KT Made It: Baby Romper

As mentioned in my last post, I recently bought a few patterns to make baby clothes for our little girl on the way!

Today's post is how I made a romper using Simplicity pattern 1600. The pattern includes two rompers, a bikini, panties and a bonnet. The pattern is sized XXS-L. I chose to make the XS pattern, which is supposed to fit a 7-13 pound infant.

Here are the two fabrics and the additional notions (e.g. thread, single fold bias tape, elastic, and velcro) that I have to make the rompers.  In this post I will show you how I made the pink polka dot romper.


 

Here are the pattern pieces cut out. They include the front bodice, front facing, back and sides of the bodice, shoulder straps, and ruffle.

The pattern instructions start with the four ruffles that go on the back of the romper. Sewing includes stitching to gather up the edge of the ruffle, and a hem on the opposite side. After each ruffle was gathered, I pinned the ruffle on the back bodice. Starting with the bottom ruffle, each ruffle was sewn onto the back bodice. 

The next step was to make the straps and attach them to the bodice, seen below. 

The next few steps were to attach the bias tape to the unfinished edge of the back bodice. After attaching the bias tape to make the casing, the waist elastic was inserted. 

After the back was complete, I attached it to the front. Then the front facing was attached. 

Almost done! Next, I stitched the crotch seam and then used the bias tape to make the casing for the leg elastic on both sides. 

Once the leg elastic was finished, the last step was to attach the velcro to the straps and bodice. And here it is!

This is a great pattern! Very easy to follow and the romper is oh-so-cute! Similar to the felt booties that I made, it seems a little big for a 7-13 pound infant, but then again I have no frame of reference. Besides, if it doesn't fit her at that weight, she will grow into eventually.

Check back for my next post to see how I made a matching bonnet!

KT Made It: Felt Baby Booties

On my way to get my hair cut the other night, I stopped into Jo-Ann Fabrics to browse the aisles for some crafting inspiration. As fate would have it,  I walked into a sewing pattern sale - Simplicity patterns 5 for $5! If you have ever bought sewing patterns before, you will know how big of a deal this is. If not, I will tell you that patterns are not cheap. Then add in the cost of fabric and notions, and you can end up spending more on a clothing sewing project than you'd be paying if you just went and bought a similar item in the store. Of course, it's always a lot more rewarding when you can make something for someone else or yourself.

Today I'm going to share with you a review of pattern #2867, which is for three different styles of felt baby booties. The pattern is one size only and recommends wool felt, pre-ironed and washed.  There are two or three pieces for each of shoes. You can see the cut out pieces below.

 

Instead of wool felt, I purchased polyester felt from the local craft store. I brought my cut out pattern pieces with me to the store and found that one sheet of 9"x12" felt was the perfect amount for a pair of shoes in each of the three styles. The felt cost approximately 30 cents. I picked my colors to make two of each style. The first two styles call for one skein each of two different colors of embroidery thread, while the third calls for one skein in one color and two in the second. The embroidery thread cost approximately 40 cents per skein. That means less than $2 per pair of shoes, which is a sweet deal! 

Here are my color combinations.

Here are a pair of booties in style A. These were pretty simple to make and turned out very cute. I made this pair in tan with purple and green embroidery thread. 

And here is a pair of style B booties! These were a little more detailed with the embroidery, but still simple.

Overall, I think that this was an easy pattern that anyone can follow with a little patience! The embroidery stitch instructions were pretty good in both the pictures and description. There was only one stitch (the lazy-daisy stitch) that I had to find a video of on YouTube to fully understand how to make it. 

My one and only complaint is that these are one size fits all. Now, I don't have anything to go by other than a pair of socks for a 0-3 month infant, but these booties seem a little larger than I imaged. The pattern does not specifically state what size they would fit, so this is simply a guess. I may have to try to put a pair on one of my niece's feet to get a better idea...

KT Did It: Happy New Year (and some overdue posts!)

Happy New Year! Even though I am three days late in welcoming 2015 with all of you, I hope that everyone had a happy and safe holiday!

Let's be honest, Kraftmas this year was a little disappointing. My attempts to craft and bake for the holidays was a bit more difficult than last year when I was on break from school all December without any real responsibilities. Now I'm a real adult with a real job and real responsibilities, which equals less free time for all making all of the cute holiday crafts and cookies that I can muster! However, I can share with you some of the last minute Kraftmas did-its that did not make it to the blog in time!

First, a few more ornaments four our Christmas tree. I did paint these paper mache ornaments earlier this month. I really enjoy painting glass ornaments, so I made three more this year to add to the collection of ornaments from last year (e.g. ).

Crescent Santa Claus
This is an easy ornament and does not require much artistic talent! I chose a navy background, and painted the entire ornament using acrylic paint.


