Baby Shower Banner

I absolutely LOVE these banners! I threw a shower for an adorable friend this past weekend, and decided to go with another triangle banner. I also downloaded these gorgeous vintage number cards from The Handmade Home freebies page to add to the bunting. I love them! Also fell in love the with alphabet card collection. Gorgeous! I'll be adding these to my nursery, for sure.

Please pardon the picture with most of the food eaten! I always forget to take a picture before the guests begin to eat!

Makes me smile. :)

Doily Tank

The Little Lady totally joined the doily revolution!

She's definitely the hipster in the family. She and I had such a fun time painting this doily fluorescent pink with fabric paint, then gluing it to the tank top (great for covering up stains, might I add). I sewed it into place in several spots just for reinforcement. Doesn't a cute little bandana skirt just really pull it all together? :)

Blue Cricket Design

Bandana Dress

Aren't all tiny things just adorable? Well, think of a super fluffy skirt made of nothing but a little bandana! That's what we have here. A dress made from a bandana! I love sewing with bandanas because you don't have to mess with any unfinished edges, and they're the perfect size for a 12-18 month old skirt (call me lazy, go ahead).

So, I got this little ribbed tank from WalMart, and the first time the little lady wore it, it got a snag along the bottom. So, to cover up the hole, I grabbed a bandana from my stash (a stash that I've hoarded since my high school days when it was the cool thing on my basketball team to wear it like a doo-rag), and sewed it to the bottom of this tank! Here, you'll see another version of this bandana dress.

Step 1: You just take one bandana, cut directly in half, then sew two short ends together to make one long rectangle.

Step 2: Sew a basting stitch on one long side of the rectangle, and gather the bobbin thread to gather the skirt/bandana. Gather until it's the same length as the circumference of the bottom of your tank top.

Step 3: Pin and sew skirt and tank top, right sides facing, all the way around the bottom of the tank. Finish by sewing up the side of the skirt to close gap.

Flip right sides out, and voila! You have a super cute, and easy play dress.

Onesie and Burp Cloth Applique- Tips and Tutorial!

First of all, a HUGE apology to my 40 loyal followers (yes, 40! Can you believe it Shanny? We're famous!), for the lack of posts the past few weeks. I know that the first thing that comes into your mind as your head pops off the pillow each morning is, "Just when is there going to be a new post on Shenanigans?" :) xoxo Now, to the craft...

Onesies are a staple in any newborn's wardrobe! When you fancy-up one of these little gems, then you can feel like your babe is ready for those surprise visitors all the time!

A couple good friends have recently had babies, so I bought a pack of onesies, busted out my Cricut, and sewing machine, and just went for it!

This can be super fun for baby boys too! Here's a onesie and burp rag for baby Andrus.

For the airplane, I cut out an airplane from a cotton print fabric, and satin stitched it to the burp cloth (see detailed instructions below).

Then I had a few friends who had little girls. At the end of this post, I added pics of just a few of my favorites...

Materials:

• "Heat N Bond" iron-on adhesive. Get the no-sew kind, so it can adhere to both materials
• Stabilizer (found near the Heat N Bond in notions section), or white scrap fabric
• Cotton fabric for cutting out designs
• Cricut (optional)
• Sewing machine
• iron

Step 1 (if using Cricut):

Cut out a scrap of fabric large enough to fit your design. Cut the same amount of Heat N Bond. Place fabric piece, right-side down, onto ironing board. Place adhesive side (bumpy side) of Heat N Bond directly onto the wrong-side of fabric. Iron until completely bonded (about 8-10 seconds). Directions come with all Heat N Bond packages.

Step 2:

Cut design, using Cricut, then peel off the paper lining from the back of the Heat N Bond. Place onto onesie, the iron into place. It's a good idea to stitch the edges of the design onto the onesie so that it doesn't peel after washing.

Step 3: Using a satin stitch, or a tight zig-zag stitch, sew along outside edge of design (or you lucky chicas with sergers, go at it!). Be sure to place something on the inside of the onesie to stabilize the sewing (such as stabilizer, or scrap cotton fabric). Stabilizer can be torn off after sewing, but the cotton fabric is meant to stay as something soft against the baby's skin.

Huge, Monumental, Life-Changing (well it changed mine), Major tip! To reduce your chances of sloppy and loose stitches due to the gunking up of your needle as it goes through the Heat N Bond, place wax paper over the top of the bonded onesie, so it can "lubricate" the needle each time it goes through. :) It can be a bit tricky to see exactly where you're going, but you get used to it (see pic below).

DIY "Moby" Wrap Tutorial

My little lady is 2 years old now, and too mobile and heavy to carry in any sort of wrap. She enjoys the Kelty pack only because she's carried high enough over our shoulders to not miss out on anything.

I've seen a lot of my friends with infants using this style of wrap- the Moby Wrap.

Isn't that sweet?! When my friend had her baby boy, I immediately knew what I was going to give her. Since these wraps seemed a bit spendy for what they actually are, I decided to make my own.

Here's all you need. Pencils ready...

~5-6 yards of fabric (I prefer jersey knit)

~Scissors

That's it! It's super easy, and my friends have gotten a TON of use out of them from church, to parks, to getting things done at home.

Step 1: Fold fabric in half lengthwise ("hotdog fold" for you educators out there)

Step 2: Cut along fold to make one looooong strip of up to 30" wide fabric.

The edges don't fray with the jersey knit (but do roll a bit), and it stretches nicely as you're doing the wrapping. Click here for directions on all the different wraps, and if you're giving this as a gift, be sure to print these off for the mommy so she'll know what the heck to do with all this fabric!