Tutorial: Draft Stopper + Noise Muffler=Sleep Sweeter

I love this thing. It helps me keep my sanity. 

Having two young children has taught me something: two babies awake at 2 am and howling for the attention of just one person is really not fun. The scenario is that the infant cries for milk and the toddler hears him and awakens...screaming. I decided to make a little something to keep this scenario from repeating itself every three hours until the end of time... (read that again but with a slightly frantic tone of voice). 

Don't get me wrong, there are tons of GREAT things about having two very young babies (one 2 years and one 7 weeks, to be precise), but sleep deprivation is not on my list. I'm one of those people who can't remember words when I'm short on sleep. Like last night I was trying to tell a story and couldn't remember the word...wait what was it again?...oh, yeah...werewolf. 

So I made this thing and it was really easy. It has multiple purposes--it stops drafts, blocks out noise (both while looking a little more chic and a little easier to manage than a towel stuffed under the door) and helps us all sleep a little sweeter. 

You need:

heavy-weight fusible fleece

home decor weight cotton 

   -2 rectangles

   -width= 9 inches+door thickness 

   -length=width of the doorway plus one inch

sewing machine with a sharp heavy-duty needle, thread, iron, yardstick, disappearing marker

5 lbs of rice

1) Cut out your pattern pieces. Two rectangles of home decor weight cotton using the specifications above, then back each piece with fusible fleece (leave about 1/2 inch of fabric 'unfleeced' on one short end to make it easier to stitch closed at the end.). The fleece helps make the stopper feel more sturdy, reinforcing the fabric, and it also takes up some space so you don't need quite as much rice to fill it. 

2) Pin fabric right sides together, with 1/2" seam allowance,  sew along both long sides and one short side. Turn right sides out through the open end. Now you should have something that looks like the photo below (without the two lines of stitches in the middle, that's the next step). 

3) Using the yardstick and disappearing marker, measure in 4 inches from each side seam and draw a straight line (the distance between the two lines should be approximately the thickness of your door). Using matching thread, sew along each marked line-stopping about 3/4 inch from the open end. Then you should have this:

Closed end:

Open end from top:

Leave some room so you can turn the raw edges under:

4) Sorry, I didn't photograph this next step because my hands were full of thousands of grains of rice. You could use a funnel, but I took my chances and it worked out ok. Fill each side of the stopper with rice, be sure to leave enough space for folding under and for your machine foot and don't fill the "under-the-door" part.

5) Now tuck the raw edges in, pin, and stitch across the opening--forward and back stitching securely. Trim any loose threads and slide it under the door!

I love mine! The best part is that it slides with the door, no adjusting or slipping on towels (that happened more than once in my house). They really do help block noise, I tested it. This thing is for real!

Comment if you make one and love it or if you have suggestions to make it better!

(The cute red chevron fabric came from Hobby Lobby). 

Knitathon: Chevron Baby Blanket

I finally finished my chevron blanket for the new baby! It actually didn't take that long to knit, but I was scared of binding off so it sat around with one row missing for about 2 months. This fear turned out to be totally unfounded, binding off was a snap!

AND!! I love it! The cotton feels so thick and luxurious.

The colors are so vibrant, especially with the combo of cool colors and warm colors...it's got a little ombre thing going, I think :)

Does this remind anyone else of a sunrise? With the bright orange sun peeking over a serene ocean of blues with white capped waves...

Ok, ok, I'll stop. But really, learn to knit and go make this blanket. You, your baby or the recipient (if you make it for a gift) will be thrilled with the results! 

(Free pattern at Purl Bee. )

Swim Time!

Yesterday was a beautiful day, perfect for the pool...then I remembered that P doesn't have a pair of swim trunks. He outgrew everything last year. During nap time, I sat down at the machine and whipped up a pair from a pattern I had drawn up about a month ago (traced from Target, Circo brand shorts). I've had shorts for P on my project list for a while now.

