Baby Dresses

I've been sewing, I promise. A lot of it has been non-fun sewing (mending, repairs, etc) but for the fun stuff, some of it was not photographed. Bad on my part but I did take photos of the things I've been making my new niece. Here's two dresses I made for her, although I don't know if she will wear them before the warm weather ends.

I used the following tutorials:
Pink ice cream dress: See Kate Sew Easy Baby Dress
Cherry and gingham dress: Shwin&Shwin Summer Breeze Dress

All of the fabrics came from Joann's, the pink ice cream is from the Little Lissette collection and cherries and red gingham were found in the Keepsake Calico section (the huge wall of fabric by color).

For the pink dress I followed the directions exactly. I cut up the scraps to make bias tape for the raw edges and added the tag before sewing the bodice to the skirt. I didn't think about it until afterwards, but I could've done french seams on the skirt. I just zigzagged the edges to prevent fraying.

For the cherry and gingham I followed the directions for the bodice but added the gingham to the bottom to lengthen it. I did french seams on the skirt and used scraps for bias tape on the bodice to cover raw edges. I forgot to add a tag, so I wrote on the bias tape with a permanent fabric pen. For the hem I treated the gingham like bias tape, sewed it first to the wrong side and then stitched it on the front. The bow was made by folding two rectangles of gingham in half and sewing the edges to make a tube (I sewed at an angle on one end to get the points) then turning inside out. I made another smaller tube for the middle part. I stitched the longer pieces to the bodice with my machine but I hand stitched the middle part since I didn't want any stitches visible on the outside. Hope that makes sense. The buttons and buttonholes were done by machine, my first time using this function!

New beginnings

No you're not on the wrong blog, things did get changed around here. I figured it is a new year and it's time for a new beginning. I changed up the look and the name, as well as updated a few of the pages.

I changed the name from 'Craftyness is Lovelyness' to Grace & Love for two reasons:

1. The original name was more of a placeholder than anything else. I couldn't think of anything else (talk about lack of creativity!) and I always figured I could change it later.
2. A lot has changed since I first started this blog. The most important change has been my soul's salvation through the blood of Jesus Christ. Since then I've come to realize that it is through Him and only Him that I am able to do anything else on this earth.  I wanted to recognize Him and give Him all the glory for my creative endeavors.

So there you have it. Hope you enjoy the new-ness around here. :)

Wedding Tree Quilt

A couple at my church recently tied the knot and of course, I wanted to sew a quilt for them. Being an avid pinner, I saw some really neat quilts that were made to look like carved initials on a tree. Here is my inspiration:

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Neat right? I've never seen anything like it before. The hardest part was picking out the backing fabric. The wedding colors were purple and silver, which is a hard combination to find in fabric at the moment, but their invitations were silver and yellow. Perfect! That color combo is everywhere. So I waited until the right fabric came along and snatched it up along with a purple fat quarter and a grey/white polka dot for the binding.

There wasn't any tutorials or instructions out there, but to be honest you don't need any. It's a very organic and flowing stitch pattern. I just sketched it out directly on the fabric with a water soluble pencil after I appliqued the hearts.

Yep, I said hearts. :) I did something different from the inspiration quilts, I had 2 hearts. I did their initials and wedding date on the front and then added a Scripture verse on the back using the purple fabric. For the front heart I simply stitched a bunch of lines around the perimeter of the heart, leaving the edges raw. I was going for that rugged/hand carved look and after a few washes the edges should fray beautifully to achieve it. For the back heart I did a traditional zig zag stitch to applique it. A bit more of a polished look befitting the Scripture verse.

After a little wiggling to get everything lined up it came together beautifully. Only downside was that my 'good' machine (ie the one with all the tools for quilting) busted so I ended up pulling an all nighter on my other machine to get it done. I literally started it after 9pm and finished at 8:30am - the day of the wedding! But it was sooo worth it, they loved it and that's the most important part of any handmade gift.  I just wish I remembered the take a photo of the quilt prior to giving it to them. :)

The front

The back & the newlyweds :)

Fall Wreath 2012: Work In Progress

I wanted to show you this year's version of my fall wreath. You all remember last year's version, right?

2011 wreath Tutorial found here

Here is this year's version...

Fall Wreath 2012

It's a work in progress, as you can see there's no banner and it's looking rather bare. I was going to make the banner the same way I did it last year but my printer conked out on me. So now I have to think of another way.

I'm also hoping to make two banners and change them out. One will say 'Happy Harvest' and the other 'Give Thanks'. Once it's finished I will show you the finished product. :)

Crib Bedding Set

In addition to patching up my husband's jeans and making my son big boy undies, I have been working on a labor of love.

