Faux Baby Vest Tutorial For Beginners

I love this idea, and since I'm learning to sew I thought I would give it a try. I found this great tutorial, but I didn't care so much for it. It is a GREAT page to teach you how to draw the pattern.
I don't like how she uses two pieces of fabric for one side of the vest, it seemed to bulky. If you are doing a toddler shirt, it wouldn't be bad. Might of been easier if I have an iron maybe. I thought I would find an easier way to make one and I did.

I followed her directions, but before I went cutting any fabric, I cut paper. Once I got something that would fit, I drew it on the camo fabric I was using. The pink line is what will be seen, the blue line gives me sem allowance

 

 

Once I cut it, I folded the sides and made sure my fold line was on the pink line. You should probably iron it at this point but I don't own an iron (crazy since I sew but true) so I just pinned everything.

 

As long as you hold it tight when you sew, it shouldn't be as loose and wrinkly as it is here.

 

 

This is how it looked after I sewed it. In this picture, you can see I cut and allowed myself more sew room, but it's easy to cut. If you do the 1/4 inch thing, you shouldn't have to cut. Unless you want to of course.

 

 

After it was cut!

 

Now, I couldn't get my fabric to round nicely like the lady does in the tutorial, so I cut a little bit where I needed and folded it over like so. You can also see I made this a little too big, so when I sewed it on the onesie, I just pinned this over a tad more to make things more even.

 

 

I pinned the vest to the onesie, I would recommend starting at the side sem line. The Gerber onesie stretches a lot and easily so be careful not to over stretch thing, or it won't sew evenly and make wrinkles.

 

After both sides are sewn on you're done. This is my underside! I show you this incase it happens to you. The two vest met at the thickest points and the machine didn't want to push it through. It was weird but I simply put to a few stitches (then back stitch and stitch again) at the top and bottom.

 

Since I didn't sew the whole line it created this...

 

 

Which isn't a problem as long as you sew buttons on (yes, I will be adding some to mine, maybe orange?).

 

 

 

TADA!!!!! My baby vest onesie!!! I'm super excited about this, if you can't tell! It took a lot of practice, and if you're new at sewing I would recommend doing this on a Carter onesie. The Gerber onesies have a lot of flex which can make it difficult when putting it through the machine. I messed up on two of them and when you rip the thread out, it tears. I don't know why, but it does; any suggestions on how to make this easier would be awesome.

 

If you can't get the vest pieces on evenly (because of error cutting and drawing) you can always draw the pattern on the onesie. I know they make special 'fabric pins' that wash off, but I always use plain Crayola markers. They wash out of cloths and are cheap.

 

I hope you like!!!!! If you have any tips that might make this easier, I'd love to know because I plan to make these for every little baby boy I know.

 

 



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Marker Art

My aunt taught me how to do this when I was really young. I thought it was awesome but it took a long time to be able to do them well. I will start these when my daughter and I have coloring time, but never finish them. I thought I would complete one when I found a bunch of markers.

First I used tracing paper to get my design and name on the cardstock, but you can also use regular computer paper.

I then outlined everything with a fine point black marker. This is to keep the orange from bleeding into the color I use first. You don't have to do this step, I just prefer it, helps keep the design neat. I than colored the inside orange.

I looked a bunch of different brown and greens together before choosing which combination I wanted. Then I started outlining the outline. You alternate colors and keep doing this until it all connects. In the end it kind of makes its own design.

You don't have to use just two colors. I like to do this in rainbow, or whatever color my daughter picks out next for me.  You can also do simple writing, with out having the colored in part. It's really up to your own creativity.

 

 

ALL DONE!! Hope you enjoy!! This is a simple thing to make, but it does take time. Usually my hand hurts before I get tired of drawing.

 

My Two Awesome Ideas

Any body else have kids that LOVE stickers? Since we rent I try to direct my daughter to sticking them on anything BUT the walls. I guess I have nobody but myself to blame since I am the one who gave them to her. She does good though (knock on wood)!!!

Since I had so many stickers laying around that she deemed hers, I needed to come up with some type of storage. I was honestly getting tired of picking up the sheets every five minutes so my nine month old didn't try to eat them. One day I was picking them up and saw a DVD case that was specifically my daughter. It just clicked that it would be a GREAT way to store her stickers.

You could also add paper to one side so they can stick them to it (awesome for long car rides). If the paper of stickers didn't fit, I just cut to make it fit, no biggie!! I left my daughters plain for two reasons; one it was like 9:30 when I decided to do this for her and didn't have much creative energy left for the day to doll it up, and two I thought I would let her decorate it. She literally has layers of stickers on it now!!

