Kitschy Kids Apron

I love when I see something and it totally inspires me... It makes creating so much more enjoyable when I feel freshly inspired. Lots of things inspire me- pretty projects on pinterest, amazing bloggers, fabric, etc- but one of the things that inspires me the very most, are my kids. I love thinking up projects to make for them. Things that I know will make them smile. They are even starting to come up with projects on their own. It's so fun to hear the things they think "mommy should make them" and it is so fun for me to be able to actually make some of the things they come up with... According to my daughter- next on the list is a stuffed purple dolphin! ha ha If anyone knows of a cute purple dolphin tutorial out there- please share! I would be so grateful! :)

This apron project was a combination of inspiration for my daughter and also inspiration from fabric. I had been wanting to make an apron for a while but, had been putting it off. When I was in my local fabric shop, I came upon this darling Happy Home fabric by Robert Kaufman, and I knew instantly that it was the perfect fabric for a little apron. I could envision it perfectly- right down to the little rolling pin as a waistband.

I used the Home Sweet Home Fiesta print to make the apron bib  and also used it for the rolling pin on the waistband and the utensils on the pocket. I used the Happy Home Pitchers print for the apron skirt and the ties around the neck and waist. The yellow dot for the ruffle  on the bottom edge is from Joanns.

I think her favorite thing about the apron is the pocket. She loves being able to put her special treasures in there while she "cooks".

 I didn't use a pattern for the apron. I started by cutting the "home sweet home" motif from the fabric for the bib and took some measurements of where I wanted the skirt of the apron to fall on her leg and just went from there. It was really simple to make and came together just how I envisioned it would when I bought the fabric. I backed the entire thing with the yellow polkadot fabric incase she wanted it to be reversible... but let's be honest- who in the world would want to hide this darling kitschy kitchen fabric on the front??

To date- this is my favorite project I have ever made. Not sure if it is because I was inspired by so many things while making it, if it is the way it turned out, or if it is watching her while she is playing in it- possible a combination of all three? :) 

I can't wait to make a twin version for my mini kitchen helper... thinking I may do one minus the bib and neck ties... Stay tuned!

Floppy Bow Tutorial

Our family just did family pictures and I made this floppy bow headband for an accessory. It was so easy to put together- and I just used things I had laying around the house...

All you will need is a headband (mine is a 25 cent plastic headband leftover from a birthday party that I found in the clearance bin at party city), fabric (any scrap will do- it needs to be 6x8 inches),  ribbon (I used grosgrain), and a hot glue gun.

Here is how I made it:

Step 1: Cut two 1 inch pieces of ribbon, and hot glue them to the ends of the headband to hide the ends. (in my picture you will notice that I only did one end at first, but it would be a lot easier to do both at the beginning.)

Step 2: Now you are ready to start wrapping the ribbon around the headband. I would wrap it a couple times and then put a dot of glue and continue till you get to the end of the headband. 

Step 3: Cut a 6x8 inch piece of fabric.

Step 4: Fold it right sides together so it is 3x8 inches. Sew around the edge but leave an opening to turn it right side out.

Step 5: Turn it right side out, tuck the opening (raw edges exposed) in and press flat. You can stitch this part closed if you would like, or just leave it like I did. My opening was small enough and it was centered exactly where I glued it to the headband so I didn't bother to stitch it closed.

Step 6: Fold your sewn fabric piece like an accordion. You can make as many folds as you would like. Then I put a dot of glue on the headband where I wanted the bow to be and stuck the accordion-ed (is that even a word? ha ha) bow to the dot of glue to hold it in place for the next steps.

Step 7: Cut a piece of fabric for the middle of the bow that holds the bow to the headband. You could even use leftover ribbon if you wanted to tie in another color or look. I cut a strip of fabric that was approx. 1 1/2 inches by 4 inches. (you don't need it to be that long, I just wanted enough to hold onto to get a grip to pull it tight. I trimmed off about 3 of the 4 inches- so just cut this part to your liking.) I pressed the fabric into thirds to create my strip to wrap.

Step 8: Turn the headband over so the bottom part is facing up. Place a dot of glue on the headband underneath the center of the bow. Put the strip on the dot of glue and secure it.

Step 9: Wrap the strip all the way around the top of the bow and back to the underneath. Cut the strip with enough excess that you will be able to fold the raw edge in before gluing it down. Tuck that raw edge in and glue. 

That is it... One Floppy Bow headband- ready for pictures, a day at the park, or wherever a floppy bow and it's owner may wish to go.

