Tag Archives: DIY

new year=new babies=new projects

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DIY Tag Blankies!

Two friends just had babies in the last month – a girl and a boy. How fun! Bliss. Happiness. And a bit of sleeplessness…

As you might know, I’m really not into pastel colors for babies (although Wren looks really pretty in pink) so I decided to make some funky tag blankies for the brand spankin’ new babes using lots of bright colors and patterns. And babies love tags, right? Give a baby a beautiful, earth-friendly, educational, ergonomic, expensive toy and they immediately grab for the tag and start chewing. Sigh. Might as well indulge their infantile interests…

One can easily walk into a store (or click over to Amazon) and buy one of these for about $20, but they are so much fun to make and of course, lots more meaningful. Plus the ones in the stores are always light green, light blue, light yellow or light pink. blech. And remember, lovely readers, I have been actively sewing now for about six weeks so this is a BEGINNER project that doesn’t require a lot of skill or super special materials, yahoo!

Simple Instructions

You’ll need about a 1/2 yard of fabric and sixteen pieces of ribbon in different lengths and colors. This is the fun part – be creative with your fabric and ribbons!

1. Measure and mark two 13-16″ square pieces (depending on how big you want your finished blankie) directly onto the wrong sides of the fabric and then cut these pieces out.

2. Place the two fabric pieces right sides together and fold the ribbon pieces in half. Pick a side, any side. Sandwich the ribbons between the two fabric pieces with the folded (finished) edge inside the fabric and yucky edges aligned with the yucky edges of the fabric. Space them out evenly (or not – be creative) and pin the various ribbons through both sides of fabric as you make your way around the square. Repeat on other sides. Leave a bit more of an opening (about 3-4 inches) on one side.

3. Time to stitch! Machine-stitch (or by hand if you’re into that kind of thing…) around the entire square, which then secures the ribbons in place as you go. Continue to leave that same 3-4 inches open.

4. Turn the blankie right side out – getting close here! Press about a 1/2 inch seam allowance on the top and bottom of the opening and press then press the whole blankie. Looking good now.

5. Machine stitch a 1/4 inch or so seam around the entire edge of the blankie (why not use a fun color thread here?) and make sure to close that opening. Voila!

Adapted from Lotta Jansdotter’s Simple Sewing for Baby.

Confessions.

  • The real indicator of when it’s time to put the holiday decorations away is when you can’t find peppermint stick ice cream in the grocery store anymore.
  • Orange is my favorite color today. Yep, still is.
  • I have a weakness for frozen Cokes.
  • Spelling is really important to me, but I am too proud (stubborn?) to use spell-check. If I spell something incorrectly, please alert me ASAP!

Best!

button up.

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About a month ago something very special happened. Are you ready for this, dear readers? Are you sitting down?

I sewed on my first button. Gasp!

I’m not sure how I made it almost 33 years without sewing a button, but I seem to have fared pretty well. Then why start now? Don’t you have anything better to do? Thanks for asking. Do you know a Domestic Goddess who can’t sew on a button? I didn’t think so. When you’re a bit of a people-pleasing over-achiever in the 9-5 cubicle world and then you decide you’ll stay home and start a new journey as a mamma, some of those same annoying tendencies might just follow you. (Thankfully without the donut trays, potlucks and mini candy bar jars.) I’m a goal-setter. I don’t usually reach all of them, but I sure like to set them. My new goal now that I’m out of the office: Domestic Goddess. Not like “I make my marshmallows from scratch” Martha Stewart and not too crunchy either (I will NOT be sewing my own maxi pads), but somebody in between. Maybe like the imagined love child of Nigella Lawson and Jamie Oliver?

Mission: Cook with the seasons, craft for a creative outlet and hope people like the stuff, try not to kill our house plants and have a big organic vegetable garden that isn’t eaten by the bunny rabbits…

Clean? Still waiting for that bug to bite me… NOTE: I actually took a break while writing this post to Swiffer the floors, fold a load of laundry and clean a toilet… the guilt was too much. But I digress.

To my knowledge, my first button is still attached. Here it is on the drink sleeve that I made for Chris. Before the fancy new sleeve, he used a paper towel to protect his hand from his steaming hot jar of tea, but not anymore!

I was so excited with my new skill that I made a bunch of coffee sleeves for other people too. Please don’t tell me if your buttons have fallen off. Let me live out my fantasy a bit longer…

I’m showing this project to you because if I can learn how to sew on a button, which is still attached a month later–seriously–anyone can! What skills do you want to master this year? What creative outlets do you have? Whose imagined love child do you aspire to be?

Confessions.

  • I don’t think I could live without my Burt’s Bees lip shimmer – Fig.
  • Orange is my favorite color today. Yep, still is.
  • I ate in a TGI Fridays in Prague one time and am completely embarrassed about it. The potato skins were god-awful. Go figure.
  • Generally speaking, I like dogs more than people most of the time.

Best!