Repairing elastic in Smartipants

We all know that I use cloth diapers, and I love them.  But after so many washings and tons of abuse elastic can begin to wear out, just like any article of clothing.  I searched the web for a tutorial for repairing Smartipants (my favorite brand and the majority of my stash) elastic but couldn't find one, so I'm making one!

Now before you proceed...  following these steps WILL DESTROY YOUR WARRENTY! So if you still have your warranty contact Smartipants FIRST!  If, like me, it was already shot due to using baking soda or something in the wash, then continue.  Or, if you don't care about destroying your warranty and just want it fixed today. 

DIY Camera softie

No I did not create the original tutorial.  I found it here at Pink stitches which I found at Craft Gossip... If you don't know about Craft Gossip, you should!  And yes... you may just hate me for showing you.

I made this little orange camera for my niece's 3rd birthday gift.  My sister (her mother) is a professional photographer.  Her response on seeing the camera?  "It says Canon on it because it is well made!"  :P    Can you tell what brand all her cameras are?  :P

DIY Extreme Wet Bag

Our old wetbag. Great single pouch wet bag.

As I have said before... we use cloth diapers.  When you use cloth then you become introduced to SOOO many other neat things..  One of which is the "Wet Bag", which is basically a carry all for wet/dirty things.   I suggest one to any parent, even the 'sposie using ones.    They can be used to carry dirty cloth diapers, wet swim suits, dirty outfits of a potty-training toddler, etc.  home to be washed.

One year old! Both ways!

My big boy :)

Today Christopher is One year old gestationally.  June 17 was my due date.  He was born 15 months ago so he has been a "one year old" for 3 months now. Now when people ask me how old he is I can just say "one year" instead of " __ months old and __ months gestational"  and then have to go into the whole 1 trimester short explanation.

DIY baby food grinder case

Finished bag. Wait till you see all the features!

Lil'C has a Kidco Baby food grinder (edited to update link to new version by the same brand).  It works pretty good, but I dropped it the other day at church and snapped the latch on the case.  I decided I needed a working case, since we usually use it when out and about.   So, to the sewing room I went. 

I dream of...

Hopefully my mannequin won't be ruined in storage...

A full sewing space!
As I posted the other day.. we are currently staying with my parents until Big C can find a better job... (I wonder how many families are doing that right now...)  In our last house (rental) I had a room just for my sewing/crafts... I miss it..

Flats Challenge

We only partally praticipated in the challenge.  Lil' C did get some flats in his rotation.. Well .. flannel blanket "flats".

DIY babywearing sling

It's fun!

Monday I posted about Babywearing.  I have a tutorial for ya'll!! :D   DIY baby sling!

Flats Challenge

Lot's of wiggling going on

Next week is the DDL Flats Hand-washing Challenge.   For me it could not have come at a better time.  Lil' C is cutting teeth.  How does cutting teeth and a hand-washing challenge have anything to do with one another?  More than you would expect.  Cutting teeth causes ALOT of drool... Which in turn causes diarrhea... which causes some BAD diaper rash..  (Seriously... the last time his bum looked like this was when he had to wear Pampers Ultra Dry in the hospital).

Never Enough GREEN pins

I follow a blog named "No Big Dill" and she just got a new sewing studio, so she has making the whole room orange in a "Never Enough Orange" series.  I personally prefer Green!

Pin-stripe Jumper Tutorial!

I made a little pin-stripe jumper for Lil'C to wear for Easter.  The coolest thing about it?  It's reversible :D

To get the pattern for this jumper check out last week's post :D

"I need a pattern!" tutorial :)

Have you ever had one of those moments were your like.. "oh that is so cute!  If I only had the pattern..."  Well... If your creative, you don't necessarily have to have one!  :)  Granted I do suggest having a good sewing How-to book (This is the one I suggest, It's what I use!) since you won't have pattern instructions, and you may want to have a good seam ripper... Cuz you'll use it...

Gather your supplies :)

Make it Personal

Fun Blankets are the first way to make it yours

If your a long-term NICU resident like we were you will want to make your bed have some personality.  The longer you are there the more you will add to it.

T-Shirt Skirts!

Finally a tutorial right???

