Baby Car Seat Canopy

My baby grew out of the cozy cover we bought for him at the store---his little head was popping out of the head hole so you couldn't close it to keep him snuggly warm...so we needed something bigger to protect him from the elements. The weather is still not too good here--you'd think we'd be having some spring time weather by now! It snowed last week and it's been rainy with an occasional hail. And of course, it's ALWAYS super windy here. This baby car seat canopy was a super easy and fun project to make. All together, it probably took me 2 hours to do...and I'm so glad I did it! We used it yesterday (it was raining and chilly) and he was so cozy inside that he fell right asleep! Definitely worth it!

You'll need:

1 1/8 yd minkee

1 yd cotton or flannel coordinating fabric

2 magnetic clasps (you'll also need some felt to put between the clasp backing and the minkee)

grosgrain ribbon (for loops to hang toys inside)

Trim the minkee and coordinating fabric to 35 1/2" X 40 1/2". I finally took out my quilter's mat and rotary cutter and used that to trim the fabric. It was SO easy and fun! I love it and will definitely be using it more often!

Next I cut 4 strips of fabric from the minkee, each measuring 3 1/2" X 8 1/2". You'll use these for the handle straps.

Put your fabric right sides together and sew all the way around with a 1/4" seam. Leave a hole to turn the fabric right side out. Do the same with your fabric for the handle straps. Turn out each piece and press (I didn't press mine beacuse I didn't want to flatten the bumps on my minkee...I know someone that tried pressing minkee with bumps and she ended up with no bumps!) then hand sew the openings closed. BEFORE SEWING THE STRAPS CLOSED: you'll need to add your magnetic clasps. Then sew the openings shut.

Now center your straps on the large piece--attach them by sewing through all thicknesses of fabric.

I decided to attach some looped grosgrain ribbon to the inside to hang toys for my baby to play with...all I did was sew the ribbon into loops, then I sewed them right into the seam from the handle straps.

Baby Dinosaur

My husband and I were reading in a magazine that black and white patterns are really good for a baby because of the contrast, and so I thought that it would be fun to make our little boy a stuffed animal using that type of pattern. It was a bit of a trial and error process because I created my own pattern for the dinosaur, plus I've never sewn a stuffed animal--I've crocheted them before, but this is a different story. I had a blast drawing it all out and getting just the right look I wanted. The toughest part was getting the dinosaur's back just right, I had to undo my stitch around that curve and take in the red minkee. But it turned out fantastic! I thought this fabric was cute because it looked boy-ish. I used red minkee too, for the soft texture. I used felt for the eyes and a hypo-allergenic, washable polyester fiber fill for the stuffing. When I gave it to him, he grabbed for it right away---it made all that hard work worthwhile. :-)

Tea-Dyed Purse by Me!

I have gotten really into sewing the past little while---I never really sewed growing up, but I've discovered that it's something that I enjoy and kind of have a knack for. I've done a few sewing projects--the hobby chair I talked about in an older post--I re-upholstered the cushions; I made pillows for our couch; a crib skirt with my mom, a baby quilt with my grandma; and a few other little projects here and there. I think the BIG turning point in my sewing frenzy started in December, when my husband wanted me to make him some Christmas neck ties--so we went to JoAnn's and bought some festive fabric for me to start the project with. I took an old tie and ripped it up to see how it was put together, and then I made my own pattern. I made him 10 ties! I had so much fun, and the more I did, the better and faster I got at it. They looked really nice, and he loved wearing them to work. I decided I wanted to make a purse or bag, but I didn't want to spend the money on a pattern, and I couldn't find one that I really liked enough anyway. So I made my own pattern for this! It took me some time...figuring out the pattern in my head before I could draw it out and all, but once I knew what I wanted, it was no problem putting it down on paper.


