This is my favorite sewing project. I stumbled on it accidentally a few years ago when I had some left over minkey fabric. It takes about 1.5 hours for a beginner, but the more you make them, the less time it eventually makes. I often make them at 11pm, the night before a babyshower. But, people seem to like them and they are so easy to make. --ESPECIALLY if you are a beginning sewer.
Materials:
1 yard of printed flannel
1 yard of minkey
unfortunatly you will have minkey left over because it is 55inches wide but you can use it for a mini blankie or donate it to the SPCA--they love soft fabric for the cages
- WITH right sides together pin flannel and minkey
•Trim off sides so that it matches up into a nice square blanket.(I find friends have used it for the strollers, so I try not to make them too big)
•Pin all around the edges, smoothing out the excess and wrinkles as you go.
•Then, take a box of saftey pins(I use brass) and pin here and there all inside the middle so that you know your blanket will not move(this is a quilting technique that works really well)
•Then, run it through your machine, I use 5/8, but you can sew at a smaller seam allowance, remove pins as you go.
•Leave a 2 inch space for flipping it right side out(as you are doing all of your sewing one the WS(wrong sides)
•Carefully trim corners, trimming out the excess fabric.
•Remove all of the brass safety pins and flip it.
•I like to gently press it on the edges.
•Pin your opening shut and then top stitch the edge all around the blanket at 3/8 also closing your opening.
•And you are done. Grab some ribbon and wrap it. I like to add a hand stamped, "handmade with love tag". Since handmade gifts are not as common, it is a nice little touch.
Cute As A Button Shower
I recently held a baby shower for my best friend Tie BoBo. I wanted to do something really special for her, since she is so wonderful. After much searching, I stumbled accross two themes that I liked--a pea in the pod or cute as a button. I settled on cute as a button. Once I had the theme, it actually made all of the planning much easier because I had something to build around. I googled cute as a button and found two pretty blogs who had used this theme to host a shower. http://ohbrooke.com/2010/05/11/cute-as-a-button-baby-shower/ and http://elitevents.blogspot.com/2010/05/cute-as-button-baby-shower.html They both had great ideas with lovely pictures.
Cute As A Button Baby Shower
One : Theme "Cute As A Button"
The first thing that I did was the invitations. I just purchased Butter Cream Stationary from Joannes Fabrics and a package of buttons. The package was multi colored light green, yellow, purple, pink and blue stationary and buttons. So these also became my theme colors. I printed the invitations in chocolate brown ink and sewed a button to each one and sewed little fabric cases for them to go into.
Two: Invitations
Three: Cake or...Cupcakes....
I found these cute felt cupcake toppers again at http://elitevents.blogspot.com/2010/05/cute-as-button-baby-shower.html So I purchased felt in the butter cream invitation colors from Joannes fabrics. I had 25 guests to make them for so I cut out 50 pieces. I sewed 25 sets together with a button in the middle and then used a hot clue gin to glue a lollipop stick into the middle. I made a collassal mistake of ordering them from Safeway instead of a local bakery and I requested light pink, but ended up with princess or disney pink--urg...but Bobo was a great sport about it.
Four: Shower Favors
Next, I decided on the party favors--I wanted to do button chocolates, but I did not have enough time to order the molds http://www.bakeitpretty.com/blog/2009/01/sew-sweet/ So I decided to make button soap instead. I purchased shea butter bricks, soap coloring and fragrance from Joannes and I used two small round fondont circle cutters to make the button shapes. First, I cooked the shea butter soap, added different colors and fragrances and poured it into pie tins. I let them cool about 1 hour, then gently cut out the large circles and used the smaller circle cutter to make the inside button rim print and a lolli pop stick to poke four holes. Then I let these cool another hour or two in the fridge. Then I carefully pried them out and wrapped them in cellophane and ribbon.
Five: Diaper Cakes...really are back
I asked my mom to make one of her diaper cakes. They are so sweet and she has always made them as shower gifts for friends. It takes her about 3 days because she layers each diaper one onto the other with pins and then she decorates the cake. In this case she used lots of silk flowers, ribbon and pins with buttons on them. You can make a much easier cake by rolling the diapers individually and then tying them together.http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1218773149794319858#
All in all, I am usually not a "theme" person, but in this case I really wanted everything to be as perfect as possible for my dear friend and I felt that if I had a theme to build around, it would give me more direction and organization as I planned her shower.
Five: The "Showeree"
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