Enjoy!!

P.S. You could make this bow in any size... I made one about half the size and glued it to an alligator clip for my baby girl... It turned out darling too. :)

Sewing Storage Ideas

As some of you know, I have very limited space where I live so I don't have a craft room. Up until a couple weeks ago I had all of my sewing supplies/ fabric stored in about 3 different closets/places. It was driving me nuts! I could never find what I was looking for and hated digging through piles and piles of fabric trying to find the right one. 

I got thinking and looking on Pinterest for ideas of how to store sewing supplies and decided to buy a book shelf and display/store my stuff on it. I think sewing supplies are so fun and pretty to display.

I just got an inexpensive white bookshelf from Target that cost me $109. I put about $50 into jars, storage boxes, and knick knacks so my total was under $175. Not to shabby for a cute place to display and catalog my sewing supplies. 

I even dressed up my shelf with some wrapping paper behind the shelves to give it a little subtle pizazz. It is light turquoise and white stripped- you can kinda see it in a couple of the pictures. 

I have the shelf in my bedroom (thank goodness for a loving hubby that lets me do whatever I want with the decor of our room/house). I love waking up each morning and looking at the supplies that I have to work with, and for some reason just seeing my supplies displayed in a pretty way inspires me.

One of the ideas that I decided to implement on my bookshelf was this genius idea by Maggie of Smashed Peas and Carrots to make your own fabric bolts. I used comic book storage boards like she did to wrap my fabric around like a mini fabric bolt. LOVE IT! I think my mini bolts look so darling all lined up like a little rainbow. Plus- having my fabric stored this way I am able to access it so easy and I can "go shopping" in my stash before having to head out to a fabric store for fabric whereas before I was always guessing what I had and didn't have due to my laziness and not wanting to dig through boxes of fabric. 

The next idea of stage came while browsing the isles of Target... I came upon these darling little Ball mason jars. I knew they would be perfect for storing the vintage buttons and thread that I inherited from my grandma.

I picked up some larger Ball Mason Jars at Joanns to store some of my trims like pom poms and rick rack.

Next I headed to one of my favorite stores: Homegoods in search of glass jars with lids to store my pearl cotton balls and other threads. 

One of the fun splurges that I found was at World Market. I fell in love with this darling Stacking Doll Cookie Jar and just had to buy it. I love her! And the fact that she only cost me $12.99 made me love her more. I hid my pairs of scissors and rotary cutters inside here. 

My husbands sweet Grandma Jean gave these vintage stacking dolls to my daughters a couple years ago and I have just never had the perfect place to display them until now. I love them. Love that they were hers, love that they are from my husbands birthplace- Germany (no he isn't German- he's an army brat- minus the brat part:) and I love looking at them everyday.

Another thing I love about the bookshelf idea is that I can line up my sewing books and patterns for easy access too.

(can't wait to sew using these vintage patterns I got from my grandma's sewing stash- man... can you imagine being able to buy sewing patterns for 35 cents these days??)

For storage of my fat quarters and smaller cuts of fabric that wouldn't fit on it's own fabric bolt, I folded them up and stacked them on the shelf. Love how pretty they look- plus they are so easy to access as well.

I am loving being organized!! But I am loving even more being able to SEE my supplies displayed everyday. It is my new favorite place in my house. I find myself just standing in front of my shelf daydreaming of projects... I know... I am weird! ha ha

Stay tuned for next week... I am going to share my Master Bedroom Makeover. I went from bland neutral colors to bold and colorful... I think I have just about every color you see on this shelf incorporated into my room somewhere!! It is so fun and cheery... I can't wait to show you all! :)

Have a great week!

xoxo, Ashley

HOT WHEELS pow wow quilt

Last weekend, I did something that was a first for me. I used a quilt pattern. 

Usually when I make a quilt, I come up with an idea in my mind and make up a pattern for it.  

I used a pattern by Allison of Cluck Cluck Sew, called Pow Wow.

I am so glad that I used a pattern for a quilt like this. I would have never been able to figure out how to make arrows like these on my own. I love the way it turned out.

I will warn you though- this quilt was time consuming! Very much so. By the time I was sewing the binding on- I was so ready to be done with the quilt! ha ha 

-But it was well worth it once I held it up to see it all finished. 

I think that this pattern is the perfect quilt for a boy. It would be cute with girl fabric too, but it just screams boy to me. Since I am in a house full of girls (with the exception of my hubby) I mainly sew with pinks and florals. It was totally different to sew with boyish prints. To be honest.... I love sewing with my girly fabric more! I think sewing with the boyish fabric added to my readiness to be "done" sewing this quilt! ha ha

(nothing against boy fabric at all! I love it too- I just love making girly things more.)

