Baby Love Baby Shower

This weekend I helped host a baby shower for a dear friend who just adopted a precious bundle of joy!

Since it is so close to Valentine's Day and we love baby Harper so much, we thought it fitting to have a Baby Love shower with all things pink, red, and hearts!

I made my favorite strawberry, coconut, and chocolate cupcakes.  We had a few ladies bring different salads as well.

I think our streamer treatment turned out pretty good!

 

 It was such a fun shower with lots of friends and lots of love for baby Harper!  At the end of the shower, things got a little crazy.  I wanted a picture all together and when we stood by the balloon towers, it felt like we were at the prom.  And this is the result!

Monster Truck Baby Quilt

  I came up with the idea for this quilt when I was invited to a baby shower for a friend who loves going to Monster Jam.  I wanted a cute, modern take on the monster truck and this what I came up with. To begin, select fat quarters  of various prints.  I choose gray, white, black and green.  You can choose any prints or patterns you like.  I only had 8 different fabrics, but I would have liked 12.

Next, cut your fabric into 12.5" strips, then sub-cut into the following measurements:

Do this with each of your fabrics.  Now mix up the pieces and sew the following 12" (finished) block:  (quarter inch seams)

You want the top and bottom pieces to be the same fabric, and the center to be different.  Press the seams toward the 6.5" piece.

I love personalizing quilts, especially if they are gifts.  To add a name to the quilt block, print the name using your favorite word processing program.  I tried several different fonts until I got the one I liked.  If you can, reverse the image when you print.  Take your Heat N Bond® Lite and trace the reversed name in pencil.  Iron the piece of Heat N Bond® with the name to the WRONG side of your fabric.  Then, cut the name out.  Peel the backing off and arrange the letters how you want on your quilt block.  Finally press to attach it.

I outlined the letters using a straight stitch.  I went around each letter twice to give it the "sketch" feel....which I love.

  After you make 11 of these blocks, lay them out.  For the truck applique block, cut a white square 12.5"x 12.5"

 

Next,  follow the same technique using Heat N Bond® Lite to applique the monster truck to the quilt block.  Click HERE for the truck pattern.

To finish the quilt, sew the blocks together to form rows and sew the rows together.  Quilt as desired

Note: These are big blocks which help make this a fast, easy quilt to put together in a day.  If you would like the same look, but with smaller blocks here are the measurements:

For a 10" finished block: cut pieces 10.5" x 5.5", 10.5" x 2.25", 10.5" x 3.75"

For an 8" finished block: cut pieces 4.5" x 8.5", 1.5" x 8.5", 3.5" x 8.5"

Essentially the bottom strip is 1/2 the block size, the top strip is 1/3 the block size and the center strip is 1/6 the block size.

Here is a little peek of the baby shower - we centered the colors and theme around the quilt.  We even hung the quilt in the entry way so it was the first thing people saw as the entered.

I love that we were able to get a stack of tires!!

Monster truck cupcakes - complete with "dirt" on the top.

Pinwheel Baby Shower

My friend, Brittany, hosted a "Pinwheel" themed baby shower this weekend.  She is such a great hostess!  She gave me permission to snap some pictures!

I love being greeted by the baby shower theme.  I love the pinwheels on the green window.

I love the pinwheel banner and the use of the shutters on the cupcake table.

She printed out labels for each of the water bottles and attached a toy pinwheel that can be kept as a favor.

 There were pinwheel cupcake toppers which also could be taken home as a favor.

 Also note the use of double cupcake wrappers.  Bake in one wrapper and serve in an additional wrapper!

I love the smaller pinwheels scattered around and attached to the pink frame!

 She taped extra invitations to colored plates and set them in easels to continue with the theme.

She hung large pinwheels on both her mantles.

She attached pinwheels to painted bottles and placed daffodils in the bottles for centerpieces.  I forgot to take pictures of the back yard.  There were pinwheels hanging everywhere!

