Handmade Baby Blocks and Onsies.

 This was a project I completed over a month ago. In my rush to complete them before we left for our anniversary trip I remembered to take a few photos. Good thing I finished them too, because my nephew was born a few days later :) I enjoyed working on these simple projects, and had fun playing around with the bright fabrics. 

For the onsie appliques I ironed my fabric onto some interfacing and then cut out my design. I then ironed on the applique to the onsie and finally stitched around the edges to secure. There are quite a few tutorials online so I didn't worry about typing up another one. 

Now these blocks below took a little more time, but were still pretty easy to make. I used the following tutorial from Happy Together to make them.

It felt good to get back into my sewing. I have a few more projects in mind now that things are slowing down again, and schedules are actually in existence. 

Tonight I thought about starting a project but I ended up curling up on the couch watching a cheesy hallmark movie while sipping on coffee. Oh and there may have been some pumpkin bread involved as well...

I hope everyone is having a wonderful & cozy weekend too!

Create Week 1: Fabric tube scarf

For my first week I decided to make a scarf because I have a slight addiction to wearing them. I own too many, so I definitely should not purchase any new ones. Making one, however, seems perfectly logical to me...

So here is my scarf below. Week one was a success (at least I thought so) 

My favorite part is the back where I have two large wooden buttons to secure the two ends.

Tutorial found at: FabricWorm

I used the tutorial as a guide, but for the most part I did my own interpretation of what I thought would work.

Pot holder tutorial (kind of)

Okay so awhile ago I made a few pot holders for myself and as a house warming gift for a friend. I was never satisfied will all the boring pot holders I see in stores. I took a few photos along the way so you can treat this as kind of a weak lazy tutorial on my part. I won't give you exact measurements or steps but I think if you have some sewing experience you will be able to look at the pictures and figure out the rest. So sorry for my lack of trying I just didn't really think to measure everything while I did it.

two pieces of fabric 8" X 8" 

two pieces of fusible batting 8" x 8"

I chose to quilt one of my pieces of fabric for the front of the potholder so I created a quilt square out of four squares to get a eight by eight piece. You could just do one piece of solid fabric or quilt it however you like. 

Iron on the batting to the backside of each fabric piece.

to get the "quilted" look I did some decorative stitching to the front piece of my fabric once the batting was ironed on (see the zig zag stitch below)

For a tab on the pot holder I cut a strip of coordinating fabric of about 7" X 2.5"

I pressed this piece so that when folded the edges were tucked in (see below sequence)

then I stitched it closed on one side.

fold this tab in half and then pin it between the two "good" sides of the front and back of your pot holder. This way when you flip the pot holder from inside out the tab will be on the outside. 

pin the rest of it to keep from shifting

sew around the entire square leaving about a 3 inch opening to turn the piece right side out. The two vertical pins above show the opening I left. So I started at the outside of the one pin and continues all around the square stopping at the 2nd pin. 

Then Flip it!

You will then have something that looks like this

I then sewed about a 1/4 inch around the edge to further finish and secure the pot holder. I also closed the opening that I left by doing this, just make sure that the fabric is folded over so that it closes it as you stitch along that side. You could hand stitch is closed as well. 

Ta-da!