Sewing Extravaganza

My sewing machine has been collecting dust since I made myself a maternity skirt a year ago. The girls have been napping relatively well lately so I decided I needed to find something to do while they sleep to get me out of my normal housework :) So, I decided it was about time I made something for my babies. Plus, my mother in law is in town and I wanted her to think her son married a talented woman. 

First, I made a new car seat cover. We had one cover that was purple and the other one that was brown. Everyone thought the baby under the brown cover was a boy. So much for gender neutral. I was so tired of everyone calling Lydia a boy, so I made her a new purple cover. Didn't it turn out cute!?!?!? The sad thing is, I still have people ask me if they are a boy and a girl. Sigh.

Next, I wanted to make them sister outfits. There are all sorts of big/little sister outfits out there, but do you know how hard it is to find a shirt in Eden's size that says Big Sister? I guess most babies aren't a big sister. Rather than spend $40 on a custom outfit from Etsy, I figured I could make my own. So I made these adorable skirts and onesies and it only cost me a couple of bucks each!

Twin Sister Outfits! I love that the Littler Sister is clearly the bigger sister still.

Since I had all my sewing supplies out, I decided I might as well make an extravaganza out of it and sew one more thing. I can't wait for the girls to wear these peasant dresses and bloomers! 

The nice thing about having to sew two of something, is theoretically, I learn my lesson with the first one and don't make as many mistakes with the second one. The bad thing is, by the time I get to the second one, my patience is wearing thin and I make just as many mistakes! Oh well, it's worth it because my girls are just so cute and it was a lot of fun to sew a few things for them. 

Sewing For Baby Bump

I decided to pretend I'm actually good at sewing today. Maternity clothes can be expensive so I thought I'd try my hand at making a nice knit skirt with a stretchy yoga waist band. It cost me about $8.00 but next time, I'll make sure to use a coupon and hopefully save a bit more on the fabric. This is the tutorial I followed http://www.makeit-loveit.com/2011/03/womens-skirt-with-yoga-style-waist-band.html.

I've yet to sew something without screwing it up somewhere along the way. I had several blunders today, but I have to say my favorite was when I accidentally sewed the top of the skirt completely together eliminating the hole to step through. I didn't even realize I had done it until I tried to attach the waist band and was startled to discover there was no longer an opening in the skirt! Whoops. It seems I spend a good deal of my sewing time unpicking my seams and fixing my mistakes. Oh well. In the end, it turned out quite cute and I'm certain I can make another one in half time with half the mistakes and hopefully half the price.

See my nice stretchy waist band. I have it folded down in the picture but I can also wear it up over my belly as it grows.

Here's my first baby bump picture at almost 15 weeks pregnant with twins!

Lessons Learned While Hosting a Baby Shower

Attending baby showers is an interesting rite of passage that all women must go through. There are many customs and norms that one must adhere to at such an event. I am in that season in my life when many of my friends and family members are having babies and starting families, so I am slowly being immersed into the world of baby showers. Last week, I helped host Alyssa's shower. I am like a baby myself when it comes to baby showers due to my inexperience with such celebrations, so this was a learning experience for me. 

Lesson number one: Food should not be put on sticks. No matter how cute the theme may be (She's Ready to Pop), don't give in to the temptation to turn every treat into a pop. It is time consuming and may result in the treat falling off onto the table before your guests can even see how creative you were. 

Lesson number two: Expect guests to arrive 20 minutes early and plan accordingly to ensure you are finished decorating before their (over)prompt arrival. 

Lesson number three: When playing the Guess How Many _______ Are In This Jar game, do not pick something as small as a "pop"corn kernel because it will take you an hour to count out over 2,000 of them! This was a second hand lesson as Melissa, the other host, was the one to learn it. However, I too learned a lesson from this game. It doesn't matter if you forgot how many lolli"pops" were actually in the container, or for that matter you never actually counted them but went by the serving size on the bag, because no one is going to double count them. Its okay to pick a winner based on an estimate. 

Lesson number four: Don't bother preparing food for an army because when women get together in large social settings, they feel the need to eat daintily, and you will have a lot of leftovers.

Lesson number five: Baby showers create a forum for women to tell their worst birthing and child rearing stories. It is almost like a form of hazing as a way of inducting the mother to be into the society of women who have endured the pains and joys of childbirth.

I'm sure I will have many more lessons to learn as I continue to attend baby showers. Overall, I think the shower was a success and now I'm ready for my little niece to get here!

I successfully completed another rag quilt!