One of the Bible teachers at our church is due in September with a little girl. I originally was going to make her a quilt, but when I found out she didn't have bedding I decided to add a sheet and dust ruffle to the mix.

Finished quilt size is about 36.5 inches by 38.5 inches

Backed the quilt in pink minky and added an embroidered tag.

I love these fabrics together. So sweet for a little girl

The blue fabric is my favorite

I did pleats on the two longest side and left the short sides plain

I ended up doing a double pleat because I miscalculated and had too much fabric

The sheet is made with the same green fabric in the quilt

I found a pink minky that closely matched the bumper, it's only a shade darker

The one and only time you'll see pink in my son's room

All bundled up for her baby shower

 The only thing I did not make was the bumper, I actually found that at a thrift store. I originally went in looking for one to recover but the Lord provided and gave me this pink one. I was/am so thankful for Him! :)

I hope she likes it. Her surprise baby shower is this upcoming Sunday. :)

Here's the list of tutorials I used to create this set:
Quilt: Momfetti
Crib Sheet: Dana from 'Made' guest post on luvinthemommyhood
Dust Ruffle/Crib Skirt: Hibler House (she has directions for 3 different variations)

Linking up here:

Big Boy Underwear

My son is two and half, and he's getting to that age where people start to ask if he's potty trained. And it certainly doesn't help that he has the build of a 4 year old (thanks to some tall genes from both Mama AND Daddy!).

I decided long ago that our next baby would be in cloth diapers and that whenever Alex was ready to potty train, he'd be in cloth trainers. I absolutely refuse to buy Pull-ups or any other related 'generic' brand of this glorified diaper. I honestly can't justify spending that much money on it, I'd rather do more laundry (which wouldn't cost me much anyways since I make my own laundry soap).

But I digress, so when looking for cloth trainers I wanted something that was padded. Didn't have to be super duper padded, but enough extra layers to hold a little accident.

I came across this tutorial on Pinterest:

For full tutorial click here

And I thought to myself that this option could work for my son. Now Heather from It's a Long Story has used cloth diapers with her daughter, so she has a one up on us. From what I understand this a pretty good advantage when transitioning to potty training, hence why we're doing this next baby. But I figured it was worth a shot and I'm hoping that Alex will learn pretty quick.

Anyways, I went to Joanns and bought my fabrics. You only need 1/4 yard of the PUL which is roughly $3.75 (a full yard is $14.99) and then I found two remnants of 100% cotton flannel, and if you shop at Joann's then you know that all their remnants are 50% off. So in the end the fabric didn't cost me much.

I found the training pants at Walmart and Target, and they both had the same price. I think $7.69 for 3 pairs of the white, and they come in 2T and 3T. I ended up buying 6 pairs so my overall cost jumped up a bit but I wanted to make sure to have several pairs ready to go in case of emergency changes. If these work out I plan to buy more, I have plenty of PUL and flannel leftover to make at least 6 more pairs if not more.

So anyways, without further ado here's my boy version of Heather's DIY training pants:

I think they came out pretty cute. But don't look too too close at the stitching, it didn't exactly line up in several pairs. Oops. Oh well, not like it matters it's underwear after all.

Heather used white flannel but I found this solid green and a green stripe in the remnant bin so that's what I used. Personally, I think it matches the dinosaur PUL perfectly. So cute! :)

Now here's hoping that my son will learn to use the potty by age 3! :)


Linking up here:

Quick Blanket and a Happy Accident

My poor little boy was sick most of this week. In an effort to make him more comfortable I fished this remnant from my stash and finished the edges.

This remnant is actually a full yard and I found it in the remnant bins at Joann's. It's the 'cuddle' version (aka the super duper soft stuff!) of my favorite dog print that I've found at Joann's to date.

The cuddle version: Buy it here

The cotton version: Buy it here

Anyways, I was originally was going to hem the edges but that would've taken too long. So I did a quick zig zag around the edges to prevent fraying. In the process I accidentally created a lettuce trim on the two longest edges which made it just that much cuter.

See the waves? That's called a lettuce trim

A happy and cute accident!

Like I said, I didn't originally intend to create a lettuce trim but months ago I did find a tutorial for it on Pinterest. If you have a serger click here to learn how to do it and if you don't have a serger then click here. For the record, I don't have a serger (although I'd love one) and it was super simple to do on a regular machine with a zig zag stitch.

The two shortest sides (the selvage ends) didn't get the lettuce treatment for some reason, I probably didn't stretch it like I did on the longer sides. I may end up going back and redoing those sides later, we'll see. For now I can't tear this blanket away from my son, and it's so soft I like snuggling in it too. :)

Linking up here: