Baby Shower Gifts

We found out a while ago that Wolf's brother's wife was expecting a baby, and her baby shower was sometime in November 2016.  Well....of COURSE I had to sew my gift!!   I did some researching and reading online to see what most new mom's found they used most, etc....  Well, I came to the conclusion that bibs and blankets were the most useful, and they were most happy to have them.  I also decided to make a few hooded towels, since the moms I know personally always loved having hooded towels - then I ended up making facecloths to go with those hooded towels because why have towels and no facecloths!

Here is everything that I ended up making for the baby shower!

Here are the bibs - I used PUL fabric (waterproof fabric commonly used for diaper covers) for the back of them and flannel for the front.  I purchased and learned how to use a snap tool to put plastic snaps on the bibs too!   I made 5 because that's what I had enough fabric for.

Here are the two hooded towel and matching face cloths.  The towels are made from terry cloth, and the hooded portion is terry cloth and cotton printed fabric (LOVE the whales!).  The facecloths are just terry cloth.  I learned how to sew bias tape on while making these as well.  You can also see one of the bibs that snuck into the picture, hah!

I had the most fun and the most aggravation with the blankets.  They are double-sided flannel.  Ever try to make sure flannel is flat against another piece of flannel, and then sew them together???  It was quite frustrating, but I eventually ended up with flat blankets that didn't pucker anywhere (YAY!!!).  They were sewn inside out, then flipped and top stitched closed. 

The mom-to-be loved them all and was amazed that I had made all of them!    Wolf's nephew is now about 16 months old and he is so cute!


Do you enjoy making homemade gifts?

~ Chelle *o*

Recent Sewing Creations

Among my many other talents, I enjoy sewing.

How did I get started sewing?   Like most people, I presume.....my mother taught me how to sew from patterns when I was growing up.  I'm sure I started out watching and helping her, and eventually it morphed into her teaching me.   She was a good seamstress (as least as far as I know).  She made me a bunch of Annie dresses and outfits in second grade, she made my high school prom dress as well as my high school graduation dress.  I made work outfits when I was a freshman in college.  We also successfully altered a sleeveless, lined dress when I graduated from grad school in 2004.  This was the first time we attempted something of that scale, and it was a great success!

Most of my sewing has been more recent (the last three or four years).  I've sewn on and off in the interim, but it wasn't anything regular.  I seem to have made quite a few things over the last few years.  I have pictures of most, but not all (and I'm sure I'll forget some things).  Most of what I've sewn has been for Christmas or Birthday gifts.  Wolf enjoys going to comic-con, so I have also sewn my own clothes/costumes for those, as well as some of Wolf's items.

I have also been sewing various things for around the house.   Here are some of the items I've sewn recently:


Cast Iron handle cover
I bought myself a cast iron skillet (LOVE it!!!!), but got tired of having to grab a potholder to move the pan, or hold it still.  So I looking online for some ideas, and created my own handle cover out of Mickey Mouse fabric (did you think there would be any other kind?) and Insul-brite (the insides of potholders).  There was a bit of trial and error, and it was actually Wolf that figured out how to sew the end of the bias tape!






Microwave Bowl Cozy



With the same Mickey fabric, and also with the Insul-bright (and the all-mighty wisdom of the internets), I made myself a bowl cozy for my lunch bowl at work!

Much less trial and error than the handle cover!

The bowl would always be hot after heating up my lunch, and I got tired of using paper towels to carry it back to my desk. 

Incidentally.....if you forget and microwave the bowl cozy, it *might* start smelling like something is going to burn soon..... don't ask how I know that, I just do!

Placemats and Napkins


Wolf loves the Patriots and I love Mickey Mouse - it is not always that easy to combine/harmonize the two, but I do my best!   It helps that Patriots colors are red, white and blue, and Mickey Mouse is red (and sometimes blue).  These are some of the placemats I have made.  I also made some Christmas ones, hopefully these will show up in a blog sometime! 



The placemats are double-sided: red Pats on one side, Blue on the other, same thing for Mickey Mouse.  Incidentally, Wolf bought all of this Mickey fabric for me for Christmas, all on his own!!!









Lastly (for now at least), I made some chair pads/cushions for our chairs to make the wrought iron a bit more comfy to sit on!!!


I chose Patriots, in red, to somewhat go with the Mickey color scheme.   I used the fabric, a couple layers of quilt batting, 2" high density foam (squares cut into circles), and non-skid pajama feet material for the bottoms (as opposed to making chair ties).   I didn't want the hassle of a zipper, so I overlapped the bottom pieces so that covers fit over the cushions like a pillow sham!  How brilliant of me!!!












Until next time....happy sewing!

~Chelle *o*