Box pleated skirt!

Here is my first box pleated skirt, I just like the way it fits my daughter and can't wait to make one for my niece. I found this pattern on the site called www.fleecefun.com and it is free if you want to give it a try. I was having a hard time getting my pleated design to work, so I went looking for one to make to figure out what I am doing wrong. For her pattern you have to cut each piece and sew them together to make the pleats. For my pattern I was not making my pleat uniform in size, so I kept messing it up. When you have an impatient daughter it can get a little stressful. ( This could be why I sew when they are asleep or not around me.)

 I love her pattern but not the waist band, so I changed it. Instead of a thin elastic waist band, I had a ex-large elastic skirt band laying around..... Well I loved that look. I will take better pictures when I get a chance tomorrow, after I finish with work. I have a temp job taking care of some really great kids. I'll miss spending time with them once school starts.

Baby shower was fun plus more sheets!

The baby shower was a hit! My niece will be clothed until she is 6 months old. I'm sad and happy about that, was hoping to make her some clothing. Moving on to a brighter note; I have made two Pack n Play sheets! The theme is  jungle animals (of course) with polka-dots and a matching solid brown with polka-dots.  Please forgive the awful pictures, so need to find my camera.

 These are so cute because they are so little! I just love the way each one has turned out. I will be posting this set of sheets on eBay before the weekend.

 The next sheet is for an Ambi bed and just can't get enough of the Patty Reed jungle babies fabric.

 Have to say making sheets for  baby's bed is really easy and fast. Each sheet takes about 20- 30 minutes from start to finish, it takes me longer because I have to locate my sewing bags for each project.

Gift for new daddy!

So my sister's baby shower is a week away and I just got the baby's name on the blanket. However the father of the child now wants to change it, nice, huh? So I don't know if I should finish sewing the name onto the fleece or wait, but my sister says that's her name. So what should I do? Has anyone ever run into this issue?   On another note, here is his baby gift from me.  I know.... they are having a girl but he is such a broncos fan that even her older sister watches the games every Sunday. Now he has a soft and warm blanket to wrap her up in.

The blanket is made from 1 yard of patterned fleece with blanket binding. I love this binding because it is so soft and silky against the baby's skin. I folded the yard in half so it will be warm enough during football season. Then you place the blanket binding around all the edges and pin in place. Make sure to not make the edges meet at the corner. it is very hard to get the binding to stay just right when you sew. Once everything is pinned sew using a blanket stitch (if your machine has one) or a wide zigzag stitch. Wow! its just that easy and the special daddy won't mind whenever you drop by. ;)

No sewing or designing makes me very sad.

So life has been very crazy around here! I have not had much time to post or do any sewing, which is so very bad.  I have the general idea of the pleated skirt dress ready and still need to draft the pattern for the skirt. The last two weeks have gone by in a rush of job searches and stressing over student loans which are due here soon. Yikes, the total repayment amount is that of a 3 bedroom apartment in the city. Before the craziness began I was working on the lettering for my sister's baby blanket. They have chosen a long first name with 9 letters. So after printing out the name in different fonts, I have decided to go with white flocked letters against the pink jersey knit. It will look great against the pink fleece, maybe I can get it done tonight.

 Just to refresh your memory, above is the fleece and below is the  pink rib knit.

Here is flocked letters I will be using. And I got them on clearance, YAY!

Now let's see if I can do this without upsetting the two new additions to house. Oh yeah, today my brother drop his dogs off for a couple of weeks why they find a place and move in.

 

New swim suit for my picky 8 year old.

Note to self when packing up a swim suit make sure you have all the pieces in one box. I have been searching for the bottoms to her suit as the summer days heat up by 830 am. Well after weeks of looking through boxes and boxes, I'm giving up and trying my hand at making one. So I sat down and traced a pair of her undies, made  a mock-up and did a fitting. The first mock-up was too short in back area with her crack showing. From there I made a better pattern with a new mock-up which fit great! Now it's time to cut and sew the real thing from swim suit/ dance wear fabric in neon green. It's doesn't look like neon green with the web cam, but it is (I so need my camera back.)

 

This goes back to packing things that go together in one box, one day I will learn my lesson (Battery charger and battery go together).  So the first try in the swim suit material needs to be fix the elastic is too loose and back to the sewing machine I go!

So this is the swimsuit bottom before I fix it. Once I get the elastic pulled off I will redo it and update the post.

Love the sheets!

Here is the first and second sheets for my sister's baby shower gift.  I can't wait to see the sheets in her nursery.  Again I used the instructions on the site Dana Made It and it is so simple to do. The only thing I did different was shortened the elastic in the jungle print and it worked great. The sheet is snug and tight with no worries  of the sheet coming off the bed during sleep. 

First crib sheet is done!

Here is the crib sheet and its finally finished. I love this print, which I found at Wal-Mart for 5.45 a yard. I found the tutorial at http://www.danamadeit.com/2008/07/tutoria

l-crib-and-toddler-bed-sheets.html#comment-210010. This site has so much great information for anything sewing. Check out her site and whip one up today. The sheet was really easy to make as along as you cut it the right length. It would have only taken 30 minutes if I had not put it up for the night. Once I put things away they tend to disappear on me.  The next sheet I am making has some really cute animals on it, I just need to wash it first. It takes two yards of your favorite fabric cut to length of your mattress and enough elastic to stretch around your mattress. Dana from Made really did a great job explaining this so I'm going to refer you back to her site. I love this fabric so much she may get a dust ruffle too. I have more baby things to make today, like a monkey flannel blanket. It is plain white with brown monkey outlines which I plan on coloring a pastel pink with Fabric Markers by Marvy Uchida  and Sharpie. I ended up using four colors; bright and pastel pink then a pastel and dark purple. Then I will cut it to receiving blanket size and hopefully there will be enough for wipes, too. Back to work I go!