Woodland Creature Baby Gear!

These little guys made it onto some baby gear I made for a co-worker of Ryan's. She is having a girl, but loathes the color pink. She and her husband are into the outdoors and more natural themes. So, I decided to go with woodland creatures. I forgot to take photos using my actual camera, so these aren't the greatest as I took them last minute with my phone....

On the left is a pacifier leash with a hedgehog on it. This hedgehog took me waaaay too long to sew by hand. I created the pattern first. I sewed the top layers of blue and tan together first, then embroidered on the cream quills (not sure if that is what they are called), eyes, and nose. then I stitched that piece to a slightly larger piece of brown felt. And finally, I did a blanket stitch to attach a second piece of brown felt to give it some bulk. So cute!

Attaching the hedgehog to the suspender clip was tricky and I need to perfect my methods. You can see the slight dimpling where I stitched through the blue felt which I don't love. 

The second little guy is a fox that embroidered with cream and black thread. I coated him on all edges with fray check, ironed him dry and them sewed him onto the front piece of the bib prior to sewing the layers together. I used a wood grain cotton for both projects and love how it looks with the animals!! Simple, but cute and funky all at the same time. There is nothing girly about these, but they aren't boyish either....I hope!

My tag is sewn to the back of both items as well. For the bib, I did a cream terry cloth backing with an extra layer of tan flannel in between to make it more absorbent and sturdy. It has a snap closure and I still swear by the tutorial I posted HERE.

The real lesson I learned while making these things is that sometimes I need to better manage my time, or do things a little differently in the interest of time. At some point (way in the future) I would love to make and sell things and I will never make any amount of money if it takes me several hours to complete one pacifier leash!! I'll get faster too with time, but still, I could be more efficient for sure.

Star Wars Baby...There is no try, only do.

A friend of mine brought me an adorable Onesie that features the Star Wars logo. It no longer fit her daughter and she wanted to know if I could turn it into a bib for her. As a big Star Wars fan myself, I said yes and set to work. The material itself was a super thin knit and tough to work with. I used fusible interfacing on the back of the knit to keep it from stretching while sewing and to prevent the edges from curling. I backed it with white terry cloth.  Here is the final product, it turned out well despite the sizing and fabric issues.

The neck came out a little on the small side, so I opted to use thin elastic rather than a snap closure.

After making the bib, my nerdiness couldn't be contained. I needed to sew her baby the ultimate girl accessory to go with her awesome new Star Wars bib....Here is what I ended up with.

I am not exactly sure how they will fit a baby's head yet. I wanted the buns to fit over the ears and not having a baby myself, and it being late at night when I made the headband, I couldn't think of a way to test it out at my house. I used scraps of fleece and the buns came together in no time. Two tubes of brown fleece with a strip of scrap blue fleece in the middle to make them more full looking. 

 They took me a little while to sew together by hand, but I didn't trust hot glue when I was giving them to someone. I will try glue on the next one and report back. Hopefully they work out and I will have a picture of baby Princess Leia soon. If it doesn't fit I will take it back and rework it. It was a fun experiment and I think they are hilarious!

Baby Bibs

 As someone who is just starting out in the world of sewing I knew I wanted to create gifts for others. These bibs were fairly simple in their overall design. I have to admit that while the design was simple, these took a looooong time for me to finish. A few choice words may have slipped out as I taught myself how to put on snaps and applique and just sew! Ryan and Rhubarb were likely scared for their lives more than once, but I eventually triumphed and feel like I have the process down...for the most part!

Completed Bib

The front is a red and white polka-dot pattern

The owl applique I designed took some time. I embroidered the eyes and beak and then used fusible adhesive to attach the owl to the bib. Then I straight stitched around the owl and did the wings in a sort of free hand manner, going over the same line multiple times.  

I used Terrycloth on the back and attached my Midwestern*Molly tag prior to stitching the front and back together. I used a tutorial I found online to print on fabric using my inkjet printer. I will look for the link and post it. 

 This is the second in the series, a set I made for an upcoming baby shower gift.

Both bibs close using snaps and I like the finished look it gives the final product. Confession: I went through SEVERAL sets of snaps before these came out looking normal. I need to do more research on snap setting. There must be some sort of trick that the directions failed to mention.Despite the frustration, I will definitely be making more bibs in the future!