A massive coverup

This may be hard to believe, but I am not always completely graceful, charming, and delicate.  In fact, I can be downright clumsy.  Slobbish.  A mess!  I blame my kids, but the truth is on any given day, the stains on my clothes are just as likely to have come from my own mishaps.

So I've taken to embellishing clothing -- shirts in particular -- to cover up signs of wear.  Like spaghetti sauce.  Or whatever.

Guess what's hiding under all those ruffles?  Grease spots, that's what.  You perv.

I've cropped this photo a bit because, well, I'm horrible at being photographed.  Don't believe me?  This is the face I was making in the photo above.  And this was one of the best shots.  I think I was yawning, but it could have been a sneeze.

As long as I was cropping, I went ahead and trimmed of my lovehandles too.  Because it's my blog, and I can.  But doesn't my hair look great?  No photo editing there.  That's 100% natural.

Grace, on the other hand, knows how to work it.  With her it's hard to find a picture I don't like.  So here are ten. 

 

Beneath these flowers and birds hide splatters, splotches, smears and stains.  Shhh!  Don't tell!
 
I've got a few more tops, and a couple pairs of pants for me that I still need to photograph.  But you get the idea.  Your clothes may be stained, your handles may be lovely, but a massive coverup is easier than you think!

Onesies

 I recently came in to a stash of onesies in assorted sizes.  (And by "came into," I mean "ordered from Amazon.com.")

  I have a baby, but he's getting big now, and so the little onesies  have to find new homes.

Lucky for me, some of my friends have recently had babies conveniently sized for my onesies.  How thoughtful!


First, Erin's sweet baby, Ania, finally got a little something from the stash.

This first outfit came from a series of happy accidents.  I've got a bin full of stained, worn-out, and out-grown clothes that I've saved to be upcycled.  This skirt has been in that bin since Grace was little enough to wear it, probably 3 years ago.

Somehow after wearing the skirt only once or twice, my pre-toddler had a run-in with a blue sharpie.  I planned to cover the stains with some kind of design or applique, but I never got around to it, and now she's 4 1/2, and it wouldn't quite be appropriate to squeeze her into a 9 mo skirt.

So, I decided to cut it apart to use the fabric.  My intention was to imitate this shirt, which I found (in royal blue) on the clearance rack at Target.  It was in Grace's (current) size, but at $6, it was more than I usually pay for kids' clothes.  Because (have I mentioned?) I am cheap.   Anyway, I went ahead and bought it.  To copy it.

It may be too small to get a good look at it, but the embellishments are concentric circles of scallop-edged fabric strips.  It's a really pretty effect, and I wanted to see if I could approximate it.  I cut strips with pinking shears and tried sewing them in a tight spiral.  It ended up looking like an awkward rose, but I didn't like the pinked edges.  So I tried the same thing with the finished edge of the skirt.  And I liked it a lot more.

It's not at all what I was going for at first, but it turned out pretty anyway.

All that was left then was to cut out the stained part of the skirt and size it for a 3-month-old.  I stewed forever trying to figure out an easy way to size down the attached britches, and then I realized since it was going over a onesie, it didn't need britches.  Yay!  I love it when the best way is the easy way.So I cut the britches off, brought in the waist, and removed the bottom tier so the skirt was just the right size.  I realize it might be a little weird to give my kid's used clothes as a baby gift.  But the skirt was only gently used before the run in with the sharpie.  And Erin is eco-conscious, so I doubt she minds a little re-purposing. 

On a second onesie, I added a ruffly butt

and a scrap of vintage fabric









And ta daa!  A blurry onesie.



Just kidding.  It's not really blurry in real life.  Just in all the pictures.



So that was two onesies down.  And then, Rozannah had a tiny little peanut, which gave me the chance clear out the rest of the newborn size package.

 

I fancied them up just a bit.    

With embroidered applique.

With lace.

Not shown:  lacy butt.

And with a little iron-on bedazzling.

George was curious, so he thought he'd give cross-dressing a try.

The lace and the applique came from the old lady stash.  I got the iron-on studs in a clearance bin at Wal-Mart a long time ago.  This is the first time I've used them, and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, except that some of the coloring on the gold studs came off on the iron and transferred  to the onesie.  It made it look kind of dirty.  Or maybe burned.  (Or maybe I just burned the fabric while putting on the studs? Hmmm.)  In the future, I think I'll use my Silhouette cutter's rhinestone setting templates to arrange the dots, because that was a bit of a pain.  (Quick tip though:  Silhouette sells a fancy tool for picking up and placing rhinestones, which of course I don't own.  So I stuck a little blob of plasti-tac on the end of a seam ripper, and that worked just fine.)  I have lots of studs left, so expect to see them on future projects.

