Failed sewing projects: Toys made out of socks

So I got this "Sock Appeal" book with how to make a bunch of different animals out of socks. Since I LOVE socks, especially striped ones, especially knee socks, I knew I had to try this. The book had bunnies and various animals, but several sea creatures. I got the crazy idea of making our son a batch of sea creatures out of soft socks that could be fun and colorful play toys.

Here comes a starfish. Note: Washable markers are not suitable for laying out your sewing pattern.  Proper fabric pens have been since purchased!!  Also, I was using clearance Target socks (this one is out of 2 ankle socks.) Some of the insides of their socks are very stringy (i.e. cheap) on the design parts -- this was hard to deal with. Later I used some different socks that were better made and they sewed much better. Choose your socks accordingly!

My very first attempt: a sock fish. Note: I didn't close his mouth yet.

Higher quality sock I wanted to use as a bunny.

 Here is what I ended up with...and I havent' been back to fix these yet. 1) Blue bunny out of the cheapy kind of sock with "stuffed" ears. It looks weird. Next up, softer bunny with no stuffing in the ears, so they are floppy...still, the stuffing looks weird (maybe it needs a face and body to look normal? I still have a second sock for each of these for arms and legs.  3) Ugliest starfish in the entire world. Seriously. Not bad for a first try though. I sewed some bells into the middle, so it jingles for extra fun. 4) My fish.

I'm not sure when I'll be interested in trying this all again (after spending $10 on clearance socks of course) but right now all the sewing stuff is put away in favor of getting at least half the nursery ready before I make a giant mess again.  So, we'll see...

Baby Sewing Projects

I'm working on 2-4 baby sewing projects right now. Today I'll show you 2 of them. VERY EASY, even for a person (like me) who can barely sew a straight line.

One thing about sewing, I've learned to appreciate that quality cutting and measuring up front leads (hopefully) to a nicer end result.  And who wants to go to all the work of shopping, washing, ironing, cutting, and sewing to have something dumb/crooked/ugly at the end? Now if I could only buy fabrics that coordinate a bit better instead of all the random ones I like.  But you know what? Random is kind of cool right now, right? And as long as a burp cloth (DO NOT WRITE BURP "CLOTHE") catches barf, it pretty much meets its intended purpose, right? That's my hope.

Burp Cloth: I made some that were 12x18 (matching a diaper) and then a bunch that were 10x17 (seemed not as "huge" but I might go back to the bigger size...the problem is if you buy a half yard the fabric shrinks in the wash...well, I have around 20 10x17 cloths now for me and gifts so if that isnt' good enough TOUGH - clean up barf with your own darned bigger towel! 

Step 1: Choose fun Fabrics (note that "minky/soft" fabric like the top one is not easy to work with, moves around a lot - not an ideal beginner fabric)

Put your pretty outsides "inside" and pin all around. (I may have one cloth that is partially inside out...) I put 2 red pins in the spot where I want to "stop" sewing so I can eventually flip this inside out.

Um...flip inside out...iron (this eliminates more pinning later).  Then sew across the top to close your hole. If you want, sew all the way around. This looks a lot cuter but does take up a bunch more time. I made some both ways (different days) and washed the both and they both stayed flat...give me a few months and I'll get back to you on how necessary the whole "sew all the way around" thing goes.  Apparently, I have no pictures of the piles of these that I've completed. I'll work on that.

Baby Item 2: Pacifier Leash. There are about a million tutorials out there on these, so I won't re-invent the wheel. Choose your size. I did 1inch x 10 inches or so, but I saw up to 14 inches...but didn't want to risk choking the baby.  Cut your fabric to 4x11 (for seams) and then...iron it into "double bias tape".  There were a lot of other types of tutorials out there but I thought this concept sounded the easiest.

Meaning: First fold in half (so you have 2 inches wide.) Then open fold and fold both outside edges into the middle and iron again.

This makes a lot more sense if you've ever used double-biased tape/ribbon from a package.

Then fold again on your original fold and you should have a 1 inch strip that is 4 layers thick. (The flannels were a nice thickness -- fat quarters were extremely thin)

 Next, put your connector on one end, elastic on the other (Other tutorials have velcrow, etc - I liked elastic because you could also use it to attach a small toy), hide your edges, and sew-sew-sew all the way around.

Save yourself some $$ and buy these for $3-4. Or, don't - and buy 2 packs of the identical clips for $4.79 each. Your choice.  These are in the ironing section of Jo-Ann's, right by the $4.79 clips.

Finished product

Up close - notice I made a cute little "box"X shape on both ends to help keep the elastic really sewn in there.

