Baby Shower Gift

One of our close family friends was having a baby, and a baby girl, at that! By now, you should all know I enjoy making anything having to do with girls. I just can't get enough because I have such true, rough and tough boys.

I wanted to make her the traditional "Sarah" gift, which is usually burp cloths. However, I didn't want to make a ton, and only give her those. So, instead I made each burp cloth extra special, and even added in some adorable bibs as well.

Here are the burp cloths. I added a few "scallops" or half circles to the rows of different colored pinks. I did a raw edge finish on them, so they would fray and have even more detail, and texture.

I just love all the girl colors, and yet still has a little blue/teal.

The bibs I made with strips of the same fabric, and just simply made a large panel of the strips and then cut out the bibs.

I added terry cloth to the back, to make them extra absorbent, and help keep the wetness away from the skin.

I, of course, added fun pink snaps, with just that extra detail on them.

Heres how I finished packaging them all up:

Lastly, heres the items with the handmade card:

I hope the wonderful mother and baby girl love them all.

Burp That Baby,
Sarah

Crib Sheet Tutorial

I have made crib sheets before, but I haven't made a tutorial for it. So, now that I have had the chance to make two Winnie the Pooh themed crib sheets, I was able to make a photo tutorial.

You will need about two yards of fabric. You will also need about 70-80 inches of elastic.

1. Fold your fabric in half and then fold it in half the other way. Measure out the fabric so you have the following measurements and cut any extra material off.

2. You should now have a piece that looks like this.

3. Still with the fabric folded and all four pieces of fabric in one corner you will now need to cut out the square piece.

4. Using a square cutter, cut out an 8x8 inch square. Make sure you cut through all 4 layers of fabric.

5. Finished product should look like this.

6. Un-fold the fabric so you only have ONE corner in front of you.

7. Place the two corners, on top of each other, right sides together. (Place left hand on left side of fabric and the other on the right side of fabric. Take left hand over to the right hand. Line up the corners.)

8. Pin the pieces together.

9. Serge or sew the two pieces together.

10. Do the same thing to the other 3 corners, until you are done.

11. Fold the out side edge of the sheet inward towards the back/wrong side of the sheet. Make sure to fold slightly LARGER then your elastic. I believe mine is 1/4in and sew I folded 1/2 inch.

12. Use your iron and press your seam.

13. Start sewing your seam down, remember how larger your elastic is and sew accordingly. Mine was 1/4in, and my fold was 1/2in, so I sewed about 1/8 of an inch from the edge all the way around.

14. Try to line up seam from the corner as you go.

15. Leave about a two inch opening in your hem to slide your elastic into.

16. Take a safety pin and pin it to one end of the elastic.

17. Push the pin into the opening, and wiggle it down and around the entire sheet.

... just keep scrunching up the fabric using the pin the push through.

18. Once you are back at the beginning pull the pin and elastic out.

19. Take your pin off, and place the two pieces of elastic together.

20. Pull enough of the elastic out and away from the sheet as possible, and run it under the sewing machine using several back and forth stitches with your zig zag stitch,

21. Slide the elastic back into the sheet, pull the sheet tight, and get the open hole as flat as possible.

22. Stitch the hole up with a simple straight stitch. I like to back stitch a few times at the beginning and end to ensure it holds.

23. You are now done!

Enjoy Your Sheet,
Sarah

Splat Mat

My son is one of those kids that loves to feed himself, but really knows how to make a huge mess in the process. We started food around four months old, and now that he is almost 15 months he is loving the idea of a spoon, fork, bowl, etc. For the last few months, when he was done with something, he would toss it or throw it on the floor. A sippy cup I could deal with on the floor, but spaghetti, pasta, yogurt, fruit... not so much! I hated the end of the night when he was bathed, and put to bed and then I had to come back out and clean up everything on the floor. It required, wipes, sponges, and a vacuum (as he was on carpet). The occasional spot cleaner was on hand too! By the time I was heading to bed I smelled like everything from cleaning products to baby wipes, and old food! Now that, was NOT my ideal day!

