Cute Ruffle Butts and a Fun Summer Sewing Series!

This is a little project I finished a few weeks ago and am now just finding time to share:

 It is essentially the same as the Diaper & Bib sets I made for my nieces for Christmas last year, but with one adorable change...a ruffle butt!



I had thought about adding the ruffle to the Christmas sets just a little too late, so I knew when I made this one, I wanted to try it.  I think it turned out totally darling!

This set was made for my twins' good friend's little sister (say that five times fast!) for her birthday last month.  She just turned two, and I felt like this could be a gift that she could really grow into and use for years to come.

The only thing I didn't end up loving about this set was the little baby quilt, which was made entirely from flannel from my scrap box.  I used it to practice some FMQ on...and I definitely quilted it far too densely.  It ended up feeling like a place mat, rather than a baby doll quilt!  (I do, however, love the cute bird flannel backing!)

***

Something else I wanted to mention:

I'm participating in Nap-Time Creations Sew Many Books sewing series. This is a fun series of posts all about children's clothing inspired by children's books.  How fun is that??

Come back on August 12th to see my addition to this fun series.

Here's who else is joining in the fun this month:

Nap-TimeCreations - Buzzmills - All This For Them - Wild Wandering - Cocoa Pie Creations 

Sunny Stitching - Bless by Tone - Coles Corner and Creations - Nap Time Crafters

Threading my Way - Welcome to the Mouse House - Sewing like Mad - Sews N Bows

Simple Simon and Co- iCandy Handmade

Be sure to stop by Nap-Time Creations on these days for some great giveaways

August 6th- $50 to fabric.com & free Personalized kids book from iseeme.com

August 13th- Pattern Pack from Peek-a-Boo Patterns 

August 20th- Pattern Pack from Coles Corner and Creations & A Remnant Surprise Book

if you are interested in sponsoring a giveaway or participating in NEXT years Sew Many Books series e-mail Emily at nap-timecreations{at}hotmail{dot}com

Finish - Pillow Covers

I have had some sad pillows on my couch waiting to be redressed for about a year now. 

 Actually, these pillows have been on my couch for about 5 years now, and I have never loved them in all that time.

When I originally bought my couch, they came with some generic (UGLY) pillows that I immediately gave away to a friend who was willing to take them.  That left my couch a little bare, and I guess I just didn't have the time at that point to do anything crafty about it, so I went to the store and picked up some slightly-less-generic (and down-filled - because I love the shape and squishiness of down-filled) pillows to dress it up a bit until I could do something with them that was a little more "me".

Like I said, that was FIVE years ago.

Then about one year ago, I decided it was time, and I went out and bought some fabric specifically for these pillows.  Aaaaand...I immediately put it on a shelf in my closet and forgot about it.  Except for the times when I would look at my couch and think, "UGH.  I really need to do something about those pillows."

Well, apparently I finally decided to get serious about it and made a wonky log cabin block with the intention of turning it into a pillow cover for this particularly beat-up looking pillow.  (I wish I had taken a before photo!)

After that one was finished it took no time to make the pillow covers for the larger pillows (the blue and green flors/paisley behind the pieced one), since they were basically just fabric envelopes.  No piecing or quilting on those.  Easy!  

 

I quilted it with a variegated green thread that my husband put in my birthday pinata. (Yes, my husband made a pinata for my birthday filled with picked-by-him sewing supplies...Sweet, eh??)  

I honestly didn't know if I would ever use that thread, but it worked perfectly for this pillow!

For the quilting I just did a simple square spiral following the block strips starting in the center, and 1/2 inch straight lines down the sides. 

And here are the pillows together on their new home.  MUCH better...although now I am definitely thinking there is room for another pieced pillow somewhere on that couch :)

Linking here:

Sew Cute Tuesday @ Better Off Thread

Fabric Tuesday @ Quilt Story

WiP Wednesday - More Finishes

I have been on a roll the past two weeks trying to finish up my WiPs.

I did have 2 finishes this week - my improv log cabin pillow top that I made a few weeks back, and some plain pillow covers I've been meaning (for a LONG time) to make to revamp my living room couch.

The blue and green paisley/floral pillow behind the improv block pillow is one of the other pillow covers I made. 

My other WiPs worked on this week are:

I got MOST of the binding on my nephews quilt.  But when I had it all sewn on and ready to join the ends, I decided I didn't like how the fabrics were joining on that side (it is a scrappy binding and there was too much orange on the side where the ends were joining), so I have been doing a little unpicking and cutting and adding until I have it fixed a bit.  I will have that done by tonight.