YouTube Rag Quilt

A couple of weeks ago I declared I was going to make a rag quilt. Nate laughed. I don't think he thought I was serious. I've never made one, but after watching a video tutorial on YouTube, I was confident I could. I got all excited to make it and then remembered I broke my sewing machine the last time I had a crazy crafty thought. Oh well, it was a nice thought while it lasted. Guess I'll continue living my happy non-crafty life. Just kidding! Well, not about breaking the machine (I really did that) and not about living a happy non-crafty life (crafts stress me out and I prefer to live stress free); I was only joking about the giving up part. Fortunately, my mom was in town last weekend and she fixed my machine, sort of. At least enough to get through the quilt without too many more mishaps than would be normally expected when I attempt a craft. My mom helped me buy the right amount of fabric and cut the squares, but I did the rest all by myself! I know I sound like a child who has just tied their shoes for the first time, but I consider myself a toddler crafter so this was quite the accomplishment.

 

Perhaps you noticed this appears to be a baby blanket, and perhaps you are guessing this means I am making an announcement? Well I am.... someone who is pregnant is going to be the lucky recipient of this blanket! If  you'd like to be considered for the role of the lucky recipient, feel free to leave me a comment. 

How NOT To Make An Advent Calender

Last Saturday Nate was sick in bed. I woke up wondering what I was going to do to entertain myself for the day. All of the sudden the most foreign thought hit me: I should make a craft today. What!?!?!? Did I hear my thought correctly. Did I really want to make a craft? I'm not sure I've ever had that desire, but it was there and I decided to follow through with it. I've been in the holiday mood lately and decided to make an advent calender. My mom has one that we hang on the wall every year that I used as an inspiration. I spent half the day on the phone with my mom making sure I was doing things right. Nonetheless, I managed to not do things right! Here are the four most important things I learned not to do:

1. Don't get lazy and not iron or pin the seam before sewing! I attempted to fold the top of the fabric over and sew it so there would be a place for the wooden dowel to go through. My laziness caused it to be so ridiculously crooked and bunched up that I finally just decided to cut the top off! Fortunately, I had left enough room that I could sew it again, correctly this time.
2. Don't buy a wooden dowel and then leave it at Hobby Lobby at the checkout stand! I know it only cost me $0.59 but I refuse to go back and buy another one.
3. Don't attempt to alternate red and green writing if you're going to get distracted and do two greens in a row!
4. Most importantly, don't make 32 pockets when there are only 24 days to count down to Christmas! I sewed 4 rows of pockets with the intention of making 6 pockets in each row but somehow got confused and made 8 pockets instead. I didn't discover my mistake until I was writing the numbers on the pockets. Good thing I have a great pair of fabric scissors! I ended up cutting off the bottom row of pockets. My calender ended up being several inches shorter than I originally intend due to my hack job on the top and bottom!

Despite my rookie mistakes, I think my advent calender actually turned out alright- especially for a craft from me. It was pretty simple too. I cut out a Christmas tree shape of green felt and sewed it on some white sparkly felt. Then I sewed the rows of pockets. Next, I poked some jingle bell brads in the tree to hang the ornaments on. My mom's calender has homemade felt ornaments with velco on the back but I knew I would never make 24 hand-cut ornaments so I figured out a way to hang some store-bought ornaments instead. Finally I used glitter glue to write the numbers on the pockets. Everything I bought was half off at Hobby Lobby, so I was pretty happy about that. Here is a picture of the semi-finished product. I need to get another dowel (ugh) and some ribbon to hang it. I also wanted to write Merry Christmas or Countdown to Christmas on it, but I'm not sure if I'll have enough room now that I've shortened it...

On a similar note I finally finished an apron that I started a year ago for Brianne's Christmas present. Just a little late.

Laurel is Finishing Crafts?

Ladies and gentlemen, I have an important announcement: I have finished not one, not two, but three crafts! For those of you who know me well, you know that I never finish crafts. I just don't have the patience for it. By the time I figure out how I want to do something, I'm already tired of the craft and I never finish it. And I'm not really exaggerating here; just ask my mother how many unfinished crafts she's seen from me.

Perhaps there is a change for me. That change comes in the form of my mother in law, Lisa. Lisa is the exact opposite when it comes to crafts. She is so creative and is always making some cute decoration or card. When she was in town a few weeks ago, she brought some craft items for me and Alyssa. I'll be honest and say I was quite worried Lisa would discover that her son married the most uncreative and uncrafty girl in the world. (Which is true, I just didn't want her to know!) Well, I'm proud to say that I finished ALL the craft projects she brought. I sewed a table runner, decorated a Halloween jar, and made a cute picture frame. Granted, it did take me two days to finish what would take a normal person less than 2 hours to finish. Here are some pictures to prove I finished. (I figured most of you wouldn't believe it without some picture documentation)