SewFest 1 comes to a pause.

Very rarely do I use an entire spool of thread. In fact, I honestly can’t remember a time where my spool ran out. But in sewFest 1 I used two.

I have been working hard, and all day long for the last five day, and my apartment shows it.(and this is actually after cleaning. Quite a bit.)

So, I’m taking the weekend off. I’m cleaning right now while J naps. And I’ll be back next week, but not quite as intensely.

Pee-pee tepee tutorial

So I have three friends that are expecting boys right now. So one of the things I am making for baby gifts are pee-pee tepees. (You can see the full list and pictures here)

So I thought I’d do a tutorial on peepee tepees. There are not hard. In fact in about thirty minutes I whipped up 9. The longest part of it was clipping threads(which is my LEAST favorite part of sewing, clipping threads… infact many times when I wasn’t married and lived at home, I would sew this magnificent dress, and my LOVELY mother would clip all the threads, yes I was spoiled)

So to start, download this pattern peepeetepee.

Do make one of these you need a 4X4 square of fun fabric, and a 4×4 square of terry cloth ( you could even use a washcloth if you found them cheap).

Step one. Cut out pattern.

Step two. Cut one of outer fabric, and one of terry cloth.

Step three. Place outer fabric and terry cloth wrong sides together and pin.

Step four. Set your needle position to as far to the right as possible, line up the end of the fabric with the pressure foot, and sew around the perimeter.

Here’s what you should have when done.

Step five. Overlap edges and pin.

Step Six. Stitch from the outer edge to the center of the circle.

Step seven. Clip threads and turn right side out and you’re done!

And here are just some fun pictures of all of them. I made three of each kind. There are blue circles (seen above), “It’s a boy!” fabric($2/yard at Joann!, I also got some “It’s a girl!” but haven’t thought of a use yet) and some blue flannel embroidered PeePee Tepee (and I am aware I embroidered something that’s sole purpose is to be urinated on, and I’m kind of excited about it!)

Shower Cap carseat cover trial run.

Well yesterday I did the car seat tutorial, and a lot of the measurements I took after I had sewn things together, so I decided to do a trial run following the exact tutorial.

So here it is. I had a yard and a half grey fleece(hancock remnants $3/yd!) and a yard of elastic.

First I cut a piece 20”X30”

 

 

 

 

Second rounded the corners using the bowl technique.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then, I cut the facehole using the pdf in the tutorial. I know the picture is upside down, I can’t figure out how to rotate it. But you see the facehole.

 

 

 

 

Now I cut a piece of my coordinating fabric 3”x28” to be seam tape.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next, I pinned the “seam tape” to the right side  of the fabric around the facehole folding over about an inch in the beginning and overlapping when the ends meet. I actually did have some extra, so I had to clip it off.

 

Then Sew the seam tape.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then press 1/2 inch and turn over seamtape to inside of face hole and pin. Here’s the deal though. In my tutorial it currently says to press, but you only have to do that if you are using woven material, here I’m using fleece, so I did not press.

 

 

 

Now’s the time to add  any applique or embroidery.Lion mane in theory…I need to work on that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next Cut two strips 46.5” X 9” these will be the sides.

 

 

 

 

 

Then I pinned and sewed them together along

both side seams.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next, I turned under about an inch and a half along the entire piece to be the elastic casing and pinned and sewed making sure to leave about a 2 inch opening.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally,  I cut my yard of elastic, attached a safety pin to one side, and fed it through the elastic casing. Then sewed up the opening.

 

The final product (upside down, with my feet.)

I’m going to be a friends next week who has an infant car seat, I will take both of these over and take pictures of them on.

My attempt at freezer paper stenciling.

So when doing freezer paper stenciling, you find an image, or draw an image you want (I used Bike, and UK) Lay freezer paper on top (shiney side down) and trace the image.

You then use a Xacto knife, or in my case a pocket knife and cut the stencil. Then iron on the freezer paper to the item you want stenciled and paint with permanent fabric paint. You may have to do several coats, I did three on both. Let dry for FOUR hours (WAY TOO LONG,  I need instant gratification apparently) so I actually did this late a night, so I was too tired to stay awake. That way it ensured it got drying time. But anyhow, here is a picture montage of my progress.