I am just about done with snipping the rag edges on my son's Toy Story rag quilt.  I think I have one row of blocks and the outer edge to do and then I will be done.  Because it is hard on my hands, I only clip a few rows each night, hence the reason it has taken its time being completely finished!

And I had mentioned last week that I found a decade-old, unfinished baby blanket in a box in the garage and decided to throw a binding on it and get it finished and usable   

So while I was at Walmart one day, I stopped in their fabric section (since I had no plans to drive out to any other fabric stores for awhile) and found this pink floral in a tone pretty darn close to the pink in the quilt. 

 This is one of those "Get-It-Done" projects for me, so I was not picky about finding the "perfect" fabric.  And I think it cost me all of $1.28!  Not bad for a free blanket that has been long neglected!  I am just going to machine bind it, so this shouldn't take me much time to finish off once I sit down to do it.

I also finished up another block for the Virtual Quilting Bee at Diary of a Quilter.  This one is called "Going Dutch".

WiP's - 

2 finishes - Improv pillow and 2 plain pillow covers

Worked on: 

*Toy Story Blanket - All sewn, just need to finish clipping the seams.

*Baby Boy quilt - binding MOSTLY applied

*Discovered old baby blanket - binding made

 Not worked on:

Upcycyled Tees - 1 of 3 sewn

Denim Rag Quilt - not worked on

New WiPs (or WiPs pulled off the back burner!) -

None this week

2013 BOM's & Bees -

*Sister's 10 BOM blocks - Caught up!!

Virtual Quilting Bee blocks - 1 finished, 2 behind

Applique Quilt -  March fused but not appliqued, April & May blocks not started

Linking up over @ Freshly Pieced

Teacher Gifts - 2013

(Click HERE to see last year's Teacher Appreciation gifts.)

***

Before I get into the details of these little totes, here is a little school-related story (Go ahead and skip ahead if you want to get straight to the totes!):

  This past school year was kindof drama for us.  I started the school year with a bad feeling in my gut about their school situation that just weighed on me and never left.  

Without going into boring detail about the reasons why, after the holidays I ended up pulling my twins out of that preschool and placing them in another one that is run by a wonderful lady from our church that I have known since I first moved here to Virginia.

Now, one of my twins has just caught on to everything so quickly and easily that he is pretty much reading and spelling at only 4 years old.  (I might be biased, but personally, I think he's pretty awesome.) 

My other twin (whom I also think is pretty awesome!) has been struggling.  Last year he had a superb teacher who kept him right up with the rest of the class.  That is maybe why I didn't notice him struggling until this past school year started.  He (and I) was getting pretty frustrated at his lack of progress, and I just felt he was being quickly left behind.  

The difference I have seen in him in the last three months since we made the switch has been amazing.  His writing and spelling have blossomed.  I know it is the difference between a teacher who truly loves him and cares, and one who may not have cared as much.  

I am SO happy I listened to that little voice in my head and heart that told me to move my boys.

***

So...even though I felt like these new teacher deserved something totally amazing for a teacher appreciation gift this year, time just wasn't on my side (their new school gets out almost a whole month before their old one did, so in my mind I thought I still had more time than I really did).  But these amazing ladies will be my twins teachers again next year for their last year of preschool, so I have a whole year to think of and make something amazing for them next year.

This year, these darling little mini totes (filled with chocolate!) will have to do :)

  

I dug through my scraps and found these apple prints (Apple of my Eye by Riley Blake) which I thought perfectly appropriate, and followed this amazingly simple mini tote tutorial (by Monica Solorio-Snow) to make these adorable little treat bags for my twins teachers.

interior view

They were so fast and easy, I can definitely see making a lot more of these in the future for all kinds of little gifts and favors.

This gives an idea of the size next to a quarter.  These came out to be about 4.5 x 4.5 inches.

Following the pattern, I would say these took about 15 - 20 minutes from start to finish.  You could, of course, take a little more time if you chose to quilt the bags, or add topstitching, or make fabric handles.

However, I really do think they are darling just the way they are.  

 Linking up here:

Sew Darn Crafty @ Sew Many Ways

Fabric Tuesday @ Quilt Story

Warming Neck/Shoulder Rice Bag

One of my best friends started working full-time again recently.  Apparently, the transition has not been nice for her neck and shoulders because a few weeks ago she asked if I could make her a warming rice bag.

 

I have made rice bags to use as foot warmers before, but I knew just what I should make for her situation. I hopped online and found the perfect tutorial here (even though in all honesty, you really don't need a tutorial or pattern...it is simply a tube of fabric filled with rice and sewn up!)

