diaper bag for dolly

One of Kate's favorite books to read is "Little Mommy". The little girl in the story takes care of her dolls just like a mommy would. Kate loves reading this and then pretending to be a little mommy to her own baby dolls. I'm very excited (and a little bit nervous) to see how Kate responds to there being a real baby in the house. I'd been given advice to have a few special gifts just for Kate when the baby comes home. I thought this would make the perfect "big sister gift". Her very own diaper bag complete with supplies for dolly: a sling, diapers, wipes and case, bib, burp cloth and bottle. I saw the idea here (along with the sling tutorial) and was able to use scraps of fabric I had to sew everything. I used the basic template for this shoulder bag and adjusted the measurements for a little girl. The diaper tutorial I found here, as well as the little wipes case. The bottle I found at the $1 store and I'm afraid that might be the favorite item out of them all! Either way I hope that Kate will have fun being a "little mommy" to her baby dolls and hopefully won't feel too left out when I've got another baby around to take care of!

church bag

Until now, we've been using an ugly blue and white canvas bag that says "Martha Stewart Living" on the side (I must have got it for free somewhere) to tote all of our scriptures and books to church on Sunday. Every time I look at it I get a little bit embarrassed. It is not cute. At all. I got a burst of energy last night (nesting?) and decided to rummage through my fabric scraps to see if I had enough fabric to come up with a new bag. I found this black and white upholstery fabric I bought from the remnants bin a while back and decided it would be perfect. For the lining I used some leftover red corduroy from my Christmas stocking project and an hour later had a new bag! Tote bags are a really great project. They don't require a pattern, are forgiving on measurements and sew up fast and easy. This is actually the second bag I've sewn. I did the first a few nights ago--it's a shoulder bag version that will be a diaper bag for Kate's dolls (I'll post pictures soon)-- so I went with what I learned from that tutorial and modified it based on the amount of fabric I had and made 2 handles instead of 1. Now I can throw the ugly Martha Stewart bag away and as Kate's books get pushed out of the diaper bag to make room for all the things a baby requires (I'm going to have to take so much stuff) her books can occupy this new bag.

Easter Outfit

I had a goal to get this finished before the baby comes, and I did! I'd been coveting the Oliver + S pattern for this jacket and skirt and was so excited when I got it for Christmas. To make it even sweeter, my mother-in-law, Leslie, (who gave me the pattern) and I scored this suiting fabric in the discount bin at Denver Fabrics, $11 for 3 yards of 60 inch wide! Now, thanks to a generous offer from Leslie, the baby will have a matching dress with the leftover fabric.

These pictures weren't the easiest to take. 1. Kate doesn't like to get dressed, so to have to do it an extra time was a little bit painful. 2. She doesn't want to pose/smile/hold still for anything!

The pattern was a lot of fun to sew and the directions were really straightforward. I used a double-needle for the first time--I didn't even know there was such a thing--for the top stitching with peach thread to match the peach buttons. I'm happy that this is done and it fits! Now I'm thinking about making a yo-yo into a hair bow with some of the fabric scraps. We'll see if I can fit my belly in front of the sewing machine.

easy pillows

My energy for sewing projects is definitely waning, however I do have a few I want to get finished before this baby comes. These pillows have been on my list for a while and they were a quick, one evening, gratifying project that I should have done much earlier! I bought the fabric back in October at my visit to Purl Patchwork and really love it. I made the pillows myself out of muslin and batting which actually made constructing the pillowcases even easier than using pre-made pillows because I was able to cut the fabric all together, just making the case fabric a 1/2 inch or so bigger. I've used this template before from this book and love it. It's easy, looks nice, requires no zippers, yet can be removed to wash. I made one pillow for the rocking chair (that already gets it's fair share of use) and one little one for Kate's crib that is slowly becoming a big girl bed. They are already nice and wrinkled and worn in, and my back feels much better!

creating in the kitchen

When Paul and I were in San Francisco we visited Tartine Bakery and quickly understood why it was so crowded. Tartine is a small shop that sells pastries and sandwhiches. We ate lunch and for dessert decided to try something different than we would usually order. Paul had a coconut macaroon and I had an almond rocher that was so tasty I bought the cookbook because it had the recipe in it! It's a simple little cookie that while a little strange looking, is really tasty and actually pretty easy to make.
I made some of the rochers (a fancy french word pronounced ro-shares) for Kate's party and then decided to use the new tart pan I got for Christmas to try my very first tart--chocolate hazelnut, also from the Tartine cookbook. It was delicious and worth the effort of peeling the skins off the hazelnuts (although next time I'll try to buy ones that are already peeled!) So far I'm loving the cookbook and dreaming about becoming a pastry chef and opening a shop of my own. It sounds romantic, although being around delicious pastries all day probably isn't the best thing for the waistline.

Another Christmas gift I received was a fancy cookie cutter meant to be used to make edible bouquets--similar to the ones they charge $50 for! You can find a video here with instructions, it was surprisingly simple to make and comes together at the end. While making it I kept thinking I was just going to have to give up and throw everything together in a bowl for fruit salad, but in the end, it turned out ok. It's fun for kids to look at and I think Kate may have eaten more fruit than usual because it looked so "fancy".

toddler's placemat

Kate loves to help around the house and is getting quite good at some tasks. She helps to set the table but doesn't seem to know where to put things, so the forks or spoons just end up in one big pile in the middle of the table. I've seen place mats similar to these before and thought it would be easy enough to make one up with materials I had on had. I went with oilcloth for easy cleanup, it just wipes clean! I used pinking shears around the edges and used a plate, fork, cup and spoon to trace around. I then used the bright blue thread and did a wide zig zag stitch around the tracing so it would stand out a bit. It has really helped Kate figure out where to put things and it's now a little game. You could use regular fabric for this and some embroidery thread, or just fabric markers--the only downside being if your toddler is as messy as mine you'd have to wash it after every meal! See here for more examples.

Animal Puppets

I found these pictures on my computer and thought I would share these easy puppets with you. There isn't much to write about--I saw some in a Land of Nod catalog and they looked easy enough to copy, and they were. I used felt (try and get the good stuff with some real wool in it) and drew patterns on paper before tracing and cutting out the fabric. I gave these to a few of Kate's little friends for Christmas as well as my nieces and nephew to go along with the puppet theater. The possibilities with these guys are endless!