Sewing

My parents gave me a sewing machine for my 30th birthday.  I was VERY excited because it replaced an old built in sewing machine that completed more frustrations than stitches.  No to the old machines defense I was DEFINTELY not a well-trained seamstress, in fact my only experience was that of my 8th grade home economics class where I made a pillow and at that I'm pretty sure it was more of a circle shape than the square it was supposed to be.  I had A LOT to learn.  My mom and sister-in-law and I took a sewing class at Jo-Ann Fabric but you can only learn so much in one session.  Of course it all made perfect sense there but when I got home threading the machine and the bobbin seemed more like rocket science than crafting.  At that point the machine sat... I was too scared of it to use it.

Then I met Sarah P.  One of my Baby Jam friends.  She is a sewing genius in my book!  She is my sewing mentor!  She helped me get my machine out and actually use it.  My first project, which I couldn't have done without a lengthy tutoring session between her, me, and my machine on her dining room table one afternoon, was replacing the Velcro (or hook and loop as us professionals call it LOL) on Case's bumGenius cloth diapers.

before... notice the velcro rolling this makes for one long string of diapers out of the washer

after... no more rolling velcro!

Next I took on a pair of Case's Addidas pants.  Grandma had gotten him this whole outfit for Christmas but it turned out to be mismatched with 18M jacket and shirt and 2T pants.  The 2T pants are great around his waist with his cloth diapers but they were long.  I hemmed them and they didn't look terrible!  It was quite an accomplishment after having looked at those pants sitting on my sewing table for 2 months being scared to touch them.

I found a great deal on half off valances that matched Ty's nursery theme so I bought three of them.  Two of them were used to make a bedskirt and one to make the curtains.  The curtains were the fun part.  I started with some old curtains we used to have in our bedroom.  They looked like this...

The original curtain

The original valance

Then I cut them up and added the valance to the top (again with lots of instruction from Sarah) and ended up with these...

These probably need to be ironed but
taking them down and turning the
iron on seems like SO much work!

My mom made these tie backs but we decided we needed
something more substantial than the regular little loops
that hold curtains back so we used these holders and just
put the tie backs around it.  

They aren't perfect but I like them.  It will be nice to have more than a valance too because Ty's room get the evening sun so the navy blue curtains will hopefully help him sleep, especially since with our time change now the sun doesn't set until like 10pm during the summer.

I started the bed skirt, which just consisted of sewing together two valances and adding velcro to the bed and the valance, but my mom finished them.  I still get pretty frustrated when my machine doesn't cooperate and she came by when it was on the fritz; however it worked perfectly for her so I guess from that I should deduce that I was the problem and not the machine.  I prefer to blame the machine!

The bed skirt

The only other craft I've attempted is a blanket.  Sarah makes and sells the cutest blankets and lovies on her Etsy store, Aspire to Be, and I thought I'd give one a shot.  Turns out they aren't easy.  I'm not good with the zig zag stitch or straight lines but it is soft and it has his name on it.  I tried to add a satin edge because he loves the satin edge blanket he sleeps with every night but that didn't go well.  I got impatient and just put it on when I should have maybe done some youtube searches for directions because it looked ridiculous when I got done with it.  I took it off and left the blanket alone.  It hasn't replaced Case's favorite blanket to sleep with but I had fun making it, well all but the satin edge!

Pretty sure there is no threat of putting Sarah out of business
but now I know why she loves making stuff!

Thanks for all your help and direction Sarah!  I don't know what I'm going to do when you move away!  We might have to start Skyping!