Scrap Busters #4 and #5 - A Bassinet and Mattress Pad

I had a baby!  I figure if I start with that, no one can complain about a little lack of posts.  Though my baby is three months old and I haven't published a post since way before that, but hey, prepping for a baby is time consuming, too!  Anyways, as my husband holds our baby (both are actually sleeping, cuddled together.  It's how they bond) I get to write this post!

I made my baby's bassinet.  I really wasn't liking anything I saw online, I don't like frills and stuff (we didn't want anything too gender specific anyway).  I had looked into baskets, something we could line and put a pad down in, but they were so expensive.  I don't like expensive things, even if someone else would buy it for us as a group gift.  Sometimes things just shouldn't be that much money.  So since my mom came out early (because I started having fake labor and she's about a 14 hour trip away from us and didn't want to miss anything if it happened fast) we decided to make one ourselves.

Of course, she has all the pictures of the making of the bassinet, so I only have the finished product.  Every single piece of fabric in the bassinet is something I already owned.  Yay for using up fabric!  The outside is pieced, made from some heavier fabric, possibly duck cloth?, that I got for 50 cents at some thrift store.  We almost made it strips like the German flag, but thought that was a little too much, so we settled on paying homage to Germany through the colors and mixing up the strips a little.  (Those three colors are the only ones I had, they just happened to be the German flag colors and my family just happened to live in Germany, so that was fun).  It was actually quite easy to make.  We just sewed long strips together in the following order - black, red, black, orange, black, red - with the red and orange strips being 2.5" wide and the black 1.5" wide.  Then we cut them into strips 2.5" wide and flipped every other strip upside down and sewed them all together to make a huge loop.

The inside is an old rice bag that I had carried around forever and found out that my mother actually got it from Hawaii when she was young, so yay for finally using it!  We just cut it in half and used part of the back added above and below the two halves to make it long enough to fit the pieced outside loop.  The bottom is two layers of the same fabric as the outside, as are the handles.  

The inside and outside both have a layer of batting sewn to them and we made little pockets between the lining and it's batting layer to put 8 pieces of boning in to help keep the sides upright.  Then we stitched a bottom to both the inside and outside (leaving a space on the inside one to eventually turn it right side out).

We sewed the tops of the two layers together, adding the handles in as well.  We then did a little quilting, stitched in the ditch in the seams near the boning (sometimes it was right through the boning, other times it was the two seams surrounding the boning) to help keep the two layers together and not bow with the boning.  We then hand stitched the opening in the lining shut and Ta DA!  We have a bassinet for my baby!

It ended up being about 3 feet long and about 18" wide at the longest and widest points.  We also made the mattress pad using old fabric (every piece of fabric that I've stored for years and always hated but could never get rid of) and 4 layers of some polyester batting that I bought a while ago and never used.  It's all stuffed in a big oval shaped pillowcase, basically (also with ugly scrap fabric).  We made two sheets for it (we bought fabric for the sheets - shock!) and it was ready for a baby to be laid in it.  Which was good, because my water broke later that night and I had the baby the next day!

I really like this thing, even though it was a little bit of a pain at some points (always double check things are right before you sew them.  Unpicking stinks when your stitches are small and plentiful because it was on a handle that you wanted to be secure.)  My favorite part about it (and the reason I wanted something like this) is that when the child is old enough to no longer fit in it, we can use it as storage for stuffed animals, toys, blankets, etc., and it can become something the kids will play with (which was proven when our niece (2 yrs) and nephew (9 mo) came to visit and both immediately went and sat in it.

So there you have it.  An awesome bassinet for an amazing baby.  I hope you enjoyed this haphazard explanation of my project.  I also am counting it as my Scrap Buster projects Nos. 3 and 4, since it was the bassinet and the mattress pad.  Yay for progress!

See you soon....?

Maybe with another already finished project!

Scrap Buster #3 - Personal Progress Values Bag

I am an Activity Day leader for girls ages 8-11 in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  It's really fun and the girls are amazing.  One fabulous girl is graduating in a week because she is turning 12.  She is moving on to the 12-18 year old group of girls in Young Women and she will be starting Personal Progress, which is really exciting (and I have a feeling she will looove going through the activities in there).  The sad thing is she is leaving us.  Luckily we still get to see her every Sunday!  As a little goodbye gift, I decided to make her a bag.  Of course I decided this about an hour before her goodbye party started.  After 5 (frenzied) minutes of looking through bags on Pinterest, I decided to go for a floppy bag.  It closes without closures and it's a quick, basic structure.  

