I had plans for a pillow pocket for this one, but now I'm undecided. Pattern from The Floss Box.

I never would have guessed that these baby shoes would be so much fun to make! They also fit perfectly right now. Size medium. I'm tempted to start on the next size. Simplicity pattern. 

This was done before my skills improved. "Do small things with great love"

I absolutely LOVE the wildolive blog: www.wildolive.blogspot.com I have learned so much from her about having the desire to stitch and just taking chances with my work in general. For a while now, I've also been following another stitching blog: www.elefantz.com I never attempted any of her ideas because she has such superior work. I never thought I could work my stitches as well. So, here it is. I've finally taken the plunge and I am actually seeing an improvement in what I do. This one isn't perfect, but I'm very pleased with it!

Click on this for a closeup. I started with the green zebra, worked my way around the animals then ended with the girl. My skill improved during the months that I worked on this. It is the size of a sheet of paper. Pattern from Sublime Stitching. 

http://sublimestitching.com/

These are the 2 different sides of the same zippy pouch. I stitched these long ago and finally sewed the zip on. The stitcheries are from Wildolive.blogspot.com which is a favorite of mine.

A dear friend had a baby shower so I set up a station for everyone to decorate a bib. Then, I sewed them up and put snaps on them. Some of them are so cute!

I have found a new way to organize the floss I am using for each specific project. The top picture is half of a butterfly that was purchased, but duh- I was able to use a bit of plastic from the recycle bin and a hole puncher. I am now punching holes and organizing each project for on-the-go stitching!

Babies are great! This fun mitered blankie and fuzzy burpies were fast and easy gifts for our newest friend. 

Another pair of socks. These have no wool and can be worn in summer easily. The yarn is called Diversity- so springy feeling and fun knitting. 

 

 These little handy needle books are perfect! I actually try to sort my needles this way- the smalls for when I'm using just 1-3 strands of floss, the just right for when I'm using 4-6 or the BIG for when the kids are embroidering. This project was so fast and easy our five year old proudly made them!

http://wildolive.blogspot.com/2014/08/printable-matchbook-needle-books.html

The felt watermelon banner didn't work out so well. I found this great watermelon fabric at the local Joann's! I am much happier with this one.

Instead of ribbon to hold the thread spool, I used elastic for this one. I like the look of the elastic better.

Pattern:
http://lotsofpinkhere.blogspot.com/2011/09/travel-sewing-kit-tutorial.html

Hand embroidery seems to be easier for me to pick up lately. With a new baby, larger projects don't seem feasible. This great project was so fun to make and now I love using it every day! It holds everything I need for the hand embroidery projects I've been working on. The one pictured is a circle from the WildOlive 50 states stitching club. I'm doing circles instead of stars- the stars seemed to challenging for me right now. 

Wild Olive stitching club:

http://wildolive.blogspot.com/p/50-states-stitching-club.html

Travel sewing kit tutorial:
http://lotsofpinkhere.blogspot.com/2011/09/travel-sewing-kit-tutorial.html

This is one of my all time favorite sock knitting bags. I had just a few scraps of these fabrics left, so I pieced them together. I make mine from approximately 18" x 11" instead of her measurements- this works out best for my socks.

Pattern:

http://daisyjanie.typepad.com/daisyjanie/2010/12/how-to-fabric-produce-bag-free-pdf-pattern.html

Mermaids have been really popular at our house lately. First, she mastered the Aussie accent that the girls in her favorite show have (H2O). This 'tail' is made with swimsuit fabric. The top has fun fringe and the tail has an insert of the black fabric up the back center. Believe it or not, our children rarely sew- as in maybe once a year. And, never with my guidance or any patterns. I was so impressed with her creativity on this project. She ended up making several over 2 days.

Felt, instead of using fabric and interfacing, and the iron, and topstitching, etc. I thought the felt would still be cute- I was wrong. I did not fall in love with it like I have all the others.

This one was so much fun! First, I painted the hoop. It was so easy, I don't know why I didn't do it before. Next, I learned to download new fonts onto my computer into Word. Last, I used variegated thread. Usually, the projects I stitch are so small that the color changes never show up, but here they are! This now hangs on the wall above my sewing table, which also happens to be directly across from the front door.

A little something that I finished just 2 days before the fourth! I just LOVE these. Looking at this bit of cheerfulness in our house makes me smile.

I haven't washed the stabilizer off of this one yet. It is the last, white, size 0-3 months onesie we have. Which is good, because I don't know if she will even ever get to wear this one- she has grown so much!

Rainbow embroidery.

Sweet bunny embroidery.

Another embroidered onesie. The little mermaid was so fun to stitch!

Stitching image from:

http://www.amazon.com/Doodle-Stitching-Collection-Embroidery-Designs/dp/1600595812/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1404169262&sr=8-1&keywords=doodle+stitching

I love these plain white onesies! For previous babies I've tie dyed them. This time around I don't have as much time for crafting, but some quick hand embroidery goes a long way. 