I am not pleased with the UK. I think I put way to much paint on. But IDK. I ended up scrapping this. but I LOVE the bike.

I was a lot more careful when painting, I think that might have been the difference.

Ok, I lied, I did this at night, and waited about an hour then took off the outer paper, so this is what it dried like over night.

Finished product! It was a white onesie which I RIT dyed kelly green, and then freezer paper stenciled. This is for my friend S’s baby boy.

Updated baby Gifting (with pictures!)

A and baby boy M- Car seat cover , one bib,peepeeteepees, blocks, burp cloth.

And here’s the bib

H and baby girl- baby sack, stroller bag, blocks, burp cloth.

M and baby (she’s not finding out the gender, its super exciting!)- College baby gown (tutorial found HERE-Thismamamakesstuff-, Changing pad/carrier, wipes case, Blocks burp cloth

Changing pad had a pocket for the wipes case.

 

And here it is folded in half(you can tell I haven’t clipped threads.

S and baby boy- peepeeteepees, cylcing baby onsie rit dyed and freezer paper stenciled, car seat cover

Here’s the cycling onesie

Car Seat Cover (it supposed to be a lion, it needs some work.)

And peepee Tepees I made three of each kind for each boy. (And yes I am fully aware I embroidered something that is going to get urinated on, its my new toy, and I love it!)

A and baby boy and baby girl- appliqued onsies (with hopefully matching shirt for big sis), peeeeteepee, car seat cover, and blocks.

And here’s the car seat cover from my tutorial

Now funny story about the carseat cover. I had been working all day to put together a tutorial. and I was on this step here

when J got home. I asked him if he liked it, and he said yes, and brushed it off. Not the reaction I was looking for.

I mean LOOK at that applique! and a Back shot because I thought it look cool too.

Well me not being pleased with his response I probed him more (yes, sometimes I fish for compliments…what about it?) and he finally said “That’s too big”

WHAT? I measure this and have been working on this all day, and he thinks its to big!

He then said, “that bib is way too big for a baby” Which after I looked at it, yes it does kind of look like a bib.

Once I explained it all was well in the M household. He was thoroughly impressed (as he should be ) and the world is at peace. AND we had lucky charms for dinner, well not really lucky charms, Magic Stars, the off brand.

Tutorial: “Shower cap” carseat cover WARNING: Photo heavy

Let me start by saying, I looked ^HIGH and _LOW for a tutorial, or pattern. About 3 years ago, my friend A was having a baby girl, and I made one of these for her. I’m 99% sure I had a pattern, but I have lost it. A used it all through the winter, and then next year, it just so happened that my other friend M had a baby girl, and she let her borrow it. Well now my friend A is having TWO babies…twins that is. So I figured she’d need another one to match her original one. (Don’t you worry blagosphere, I made M a canopy cover so she’ll have one for her baby J (due in like a month.)) Well low and behold, I can’t find a tutorial anywhere. So I measured a car seat and came up with one. This is pretty simple, you need a 1 1/4 yard of 60” wide fleece, and a yard of elastic. If you want to do a two tone, you’ll need 20”of 60” wide fleece of your main color, and half a yard for your sides . Pretty simple. I actually raided Hancocks remnant fleece and found two twenty inch pieces of the same navy, and a yard and half of grey for another one (for $3 a yard! woo!)

So lets get started:

Materials:

One and one quarter yard (total) 60” wide fleece. (if doing two toned, you need a 20”of main color, and2/3 of secondary color)

one yard elastic. (1/2-1 wide)

Step one: Cut a 20” x 30” rectangle of main color.

You can see I already had started cutting, then I remembered to snap a picture. This step was easy for me because I started out with a piece that was already 20 inches, but if you have a big piece of fleece, you will need to cut more than what is shown.

Step two: Round corners using a round object (fiestaware anyone?) I used a bowl.

AND make them look pretty. You can see the first cut on the left, then I prettied it up on the right.

Step three: Cut face hole.

In this picture I am using a plate, which I actually cut out and continued on with the steps until about step 6, when I decided the hole was WAY too big, so I then started over cutting a new face hole about the size of facehole(this will be a PDF to print a facehole pattern.)

