Burp Cloths

So, the other day the DH had a little talk with me about FINISHING my projects instead of getting involved in too many more new ones. I guess I just see things, get ideas and then get excited to start them without finishing the one I'm working on. On my list was to make some "good" burp rags. With Landen I had a few cute ones that were totally impractical at catching his spit-up and then I had cloth diapers. I really wanted something in between for Baby Girl.

I found a few tutorials online and they all seemed pretty basic. I basically followed this one. I did make one that was shaped more traditional, but decided it was easier to just use the rotary cutter instead of cute out all the layers with a pattern.

So, here's a run-down of what I did. I bought 1/2 yard of pink chenille. So the tutorial called for pieces that were 10x16, but I figured that if I did mine 9x15 I could actually get 8 instead of 6. I cut my fabric the same size, and then decided I wanted to round the corners because I hate trying to get good squares.

Then I sewed it together leaving a gap. Turned it, pressed it and top stitched it. After I was done, I realized I wanted just a little more padding, and decided to put a piece of batting between the layers. I had some warm-n-natural laying around, so I just used that because it was nice and thin, but absorbant. So, the other 6 had some padding. I also ran a seam down the middle just to keep it from twisting in the wash, because it will probably be washed plenty!

And there they are! Hopefully they are as useful as they are cute!

Ahhh...

There is just something about getting a quilt put together. You work on all the squares individually and that's nice, but there is something about having the whole thing done (or almost done). A sense of accomplishment and excitement to get it finished!

Isn't it cute? I just couldn't resist the puffy quilt. I think I'm going to find a bright pink or purple minky fabric for the back and to give it a nice thick binding and then tie it with some ribbon?

At first, I was thinking that these squares were a pain, but I think they are totally worth it now. I wouldn't take on a full sized quilt, but a baby quilt was quite practical. Want to make your own? I used the tutorial at honeybearlane.

Guitar Strap Tutorial

I started making my guitar strap by following this tutorial. But I wanted to use only 1 piece of fabric. So I made my own tutorial to share with you!


Supplies:
About ¼ yard of fabric,
Strip of fusible fleece or fusible batting
Thread and sewing machine

Step 1: Measure your guitar strap. Mine was 2" wide and Michael keeps his strap about 45" long. So I decided I wanted my strap to be 3" wide and 43" long. I would recommend going at least an inch wider than your strap. Double that and add ½ inch on both ends for your seam allowance. So, I used a strip of fabric that was 6 ½ inches wide and just went salvage edge to salvage edge. I then cut a strip of fusible fleece 3" wide.

Step 2: Press your fabric. I was trying to follow a pattern, so I ironed along the lines in the fabric, making my pattern 3" wide and ironing the rest under. The fabric should overlap about 1/4inch. This would put the seam going down the middle of the back. You could also just fold it in half and make the seam along the side.

Step 3: Fuse Fleece/Batting to strap. Open the fabric up and fused the fleece to the wrong side of the fabric. The fleece should go down the middle between the two presses. If you were doing a side seam, I would line the fleece up along the fold in the middle and place the fleece ¼ inch from the edge and press.

Step 4: Hem the short ends. Since my ends were both salvage edges, I just folded it up and hemmed. If you wanted any decorative quilting on the top of your strap, this would be the time to do it.

Step 5: Pin along the long side (right sides together) and then sew. Use a 1/4inch seam allowance. Press seam open.

Step 6: Turn. I then sewed along the long side edge to give it some stability so it wouldn't twist. I tried to do mine a little less than 1/4, so it was just slightly shorter than my foot.

Step 7: Slide over guitar strap. This took a little bit of time to jimmy it on, but I wouldn't have made it any wider to make it easier to get on. It fit about perfect!


Ta Da! We're done! Brand new guitar strap! It made a great Father's Day Present!

Bucket Hat

I followed the tutorial provided by Sew Much Ado at U Create and made this! It doesn't take much fabric, and it went quite quickly! I still need some practice sewing a cylindar together... but it turned out cute for our little man!

Here's my cut pieces. Really, all you'll do is sew the sides together to get a tube, sew the top and then the brim. You'll then put the two sides together and sew the edge of the brim together, turn it and top stitch it.

Sewing the top and brim on were probably the hardest. It helps to divide it up and if your fabric and just a little stretch to it. I think I only sewed one pleat into the top.. whoops. I want to make another soon, so this was good practice!

The finished red side --which hubby thinks is to girly-- so maybe I should have added an something to make it more boyish. Oh well.

The finished denim side! So easy to match! It also added structure, so I didn't use any interfacing. If you didn't use a stiff fabric on one side, I would definately recommend using interfacing on all of it!

I did add a step to the instructions. I added a little darn where the seams met to keep the sides from moving around and making it reverse a little bit easier. If you look closely where the seams met at the top, you can see a little more red thread. That's it. Not even noticeable.

New Books!

I'm getting my craft on. I have a few pictures to show of a skirt I made, but it's not all ready yet.

Michael bought me this sewing book for my birthday.... and I finally got it. Seriously, I was lucky because the estimated delivery date was May 26, and he ordered it May 6. Gotta Love Free Shipping on Amazon.

But I love it! The pictures are great! And she has lots of good instruction for basic sewing. Some things I can skip ove and some things, like how to make bias tape, I get all giddy about because I don't know how.

When I made Landen's car tote, I didn't know how to use piping and corner it. She has instructions! Wahoo!

There are some cute patterns I'm going to have to try out too. Like her decorative pillows, but since that's on my list of things to make this summer-- I'm definately on that one!

While I was perusing The Sewing Bible at Barnes and Noble, my mom said she had a sewing book from her college days that she would just give me. Guess what? It's pretty good too. In fact, it's one that homemadebyjill has blogged about before.

It's got great clothes-making, pattern following instructions. While I'm not sure I'm going to dive into making clothes, I think it will come in handy. It also goes into more detail about pressure foots, and types of needles, threads, and other notions and when to use them. Which, I could use a little help one.

And now I'm a sewing encyclopedia.

Which is good, because I want to sew more and better. But it's bad because I can't find my universal pressure foot.... and therefore can't go try some of these out!!