These are made out of a cotton/poly blend from Hancock's, love this fabric. It's kind of water repellent, stretchy and non-wrinkly. I did a simple casing with wide elastic then I quarter pinned, stretched out the elastic and sewed a few more rows of stitches to give it that waist band look and keep the elastic from flipping over. That's the worst!

Label in the back, plaid matches up (woot-woot). 

Flat felled seams on the sides for durability and cute factor...

Faux fly and button closure.

Little man who is never still... we are ready for the pool. 

Knitathon: Chevron Baby Blanket

I have been super busy this past week: working on Etsy orders, hanging out with P, and packing for a move several states away. It's full-on summer here in NOLA, 100% humidity and in the 90's most days. We go outside, but it's quick and usually either a sprint from car into other air conditioned places or playing in the water-popsicles are required.

I'm also busy with a project. I have to confess, this is something that I've been obsessing over for months and months now. It's a chevron, knit baby blanket. I haven't been able to stop looking at the pictures and glancing over the tutorial since it first popped up on Purl Bee.  I pinned it right away, then again when Dana at Made was knitting her own version. I finally took the leap and ordered 8 balls of worsted weight, cotton yarn when it was on sale at Joann's a few weeks ago, along with a pair of size 11, cicular knitting needles. I have been a devout supporter of crochet up until this point, so it was an absolute miracle to me when I started to see the pattern emerging in those first few rows.

Now, I'm completely addicted and I might never go back. While crochet might be easy to shape, there's something about the feel and look of knitting that is beautiful and rewarding. I am seriously thinking about making a garment or some socks next...yikes. Just because I'm thinking about it doesn't mean it doesn't scare me! One thing I love about knitting is how portable it is. Sewing is not portable, even embroidery requires all kinds of tools, different threads, needles, etc... But this! I can stick it in my purse and take it anywhere! I am looking forward to knocking out several stripes during a long car trip next week!

Isn't it awesome! There's a little something retro about the colors and pattern, but still modern. This picture doesn't really do justice to the colors. The orange is "hot orange" and the yellow is almost neon. Is anyone NOT obsessed with neon colors right now? I just bought hot pink highlighter nail polish yesterday! 

These are the other colors. Stripes in graduating colors from hot to cool, I am trying to find a nice light gray to go between the white and robin's egg. I think that will make it absolutely perfect. Since I'm using 120 yard skeins instead of the 150 yard that Purl Bee's tutorial calls for, there will be 8 different colors instead of 7.  

I'm in love...

Toddler imagination...

Last weekend, W and I took P for a walk on his bike. It's one of those fun trikes that has a handle for parents so you can steer for him. He loves it! Family walks are one of our favorite things so we enjoy it too.

W and I were walking along talking when we realized P was talking too...to himself.

"Basketball?"
"No!"

"Ride?"
"No!"

"Leo?" (our dog)
"No."

"Ahh-sahide?" (outside)
"No!"

"Elmo?"
"No!"

"Apple?"
"NO!"

He went through these many times over, we were laughing so hard once we figured out the gist. He was listing all the things he loves and asks for a hundred times a day then filling in what we would say (totally unfair because I usually say "OK," except for the Elmo thing).

It's amazing, isn't it? He's not even two but he's having imaginary conversations about his thoughts and feelings on what we let him do. Unbelievable! Can't wait for those teenage years.

"Wheelie?"

"Absolutely!"

Girl?! Boy?!

I bought two baby things before we found out what we were having...

This little confection. It's a baby swimsuit, have you ever seen anything sweeter?! I am crazy about the colors and mix of large and small polka dots. I would totally wear this swimsuit...maybe if it was in my size with a little more support up top... 

I also bought a set of light gray and cream bodysuits at Old Navy, with a tiny pair of striped sweatpants and a little hat with ears.

            Well, I won't be using that little swimsuit anytime soon, we are having a boy! I am so tempted to keep it though, it's 6-12 months so there is a good chance a girl born in any season could wear it at some point. We are so excited about a boy, a little brother for P, another mischief maker, someone to hang on my other leg while I'm cooking dinner and beg to go "ahh-sahh-ide" (that's the way P says outside).