Are you going to sew some now???

Rest of the updated pics!

I know I have a lot to blog about in terms of baby, baby growing, baby projects, baby questions...but I'm still playing catch-up.  I'll get to those longer blogs soon, I hope!

23 Weeks

24 Weeks

25 Weeks

25 weeks and this top makes my top look HUGE

26 weeks

Snippet of my personal journal/weblog (21 weeks)

Dear Baby Boy (Yuzu [Utero name] / Johnny),


You love music. I'm listening to a worship mix on Pandora right now and you are just kicking away! Its also your kicking hour...but you kick a lot at church during singing and also when your Dad and I were watching music clips...so I think you like it. You didn't seem to appreciate my guitar playing the other day though, so what is with that?? Hm...

Speaking of kicking, sometimes I get nervous when I haven't felt you moving in a while. I may or may not encourage your Dad to scare you with a loud belly raspberry or claps. He usually obliges, but you don't get startled. :/ Sometimes you kick a little later though, just to let me know you are OK. Thanks for that. You mostly kick me right in the middle of my tummy, around the belly button, so I wonder where you really are in my tummy. Maybe the doctor will tell me tomorrow!

We've started a workout regime, so far worked out 2 whole times but hopefully there will be more of that to come. I want to you have a healthy labor and I want to have a quick recovery so I can focus on taking care of YOU!

Love you lots
Mom

Catching Up a Bit

So since the last post, I thought I would update with some more pics.

14 Weeks

13 Week Ultrasound

16 Weeks (still in my skinny jeans!)

19 Weeks- its a boy!

21 Weeks

Journal Snippet (From a private weblog) December 12, 2013 "A second faint pink line."

Today, as all days leading up to my period, I obsessed about every stomach ache, twinge, and abnormal thought. And like most days around this time, I was too impatient to wait until tomorrow morning's concentrated urine sample (the most successful time to test). Just yesterday morning I had a flat-out negative. That was December 11th. Since all bodies vary, yesterday was probably FAR too early to test. But I had one last amazon (cheap) pregnancy test and I took it. Negative.


Today I didn't test in the morning, convinced that after using my last cheapie test yesterday I could wait until at least the weekend. Yeah, I made it to about 4pm when I looked around my stash for some middle-priced (with rebate and coupons) First Response tests that I purchased last month (when I may or may not have asked my husband to confiscate my cheapie tests because I was using them too quickly. Rember I'm obsessive?)

(So I took the test...these only take 2 minutes to return the results. Sweet. At first I quickly saw the dark pink control line. I began my usual talk to myself, "See?! You always test too soon! $4 wasted!"...until another line appeared! ANOTHER LINE APPEARED!!! What?? Could this be? Blink. Blink. Another line??? Yes, a faint line. A line that got a little darker as some more time went by. Hm. Faint lines with ovulation mean negative. Test says 2 lines = positive. Is this positive or not?

Begin imemdiate web searches. Result: Faint line does mean pregnant!

Wow. This is EARLY! 3 weeks, 3 days (if you count from LMP.) Way early. Wowser early. And I've taken scores of other pregnancy tests this early with no false positives. (Amazon packs are SO cheap!) So, I was actually hoping this time around that if I tested positive early - right away almost - that it means the pregnancy would stick this time.

So now, instead of obsessing each day about if I am pregnant or not, I will switch to wondering if I will stay pregnant or not. Personally, a slightly more exciting concept than the latter.

And...kinda nervous about the end result!! Wowser!!!
(Note: This picture is from when I took a "Am I still pregnant, is this true?" test a week or so later - hence the much darker line in this picture)

Why aren't these tutorials out there?

I've had some creative ideas lately and I'm wondering why these tutorials aren't more prominent online.

1) Slow cooker shrimp meals.  Ok, so shrimp cooks in 4 minutes and there are SOME recipes out there...

2) DIY Q-tips / homemade q-tips tutorial. C'mon...there's already cloth toilet paper...

3) How to recycle your re-usable grocery bags into something else useful...still waiting for this one.  Planter? placemats? Clutch purse?

4) DIY Lint roller.  (Yeah..I know...reverse tape roll. But hey, like I said there is cloth toilet paper out there..)

5) Recycled Scissors and Knives: Picture Frame tutorial.  Can't you just see that one? Probably too dangerous. Seriously though, how else do you recycle your scissors that got ruined because you insisted on cutting wire and pipe cleaners with them?  C'mon recyclers! There must be something.

Anyone have any ideas for me?

Some bump pics coming soon. I can't get my phone to upload them so I have to hook it up to my computer - so old fashioned!