It's not a nursery anymore

With another baby on the way it was time to start the transition of Giselle's room from nursery to a little girls room. We decided that we wanted to go the toddler bed route thinking that for us it would be more ideal to buy real big girl furniture when shes about 5.  At that time we could possibly buy the furniture she will use until shes out of high school, know more of what our family is going to look like and what our living situation will be (and not worry too much about her falling out of her bed which she does maybe once a week :))

So, we replaced the changing table with a storage unit from target.  I wanted an affordable piece that would work for storing toys and books, and that would be easy to access for a toddler (note that if you have a toddler, all toddler furniture and probably the rest of the furniture in your toddler friendly house should be nailed to the wall :)).

And, of course the biggest transition was moving Giselle from her crib to her big girl bed!  It actually went really well. She went right to bed the first night, and we've hardly had any struggles, besides a few funny nap time experiences the transition was a sweet and easy experience.

I found her napping in her rocking chair during her second nap in the new toddler room. :)

Okay so on to the sewing..  To make the new room complete, Giselle needed a few cuddly items to help make this transition smooth and fashionable!!

I took her crib sheet cut it in half and made two toddler sized pillows to fit her bed. For the inside of the pillow I took a standard sized pillow and also cut it in half and then stitched up the outside lining to make her very own toddler sized pillows.

Giselle was starting to get attached to blankets that were just not up to par.  They were soft but, drove me crazy because they didn't match her bedding. So it was time for me to finally make Giselle some snuggie-bug blankets of her own.

Now that Giselle has been using them for a couple months, she is very much attached to these blankets, and it just warms my heart to see her snuggle with something that I made for her. :)

And finally, she needed a cute sham to spice up her bedding, so I just sewed together the scraps of fabric I had left over from the quilts and Wah-lah, cute cozy pillow!  My favorite part of the pillow was learning how to use the button-hole stitch feature on my sewing machine.  Totally easy to use, and very professional.  Definitely something that will come in handy.

Crib Sheet Please! (how to make your own crib sheet)

 Yay! So I finished my first crib sheet. It was actually pretty fun to make and surprisingly easy!

I loosely followed two patterns that I found online, and again sort of followed my Pottery Barn sheet.  And by the second sheet I just made up my own pattern, so you could easily do that too.

The online sites that I checked out were @ ehow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_2165529_baby-crib-sheet.html#ixzz0tREDUlFp, and the other one was @www.make-baby-stuff.com http://www.make-baby-stuff.com/crib-sheet-pattern.html

So this is what I needed to make my crib sheet (shown above on a toddler bed :) ):

2 yards of fabric 
2 yards of ¼-inch elastic
Thread
Sewing machine

Straight pins (I didn't use them the second time around.. I don't think they are necessary)
Iron
Ironing board

How to make a crib sheet:

          1. Cut your fabric to 43-by-66 (or measure your mattress and 

              add a few inches for the hem and so it will hang underneath) 

          2. Then cut 8x8 squares from each corner of your fabric.

  
3. Match the wrong sides of each corner together and stitch. I stitched the seam at 1/4 of an 
    inch and then I also went back and did an edge stitch anticipating a lot of wear and tear to   
    these sheets.  

4. Next fold all around the edges of your sheet by about 1/4 inch and iron. Fold over again and iron.
 
5. Run a straight stitch through your hem
6. Stitch down elastic where pins are with a straight stitch, then change stitch to zigzag. You want to pull the elastic very tight as you sew it down to the under side of your hem.

Yay! We now have a crib sheet!! So fun and easy to do. Let me know if you have questions. I even followed this same pattern but changed up the measurements to make new changing pads for Griffin's room. I will post pictures soon. :)

Pillow cases, quilts, pillows, sheets and more ironing..

It has been a fun week with the 4th of July Holiday, and I went to my friend Jenna's beautiful Portland wedding. And, on the sewing front I have been busy working on what feels like a million different sewing projects. I've been trying to hurry and get Giselle's new cuddle quilts done for her new big girl room, as I'm trying to get Griffin's bedroom started.
Yesterday I finally finished (so I thought) Giselle's 2 quilts and pillow sham for her room, to find out this morning when I took them out of the dryer that I have a couple places I need to re-sew on both blankets.  I guess that's what I get for rushing to get these done. :) Like I've said before I really like making the furry blankets, but this time I really felt like the fur was fighting me and my machine lol, it will be a nice break to work on something else for a while.. Like Griffin's bumper (humm.. I think I have more battles ahead!)
Earlier in the week I cut up one of Giselle's pottery barn sheets (it's okay I had 4 of them) and turned it into 2 toddler size pillow cases. I also took a standard pillow and cut it in half and made pillows to match. It was fun and worked out well!
I also started on Griffin's crib sheet. So far so good the corners are all sewn together. I just need to hem up the sides and add elastic.  I'm a little nervous about the elastic, so hopefully it wont be too hard to figure out.  I need to attempt this soon.
And today I finished ironing (while watching the juicy details of Ali's Portugal dates and Jake and Vienna's break up.. ha!) the rest of Griffin's fabric since I have my beginners quilting class starting this Sunday.
Well, Giselle just woke up from her nap so I will post pictures soon.  Have a great day!
Love,
Ebba

