Sew Sew Sew

What do you call someone who sews? A sewer? That can't be right.

Today, I sewed, then I sewed, then I sewed some more. I got an email from one of my friends in our playgroup with a link to a project. She asked if I thought that was something I could do, and I told her sure. She offered to buy the materials to make one for each of us if I would do the sewing. That sounded like a deal to me! Of course, as I thought about it, I realized that I haven't really sewn anything since about Christmas. I decided to practice before she came over today.

First, I made this little mat for my dining room table. I didn't want a full runner, because I don't like how they divide up the table. I also didn't want something as big as a place mat. I just wanted something to anchor the stuff I had on there. Some random fabric and a few pieces of ribbon later, I had this. I like how it's sort of patriotic in it's color scheme without being over the top tacky. The other side is red with teeny white hearts all over, perfect for Valentine's day.

I also made our skinny butt boy a new belt. Seriously, if you have a skinny butt baby you should try this. All you need is some ribbon and a couple of D rings. The ribbon I used wasn't quite wide enough for my rings so I sewed two pieces together using a big zig zag stitch.

Then you fold over the end of the ribbon about 1/4 inch, then fold that through the two d-rings and sew in place. I went over this about three times to be sure it was strong.

Then fold over the other end of the ribbon 1/4 inch twice and sew in place. Ta da! One easy and cheap baby belt in five minutes.

I made another half apron today. I think I have this down now. This one is actually made from a really old pillowcase! I fell in love with this set of Ralph Lauren sheets about 12-13 years ago, but they were way out of my price range. Six months later I happened to find them at TJ Maxx! I loved those sheets so much. Then we got a cat who decided that the corners of my mattress were the perfect scratching post, and my sheets got shredded. I never tossed them though, even when we upgraded to a larger bed.

The pillowcases have been in my craft room for a few weeks, just waiting to be made into something new. I didn't have a pattern. I based the waistband on the crappy pattern that I used for the sushi apron. That pattern made one sad looking apron, but it did give me some insight on how to do a waistband so that my apron didn't end up with any raw edges showing. This one looks really professional, if you ask me. I'll be posting a tutorial on this, because I remembered to take photos. Seriously, if you can sew a straight even straight-ish) line, and iron a crease into something, you can make this. I have to remember to check thrift shops for pillow cases with interesting edges now so I can make more.

I used the scraps from the apron to make one of those old fashioned tomato pincushions. I had come across a link to a tutorial on someone else's blog a few days ago, and after reading it, figured it was something I could do. I just did it from memory, so there were a few liberties taken with measurements. I probably should have taken a photo of this before I stuck the pins in, huh? Well, at least now I won't have to cuss anymore because I knocked over the box of pins.

Finally, this was the project that my friend asked me about. Once again, I read the directions that she sent me and then just did my own thing with it. Our buckles were bigger than the ones in the tutorial. We also used less of them. I left off the bells, because I value my sanity. I also didn't do a zipper because I don't have a zipper foot on my machine.

I did add this little strap to hold it closed when it's all rolled up though. Of course, some baby has absolutely NO interest in this right now. Figures.