January Sewing Projects

#1 King size pillow cover - this is one of two that I am making for a new reading nook I am creating in Olivia's room (you can see my sewing companion in this pic!)

#2  I am making small crayon rolls using an in-the-hoop embroidery pattern as Valentine goodies for Olivia's preschool class.  Her class has 6 boys and 6 girls.  I completed 5 boy ones.

#3  Sewing Machine Cover

#4  Cord keepers

Christmas 2013

Christmas seemed so short this year.  Mark had to work the day before and after so we didn't leave til late afternoon on Christmas Eve to head to my Mom's and and were only there til the following evening.  We had alot of fun though!  

On Christmas Eve our tradition is to go to my Dad's side of the family for the evening.  We eat dinner, load up into about five or six car and drive around Christmas caroling to friends of the family and then come back and just hang out for several hours, opening presents late in the evening.  Every year before now Olivia was just a hot mess and I ended up leaving early to take her back to my Mom's to sleep while Mark stayed behind.  This year I was VERY surprised that Olivia was mostly happy the entire evening and we actually stayed til midnight.  The last 30 minutes we were there she was fussy but up until then she had a ball.  She absolutely LOVED caroling and playing with her second cousin Nathan.  We even moved his carseat to our car so they could be together for the drive.  Every year I try to make something homemade for my aunts and uncles.  This year I made East Coast Applique's Dove Ornaments on my embroidery machine.  

The next day Olivia woke to find that Santa had visited her at Nana's house and later my brother and his wife came over and we enjoyed lunch together and more presents.  I had been very sick in November and December so I actually finished sewing Olivia's Christmas pants on Christmas Eve! 

Completed Sewing Projects

This is the first burp cloth I've made.  It's headed out to a cousin of a friend who recently had a baby.  

And these are my first monogrammed towels made for someone other than family!  They are for a sweet new bride.


And finally, a lap blanket for Olivia to use in the car this winter.

It's Fall Ya'll!

I have never been one of those people who decorates for the seasons (except Christmas of course) but now, with a 15 month old, I want to do at least a little something so we can start some traditions.  I am doing a tiny fall display and here are the first two items to make their appearance - a baby Olivia-sized pumpkin and the candy corns I've been working on!!  I found the tutorial here.

Stay tuned, I will be adding a candy dish and some fall subway art soon!

Also, I am excited to be participating for the first time in the Fall Friendship Swap!  I started working on some things last night for my swap partner but of course I won't be able to post them until after I mail them off! 

National Sewing Month continued

A few more things I've done in the last week or so....

National Sewing Month

September is National Sewing Month so I thought I'd post a blog with pictures of some of my recent projects.  Most of these have been posted already to Facebook so you've probably seen them but here is a nice summary!

Halloween project I am working on that is 1/3 complete....stay tuned!

Flannel PJ pants for Olivia that did not come out right so I'll be making them again!

Taggie blanket made for a friend's baby - first embroidery "Jake"!

Olivia's outgrown jeans turned into a skirt

Learning to embroider - this one was before I figured out how to center my designs!

Applique watermelon added to Olivia's swim cover-up

Fall towel for my Mom - fabric edge added and monogrammed with "L"

Refashioning/Upcycling

One of the things I am really interested in with sewing is known as refashioning or upcycling.  These might actually be two different terms but if so, I have no idea what the difference is so I just use them interchangeably.

At anyrate the terms refer to taking something that you already have or something you buy really cheap and making it new or different.  You can do this with any belonging but in my case I am interested in doing this with clothes.  I do NOT aspire to be any sort of designer or to even make my own clothes, I just like playing around.

So, here is a new creation - t-shirt with a refashioned neckline.  To accomplish this I bought two of the same shirt from Target's 75% off clearance rack.  They were probably $3/each so for $6 here is what I made.

Before:

After:

Behold the bapron!

I found this tutorial for a bapron (baby apron) at Craftiness is Not Optional and just had to make it! 

It's a little longer than a bib and comes up higher on the neck.  I'm going to have Olivia's daycare test this one out and let me know what they think.  If they like them I may make a few to donate to them.  I used fabric from one of Olivia's receiving blankets for the backing of this!  I love incorporating things she has outgrown into new projects!