Inspiration and printable sticky interfacing:

http://wildolive.blogspot.com/2013/09/how-to-transfer-embroidery-pattern-onto.html

Images from CD from this book:

http://www.amazon.com/Doodle-Stitching-Collection-Embroidery-Designs/dp/1600595812/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1403974118&sr=8-1&keywords=doodle+stitching

A funny friend came by and made a dress for her daughter. She left these scraps. I have not been able to sew as much lately due to the new addition to our family using up most of my spare time. I was glad to squeeze in a few minutes at a time to whip up these 2 drawstring bags. I may use them for knitting projects that I work on straight needles. Most of my bags are small for circular knitting, these will be great. I love the fabrics and fun colors she picked! I used my favorite lined drawstring bag pattern and some ric-rack for the ties.

Pattern:

http://www.incolororder.com/2011/10/lined-drawstring-bag-tutorial.html

This lovely pink hat was worn only this once. A beautiful tiny ball of yarn left from a previous project. Just enough for this lovely hat. A silk wool blend. It is soft and dreamy to work with. 

I really enjoyed working with the pink version of this super soft and fluffy yarn. The blue colors do not impress me. This hat is a bit bigger and for a friend's baby boy.

The colors of this hat don't show up very well. The blue is dark, but not that dark. More of a denim blue. This is a hat for a dear friend expecting a baby boy. Newborn sized.

 This tote went together pretty quickly. I wasn't really interested in making it, except it was advertised with some knitting inside and I was sold. I'd love to find an easier way than turning and ironing the top edge.

Pattern:
http://veryshannon.com/patterns/reversibleboxtote

Making a shawl with worsted weight yarn was a first for me, but I actually enjoyed it. This was a quick knit. The yarn is a pretty icy pale pink and a gray. A dear friend made a sweater for her granddaughter with it and didn't enjoy working with it. She wanted nothing to do with the leftovers, so I ended up with what she had left, and got started right away.

Pattern:

Summer Flies by Donna Griffin

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/summer-flies

I just LOVE how the baby hat from watermelon yarn turned out! It is so much fun to knit with!  I tried making baby socks, but the color blocked in funny ways that I didn't care for. Our baby wore this just after birth and it fit her for less than 2 weeks, but was totally worth making just for the ooohs, ahhs and pictures. 

Yarn from:

https://www.etsy.com/shop/ArtisticYarnbyAbi?ref=l2-shopheader-name

(and totally worth the wait!)

This tiny baby hat was made on size 2 needles with leftover sock yarn. It only fit our 9 pound baby for about 5 days.

This updated photo of the picnic dress is great! The dress looks so much better on a smiling model than on the floor.

Pattern:

http://thecottagemama.com/2012/07/summer-picnic-dress-free-pdf-pattern/

Somehow the last one ended up going to live with another family. This second one went so fast! Again, using scraps and interfacing both sides. Bias tape for the top. Really fast, easy, fun, and looks great. I may dig through the scrap bin again. 4" triangles.

Pattern:

http://blog.chickabug.com/2010/11/free-fabric-bunting-pattern.html

Not made by me, but the little boy that made it is trying to run from the camera. He made it at school. This cutie has a balloon paper mache head and a paper towel tube body with the clothes taped to it. So cute!

 

I loved making this! These are all scraps from all those notepad holders I made. I love using up scraps. I also used up scraps of interfacing that had otherwise been sitting around wadded up in a ziploc. These triangles are about 4", just the right size.

Triangle Pattern Template:

http://blog.chickabug.com/2010/11/free-fabric-bunting-pattern.html

A dear friend is moving away. I was pleased with how this gift turned out, she really liked it. This bucket bag is fully reversible with red and white dots for contrast and interior. I also added a snap, I wish I had done that with a few of the other bags I've made from this pattern. 

Pattern: 

 http://www.sewmamasew.com/2011/01/free-pdf-pattern-from-the-bag-making-bible-bag-giveaway/

Wrong model right dress. This size 8 O+S Seashore Sundress is being modeled by an older sister who was hoping it would fit her. It almost fits, but these girls are used to a more tailored, mama-made fit. You can see her hands in the pockets. The fun part of this pattern are those hidden treasure pockets on each one.

Size 3 Oliver + S Tea Party Sundress. I think I've made a dozen of these in size 3 now. 

2 more dresses for trade. They are size 3 and size 4 of the the O+S Tea Party Sundress pattern. 

A rare sight. These two dresses are not going to stay at our house. I've worked out a barter with someone in exchange for a couple of dresses. I've learned over the years that I don't prefer to turn my crafts into anything lucrative. I certainly made many more mistakes on these than I do normally. The bottom hem picture shows the lovely stitches my machine is capable of. 

Saw this one on Pinterest! I modified the idea a bit. Some wonderful ladies I work with threw me a baby shower. I cut out a stack of flannel bibs and brought the blanks with me and a package of Crayola Fabric Markers and some file folders. The file folders were to keep under the bibs when the markers bled through the fabric. It was a fun shower game for those who were creative, those whom I didn't know where creative and those who just did something fun and quick and done. 

I brought them home, heat set the images with the iron, sewed them together and added a snap. I'm sure this is more bibs than I'll use, but it was such a fun way to spend time with some great ladies. This was also a cheap activity. The markers were $8, but I used a 1/2 off coupon. The 2 yards of flannel (for fronts and backs) was less than $6 and I had the file folders and snaps. I didn't take long to sew them up since they were already cut out and they are fairly small.