April 2015 Finishes

Since I'll be posting lots of finishes this week, this blog post is also a part of A Week of Finishes, an event I put together in 2013, and decided to revisit again. If you have any recent finishes you'd like to link up, grab a button and please do! (you can share blog posts, flickr photos, or IG photos.) I love to see what other people have been making!

Here are my finishes from April. I don't feel like it was very much... so hopefully I'm not forgetting anything. 


 I made a church bag for Mabel. I made the boys some years ago, to carry their activities in to help get them through an hour long Sacrament Meeting. They still look brand new, and Mabel was super excited to finally have her own!

I pulled out my Heather Bailey stash (since it has such fabulous girl prints) and Mabel picked out this combo.

You can find the pattern for this HERE. Mabel requested two of the larger pockets, instead of one large and one small, and it works really well! Her pocket size Book of Mormon fits perfectly inside it!

Next I whipped up a new bib. This little guy still loves to use bibs, which I love as well. But since he's getting bigger, all our bibs are either really small or really grungy - having gone through 3 other children. I figured it was about time that we had some more really cute bibs around the house! (I have only a few... the rest are old, or boring store bought ones.)

I drafted a pattern and got to work. It needs a few tweaks, but I like it. And I love having the little pocket at the bottom to catch any falling food. I'd love to spend a few hours making a bunch of these to replace all our old ones with.



I love all the leather moccs I see around, and would love to have some for the new baby. But I'm sorry, I'm not going to pay $60 for a pair that won't last long. I found a good pattern on Etsy, and got some good advice on Instagram and went ahead and made some of my own. Unfortunately I had a lot of issues....

But eventually it worked out and I have some finished moccs! But they are too big, so the girl gets to wear them! She's worn them outside a few times and they already look super worn. Aren't they supposed to last a long time?? I don't know.

Anyway, I bought some red leather to make a pair for the boy (these blue ones were supposed to be for him. And some pink leather for the baby. I guess I should get on that! ;)

Anyway, the moccs are one of the items I had on my list for the 2nd Quarter Finish-Along, so I'll be linking these up over at On The Windy Side. Wahoo for a finish!! :D


And that's it's for April!

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If you want to share any finishes you've had for the year, feel free to link them up below! :)

    An InLinkz Link-up

   

March 2015 Finishes

Since I'll be posting lots of finishes this week, this blog post is also a part of A Week of Finishes, an event I put together in 2013, and decided to revisit again. If you have any recent finishes you'd like to link up, grab a button and please do! (you can share blog posts, flickr photos, or IG photos.) I love to see what other people have been making!

Alright! Finally getting around to documenting my finishes! Here are the things I finished in March! :)

Made It: Swappers Anonymous

A year and a half ago (early 2013) two friends and I decided to do a little private swap! I was so excited! It is always fun making things for people you know and love!  Well, we started last spring, and decided to set the deadline for May or June... Tommy was born the end of April, so it was kind of busy, but definitely doable. Well, then there were some delays for other people and we decided to push it back, and back some more. Then I was teaching at the Sewing Summit last year, and that was REALLY busy, and right after that we moved to Florida... so anyway, our deadline became a bit fleeting on my end and it became a slow project amidst everything else going on. I think it was last December or maybe January of this year (?) that I finally finished up one project. Then we moved from Florida to Idaho and there goes more delays... I finally finished the other package this summer... but I don't think I really shared much of it. Anyway... I shared one picture on Instagram yesterday, and decided I should share everything because I received some amazing gifts that I just LOVE! :)


I'll start with the goodies I received. :)

Marika made me some amazing placemats and napkins (she did make me 6 of each - some must be in the wash). As well as a cute clutch. I love these placemats! They really are the most perfect colors!! We use them all the time, and I've probably washed them a bajillion times. Which means maybe I should have ironed them before photographing them, oh well. I think they are awesome in all their crinkly goodness! ;)

Tiffany made me the best pillow ever! Again, my favorite colors! I LOVE it! It lives on our couch and is one of my favorites! I ended up making my own insert from it from some other pillows that exploded in our dryer when I washed them. oops. :) But it works perfectly!

 

She also made me some cute fabric baskets that are perfect in my cubbies by my sewing area. love!

Here is what I made.

First I made this super cute fox hoop for Tiffany! I used the Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery pattern from the Woodland Sampler, and simply enlarged it and added a few more dandelions.

I can't remember how large the hoop is, maybe 6 inches? So this is way bigger than the pattern.

A also made her this sewing machine cover. I love how it turned out. The color scheme is not one I have made much in, but I really love it! It is paper pieced, and some of those strips are super thin. It took for.ever. But I think it was definitely worth it! I love the design! I'd love to scale it up and do a quilt with this! Or it would be cute for a mini or mug rug or something. Anyway, it was really fun!

 I didn't get any really good pictures of the entire thing, but here's the best one.

 modeling over my smaller sewing machine. ;)

 Here's a shot of the back, showing off the quilting. I did really close wavy lines, but went around the x's.

I also sent some Lizzy House charms that she had mentioned earlier that she loved.

