Banner Part 3

I finished cutting out the letters. It took a whole episode of Top Chef, but I got it done. This time I used a 250pt. font so I don't think I will trim the banner pieces too much.

Banner Part 2 (not going so well)

I didn't get much done but when your almost-1 year old is waking up at 3 a.m. for party time, small steps make you feel pretty accomplished!

Today, I printed out the letters for the banner. HAPY BIRTD. I figured I needed one of each letter, and I could cut them out of that. Well I started it, starting with the B.
I started cutting with the H though, it seemed easier.
It was actually kind of a pain in the butt that way.
I decided to cut a square of the letter, and a square of felt, this made it much more stable and easy to cut. So since I didn't print these from home, I have to re-print multiple letters tomorrow.
I did get HAI done though.
The font I used wasn't too big (I really thought it would be big enough) but instead of cutting bigger letters, I am going to cut about 3" off the top of each triangle. This should work fine.

Got something done today, finally! (Banner Part 1)

Today I started making a "Happy Birthday" banner for my son's birthday next month. I used this sorta-tutorial. I like that it is a do this, you can mess around with that, etc. type of thing. I like to have choices.

We are not doing any real theme, but I love brown and blue, so brown and blue this banner will be. We are short on cash (yes, school started but a lot of catch-up is being played with the "big" bills), so I went to our Walmart, that mercifully still sells fabric, for my supplies.

I cut a piece of printer paper to 9" long, folding it in half. I used only the rotary cutter on this one.
Side 1. This is the side the letters will be on. I still have to pick a font (and make the time, this is going to be time consuming, as the tutorial writer mentioned).
I tried to cut this in a way that conserved as much fabric as possible, so I would have some good scrap left.
Happy Bir
The flip side. Yes, that is flowers. Yes, my child is a boy. This was the only thing that matched well enough to go with. It is for the flip side, anyway.
Both sides finished cutting out.
The brown stuff on the right is the felt I will be cutting the letters out of. I will choose the font, and probably cut the letters tomorrow. I will use interfacing in this, to make it a bit more stable. The tutorial I used didn't use it but I think for a novice like me, it will be helpful.
I took my own advice...instead of making my own bias binding, I bought my own. I didn't know to buy double or single fold bias tape. They had brown bias tape, single fold, for 50 cents so I got one of those and one of these double fold (at regular price, about $1.50). I will use the other one for something, I am sure.
Not related to the banner, but here are the supplies I got today for my kitchen wetbag. I like the fabric because it matches pretty much any fall or jewel toned kitchen items I might have, and the zipper is "natural" just because I didn't want black or white. Hopefully my mom will bring me the PUL on Friday so I can do this bag this coming weekend.

An upcoming project (perhaps this weekend?)

Ya know how you can find out about a new product and then wonder how you ever got by without it?

Well I can't believe I didn't think of this one!

In our attempt to cut down on waste, I had to curb my addiction to paper towels. As I have talked about before, and made near the beginning of this blog, we use big microfiber towels from Sam's, cut in half. The problem was always what do we do with the rags after use? I use about 3 a day, and we have been putting them in a plastic bag inside the small closet in our kitchen. Problem is, they reek. I don't want to wash them every day (defeats the purpose, no?). My husband always forgets where we put them.

So today, in my internet adventures, someone posted about kitchen wetbags!

I have about 6 wetbags. We cloth diaper our son, and we have a few for home, a few for daycare, a few for diaper bags. However, it didn't even cross my mind to use one in the kitchen. DUH!

So, I will be making my own wetbag. I am going to use this tutorial, and wing the rest. Hopefully it will come out looking something like this. I asked my mom if she thought I could do this one, and she said yes AND she has some PUL left from when she made our wetbags. Score! I can use some of the fabric I have left from a different sewing project, it takes about 1/2 yard of fabric for one bag. I have never done a zipper before, and this requires a zipper, so a new skill will be learned (I hear there is a special foot needed for zippers? My machine has a bunch of presser feet with it). If you look at the picture, the maker used snaps, but I will probably use velcro and make it so it will hang somewhere else (possibly at an angle). The stove just isn't somewhere I want my used rags to hang out, since heat makes things smell.

Yay!

This will probably happen this weekend. School started today for teachers and kids.

Fabric beach balls?

I didn't really plan on sewing anything today, but I was looking for fabric blocks to possibly make. We are trying to move away from plastic toys in favor of soft/wooden toys that are a bit simpler. I decided to use this tutorial. This site has a TON of great ideas for all sorts of projects.

I used mostly scrap for this project. I did the medium and small balls. I decided on black/white/green for the fabric colors.
Cutting out the green fabric. I needed two of each color, in each size.
Progress...this challenged my cutting skills because it was important to get the points pretty close in shape/etc.
Pinned, right sides together, to sew one side of each. Curves are VERY tough for me, so this was something of a toughie for me.
All of the wedges pinned and ready to go. 1/4" seam allowance for a curved item was a bit daunting to me, but it turned out OK for the most part.
As per the suggest on the tutorial, I chain pieced all of the parts together. I don't see quite how it made the balls "prettier" but it definitely made the process a lot faster.
4 of each size, separated.
Pinned and ready to make the half-balls. After they were pinned and I started sewing them, I realized it would be easier to do without being pinned.
Chain pieced together.
Basic shape after they were mostly done.
I sewed the right and wrong sides together...I had to rip the seam and start again.
Finished, unstuffed balls. I messed up the smaller one. I tried to go flower/black/green/black/etc. but I accidentally made the little one black/flower/black/green/black/green.
The circles to go on the ends. These were a massive pain in the butt.
Stuffed.
Finished ball! (Medium) I put the ends on according to the directions, and it was a PITA. I did the small ball not according to direction and it didn't turn out so good.
The end of the little ball, all messed up. Its oK though, it is securely attached.
And there we go! I hope Jack likes them. I bought him a new wooden toy, and added these in today, so out went three plastic toys (we live in a small place...one toy in, one toy out).

