Appliquéd Onesies

My friend Nicole who was our neighbor in EA, is getting ready to have a baby girl in about a month & a half. This is one miracle baby & we are all so excited for them. I wanted to make something for the baby before we left... something creative. Nic is super cute & creative so I had high aspirations for what I wanted to make for her little one. 

So I made these 3 onesies! 

For the first one I made this "Love" appliqué. I used heat & bond to fuse the fabric to all of the onesies before I sewed around the edges. I drew the letters on light cardboard, cut them out & traced them on the heat & bond. I cut the fabric, ironed it on, and then appliquéd around the edges with different color thread for each one.  

Then I made this simple birdie. 

Nice & girly. 

And finally an elephant. 

I used a template that I found here for this little guy. 

This was definitely my best stab at appliquéing without an appliqué machine. It wasn't too terribly nerve racking this time around either. 

This was the 3rd set of onesies I've made for a friend's babies- Jamie & I made these for our friend Brooke's baby Finn, and I made this one for Langdon last summer. This time I had fun using lots of scraps of fabric & different colors of thread to make them. It was a fun last use of my sewing machine that i LOVED.  

I hope baby girl will love them :) I'm sure she will look darling in anything she wears. Can't wait to see this little one that was prayed for for SO long!

I do miss that sewing machine. It was amazing. I gave it to Nicole when we came back to the states for her to enjoy. You may be thinking, "Aw how sweet of you to just give it to her..." well let me tell you, it was my pleasure to give it to them since I hurled a Wii remote into their flatscreen TV last year playing bowling- breaking it beyond repair. I killed their TV. So giving her my sewing machine was the least I could do after they wouldn't let me replace their TV. 

{still mortified}

Joyfully Appliquéing,

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Hannah's Tote Bag

For Christmas {yes... Christmas, and just sharing...} 

I wanted to make Hannah a fun tote bag.

I bought this fun pink & purple flower fabric last year knowing I wanted to make her something, and finally got around to it in December. 

 I've made lots of simple bags before, but I wanted this one to be lined and to have a zipper. 

the zipper...

and the green polka dot lining.

I came up with a general size {i wanted it to be big enough for a computer} and cut everything out...

And got to work. 

I used this strange stiff webbing stuff I found at the fabric market in place of interfusing. I sewed all of three layers of each panel together, and then began attaching everything. 

I tried my hardest to sew the zipper as best I could and I did an okay-ish job....

Unfortunately I didn't quite get the zipper lined up with this seam. 

But it works! 

I wanted to make a little pocket on the outside with the green polka dot fabric it is lined with. 

So I made the pocket & the top flap, and put a magnet inside of both to keep the flap closed. 

I like to think I'm pretty innovative.

And that's my first complicated-ish bag I made. 

Doesn't Hannah look cute with it? 

It's definitely not perfect and I made plenty of mistakes that I hopefully won't make next time. Here's to overcoming my fear of not sewing perfectly. 

Joyfully sewing,

Personalized Fold Up Car Carriers

I saw this idea for a little Fold Up Cary Caddy on Pinterest, and knew that I had to make them for Grady & Caed- the little boys of 2 of my friends here. 

source

They can fill the little pocket's with cars, fold the top half down, and then roll it into thirds to keep them all snug and together when they are out and about. 

Caed & Grady are best buds but have been known to squabble over what they think is or isn't their's, so I knew that adding their names was a must. 

I painted the numbers on the pockets and yellow stripes on the road instead of sewing them on. 

I hemmed all of the edges of each section of fabric (except the road). Then I sewed the the pocket to the inside layer, and added the seams between each number. 

Then I sewed the road on the top half. 

I appliquéd the little cars & their tires on the other side, painted their names above them, then attached the strap & velcro for easy attachment.  

Then I attached the outside and inside layers to each other, and voila. Really not too terribly difficult. 

I filled both of them with little cars before I gave them to them. 

It has already come in quite handy on the road for Grady! 

Joyfully Caddied,

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Elephant Embroidery

My sweet friend Hannah LOVES elephants. I mean LOVES them. 

I captured her loving on this elephant in Cambodia last year. 

While I was home last summer, I decided I wanted to try my hand at embroidery. I found a "how to draw an elephant" doodle on Pinterest, so I decided to use it to make a little something for Hannah. 

Here is what I came up with:

Isn't he cute? I really love how it turned out. 

大象 {da xiang} means elephant. 

The second character is pretty complicated.... In fact, I remember freaking out when it was on our final exam in our writing class first semester last year (ya know 4 months after we started learning this complicated language). Needless to say at that point, I did not get it correct. SO I was a little nervous about trying to embroider it and went back & forth trying to decide if I should or not, but it turned out great! I'm glad I did. 

I used colored tracing paper to draw the pattern on the fabric after I had free handed it onto a sheet of paper. 

I used just the basic back stitch for almost everything, and 2 little french knots for his eyes. 

I wanted to add a little something extra to balance it out, and be able to add more color so I decided he needed to hold a little balloon with his trunk. 

And not just any ballon, a pink heart balloon. 

I considered framing it, but decided that I liked it as it was in the embroidery hoop. 

I'm still a little obsessed with it. 

Hannah loved it too :) 

That was my first adventure in embroidery. I haven't done anything else except played around with different stitches on scraps of fabric. I do want to try something else soon. 

Joyfully Embroidered, 

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