Baby Clothes Quilt: Making progress!

I'm making progress, pinky swear!  It's been a much slower-going project than I anticipated.  Probably for a number of reasons... here are a few of them, in no particular order:

1.  I'm finding that some things are hard to actually cut.  I could cut up onesies and pj's all day long, but those stinkin cute little dresses?  Rough.
2.  I like to work on other things, too!
3.  When I decide something is officially outgrown (which I hate to do!  and usually, things stay in the drawer a bit longer than they actually should...), it gets tossed into a bin in the closet in our master bedroom.  Lucca goes to bed at 7:30.  So anything I haven't brought downstairs early in the day is off limits for evening working-on.  Boo.
4.  I'm trying to be detail-oriented in the cutting, making sure to save the trims, patches, pockets, and other cute details.  This adds minutes to the cutting.
5.  Oh yeah, I have 2 kids to take care of and dinner and laundry and all that other housefrau stuff.

Just a peek at my work as of late:

dresses!  so hard to cut into these pretty little layers!

stack one!

stack 2!

feet! 

not sure how I'm going to incorporate these into the quilt... but just look at this face!  how could i NOT let him join the quilt party?!

I'm sure there has to be a point where I just have to start laying things out and sewing rows together.  It seems like I could let this go on forevs, since both girls will continue to keep outgrowing their clothes!!  I have to start somewhere, though... and maybe it would be nice for the set-up of the quilt squares to be sort of chronological!  I hadn't thought of that until I typed it, to be honest.  Like the rings on a tree.  Yeah, I'm getting really out there now.  But for really reals... the center would be the newborn, 3 months, 3-6 months clothes, and the squares surrounding it would be 6-12-ish... and then for Raina there would be another section around it with some big kid pieces.  I like it!

My next post on this quilt will have real actual pictures of squares completed and sewn together into rows and/or blocks.  I wrote it down, and now it's a pact (between you and me, blog readers!  Hold me to it!)

My goal is to have these done in time for them to not include t-shirts with pictures of boy bands on them!  :)

Refashioning Bunny Dress

This short and sweet post meant to be written during the week following Easter, the week I just wasn't into it.  It's an easy refashion I did to make two otherwise unwearable shirts wearable again!  It was also Lucca's third Easter day outfit, after she slobbed all over her dress and easter onesie :).  That girl loves to make the laundry piles grow!

Both of these shirts (well, the bunny one is actually a onesie that I had already cut, but, y'know... details...) are size 0-3 months.  Lucca hasn't fit into that size in quite a while now, but I really wanted her to be able to wear the cute bunny on her first Easter!  So snip snip snip...  off came the top of the pink ruffle shirt, and off came the bottom of the onesie!

Stitch stitch stitch... together they were serged! Two shirts lost, one cute ruffly Easter dress gained!

Treasure Pocket Pants

Sewing for Boys, for girls!  

This pattern is from the book "Sewing for Boys' by Shelly Figueroa....  I ordered it because I saw the treasure pocket pants here on Tara's blog and I fell in love with them.  When I took a look at the book, I decided it was a pretty cute book that could just as well be for girls with a little fabric switch-up!  So I ordered it, and my husband got really nervous when it came in the mail :)

"What's this?"

"A new pattern book I ordered!"

"Sewing for BOYS?"

"There's something I've been meaning to tell you..."

(silence)

"I'm KIDDING!!"

(nervous laughter)

oh, good times, good times!

Anywho... I traced the pattern on vellum, which I've never done before.  It was awesome.  You can see right through it to trace, but it holds up much better than tissue paper.  Love it.

I made them in the smallest size the pattern comes in, 12-18 months.  I don't know why.  I don't know who I thought I was making these for.  I have a 6 month old and a 3 year old.  Yeah.  I would have made them in 2/3 for Raina, but she only really likes jersey or fleece pants these days, and I was afraid she wouldn't wear them!  So I made them as small as possible, and Lucca will be in them before I know it.  Or maybe Raina will love them, and she can wear them as capris.  Who knows.

First step, the pocket panel assembly.  And I was already a tad confused.  Luckily, I found this Treasure Pocket Pants Sew Along on the trusty old interwebs and it saved me a lot of headache!  Sadly, by that time the birds on the top part of the panel were already flying upside down, but we'll pretend they aren't.