I love this idea. My brother-in-law lives with us and sometimes I need to put names on food. That way everyone gets their food and lunch. I was trying to figure out a way with out using a sticky note or paper/tape, I tried this and it works. The markers I have don't wipe off too easily but easy enough.
This would be great to do with things that need dates. You could put eat by.., cooked on...., or if you do a weekly thing could put what day of the week it's for. I thought it was awesome and now do quite often!


Hope you enjoy!!!!

My Journey Making Candles

 

I love candles, but they can be very expensive. I thought I would slowly buy the things to make some and test the waters. I bought my wax off Amazon because it was cheaper than the other craft stores in town. You can get a ten pound bag of soy wax chips for about $20. (The link takes you to the kind I bought)

 

I read a few things on making colored candles, and people all over said that Crayola colors worked best for adding color. You can use a pencil to make sure the wick stays in place. The wick was too short on one of the big jars I did, so I simply held it until it was set up straight. You want to melt a little bit of wax to help hold the wick in place. This will make sure it stays on the bottom of the candle, and help you while you pour the wax; you don't want it to be moving around.

 

 

First, put some wax into a glass cup, or something glass that can be microwaved. At first I was scared to use a glass cup because I didn't want it to be ruined. The soy wax cleaned up easily once I was done.  If you are making a BIG candle and you want it one solid color, I would recommend doing this with a used pan on the stove or a really big glass bowl.

 

I added the color but you can't see it in the picture above. I would recommend trying to cut the color up into small pieces, because it melted slower than my wax. The one I did were the color was in big hunks didn't melt and mix very well at all, giving me a light creamy color rather than a bright one.

You want to microwave the wax at even intervals, I did 40 seconds when I had a full 8oz cup of wax. After every 40 seconds, be sure to stir the wax. This is especially important if you are adding color; in the cups I didn't stir constant the color would sit at the bottom of the cup. Also when the wax was almost all the way melted and almost done I would microwave it for less time. Don't forget to set your wick, this is important to have done before you start melting a bunch of wax.

This is the melted version of the cup above. As you can see the wax almost halved.

Once the wax was liquid and evenly melted, add your scent. I decided to use essential oils. I read on one blog that you should use about an ounce. I simply added a few drops every time the wax was melted. I think how much oil you add depends on the brand and kind of oil you get. If it's a strong scent, you might not want as much; if it's a weak scent, it might take more.

 

When you add the scent be sure to mix it up very well. If not the smell won't be evenly distributed in the wax. I'd assume you'd get a while of strong smell and a while of not strong, but I don't really know what would happen.

 

Once you add the wax you let it set up for a few days before you burn it. If you want to do a multicolor candle, simple wait for one layer to dry before you add the next. It only took about an hour before I could add the next color.

 

I love this, it's simple and cheaper than buying candles. I also like the essential oils!!!

 

Hope you enjoy.

Two Simple Projects

Things have been busy around here lately, and I'm trying to learn to sew. I haven't been able to do as many simple projects, because sewing IS HARD!!! No not really, if you know what you're doing; my machine and I just have misunderstandings. Hopefully soon I can put a sewing project on here (I did one or two but of course didn't take picture!)

The first project

Today I was painting picture frames. I LOVE LOVE LOVE how colorful picture frames have become popular. We rent our house and the color is just what I need in the over abundance of brown/neutral coloring. This is a simple project you can do when you have multiple five minute breaks or all at once during nap time.

I had a few old picture frames laying around and decided to paint them. It would be nice to repurpose something that is other wise taking up space. For my mother-in-law we are doing a 'purple box' where everything is purple in it. I went to a thrift store, bought some nice frames, and painted them purple. It's super fun!!!

I used Acrylic paint, and I'm not sure how others will turn out. The paint I used dried mat, so I used Mod Podge to gloss it up!! I decided to put a cute little 'I Love My Mommy' paper cut out on the bottom of the frame. I simply held it in place and coated it with Mod Podge. I added glitter to my Mod Podge to give the frame a little sparkly something.

Once everything dries, it doesn't have the white/glue look. Also if you don't want to take the frame completely apart, you could always use painters tape to make sure the glass is covered.

 

My second project!!

I've seen several projects where people use bleach pens to make shirts personalized. I thought it was pretty genius!! I didn't want to go writing on my favorite shirt, so I used one of my husbands "garage sale" shirts. I chose dark blue, just to see how it would turn out. Don't forget to put something between the two layers of shirt, you don't want it to bleed to the other side. I used a piece of cardboard from a diaper box. I also used clips to make sure the shirt stayed tight.

If you want a design, I would recommend printing one out and create a type of stencil. Of course you are free to wing it like I did. Remember, this is bleach, and if you mess up the shirt is done for.

 

For some reason I thought it would work better if I set it in the sun; it just dried the bleach gel out.

 

 

It turned out really well. I was impressed with myself. You have to make sure that you get the bleach even or some parts turn out lighter then others. As you can see in the first picture, some of it was more pink/red then white. I was using a super dark blue shirt, so that might be why. Next time I do this, I will use a stencil to make sure everything is even.

