Posts Tagged ‘Baby’

No Man is an Island

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This weekend was awful & awesome all at the same time. Chris is in Canada hiking the Vancouver Island trail with his family (read: ZERO cell service for a week), the car won’t start, it’s raining cats & dogs & we ran out of formula on Sunday (the problem with buying bulk – I always think there’s one can left). To add to all that stress, I had volunteered to teach a Sunday school lesson to 30 elementary-aged kiddos at church.

On Saturday I was planning on taking Penelope & Felix out to the movies for a kid date when the car wouldn’t start. It’s been a little sluggish lately, but this time the engine wouldn’t even turn over. We sat in the car for probably 45 minutes, just praying that it would work & it was some silly thing that was keeping the car from starting. We gave up & went inside. Penelope was so upset that the car was broken. As was I. We ended up eating dinner while watching Pingu on Netflix; not the special night at the movies I had envisioned.

When I finally came to terms that I wouldn’t be driving anywhere soon, I decided that Felix’s car seat needed a little update. Of course, just after I took apart his old car seat cover I realized that he would need to use it to get to church. Crap. I stayed up until about 2am finishing the cover & prepping for church. Exhausting. I’m happy with the cover now – the orange biased tape & the herringbone plaid are much more my style than the previous cover. Why is there such a disconnect between car seat covers & cool designs? Now that the cover is done I really want to replace the webbing with either orange or brown & paint the plastic orange or brown. Do I dare? Probably not. I’ll still probably make an attachable fabric blanket cover thingy – you know the ones that attach to the handle. I think a bolder pattern is in order, though.

Sunday went really well. We got rides to & from church, the kids were awesome for my lesson, my sister brought me more formula and my brother-in-law helped me with the car. The car still wouldn’t start with a jump, so he connected it to a trickle charger & we’ll just have to wait & see if that fixes the problem. Crazy thing, we just took it in for the 80,000 mile check up & there was NO mention of any battery/starter problems.

Long story longer, I was looking forward to some serious alone time during Chris’s vacation. I was thinking that I’d be able to get so much done during nap time & bed time. While that’s still a possibility, I’ve realized that this week will be impossible without the support of friends & family. It’s been really hard not being able to talk to Chris, one thing I completely overlooked. Hello, Melissa! Hikes usually mean no cell service. I miss him terribly.

I can’t help but think of all the wives (or husbands) of those serving in the Military. My hat goes off to you.

An Old Before & After

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I’m SO tired. Last night (this morning, rather) I didn’t go to bed until 4:30. Why? Oh, no reason. I just wanted to veg out a little & work on a little redesign. When Penelope greeted me this morning with her happy, smiling face I wondered why the heck I went to bed so late. It’s like I’m in college all over again. I was planning on making my leather camera strap & sharing that with you, but I’m going to take a nap instead.

I will, however share with you a little project I did about 3 years ago & never blogged about. I refinished a boppy pillow that a friend gave me. It was a light blue velvet hand-me-down that was uglier than sin (like this one, but blue). Why are so many baby products covered in velvet/velour? IT GETS SO GROSS!! Formula/breastmilk & baby bodily fluids DON’T play nicely with velvet. I never took a before picture and I threw out that old velvet cover as quickly as I could.

Covering this pillow was a lot easier than I thought it would be. I covered this pillow with upholstery weight cotton material (found at Fabmo). I just took the old cover, flattened it and used it as a guide to cut the fabric & sewed them together. I thought I’d be clever & put the zipper on the inside curve. I didn’t want to see a zipper; but as it turns out, putting a zipper on the inside of a curve makes it nearly impossible to put the pillow form in the case. I think I fought with the pillow for about 40 minutes to get the cover on. That’s okay though. I’ll gladly pay that price to avoid a yucky velvet cover.

Purple People Eater

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Last Friday, one of Penelope’s friends had a birthday party. The theme was purple (Maren’s favorite color), and we all dressed up in purple – it was sort of a purple people eater theme. Genius idea, right?

In honor of the purple party I made Maren a little purple creature thing with some of the remaining bits of fabric I still have from my favorite SF bay area event: Fabmo. It’s been such a long time since I’ve made a stuffed creature, I forgot how easy & fun they are to make. As soon as I got my sewing machine to work correctly, this purple people creature took about 15 minutes to make. I used a brightly colored canvas material for the body, velvet embroidery thread for the “hair” and a fabric paint pen for the facial features & tramp stamp.

Did you make anything fun this weekend? Please share!

A Newly Improved Poopy Clutch Tutorial

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I had to make myself another poopy clutch (the old one was misplaced) and thought I could do much better than the tutorial/pattern I gave you last year. Without any further ado, I give you THREE versions of the old tutorial!! The new patterns are smaller and still fit up to 3 size 4 diapers plus a travel wipes case!! Very convenient for undercover diaper bags (aka purses).

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Materials Notes:

It might be useful to note where my supplies can be found. Button studs, Leather (you’ll want 2-3 ounce leather for this project) and hole punches can be found online at tandyleatherfactory.com, or check out their store locator for the store nearest you. (I sound like an advertisement, but seriously they have everything.)

As seen below, you can also use leather, vinyl or fused plastic. The folks at Etsy labs have a great tutorial on fusing plastic bags. I’ve seen some really cool fused bag projects.

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Leather Poopy Clutch

The No-sew Version
Similar to last year’s pattern, this pattern is optimized for leather, vinyl or fused plastic. No sewing required!

Click here to download the Normal Poopy Clutch Instructions

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The No-Sew Version + SCALLOPED EDGE
This version is my personal favorite. It’s just like the first, it’s made for leather, vinyl or fused plastic, but with a decorative scalloped edge to add a little flirty flair to those messy diapering sessions. No sewing required.

Click here to download the Scalloped Edge Poopy Clutch Instructions

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Sewn Fabric Version
Can’t find leather or vinyl? Wanting to use up your ever-growing fabric stash?!? This pattern is for fabric, complete with instructions for two different edges.

Click here to download the Normal Poopy Clutch Sewing Instructions

Introducing Oleo Vonvurstenberg and Leather Baby Booties

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Remember our little shadow friend that came to visit? Well, I decided to make him a reality, sans toothpick. I used smooth silk/linen fabric from fabmo (so soft for a little baby) for the body and velvet embroidery thread for the details. Velvet embroidery thread, while not cheap, is hands down my favorite to work with. It’s just so yummy! Without any further ado, I’d like to introduce you to Oleo Vonvurstenberg. He’s sweet, always happy to see you and loves curious little babies.

Oleo Vonvurstenberg

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I also made a pair of regal baby booties in black. Leather. I just love this bitty booties pattern from Heather Bailey, it’s so easy to hand sew and even easier on the sewing machine.

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