Pretty much everything in this set has to be hand-washed and line dried, so I felt like I needed to apologize for the gift as I was giving it.  Special care clothes are ridiculous for kids!  But at least lil' peanut will grow out of them quickly, so they won't have to be worn & washed very many times.

So that's five onesies down.  Just twelve more to go.

Baby Atticus

Design Mom Gabrielle Blair spotlighted this adorable set of onesies on her Babble Style blog several months ago, and I've had it in my "to imitate" file ever since.

Photo credit:  Culpepper General via Babble

This version is from an etsy shop called Culpepper General, but there are hundreds of styles available on etsy.   (Check out this shop and die of cuteness when you see these giraffes and these robots.) 

All of the preceding designs are silk-screened or iron-transferred, and I really like that look.    But when it came time to move this project from mind to matter for my friend Rachel, I decided to go with fabric applique instead.  My new Silhouette makes the cutting easy, and I've kind of got a history of giving tie onesies.

This is a bigger project that I usually tackle for a baby gift, but I was so excited for Rachel and Ryan and the baby boy on his way in August, I just couldn't help myself.  (You may recall Ryan and Rachel from the "Hoping to Adopt" button on my side bar a while back.  Their story is heart-wrenching, inspiring, touching,  and thrilling.  I'm not the only one who was over-the-moon-excited to celebrate their good news.)

So, I ordered a bunch of onesies, bought some fun boyish printed fabric, and fired up the Silhouette.  

This was the result:

I was lucky to find a box in the basement that fit the whole set perfectly.  (This is why I can't throw anything away, folks.)  Look at them all lined up!  Aren't they cute?  (Excuse the fact that all the pictures are blurry.  There was a giant thumb print on the camera lens, apparently.)

Rachel and Ryan are moving away this summer (and even if they weren't, I am), so I won't be around to see Baby Atticus* grow.  But I made Rachel promise to post pictures monthly (at least) so I can watch him fill out his onesies.

* The baby may or may not be named Atticus, but because Rachel's an English teacher, and To Kill a Mockingbird is her favorite book, and Atticus Finch is her favorite character, and we discussed him extensively at our book club meeting, that's how I'll think of him either way. 

Hair Bows

My friend Lizzy asked me to make a batch of hairbows for her trio of beautiful girls.

 

 She even paid me to do it.

I'm quite certain I got the better end of the deal.  I spent a pleasant afternoon watching movies and crafting, and I used  up a bunch of things that had been in my stash forever.

 Grace would not consent to be photographed, so I got a couple of Grace's friends to help model.

Aren't they cute?

But the star of the shoot was baby Roselind.

You gotta have presence to wear a flower bigger than your head.  

But honestly, look at this baby, and tell me you even noticed  that flower. 

With a face like that, she could strap a cactus to her head and still be snuggle-able.   

 

Maybe I'd better check my stash for a cactus.

Happy birthday, Cupcake

There's a sad story behind this onesie.  Well, not sad so much as pathetic.

So, my friend Kandis asked me to embellish this little onesie for her little cutie's first birthday.   She's got serious photo skills, so in exchange, I made her take photos at Grace's birthday party.   And also watch my dog.  Cause I'm user like that.  But that's not the sad part.  The sad part is that I made the onesie a couple weeks ahead of when Kandis needed it.  I photographed it, wrapped it up, and then I lost it.  Completely.  Gone.  I spent a week searching the house, the van, and everywhere I'd been.

So, with one day to spare, I went to Old Navy and bought the LAST long sleeved onesie on the rack, and whipped up another one.

In the end, I actually liked the second one better, mostly because I thought of making the frosting poof removable.  It's much easier to wash now, and as a bonus, Kandis can take it off and pin it to something else, if she's so inclined.

You'll have to take my word for it that it was better the second time around.  Because guess what?  I lost the photos.  Gone.  Completely.

And that's the sad part of the story.


***********

Edited to add:  Well, lookie here!  Scrolling through photos today, I found the pics from the second version (the one I actually gave to Kandis) in a folder from 2010.  Weird.   I wonder where I'll find the onesie I lost.  Anyone have a time machine?

Anyway, here's version 2.

And a shot of the removable poof.

