westie onesie

as a hostess gift to a friend, i sewed a westie applique onto a onesie.  i'm pretty psyched how easy this is and definitely want to start making some more creative appliques than the silhouette of the dog the baby's parents own.  but think it's a good start.  here's a bunch of photos of the process.

homemade turquoise pillow

i thought my apartment needed some more pillows, so to save money i decided to make one.  although i didn't really end up saving any money since i bought all my materials from britex and it still cost me $40!!  oh well.  i love the pillow.  it's big and turquoise and velvetty.

my homemade bench cushion

when i moved into my new apartment there was a flowerbed on the bench on the deck.  i never really had any intention on moving it until my great friend al suggested i  put a cushion on the bench for additional seating.  what a great idea!

the bench is about 5 ft long and 30 inches deep...  that's a huge bench.  buying a cushion for it was going to be expensive...  so i looked into options to keep the costs down by making my own.  it would have been super easy to spend just as much money making one as buying one, but i only looked for outdoor fabric that was on sale and bought it in delaware to save on sales tax.  (and thanks mom for flying with it out to SF so i didn't have to pay shipping once i found out they didn't actually have the fabric at the store the day i bought it in delaware)

below is a photo of the fabric arriving in SF...  along with some cotton cording i got at a joanne's in the suburbs of denver (i think this cost around $20).  the fabric ended up costing around $90 (plus the $25 extra bag fee on my mom's airline)

lucky for me they actually sold a 2" outdoor foam bench cushion that was 5 ft by 27"!  it was around $100.  so all together the bench cushion cost a bit over $200...  which is a lot less than the $400+ i would have spent on getting it custom made.  yay!

first step was making the cording.  this required cutting long strips on the bias (diagonal) of the black fabric.  this took a long time since i need two cords that were 5 ft + 27in + 5 ft + 27 in = more than14 ft each...

luckily my mom was in town visiting while i was working on this so she was able to help me since - who knew? - she'd made her own cording before.

connecting the 2 ends of cording was pretty difficult and mom wasn't in town to help with that piece.  i kind of just made something up and think it turned out good enough...

here is the bench completed with the pillows on it!

and here is the additional seating being put to good use.

the cushion has been getting pretty dirty since it's been raining a lot lately, but it's not too bad and i'm still pretty satisfied with the results...  although not really satisfied with all the rain :)

onesies on display

...and this is why onesies are the new baby gift from aunt gangy!  they actually get used...  yay!!

vespa applique

i can't find the photos of the Omi and Corgi applique onesies...  but the good news is, they came out great!  the corgi one has already been sent and worn by the baby...  yay!!  success!!

i moved on to a vespa one on an american apparel onesie, which was a little scary since the onesie was a bit more expensive than the gerber ones.  but actually because it's better quality was easier to sew and i wasn't as worried about the sewing machine eating it.  so excited how it turned out!

btw, there is a chance i was wearing my vespa pj pants while making this... 

glad i found this cloud cover stitch roll since you can't just put the raw applique backing right on the baby's skin.  it irons on really simply and is really soft.  thank you The Internet for making it easy to find...

my first applique

so my idea for more onesies-as-gifts + my new sewing machine got me looking into appliques.  i love this idea because i can basically put anything design i want on the onesie.

i started with some not-so-simple designs (of course), and quickly realized i should have started simpler.  and bigger!  below is the disaster of a truck i tried to do for new baby Brett.  as you can see in the second photo, the machine ate the onesie :(

the second one i tried, a bulldozer for baby Luke, worked!  in the second photo you can see some dimpling, but the machine didn't eat it!  my first applique!!  yay!!

now i have these two coming up, and i'm nervous about the machine eating them.  especially the Omi one since it's pretty complicated.  wish me luck!  after these two, i'm going with simpler and larger designs.  and colored onesies!

Omi's Quilt!!

...is finished!  yay!  although i did kind of speed sloppily through the binding...  but it gives that homemade look.  ha.  looking forward to giving it in person to Omi tomorrow when i fly to denver to meet her!

okay, yes i did take one on purpose to also show my view.  only 2 weeks left in that room :(

sad, sad excuse for "miltering" the binding...  (but it was quick!)