 

Of course, I did a few things differently, but barely.  I divided mine into 6 sections, and after a little trial and error (because sewing next to a pile of rice is a little tricky) decided that pinning the sections closed horizontally and pushing the rice back toward the newly sewn end as I went was WAY easier than how it is shown in the tutorial.

 

I also pieced both a front and back section and sewed them together rather than folding one wider piece of fabric in half.

 

The fabric is from my poor baby quilt that is still waiting (rather impatiently) to be quilted and finished. I had cut quite a few extra pieces when I was working on the quilt top, so it was fast and easy to just sew a few of those leftover pieces together to make this.   

 

I love it so much, I think I will eventually make one for myself.

 

 

My son loves it too, as you can see.  After modeling it for me, he asked where his was!  I'm thinking a few of these might end up on my Christmas gift-making list this year.

#1 WiP 2013 - The One With A Lot of UN-Sewing

It's been awhile since I've Work-in-Progress Wednesday.

 

Here are the things I've been working on:


Monster Hats
for my twins.

Here in Virginia, it is rarely cold enough to wear a heavy coat, so my boys usually just wear the fleece liners, which don't have a hood. So I'm making them these hats to match their jackets for when they go out to play at school. I've got one done, one to go.

 

Block of the Month

I decided to do a Block of the Month this year and chose the Sisters Ten Modern BOM over at Gen X Quilters.  I've chosen my fabric and cut it out.  Hopefully I will be able to make them up tonight while my boys are in bed and my husband is at Scouts.

Unpicking a Quilt

I finished this quilt top back in October and thought it would be a quick easy finish and I would have it done in plenty of time to ship to my cousin before her baby was born in early December.  Wow, was I wrong!

 

 

I decided to do regular stipple quilting because I was going to use my stitch regulator foot, which I'm really still not totally familiar with.  I thought I would stick to quilting that I can do well without having to focus too much on, so that I could focus more on getting the feel for the stitch regulator.

 

I should have had this little quilt quilted and done within just a few hours, but I ended up fighting with my machine for 3 days before giving up!

 

My thread kept breaking inexplicably every 3-6 inches.  The back of this poor quilt was just a mess of starting knots.  It was awful. 

 

I had tried everything I knew.  Changed the tension, changed the needle, went slower, went faster, changed threads, changed bobbins, you name it, I did it.  Nothing worked!

 

So, after 3 days I gave up, folded the quilt, and shoved it in my closet. 

 

I took my machine in the week before Thanksgiving, but was told it would take up to a month of more to repair.  NO WAY.  So I took it home and just decided I would only be able to sew things with a straight stitch (because for some reason, the thread only broke when I tried anything free-motion), but that was better than nothing.

 

So I was able to make all my Christmas gifts, since none of them required quilting.  But then I pulled out my embroidery module, because we decided to embroider pillowcases for our Primary children this year and I needed to get some done for the January birthdays.  First thing that happened when I tried embroidering - my thread broke!  Arg!

 

That is when I realized that as long as I didn't put the thread through the last hook on the thread guide, it was fine. 

 

So that meant I could finish my quilt!  However, it was at least a third of the way quilted with a meandering stitch.  That is A LOT of unpicking.  But, I just couldn't give it as a gift with all those knots and obvious starts and stops in the back.  So, a few days ago, I finally sat down and began unpicking.  

 

Two nights of unpicking so far, and probably one more night and it will be done.  Then it will be a race to get it quilted and bound so I can get it to it's new owner as quickly as possible...a darling little girl who is already over a month old!

 

And I also signed up to do a BOM at my LQS - an Applique quilt by Edyta Sitar called Spring Bouquet.

 

 

I am really excited about this.  I think it is beautiful, AND it will give me experience and practice doing applique, as well as working with batiks, which I have never done before. 

 

I've never thought batiks were my style, but I have to admit, I think they are just lovely in this quilt.

 

I was supposed to go pick up my first kit this morning and attend the instructions class, but my son woke up vomiting this morning, so we are all sequestered to the house.  I'm pretty sure I know what I am doing, however, so it shouldn't be too hard to figure out on my own. 

 

Oh!  And another fun thing...I finally got my Christmas present from my parents this past week...a serger!!  I am so excited to get it out and try it out.  I'm sure I will be posting about it when I do. 

 

Linking up to:

 

 

A Slow Start and some Dolly Things

I'm a little slow getting things started this New Year.

My sister and her family visited after Christmas through New Year's, and the day they left (New Year's Day) Mr. Pie and I were both slammed by the New Year's Flu that has attacked the East Coast.