I ended up choosing to make the body with the 8 colors representing the Personal Progress Values (Faith, Divine Nature, Individual Worth, Knowledge, Choice & Accountability, Good Works, Integrity and Virtue).  The colors are white, blue, red, green orange, yellow, purple and gold.  I had the blue through purple fabrics left over from my WhirlyGig Quilt.  

The gold and white were other scraps, not quilting cotton.  I decided to put a band of those on the top of the other colors, one on each side of the bag.  The strap is from webbing that I had picked up at a thrift store.  It's sewn into the sides where the rainbow and top block of color meet.  The inside is just black quilting cotton.  

This bag was designed, cut and sewn (and last minute photographed) in 45 minutes.  I'm pretty proud of myself.  It's not perfect, but I didn't use a single pin (most obvious issue is the puckered white fabric, but it's quaint because it was homemade, right?)

I hope when she uses this bag it will be a regular reminder of all the amazing qualities she has and is working to strengthen.  She already said she wanted to use it for her Sunday scripture bag.  I love when what I make is used.  

See you soon! (I promise!)

(With projects that have been completed and just need pictures added to the posts)

Baby hats! (For other people's children)

There have been a few births at my husband's work lately, and since I have a large stash of yarn that hasn't been used, I thought it would be fun to make some baby gifts.  I found this adorable pattern on ravelry and fell in love.  So I made a girl's first...

... and then a boys.   I altered it a little for the boy, doubling the front and back ribbing and folding them over for a thicker/warmer feel.  I added decorative buttons on the front flap and knit icords to tie instead of a buttoned strap.  

I just think they're adorable - they use short rows to get the <> shape on the top of the head.  And they are a fast project.  Completed in the space of one movie once you get the hang of the short rows pattern.   I think this will be my new staple gift.  (Sorry I don't have an adorable baby to pose for these.  Just guitars and chairs!)

See you soon!

I'm Working It Out! - Sewed Wall Picture

So I have this project... (surprise!)

And I'm stuck a little in the middle... (surprised?)

So I'm starting a re-occuring titled post (which is the wrong way to describe it, but the right way is not coming to me). 

I'm Working It Out!

I can't remember where I got the idea for this, but I wanted a way of putting a picture on the wall without actually having a picture on the wall - I'm cheap and big prints are pricey (and then you add frames and mats.  It's too much for me).  So I thought instead of doing almost a coloring book version of a picture of me and my husband dancing at our reception - meaning just black outlines, a little shading - no color or details.  And it would be on fabric because I have way more fabric than paper.

Now to get it sized big enough to put on the wall - I zoomed in on the picture in iPhoto and traced the outlines on paper and taped all the papers together. Slightly awkward but effective.

As you can see, it's 3 pages high by 2 wide, so about 33"x17".  I kind of love it.

Here's the original picture (cropped to about the same dimensions).  It was a little blurry, but I loved the light coming from behind us.  It really helped in the tracing phase.  

Side Note - I love my dress that my sister and I made together.  She did all the hard stuff as she's a professional.  Check her blog out - it's awesome.

Here it is on the wall, around where I'd put the finished product.  (I love my ties and hexagons!)  I didn't take the pictures for the intention of blogging, so quality is lacking and apologies are extended.

The next issue was how to create the image on fabric.  I traced it onto the fabric I want (a beige/cream with a little shiny diamond pattern (I think it's diamonds - I'm in another city, so I can't check))

{Haha, I had double parentheses - I feel like I'm writing math problems and you have to make sure that you match all the brackets or all the calculations will blow up in your face.}

Moving on...

I thought about drawing it on, but I thought 'It's on fabric, it should be sewed'.  I tried just sewing the lines but I was having issues with tension and it kept pulling noticeably.  So I think I might be hand sewing the lines on.  Then again, it'll take longer - maybe I'll fiddle with tension a little longer, it may save time overall.  

But I'm kind of really excited about this one.  It's a secret surprise for the husband, but he doesn't even know my blog address (unless he randomly does and in that case, surprise!!!) so hopefully the secret's safe.  I'm hoping to definitely get it done for our year anniversary (that's in 2 months.  Should be no problem, but you never know).

See you soon!

(hopefully with some finished stuff!)