 

I rinsed mine with water before I washed it. The bleach gel was flaky due to being dried in the sun. I saw a picture with a bunch of them in a load, so it might be okay. I wasn't going to take the change.

 

I hope you enjoyed, and I'd love to have some more craft ideas in the comments. Maybe something you've been wanting to try but didn't know how hard it would be. I was thinking those "string balls" made with string, glue, and a balloon. I've seen some amazing fails with those.....maybe just maybe!

Inspiration Jar

 

 

So I read a book once and the mom knew she was going to die soon due to cancer. She had a young daughter and made this vase/jar that was full of inspiring quotes (from songs, famous people. books ect..). She left a note saying that she (the daughter) should grab a piece of paper any time she needed advice, words of encouragement, or anything else like that.

 

I've loved this idea every since, and have now started to make a big pile for my children that I plan to give them when they move out for the first time.

 

My sisters are in their teen years and going through some rough times. I thought, this would be GREAT to give to them. So I made jars for them.

 

First I cleaned my jars. To get the sticky stuff off, Here is my post where I tested multiple ways to do that. Once my jars where all cleaned I started filling them with little pieces of paper.

 

Note: Be sure the jar is completely dry first, other wise the papers on the bottom get wet. Yes....I was so excited when I started that some of them got wet and ruined and I had to rewrite them.

 

This isn't something you can just sit down and do (I guess you could...but really?). I would suggest taking your time, doing this slowly. Maybe you know someone who is going to graduate next year, maybe start now? Or a birthday for the end of the year? Christmas maybe? This is a great gift idea for anyone at anytime. It's really thoughtful too.

 

I use bible versus. Every morning when I do my study, I simply write down the versus I think might help them. Cut it out and fold it.

 

Of course I will continue to fill the jars up. I plan for my sisters to have them soon, but as you can see they are almost full (after about three weeks). I will continue to write things down for them, and just put them in a baggie to keep on giving them.

 

There are soo many things you could do with them so here are a few I came up with...You could even have who ever you are giving it to read one everyday....

I Love You Because...
You're the Best Mom/Dad Because...
Reasons We Love Grandma/pa...
Bible Versus...
Song Quotes...
When You Feel Blue Read One...
Number One Teacher...(have each student put a reason they enjoyed that teacher)
A Jar of Love....(to someone who lives far away)
Date Night Ideas...
Craft Ideas....
If you want to do some for your kids you could do a jar "for when you get married" "when you graduate" that kind of stuff and have different jars.

I didn't decorate my jars, but if you want to go for it. I'm sure Pinterest has an unlimited amount of ideas.

 

Hope you enjoy, and if you have any other ideas I would love to read them in the comments, I would love to find other ways to do this.

Sock Throwing Toy.

 

So as a kid I remember these toys that had rice or beans in one end and a tail. When you threw it, the tail ends would wave in the wind. I loved these, and so did my husband. I totally forgot about these fun little things until my daughter got a blow up one in a kids meal, unfortunately the dog thought it was cool and popped it.

It saddened my husband, because this all happened BEFORE he got to play with it outside. One night when I couldn't sleep I got the idea to make one out of an old sock (and if your husband is like mine, we have plenty that need to go). Plus I'm practicing my sewing skills and thought it would be good for me.

 

 

 

First I decided how much rice I wanted in to and I sewed across, but leaving a hole to add the rice.

This might be easy if you aren't new at sewing, but I am. And let me tell you, sewing a sock is harder then I thought it would be. The fabric was very thin and the holes in it hindered the thread going in and staying put. I got it though!!!

 

 Remember that hole I said to leave? That is where I added the rice. I held it opened and added as much rice as I wanted, and surprisingly didn't get rice all over the place.

 

Once I had a nice bulge, I went back and sewed it back up. I added a bunch of lines close together to make sure none of the rice tried to escape. This will be used outside but I don't want birds, or my children to be eating the dry rice.

 

 

As you can tell, my sewing skills aren't the best, but it works. I then cut the other end so it would be semi in a straight line. Then cut down to give it tails. At this point you could have your kiddos paint the sock, giving it some color and hiding the old sock look. You could also dye the sock if you wanted to, but I would dye it BEFORE even starting.

 

 

Finished product!!!! Isn't the nicest looking toy, but it'll do for being thrown around the yard. Plus I know that the rice will get ruined if it gets wet. It's cheap and my husband will enjoy it. If you wanted something that would last longer you could always put the rice in a baggie and shove it in there. Or even sew it into the final stitch. I want to also try doing this with fabric and see how it works, but I don't have any handy that could be used.

 

Can't wait to throw this rag around the yard....I can already hear the "I bet I can throw it farther" ...or..."think I can hit that..."