For Marika I made a Celestial Star Pillow. I really love the bold colors and the how the border pattern wraps around the pillow. This is definitely a favorite! and all of my family was SO sad when I sent it away (my son and my hubby were heart broken that it wasn't for them. lol.) :)

and how it looks on a pillow form. I like how the border wraps around.

I hand stitched the top, and I really like how subtle it is.

Here's a good shot of the border pattern.

I lucked out with the back - the pattern matches up so close on each side of the zipper!

I also made a tissue cover from some Anna Maria Horner Good Folks prints (the inside print is from the Pretty Potent collection), and included some more goodies, as well as some Erin McMorris charms and scraps.

I know I was super delayed with so much going on in life, but it was fun! I hope my gifts are loved and used as much as the gifts I received! It really is special to have some home made goodies around the house. :) Thanks Tiffany and Marika!!!


Ps. Don't forget to link up your finished Celestial Star projects on THIS POST! Winners will be picked and announced Monday morning!

Patchwork Summer Series with Ellison Lane: Patchwork Tissue Covers

 Have you been following along with Jennifer's Patchwork Summer Series over at Ellison Lane? If you haven't, you need to! There have been so many wonderful projects. I wish I had time to make them all. :) I was lucky enough to be a guest blogger and share a tutorial for a variation of my tissue covers I made a few years ago. You can find my original post on Ellison Lane.com HERE. Today I'm going to share the same tutorial on my own blog.

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Whenever I think of patchwork, for some reason, I think small. I instantly thought of these tissue covers I made a few years ago, and how they would be cute with patchwork. I jotted down some ideas, and instantly went to work! I love how they turned out!

Aren't the little fussy cut squares of Lizzy House's Catnap collection cute?!

I have a tutorial for my original Tissue Covers on my blog, here. But today I'm going to show you how I adjusted the pattern to add in some patchwork! That way you can make your own. These would be perfect to throw in your beach bag, have in the car for road trips, send with your little ones to camp, the pool, or whatever else you might be doing this summer! These are also reversible! (I love having options.) :)

First, pick the fabrics you want to use.

You will need:

• One piece for the inside. Cut: 7.5 inches by 6.5 inches
• Two pieces for the main outside (from the same fabric, or different fabrics). Cut: 1 - 7.5 inches by 3.75 inches; 1 - 7.5 inches by 2.25 inches
• 7 pieces for the patchwork. Each cut: 1.5 inches by 1.5 inches.

ALL SEAMS ARE 1/4 INCH.

If you want to fussy cut your smaller squares: Cut out a piece of paper (I use card stock) 1.5 inches by 1.5 inches. Measure in .25 inches (1/4 ") from all sides, and mark lines parallel to the outer edge. Cut out a 1 inch square from the exact center (using the lines you drew). You now have a little window. Line up your window until you are happy with the design that shows in the center, and cut around the outside of the square.

Line up your 1.5 inch squares in the order you want to sew them. Sew them together. Press seams open. Then trim them down to 1.5 inch by 7.5 inches.

Here is the back of my patchwork strip. If one of your squares is off a little, that's ok. As long as you can still get a scant 1/4" seam allowance out of it.

Next we will piece the outside of the tissue cover together. Sew the 3.75 inch piece to the top, and the 2.25 inch piece to the bottom of the patchwork strip.

Press your seams away from the patchwork. Here is what my back looks like.

 Square it up to 6.5 inches by 7.5 inches.

Place your outside and inside piece right sides together. Pin at the corners and in the center of the sides. Mark the center of one long side as your opening, and do not sew between those two pins. Usually 1.5 inches to 2 inches is enough room to turn your cover after you sew. Make sure to backstitch and the beginning and end.

Trim your corners like so: First cut the corner off as on the left corner in the picture. Then trim at an angle on both sides of the corner as on the right corner in the picture. Be careful not to cut through your stitches. Repeat so all of your corners look like the right one in the picture.

Turn your tissue cover right side out. Push out the corners. My favorite tool for pushing out corners is a crotchet hook. Press all your edges and corners so they are nice and flat.

One side will overlap the other when we sew this into the tissue cover. Decide which side you want to have on the outside, and that is the side you will fold in first.

Find the center of the rectangle and mark, or crease. Fold in one side so it overlaps the center by 1/4 inch. Fold the second side over so it overlaps the center on the other side by a 1/4 inch. You should now have a 1/2 inch overlap of the two sides. Pin in place.

Sew along each end with a scant 1/4 inch. You can add some extra personality to it by using a decorative stitch here. (This also closes your opening, and is why it is important that your opening is in the center of a long side of the tissue cover.)

Turn your tissue cover right side out and your finished!! Or leave it as it as is.

 The Front

 The Back

 Don't forget the tissues! ;)

I used Carolyn Friedlander's Botanics collection for the tissue cover in the tutorial.

I hope you enjoy making these!! And I hope you'll share the ones you do make. Be sure to link up with Jennifer, and if you do share them on Instagram, I'd love it if you tagged them with #fbpPatterns so I can see them, too. 

Thank you Jennifer for having me!

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These really are a quick, and practical gift. I love making these! I hope you enjoy them too! :)