I made it for my little brother Logan, who just turned 19 this week. He loves cars and he has an awesome sense of style, so I thought it would be fun to make it bright, fun, and kinda youthful, but not babyish of course.

When I saw this hot wheels fabric I knew it was perfect for the quilt. It totally screamed "Logan". I chose a couple colors (yellow, gray, and greenish turquoise) from the hot wheels fabric and just found fabric in those colors to coordinate. 

When I bought my fabric, I got enough to make the lap sized quilt, but once I finished the quilt top I realized that it was going to be a bit small for my 6 foot tall brother. So I used a bit of leftover fabric and added a small border. 

I have never used a solid print for binding before but I kinda like the way this solid Kona Charcoal turned out. Sometimes less is more, and with the busy-ness of the hot wheels print I don't think another busy print would have looked good as the binding.

I did a 3 inch border of the hot wheels fabric and then a 3 inch border of white around that. So it added just under a foot to the width and length- which was perfect. 

(I liked it better before I added the border, but it was a necessity since I didn't have enough to make more of the arrow blocks to add on.)

My hat is off to Allison of Cluck Cluck Sew... Awesome pattern woman!

P.S. I bought my pattern here. I got the pdf version so it was just emailed straight over... perfect if you are wanting to get started "right now". Which is how I roll, once I find something I like! ;)

Darling Doll Quilt Tutorial

My very favorite thing about sewing, is being able to make things for my two daughters. 

I love when they come to me with something that they want me to make for them. The look on their face when I am all finished and hand it to them is priceless.

Lately I have been making a lot of dolly quilts. They are so fun and easy to make and as opposed to regular sized quilts, they only take about a day to make depending on how labor intensive you design it.

For this dolly quilt, I used some of the leftover fabric that I had from my Tied with a Bow Car Seat Canopy- which was the Fly a Kite fabric by Riley Blake.

I loved this cathedral window print and thought it would be a lot of fun to hand stitch since the pattern was pretty much already there for me to follow.

-Note to self/you guys: This took a lot longer that I had anticipated! Like a full week of stitching each night once the girls went to bed. It doesn't look like it would take that lone until you get started... ha ha

But to be honest, I really love the way it turned out! The other day my little gal spilled water all over it so I had to throw it in the dryer and when I took it out it was even cuter than before since it got that "crinkled old quilt" look from being in the dryer. LOVE IT!

You totally don't need to hand stitch your quilt like I did- you could machine quilt it in any way you wanted and it would take minutes!

 I find that for my girls a fat quarter (18x22 inches) sized quilt is just about perfect for their little hands and arms to maneuver and wrap their babies in. But you could easily make this any size you would like.

Ok... so here is how I made it.

(Keep in mind that for this quilt I didn't really leave any over hang of batting, or backing fabric. Since it is so small there really wasn't any shifting when I was quilting. But if you like to play it by the rules- add a few inches on each side of the backing and batting so that you have a little leeway.)

Supplies:

This is the perfect quilt to use scraps from your stash, but if you want to buy your fabric- here is the yardage I used-

1 fat quarter for the back of the quilt

1 fat quarter for the front of the quilt

5x44 inches of fabric for the binding 

2 strips of fabric that are 3x20 inches

Optional:

Lace trim- I used 1 1/2 inch lace- two pieces that are 20 inches long each.

batting- you can use it or not. I like it both ways. It is a little stiffer if you use the batting, but for this dolly quilt I wanted to use it since I was hand stitching everything.

Step 1: Cut your fabric. You will leave the fat quarter for the back as it is. Take the fat quarter for the front and trim it to be 12x20 inches. Cut two strips of fabric that are 3x20 inches each. And then cut your binding- you will need two strips that are 2 1/2 by 44 inches.

Cut your lace (if you are using it). You will need two pieces that are 20 inches long each.

Step 2: Now it is time to sew. Take your main piece for the front and line up each piece of lace along the 20 inch side on each side and then lay the 3x20 inch piece of fabric on top of that for each side right sides together with the main fabric. (If you aren't using the lace then just put the two pieces together without the lace)

Pin each side so that the lace is sandwiched between both layers on each sides.

Step 3: Sew along each side. I used a 1/2 inch seam just to make sure the lace was hooked in there good. Once it is sewn, press your seams toward the outside of the quilt.