 Such a fun and "springy" baby shower!

Onsie Dress Tutorial

 My friend mailed me this "blank" onsie for a baby shower.  It's a cute idea.  Everyone invited to the shower gets a onsie and they have to decorate/embellish it and bring it to the shower.  I think they are having prizes or something.  That's a lot of pressure, "Here is a plain onsie, you write a craft blog, so this better be amazing!!"  Is how I felt :)  So this is what I came up with.  (I am sure there are lots of tutorials out there with the same idea - this is my take on it.)

Part 1 Bib construction

 Draw a "bib" shape on Heat N Bond Lite Fusable Web.  I curved the top of it to match the curve of the onsie neck.  I didn't include a pattern because each onsie is slightly different.  You can do it - draw your own!!   Iron it on the wrong side of your fabric.  Then cut along your line and peel off the back and iron it right on your onsie.

 Cut your piece of lace and a matching piece of Heat N Bond.  Iron it to the lace.  Then cut the lace so it matches the curve of the bib.  Iron the lace to the bib piece.

 

Sew the lace down both sides.  Then sew around the bib portion using a straight stitch.

Next, prepare the ruffle.  Cut a strip of fabric 1 3/4" x 23". 

 

I don't have a serger so I did a rolled hem on the strip of fabric - which is just turning it twice as narrow as you can and sew along the fold. 

 Now, because I am not using a serger, I zigzagged the opposite side of the fabric so it won't fray.  (above)

Then roll the edges in and hem.

 Now roll your zigzagged edge over and stitch in place.  I used the zigzag because I will be gathering it and I wanted to reduce the bulk.  Sew a gathering stitch along the edge of the zigzag hem and gather.   It should look like this:

Get out your pins and start fussing with the ruffle to get it to fit.  I use a lot of pins in this process so it fits perfectly.  Make adjustments in the ruffle as necessary.

 Sew the ruffle along your gathering stitch.

You could add buttons along the lace - but I was worried about putting buttons on something for a baby.

Part 2 - Skirt Construction

You can tell from the photos it is getting later and later and I am getting tired-er.  My photos aren't the best.  Essentially you are making a little gathered skirt and sewing it to the onsie.

Cut your skirt fabric 11 1/2"x 34".
My onsie is size 3 to 9 months.  (That's a new size to me.  My youngest is 5 and I never had onsies made that size!)  If your onsie is larger I would add a little to both measurements. 

With right sides together, sew the two edges together to form the back seam.  You will have a continuous piece.  Press the seams open or zigzag the edges.  My seam allowance was a generous quarter inch.  It doesn't really matter on this project.

(Maybe I should iron my fabric!!)  The skirt is top-stitched to the onsie (you could cut the onsie apart and sew it to the shirt portion like a T-shirt dress, but then you wouldn't have the onsie diaper cover which is what I love about this dress.)  Because it is a top-stitched skirt, you need a rolled hem on the top of the skirt piece so it doesn't fray.

 

Now we are ready to gather.  Sew a gathering stitch around your skirt waist about 1/4 inches below your top hem.  Pictured below:

 Gather your skirt and ease it around the waist of the onsie.  You can choose where you want this.  Mine was 2 1/2" below the armpit.   I drew a light line in pencil so I could see where to pin the skirt.  Pin your ruffled skirt following your line making sure to evenly distribute the ruffles.  When you are happy with how it looks, sew it along your gathering stitch.  I covered my seam by sewing ric rac.  You could sew ribbon or lace or your favorite trim....or not.  It doesn't look that bad with just the seam.

Dress Hem:  You can hem the dress how ever you like.  I was going to sew a small ruffle along the hem in coordinating fabric but I ran out of time.  So I did a lace hem.  I sewed the lace and pressed it out and top stitched it down.  You could use ric rac, or other decorative trim, or you can sew a regular hem.

Here it is!!  I also sewed a matching flower for the baby's head - but I finished it on my way out the door to mail it - so no photo :(