A Baby Taggie Quilt

With the upcoming arrival of my 2nd child, I was inspired to work on something just for her. When I found this pattern I was in love. As my first quilt, I liked that it was fairly simple... or at least appeared to be. None of those daunting triangles or crazy appliques to worry about, but yet it was still different. The initial quilt was designed by Katie Hennagir of Katie Hennagir Designs and I bought it and the fabric at baywindowquiltshop.com.

 The finished quilt.

The back (before quilting).

The quilt was so much fun to work on, and I can't believe how relaxing I found the whole process. In fact, I liked it so much that I just kept adding to it, making it a bit bigger and adding some extra embellishments. All in all, it took me about 3 weeks to finish it and I absolutely adore it. To the design I added the three boarders to the outside of the quilt top and the two boarders to the backing. It allowed me to increase the size of the quilt a hair for when baby really starts rolling around! The finished quilt is now 42 inches square.

Introduction

So, I guess it would be best to introduce myself. My name is Jaime and I'm a twenty-something stay-at-home mom. I enjoying making things with my hands and I just can't seem to live my life without some creative tendency trying to force it's way out of me.

I've also had the pleasure of growing up with a mom who, at least in my eyes, could do everything-- a Jackie of all trades, if you will. She has been both a hairdresser and a florist, professionally. She decorated my birthday cakes as a child, and has a flare for throwing perfectly put-together parties. She's even made a Halloween costume or two for me... and all my life I've wanted to be just like her.

Before I had my daughter, Diva, I was an avid dancer. It was, and still is, my passion. But I no longer seem to have the time, means, or muscle tone to follow that dream, and have since been on a quest to find a new passion-- or at least something to help release the bubbling cauldron of creativity inside of me. And I want to be to my daughter, what my mother is to me.

I hope you enjoy this blog. Be inspired. Try something new... what have you got to lose!

As a side note, I have pre-dated some blog entries to account for projects I have done prior to starting this blog. Feel free to check them out too.

Baby Changing Pads

 So, can I just tell you that i Love, LOve, LOVE this tutorial by Jill of Homemade by Jill. I've made two already, and know I'm going to make a bunch more. They are perfect for new moms and baby showers... and I'm thinking about making one in smaller scale for my daughter to change her baby dolls on too! The tutorial is so easy to follow, even for a novice sewer like myself. And they come out just so darn cute!

The one thing that I really love about these is that the inside calls for a laminated fabric. I took it one step further and purchased that sparkley vinyl fabric that you might use to upholster a 50's style bar stool. It wipes down so nicely which is perfect for those special occasions when things get a little out of hand. The fabric is a little expensive, but well worth it.

Just Like Mommy...

Diva is just starting to really get into dolls lately, so I thought it would be cute for her to have a sling to carry her baby around in. Since we will be welcoming a new baby to our house in a few months, the timing is perfect for her to get into the whole Mommy thing. When she was little I used a sling all the time, and I figure I'll probably do it again-- so now we will be able to match when we go out to the park or are just playing around the house.
The sling was super easy to create. I went online and found two tutorials that I like and sort of combined them... parts from Koala Brains and this one from Momma's Milk. I did however, make mine reversible by sewing two fabrics (wrong sides) together, instead of just folding the fabric as Momma's Milk suggests. I also didn't worry about reinforcing the bottom seam since dolls aren't very heavy, and my daughter drops them on the ground anyway. Oops.

Tinker Bell Costume

For Halloween this year, we decided to go as a group costume. My husband would be Captain Hook, I would be Peter Pan, and Diva wanted to be Tinker Bell. As I looked around at Tinker Bell costumes on-line, I was really disappointed. None of them actually looked like Tinker Bell! There was only one thing left to do... I had to make it. Seeing as how last year's costume wasn't a total disaster I felt up to the task.

I created a tube dress out of some satiny fabric and sewed it to a flesh colored leotard (good thing too since we had a freak snowstorm in NJ just a few days before Halloween!). For the wings, I was a total sucker and made them myself too... note to whoever thinks about trying to make their own fairy wings. DON'T! Just buy the cheap-o ones... you'll thank me later. I also made her a matching pixie dust bag to hold all of her trick-or-treat goodies. I used this tutorial, but modified the size.

All in all I was happy with how it came out, and she had fun in it.