Easter Sewing

Not too bad, posting about my Easter projects only 3 weeks after the fact!  Oh well, here's a few random things I've been sewing...

Firstly, my most favorite project for Easter, a polka-dot bow-tie for my handsome little guy!  I'm so glad I made this, it literally only took 30 minutes start to finish.  Which is good considering I did this the evening before Easter Sunday.  I used this tutorial here from A Lemon Squeezy Home.  As I was looking through all the different tutorials for bow-ties I didn't like how flat and sad some of them looked.  What I liked about this tutorial was the addition of fleece between the fabric to fatten it up a bit. 

And as you can see it may have been a bit much for a one year old, but I think he pulled it off pretty well.  I used quilt batting because that's all I had on hand but it did the trick.  And if you don't like how fat it is just leave the batting out, it'll still make a great bow-tie! And instead of making a coordinating strap for the part around his neck, I took the lazy route and just used elastic.  It makes it incredibly easy to get on and off the wiggly baby, though surprisingly he never did try and pull it off!  He certainly wooed all the little old ladies at church with this number!

 A few weeks before Easter I was searching for stuffed Easter bunnies online because I had it in my head I needed to make some for the boys Easter baskets.  These ones from Etsy stood out to me, I thought for sure with different fabric choices and some modifications to the face they would be adorable.  I made them, but I'm not in love with them.  To be honest I didn't even finish Wade's because I was having so many problems with the dang thing I just gave up.  But I need to finish it because he loves his little brothers and even thought I don't think they're that great he seems to really enjoy them.   The picture on the left is my sad attempt at personalizing his bunny.  Wade thinks it's awesome, that's all that matters, right?

 And lastly, I'm throwing in a little jersey skirt I made for Lulu-bug.  I didn't make this specifically for Easter, but it fits right in.  It's just a simple skirt similar to this one I previously made for her.  My favorite part though is the pockets.   I knew I wanted to do pockets and I wanted them to have that little gathered effect.  I totally just winged it but they turned out perfect, love it when that happens!

Update

I really have been sewing the past few months, just not posting about it. So here's a look at a few things I made for Christmas. First up, the coat.... I have a love/hate relationship with this coat I made for Lindsay. I'm happy with how it turned out, but it was not at all what I was going for. There are quite a few things I would do differently now that I've seen how it fares with a toddler wearing it. It was definitely fun to sew and I'm excited to try sewing more coats/jackets. 

It's made out of fleece with a cotton lining. I made fabric covered buttons out of the same cotton fabric. My favorite part is the hood, it turned out much better than I expected. And I was so happy that it fit her great! 

Next up are Jack's Christmas gifts.  He requested monkey basketball pajama pants.  I searched high and low for monkey basketball fabric and finally had to settle for fabric with basketballs on it.  I also made him a batman belt (after a few failed attempts) and some Batman wrist cuffs.  I don't know if he even cares or likes the Batman wrist cuffs, but I was so stinking happy with how those turned out, they came together exactly how I envisioned them.  

 

Here's my model showing off the cuffs, they drown him but he thought they were pretty fun to eat!

Super Hero Art

For Jack's birthday a couple months ago, one thing I wanted to surprise him with was an update to the ABC art in his room for something more fitting for a SIX year old!  I got these fun super hero images from my friend Erin and started looking for ideas on how to display them.  I didn't really want to use frames because they would be bound to get bumped and I could envision one falling and shattering.  I'd seen an idea on Pinterest for covering foam with black fabric and attaching your image so it looked like canvas art.  I decided to go this route because the pictures would be lightweight and less formal looking.  After shopping around, I ended up buying actual canvas (11x14) on sale at Micheal's and still wrapped them with black fabric since I had a yard and didn't want to deal with painting the edges of the canvas.  This is where I experienced some trial and error, but after three tries, everything was hung for the final time and it's held up well.  Here's my newspaper template to space them evenly and make sure they would be level...

And finally the finished product...


Excuse my phone pics, but you get the idea.  I learned that spray adhesive wasn't enough to attach the print to the fabric, but a dot of hot glue in each corner has kept the photos in place.  I also learned you have to use a staple gun to keep the fabric super secure to the canvas--duct tape wasn't enough.  I ended up attaching these to the wall with velcro so even if they get bumped, they don't move and so far it's the perfect kid-friendlly art!  More explanation that you wanted to know, but this blog needed an update!  I can share the super hero images if you're interested.