Easy baby quilt tutorial

I have several friends who have recently had babies, so I thought now was a great time to learn how to make baby quilts. I started with a very easy one too!

I ended up making four these quilts in one day! Using Riley Blake's when skies are grey fabric felt a little like cheating since the fabric is designed to look like a striped quilt to start with! I used Amy Butler's linen for a backing, cotton batting for the center, and cotton striped fabric for the binding. The final dimensions were 36x44 inches, and each quilt took one yard of fabric per side. 

After cutting out each pace, I carefully laid the backing, batting and top fabric together and pinned in several places as I went. 

Next I machine sewed through all thicknesses along the division lines of the top fabric pattern. I then looked at all of the edges to make sure all of the layers still met up, and trimmed off a little where necessary before starting on the binding.

For the binding I followed this great tutorial using single folded stripped fabric. I just adore they way the thin black and white stripped binding looks on these quilts! I will definitely be using this technique again on future projects.  

The binding was 1 1/4" wide. I made a single very long binding strip that I used for all of the quilts by sewing individual strips together on a 45 degree angle. Sewing them together on an angle prevents any unwanted bunching and thickness in the binding, which would be noticeable on the final project. 

 

After sewing along the 45 degree angle (marked above by the pin), I trimmed the extra fabric and pressed the seam open. 

 With a little trial and error I was able to get the stripes to line up across the seams!

 Next I sewed the binding onto the top side of the quilt with a 1/4" seam allowance. I left a few inches of binding as a tail, which was not sewn down at the start.

At the corners, I stopped sewing 1/4" from the edge of the fabric (this step needs to be precise). 

 With the needle in the fabric, I pivoted the quilt to sew the next edge. The binding was folded up and then back down so as to meet the new raw edge of the quilt.

After sewing all around the all 4 sides and all 4 corners of the quilt, I next attached the binding edges together.

 First I turned one edge of the binding down from the quilt edge at a 45 degree angle.

 Then I overlapped the starting bindings' tail. I pinned these on the 45 degree angle where they met, being sure to pin them together at just the spot where their edge meets the quilts raw edge.

 I sewed these together at the 45 degree angle and trimmed the extra fabric.

To finish the binding, I ironed the binding away from the quilt on all sides but avoided ironing the corners.

I turned the binding's raw edge under and folded this over the quilt's raw edge, thereby making a slim binding to encase the quilts raw edge. Flipping the quilt over, my final binding seam was placed at the very edge of the binding and just over the first binding seam, making the seam mostly hidden from the top side of the quilt. 

The corners were mitered as I sewed along the back binding edge.

Overall this was a very do-able project, and I am very happy with how these came out! Will definitely be making more of these in the future!

Baby snuggler

I have been on a baby-snuggler-sewing-kick recently. I want to be fully prepared to keep my baby warm when she arrives, and my house is awfully drafty plus this is turning into a particularly cold winter even in Alabama. I found a simple and very easy snuggler/swaddler pattern here that I will surely make many times over.
Putting the printed pattern pieces together was a little tricky though. The pattern has two pieces and you need to cut one from each the outer and lining fabric: back piece and front leg pocket. I used fleece from Jo-Ann's for both the outer and inner fabric, and was really surprised with how little fabric is needed to whip up one of these snugglers.
I plan to make more of these, they are just so easy! The next one will be with low pile fur for the inner layer for extra warmth in my cold apartment. This pattern could also be easily modified to make it into a stroller-compatible snuggler/sleeping bag wrap.

First I sewed in the darts and attached the velcro on the leg pocket and front wraps. Then I sewed the leg pocket to the back piece for both the lining and the outer fabric.

Next, with right sides facing in, I sewed the lining to the outer fabric, leaving an opening to turn this right side out. The opening was then hand stitched closed.

 Cant wait to wrap up a baby in this cute little snuggler!

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So I have been using these snugglers for the past month with my newborn - and they are a game changer! She sleeps so well in them and they are just soo easy to make and use! I ended up making 3 fleece snugglers for the cooler weather, and now that it is getting warmer I also made 3 in soft cotton.

Winter baby bonnet

I recently discovered Purl Soho, which is a gem of a website filled with adorable patterns including some that are free! The first pattern from this site that I tried was their Winter baby bonnet, which you can find here. I used remnant cotton fabric for the outside and fleece lining. I would use this pattern again, but think that next time I would modify the pattern so that the strap ties could be at least 1 inch longer as my final bonnet seems like tying it may be a little difficult.

