem that way in 20 years but here’s to trying!

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