New Bag

I've been pretty busy lately with school and baby, but I promise I'm not completely forgotten how to craft... just mostly.

My most recent is a clothes pin bag.

I love my clothes line, I'm pretty sure I can thank the cloth diapers for that. But, a few months ago, when I wasn't using it because it was too humid and I was too pregnant, I was outside watching the girls play and wishing I wasn't the size of a whale so I could take care of the overgrown weeds around my house and I realized there was a whole in my store-bought clothes pin bag. Upon further investigation it was actually completely falling apart and I had forgotten it outside and there was a spider egg sack on the rim too. Yuck!! I'm not really afraid of spiders but I do prefer them outside instead of in- so I grabbed a gallon sized Ziploc and brought in the clothes pins and left the torn and infested bag in the garbage can outside.

And then I scoured Pinterest and found this tutorial.

I found this duck fabric in the clearance section at Hobby Lobby (my favorite place to browse and then grabbed the closest (although not perfect) bias tape they had.

Altogether I spent less than $5 because the bias tape was 50% that day. AWESOME!! I'm pretty sure my store bought clothes pin bag was more than that and didn't leave me with left over fabric to play with.

It came together pretty quickly and soon I was here:

I have a TON of clothes pins and I was worried it wouldn't fit them all, but they're all in there and it's holding just great. (The laundry room isn't completely finished and a task we haven't gotten around to yet, because when company is over we can just close the door.)

Other than that the only thing new on my camera memory card is my beginning of the year teacher gifts.

Every year at Parent-Teacher conferences I give the teachers a bottle of Pumpkin Spice coffee syrup but the ribbon and bottle occasionally change, this was this year's packaging.

I do have a few things planned coming up. My brother's girlfriend is expecting a little girl, so I have a few little circle skirts planned. That's probably the only project you'll see because everything else on my list is repairs.

That's all for now,
Jo!

What's New

Hello, I know I've been gone a while, but I promise I have good reason:

Meet Baby KO. She was born July 1st, late at night, and has been a wonderful addition to our family!! We are all so in love with her.

Since baby is here now I can tell you how I feel about the booby pads I made. Honestly, there fine for day time use but they cannot stand up to overnights. They are too small and don't hold enough liquid to stand up to prolonged periods of leaking, but it happens that way sometimes. Some projects work, others don't quite. Oh well.

This is my newest finished project:

Here are about 20 (and 2 not in the picture because my girls stole them already) headbands made from old tshirts. You can find instructions on Pinterest a million times over for the Celtic Knots. The chevron style ones I adapted from a scarf tutorial (found here).

I know that seems like a TON of headbands, even for a family with 5 daughters. That's because it is, but they were made to give away to Operation Christmas Child, and they all came together in no time. I found the idea one day and made one of each style to try them out (around 2-3 PM) and within about an hour I had made 8 more. Some are sewn together in the back, which takes a little longer; others are knotted, but I think that gives you the opportunity to turn it around and wear that side as the decoration if desired. I made the first 10 out of 2 old camis that had stretched and I no longer liked the way they fit. Later that night (after putting the twins to bed around 7) I cut the strips for the rest, I think I did 6 strips from 4 different shirts and knotted them all together before I went to bed that night. When I came back to it (a few days later) I spent about an hour and a half sewing and knotting the tails together. And that was all she wrote. It was quick and simple and for a great cause.

I also made this patchwork headband, but felt it was a little too stiff to make more of. (Meaning I gave it to my girls to try and KL said too tight):

I also finished a few needle points in the last week of waiting on KO to arrive.
Here is one, I can't find my photo of the other (it was a hummingbird crewel embroidery), this one was bought on sale at Hobby Lobby, like usual, and I've included the packaging in the photo so you can see brand, because I thought about that this time.

Here's hoping it's not too long before I get time to do more crafting again. Now that school is starting back up and even the twins will be in I have hope, but it depends on how much KO wants to snuggle.

That's all for now,
Jo!

Bows

While the kids are away I'm trying to stay busy so I don't go crazy waiting for KO.
Since the stuffed monster I made was designed to be given away I thought I'd work on some more things to donate to Operation Christmas Child.

Here's what I came up with:

I didn't want to make too many toys (I already have bought a few to throw in anyway). And what little girl, no matter where they live, doesn't love a big pretty bow. So I threw these together yesterday.

Here's a close up of the pink and black because I love the jewel in the middle:

How cute are the pink and black zebra stripes over the matching grosgrain? I love it!

I didn't want to spam you with too many pictures so that's the only close up. But I'll give quick descriptions for the others.
The red and white and black is a simple "spike" bow. Honestly, I'm not crazy about it, I may go back an angle the ends of the white so you can see more of the polka dots under it.

A pretty pink flower, one I love to make because they always look so cute. This one is about 5 inches wide, I made 2.5 inch ribbons for the petals because I always neglect to think about the fact that it's only on side.

