Crafting!

I wanted to do a quick post on some of my crafting activities. I have finally started using my sewing machine! It's been in the box almost 2 years, untouched; I knew I wanted a sewing machine, I just didn't know what I wanted to sew. I found a few projects to take on thanks to the blogosphere; there are some awesomely talented people out there that are kind enough to post tutorials. I'm not good at sewing by any means, but I'm trying to hone my skills.

None of these items are an announcement, so don't get your hopes up.

This burp rag seemed like it would be the easiest, which it really is, except I of course thought free handing it would be fine, and didn't measure or pin. Overall, it turned out ok, plus I got to try out one of the awesome stitches on my machine!
Here's a tutorial for a cute burp rag that I found that is a lot cuter than what I did, which I might just try one of these days.

This one was definitely more difficult. I think I set myself up for frustrations when I bought 3-6 month onesies instead of 6-9 month onsies. Oh well, they are still cute. The ruffle bum onesie is super cute, I of course did not do a steller job, but it was just practice, you can tell because I didn't even bother to buy brown thread. I just wanted to try it out to see if I was capable. Obviously, I don't have a baby to show it off on, so I use the little tripod instead! (a little silly)

After some blog prowling I came across a lot of tutorials on making tote bags out of cute dish towels & placemats and I thought it would be a great gift for mother's day. Plus, if I made mom one she could actually see something in person that I had created! Unfortunately, I didn't get it done before mother's day, but mom was in Egypt anyway :) I forgot to take a picture of the one I made for mom, but I did make one for me (my practice bag) and then I tried to make one for Joe's mom. For some reason my measurements were all off, so I don't feel comfortable sending that bag to Sharon. She'll just have to wait until I get some more towels.

This was the attempt for Sharon

The one in the foreground is the one I use as my church bag. After making this one without lining, I decided the mom bags needed some to help hold the shape better.

I can't remember which tutorial I used, I merged a couple, but here are a few links, Summer Tote & Dish Towel Tote.

These aren't actually sewing, just stapling really, but still, a crafty project. I was "in charge" of mutual in April and Jann suggested a craft, we came up with fabric boards! I then had to figure out how to make it happen. After lots of internet searches and a few trips to the stores I came up with a way to make it happen. We bought square cork tiles (buy them from Target, they are cheaper than Michael's), some fabric, ribbon, and batting from Hobby Lobby. You cut (or get your husband to cut) the fabric and batting a few inches larger than the cork tile. Then you just layer it onto the board and staple it in the back. The ribbon criss crossing isn't terribly difficult either, and that gets stapled as well. You'll definitely want some tacs to tac down the crossing of the ribbon, or else it wont hold anything. And that's that! I made one as an example to show the girls, and then I made one for a girl who wasn't there the night we made them as a group. It's super easy and very satisfying.