Burp Cloth-a-palooza

This stack of burp cloths makes me happier than is probably normal, but it's really fun to see some of my favorite stash fabrics move from a bin in the closet to an item that will be out and used.

I made 6 out of prefold cloth diapers and I just eye-balled the size of the fabric, turned under the edges and sewed it down.

For the rest, I picked up 4 soft XL shirts at Goodwill for about $4/shirt. I went with a friend and we had fun finding the biggest, softest plain shirts in the fun colors. When I got home I raided my stash for fun fabrics that I could match up with the shirts.

Using Made by Rae's tutorial, I was able to get 4 burp cloths out of every shirt--usually two that were 11x18 (from the bottom half of the shirt) and two that were a little smaller (from the top of the shirt).

I think that will be the end the baby projects for now, but I'll be back to share a final nursery update once I remember to take pictures. And who knows, I might whip up a pair of pants or two but we'll see. I'm 37 weeks and you never know when a baby will decide they're ready to come!

Three Kinds of Covers

I've had these projects done for a while, but kept forgetting to take pictures (duh!). Here are 3 covers I made using fabric I had sitting around in my stash. It's so nice to see them come alive in actual projects instead of sitting on the shelf. I also love how satisfying these kinds of projects are, quick with awesome, useable products.

Number 1: A Car Seat Cover/Canopy
I used the tutorial from Cluck Cluck Sew and I'm super happy with how it came out!

Number 2: Extra cover for my nursing pillow
I used Made by Rae's tutorial for creating a cover from an existing cover. My pillow came with one obnoxiously bright pink cover, so I wanted to make sure I had an extra. It went pretty well and the only modification was using an envelope closure instead of a zipper.

Number 3: A Nursing Cover (aka Hooter Hider)
For this one, I used tutorial from Craftaholics Anonymous, which includes boning at the top. I'm not sure how much I'll use it since I also got an awesome nursing cover at my baby shower that doubles as an infinity scarf and is super cute and doesn't scream "I'm nursing over here" but I hardly cut the Washi fabric to make it, so I figure it could get upcycled down the line.

Sorry for the blurry photo!

And because this isn't a random enough post as it is, I'll also share my toes since I got a super adorable pedicure over the weekend. (It's the little things, right?)

Nursery Rocker

I have 6 weeks until my due date and a bunch of projects to post about (I've been busy!), so here's the first one. We "hacked" an IKEA Jennylund chair to make a slipcovered rocker for our baby's room. I wanted a comfy upholstered/slip-covered rocker but couldn't stomach the price that such a chair would cost from a place like Pottery Barn. But fortunately, moms-to-be on the internet have already solved this first-world problem with an IKEA hack: buy an IKEA chair and attach a swivel/rocker base instead of the legs.

We lucked out and found a Jennylund chair on Craigslist for only $80 and picked up the rocker base for about the same price. Then, my dad and husband got to work on it.

And here it is in the room! (Pay no attention to the boxes on the floor, we still have another piece of furniture to assemble)

Once we told the woman we bought the chair from that we were going to convert her chair into one for our nursery, she threw in a free storage box. I bought an extra ottoman slipcover from IKEA and converted it into a cover the storage box. I'm pretty please with how it looks considering I was just working what I had and making up a "pattern" as I went along. It's also removable so it can go in the wash with the car slipcover when it gets dirty.

And did you catch that ADORABLE koala?? A friend stitched it up for our baby and it's just about the cutest thing!

Playing in Melted Crayon Rain

Last weekend, Jon and I tried out a fun little crafty project. I saw these cute melted crayon art projects while searching for ideas for our baby's room and we figured to give it try! It's a pretty easy concept: (1) glue crayons to the top of a canvas and (2) apply heat to the crayons so they drip/melt down the canvas.

We thought it would be fun to have the melted drips look like rain and have a couple of kids playing under umbrellas. I found some images online and doctored them to fit my needs and then traced them onto the canvas with a Sharpie.

At first, we used a hair dryer and only covered the kids over their umbrellas. We found the hair dryer to be slow to heat and tough to control, but were encouraged by the result.

Since we were a little disappointed that the rain went under the umbrellas, we tried again with a heat gun (turns out my dad just had one sitting around!) and also covered the kids umbrellas and down the side so rain couldn't slide under. This was a lot faster and more controlled so the rain stayed where we wanted and the crayons didn't get melted together at the top.

I can't tell which I like better and we can't decide which to hang in the room... which do you like better?

Nursery Projects

I've actually been sewing for my little one!

First up, a collapsible storage bin that will likely live on the dresser/changing table. The fabric is this adorable yellow giraffe home dec fabric. I also have a teal chevron in a similar weight, so I'm considering making another one so I have two that are the same size.

I mostly followed this pattern, but I didn't put binding on the bottom of the box (instead I did the seams so that the seams ended up on the inside of the box). I also hot glued the binding on the top of the box and the fabric on the removable bottom of the box. The pattern suggested sewing these one, but there is no way my machine was going to handle sewing through cardboard. 

Next up, a pillow with a base envelope closure. We're planning to get an IKEA slipcovered armchair and install a glider base, but the chair will need an extra back pillow.

Bedding and Valances for Ashford

One of the cool parts about moving back to my hometown has been reconnecting with old friends. Like Melissa - she and I have known each other since we were really little. We went to the same church and lived only a few blocks away. As kids, people always thought we were sisters or twins since we looked a lot alike. Although we haven't stayed in touch, we have a ton in common and it's been wonderful to have her back in my life.

When Melissa told me last year that she was expecting, I knew I wanted to sew something for her little guy. We decided to do valances and crib sheets. She and I picked out fabric together for her vision of a navy, lime & gray nursery. Super cute, right??

The valances were an easy project, just sewing hems on all four sides. I did a wide hem on the bottom and added a little white oversized rick-rack I had laying around to make it look a little more polished.

For the crib sheets, I used a super easy tutorial that only required 2 yards of fabric and some 1/2" elastic. I think it only took about 20 minutes to do each sheet.