I think this soft, little hat is so cute. Can't wait to put it on a fuzzy, baby head.

I'm going to be working on a quilt for this new guy. It will match the one P has (oranges and teals), but with some different colors and patterns. I'm using a few prints from Moda "Grow with Me." These trucks and a really cool light gray geometric pattern. I'll post more on that later. I'm using THIS PATTERN by Jaybird quilts. I think it will be really fun and modern, I'm thinking of doing a self binding (like on my picnic blanket HERE) and doing the actual quilting by hand, YIKES! I've just fallen in love with the look of it and Purl Bee is super inspiring-possibly to my detriment.  Look at those teeny tiny stitches?! It's an art form.

Aden and Anais Swaddlers Tutorial

My blog has a new home! Come on over to see my Hand Stamped Swaddlers and Tutorial.

Celebrate Easter: Decorating Eggs with Toddlers

It's Easter week! (At least at our house!) A whole week...and maybe a bit more...of fun ideas and projects to celebrate Easter with the little guys (and gals of course).

Today is egg decorating with toddlers! While this idea may be a 'no-brainer' in some ways, it's super cheap and simple and even my 22 month old boy had fun with it!

This year, Baby P is big enough to enjoy crafts but definitely doesn't understand the concepts of spilling dye or fragile eggs and lacks the patience for time consuming projects. So I picked up a big bag of plastic eggs from Target. They were cheap and had great colors! Did you know that a lot of plastic eggs these days have pre-punched holes in case you want to make garlands or wreaths? Good thinking, Target!

After checking out the paints and glazes that would actually adhere to plastic, I decided I didn't want P's chubby fingers and potentially face...hair...eyes touching any of them. So I stopped by the Target scrapbooking section and found some fun stickers for 99 cents. I wanted relatively small ones with nice colors, my boy is animal crazy so we got the animals. Here's the label in case you want to find them. I went with a small size so that they wouldn't have to "crimp" too much when curved around the eggs.


Look at this concentration...

I handed him stickers one at a time and just let him decide where to put them. They turned out so cute! Of course my cool egg carton from Anthropologie helps too :).

(Love the idea of functional holes, but they do take away a bit from the "pretty")

Here are some variations on this project if you have older or more patient kids:
*wrap eggs in thread or yarn, secure with dabs of glue
*use glue and small scraps of tissue paper or fabric to cover eggs
*use construction paper and glue to make faces and hats

I'd love to see pictures if you made some fun, creative Easter eggs with your little guys! Click on the "You Sewed!" Flickr pool under the blog header and add photos, you can link up to your site in the photo description.

Happy Easter!

Hand Embroidered Baby Pants

My sweet friend C had her baby a couple of weeks ago, so I got busy working on a little gift for him. This Handcut Chenille Baby Blanket and little bitty pair of soft, gray, wide wale corduroy pants.

They have a comfy elastic waist and they're long in the rise so there is plenty of wiggle and diaper room. I used Made by Rae's Basic Baby Pants Pattern (free HERE), but I added a little to the length because she only calls for a 1/4" hem and I like a wider hem. I also topstitched the side seams and rise because I like the look and makes them a bit more sturdy.

I decided to personalize them, hand embroidering little man's name along the hem.

I added a little twill tag in the back. I've learned from experience that new dads do not appreciate having to guess which is the front and which is the back when dressing a squalling little one.

I used a disappearing marker to draw the letters, emroidered the main outline in white then added a little extra so that I would have some areas to fill in with color. These were just free hand for me, but you could play around with fonts on your computer or sketch them out until you have what you want. I was envisioning bright, vintagey circus posters when I did this. Boys clothes need some color too!

Can't wait to meet this little guy in person!

