baby bedding

With about five days until my due date, the sewing has been slowing down a bit. I have been getting things ready in the house for baby to come, including finishing up her room. 

We bought a twin sofa sleeper for the baby's room so that I can sleep comfortably with her apart from my husband (who has trouble falling back asleep once he wakes in the night). Since he has a long commute and a challenging job to go to everyday, I don't mind the sacrifice. I bought cute sheets for the bed on sale, but the pillowcases were regular price (and way too expensive!), so I decided to make a couple of cases out of some fabric remnants that I picked up at JoAnn's.

I used this tutorial from MADE, but I totally forgot about the directional fabric warning. So, this pillowcase is sideways. I was already sewing it together when I realized it, so I just went with it.

This one turned out better. I love those little fairies! I figure these will be nice and comfy for me to use on the twin bed, then I can save them for my little girl to use when she moves to a toddler bed.

Here's her crib. I had originally wanted to make all of the crib bedding, but when I found this bumper and crib skirt on clearance at Land of Nod, and these Pottery Barn sheets for $8, I figured I couldn't make crib bedding for less money. And it all matched the room so well!

I did decide to make the quilt using Amy Butler's Little Stitches for Little Ones quilt pattern. So far I have just pieced the quilt together. I still need to baste the backing on, stitch-in-the-ditch, and attach the quilt binding. This is the first quilt I've ever made, and I am really enjoying it.

I used Michael Miller/Sarah Jane Children at Play (pinwheels, pinkish floral pattern, and pink and white polka dots for backing), Riley Blake Sugar and Spice (green floral), and one of the clearance sheets I bought from Pottery Barn. I am still debating whether to use the pink dot for binding or to bind it in solid pink so that it is not so busy. I doubt that I will finish this quilt before baby is born - I want to take my time and do it right. I'm feeling okay about that. In fact, she can come whenever she's ready! Maybe waiting at least until after tomorrow afternoon would be good - we've got the plumber coming over and I want a working bathtub again!

:) Shelly

pillowcases

Yesterday I needed an easy project to relax with while Marcus enjoyed his afternoon slumber and Charlie was off at pre-k class. Since Charlie had requested a back-up flannel pillowcase (my laundry turn-around time is slow and Charlie has become a big fan of his first flannel case), and I had some flannel in my stash that was already cut to pillowcase proportions, I decided that pillowcases was the perfect little project.

Dogs for Marcus and monkeys for Charlie. Both pillowcases totally clash with the boys' bedding, but (in case you didn't know) nothing really matches in my house, anyways. Fabric was scored at huge JoAnn Fabrics flannel sale just before Christmas.

They had some serious pillow snuggling going on after their bath. I love making pillowcases! Simple and well-written tutorial by MADE found here.

(Today I was having a little photo-editing fun playing with Picnik. What an awesome site!)

:) Shelly

flannel pillowcases for my favorite kids

I hope that everyone had a very happy Christmas! We are back from a week in Chicago visiting our family. Despite a nasty stomach bug that we suffered from and spread to some of our extended family members (sorry!), we still managed to have a merry holiday with our loved ones. While I was staying at my mom's and dad's house (and the sick kids were sleeping), I managed to whip together these pillowcases (using this tutorial) for my own kids and my nephews and nieces. Thanks for the use of your sewing machine, Mom!

Blue cars and green dots for Charlie ("Mom, I love it. Green and blue are my favorite!" How did I know?!).

Dinosaurs on aqua with an orange dot trim for my nephew, Zachary.

Sweet pink floral with black and white damask print for my niece, Maddie. Her room is designed in this color scheme with a reverse black and white damask print and a darker pink. Her mom (my SIL, Kim) sews beautifully and designed the room herself. I wish I had snapped a photo of Maddie's room - it is darling!

Tools and blue dots for my nephew, Bobby.

A floral and bird pattern with dark pink dot trim for my niece, Abby. This is Riley Blake fabric, purchased on sale from my very favorite fabric store, The Quilting Loft.

Bears and balloons with a light green and blue dot print trim for Marcus - this is the softest of all of the flannels I've ever used. Marky loves it! Besides the Riley Blake fabric, I found all others at JoAnn's super flannel sale just after Thanksgiving. Gotta love that!

I have two more superhero capes to make this week... so back to the machine I go (once I unpack this insane amount of luggage!).

:) Shelly

better late than never

Well, I didn't imagine that I would get my pillowcases finished by the end of pillow week, but I am actually pretty proud of myself that I'm only one day late with them! I had originally planned to also make a couple of throw pillow using some of the great tutorials on House on Hill Road for the week, but it just never happened.

I made two pillowcases for the pillows on our bed using MADE's pillowcase tutorial and a little bit of Little Birdie Secrets' pillowcase tutorial. Both tutorials suggest using fabric that does not have a directional pattern. After making these, I totally understand why... making sure I had both a left side pillow and a right side pillow required quite a bit of thinking! Plus, using directional fabric required more than 3/4 yd + 1/3 yd of fabric (the 41" is the length of the fabric, while the 26"/11" is the height). I should have taken a photo of the cut fabric to show exactly what I mean here, but I was just too busy thinking about my pillowcase execution!

What I will never post is a photo of the before state of our bed. I will just tell you that there was no duvet cover to speak of (just a bare bones down comforter) and a combination of purple and tan sheets (in a green room). Blech! I found this awesome Cecelia bird print at Ikea with the plan to make a duvet cover out of it. Then I decided it was be just too much bird for one bed. So, I purchased the Ikea black and white duvet cover on the bed to go with the bird silhouette on the fabric. I picked up the throw pillow at Ikea on impulse, and have since really taken a liking to it.

However, I am rethinking the throw pillow now - it might be too much pattern with the new pillowcases. Chris hates this throw pillow. In fact, he strongly dislikes any throw pillows on the bed. Each night he assertively chucks the pillow into the corner of the room. Have you ever seen Along Came Polly? Remember the pillow scene? So hilarious. I wonder if I will ever drive Chris this crazy?

The movie clip is two minutes long and totally worth it. Check it out here.

One more thing: I will disclose to you that our bed is actually never made... and, when it is, this is what happens to it.

I also made a new pillowcase for Marcus. Yep, that duvet cover is also from Ikea. I think I have a problem. I forgot to look at the designers of each of the fabrics, but I found both flannels at Pacific Fabrics in Seattle.

Charlie made it very clear that he would like a new pillowcase, too. It all needs to be even-steven, after all. Maybe I'll do better this time without a deadline... or maybe not!

:) Shelly