'Sock Monkey' Baby Bag

So my friend had her 'expecting' baby shower this Spring.  For those of you who haven't had the experience of adoption, that means that you can 'expect' to receive a baby anytime when you are 'expecting.'  She ended up having a couple of showers, one of which was a Sock Monkey theme.  Since they didn't know if they would receive a boy or girl, it is a decidedly neutral, but easily femmed or boyed up theme!  I went to the 'western' themed shower, so this could have gone either way...  Fortunately, I had bought this fabric (thinking it was going to be knit, but didn't read closely to know it was cotton printed like knit) and was saving it for something...

Well not long ago, I received the email that she and her husband are now proud parents to a little girl!  I am so happy for them!!  I decided to make her a cute little bag, with some sock monkey fabric and her little girl's first initial embroidered on the outside and a striped fabric on the inside.  If it looks familiar, it's because it was in this post.

 Ok, I know...  I changed the ribbon after this picture to a red and white polka dot.  I was trying something different, to make the red pop, but it just stuck out like a sore thumb!  I apparently, don't have the eye for some things... 

I used a heavier weight stabilizer on this bag, which I wish I would have used on this bag.  It was ok to work with, but somehow even though I didn't have the boys with me I managed to pick up the 'non-iron' kind...  I definitely like the results of the stiffer stabilizer.  I went two and a half inches in on the mitered corners, but in the future, I think I will stick with less, since you lose a lot of the bottom of the bag.  In any case, this sucker is going to stand up (with the deep mitered corners and the stiff stabilizer.)  Don't know if you can tell with the pics, but this guy is 12 inches wide (12 inch zipper.)  It will be able to hold plenty, too...  It was still super quick, which I love, made it in less than one evening!

I hope the new parents love this bag!  I enjoyed making it and hope their little girl isn't keeping them up too much!!

Take Care,
Morgan

Monogrammed Bag for Baby

Ok, so all new mommy's need an extra bag to stow away all those baby things, right?  Without smaller bags, the diaper bag becomes this black hole of diapers, wipes, creams, and all those little do-dads that are needed for the babies...  Finally, on the third baby, I have realized these smaller bags really organize the diaper bag and make it a lot easier to find things.  So, I used the fabric from this stash and made a pretty big bag to carry some of said do-dads in...  Ta-da!!!

Check out that TAMU lining!

Fill that baby up!

Now, I love this bag, especially how it sits up and coordinates so nicely with this.  The 'formula' is just so versatile, just pick a width (12 inches in this case) and you are pretty good to go.  I finished this sucker in one evening, but did a lot of prep work beforehand...

Flashback...  My hubby bought me an embroidery/sewing machine last year, I know, most wives might be angry about that, but I REALLY wanted one.  Problem was, this guy was ALL computerized!!  That's why it took me a whole year of walking by it every day, dreading opening the box and dealing with all that new fangled machinery.  My old, no frills sewing machine has always done me right, why would I want to use that mean, old embroidery machine?  Well, because it can embroider, that's why!

It took one whole day for me to thread the thing, with the manual by my side.  Not to mention getting the design on there...  Putting the K and border on the fabric alone took about 6 hours, again, much longer than I thought, expected, planned for, but totally worth it in the end.  Don't even ask me why I tried so many times to spell out the name on the front!  You know, it's difficult re-positioning the hoop to sew everything straight!  Enough about that, let's go back to our happy place...   The silver lining, I have had enough practice to know that (1) I need a bigger hoop already and (2) I can bust out some more designs real quick in the near future... 

I am really pleased with the way this turned out.  Fortunately, the future mommy and daddy already had the name picked out and were willing to share it!  So, nice!  I can't wait to use my embroidery machine again and crank out some more of these bags!  What do you think new mommies need most in their diaper bags?

Take Care,
Morgan

Linking up to:
Be Different Act Normal - Show and Tell Saturday 

More Wooden Tags - Holiday Edition

Ok, so these aren't original, but they are totally doable...  We all know how much I LOVE Southern Living, I went on and on mentioned it in this post.  Well, I saw holiday edition tags and knew I had to make them, especially the naughty and nice ones! 

I followed the same steps in this post, but actually used my smallest paint brush and black paint as my paint pen is way to thick for the squiggly marks.  As you can tell, I chose not to stain, though, they would look just as nice stained.

Source

Mine

I only made the punch tag for the drinks, since I had the ones I needed from my other post.  I think I will use the naughty/nice tags with holiday gifts (I put them on opposite sides of the same tag,) so people can choose which they would like to be...  It may be a difficult year for Santa, if people choose to use the naughty side most often!

I hope you enjoy this post!  Let me know what you think!

