Shawnte's Baby Gift #1

My sister-in-law Shawnte' recently had a baby shower for her baby girl, Demi. She had the shower on a Saturday, then gave birth that Tuesday morning! I was able to make some gifts for her shower...so here's the first installment...

Hats...enough said.

Smocked Dress for Emily

I made this little dress for my friend Lyndee's little girl Emily for her first birthday. For instructions on how to smock your own fabric (an easy way to do it, I should say, not THE only way), refer to my first post on Sienna's smocked dress (not the 4th of July one).

New Maternity Clothes, Please! Blue Maternity Shirt

This is a new little series I'm doing. As most of you have noticed by my previous post, I am expecting our 3rd child in June. With this being my third pregnancy, I really want some new maternity clothes. Thank goodness we're about ready to be grown-ups now and move away with a job! But the downside, is that I have become very cheap in our years as students. I really can't bring myself to buy new maternity clothes #1, because in between my second pregnancy and now, I've acquired quite a few non-maternity clothes, that would easily fit a 9-month belly in an array of different styles. #2, ever since I've developed a love of refashioning, I've thought up ways to redo some of my existing maternity clothes to more fit my style and give me something exciting to wear. #3, though I grow sick of them, I do still have quite a selection of maternity clothes from the last two kids.

I'm sure I'll break down and buy some new things, but maybe this will help all you 2nd+ time moms-to-be when trying to find something new and "you" to wear!

This was the first shirt I re-did. It was one of those shirts that I would never really wear out in public because even at 9 months, it's still a little slouchy and baggy. I figured, it could survive a change, since if I'm not going out in public, I have quite a nice variety of baggy t-shirts to wear.

The first thing I did was I chopped off the sleeves.

The second thing I did, was I cut up both sides of the shirt on the side hem, up through the sleeve. I measured and took it in as needed, then I used some of the excess fabric for a "binding" of sorts for the sleeves.

Then I laid out my two pieces of extra arm material (though I only used less than one whole arm for this part), and I cut it in a square spiral, starting with the outside so that when I got to the middle I had one long piece of fabric about 1/2 inch thick. (See THIS tutorial for a better explanation on the cutting, follow the link) Put the strip aside, and hang onto it for later.

I then taped the shirt down the front in strips. I actually had to do it as I went, because the tape was too thick, but if you're using regular width tape, you can just put all the strips on at the same time. I started above the V, and taped off 1 1/4 inch strips until I met the bottom of the shirt. 

I then mixed up acryllic paint (for your reference, I mixed 1 part white to 1/2 part gold and 1/2 part silver) and painted between my taped off lines to create the stripes. I did it lightly and roughly to look like that beaten/worn look, with the ends fading out. Acryllic paint is a great subtitute to screening because it's super permanent, and has a very similar texture to a regular screened shirt. Iron-ons are good, but they tend to peel off eventually.

Here's where you'll need your long strip that you cut from the arm piece. I really had no rhyme or reason sewing this to the shirt, just basically whatever direction it laid, I sewed it into little loops and crosses, until it looked like this.

P.S. This is not my real belly, I was only 16 weeks when taking this picture, but wanted to show what it would realistically look like.

***Linking this up at Today's Creative Blog---Get Your Craft On***

Lemme 'Splain...

So it's been a LOOOOONNNG time since I last posted. Way longer than I had originally intended. I really didn't mean to be such a slacker, and to keep you hanging since halloween, but I do have some excuses...

1. I'm pregnant. My mind leaves on a 9 month hiatus everytime I read that little + sign. It's like clockwork... "Hey Honey, it says I'm pregnant!" (1 minute later...) "Who am I? What am I doing here? Who are YOU?"

2. I was on bedrest the entire first trimester of my pregnancy. Seriously... until 16 weeks. To that you may say, "It's a perfect time for bed-friendly crafts!" To that I say...

3. I get monsterously sick for the first 16-20 weeks. Lucky me this time, it all lingered until around 22 weeks! All I really have energy to do during these times is stare up at the ceiling and wish the day would end.

4. We moved... like across the country. 3000 miles. A long way away. So not only were our things boxed up for awhile before and after the move, but also the whole week it actually took to get here, plus the week longer it took for our stuff to arrive in the moving van. And THEN it sat in the house until things got shifted and moved in by priority (hmmm, food or hot glue gun...let's see...)

5. We didn't have interenet hooked up until TODAY! It occured to me early last week that NOBODY provides internet service out here! We live in a little town just outside a big city, so I didn't think we'd have a problem... but evidently it's a huge problem. But no worries... found someone, and now we're in business!

So hopefully you can find it in your heart to forgive me, regular posting will follow shortly. Thanks for understanding, and I hope all you that do read this blog are doing well!

See you very soon!