Baby Blanket

Some friends of ours from church are having another baby and I thought I'd make a blanket for them. This blanket was actually started 2 years ago for someone else and I just never got around to finishing it. So, when I found out they were having a baby, I pulled it out and finished it up just in time. I forgot how fun it is to see a finished project... it's been a while. :-)

It's a small blanket, it's designed to be used for a car seat. The middle is done entirely in knit and then the edging is done in crochet. I don't think I've ever mentioned this before, but I am a lover of more classic crafts. I'm not really into scrap booking or other newer "crafty" things. I would much rather master crafts done years ago. Sometimes I feel like such an old woman for being 26!

First try

So for the past month or so I have been a secret fan of a blogger named Candace (Sparkle Power). She's a friend of Keri's (whose a friend of mine), found her website, and have been inspired to try my hand at sewing again. Before, all of my attempts at sewing have cost us more money than it ever would have been to buy -- AND it would look worse! Well, with her inspiration and love for all things vintage, I have been on the pursuit to create something cool and cheap. On her website I found a link to another website called My Half of the Brain. It's this great website where they try to find crafting tutorials on the web. A few peaked my interest:

1. Montessori by Hand -- Children's smock.
   
2. Making a child's dress out of a Men's button down shirt (can't seem to find the link)

I stayed up late last night to try and finish them both. Here's how they turned out:




















This was the children's smock. I found the fabric at a thrift store and got it for 25 cents. Normally I would never buy fabric that looked like that, but I thought "what would Candace buy" (nerdy and weird, I know) and thought "what the heck -- it's cheap." The pattern for the dress was not done very well and since my kids were already asleep, I couldn't have my daughter try it on to see if it was going to fit well. Fortunately for this one I will be able to adjust the dress with minimal stress to fit Kelly. When she tried it on today she just LOVED the colors.

Okay, here's the other one:

This one I was really disappointed with. I was so tired that I was having a hard time following the directions and there was NO pattern to use. Basically, you take an old Men's dress shirt and use the back of the shirt to create the dress front, and then use the front of the shirt to make the back of the dress. However, all measurements and such were basically a guessing game. Once again, since Isabelle was asleep I couldn't use her as a reference to see if I was making it big enough. The dress turned out really cute, but it's at least two sizes too small for her. Oh well.... the only thing I paid for was the pink lace, the shirt was a really old one of Shane's. I'm going to try again and this time not attempt it at 2:00 in the morning!

Dish Towel Apron

One of my really good friends' birthday is coming up and I thought it would be fun to make her something. Last year she asked me to make her an apron and, well, I just got lazy and didn't do it. So this year I decided I would actually grant her wish. lol. Let's just hope she likes the final product!
Over the flower I painted "To Mi Amor." My friend is from Guatemala and her and her husband always call each other "mi amor" or "my love." Well, I started calling her "mi amor" just to be funny and it's really stuck. So I thought it would be great to add to the apron. I think it's a lot funnier in person. lol.

I was actually surprised at how fast it was to cut out the different stencils (the flower was done twice -- once in yellow and then in blue slightly offset). I'm excited to try the technique on some shirts next time.

I made a shirt!!!!!!

Okay, so here's the story: Some friends of ours invited us to go with them to a Mets game. My husband and I are big Mets fans and we wanted to show our support for the team. My husband has plenty of Mets gear, but I had none. We looked and we looked and either all of the shirts were too expensive or were too big. SO... I asked my little brother for help. He is a freak artist that can do just about anything (he's one of those "golden touch" people). Anyway, he has been making/designing his own shirts using this stuff called discharge paste. Basically, he buys a super cheap shirt, cuts out a stencil he designs, and then puts this stuff on. Well, I wanted to make one and he was more than willing to help (what a good little brother!). He helped me figure out what I wanted and printed out a copy of the picture that I wanted. All that was left for me to do was finish "designing" the stencil, cut it out, apply to shirt, apply paste, wait to dry, iron, and viola! Super cool shirt for only $8.

In case you are wondering who the guy is on my shirt, that is Jose Reyes. He's best known for stealing bases. Shane thought it would be hilarious if I put on the shirt "Stealing bases and stealing hearts." But I thought that was better served on one of those white trash air-brushed shirts. Here's a picture of the back of the shirt:


I'm so stinkin' proud of myself that I want to make more. lol, let's see if I actually find the time to do it!