I've been busy!

I've been busy...in more ways than one! Mostly with this little one -

Colby Max Pugmire
Born: May 28, 2008 - 8:52 AM
5 lbs. 7 oz.
18 1/2"

So, did you notice his weight and length? He is tiny. My sweet little doll, absolutely adorable. Thankfully he was totally healthy, just little. (Don't let him fool you, tiny size does not equal tiny voice! He's got a great set of lungs on him!)

Colby being born so little has sparked a few crafting opportunities.

Do you remember the little white blessing romper that I made a month or so ago; before Colby was born? Ummm...at least three Colbys would have fit into it. It was ginormous compared to his not ginormousness! Needless to say, it was so big that there was no way to alter it to fit him, I had to make a completely new one for his blessing last weekend.

Here is Colby in the 2nd finished product. a.k.a. mini romperTo give you a little comparison of the size difference. Here is a refrence!

So, if you know somebody who needs a white romper to fit a 'normal' size baby boy, let me know, I have no need for two! Hey, on the bright side the second one whipped up pretty quick since I'd already sewn one a few weeks ago.

I've been busy with a few other projects, but I hear a little boy calling my name in the form of a cry... it must be time to eat again! I'll post again soon, I am finally feeling like I'm back to the land of the living.

One more gift set!

Okay, so I don't want to overkill the gift set thing, but I just had to post one more! This one is actually for my little one as well (I'm having fun spoiling him already!) It's technically a gift for my husband, who is a huge Seattle Seahawks fan. I know that by making some 'manly' burp rags he won't mind carrying them around as much! The fun thing is that I didn't have to buy anything new to make any of it, it was all scraps and such that I had on hand. (I made my husband and son matching pajama pants for fun christmas gifts this year, the Seahawks material was all left-over scraps from making the pants.)
The one new thing I tried was the texture/taggie block. It was way easy and super fun to make. I definitely think I'll have to add these to my repitoire! They can be made up with scraps of material and whip up quickly. I foresee all baby gifts in the future that I give to include a taggie block! (Oh yea, I put a couple small jingle bells inside the batting too for a little fun extra noise.)

Tried Something New!

I am super excited to have found another fun creative outlet! I came across this article a week or two ago and decided I just HAD to give it a try. With one almost four year old boy, and another on the way I am always looking for crafty projects I can do for my boys. (I mean lets be honest here, it is SO much more fun to sew a ruffle dress than a pair of bermuda shorts!) This is something I can do for them that is way easy, and fun, yet I'm pretty sure they won't be embarrassed about in the future!

Here is my first go at Freezer Paper Stenciling...I'm definitely happy with how it turned out, and I know Kyle is going to LOVE it! I bought two other t-shirts to practice on too, I just haven't decided what to put on them.

If you are at all interested in how to do this, check out the article above. The process is painfully easy and FUN! I can't wait to make more.

Gift Set

Isn't this a fun layette/gift set?
I've been working on it for a bit and finally finished the bib today. I've been excited to post it but wanted to wait until I had the complete set all done. It's for a very special baby boy...MINE!!

I'm always making things for other people and to sell, it is so much fun to make something for myself. My mom was concerned that the baby wasn't going to get anything his mommy made, but it's been taken care of folks, this stuff is for him! (his arrival is only 8 days away!)

I got this Michael Miller Kids Toile panel a year or two ago on sale. I bought it with the intention of making a quick top for somebody as a gift. Turns out I ran out of energy to make anything too ambitious for my own baby and came across this material. Luckily I love it. It is SUPER simple. All I did was quilt the panel, but I love the simplicity and how it turned out. I 'framed' each picture and then quilted around each of the scenes.I had half a yard or so of material left over from the quilt back, so I made a few other fun accessories to match the quilt. A sleep-sack, burp-rag, and bib. All stuff that is totally necessary...why not make it cute?Now all we need is the baby!

Project complete!

I'll be honest, I'm pretty proud and excited about this little outfit!Not more than a year ago, I had pretty much sworn off sewing clothing. PERIOD. After a nightmare experience involving a little jacket shrug for a prom dress, I was DONE. Obviously my fears have worn off a bit, which I'm sure is due to the 'nesting instinct' I'm feeling (after all, the baby is on his way in less than two weeks!!) I decided to try to tackle a little outfit for the baby to be blessed in at church. I DID IT! HOORAY! It even turned out like I had envisioned. Now I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will fit the baby okay. I sewed the XS size, but it still looks huge to me. We'll just have to wait and see. - Honestly, either way, sewing this outfit has renewed my confidence in myself...which is very valuable indeed.

Handbag

Hooray! I finally got around to making something for myself! It seems like it has been forever. I've been working hard on lots of projects for other people and I finally took a little time for myself. I found this pattern online for free and thought it was super cute. I just used some fabric from my stash for my first try, but am loving how it turned out. I can't wait to make another one or two in more springy/summery colors. I'll adjust a few things here and there the next time around, but overall, the bag is adorable, I love it!

I think I'm done doing projects for my friends for a while. Hopefully I can get a few projects done in the next few weeks that I've got going. My baby is due in about three weeks, so wish me luck!

Just gettin' stuff done

So although I haven't posted any fun pictures or projects lately, I have actually been sewing quite a bit. Some of what I've been sewing hasn't been fun crafty stuff, just things on my list that have needed to get done.

1 - I think I can be considered a 'real' seamstress now, as I have sewn and mastered my first blind hem stitch! Seriously, these baffled me in the past, but I figured it out and was able to hem my son's suit pants all by myself. Actually, I had to take the waste in too. Hooray for me not having to call my mom to do it! It's nice to feel a little more confident in my abilities.

2 - A friend contacted me a few weeks ago and needed some help mending her grandfather's boat cover. Yep, I said boat cover! As in a big ole ski boat with a HUGE canvas cover. There were a few tares in the cover and the boating place wanted like $800 to fix it. OUTRAGEOUS! While I wasn't willing to use my new machine to do the job, I pullout out my trusty older Singer and did the job quite well. I will admit though, It is the first time that I have ever broken a sweat while sewing! Heaving and moving around all that yardage of heavy material was not easy.

3 - I have been intermittently working on a scrap quilt. I haven't decided weather I'm going to keep it for my family or find a charity to pass it along to. Other than the sashing it's totally made from scraps in my stash. I'll post pictures of it when I get the top done.

4 - Another quick project I picked up last night was to make straps for my neighbor's prom dress and sew a little filler in the open back. Lucky for us the dress came with a nice big shrug thing, so we've got plenty of matching material to work with.

I'm not sure how I get roped into some of the crazy projects for my friends, but what do you do? I love them and try to help when I can. I joke that I work for food, but really I look at it as 'paying it forward'. Hopefully one day when I am in need of one of their services they'll return the favor! (I will admit that I charged a bit for sewing the boat cover, that was a crazy project and I saved them a TON of $!)