Off to do research. What could I make to put under the high chair to catch the food. I did a little pinterest searching, a few baby site digging, and even a little facebooking. In the end I found splat mats! Oh yes, this is what I needed. I even had on hand for the time being, while i whipped one up, an old christmas table cloth! Perfect! I looked on different websites, and even etsy only to find them for purchase over $40! YIKES!!! You could buy a cheap table cloth for like $10 bucks at walmart or target, so why spend a penny more. I decided I would just make my own. I looked everywhere, and finally found vinyl. However, the back of vinyl when washed will start to seperate from its original fabric. So, i purchased some vinyl on sale, bought some cheap cotton, and sewed them together.

The cotton grey fabric with the grey vinyl chevron fabric.

Now I had vinyl, with a back, and all the vinyl was sealed! Now, I could wash it, scrub it, wipe it, and hang it up to dry! I purchased 3 yards of vinyl, which comes in very large lengths, and about 5 yards of the cotton. I did a little extra sewing with the cotton, because its shorter in length then the vinyl, but in the end I loved the finished product.

Finished splat mat.

Front view.

Front, vinyl, with back, cotton.

Side view.

To simply make one, I sewed the two fabrics right side together. I serged the edge, but if you dont have one you can straight stitch and then zig-zag around that. Make sure to use painters tape on the bottom of your sewing foot, and you might possibly need to place some on your sewing machine where the fabric will slide across it. Vinyl sticks to pretty much everything, so the painters tape will help keep it from doing so. I then left a small hole, where I flipped the entire thing inside out. My hole was about 4-5 inches. I then used my fingers, no iron, to press all the seams out (from the inside). I then top stitched the hole and then rest of the vinyl to the cotton! The finished product was perfect in size.

My son throws mostly left to right, so I didn't need to worry about the area behind him as he rarely throws in that direction. You may need to alter the size depending on your childs high chair size (as say graco, and other plastic high chairs which I know are a lot larger then my wooden one). You can purchase vinyl at most sewing stores, walmart in our area has some, as well as hobby lobby! You can find it online, but usually its more expensive and shipping is a lot these days. If you can purchase it on sale at a local store or use a % off coupon, then thats your best bet, as the vinyl can get expensive!

Now let your child splat away,
Sarah

Bibs for Babies!

Ok, yes I know theres tons of bib tutorials and tons of bib ideas all over the web these days, but I thought I would add my tutorial and a few of the bibs I have done.

Bibs are super easy if you ask me, but sometimes when I look at designs, or ideas on pinterest and other blogs I realize some people make them too complicated, when they really don't need to be!

I love making bibs and also love using snaps instead of velcro. If you have followed a few of my other posts you probably already know that my son has figured out the velcro but not the snaps! So, if you don't have a snap device I HIGHLY recommend them. I purchased mine at Joanns. Heres the one I bought! You purchase that device and then you purchase the snaps to go with it, and those look like these!

Now if you have velcro and prefer velcro then please feel free to add that where I have added the snaps! Just be sure to purchase sewing velcro and not the sticky kind!

Heres a few of the more recent bibs I have done:

Neutral themed bib!

Boy themed bibs!

Girl bib!

Girl bib!

Turtle Themed with yellow flannel back.

Turtle Themed bibs with the Yellow flannel back.

Green polka dot with white and yellow flannel back.

I think bibs are a great gift, especially when you make them by hand! These, with a few burp cloths, maybe a taggy, throw in a outfit or a stuffed animal and you have a cute hand made gift!

Alright, heres the bib tutorial:

This is the bib pattern. I made it by tracing a bib i bought, and then adding about a 1/2 inch on all sides (except the folded side).

Note: When your making your pattern you should trace it onto paper and trial run the size. I made a few with scratch fabric I had sitting around and adjusted the size as I went.

 Fold your Fabric the width of your pattern. I do this so I can use as much of the available fabric as possible. Note: the fabric is folded with the two RIGHT sides together.

 Place your bib pattern on the wrong side of the folded fabric. Place the folded part of the pattern on the folded fabric.

 Trace your pattern with a pencil, or washable marker. Then pin the entire area, to ensure it doesn't move while you are cutting it out.

 Cut out the marked pattern, using your fabric scissors. If you are better with a rotary cutter then have at it. When I am working with such a curved pattern i prefer to pin, pin, pin, and cut with scissors.

