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.

Keep it clean

I'm a little bit in love with this fabric. Maybe a lot in love. It's from the Old Lady Collection, 100% vintage.

I'd been wanting to use it for a while,  so I was kind of excited when Amber chose it for the main print on her birthday napkins.

It's not  hard to make cloth napkins:  1. cut out squares, 2. sew.  (And there are lots of good tutorials out there.)  But I experimented a lot with different combinations of interfacing and lining fabric to get the right weight and feel.  In the end, they're all a little different, but still perfectly suited for dabbing at a spill or wiping crumbs from your lips.  (I say "your" lips because not "my" lips because cloth napkins are pretty useless around here.  Our messes require the power washer/ beach towel approach.  And if I'm putting something in my lap to catch spills, a tarp is really more appropriate.   Why protect my lap but leave the surrounding area exposed?)  But anyway, I'm sure these will do just fine when Amber invites the Queen for a picnic brunch.  As long as she doesn't invite me too.

It's all stash fabric, except for the blue print.  That I purchased from Jo Ann just for this project.  I hardly ever do that -- wander around the store with fabric swatches looking for something specific.  Usually, I scour the remnants and clearance fabrics, and if I find something cheap and pretty I take it home.  Then when I find a project I want to tackle I shop my own shelves.  (And by "shelves" I mean "shelves and bins and closets," cause we're a little past neat piles at this point.  It's time to recommence stash reduction.  Who's in?)

Three

Grace turned three, so I made her three dollies.

I'll admit that some of the details were more for me than for her. Jaguar ruffles, rhinestone barrettes, vintage lace and buttons.

But I think she likes them anyway.

Copy Cat

I had a jewelry party last week. It was a lot of fun, and got me in the mood to do some more beading again.

That's a good thing, because I have a lot of beads.

This is what the project area looked like after the party. After about 10 ladies had used the stash to make stuff and left with it. This was LEFT OVER! See all the stuff back there on the sideboard? Beads. Plus, there's stuff I didn't even bring out of the back room. Yeah, the stash is a bit out of control.

Anyway, before the party I bought a bunch of jewelry from Old Navy to use for ideas. Amber liked this one (with the tag attached, on the right below), but looked at me like a crazy person when I suggested she try making it from a length of chain from a bike lock (cause that's the kind of stuff I have in my stash).

The next day, I decided to give it a try. I've never purchased jewelry with the intent to copy before. I don't think I'll make a habit of it, but I don't feel particularly bad about it because it's Old Navy -- not some struggling artisan. Plus I made a few changes. And mine is completely recycled from old and broken jewelry.

Here's the side-by-side comparison.

And here's the glamor shot.

My favorite part is the pearl button at the bottom of the bike chain. It's a clip on earring.

Black Apple Dolls

I may be the last crafter on the Internet to discover Emily Martin and her Etsy shop, The Black Apple. But I'm sure glad I finally did, because making these little dolls (as featured on Martha) just might be my new addiction.

This first set went to a couple of strawberry blond cuties who just turned one.

Turning those skinny arms and legs right-side-out is a bit of a pain, but other than that these dolls are a breeze to make. Unless of course you have a giant stash of fabric. Then it will take you hours to contemplate all the possible combinations. Everything here came from the stash -- most of it from the stockpile I swindled from little old ladies. These vintage prints are perfectly suited for this sort of thing, aren't they? I'm already planning more for an almost three-year-old I know. Shhh! Don't tell Grace.

For me

There are a lot of things I love about this necklace, but I'm not yet sure it's in its final form. I love the contrast between the shiny glass and the fuzzy spheres. I love the liquid look of the seed beads. I like the length.

I'm not sure exactly what I don't like about it -- I guess it'd be nice if it were a little longer. To double it up I have to use a twister clasp because it's too short to loop twice around my head. (And because I'm too cheap to buy an actual twister clasp, I fake it with a piece of wire, which is a little awkward and uncomfortable.) But I guess the main thing is that I've worn this piece several times and haven't received a single compliment. When I asked Sweetie what he thought of it, instead of answering he asked, "Do you like it?"

I have also seen people notice it and say nothing, which is a little awkward. I'm honestly OK with the knowledge that it's not everybody's style. This is my style, and I like it. What pricks my vanity a bit is wondering if my style is bad style.

Stylish or not, this was easy on the pocketbook. The fuzzy blue beads were a clearance rack find -- $1.00 for the strand. The red glass beads are vintage hand-me-downs from my husband's grandmother*. I used pricey 49 strand beading wire, but even with that my total cost was probably around $2.00.

*This deserves more than a footnote, but who knows when I'll get back to mentioning this? When my husband's grandmother died, my husband's brother saved her stash of costume jewelry (much of it broken) from the junk heap. He had no idea what to do with any of it, but he couldn't let such pretty things be tossed. Lucky for me, at some point he heard about my bead obsession, and I became the happy recipient of the whole stash. Eventually, I will use the parts to make pieces for all of the daughters and grand daughters on my husband's side. I like the idea of them all having a part of grandma's jewelry box.