Because of that, I am sitting in a chaotic mass of neglected laundry, half-put away Christmas decorations, new year obligations and half finished sewing projects.

 

Really, it's a whole lot of mess around here.

 

Today was the first day I have felt like I have enough energy and gumption to really tackle any of it.  I'm hoping to claw my way out of the chaos by the weekend.  Fingers crossed.

 

In the meantime, however, I thought I would share a few of my Christmas projects.

 

 

For 3 of my 4 nieces I made some baby bib and diaper sets. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(The diaper pattern that I used is found here at one of my favorite blogs, Bee in my Bonnet)

 

I ended up making two different sizes of bibs.  I was originally planning on making all the large ones (using this pattern), but once I started putting them together, it seemed the neck hole might be a little small for all dolls.

 

 

 

So I talked to my sister-in-law (the one who had originally requested the bibs for her daughter) about the sizes of my niece's dolls.  She mentioned that L (my niece) had a cabbage patch baby, and that the neck on the cabbage patch babies did seem to be a little larger.

 

So I searched and searched for some patterns for a cabbage patch baby which, it turns out, are surprisingly hard to find!

 

I did end up finding one here that worked.  I only used the bib pattern, but I pinned the tutorial, which included some basic clothing patterns as well, in case I ever get a request for clothes for this kind of doll again.

I actually ended up liking the small bibs better and wish I had done them all with that pattern!  They turned out so cute and dainty, and looked darling on the dolls.  The bigger pattern ended up looking a little too big to me.

 

I made all but one the sets out of flannel and lined the diapers with white fleece.

 

The only thing I wish I had done differently is narrower top-stitching.  I did about a quarter-inch top-stitch, and while it did catch the hole left for turning, the stitching wasn't close enough to the edge to make the space unnoticeable.  You can see at the bottom of each bib where the turn hole was.

 

Fortunately, these are all for little girls who won't notice or care, but I will do that bit differently if/when I make these again.

Linking here:

 

A Little Thing

I made my niece a baby doll quilt (among other things I will post about soon) for Christmas.  I am also making a gift for her mom, my sister. 

 

As I was finishing up my niece's quilt, I decided to use some of the binding scraps and make this little pincushion for my sister as an add-on to her gift.

 

 

 

I followed the pattern exactly.  It took me about 15 minutes from start to finish.

 

And I love it so much, I am going to make one for myself and one for my other sewing sister :)

Witchy Woman

I finished my Halloween costume last night.  And here she is, my son-requested witch dress!

 

 

 It might not look like much yet, but I am wearing a black vinyl corset over it, which makes a big difference in the look.  This piece is just the under-dress.

I was inspired by this pin, which is actually a SCA costume piece.  I figured for a witch, I could make it all raggedy, like it had once been a nice dress, but has been worn waaaay too long.  In a swamp.  With all kinds of yucky witch-brew ingredients spilled on it.

I used Butterick pattern 3906.

Here are a few detail pictures:



I ragged up the bottoms of the sleeves.  I'm debating whether I should do the same thing to the very bottom of the dress.




I sewed the ruffle onto the outside of the skirt to give it more visual interest.

 

I put the black bias tape elastic casings on the outside of the sleeve, again, just to add a little more interest.  The casings were the most time consuming part of this really simple project!

 

I am pretty happy with how it has turned out so far.  I'll be honest though, I initially wanted to do a lot more with this costume, mainly adding a tie-on bustle.  I still might, but I have a lot of other projects I want/need to get to, so I'm thinking I am going to call this one done.  For now.

I made this dress with the idea of being able to use it for years and years.  And I have plenty of fabric left in case I decide to add to it next year, or whenever I decide to wear it again.

The fun part is that I can continue adding to this costume as much, and for as long as I want.

And of course, I will post pictures of the full costume all put together after Halloween!

WiP #20 - Christmas/Halloween Mash-Up

So I did it, I finally finished my Christmas Stockings!
 

 

Kinda.

 

You can read all about them right HERE.

 

Also, I worked on my Halloween Table Topper which may now become a temporary wall hanging until I can get my Swoon mini quilted.

 

 

 

 

I like the primitive look for Halloween decor, and thought this 9 patch kindof fit that vibe.

And I even had enough blocks left over to make a real mini quilt at the same time.  I might keep it, or I may give it away.  We'll see.

 

I also briefly worked on a Pillow cover for my couch.  But I don't like how I started quilting it, so I have tear out the stitches and start over.