 Do the exact same this (fold fabric, place pattern, trace, pin, and cut), with a second fabric for the back of the bib. Now, I like to use flannel when I am making bibs. One side it pretty with a design and the other just a simple flannel. I also prefer the flannel on one side to help absorb some of the drool, food, milk, spit up or whatever else it may catch! If you would prefer to do two cottons and place a thin batting in the middle, you can do that as well!

 Now you have your back(s) and your front(s). Here I have made 3 bibs total.

 I move over to my ironing board, and lay the flannel fabric, RIGHT side up, and then place the cotton fabric RIGHT side DOWN! So now with both RIGHT sides together, I iron the 2 pieces together, making them stiff and it helps them cling to each other.

 I then pin, pin, pin around the entire edge. Now you may pin differently depending on how you plan to seem the bib together. I have a serger so I simply pin the fabrics close to the edge just to keep them from moving. Where as, if you are going to straight stitch and then zig-zag stitch around the edge, you might want to have you pins pinning from outside towards the center of the bib.

 I then serge the entire edge, but be sure to leave a small hole, about an inch and a half to two inches wide.

 Heres my hole, its about an inch and a half wide.

 Again you can see my hole, which you will now use to turn the fabric inside out. Note: I serged my edges, if you do not have a serger again you can straight stitch about 1/4 inch in from the edge and then go back around with a zig-zag stitch and finish the 1/4 inch edge, to give it a little more strength.

 Turn your bib inside out by pulling the fabric through the hole you left.

 Once its turned inside out, be sure to push all your seams out and get all the curved edges as far out as they can go. See how wrinkly the fabric is, now thats no good! So back over to your ironing board you go!

 Folding the two fabrics in, where your hole is, and make a seamless line. (As seen below), then iron the folded fabric at the hole and continue to iron the rest of the bib, so it is nice and flat. Note: I iron the cotton side only! I don't want to burp off all that lovely soft flannel, so i simply stick to the cotton sides.

 Note the hole you used to turn the fabric inside out, now is folded inside, and the seams all line up and the bib is smooth.

 After ironing it flat, be sure to pin that hole so those two pieces of fabric don't move on you when you go to top stitch the bib!

 Back over to your regular sewing machine. Now I am just using a simple straight stitch, and my regular sewing foot. Nothing fancy here. If you have trouble straight stitching around corners you can decrease the stitch size and this will help you move smoothly around corners. Note: be sure to practice on a separate scrap fabric when you alter your stitch to make sure your fabric wont scrunch or get stuck, etc.

Now, I like to do a lock stitch before I begin my top stitching. I simply lock stitch, go over the hole we pinned, and then continue all the way around the bib, trying to keep a consistent space from the edge. I do about 1/8 of an inch from the edge. When I come back around to where I started I go about 3-5 stitches over the first few I made, and then end with another lock stitch.

 This is my top stitch around the front (polka dot fabric) and also what it looks like on the back (yellow, flannel).

 Now on to the snaps. Here is my tools and my snaps. I have colored snaps and just some simple white snaps as well. For this project I am going to use the white snaps.

 For one bib you will need 2 backs, and one male and one female snap pieces.

 Using the pointy/sharp tool, puncture a hole through the 4 pieces of fabric, where you would place a snap. If you are unsure of where to do that, a great way to see is by simply using a toy, stuffed animal, child, or a baby doll. I have made several so I simply hold up the two ends, place them together as if I was going to snap them together and overlap the two fabric ends. I make sure i have enough room on each side, and slide my puncture tool into the 4 fabrics.

 I then place the back and male (cotton side) on one end of the bib, and the back (cotton side) and female on the other end.

 You are now done! You have finished your bib! Be sure to always double check your snaps, to make sure you placed them on correctly. If you choose to just sew on some velcro, be sure to place the male velcro on the cotton side on one end and then the female on the flannel side on the other end (male/female can be swapped, just trying to give you an idea of what to do). You can purchase circles, or an entire roll, and just cut some squares out and stitch those down. If you want you can use a blanket stitch, a zig-zag stitch or just a straight stitch. If you use the straight stitch i would recommend you go around the outside edge of the square (or circle), and then continue with an X shape in the center. That way it will be a little stronger!

 Heres the bib with the snaps connected!

And heres the 3 bibs all done, one with the backside facing up so you have an idea of what it looks like!

I hope this tutorial was handy, and if you would like any further information be sure to leave a comment and ill try my best to help you out!

Happy Bib Making,
Sarah