A Christmas Nursery

If you know me, you probably know that I'm a little nutty when it comes to Christmas decorations.  I'm THAT person who always decorates before Thanksgiving.  It's not that I don't like Thanksgiving, because I really do...I just see Thanksgiving as an appetizer for Christmas, if you will.

Anywho, a couple of weeks ago, Elliott's nursery got a Christmas makeover.

Remember when I gave you this sneak peak?

Well, this is what I was up to...

Yup, Elliott has Christmas bedding.  I thought I was being quite clever until I realized that Pottery Barn Kids has already thought of this.  Oh well, mine was a lot cheaper and made with love :)

You may also have noticed that this happened...

Fun fact: you can just take off whatever animals are hanging from your store bought mobile and replace them with cheap (unbreakable) ornaments!  yay!  

You may also have spotted this in the background:

Elliott has his very own Christmas tree!  I was worried that he might try to pull off any ornaments that I may hang, so I came up with some pom-pom garland that I strung myself.  

Finally, I remembered that I bought a little banner kit from Hancock Fabric last year, and I put that together one night.  Now, Elliott has a festive "Noel" sign hanging from his hutch.

He's a happy little peanut in his Christmas Nursery!

Nursery Progress

After a really great shower last weekend back in Kentucky, I was able to start putting together the nursery.  Only half of the room is complete as I am waiting on a custom-made changing table/dresser from my dad, and my mom is bringing up a glider chair next weekend.  

I decided to make a last-minute little banner to hang above the crib. I knew I wanted something with the baby's name on it, and this seemed like a great way to try out some of the T-shirt vinyl that Jeff gave me for my birthday.  I used some leftover Backyard Baby fabric to make a little bunting and then added the gray letters (cut with the Silhouette Cameo) with the vinyl.  One thing I learned in the process is to make sure that you don't set the iron too hot or you will melt the letters.  Ugh!

Here are some shots of the put-together crib (which was purchased from Pottery Barn Kids).  It was really exciting to finally get to put on the sheet and crib skirt that I had made!  I can't wait for the whole room to be completed!

Needing new maternity clothes and a Crocheted Owl Beanie

The weather here has been a bit warmer lately (with the exception of the last 2 days) and I have realized that I only have 2 short-sleeved maternity shirts.  After shopping this weekend without much success, I thought I would take matters into my own hands.

I made this dolman-style sleeve shirt using this tutorial from Make It And Love It.  Hers looks much cuter, but she does not have to accommodate a giant baby bump.  By the way, the Peeps bunting in the background was made last year using this tutorial from MADE.  

I also did a little bit of baby crafting this weekend.  I couldn't help myself when I saw this tutorial by All Things Bright and Beautiful on Ucreate.    This little owl beanie was pretty quick to whip up, but it's evident that I have some practice to do with my circular crocheting.  

Oh how I love free bloggy tutorials!

PB Inspired Mobile Tutorial

I have been on the quest for the perfect crib mobile.  Having made my own crib bedding, I figured I was going to have to make a mobile in order for it to match.  Last time I was at  Pottery Barn Kids, I saw this mobile...

...and thought....hmmmm...I could probably make something similar for a lot less than $45.  I came up with this:

PB Inspired Crib Mobile Tutorial:

Supplies:

9 sheets of heavy 8 1/2" x 11" cardstock (I used 3 sheets of 3 colors)

1 small wooden dowel

1 10" embroidery hoop

4 small tacks

4" by 42" of scrap fabric

glue gun and glue stick

Clear Monofilament 

1. To prepare the hoop, my helper cut 2 pieces of the dowel to the same measurement of the diameter of the hoop.  Next, he crisscrossed them and, using pliers, inserted the tacks into place from the outside of the hoop.  We didn't not take pictures of this step, but this is what you should have: 

2.  I chose to cover the hoop with some of the fabric that I used in the nursery.  You could also leave it as is or paint it.  To cover it, I cut 2 strips of fabric about 2" by the length (about 42" from bias to bias).  If you use a larger hoop, you will need more strips.  I began with a dab of hot glue, and simply wrapped the fabric around the hoop.  

3.  To cut out the shapes, I used my handy-dandy Silhouette Cameo.  If you don't have one, you could certainly cut shapes out by hand, but it's going to take awhile.  I made my shapes about 4" by 2 1/2", and was able to cut about 6 per page.  I chose 3 (a dog, snail, and turtle) shapes and cut 1 different color page for each shape (so I ended up with 6 blue dogs, 6 white dogs, 6 grey dogs, etc.).  Since I used my Silhouette, I just added a little dot to the top of each shape to act as a hole punch for hanging.  If you cut them by hand, you will need to use a small hole punch. 