The end.

Snugglesaurus

For Tiffany's baby boy.

Dinosaur silhouette from this template found here.

Flower card

I tend to get really excited about the prospect of craft projects before I've actually started them. I've even gone so far as to plan out dozens of variations before I've even crafted a single item. It's beautiful! It's easy! It's fast! It will be my new signature gift!

And then I discover that creating life-sized velveteen elephants takes a little more time and a lot more fiberfill than I'd expected, and I never get past version 1.0. That was the case with the sadly disfigured lamb pictured here. And the bookish bibs here. And the hungry hippo onesie. (Which I honestly think is one of my most hilarious craft ideas ever, but I made so many ridiculous blunders while putting it together that I might be too scarred to tackle another one. Seriously, this thing had "craft fail" embroidered all over it. (And by "seriously" I mean metaphorically. (But my literal embroidery wasn't too hot either.)))

I was on a bit of a roll with the tie onesies. Those suckers really are as fast and easy as they look. But it's hard to find long-sleeved onesies for adults, so I only make those for babies. (Sorry!)

So, when it comes to gifts for my grown-up friends, I've been at a bit of a loss for Beautiful! Easy! Fast! crafts. This one, however, just might be a winner.

At a craft party many months ago, I copied Tiffany and used this technique to roll a rose from a strip of an old table cloth I found in the Relief Society closet. (And there's more where that came from!) Then I added a cluster of beads and an alligator clip, and ta daa! Ten minute project. Another five to cut out scrapbook paper and attach the hair clip (I just cut a slit and slid the clip through). Add message, and you're finished in no time!

Of course, that only works if you have all the supplies on hand, and you know where to find them. The reality of this Beautiful! Easy! Fast! project is that it took 6 months from start to finish: Ten minutes to craft the flower, and 5 months, 29 days (+ a whole bunch of minutes) to remember to pick up a handful of alligator clips.

But the next one, it's going to be Fast!

More than Meets the Eye

For Daniel, who likes Transformers.  Watch out kid.  Your pants are on fire.


PS:  If you think those pants are hideous here (and I do), you should see them on a child.  Both of my kids tried them, and in both cases I wanted to gouge out my eyes.  They're too  '80s post-Hammer pants for my liking.  But I guess they work with the shirt.  As pajamas.  For someone else's kid.    Sorry Margaret.

Busy Week

In the past 10 days I've been to baby showers for four women, and birthday parties for two little girls.

I need to write a post about everything I've learned while making "quick and easy projects" gone slow and complicated. But all's well that ends well, right? So for now, I'll just post the pictures.

For the babies:

For the three-year-olds:

If you're counting, you may notice that there are only three baby gifts pictured. I didn't bother taking a picture of the fourth, but I'll tell you about it because I think it's a pretty great idea and you might want to use it sometime. Get a package of disposable freezer containers and wrap them up with a list of your favorite meals that freeze well. Write a note telling your friend to pick five (or whatever) and return the list so that you can stock her freezer before the baby arrives. Bonus gift: stock your own freezer while you're at it, cause you might as well.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

This set of bibs is for my friend Rabecca's adorable new baby, Samuel.

Rabecca is a librarian, and I knew she loved Eric Carle's classic The Very Hungry Caterpillar. My initial plan was to applique a onesie similar to this one I've seen around. But when I stopped to buy a pack of onesies, I couldn't find any plain ones. I'd already exhausted my 2-year-old's patience with errands that day, so I decided to just make do with whatever I had at home. As it turned out, I ended up completing this project 100% from the stash. In fact, some of those scraps have been in my pile for over a decade! There's something really satisfying in that.

Throughout the process of making these bibs, I fell in and out of love with them several times. There are many flaws. I spent way too much time fighting with the snaps. I should have done ties. And I'm not sure how I feel about the the zig zag borders. But I love how the appliques themselves turned out. I do wish I'd been able to do a full set of seven bibs for each of the hungry caterpillar's hungry days. But abundant as my stash is, I didn't have any purple fabric for plums. And I'll admit it was laziness that kept me from tackling the day when the caterpillar eats chocolate cake, a cupcake, sausage, a pickle, cheese, salami, and a whole watermelon. (Among other things.) Maybe next time.

I used a bib template I found here, and based the apples, pears and leaves on some clip art from here.


***
Edited to correct my spelling of "caterpillar" every single time I typed it. And to join Kimba's DIY party. Go see some seriously cool stuff right here. Go. Go!