I caught a sale at hobby lobby on T-shirts and loaded up (I couldn't even buy the amount of fabric in the shirts for the price I got!! Somewhere around $1.. ) and I have been planing on making  a T-shrit dress and a skirt for me..  Well the T-shirt dress was a massive fail...  I tried to get creative with the top and used one of my current tops to size for it... the only problem is that the shirt I used is a little high in the bust.. and with the loose back of the T-shirt.. oh .. just so much fail... So the Dress ended up becoming 2 skirts.  :)  So, I ended up making 3 out of the deal.

Swaddling in a Womb with a view

Standard NICU position does not leave much room for comfort

When I began hunting preemie books I only found one that I recommend,  which is the Sear's book.  In it he refers to the incubator as a "womb with a view" and it made me smile, so I'll use it here :)
There is very little you can do when your baby is in a plastic womb, other than watch.  A few things that we found I'm going to share with you today.

Tea Rose Home Link Love

Tea Rose Home does a Link party once a week.   I figured I would join it this week.

Wanna Join?  What have you made lately?

Here is mine.  I got inspired by Made by Rae's Celebrate the Boy month and came up with these..  I plan on writing a tutorial soon!



Check out his little Jumper! He is hanging out with his cousin.

Jedi Bath Robe

For Christmas I made my DH a Jedi Bath Robe. I found the pattern on instructables.com
although I did make a few adjustments.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Sewing_a_JEDI_or_Harry_Potter_Robe_or_Cloak/
I got 4 yards of fabric... well my DH is not a small man.. I should have gotten 5. Because of this I had to make the hood in 3 parts. Each side & the front band (6" wide for 16" folded in half) I used a 1/2" hem all around.

The fun part of the project was getting the measurements... like I said it was a Christmas gift... I used one of hubby's dress shirts to get most of the measurements. I used my younger brother's head for hood measurements.
The biggest problem was getting the "top of shoulder to floor" & "underarm to floor" I enlisted the help of my father for that one. He was gonna kinna stand by hubby & "eyeball" where those spots fell on him so I could measure him instead. But instead of that... Hubby ended up coming inside & hugging me... so I kinna snuggled up to him & measured it on me :P apparently his underarm is right at my top shoulder height & the top of his shoulder is right under my chin.
Then I had to lock him out of the room to be able to sew it. I had to use my poor brother again to hem the bottom. It was pretty funny.. Hubby is 5'10", Brother is 6'2". Hubby is built like a football player... brother is built like a basket ball player... it was SOOOOOO funny to see him in the robe. I had to squish the shoulders us so that the hem fell flat.

Something that I had found out a few weeks ago... my thigh is the same around as my hubbys upper arm! Guess how I measured the fit of the arm holes :P yep.. wore the thing like pants. :P

I also added loops for the belt (added along the hemline)

and after all this... he figured out what it was before he opened it... *sigh* oh well. He LOVES the thing. It's very warm. I made it out of "No Pill Fleece" which I got at 50% off from Joanns (WOOTTT!!!)

Now hubby wants me to make another one... for the baby. I think I may just make a hooded towel.. 17 weeks down 23 weeks to go..

The Tetris Quilt

Images from the finished Tetris Quilt :) 

It took around a year to complete.  The blocks are machine stitched together but ALL of the quilting is done by hand.  the fabric are all different (I really only cared about the color) most of the fabrics were from my stash.  The large white area at the top was the only fabric bought just for this project.  It really gives it an interesting texture.  The back is was originally Navy blue King size Flat T-Shirt Sheet.  I have always found that sheets make the best quilt backs because you don't have to piece fabric together. I'm just happy it is finished :) 

Below are details of the stitching and the monogram I hand-stitched on the back before finishing the bottom edge.  It was my first monogram :) 

BTW: This quilt is for the same couple as the mario star blanket.  It's their wedding gift.  and you say.. "huh?, but I thought mario was a baby gift?"  it is.  They were married LAST December... yeah... Like I said, been working on it about a year.  Didn't realize it would take me this long. So, I get to give them their wedding and baby gift on the same day :D  this will be interesting.  They know I have been working on something but don't know what it is.  :)