 After sewing the inside and outside together with right sides facing, I then flipped this to right side on the outside. The opening was then hand stitched closed.

 So excited to coordinate this bonnet with the cloth baby shoes I made!

DIY cloth baby shoe

I am starting to feel a major nesting urge now that I am nearing the middle of my 3rd trimester. All I want to do is make things for the baby, who is due mid February. While I know that shoes will not be terribly practical for a newborn, they are just the cutest tiny things to make and take so little fabric to complete. I found a wonderful baby shoe tutorial with a free modifiable pattern here, and I definitely plan to make these again. These would also make for a darling baby shower gift!

Each shoe is composed of 3 pieces. I used a lovely cotton remnant of a Japanese fan pattern for the outside and, because I am having a winter baby, fleece lining. Fabric remnants are likely sufficient for these shoes. You will also need a little 1/4 inch  of elastic for the top of the shoe.

Once the inner and outer layers were sewn together, I sewed the toe part to the sole. 

 With right sides facing in, I then added the heal piece to each shoe.

The next and last step is to add the elastic on the top edge of the heal piece. This elastic is then tied to make the shoe secure and snug.

 Cant wait to see baby feet in these!

How to make a Curious George "Man in the yellow hat" felt hat

Felt "Man in the Yellow hat" hat

I have to say, Halloween is my all time favorite holiday! Its such a great excuse to make fun costumes and an opportunity to dress up in extravagant costumes for a night!  

A friend of mine has an adorable little son who is going to be The Man in the Yellow Hat from Curious George for Halloween. The hat, which is obviously a crucial part of the costume, turned out to be very difficulty to find in Halloween stores. I was more than happy to try to make one, although I had never made a felt hat before! I used this blog post as guide, with a some modifications. 

I do have to say, if you are thinking of making a hat following these instructions does takes some time, not only for the actual construction but also because some of the steps involve wetting the felt and waiting for it to dry. It took the whole weekend to complete this project. In retrospect, I think the wetting and gluing of the felt could probably be omitted if you just make a few concentric stitches sewing the two brim pieces of felt together. Sewing in jewelry wire to stiffen the brim edge worked quite nicely. 

Using trigonometry to calculate the radius, I cut two circles through double layered acrylic felt to make the brim of the hat. I had planned on the brim being 7 inches - this ended up being way to big and I trimmed it down to 4.5 at the end. The kiddo's head circumference is 19.5 inches, so I cut an inner circle that was 2 inches less - 17.5 inches in circumference. You need to make this smaller than the desired circumference because the felt will stretch when wet, and because you need the extra fabric to shape the felt into the desired hat-shape. 

 I then ran each of the pieces of felt under water and gently rung them out. I laid the first one down onto plastic and coated it with a 50:50 mixture of modge podge and water. I then placed the second piece on top of this and coated this also with the modge podge mixture. The original directions were for using elmers glue in water, but I did not have any elmers glue on hand. Perhaps elmers glue would work better, or maybe I added too much water in my mixture, but either way the two pieces didn't stick together completely and weren't totally firm. I was able to fix this at the end with a little sewing and jewelry wire.

Shaping the felt

Next I shaped the inner circle to raise up vertically. Luckily, I had a pot that was 19.5 inches in circumference! I think using cardboard here would work just as well though, as long as it is covered in plastic since the felt is wet and tacky with glue. I then left this to sit and dry, which took a very long time!

I doubled a piece of felt and cut two crescent curves for making the top part of the hat. The lower edge was 19.5 inches (plus a sewing margin), while I wanted the top to be 8 inches.

I made a second line with pins 2 inches down from the top of this cone. The top of this hat has a round shape, and this required several curve shaped tucks. I wanted the taper to begin 2 inches from the top.  

I then folded the cone in half again and cut curves into the top, extending down to the 2 inch mark I had made.

 These curves were then sewn to each other, and the free ends were also sewn together, thus making a nice top for this hat! I was very pleased with how the rounded top came out too! Yes it has seams in it, but I think that is OK for a Halloween costume.

Once the brim had dried (mostly), I hand stitched the top to the brim. Perhaps the brim pieces would have held together better had I let them dry all of the way, but I was running out of time.

 At this point I realized the brim was way to big for a kid (7 inches is probably a great size for an adult though)! I trimmed it down to 4.5 inches, and then used two pieces of 24 gauge jewelry wire to reinforce the edge. I sewed these in using a wide zig-zag. This not only held the two brim pieces together, but also made the edge nice and stiff, just as I wanted it to be.