 

 

WiP's finished - 3

 

Christmas Stockings 

New WiP's started - 0

 

WiP's worked on - 2

Halloween Table Toppers

One couch pillow

 

WiP's NOT worked on: 5

 

*ONE Key fob to finish

*ONE dress to finish

Swoon mini quilt

Denim Rag Quilt

Star Baby Quilt

 

On the back burner/not started yet: 4

Bed quilt (Swoon) (fabric purchased)

Secret gift #1 (fabric purchased)

Secret gift #2

Baby quilt for Baby Girl Barker (fabric and pattern selected)

Possibilities/ Idea Phase: 2

- dress, matching doll dress, and doll quilt for my niece for Christmas

Patriotic mini/wall quilt

Total = 11

 

Linking up to Lee at Freshly Pieced

Hang the Stockings

My cute son showing off his new Christmas Stocking

 

May I just start by saying how happy these stockings make me? Mr. Pie and I have been married for 8 years and, especially in the beginning because of deployments, rarely had a Christmas at home, or together. So I never really bothered doing a lot of decorating, even though I LOVE Christmas, and LOVE decorating for the Holiday.

 

 Let's just put it this way, I am the daughter of the guy that the neighborhood nicknamed "Clark Griswold". That should tell you something about how big Christmas was for me growing up.

 

I had a small hodgepodge of random, mismatched Christmas decor from my pre-married life that had mostly been given to me, and that had no real sentimental meaning to me. I would just kindof throw it up on the mantel and walls to make some kind of effort to decorate for Christmas, but it never really did much for me.

 

 Of course, then the twins were born, and my husband got a new assignment that kept him home a lot more.  I started thinking more about traditions, and making memories, especially around Christmastime, and I knew I wanted to do some things that would make our home a cozy, wonderful place during the Holidays where we could grow those memories and traditions.

And for me, part of that was making some special Stockings that the boys would see and use every year.  They are young enough that these will be the stockings they will always know and remember.  And I hope that will mean something to them one day.  

 

(Click on any of the above photos to see a larger image)
 

This year, I will be able to put my Tree Skirt under the tree and hang those very Stockings up above the fireplace. And that makes my heart happy.

***
 

Now, on to the actual making of the Stockings!

 

The past two or three weeks have been hectic here in the Cocoa Pie household.  School starting, with meetings and school shopping, church responsibilities, and birthdays to bake cakes for have made my free time a lot more scares than usual.

 

Hence, I feel like I have been working on these Christmas Stockings FOR EVER.  It didn't help that I ended up re-embroidering new cuffs because my first "prototype" was embroidered on the wrong side of the cuff. 

 

Or that I ended up wasting some time looking for some different fabric for the lining before just deciding to use some that I already had...and ended up loving it, of course.



Red lining

White lining

 But they are finished.  Well, at least three of them are finished.  The most important ones.  The ones that Santa actually pays attention to and fills up with goodies on Christmas Eve.  My three boys stockings.

 

I have every intention on making two more for Mom and Dad.  In fact they are practically ready to finish.  the Stockings are sewn, the linings are sewn, the hangers are sewn.  I just have to make and embroider the cuffs.  But I decided I needed a break from Stockings and will wait to embroider them when I have other things to embroider.

 

These Stockings were inspired by This Tutorial, however, the only thing that is really the same is the strippy piecing.  After that point, I basically abandoned the tutorial and went off on my own.

 

The things I did differently:

 

- I actually quilted the pieced panels onto batting (In the tutorial, she just has you put decorative stitching on the fabric panel without stitching it to batting.)

 

-I adhered fusible fleece onto the back stocking piece and to one half of the cuff before folding it in half.

 

-I interfaced the stocking hanger with some featherweight interfacing and topstitched both sides.

 

-I (obviously) embroidered my sons names on the cuffs.

 

-I topstitched the inside top edge of the stocking to keep the lining down.

 

 

Things I would do differently next time:

 

-My biggest mistake?  I didn't wash the cuff fabric before embroidering their names on.  I didn't think about it until after when I was spraying it to remove my pen marks.  When the fabric got wet around the embroidery, the fabric rippled and it was hard to press it back into shape.  I can only imagine what will happen if I actually have to wash the stockings!

 

-I would try a fusible stabilizer to do the embroidery.  Even with the tear-away stabilizer doubled, I don;t think it was quite thick enough for the embroidery.  I don't know if that was because I was using metallic thread, or if it was because I had pre-cut the cuff fabric to size before hooping it, and it didn't quite fit entirely in the hoop. 

Linking to:

One Thing, One Week Challenge @ Amy's Creative Side

Tip Me Tuesday @ Tip Junkie (for some reason, the button wouldn't work!)

Fabric Tuesday @ Quilt Story