Sewing Projects

With the arrival of Baby S. anticipated soon, it seemed a good time to make a few baby items - some for the girls and something to have on hand at our house.

Burp Cloths

I made several burp cloths for each of our daughters. This was a quick and easy project to complete and the first one I did this winter. For burp cloths, all you really need to do is sew two large rectangles together. I made a few different sizes and shapes for the girls to try out. I look forward to hearing feedback on which size/shape works best for them. If you want to venture into sewing or even just get back into it, this is a great project to start with.


Baby Bibs

Youngest daughter was wanting a couple more soft baby bibs to have on hand. It seemed like a simple enough project to try so I offered to make her some. I first made a pattern from the two bib styles she had and then purchased a set of soft receiving blankets in colors she likes from the local second hand children's store. It cost a total of $2.50 for three large cotton flannel blankets. I didn't want to use up more expensive fabric for the trial run in case they didn't turn out. Once home, I tried out the patterns and experimented with attaching snaps - a new skill for me.


I made four reversible bibs - two with checked sage and a bird pattern for youngest daughter's baby, and two with red stripes and the bird pattern for eldest daughter's baby. If you look closely, you can see that two of the bibs have a second set of snap closures. I originally intended to make them with two size options, but these particular ones are simply where I made mistakes in learning how to use my snap pliers to attach snaps. Fortunately, they are still usable and neither of our girls minded being the recipient of my practice bibs. These are not perfect, but this blog is about learning and acquiring skills and oftentimes that comes with making mistakes along the way. 

Baby Quilt

After making the bibs, I had a bit of time left. I realized that we didn't have a baby blanket at the house, so I pulled out a baby quilt I started a few years ago. I originally intended to give this quilt to our cousin's daughter when she was expecting her first baby. It is made from scraps left over from a 4-H quilt project our youngest daughter did years ago. I do not have a quilting machine and at the time I couldn't get the quilting foot to work properly on my sewing machine. The quilt kept puckering more than any other I had done. Out of frustration, I ripped out the quilting and put the project aside to finish later. Later turned out to be last week and I finally got the quilting to come out well. I added the binding and can finally say that the quilt is finished!


I plan to keep this one at the house so we have something for the grandchildren to use when they come to visit.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Water Glassed Eggs & Homemade Butter

Image
I love to experiment with new recipes, different methods of preservation, and ways to avoid waste.  Here are last week's efforts: Water Glassing Eggs  I finally tried water glassing eggs this past week.  I read about this method of preserving eggs a long time ago, but I needed to get unwashed farm fresh eggs in order to try it AND I needed to have enough eggs on hand to not cut us short in our weekly egg usage (we eat a lot of eggs throughout the week). Last week was finally the week. I got the pickling lime I had been saving for this purpose out of storage, picked out the cleanest unwashed eggs I had purchased from some friends down the road, and preserved 18 eggs in a gallon sized glass jar.  I followed the instructions from The Prairie Homestead, which can be found here . Why preserve eggs in this manner? Since we do not have our own chickens, we rely upon a couple of friends having extra eggs to sell. I wanted to preserve some eggs for those times when we cannot ...
Read more

The Best Homemade Chai Spice Mix

Image
Making your own chai tea mix gives you a healthy and frugal drink option. It mixes well with whatever black tea you happen to have on hand.  This mix is good enough to give away as a gift. Simply put the mix in an attractive jar, attach a bow, and include a card with written instructions. You can even add a mug and some black tea to make it a gift set. The chai spice mix is popular at our house - this batch is almost gone Chai Spice Mix for Tea   Ingredients 1 c. organic sugar ½ t. cloves ½ t. ginger ¾ t. Ceylon cinnamon   Mix Directions: Mix the ingredients well. Store in a glass container with a lid.   To Make Chai Tea or a Chai Latte: 1.      Steep black tea in hot water. 2.      Add 2 t. of mix. 3.       Add milk to taste for a Chai Latte. Notes: 1)     We like to use raw cane sugar. 2)     This tastes wonderful with mixed in Earl Grey tea in p...
Read more

The Best Homemade Granola Recipe

Image
  My mom has been making homemade granola since I was a kid. When we started a family of our own, we began making it, too. In fact, we have used the recipe so often that the recipe card my mom wrote out for me has vanilla stains, has turned a bit yellow with age, and the ink is fading.  This is a great recipe for several reasons: 1. It is a great prepper recipe - most of the ingredients are ones you will have in your food storage. 2. It beats store-bought granola hands down. 3. It has healthy ingredients (with, perhaps, the exception of the sugar) 4. It can be snacked on as-is, served as a cold cereal, or soaked in warm milk to make it more like oatmeal. Everyone has different preferences when it comes to what they believe makes the best homemade granola, but my mom's recipe is by far our family favorite, so that is the recipe we are sharing today. Homemade Granola Ingredients 1 c. whole wheat flour 7 c. quick oats 1 c. brown sugar 1 c. coconut 1 c. sliced almonds, walnuts, or...
Read more