I fell in love with the fabric as soon as I saw it. To me, it looked like what a vintage fabric would look like before the aging process. So after I had all my pieces cut out, I wanted to tone it down a bit--just so it wasn't stark white. I thought tea dyeing it would be perfect! All you need to tea dye is:

-A HUGE bowl
-Lots of tea bags (I used chamomile tea--it gave it a nice golden tone)
-A big pot of boiling water
-towels to lay your fabric out on

All I did was boil a ton of water, then I poured it into the big bowl. I put almost all of the tea bags into the water---put more or less in depending on how dark you want it, and then let them soak for a while...until you like the color. I bet if you used black tea, it would turn your fabric much darker. I liked the golden tone the chamomile tea gave me. It would be fun to try different kinds of tea to see the resulting colors. Once the water was the color I liked, I squeezed the water out of the tea bags and took them out. Then I put my fabric in the water. I would be careful about how many pieces of fabric you put in--if you over-crowd them, the color won't be even. I did a test run first, I took a scrap and let it soak to see if I liked the color, then I did the rest. I also stirred the fabric around every once in a while so that the color would take evenly. I ended up letting it soak overnight, and I really liked my end result.

Here is a picture of the inside pocket I did--I needed some help with this, so I read this great tutorial here at Sew, Mama, Sew--it was really helpful and the pictures were great to help along the way.

You can see that I also did a magnetic clasp. I even put a hook thing on the inside--I'm not sure what it's called---and I'll eventually make some kind of zippered pouch to attach to it.

If you're wondering where I got the hardware...I went to the Thrift Store downtown and I found an old purse for $2, then I just cut all the clasps and hooks off. I couldn't find any of this type of hardware in the stores here, and I bet even if I did, it would have been a lot more expensive...and this hardware is REALLY nice and sturdy. I would definitely recommend reusing old purse hardware for a project like this.

So I wore this purse for the first time yesterday...and I LOVED IT! It was really comfy because the strap is nice and wide, and I could hardly feel it on my shoulder. I love the size...and I love how it is soft and slouchy....I think I might even make another one...

Some of my creations....

I've decided to start posting some crafts that I've done in the recent past to help give me a blogging boost. I'm hoping this'll get me motivated to get my current projects done. Right now I'm working on a tea-dyed purse that I created my own pattern for, a "spring has sprung" decoration to encourage the coming season, a handful of fat quarters just waiting for me to make some pincushions out of, and some newly bought, plain old mirrors with a nice big fatty wooden border around them just screaming to be gussied up. I'm glad to say, that as of about 5 minutes ago, I finished a gorgeous beaded watch band (a new hobby to add to the list) and I can still smell the glue drying that seals the knot. I also finished a different kind of beaded watch band last week---using safety pins, elastic, and those little teeny tiny glass beads that when you breathe they roll all over the place to be forever lost in the carpet. Slowly, but surely, things are coming along!



This was a fun project! All you need for this is a nice piece of wood, 2 colors of paint, vinyl lettering, and the damask design in vinyl. First I painted the wood tan, and let it dry really well. Once it was dry, I put my damask vinyl design on. Then I painted the soft black OVER the entire vinyl design. I did a couple of coats so the paint looked real sharp. Then I PEELED the vinyl damask design off, revealing the tan underneath! I found in my many experiments that you HAFTA get the good tole paints--like Delta Ceramcoat or Americana. I tried the off brand paints with a project like this one, where you peel the vinyl off, and all it did was peel the paint off with it. It was a disaster. So stick with the good stuff! Next I put my vinyl lettering on over my design, and voila! Just get a cute little stand to display it on and you've got a really fancy decoration!

Since Easter is coming up, I just have to show you all this card I made! The broken buttons took some muscle--as well as a sock and some pliers! I used the sock (clean :-) )as a shield so I wouldn't scratch the buttons with the pliers as I broke them. My husband says I could put this card in a shadowbox type frame and make it into a holiday decoration if I wanted to. Great idea, Honey!

Alright, the next two fall under my furniture refinishing hobby!


Before---this is what we call our "hobby chair"--I'm not really sure how this name came about, I think it might be because at one point I had a lot of my craftin' things piled high on it.



I wanted to fix this one up so it matched our tan sectional (you can kinda see it in the background there). So I went to Home Fabrics and bought some tan microsuede fabric that was a dead on match to our couch. I have NEVER reupholstered anything in my life, but I wanted to give it a try. So I ripped those green covers off and took them apart. I wanted to use those as a pattern for the new covers. Of course that didn't quite work out like I had hoped. So I had to figure it out as I went, and it actually turned out REALLY nice! I was super excited with the results. I also refinished the body of the chair and painted it a nice soft black to match our couch.


Here's the AFTER.....