View of the front

View of the back

The stuffed giraffe Olivia's daycare teacher gave her for Valentine's day is our model tonight since Olivia is already in bed (and thank God for that - she protested sleep tonight!)

What's been going on with the Woodhouses?

It's been quite some time since I've posted anything but that is not because I have not had anything to say!  On the contrary I've been too busy to upload photos, too busy to post, too busy to organize my thoughts!  But, I have some time today so I'll be trying to catch up a little.

Olivia turned 10 months on April 22 - she's already a little ham!

We celebrated Easter!  The pink bunny was a gift from Olivia's grandmother.

We've been getting fresh local produce from The Produce Box

I've still been learning to sew

Olivia and Buddy are becoming really good friends

And Olivia has started crawling

Mark has been taking a photography class over the past two months and I'd love to share some of his photos but I'd hate to steal his thunder!

Sewing Nights

The last two Thursdays my sweet friend Crystal has let me come to her home and sew.  This is a wonderful thing because it gives me time to focus on learning without any interruptions and with help nearby.  The first week I made an apron and last night I made a purse.  Here are some photos:

Crafting makes me happy!

One thing I have begun to realize is that crafting really fills me with joy. I light up when I finally find time to exercise my creative side. I'm not particularly good at any one craft I just like to try my hand at lots of different things and see how it goes. I've enjoyed one craft or another for most of my adulthood but having a baby has really brought out the desire to create.

So, here are a few of my little projects over the past few weeks:

Taggie blankie for Olivia



Shamrock applique on Onesie for St Patty's Day







Framed fabric "O"

 

My very first embellishment

The process of learning to sew is rather painful for me.  I am more or less learning by trial and error.  The classes I took were fun and I did learn some things but I really did not learn foundational concepts so I am finding that I make alot of errors because I just don't know what to do when.  I am currently signed up to take a Sewing for Babies and Toddlers class which begins at the end of February; however, I got a list of the "skills needed" from the instructor and between you and me, I am not ready for this class.  So, I am looking into working with a lady one-on-one to get the help I need so that I can get ready...stayed tuned for more on that!

In the meantime I have a little something to show you.  I got two of these cute towels for Christmas from my sweet aunt Joyce. 

When I went to JoAnn's after Christmas I discovered pom pom trim!  What a fabulous invention...I see lots of pom pom trim in my future!  I'm having visions of ways I can put pom poms on all of Olivia's clothes....oh, I digress.  Anyway, so at JoAnn's I found Christmas pom pom trim for 90% off so I had to get some so I could experiment with sewing it onto things.

Voila!  Here is how it turned out:

Where in the world is Shannon?

I've not been posting much lately and I thought I'd share some of the reasons why with you today:

-I cannot seem to find time to download the photos I want to include in my blogs but I don't want to write a blog and leave out the photo(s) either so today I have downloaded all the photos/videos and hope to catch up quickly on the happenings of the past few weeks.

-I am exhausted!  Olivia has been going through the "4 month sleep regression".  This is a term given to the period of time somewhere between 4 and 5 months when there are so many developmental changes occurring that a baby actually regresses in their sleep patterns.  She went from regularly sleeping 10 hrs per night in her crib to maybe 1 or 2 hours at a time.  Towards the latter part of this experience I figured out that if I moved her to our bed and cuddled close to her she would go back to sleep and stay that way til morning.  The other change I noticed was how upset she would be in the morning when she woke up - prior to this she would normally be happy and giggly in the morning.  So, this regression has been going on for the last week or so but last night, the 10th night, she returned to her normal sleep pattern - woo hoo!  I have to admit that as tired as it has made me I kind of missed our snuggle time last night but when I saw my giggly girl this morning I was so so very happy!

-I have taken two sewing classes in the past week.  My Christmas gift from Mark is a beautiful Brother SE400 sewing and embroidery machine.  He was kind enough to get it for me early so I could learn to actually use it before Christmas.  So far I have taken a 2 hour basic machine class, a 6 hour garment sewing class and I am scheduled for a 2 hour sewing fundamentals class in a couple weeks.  I have already bought the patterns, fabric and other materials for the first few projects I want to do.  The biggest question is WHEN will I have time to sew?!  LOL!