Step four: Measure 28”x3” of secondary (or main) fabric. (apparently I don’t have a picture, but it is pretty simple.) This will be our homemade seam tape for the facehole.

Step five: Pin the seam tape made in step four to the face hole. Turn over about an inch when you first start.

I find this easier if I do not lie it flat. Instead I’ll stick my leg through it or something to curve the facehole

Step Six: Sew Seam tape on right sides together.

Step seven: ONLY DO IF YOU ARE USING A WOVEN FABRIC. IF NOT SKIP TO STEP 8. Iron 1/2 of  seam tape under.

Step eight: Fold over “seam tape” and pin.

Step nine: Finish facehole by sewing the folded over seam tape.

Step nine part b: If you are doing any applique, or embroidery, now is the time to do it.

Step ten: Cut two pieces of fabric(secondary if you are doing the two toned carseat cover) 46.5” X 9”.

Step eleven: Sew pieces together along BOTH short sides.

I am ashamed. I don’t have pictures of either of those steps.

Step twelve: Turn under about 1.5 inches and pin.

This will be the elastic casing around the the car seat.

Step thirteen: Sew elastic casing, leaving two inches open.

Step fourteen: Pin sides to front of cover.  I don’t have a very good picture of this, but here’s what I got.

Step fifteen: Sew sides to top of car seat cover.

Step sixteen: Feed one yard of elastic through elastic casing.

Step 17: Sew the opening in the elastic casing (what you just fed elastic through) closed.

Step 18: clip all threads.

Here is my final product, I don’t have an infant carseat, nor any carseat, but I will go find one and put it one to get a better picture.

This is my first attempt at a tutorial, if you have any questions or suggestions PLEASE contact me. Good luck and happy sewing!

Subway Word Art

So I have been seeing all sorts of subway word art things all over pinterest, and for some reason, I’m in a super reminiscent mood recently. I finally printed our wedding pictures, 29 months later. My uncle sent me our wedding video which I forced J to watch with me. Essentially, I’m loving all things about my marriage, (things could be worse right?) So I decided yesterday to make Subway Art of our vows. Let me give you a bit of back story. Our vows, were not written by us, but I honestly don’t think I would have written anything differently, they just would have been less eloquent. I follwed this tutorial here, including downloading some awesome fonts. so, Here is the jpeg

Now I had this idea that it would be super cool to print it and then modge podge it on a canvas, and it may truly turn out cool for someone else, but my poster was 16×20, and my canvas was 16×20, so it was kind of a tight squeeze. But at least it is easy to hang now.

Baby gifting.

So this blog is hopefully going to be a place I can post things I have made. I am VM. Hence the name madebyVM. So here we go. Hopefully this week I will finish all of my baby shower gifts. You see I have 6 awesome friends that are all with child (one with children! yay twins!) I have already made and given one gift to friend M and baby J.

Still up I have

A and baby boy M- Car seat cover, one bib, peepeeteepees, blocks, burp cloth.

H and baby girl- baby sack, stroller bag, blocks, burp cloth.

M and baby (she’s not finding out the gender, its super exciting!)- College baby gown, Changing pad/carrier, wipes case, Blocks burp cloth

S and baby boy- peepeeteepees, cylcing baby gown, car seat cover

A and baby boy and baby girl- appliqued onsies (with hopefully matching shirt for big sis), peepeeteepees, car seat cover, and blocks.

We actually just got home from vacation and in the car I came up with all of their homemade gifts. And my birthday was two weeks ago and J got me an embroidery machine! So while homemade gifts are awesome, being able to embroider the gifts is even more awesome. So I don’t really know how to do this exactly, I guess I’ll post pictures and awesomeness as it happens, and just not give out the url for my blog to my friends. I actually might remove S and A’s gifts because I don’t know when their shower will be.

I’m actually hosting AHM’s joint triple shower at the end of July, its going to be so much fun. I’ve done alot of planning, but starting next week(when I’m hopefully done with baby gift making) I’ll start preparing.

So since I had so much time to prepare, I actually made the envelopes for the AMH’s shower. I will end this post with a picture of the finished evelopes. Hopefully more to post soon.