Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Boy Blessing outfit

    You may have seen in earlier blog posts that I sewed my daughter a blessing gown out of my old OLD wedding dress and my niece the same with her mom's dress. For my son, I wanted him to look cute and not wear one of those all in one things you always see.  I LOVE the vest and tie combo, so I went with that.  I hoped I could find some fabric that was white that wasn't a weird texture or just plain cotton.  I had no luck and then remembered I still had satin left over from my dress.

    I found a little button up onesie from children's place on sale with free shipping for under $8 and thought it would be dumb to NOT get it.  less work for me! I bought this vest pattern on etsy that is reversible, has nb-5t in the pattern I got, and she also sells a 6t-? size next. I KNEW I would use the pattern again so It was a no brainer to buy it. YAY! my first boy pattern! lol!
 
     The pattern was easy to follow until you get to the almost done stage when the back bottom is still open.  Yes, I used my seam ripper and did it wrong the first time.  NOW that I know what to do it will be easy and fast to make more. Don't look too closely, my pockets aren't on straight and the buttons aren't perfect either.  I made a nb size and just hope he isn't a huge boy that won't fit!

     I quickly made a little bowtie referencing several bowtie tutorials online I could find.  For one this tiny I just eyeballed the size and went with it.  it is just a velcro in the back kind.  I may need to adjust it once I try this on him.


      When it came to doing the pants, I had hardly any fabric left and started to panic.  I found this easy pattern online that is free and used every piece of satin i had left that was big enough. The pants were unfortunately short so I needed to add length to them the only way I could.  I added a cuff on the bottom.  I HATE the way it looks, but it works and I don't think anyone will honestly notice.  :) I often hear i'm too hard on myself and it's true.  I need to just chill and admire that I can make stuff! :)  
    Now I can't wait to see him and his daddy on his blessing day! :) I'm sure he will be one proud papa! 


Diaper bag

   
 Yes, ANOTHER diaper bag! It seems like with each baby I want a new better one. One that is more fashionable, more practical, bigger, smaller......and I have not loved one yet. I fell in love with bags on etsy that cost 100.00 and up, but thought I could try and make a similar bag with less zippers and things. I bought some fabric that cost around $13.00. I had fusible fleece already, then went to Joann's with two coupons to buy magnetic snap, big metal rings and some stiff interfacing. I spent about $11.00 there. THEN I needed more fabric for pockets. Sigh, another $4.00 later I had everything I needed.

    I used this pattern to make it found on etsy. I did the strap a little different because I could not find the sliders anywhere!! It is a set length and I also widened it to be 1 1/2" wide finished.  It also has stiff interfacing in it as well as the interior of the bag.

   On the inside I did my own thing as far as pockets go.  I love having lots of pockets and am happy with how much I can probably fit in here.  It will be a great and cute bag to use.  I'm just so afraid it will get filthy dirty fast! oh well! :) I love it! 

My little BOY's nursery

I am so in LOVE with this little room! 
    Since my last post about making the crib bedding and quilt top, I have been hard at work making my vision of this room come true! I think I got it perfect! I started by picking a wall color that would go well with the tan we already have throughout our house. My husband and I picked a grey color that wasn't necessarily in the crib bedding or anything, but it works and is perfect.  It ALSO makes the room feel twice as big.  It is a pretty tiny room and I was afraid it would be too dark if I went with a darker color.

    Next I painted the garage sale dresser the same blue as is in the bedding and re-stained the top of the dresser to match the crib. I then Asked my husband ... more like begged (lol) to attach my antlers to the drawers to act as drawer pulls.  that turned out to be more complicated than I thought.  Thank goodness for men who know tools and stuff.  That's one of those things I want to learn so I don't have to ask for help.
   

The Scentsy warmer just fits in this room better than I hoped.  It was in my husband's office but he won't mind. :) It is the angler warmer. 
Along with painting everything I tracked down an old school projector, and printed off some silhouettes I Googled off the internet. I cut each tiny silhouette out carefully and ceran wrapped them onto the top of the projector.  Then I traced the shapes on the walls and painted them on.  Sure sure, and easier way is to just buy vinyl and have them put on the wall, but each silhouette would have cost a lot of money.  I was trying to do all of this on a budget, and I succeeded! 
This bear reminds me of my Montana middle school mascot. He just looks like a cute little bear cub! 