Chevron Faux Chenille Baby Blanket

I love a good chevron print! This one is home decor weight cotton from Hancocks (scored on sale!). After seeing a few great examples of these faux chenille baby blankets (HERE and HERE), I dcided to give it a try! Blankets are such a traditional gift for a baby, but this one seems to have just a little something different and special about it. I absolutely love the way it feels, kind of heavy like a quilt, but soft and fluffy because of the flannel. I will be making more and doing a couple of things differently, even though I am really happy with how this one turned out!

All you need for this project is a rectangle or square of home decor weight fabric in your chosen size (don't pre-shrink), 3 pieces of flannel in the same size (also, don't pre-shrink) and a piece of bias binding long enough to cover the edges of your blanket.

Layer the cotton and flannels together and pin every few inches so that they don't slip as you are quilting. I recommend a walking foot. If you use a patterned fabric, like I did, just stitch with the design, the rows need to be no more than an inch apart. This step takes a few hours to complete.

Next, put on a good movie, grab a really sharp pair of scissors and cut through the 3 layers of flannel between every row of stitches-be sure not to snip the home decor weight cotton.

(These next two pictures show rows that were much too far apart, I explain later that I had to go back and fix that. Still, it gives you an idea of what you're going for.)



Now bind the eges of your blanket. I used flannel, but I'll probably use cotton next time. I stitched over the binding 3 times just because I like the way it looks.

Next, you just wash it in the washing machine (I used those Shout "Color Catcher" sheets, since I had light, dark and bright red fabrics and it worked really well, no bleeding). Then throw it in the dryer on high heat. When you pull it out....ta da!! It's a miracle, soft, evenly frayed and ready for some baby love.

TIPS:

1) Next time, I will range my flannels from lightest on the outside to dark the closest to the cotton (I did gray, red, blue from the bottom up, but I wish I had done gray on the outside). The gray (which I love paired with the mustard yellow) got a little lost against the back of the cotton. I think that would also have given a little more depth to the overall look. I like the idea of neutrals with pops of bold color peeking out.

2) Flannel worked ok for the binding, but it didn't wash quite as well as I had hoped. It pills a bit.

3) I started out with my rows of stitches WAAAy too far apart, so after washing it looked ridiculous. I had to go back and sew two more lines for every row already there, holding the flannel down as I went. Miraculously it still turned out (flannel is very forgiving and the fraying covers a multitude of evils), but it was a pain in the you know what!!

This is by no means a perfect example of a faux-chenille blanket, but hopefully it gives you the basics and some food for thought. I know I would be ecstatic to get one of these as a gift, heck, I'm ecstatic to GIVE one of these as a gift!

Sewing and Stewing

I've had a bad cold this week so sewing and posting have been on the back burner, but I've been 'stewing' over some projects and I'm particularly excited about one that I'll post about soon!

I can't believe it's already February, Valentine's Day is coming. I was thinking about what I wanted to do for Baby P this year and couldn't help remembering what I put him through in 2011.

It wasn't all bad, I got a few smiles in there! But really, the things we will do for pictures! There are no end of photos where parents have positioned babies in uncomfortable looking ways surrounded by piles of things--from fruit to puppies to... construction paper hearts.

I posted some new overalls on Etsy this week. Of course P gets the sample, I'm really happy with how they turned out, they have elastic around the bottom so the legs "balloon" out a little. They look so cute and summery in this seersucker without a shirt underneath. LOVE! Also love that P is obsessed with wearing my sunglasses. Watch out Jacqueline Kennedy, you've got some competition.

On a different note, the entries for this weeks Project Run and Play competition were posted this morning and I am wild about this dress from Danielle at My Sparkle. Her designs have been my favorite all along the way, but this dress is fantastic. I love the sheer white over the blue underskirt and the cute pom-pom trim. I think it would be a really fun idea for a summer skirt for me! Love, love, love!

Little Man Letterman Sweater Tutorial

My blog has a new home. Click on over to see the tutorial for this great little cardigan!

Little Man Letterman Sweater