Octopus Baby Bedding

I finished my crib bedding a couple of weeks ago and have yet to post pictures to show off all my handiwork! I picked up a pattern for the bumper and bed skirt, and made a quilt and bed sheet from my own design.

Tutus

A couple of my family members are having girls so I decided to make little baby tutus. They are adorable for pictures and just plain girlie fun. I found a ton of tutorials online if you'd like to make one of your own. The first one I made on the left I used twice the amount of tulle by doubling up the layers as I tied it around the waistband it turned out super cute and HUGE. I'll probably cut it down in length so it won't swallow the baby. The one to the right is single layered and a little less full. You can see how I alternated the colors from the shot in the center. I had Judah try one on as a collar but he wasn't in the mood to pose for a photo, bummer.

The Baby Cage

I picked up the crib on Saturday morning up in Carlsbad. It is everything I hoped it would be. Margarita and her 4 year old daughter Selena were super nice and helped me to load it into the back of my car. It barely fit! The thing is freakin HUGE! It came with all the parts in perfect condition and includes crib, mattress, toddler rail, and base boards for the full bed conversion. All in all it would be around $1000+ if we purchased it brand new. I came home and set it up myself in under an hour. Pretty easy to assemble and it looks great in the corner of our bedroom until he is a little older and we'll move him into the other bedroom.

Now I am working on finding some really cool fabrics to make the bedding for it. I want it to coordinate with the colors on my bedspread which is orange and white. As with everything I'm purchasing for him I don't want it to be to kiddy or cartoonish, ie Winnie the Pooh. I like the idea of using a color theme of turquoise, lime green, white, orange, and brown. Kind of a tropical feel. Here are some fabrics I like.

Derby Day Onsie

Another cute little gown to add to my collection. I had heard at a baby shower that these were great to have on hand because you don't have to fumble with buttons or pants and they are easy on/off.

So Many Projects, So little Time!

Growing up I was surrounded by arts & crafts. My mother and grandmother were both very crafty, hands on, project type ladies... So it's only natural I follow in their footsteps. My grandma (my mom's mom) only lived a block away so I would walk to her house almost every day growing up to go paint ceramics. She had the whole setup, tons of paints and brushes, and even a kiln to fire the finished pieces in. It was so fun and year after year we would paint different little decorations for all the holidays. She was SUPER into holidays, but more on that in another post ;)

My mom was always into sewing projects. She too made everything under the sun holiday related. Stuffed life sized skeletons, reindeer wall hangings, and quilts for every season decorated our house year round. It was always cool to see what she would come up with next, and still is. So now that I have a "reason" to finally jump on the crafting bandwagon I can't stop it! I am in the middle of at least three projects excluding all the orders I fulfill at work.

The first project is a baby quilt I'm making out of blue, green, black, brown, and white patterned materials. It is my first quilt and I think it is coming along quite nicely. So far I have it all sewn together and have the sides evened up, I just need to buy some backing material and sew on a border and stitch it all together. I thought it up after not loving anything on the market as far as baby bedding goes, so I thought I'd do it myself.

Another cool project I'm working on is to embroider some blank baby onsies. I've hand embellished stuff before but never with any fancy stitches so I've been doing some research. I came across this cool site called Sublime Stitching and they have tons of patterns and designs you can order off there site. But being the I-want-it-right-now and I-don't-want-to-pay kind of person I decided to make my own patterns. After much thought on what would look cute on my little boy I've decided on doing an alphabet design across the front with a different color for each letter. First I hand drew the alphabet and then I scanned it in and traced it in Illustrator. Now I have to figure out how to reverse it and iron it onto the onsie to get a guide for my stitches. I'll post more pictures as the project nears completion.

Baby Vintage Reconstruction

I have been dabbling in designing baby clothes since I now have the opportunity to outfit a little one. I made this baby onsie using a vintage tee from the store and made a pattern from an outfit that I already had. It took the most time designing the pattern, but once that was done I did a mock up and then started working on this cute little thing. It turned out perfect! The tee was originally a XL long sleeve mens shirt with the mermaid on the front pocket area, and the waves on the back. Now I'm going to start looking through our old tees at home that we never wear anymore do to stains, or ill fitting size and turn them into baby clothes! I'll also make a pattern for a long sleeve, t-shirt style, and make them in a few different sizes. Once I get a few made up I may even advertise to make custom ones for sale. FUN!