Burp cloth meets fashionista

My first sewing project was burp cloths. My friend Aliya makes the most adorable burp cloths and as she helped me get going on my sewing machine (taught me how to thread my bobbin, I am so thankful) she suggested burp cloths would be an easy project.
However, I didn't have the patience to cut and sew rectangle burp cloths, so I decided to spice it up and make my own animal shapes.
The elephant turned out pretty cute, the lion was a good effort, and I even had a whale, but I sewed it inside out and decided by that time I was burnt out on burp cloths and ready for a new project.


Materials: Regular Cotton Fabric, Thread, and the back side was Chenille. Note to self, Don't use Chenille again at about 12 bux a yard for burp cloths, and on your first project where there are many mistakes! If I ever get back into the burp cloth business I will make the swap to much more practical and affordable terry cloth.

Hiding your Hooters

I loved using a nursing cover while I nursed Giselle. I decided from the get go that I refused to spend the first year of her life hiding in our car or in her nursery when she needed to be fed. So the nursing cover allowed me the discretion, and modesty I needed to be able to enjoy my life while meeting the needs of my growing baby.

(However some weirdos still seemed to be bothered by it, and is why I like the If breastfeeding offends you, put a blanket over YOUR head! group on facebook! ha! lol)

On a different note, nursing covers are really expensive, so I am excited that I have this new skill under my belt to hopefully bless some new mom's down the road with a hip cover, and maybe some fresh ones for me on round two. My friend Kelli helped me figure out that it's I think about 9 inches of fabric boning that you use at the top, d rings for the strap, and a square of terry cloth on the inside corner for the burp cloth/nursing pad cover.

Oh so snuggley, baby blankets

Melissa's was the first baby blanket that I made. I decided last minute that she needed one to go with her mobile. So I bought all of the fabric on Saturday, cut it and sewed all the top together Saturday night, and attached it to the bottom Sunday morning before the shower. I copied the pattern from the sweet baby blankets friends had made for me when Giselle was born, and I asked one of the Mom's, Mica, a few questions on how to put it together.
Surprisingly You just fold over the furry fabric a couple of times and pin it to the top and sew over it. It's really pretty easy, a perfect project for a beginner. I love making them and look forward to making more for friends, and for Giselle and Griffin. :)

Here is the second one I made for Sonia's shower. I adored the fabric on this one, and did a better job putting together a pattern. And I liked that I added a bigger side border to snuggle with.

Melissa's Nursery

So today I delivered all of Melissa's bedding. So good to see Melissa, Ben and beautiful baby Shae.
I am so thankful she allowed me to create my first nursery set. I had so much fun making my first crib skirt, bumper and pillow. I also made her another baby blanket that matched her set. (All of the pieces matched a baby quilt that her sister had made for her and the nursery mobile that I made earlier.)













The crib skirt was fairly easy to make, and I really enjoyed designing each piece.
And then there was the bumper.. oh the bumper.. Well there were definitely parts of making the bumper that I enjoyed, but I'm not going to lie, there were frustrating parts that I would like to forget lol, but overall (and thankfully that it's done) I think it turned out pretty good for my first attempt. I used my pottery barn bumper as the pattern, and it turned out pretty exact except for a few measurements, that my math major husband pointed out. :) (the inside length should be smaller than the outside - thanks Dominic 10 days too late.. ha) But in the end, I learned a lot and I think next go around it will be easier. Actually now that it is out of my house I am looking forward to making my next one for our baby boy's room. (It's sorta like child birth.. not fun in the moment, but once your done it's so worth it you somehow get sucked into doing it again, lol)
I taught myself how to make all of my own bumper ties from bias tape, and I made half of the piping by hand so all though it took time it was rewarding that I was able to accomplish so much.

The pillow was so easy, makes we wonder why throw pillows cost so much! And again, I really enjoy making the little square baby blankets. Not much thinking required.. definitely my style. ha