      I wanted a cool deer laying down under the window, so I went with the only picture I could find online. After it was all painted on, my husband came in and said that's one of those tiny African deer. My heart sank.  I just spent FOREVER painting the wrong type of deer on the wall!!!?! his antlers were so tiny I ended up using my makeup brush to paint them in. After ALMOST losing it, I just said oh well and left it alone.  

     The next day I kept wishing I had included a moose in the mix, so I did a moose too.  I added extra big knees just because I think of moose as being silly, big, awkward and gangly.  :) 

     The "Our little man" picture on the wall was just an etsy purchase that you can print off on your pinter at home.  I got it here. The woman was awesome to work with and made a dirt bike just for me. :) I took an old frame we had laying around and painted it with acrylic paint then scuffed it up with sand paper a little.  Perfect! 


I also made a valance to go in his room.  I had some navy fabric already and an old white sheet I used to line with back with.  I figured chevrons on back too would not look very cool once the sun came through it. 

    I did end up buying some vinyl and am so happy I did. It was the main thing behind the design of this room.  It was one of the last things to go up and it just pulled everything together. LOVE IT! Thank you Ashleigh for helping me out! 

    Some other touches I added to the room were: 

        To make this little arrow pillow, I just took some scrap fabric I had after making the bedding and hand painted some arrows on with acrylic paint.  It looks like a 5 year old did it, but that is what makes it look cool.  The color is also the bedskirt color and in the crib bedding. I used navy and white to do a little edging, and stuffed it full! Ta Dah! 
   I sorta fell in love with the Bearfoots figurines, but can't justify spending $35+ on a decoration that is 5" tall, but I did love this lightswitch cover and HAD to have it. I got it on amazon for under $10.00 

   I had a boppy pillow that I made a cute girly cover for with my last baby and felt like making a cute boy one too.  I just traced the original cover and added 1/4" around for the seam allowance.  I didn't have any velcro or zipper long enough, so I just made it a slip cover type that you would do for a little square pillow cover. That is a terrible explanation! It is basically like a pillow sham cover. All the fabric was just left over and so It cost me nothing extra and took me no time at all to do.  While cutting, I somehow managed to cut though the chevron fabric (AHHHHA!!!) so I decided to just do a quick applique to cover it up and keep it from falling apart and having a hole.  Those are big buck tracks! :) 


One of my biggest ideas for this room was an antler mobile. I picked up a few antlers from friends and with a LOT of help from Arnold in my neighborhood, he helped me create the center hub out of a log and get the antlers to stay in. After days and days of waiting for epoxy to dry, my daughter managed to bust two of the antlers out of the holes in seconds. sigh.  My husband just glued them in with gorilla glue and it held. 
     The metal animal cutouts are from etsy.  I special requested they be double sided with the rusty type finish. I purchased a moose, elk, deer, bear and trout. The shop I got them from was amuzemee on etsy. 
     Yesterday I had my husband help me hang it up. There were only certain places it could go because it had to be hung from a stud in the ceiling, and it is quite heavy so I wasn't sure I wanted it hanging over the crib (just in case it fell apart or the glue gave out) We decided on a spot over the dresser. I'm too short to have it even near my head, but my husband walks right into it. oh well.  I'm still not 100% sure I love it, love it, but it fits. I just feel like I and everyone else worked so hard on it, it's GOTTA work. right? I'm just feeling insecure about how it looks hanging there. ???


      I have been soooo busy and everyone has been pestered non stop with pictures of this in progress, I appreciate everyone humoring me. :) it's been a lot of fun and I am now looking forward to being done with it. :) I can go back to being lazy and growing this boy. two months to go and I feel like if he came right now, I'd be totally ready for him!! ok... maybe after doing dishes, and laundry.... and vacuuming..... lol! I don't think i'll EVER be ready. :) I may be a little bias, but I think this is the best looking baby nursery ever created! If not the best looking, at least the most original! :)