Rainy Day Thank Yous

Wow, today is a fall day! Yesterday I used my car's air conditioning and today I used its heater! I was hoping for another nice day to sit outside at some park and read in the sun, but oh well! Instead I spent a few hours making baby shower thank yous!

A Little Dress for Haly

A few months ago when my mom and I were at Pacific Fabrics looking for diaper cover supplies, I discovered that they had a cute Oliver + S pattern on their clearance rack! I had been admiring their cute little girl dress patterns on their site for a few weeks, but didn't want to pay full price. Since I've been granted some sitting-up privileges by my doctor, I've spent a few hours over a couple days cutting and sewing the Tea Party Dress together.

The pattern came with 5 sizes, so I started by tracing th pattern onto a pattern sheet so I can use other sizes as I want them. I decided to go for the 6-12 month size this time, hoping that it will fit Haly next summer. If not, then I'll put a onesie under it and call it a jumper! This was a pretty basic pattern to cut and sew. The hardest part of the instructions to understand was the part about the yellow piping I added. If you've sewed much before, you should be able to figure it out without really needing the pattern instructions. One change I made was to not use buttons or make button holes. Instead, I again used my amazing 16mm snaps from the Snap Source.

My favorite part about this project is the main fabric I used! It is a cute little Strawberry Shortcake print from 1980 left over from something my Grandmother made, most likely for a cousin. I've had it in my stash for years and loved it, but never quite knew what to do with it. I still have more that I'm trying to find some cute project to use more of it.

Halcyone's Hexagon Bib

I saw a picture of a bib someone had made with hexagons that I got my idea from. I have no idea where the picture came from, but here is what I ended up with!

I started by making hexagons. This meathod is called English Paper Piecing. This video is an excellent tutorial if you want to give it a try! Here are the steps I followed:

• Make evenly shaped hexagons out of cardstock scraps.
• Cut fabric scraps to go over the paper. I'd recommend a little more than a 1/4" allowance.
• Baste the fabric over the hexagons.
• Lay the hexagons out to make sure you have the colors set up in a way you like.
• Whip stitch the edges of the hexagons together at the edges.
• Iron once they're all sewn together
• Remove baste stitching and pull out papers. If the papers don't look too worn, you can save and use them again.

Once I had the hexagons all sewn together, I cut a piece of fabric and sewed it across the top. I used a piece of an old skirt for the back. To get the pieces to stick together for when I cut out the pattern, I very lightly spray basted the backing, a piece of warm and natural cotton batting, and the hexagon piece together. After it dried, I pinned a pattern I made (I traced a Carter's bib, making the neck space a little bigger.) to the fabric stack and cut it out. I machine quilted the layers together. For the binding I used some bias cut binding made from more scraps I had. To finish it up, I used some great 16mm snaps (no sew!) from the Snap Source. Now I can't wait to use it!

Little Booties

A few weeks ago I found out that Anna Maria Horner's new book, Homemade Beginnings, had released! I ordered it at a nice discount from Amazon and when it arrived, started looking through it for fun ideas. It's a book full of maternity, baby, toy, and nursery patterns. I haven't decided which ones I'm going to make for Baby Luce yet, but I do have a friend's baby shower coming up. I made two sets of these cute little booties in size 3-6 months this evening. For the most part, they were pretty basic to cut and sew. This is the second time I've felt that Anna Maria Horner's patterns have an awkward way of assembling a lining, but in the end I made it work! I used flannel to line the burgundy set with, and am super happy with their fluffiness.