Take Care,
Morgan

Linking up to:
Craft o Maniac Monday 
Skip to my Lou - Made by you Monday 
Trendy Treehouse - Create and Share 
Free Pretty Things - Whatever you want Wednesday  
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Bloom Designs Linky Party 
Cheerios and Lattes - Saturday Show and Tell 
Be Different Act Normal - Show and Tell Saturday  
The Grant Life - Financial Friday  

Aggie Baby Quilt

Now, I love making baby shower gifts! Especially when the future mommy and daddy are fellow Aggies! (Whoop!)  Now, if your are not from or live in Texas, you have no idea what I am talking about, but around these parts, there is a huge rivalry (which goes back generations, I am sure) between Texas A and M University (Aggies) and tu (University of Texas.)  Currently, they aren't even in the same Conference anymore, so I don't know how the rivalry will evolve; but, that is not what this post is about...  It's about an Aggie baby quilt!!

What better gift to give a baby, than a quilt?  She can use it for tummy time or to cover up during the brisk Fall weather at football games?  I wanted to give props to their alma mater (and mine), so I included some collegiate fabrics, but incorporated some girlie ones, too.  I splurged on Kona Cotton, which is supposed to be the best and softest after all the research I did.  My rotary tool became my best friend with the pennants and the ruffle.  Did I mention how much I love that tool?

This definitely didn't take as long as I thought it would, though, I ran into loads of problems since I NEVER sewed a quilt before, ranging from bobbin threading issues, broken needles and gobs of seam ripping!  So, drumroll, please....  Ta-da!!!

One inch ruffle all the way around.

Used lightweight, iron-on Pellon to make sewing easier on these guys.

I really would have liked to stipple (?) the white section of the quilt, but after three nights of ripping out seams, I didn't want to ruin it the night before the shower.  In any case, I am pleased with the way it turned out.  Here is the mommy-to-be with the quilt at her baby shower.  I hope they enjoy it for years to come!!
 

I can't wait to make another quilt!  What do you like to make for baby shower gifts?

Take Care,
Morgan

Linking up to:
Trendy Treehouse - Create and Share 
Free Pretty Things - Whatever you want Wednesday  
SNAP! - Show and Tell Linky  
Bloom Designs Linky Party  

Pacifier "Flowers"

Ok, so I have been MIA lately...  It's not really my fault, is it?  Well, maybe a little, yes...  Here goes, so my problem is that I have these grand ideas for homemade gifts and no time or energy to get them done.  But I DO get them done, at the expense of a messy, unclean house (no, my boys don't notice, that's for another post on why do I clean so much then?) and no blogging!

Anyway, remember when I said a baby shower was coming up (did I tell you how much I LOVE showers!?) and I was going to have some projects come from that?  This is the first and the best project of all time!  I was asked to make the diaper cake!!

It was so much fun, especially because the baby is a sweet, little girl, so the cake was all that little girls are: pink and cute!  The cake was pretty much a no-brainer, diapers, rubber bands and roll, roll, roll.  And the decorations were pretty much what a baby would need: comb and brush, shampoo, baby powder,  a knock softly sign, and even paci's.  The thing with paci's is that they are very useful (if your baby uses one), but not very pretty.  Not until I made some paci flowers!!  Ta-da!!

Now I couldn't find anything in blogland on these, so I guess I invented them...  Yeah, me!!  They are not very difficult and only took me about 5 minutes to do, but they made such a difference on the cake!  These could also be grouped together to make a really cute corsage (pinned or on the wrist) for the mommy-to-be.  Here is the tute...


Materials:
Pacifiers (I like this kind because they are flat on both sides and they are one piece, which is supposed to be safer for baby, too)
Double-sided tape
Ribbon

Instructions:

1. Get your paci's ready, just take them out of the package.  
2. Cut four pieces of double-sided tape and arrange them into a square on the 'top' (sucker side) of the paci.  I tried to get a pic of the glare of the tape, so you could 'see' what I was saying.
3. Start looping your ribbon around the paci.  I started the loop down (see right pic), then looped up (see bottom left pic) all the way around until the end finishing with a loop down.  I did this so the frayed end of the ribbon wouldn't be noticeable.
4. Cut the ribbon when you can see where the end will be and take the ribbon off.  Use this as your guide for cutting ribbon for all of the paci's you are making.
5. Re-arrange the ribbon around the paci, adjust as needed.  You are ready to decorate!

The future Mommy and Daddy can easily remove the tape, wash these up and they are ready to be used for the baby.  I made these early, so the grandma could see the first draft of the cake, but I would recommend doing these no sooner than two weeks before the party.  They were still sticky, when I was arranging for the party, but didn't still have their form (so I had to re-do the ribbon, but not the tape.)  I also made some cake charms, that will be in another post, very shortly...

The shower was super fun; it's so nice being around the girls for a while!  I hope this post inspires you!  What is the best part of a shower for you?


Take Care,
Morgan

Linking up to:
Skip to my Lou - Made by you Monday 
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Trendy Treehouse - Create and Share 
Free Pretty Things - Whatever you want Wednesday 
SNAP! - Show and Tell Linky  
Bloom Designs Linky Party 
Cheerios and Lattes - Saturday Show and Tell   
Be Different Act Normal - Show and Tell Saturday  
The Grant Life - Financial Friday