Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Homemade Birthday Gifts

We have had a few kiddo birthday parties to attend lately... rather than buying toys or clothes (which are great too in their own way) I've made gifts for the birthday boy/girl.

The inspiration came from these blogs - The Long Thread, Sew Like My Mom and Make It and Love It -all of these I originally found on Pinterest.

My daughter's friend Aubrey turned three recently and I thought a special crown and superhero cape would be a great gift.  I found the tutuorials here Dress Up Crown and here Superhero Cape.








Here's my little Super Girl modeling the cape & crown




The directions were good, although I did get a bit confused with one of the steps on the cape... I ended up making it work though and was happy with how everything turned out.  It was my first experience doing applique too.  Although there was some 'gathering' around the heart I think it looks good - next time I'll try and find some heavier weight solid fabric for the exterior.  I made a slight change on the crown too - I ended up sewing on a longer strip of velcro so it would be even more adjustable.  (I didn't know how big/little the birthday girls' head was - thought this was an easy solution!

The other gifts I made were for a little boy who turned one.  I saw this idea for washcloth bibs and thought 'what an awesome idea'!  Super absorbent and easy to wash!!!  SIMPLE too!
Source:  Sew Like My Mom

Here is a link to the tutorial Washcloth Bibs  I bought an eight pack of washcloths in a gender neutral turquoise at Target for $3.49 and used three of the eight to give to the birthday boy.  (The others I'm hoping I can use to make bibs for my youngest daughter - she's set to try solids soon and I KNOW how messy that can be!)



The bibs turned out great.  I used fabrics that I already had in my stash - so fun to see these great boy prints being used since I'm usually making 'girl-friendly' items!  I hope these bibs will be a huge hit with Patrick's Mommy & Daddy too!

I also made my version of this adorable Valentine's shirt:
Source:  Make It and Love It Monster Shirt

I found an inexpensive t-shirt at WalMart for about $4 and then used scraps from my fabric stash.  Another first - I used fusible adhesive for the first time!  I initially was super confused by the vague directions but thankfully figured it out!




This turned out AWESOME!  I wish I'd found a solid colored t-shirt but the stripes are pretty fun too.  Because I didn't have a white tshirt underneath the monster applique I added white felt to make the mouth.  I also used black felt for the monster's eye balls since this shirt was for a little guy and I didn't think buttons would be very smart.  Other changes I made:  I had extra green fabric so I added a green heart on the back of the shirt.  I also used a fabric pen to handwrite the 'be mine' rather than using freezer paper and making a stencil... a little bit of laziness on my part!

I love how all these projects turned out!

Friday, February 3, 2012

My January in Pictures


I did a really fun challenge this last month called "January Photo A Day"Challenge that I heard about from the blog:  House of Smiths.  It gave this list of pictures to take - one a day for the entire month:

I wasn't always great about taking the picture on it's assigned day but it was easy to catch up...  the challenges aren't anything extravagant like some crazy scavenger hunt where you're running around town looking for some obscure item to take a photo of.  The pictures were simple things but you could think out of the box too.  Maybe this will help me with my photog skills?!
Here's a look back at my month of January:
I also found this cool App to use: my365. The pics above:
Day 1: you
Day 2: breakfast
Day 3: Something you Adore
Day 4: Letterbox
Day 5:  Something You Wore (in FL!  It was cold that week...)
Day 6:  Makes You Smile (a date night with my hubby - dinner theater!)
Day 7:  Favourite (some of my fabric stash faves)
Day 8:  Your Sky


I misplaced one photo - Day 9 is "Routine" - I took a pic of my steering wheel.... I'm ALWAYS driving so looking at my steering wheel in my car has DEFINITELY become routine!  :)

Day 10:  Childhood (a charm bracelet my Mom recently found and sent me)
Day 11:  Where You Sleep (I don't get nearly enough time in here...)
Day 12:  Close-Up  (check out those lovely bags under my eyes)

Day 13:  In Your Bag
Day 14: Something You're Reading (some light reading.... )
Day 15:  Happiness (look at those CHEEKS!!!)
Day 16:  Morning (an early trip to the park)
Day 17:  Water
Day 18: Something You Bought (these great little birdhouses for my little to paint)

Day 19:  Sweet
Day 20: Someone You Love (my awesome husband)
Day 21:  Reflection
Day 22:  Your Shoes (my absolute favorite pair)
Day 23:  Something Old (this was given to me by my Grandma - it's the last piece from my Great-Great Grandmother's bridal tea set - check out the date!  1888!!!)
Day 24: Guilty Pleasure  (Pinterest)
Day 25: Something You Made
Day 26: Colour
Day 27: Lunch
Day 28: Light
Day 29: In Your Fridge
Day 30: Nature
Day 31: You. Again


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