4.  To string the shapes, I cut approximately 30" of clear monofilament.  I randomly chose a shape to be on the bottom and tied about 3 knots.  

Next, I slid another shape on and just secured it with one knot about 2 inches above the first shape.  I tried my best to alternate between colors and shapes.

I repeated this for each shape.  I decided to make 1 strand with 6 shapes for the center of the mobile, 4 strands with 5 shapes to tie on each section of the cross, and 8 strands of 4 shapes to tie 2 onto each quarter of the outside.  To keep the strands from tangling while working, I taped them to a wall.

5.  For the final step, you may want to find a patient buddy.  I had my husband hold the mobile as I tied each  strand on.  I secured each strand with about 4 knots.  I found it handy to keep a pin near by in the event that I needed to untie a strand. This step was a bit hectic with no free hands for photos.  Just keep tying with the longest strands towards the center.  You will need to find a way to hang this bad boy.  Apparently the PB ones don't come with hangers.  I plan on tying 4 long strands of monofilament where each of the dowels meet the hoop and attaching the whole thing to a hook in the ceiling.  I'm holding off on that step until I have the crib in place so I know how high to hang it.  

The final product:

Hope you had a nice weekend!

More Baby Crafts

By the time May ninth rolls around, anyone reading this blog is going to be super bored with photos of things I have sewed for this baby.  I apologize in advance.  Baby sewing is just sew addictive because it's like instant gratification --everything is so small that it takes minutes to cut and minutes to sew together.  This is my kind of crafting!

Last week I made a couple of burp cloths and a soft tag block.  Apparently babies like to chew on the little ribbons that stick out.  My husband is fascinated with the minky (the green dotty fabric)--he thinks that everything should be made from this fabric.  The tag block was made using the tutorial found at Zaaberry.

The burp cloths are actually made out of cloth diapers because they are supposed to be great for spit-up coverage.   I'm not sure about that yet, but they sure are cute!  There are about a million tutorials for these burp cloths out there.  I liked using the ric-rac, because rather than having to hem the sides of the fabric, I simply sewed the ric-rac close to the edge and then ironed the edge over.  Then I just sewed the whole strip right onto the diaper.

Baby Sewing

A while back, when our Border's was going out of business, I snagged a couple of sewing books.  One happened to be Growing Up Sew Liberated by Meg McElwee.

This book is chock full of super adorable things to make for babies and kids.  I can't wait until this little guy is old enough for the teepee on the front cover.  Our grandma made us a similar one when we were little and it was so much fun.  

A week or so ago, I tackled cleaning out my super messy sewing room closet to discover quite a bit of scrap knit fabric.  I remembered that there were quite a few knit things in Growing Up Sew Liberated, so I decided to make a couple today.  I made the "All-by-myself Bib" and the "Baby Sleep Sack."

I love this envelope style design.  There is a little PJ set with an envelope T-shirt that I might try to make soon.  If you sew and have babies or little kids, I would highly recommend this book. Now I can't wait until I have a cute little model to show off my creations (the cutting mat just isn't doing them any justice)!

Diaper Stacker

Since I started my Backyard Babies stash with a fat quarter bundle and then purchased some extra yardage, I have some random left over pieces.   I saw this cute Diaper Stacker Tutorial and thought I'd gift it a shot.

The directions were fairly straight forward until the end when you have to attach the bottom to the rest of the stacker.  I think I pleated wrong in one of the earlier steps so this gave me some trouble.  I kind of just gritted my teeth and sewed, hoping for the best.  The seams look a little wonky, but it works!

I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut out the caterpillar (of course).  I added piping instead of a ruffle to top.  I need a baby-sized hanger to hang it with so I can get rid of the fabric scrap that is currently pinned to the back.  

Happy Thursday!

More Nursery Sewing

I have one or two more sewing projects on my to-do list for the nursery, but I think for the most part, the bulk is now finished.  Today I made a crib skirt from some of the fabric from yesterday's delivery.  To conserve fabric, I made it 3-sided since the crib will be pushed up against a wall anyway.

Since we don't have an actual crib yet, my craft table is doing the modeling.  I also used a tutorial from MADE to make a crib sheet.  The sheet took me under a half hour to sew.  Putting the elastic through was literally the most time-consuming part.  

This fabric is so cute.  From far away it just looks like a geometric print, but up close it's really those little helicopters (at least that's what they were called in my house) that fall from the trees.  It's called Samaras from the Backyard Baby collection (from Patty Sloniger's line by Michael Miller Fabrics) and can be purchased here.   Here is a photo of the crib sheet and skirt together to give an idea of what the crib will look like when it's made.  