Step 4: Top stitch as close to the seam as possible to give it a finished look and extra durability. (I set my needle all the way to one side and sewed as close as I could to the seam.

That is it for the quilt top. Easy right??

Now for the quilting. Prepare your "quilt sandwich". Start by ironing your backing. Lay it on the ground so the wrong side is facing up. Either pin it into the carpet with t-pins or tape it to a hard surface. Lay your batting on top of that if you are using batting.

Lay your quilt top on top of the batting and backing and pin it in place every several inches- I used curved safety pins. This will hold it in place while you quilt it. 

Now you can quilt it however you would like. Like I said- I chose to hand quilt mine pretty intricately, but there are multiple ways you could quilt yours.

Once your are all done quilting, trim off the excess backing and binding. Next you will sew on your binding. If you need a tutorial of how to prepare your binding here are a couple- here is one that is all done by machine and another that is part done by machine and part done by hand. 

I prefer to sew the binding to the front of the quilt with my machine and then hand stitch it to the back of the quilt. It takes a little longer, but I think it looks a lot nicer- plus my very favorite part of the whole quilt process is hand stitching the binding to the back of the quilt. I know- I am a total weirdo! ha ha

That is it. Easy right?? Bet your little lady will be so happy once that quilt is tightly wrapped around her baby doll!

Vintage Modern Baby Quilt

A few weeks ago, my friend had a darling baby girl. 

Of course I jumped at the chance to make a quilt with my stash of Vintage Modern fabric. I made it using 2 mini charm packs which are squares that are pre cut to be 2.5x2.5 inches instead of the regular 5x5 inch squares. I also used a white jelly roll and cut up some squares (2.5x2.5 as well) to lighten up the quilt and then added some borders.... I loved how it turned out! So simple, but so cute!

I honestly love this color combo so much! DARLING!

I am still working on getting my hand quilting straight so don't look too close!

I have quite the stash of this lovely fabric... Now I just gotta come up with some more fun ways to use it! 

What are some of your favorite fabrics that are hiding in your stash??

Striped Circus Quilt Tutorial

(This tutorial was originally shared on Family Ever After)

I am not going to give a supply list because there are so many ways you could make this... Here is what I did.

I wanted to make this a baby sized quilt for my friend who is having her third boy in about a week and a half. 

I fell in love with this Michael Miller Circus fabric and thought it would be perfect for her quilt. I love the old fashioned look of it. So cute!

So I got a few of the coordinating fabrics and just cut up a bunch of varying sizes of strips that were 44 inches wide (width of fabric). The smallest I cut was 2 1/2 inches (the width of a jelly roll) and the biggest was the middle panel which was about 12 inches. 

I put the strips right sides together two at a time and pieced my quilt top. By the time I was finished it was approximately 36x44. 

(if you wanted to make a size that was wider than 44 inches then you would just piece your strips together to make them as wide as you need. ex: cut two strips that are 5x44 inches wide and then put them right sides together and sew up one of the ends. Once you opened it up and pressed the seam open you would have an extra long strip that was approx 5x88 inches. Make sense?)

When you quilt top is all pieced together you will need to iron and press open the seams so everything lays flat. 

Now you can make your quilt sandwich- your quilt top, batting and backing. For my backing, I used one yard of fabric. I laid it out flat and used t-pins to pin the fabric into the carpet to hold it in place. Next I laid the batting on top of that and smoothed it out. Then I placed the ironed quilt top on top of the two layers. Be sure to smooth things out very well so that everything is laying flat. 

Now that everything is smoothed out and held in place with t-pins, you can baste (hold) the layers together with safety pins. I like to use these curved safety pins. You just need to place a safety pin every few inches to hold the 3 layers together while you quilt it. 

Now it is time to quilt it. I just did some very basic quilting and sewed 1/4 inch from the seam on the top side of each of the stripes.

For the large panel in the middle, I wanted to give it a little more personalized look so I hand quilted around each of the animals. Here is a great tutorial for hand quilting if you have never tried it. I have to warn you though, it is so addicting... I love hand quilting- by far- more than machine quilting. It is so relaxing to sit on the couch and let your fingers and needle get to working over the fabric. It takes a lot longer than machine quilting, but I just like it so much better! Call me weird! ha ha

I wanted to "hide" her baby's name somewhere on the quilt so I chose to stitch "Paxton" along the giraffe's neck... I love the way it turned out.  

Once you are all done with your quilting, it is time to bind the quilt. Here is a great tutorial if you don't know how to do this step!

That's it!