Purple ric rac and blue satin over a polka dotted grosgrain ribbon for the next. I may go back and secure a few spots on this one so it holds its fan shape.

A long red bow. Simple but elegant. The ribbon has a white printed heart pattern, which is why I chose to use a white heart for the center.

And finally a simple sheer purple and white bow, with a half "pearl" center.


That's all for now,
Jo!

Booby Pads

With baby due any minute now, the big sisters are spending the week with Papa and Grama (or longer if KO isn't here by the end of the week).  So I decided that left time for me to get a few things done.
First, me and my husband completely rearranged the living room (he did all the heavy lifting/moving) and we got rid of a lot of the junk that had acquired unnecessarily in there.
Second, I blew through my pile of clothing repairs. It had been a while since I sat down at the sewing machine- long enough that I actually had it put away- so I had 5-6 items that needed mending. The only thing I haven't finished is a skirt sewn with elastic thread but I need to find a way to make it not fall off my daughter without butchering it (which is always a fear when you're not a professional seamstress and are just a hobbyist).

Lastly, I made these:

I went strolling on Pinterest for a pattern but wasn't super impressed with what I found.
I've used disposables before but they are either itchy or incredibly noticeable, I've not really found a brand that I liked. I took the features I did like from them into consideration: the ones that are more contoured seem to be less noticeable.
I found a contoured pattern but it was very bulky looking and I found a pattern that was flat but thinner and included a water-proof layer.  So I combined the two methods.

A few notes:
1. These come together super quick! From pulling the fabric out of the dryer to finish was less than 2 hours for a dozen pads. This also included having to move around a few times due to discomfort (remember 9 months pregnant) and refilling the bobbin and a few machine hiccups.
2. As much as I think the contouring will help with discretion, it was a bit of a pain. It pulled unevenly and caused a few problems. I'll have to see if it's worth it when they actually get use.

Here's how they came together:
First, here's my template.

I started with a 4x4 piece of paper and folded it in half from corner to corner, making an X. I then placed it over my boob with the center over my nipple and one fold down the center line of the underside; then I folded it around and folded over the excess so I knew how wide to make the notch. I then used a compass to draw a 4 inch circle around it, feel free to make it a little smaller if you think that would be too big you can see I tried smaller first and wasn't feeling too comfortable about how small it looked so I changed it. **I hope that makes sense to someone other than me.

Next I traced and cut out all the pieces. I cut 12 out of a PUL lined fabric, 12 out of a soft flannel, and 24 out of a diaper material I found online from JoAnn. My plan was to use one layer but when it arrived it seemed a little thinner than I was expecting so I added a second layer just to be safe.

Next I sewed the notch together, since I'm working with PUL I used a polyester thread. Super easy, just fold right sides together and sew down that line. I used as thin a seam as possible, about an 1/8th inch. Since the diaper fabric would be used 2 for each pad I went ahead and sewed them together at this step so I didn't have to stitch so many seams.

Then I layered them together. The PUL and the fleece will be your outsides.
I layered PUL wrong side up, then the diaper fabric, and finally the fleece right side up.
I made sure the notch seams weren't lined up to help prevent to much bulk.

 Finally I used a zigzag stitch all the way around to hold them all together. If I had a serger I'm sure this step would've been easier, but I made due.

The last step was to throw them all in the dryer to help seal the PUL around the needle holes, following the directions on the PUL packaging.

That's it- that's how easy it is. Like I mentioned earlier, unfortunately I have to wait to see how well they work, but I'm hopeful if that counts for anything.


That's all for now,
Jo!

Lonely Glove Monster

I was strolling through Pinterest a few months ago- or more, it was long enough ago that we hadn't put up the winter gloves yet- and I saw these cute little guys.

They're adorable right?
And they seemed pretty simple too. However, I don't really need anymore stuffed animals around my house because daddy has a slight addiction to grocery store crane games and it's because he's pretty good at them. I'm pretty sure that every time I clean out the toy room I end up with at least a half of a garbage bag full of stuffed animals that are ignored now and being re-homed, along with a few that end up tossed due to wear and tear.
So I decided that since it would be pretty small it would make a great toy for the Samaritan's Purse Operation Christmas Child. It was the prefect excuse to give it a try.
Unfortunately when we finally made it through the gloves I only had one mismatch, which seemed really odd with how often I was told that there were no gloves to be found throughout winter, but what do I know.

Anyway, there's the back story- here's the result:

I took some left over floss from an old cross stitch kit (because my crafty nature refuses to let me throw away any) and used it for the hair. I think I had 3 strands and cut them into eighths, for 24 strands knotted around the seam into 48 strands of hair. That's really the biggest change I made. I did choose to and stitch everything, mostly because my pregnant belly didn't want to get up off the couch to use the sewing machine.
My KL loves it and is very upset that she does't get to keep it. I'm hoping to make a few more stuffed animals in the next couple days but we'll have to wait and see where my motivation takes me, as well as whether or not we end up with KO in that time period too.

That's all for now,
Jo!