Apple Picking

Ni Hao, Kai Lan is one of the little Piggie's favorite TV shows on Nick Jr. It's like Dora except it teaches viewers Chinese! In a recent episode, there's some apple picking. I haven't seen it, but I keep hearing her say she's picking apples. I was so inspired by the felt house that Jill made on her blog, I wanted to make a less detailed version on a wall hanging version for Piggie to pick apples. Joann's had an after Thanksgiving sale on felt for $1.99/yd. I picked up some and put together this.

The apples, bird and owl are attached with velcro, so she cam pull them off and re-arrange. I'll attach a wooden rod at the top and hang off the door handle or from the linen closet doors.

Here's some close ups:

Quited Christmas Stockings

I'm making Christmas stockings this year for all of us.  I need to get it done before the G-man arrives.  According to the doctor, I could be delivering any day now!  During Joann's Doorbuster after Thanksgiving sale, they had 50% off coupons on regular priced items.  I picked up some double quilted fabric in burgundy and light green.  I'll be making 2 of each color and 2 sizes.  I found a template on Martha Stewart's website I liked...Poinsettia Fringe-Cuff Stocking.  I blew up the template to 400% to make the small stockings.  The large ones were free handed increased in side approximately 1.5 inches.  I trimmed them with cream colored double sided quilt.

Art Case

I came across this tutorial on This Mama Makes Stuff and bookmarked it for gifts to kids.  This is going to be a birthday present for a 3yr old, I modified it by shrinking it down.  My finished project measures 6 x 9 where as the original tutorial gives you something in the neighborhood of 8 1/2 x 11.  I reduced the regular piece to 9 1/4 x 26.  The inside panels are 5 1/2 instead of 8, 6 vs 9 and 3 vs 4 inches.  You'll understand when you download the tutorial.  I skipped on the pocket too since my case is so small, you really can't put much in the pocket. 

Grosgrain: The Hop, Skip and a Jump Maternity Frock GROSGRAIN GIVEAWAY!!!!

Grosgrain: The Hop, Skip and a Jump Maternity Frock GROSGRAIN GIVEAWAY!!!!

Even tho I'm 37 weeks along, I LOVE this dress.  Hope I win.

Personalized Baby Shirts

With a little less than 4 weeks more to go, I wanted to tackle a couple projects for my little guy. This was a quick and easy way to personalized plain white side snap shirts. I did the first one with his initial. The second one is just a ribbon trim. I don't like the way the zig zag turned out on the initial one. I think in the future I'll iron on applique it first and then top stitch around it.

My Parisian Dress

I made this darling little fall dress from the My Parisian Dress pattern by ManiMina on etsy.com. She has some really adorable PDF patterns on sale. I made this one from corduroy that I thought to be appropriate for Fall/Winter. It's a size 2. However, my little Piggie is very petite, so it's still large for her. She kinda swims in it right now. So, I think this will be a Christmas present for Gracie. Maybe I can shrink down the pattern a little bit for it to fit her now. Otherwise, I'll make it out of 2 tone linen (blue and grey) as a Spring dress for her. The top pic is the front and the back is below. If you're a beginner at sewing, this is a very easy pattern to follow along. I know I'll be making variations of this dress for years to come : )

Modified Coffee Cozy

I made this coffee cozy for my sister's boyfriend. Although the prior one I made for her is cute, I thought he might want something a little more manly to use. I simply used 1 inch Velcro instead of a button to hold the flaps together. It's still adjustable without looking too cute. I used left over scraps from the crib bumper and baby burper projects.

Update:  It appears that cozy isn't wide enough to simply use velcro in place of a button.  At least not a fit for Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf cups.