What did I learn?

• I learned how to chain piece. This might be useful in the future.
  
• My stitching along a curve improved greatly! The biggest problem was keeping the seam allowance. I think it turned out OK but there were a few 'holes" that I had to hand-stitch once I stuffed it.
  
• Go with the directions...they are usually tested!
  

Upcoming projects:
Breathable bumpers for Jack's crib. Bedskirt too.

Basket liner (the hard way)

Today I made a basket liner that I have been meaning to make for awhile. I don't really know where this basket came from, but I have had it for awhile. I keep Jack's extra blankets/sheets in it. I had planned on using the Curbly tutorial on Youtube, but I ended up using this one instead. The Curbly one would have been 110% easier but I didn't even have close to enough fabric (there is a bunch of wasted fabric as a tradeoff for an easy basket liner). I really like the fabric the tutorial I did used, by the way.

Here we have a long, shallow basket.
I had to do a ton of measurements, then make what looked like a wide tube. This was pretty easy. This is the same fabric I used for the Podaegi straps, since the beautiful green fabric I had planned to use was not big enough. I ironed the seams, and got ready to sew on the bottom.
Pinning the bottom to the tube. Not easy, the sides of the tube were a bit longer than the bottom (though I measured both out as per instructed).
I had to kind of wing it when it came to sewing the corners. They turned out OK but not perfect.
You can't see it here, but the corner closest to me has a "hole" in it, and the one on the far right is bunched up in the middle. Another victim of my crappy cutting skills.
I foled the edges 1/4", then 1/2", pinned, then sewed. It turned out pretty well. Curbly's tutorial adds elastic, which would have been nice here, but not necessary.
I fixed the "hole" and the bunching will just have to stay, because I am in no mood to use the seam ripper. All done!
What did I learn?

• Corners are hard.
  
• Wasting fabric might be worth more than doing it the hard way. They other way just looks SO easy. Unfortunately, all the baskets I have left to cover are the wicker ones that look like small laundry baskets (every Walmart has them). Round bottom...should be interesting!
• I learned that stores have a real racket going on. These liners are not hard to make at all, and can be made pretty cheaply (I think I spent $2 on this fabric). The same basket with a liner at Michael's is about $19.
  

Upcoming Projects:

• I desperately need to make mesh crib bumpers.
  
• Not much else coming up since school starts Tuesday. BLEH!

OH and we finally finished the birdies. Jack and I went out back to find a fallen stick to sew the birds to. I came back in with it, tested it on the wall, and then found out I had a giant spider crawling up my arm. Thankfully Jack was on my back in the Podaegi, because that thing scared the crap out of me.
Not crazy about the bird on the left...but I wanted a bird there and couldn't figure out another way to get it to stand up straight!

Finally got busy last night...

Last night I decided to try my hand at a Podaegi. It worked out pretty well (so far). It is a Korean-style baby carrier. I have a bunch of carriers but this one piqued my interest so I thought I would try it out. I used this tutorial. I had seen a few other tutorials, but this one was the easiest to follow (so I thought).

Here is my fabric. I got 2 yards of the cotton one on the left, that was my blanket fabric. I got 3 yards of the poly/cotton upholstery fabric on the right, that was the strap fabric. It is not really that thick so I figured it would make good strap material (I was correct).
Instead of a continuous strap, I sewed 3 strips of the fabric together, as per the directions.
I had to cut out batting for the head/shoulder rest. This would turn out to be mine enemy.
All of the strap material sewn into one long strap.
Sewing the blanket. I hemmed it on the inside, then I zig-zag topstitched it.
Trying to figure out which end goes inside the headrest. I had to measure again.
Figured it out. I had to sew the batting into the center of the straps, then sew the blanket into this area. Turns out, this is a giant pain in the ass. Giant. Can't get it straight, can't get it in right, can't do this that or the other. The instructions also were not very clear here, I had to read them outloud to myself a few times. A work colleague who sews told me to use either paper or some of that tearaway stuff (which I have, would have been nice to know this yesterday!) to sew through this stuff. Now I know!
The final product. I tried it with my son this morning. He is a teeny tiny peanut of a boy who is used to being in all sorts of carriers. This is simply too short. The directions did say that this could be made longer/shorter due to preference, but I made it exactly to the #'s specified. I will fix this tomorrow by adding length to the blanket. It shouldn't be too hard.

What did I learn?

• I hate batting.
  
• I kept getting the bobbin messed up somehow. I had to stop and start this a lot. Part of it might have had to do with the thickness of the project.
  
• Speaking of bobbins, mine drove me crazy last night when I was winding it. I kept winding it and winding it and it was winding loose, on top and on bottom and under where it should have wound. I did it over and over and over again and could not figure out what was wrong. This afternoon, I figured out the problem. The little cap that holds the thread in place (on the spool, not the bobbin) was not on there at all the whole time. It had been getting unwound in the wrong tension, therefore getting screwed up. DUH!
  

Upcoming projects:

• I am going to make that basket liner.
• Still thinking about making the ButterCup bag
• I might make a clothespin holder with some scraps that I have.