Owl Baby Blanket

Hello and Happy New Year Crafty Friends!

I've been away for a bit but am happy to be back today with a sewing project that I'm excited about.

I made a self-binding baby blanket for my sweet Granddaughter "C".

I had purchased the fabric to make this blanket quite awhile ago and was struggling to find a good pattern or method to make it.

The fabric is like a stretch cotton knit and isn't typically what baby blankets are made of, so coming up with a good method for using both pieces of fabric without having them "separate" was tricky for me, as I am still somewhat of an amateur sewer and wasn't sure what would work.

Fortunately, my obsession with Pinterest paid off and I came across a couple of great tutorials on how to make a "Self-Binding" baby blanket.

The first one was here at Tea Rose Home Blog by Sachiko

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The second one was here at Megan Poulton Designs

Both of these tutorials had great photos and instructions and the blankets were so beautiful but because of my lack of sewing experience, I was a bit confused and had to search for another tutorial that had a little more detailed information for sewing dummies like me! LOL!

I found this video by Googling  "Self-Binding Baby Blanket".

Melanie from "Above all Fabric" made the video and also has a set of PDF instructions to go with it.

Between the awesome photos Sachiko & Megan posted on their tutorials, and the detailed instructions given by Melanie in her video and PDF, I was able to figure out this cool blanket style!

Here is a cute picture of my sweet Granddaughter "C" with her blankie from Grandma:

She really seemed to like it and the blanket stayed together well, which pleased me because I just didn't see how that was going to work without interfacing, quilting or tying.

I didn't want any of that though, because of course for a baby, you want ultimate softness and this blanket was just the ticket for my little sweet-pea!

I am so happy to be sewing again and even though I'm not that great at it, each time I do a new project, I learn more and more and having the internet for a never-ending resource certainly has helped me out when I get stuck on a step or two!

In that vein, I'd like to give a big "Thank-you" to Sachiko, Megan and Melanie for their inspiration and wonderful tutorials they posted and made available to everyone for free!

I don't know what I'd do without helpful, giving people like them.

If you get a chance, check out their blogs and see what they are up to:

Sachiko - Tea Rose Home
Megan - Megan Poulton Designs
Melanie - Melanie Dramatic (Melanie recently sold her company "Above all Fabric" where I originally found the video and PDF).

Thank-you so much for visiting me and come back soon to see what new crafty adventure I'm on!! :)

XOXO
Lisa

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Tie-Dyed Onsies for Baby

I'm a child of the 60's and 70's so of course a Tie Dyed project or two was destined to be in my future!

I wanted to make something personalized for the birth of my two new Grandchildren, so I decided to try some tie-dyed onesies!

I have only finished 2 and these are the two that I will showcase here.

These were made for my adorable new Granddaughter C, whom you can see below, modeling one of the onesies!

I got inspired to create these from a book that I found in my local library, 101 Snappy Fashions by Cathie Filian.

I think I kept re-checking the book out until they wouldn't allow it anymore, so I finally purchased it from Amazon!

It really is a great book to get you excited about tye-dyeing!

Cute ideas, awesome photographs and even several patterns you can trace if you'd like.

It also has very detailed instructions on various tye-dyeing methods and types of dyes.

Since it had been SO long since I had tye-dyed anything...(I was a pre-teen the last time I did it I believe!), I Googled it to try and find some videos on the process.

It's not that the book didn't have good instructions, it's just that I'm more visually oriented and get more out of watching a photo or video tutorial.

I found a lot of videos, but this one made by YouTube user cacacarkeys, in particular seemed to be easy to grasp and wasn't too involved.

The quality of the video isn't perfect, but it gets the point across.

Of course I also read the directions on the package of dye, and viewed other videos just because each source seemed to have only "parts" of the puzzle if you know what I mean.

Everyone has their own way of doing things and I guess I just wanted to get a sampling of different methods and then go forward.

I didn't take any videos or pictures of the Tye-dyeing process, as I was so unsure of myself and didn't want to pass on bad information, so I just decided to do the "Trial & Error" method! LOL!

When I finally came out with something I liked I decided to use those (onesies) and decorate them.

I did not use any exact designs from the book, but I was particularly inspired by the owl onesie on page 59,

because my DIL loves Owls and she did the babies room in Owls & Mushrooms.

I purchased an iron-on of a brown owl by Plaid Artsy Applique and added some details to it with a homemade stamp that I made (I will be posting a tutorial on how I did this soon) and some acrylic paint mixed with fabric medium.

I wanted to make the onesie look a little bit "girlie" also, so I added a purchased iron on of felt flowers.

I have a confession to make though...The onesie originally did not look EXACTLY like the picture above.
(And if you look at the picture of Little C modeling the onesie, you will see what I mean!)

I made a really dumb mistake that I still can't believe I did!

After initially ironing on the felt flowers I noticed that some of the edges did not stick all the way, and it was noticeable when I pulled the onesie off the baby...it looked like the flowers could come off.

So, I put the onesie away and decided I'd re-iron on the felt flowers the next day, as I was babysitting my Grandchildren and didn't want to be using an iron around them.

Well...somehow I must have landed on another plane of existence between that time, because later, the next day when I went to re-iron the flowers, I just stuck a VERY HOT iron right on top of the felt flower!!!!!

What the heck was I thinking???!!

Now, iron-ons are not something new for me...I've done them forever and have never made that mistake.

Of course you are supposed to use a pressing cloth over the design before applying the hot iron. (Duh!)

This is what happened...in full technicolor... (as if I really need to tell ya!) :

Needless to say...I had to do some quick thinking...or A LOT of crying!

I always get so stressed out when I ruin a project at the very end.

DH was nearby and tried to comfort me and assure me that everything was alright...but I wasn't feelin' it, so I just walked away and sulked for a bit.

I'm a firm believer in just chillin' out a bit in a situation like this and come back to it later when my mind is clear and I'm not so upset.

It was the right decision, because when I did come back to the project, I took one look at it and I knew what to do to fix it.

I remembered that there were two smaller coordinating flowers in the package also, so I got those out and started arranging them on the onesie to see if I could cover the messed-up spot and still make it look presentable.

It worked and maybe you all wouldn't even have know my secret if I hadn't tattled on myself!

The second onesie was much easier and less eventful for sure!

I used a pre-made embellishment for this one also, Studio18, Rhinestone Pig, purchased at Michaels.

After all the trial & tribulation with the first onesie, I just wanted to make this one simple & cute!

This embellishment did not require any ironing, it had fabric adhesive already on the back of the gems and I just did a "peel & stick".

These will be handwashed, even though I think they could handle machine washing on the gentle cycle.

Here is what I used for this project:

I am working on some more onesies for my new Grandson (A) and his big brother (J), so hopefully I will be posting about those soon.

Thanks for reading! I appreciate you all and would love to hear any comments or questions you have!

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