Poofy pocket!

What the elastic casing looks like on the inside of the pocket:

So then you attach the completed pocket panels to the front pant pieces.  Easy beans.  Then you construct and sew the faux fly.  And this is where the aformentioned sew along came in really handy.  Without it, I'm pretty sure it would have taken me twice as long.  With two little girls, I have never constructed a faux fly before... but I think my first one was a success!  I was so proud of it.... I made my husband look at it way more closely than he really wanted to, but hey, I listen to him talk about video games, so it's only right!  Right?  Another note:  You have to mark the stitching line for the fly on the top front of the pants...  and the pattern says to do this in chalk.  I usually use a good old fashioned fine tip orange crayola marker to do my markings, so I was initially stumped as to what I might use.  I ended up using a piece of honest to goodness sidewalk chalk from Raina's basket of chalk.  :)

Inside the flappy-do:

Next you attach the back panels and do some fancy top stitching to make it look all pretty.  After the pockets and faux fly, this is cake.  

And then you have a pair of very unfinished but very recognizable pants!  Woohoo!

This is the hot pink thread I've been using on all of my projects this week:

I love the color, and that it came from my Grandma's sewing box, which I was incredibly blessed to inherit.  I have no idea how old it is, but it cost $.60, so probably a couple decades at least. It's beautiful and silky, but when you use it to topstitch on white, things get tricky.  My stitches got crooked a few times, and (to me at least) it's pretty obvious because of the color.  Not that I'd change it, though!

And a little aside... does anyone else have one of these amazing bobbin winding devices?  I bought it with a Christmas gift card and it is seriously one of the best sewing tools I've bought.  Major time saver!

Back to the assembled pants...

I am in love with this bird sheet as clothing fabric!

Can you see my pink topstitching to the sides of the pocket panel?

p.s. - I did some of this during Raina's nap.  Here's what Lucca did.  Yum yum on some baby mum-mums.  She loves to gnaw them into a pile of mushy rice goo!

Next up, you create the hem and waist facings and attach them.  This is also where you thread elastic through the waist casing to make a for realz waist band that is so cute.  And do more topstitching.

Again, the faux fly :)

The fabric is from two places...

the main part of the pants is this purple and pink print, recycled from a pair of Gap capris I could never throw away, but that haven't fit my mommy body in many moons.

And here is the queen sized pile of bird sheet.  What else should I use it for?

When my husband first saw me cutting the fabric, he asked if the fabric was for one pair of pants.  He's not big on the pattern mixing.  :)  I think it came out really cute, though!

One more thing.  Here are three pairs of pants.  The center, as you know, is the treasure pocket pants, size 12-18 months.  On the left is a pair of Raina's capris from last summer - also size 12-18 months.  On the right is a pair of Lucca's current pants, size 6-12 months (the waist is the same measurement as R's old capris!).  Sizing is so arbitrary!

Can't wait tog et one or both of my girlies into these pants this summer!!

Pretty bibbies are not meant to last.

Yet, I can't help but make some :)  

They're all made from fat quarters on the front -  large piece for the main background, and details cut from coordinating fabrics.  The backs are made from soft white dishtowels.  Nice and absorbent for all those baby dribbles!

I love this bright butterfly bib!  As you may recall, I'm a bit obsessed with this orange butterfly fabric :)

decorated with a piece of wide yellow ric rac...

a pink butterfly...

and a yellow butterfly!

this one is a leaf pattern with a tree and flower

i hand embroidered around the pieces

embroidered around a few leaves...

and embroidered a heart on the tree.

this squirrel one is cute, even though I didn't try very hard when I was sewing around the squirrel, obviously!  :)

the leaves are cut our from a fat quarter that is printed with different colored leaves...

I love how it looks like the squirrel is letting the leaves blow up into the wind like balloons!


I sewed snap closures onto the necks of each bib - my first time with snaps and it was so easy, I can't believe I shied away from snaps for so long!!

These are pretty pre-washed, and after a washing they became so so soft.  Miss Lucca is a droll queen and quite the spitter-upper, so she goes through a fair number of bibs during the day.  Most of them are pastel and pink... not these!!