it seems to be all i want to do these days–make stuff for the happy baby!  maybe if you’re lucky my next post will be about food or flowers or something.  :)

this installment of crafting-for-baby includes binky leashes made with purchased clips i found at a local scandinavian imports store and japanese linen tapes i purchased from an etsy seller (except for that top one–that was a gift from the lovely and generous rebekah who sent it to me ages ago and i finally found the perfect use for it!).

these were super fast and easy–just three itty-bitty seams and hammer on two snap halves and you’re done!  the hardest part was narrowing my choices of ribbons.  drool.  i was extra fond of the phrase “hello, my friend” combined with lego-like images.

i also discovered the “90-minute shirt” this past week and had to drop all other projects to try one out (well, actually, i made two, but i only have a photo of one–the other one is almost identical except the fabric is grey instead of butter-yellow and it’s slightly larger (although they are both still a rather tight fit on my boy.  still tweaking the pattern….)

and because that’s such a bad photo (sorry, only have access to the iphone camera at the moment), i am, of course, forced to show you a picture of the shirt that i took earlier, while it was being modeled by the 3-month-birthday boy:

here we have the boy doing a pensive gq pose, showing off the detail on the collar.

and here you can see a wider shot and notice that the shirt barely covers his belly button and might be the reason he’s scrunching up his shoulders?  blowing bubbles is another one of his baby modeling tricks.  at least, i think those are bubbles.  maybe you shouldn’t look too closely.

i love this tutorial.  it is so very easy to make a shirt that looks like a million bucks (or at least like 50 bucks on your first try) in a short period of time.  it recycles clothing and is another way to get some clothes that aren’t emblazoned with cutesy-poo into your child’s wardrobe.  or, if you’re into the cutesy-poo, you could freezer paper stencil your own flavor of cuteness onto these tees.  so many possibilities!  one thing i learned from this project that wasn’t really mentioned in the tutorial is that the fabric they use for men’s shirts is generally less stretchy than the fabric used in baby onesies.  when choosing a onesie for the pattern, pick one that fits quite generously.  now i must go make more before the baby wakes up.  i am completely addicted.

i finally got my hands on a library copy of lotta jansdotter‘s book, simple sewing for baby and it is so inspiring!  in fact, despite my pile of things to do (top of the list:  take care of baby who is developing a shorter nap habit, yikes!) i dropped everything to make two projects right away.  first, i tried a bib.  i made some adjustments to her pattern instructions and made it two layers instead of one (my laminated cotton material was curling up and wouldn’t lie flat, so i added a flannel back) and my serger was acting up at the time, so instead of serging the edges, i sewed it inside out, turned it and edge-stitched it.)  and i left off the pocket (out of sheer laziness).  the extra brown piece around the neck was because i only had a quarter yard of the laminated cotton and i wanted the pattern to go in this direction and i thought that maybe flannel would be softer on the back of the neck than plastic anyway.  i’m not necessarily advocating that others make these changes (in fact, i can see how there could be some inherent flaws in wearing a bib that doesn’t absorb liquid or have a pocket…. can you say soggy lap?), but just wanted to explain why my bib looks different than the one in the book.

the second thing i made were the super cute bloomers.  i love this pattern and may have to make more of them.  i also love that the way she’s sewn and styled them in the book they are completely appropriate for boys and not just for wearing under dresses anymore.  the only changes i made to this pattern was to use a contrasting fabric for the bias trim around the leg holes (it’s hidden on the inside) because i didn’t have enough of the plaid to cut a bias piece and i still had some leftover bias-cut brown from the quilt i just made.  i was a little confused at first about how those leg holes worked (i thought the brown would be visible) but when i studied the pattern and the pictures a little more closely, i figured out my mistake before they were sewn together wrong.  here’s my version of her bloomer pattern on my own cute little model:

funny story:  that fabric was repurposed from an old pair of mr. happy stuff’s boxer shorts!  :)  tee hee!

i’m pretty sure i need to own this book.

i finally finished sewing curtains for the baby room!  i decided to use the six-minute circle technique and just make one really big circle out of the same inspiration fabric i’ve used all over the room.  i originally had these elaborate curtain hanging plans that had to do with swing arms, but in the end, decided to go with simple for now.  the curtains could still be used with swing arms, but maybe i’ll wait until my dad’s next visit and get his help designing those mechanisms.  i still wanted a fairly quick way to get the curtains out of the way without installing giant tie-back thingies, so i added a tiny loop of elastic to the middle of the circle on each panel and two tiny hooks at the corners of the window and so when it’s opened it looks something like this:

it’s still kind of a pain to reach the hook that’s behind the chair, but it works okay for now and i love the way the one large circle looks.  i also did a lot of work on the glider (the chair you see pictured above) this weekend and hope to share “after” photos with you sometime soon.