I also made the valences for the nursery this week (I've been sewing up a storm over here--that's what North Country winters are good for).  I chose to use the Birch Forest fabric because I like how it looks like vertical stripes.  

For some reason the molding in this room is painted white but the window frames and base boards are painted this weird khaki color.  I think painting everything white is on my to-do list before the baby comes.  

Finally, after searching Syracuse for the perfect rug a couple weeks ago, I broke down and ordered one from Target.  Online it looked sage, but the reviewers said it was more of a pale lime green.  That seemed perfect for our needs, but in real life it looks more bright lime green.  Because we are painting the furniture aqua (we think), we decided to keep the rug since it will be a nice contrast against the furniture.  

Can't wait until we can put it all together!  I'll keep you posted!

Finished Blankets

After an exciting fabric delivery from UPS today, I was finally able to finish my baby quilt for the nursery.  I added a little "E" monogram to the corner using my handy Silhouette Machine.  Rather than attempting to sew it on with my sewing machine, I thought it would be easier to just hand stitch it on with a blanket stitch.  

The colors on this next photo look a little off with this lighting (the colors in the above photos are more accurate), but here it is, in all it's glory: 

(Yep, that's my bathroom...it's harder than it seems to photograph a quilt, even a mini one)

I backed the quilt in one of my favorite fabrics from the collection, Windy Day. 

I love the little dog with the swing...

A few days ago, I also finished the Bobble blanket using the tutorial provided by Maybe Matilda.  I think it's super adorable and I kind of want to make a regular-sized person version.  

And finally, a slightly better photo of the Turtle Pillow (Jeff left his camera on "dummy mode"  so I hardly have to hit buttons...and my photos are still bad).  

Hopefully I'll have more baby project updates soon!

Turtle throw pillow

                                                              

Today I whipped up this little pillow for the nursery.  I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut out the turtle,  then I appliqued it on with my sewing machine.  I have never pieced together a border before-- not that it was terribly difficult,  it just took some extra math.  I think it will be a cute touch to the room.

Success!

After my major nursery wall art fail, I decided to go back to the drawing board.  Besides the running ink, I wasn't liking where the printed art was going.  I thought a good way to showcase some of the adorable prints in the Backyard Baby collection would be to use fabric on the canvas.  I thought I would give the Silhouette Cameo another try at cutting (since that is it's main function) and braved it with fabric.  As it turns out, the fabric is WAY easier to work with than paper.  When I tried cutting paper, I kept ripping my design when I attempted to pick it off the sticky cutting mat (patience and carefulness are not by best qualities).  With the fabric, ripping was not an issue.  I was also concerned because rather than using the Silhouette fabric interfacing, I just used the generic interfacing that I already had on hand.  After a little tweaking with the blade setting, it worked wonders!

I will post better pictures when they are actually hanging on the wall (which will be a while).

After cutting the designs, I actually ironed them onto the blank canvas (who knew you could iron onto a canvas!?  That was a bit of a scary thing to try).  Once they were stuck on, I sealed them in with Mod Podge, and the two on the right are both still wet.

On a side note, I ordered all of the fabric for the rest of the nursery today.  I'll keep you posted with my progress!

Lessons Learned

Today I decided to try out the Silhouette Cameo that Jeff so thoughtfully gave me for Christmas.  I must admit I have been a bit intimidated by this thing thus far.  After opening it, it appeared to be way more technologically advanced than I had hoped.  Since one of the items on today's To-do list was "cut something with the Silhouette," I thought I would give it a go (obviously, today's To-Do list was not super strenuous).  It was pretty simple to figure out how to cut, but I need to invest in some little tools to pick the fine little details off of the sticky cutting mat.  Until I find those tools, I may only be cutting large, simple shapes. (I tried to make an intricate Valentine's Day card...it was a hot mess.)    

I did enjoy playing around with the Silhouette design software.  I have about zero artistic ability and I don't consider myself creative by nature, but I did come up with some cute little designs for nursery wall art (in my opinion).  I was hoping to find 12" by 12" cheap frames, but at Michael's today, 2 packs of canvases were BOGO free so my thrifty self took over and I picked them up instead.  I was quite excited for my Mod Podge-filled afternoon, when I quickly realized I should have sprung for regular frames instead.

It was all fun and games at first....

..but it soon turned into a wrinkly, gooey mess...

I also learned today that you should not try to Mod Podge over anything printed with a regular printer or else your colors will run--who knew?!

At least I tried...