Dish Towels

Again, these were Christmas presents that I finished a few weeks ago and couldn't share until now! I found these cute tea towels at Ben Franklin and decided to embellish them with some fun fabric from my stash and extra wide rick-rack. I measured the towel width, cut the fabric 1 inch longer in either direction, and ironed down 1/2 inch on each side. I stitched them down all the way around about 1/8 inch from each edge, stuffing the rick-rack in as I went. If you try this, make sure to wash both the towels and the fabric you'll be using ahead of time since they both shrink, but at different rates!

Birdie Pin Cushions

I worked on these earlier in the month, but couldn't post them because they were Christmas gifts! I found the pattern in an older issue of Quilts and More. They were super easy and fun to put together. The hardest part was finding a heavy enough wooden spool to keep them from tipping over!

Dyed Burp Clothes

I finished a few of these a couple months before Halcyone was born, and a few I put together last week. We use these ALL the time!

I got white Gerber cloth diapers from Babies R Us and used the following steps:

1. Wash the diapers (I did a few onesies too!) on hot once, wash on cold once, dry in hot heat. This sets the size and gets the diapers all fluffy.

2. Get the dye ready. I used Dylon for Hand Use from JoAnn fabrics and was super happy with the result... much better than Rit. Empty the dye into a pan, adding the hot water as directed on the package. Be careful with the dye; it's pretty fine and can easy float around. Stir, making sure the dye is dissolved.

3. Fill your sink or a large pot with warm tap water, dissolving the salt as the dye package directs. Add the pan of dye water, stirring until it's all combined.

4. Add up to 4 items to the dye in the sink. 4 is kind of pushing the limit for a dark dye, but I think 3 works out well. The fewer items, the more concentrated the color will be. Make sure the items are all well submerged and that there are no air bubbles hiding underneath. Set the timer for 15 minutes and let soak.

5. Stir when the timer beeps. Reset the timer and stir again 3-4 more times, dyeing them for an hour or so. The longer you leave them in the brighter they'll be.

6. Drain the sink and rinse everything well in cold water. I'd say it takes about 10 minutes of rinsing. Rinse until the water runs clear. (Note, with the reds I was never able to get the water completely clear, just a very very slight pink coming out.)

7. Wash again! Wash in cold then hot and dry.

8. Next up, prepare scraps of fabric to sew down the thick center part of the diapers. I had to measure each one individually because the centers were all slightly different sizes. I found that fat quarters were just long enough to work. Measure the width of the inner seams and the length. Add 1 inch to both and cut the cutesie fabric. Iron each edge under 1/2".

9. Pin the fabric onto the diaper in a few places to keep it tacked down. Sew with a zig-zag stitch, just inside the fabric, not on the diaper at all (except obviously on the back!).

Ta-Da! There you go! Super easy and fun.