Once that dried, I painted a crescent shape along one side of the ornament in white. Make sure to add a little triangle in the middle of the crescent for a nose!


Next, I used flesh colored paint to make the face. Above the face, use red paint to make the hat.












Finally add Santa's eye, a little rose color in his cheek, and the white band at the base of the hat and at the top.












Christmas Tree Forest
This ornament is also pretty simple. I chose to paint this ornament bright red, which is the complimentary color to the green I would use for the trees.


Once the red paint was dry, I used short brush strokes along the bottom of the ornament to create the snow covered ground.












Next, I again used short brush strokes in green to create the trees started with the bottom of the tree and moving to the top. I scattered the trees to give the landscape a little depth as well. I ended up using three shades of green, starting with dark green and adding additional strokes in two lighter colors for some dimension.












Once the trees were dry, I used a small amount of white paint on the tip of my brush to make the trees look like they were dusted with snow. Finally, I added a few speckles of white pain around the trees to make it look like it was snowing. Love this ornament!
































And our most SPECIAL ORNAMENT...




















Yes, it is true, we are expecting our first child! Even more exciting was our Christmas present to ourselves this year: a gender sonogram. Drumroll please... it's a GIRL! We could not be more excited for this new chapter of our lives and the amazing journey into parenthood. And now I can partially blame my distraction from blogging on the pregnancy *he he*

Any-who, I also made these candle holders for our dinner table for Christmas using a glass candlestick holder and a square candle holder from the Dollar Store.

These are really easy, and Im intending to make more in other colors - maybe black and orange for Halloween, for example! Basically I painted to glass to match our table cloth, which was green, red, white and gold gingham. After the glass was dry, I used hot glue to put the pieces together.

And here is a final Kraftmas baking did it for those of you that like to bake instead of craft. This year for Christmas Eve dessert I made a red velvet cake with peppermint frosting from a recipe that I found on SouthernLiving.com

What you need:

1 (18.25-ounce) package white cake mix

3 egg whites

1 1/3 cups buttermilk 

2 Tbl vegetable oil

1 (9-ounce) package of yellow cake mix (which equals 1 3/4 cups of cake mix if you have a bigger box)

1/2 cup buttermilk (I made my own with 1/2 cup 1% milk with 1 Tbl lemon juice)

1 large egg

2 Tbl cocoa

1/2 tsp baking soda

2 Tbl liquid red food coloring

1 tsp cider vinegar

First, beat the white cake mix, 3 egg whites, 1 1/3 cups buttermilk and 2 tablespoons of oil. 

I made my own buttermilk by combining approximately 1 1/4 cups of 1% milk with 3 tablespoons of lemon juice and allowing the mixture to sit for about one minute before adding to the other ingredients. 

Here is the white cake batter. 

For the red velvet cake batter, first combine the yellow cake mix, 1/2 cup buttermilk and 1 large egg. 

Again, I made my own buttermilk as described above, this time using about 1/2 cup 1% milk with 1 tablespoon of lemon juice. 

Next, add in the cocoa, baking soda and cider vinegar (NOTE: if you do not have cider vinegar you can substitute with 1/4 teaspoon of salt). 

Finally, add in the red food coloring. 

Now you are ready for baking! In 3 greased 9-inch round cake pans, spoon the red batter alternately with the white batter. Swirl the batter gentle with a knife. 

Bake the cakes in a 350 degree preheated oven for 22-25 minutes. Cool the cakes.

While the cakes are cooling, you can make the peppermint frosting by beating the following ingredients:

1 (8-ounce) package of cream cheese, softened

1 cup butter, softened

1 package of powdered sugar (which is about 3-4 cups)

1 teaspoon of peppermint extract

Once the cakes are cool, place one cake on a serving plate and spread with a portion of the frosting. Place the next cake on top and again spread with a portion of the frosting. Finally, place the last cake on top and frost the whole cake with the remaining frosting. I refrigerated the cake until serving, and added a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top of each slice!

Your cake will be such a hit with guests that you may only have this much left...

Phew! So glad that I finally shared these last minute Kraftmas did-its with everyone!

2014 was certainly an exciting year for us! I ran my first half marathon, made my own Etsy shop, graduated from Physician Assistant school, started my first job as a PA, and now my hubby and I are expecting a little baby girl. Talk about an incredible year, and it is only going to get better in 2015!

Thank you everyone who reads my blog. I hope that you have enjoyed a year of posts, and I also hope that you will continue to visit my blog in the coming year. I'm looking forward to sharing crafts and other projects that I am planning to work on for our little Princess due in June, as well as additional items that I hope to add to my Etsy shop. You can also follow me on Pinterest and see what inspires me!