Baby Gift Parts #2

Baby Gift Part #2

Yesterday I showed you the personalized onesies I gave to my friend for her baby shower gift. Today I’m going to show you the other handmade parts of my gift.

I made these really, really easy burp cloths from the same pink Superman fabric that I used for the appliqué on the suspender onesie. I used this pattern, because it made sense to me to have a little curve to it. I didn’t use that tutorial though.

Materials: I used pink superman fabric, some medium weight batting, and thick red jersey fabric.

1. I piled both of my fabrics and the batting, and then I cut it out from the pattern. Thatway they all had the exact same shape.
2. I put the batting between the two wrong facing fabrics. So it went jersey wrong side up, then batting, then superman fabric wrong side down. Both wrong sides are touching the batting.
3. Then I sewed most of the way around leaving about a 2 inch gap for turning.
4. I turned it right sides out, folded and pinned the hole, and topstitched over the opening and all the way around to give it a nice solid shape.
5. After looking at them, I also decided to topstitch down the middle at the shortest point just to make sure nothing shifted after washing and drying. You can see them in the second photo.

I made two of these super cute Superman burp cloths. If I did these again, I would probably pick out some brightly colored towels and use them for backing, but I thought red towels might bleed on to the lighter pink fabric so I went with pre-washed jersey, that will only get softer with every wash. These are very quick and very easy. They can even easily be made with scraps or even cute fabrics from the remnants pile.

The baby’s room theme is elephants. So I wanted to include something that went with that theme. So using that superman fabric again I made a little elephant softy. I did a google images search for elephant outline, or elephant shape, or something to that effect. Then I selected a few that I liked and printed them from PowerPoint after making each of the images take up a whole page. I cut out my shape from each of my fabrics. Because of the way the print was on the superman fabric, I was very deliberate with where I cut out of the fabric. The back is red fleece. Each of the ears are S symbols (I free handed the shapes until I got what I was looking for). I cut out all of my shapes and triple sewed around the elephant to make sure she could stand up to anything little hand could put her through. I left a hole near her back end for turning and stuffing. I made the tail out of some ¾ inch pink grosgrain. I (super)sewed on a button for the eye. Then I wrapped a think white ribbon around the neck and tied it in a bow. (Since receiving this, the adorable elephant has a home hanging on her dresser. Every time I see it hanging in her room I smile :))

This is my best friends baby so along with these handmade items, I also gave her a couple
of irresistibly adorable outfits, some little items off of her gift registry and to top it all off I got her an amazingly adorable Vera Bradley baby bag!

Baby Gift - Part 1

So first off, I am SOO excited to finally have my blog up and running and am finally starting to post my projects!

The other (3month old) news is that my best friend had a baby! But before that beautiful little girl came into this world I made her a few personalized onesies to welcome her into it! I used a few different methods to "cuteify"some plain bodysuits. I hope these give you guys some ideas!

#1 Freezer Paper Stenciling:

This is the first one that I made.
I used freezer paper stenciling (Dana on Made has a great tutorial for it) to put an Olde English letter O on the front for the family’s last name. I wasn’t sure if I would be able to do anything with this one because of the pattern, but in the end I love how the pattern pops through the O!

#2: Holiday Onesie Makeover:

This one looks like I got really good
at stenciling right? Ha! Well I didn’t, sorry! I got this onesie in the clearance section shortly after Easter. For like $1.00! It came already printed and with a pair of shorts! Can't beat that!

<-- This is the before/after.

This little printed pin says “I’m wearing my Easter best!” But obviously Easter was over and the baby wouldn’t be celebrating for another approximately 9 months so I cut out some flower shapes out of coordinating fabric and ruffled and stacked them. Then I topped the flower with a button center. Once I had done that it didn’t look quite right yet, so I covered the printed flower
buttons with three actual buttons that matched the one at the center of the flower. Then I was happy with it. I sewed the flower directly on so that the mom wouldn’t have to worry about remembering to take it off for washing, or pay attention to a pin or clip, sewing it on was defiantly the best option for a baby in my opinion.

#3 Superman / Supergirl:

For the next one, I added an appliqué and
some ribbon suspenders, with button fixtures. I originally saw this idea on some blogs for boy onesies, and I loved it. I just needed to figure out how to make it girly… make it pink... duh! Well the Daddy of the little girl is a HUGE superman fan so I happened to have found some adorable
pink superman fabric while shopping a few weeks back. I had specifically bought it to make gifts for the baby but hadn’t quite figured out what. So I cut out one of the S superman symbols, lit a candle and melted the edges just a little, then I ironed on some interfacing, and appliquéd that on to the onesie with a small zigzag stich. It wasn’t quite finished yet though, I still had those
suspenders on my mind. It made sense you know with superman ripping off his suit and suspenders to become Superman, so it is king of a play on that. So I tried it and loved it! (And so did the parents!) Notice how I put the ribbons underneath the little flaps at the shoulders to keep the fraying under control. I also want to note that I totally over killed on the stitching on the buttons on all of these onesies, you can never be too careful when it comes to babies, small objects and chocking hazards!

#4 Give a dawg a bone:

The last onesie is my FAVORITE! I have this fabric that I love. I bought it because to me it looked like little Vera Bradley covered dogs! (two of my favorite things) So I simply did the same thing that I did with the superman onesie. I cut the dog out of the fabric, melted the edges, ironed on interfacing, and sewed it on, I had to use a straight stitch because the parts of the dog were pretty small. But the part that makes this onesie my favorite is the back…

 

It has a doggie bone on the butt! I used fabric that I had to match the legs of the dog on the front of the onesie. I made it sort of an a-symmetrical bone (already been licked maybe) lol, but it was because when I did a totally symmetrical one it looked kind of
funny. I did the same appliqué practice as I mentioned before in this post. I used a zig-zag stitch for the bone.

I hope this gives you some ideas of how to personalize a gift for baby.  I will post the rest of the handmade things that I gave to the Mommy-to-be soon!

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Welcome to Blogland

Hello! My name is Leanne, welcome to A LoveLee Mix!

That is me and my boyfriend, Joe, of more than 6 years. I am starting this blog so that I can show you guys all that I craft, sew and create! I have blogged a little before, but after being obsessed with the craft blogland, I decided that I needed to get my own to show others what I make.

I have three fur-babies, Layla: a goldenlabrachow, Dylan: a mostly black lab, and Chloe: the best dressed kitty ever. 

I just started sewing, and have been pretty busy with it. I get super frustrated when something goes wrong, but I still love fixing it and seeing the final product finished. I got my sewing machine Christmas morning in high school and needless to say it came with a large round of tears! But years later I am so happy to have it. I like taking photos and I do a little bit of scrapbooking too. I am super open to trying new things. I love reading other blogs to get ideas of what to make next. I can’t get over how creative everyone out there is! So I will be showing you guys what I make and usually showing which or whose tutorial I used to get there. Sometimes I mix a few ideas to get the idea that is perfect for me. Most of my supplies come from Hancock Fabrics but we just got a Hobby Lobby, so I’m just starting to mix up my routine a little.

I work over nights at a boring but stressful job, so when I get home I either head to the gym or to my craft table! The hardest part about my ride home from the gym isn’t not stopping at the fast food joint, its not stopping at the fabric store!