I love this quilt. It’s made from old jeans and backed with fleece, so it’s pretty much the coziest quilt ever. And even though the overall design is rather simple, the hand stitching is my favorite part, and I’m pretty proud of how it turned out.

Last fall I chopped up a bunch of old jeans that had previously been worn by me, my husband, and my mother-in-law. I decided to make a brick pattern quilt, so I cut out lots of rectangles and a few squares. The finished size of each rectangle is 4×8″, and the overall finished size of the quilt is about 58×67″. The size of the rectangles was determined by what I thought would be an efficient use of the denim, and the size of the quilt was determined by the width of the fleece backing!

Stitching the quilt top together was a quick process that only took me one evening, but then I put the project on hold for about a year — not because I had a baby, but because I couldn’t decide how I wanted to quilt it or knot it!

I considered lots of ideas for stitching the top to the bottom, but none of them seemed right. Regular quilting was out of the question because denim is too thick. Machine quilting using the “stitch in the ditch” technique seemed too visually boring, and machine stitching in anything but a straight line would have been very difficult due to the bulk of the fabric. Knotting it seemed too casual — even for a quilt made out of jeans.

A light bulb finally went off in my head when I realized I didn’t have to follow the quilting “rules.” I could do whatever I wanted to! So the decorative stitching on the quilt does NOT connect the denim to the fleece — it’s only on the denim layer. I used crochet cotton to make long running stitches in a stairs pattern, which breaks up the brick look and creates a bit of a chevron effect.

I knotted the fleece to the denim with the knots to the BACK so they don’t show up at all on the front. There are 42 knots in a grid at the intersections of the rectangles. There are six knots going across and seven going down, but I didn’t take a picture that shows the placement.

I made a nice wide binding (about 1.5 inches), sewed it on, and thought I was finished, but the binding looked too plain. Also, the binding was so wide that I was afraid it wouldn’t lay flat after it was washed or heavily used, and I thought the mitered corners would eventually not look crisp. So I used the same white crochet cotton to stitch three rows of running stitches in the binding. Only the row closest to the denim goes through all the layers — the other two rows only go through the fleece and the binding.

I listened to several episodes of This American Life while I stitched the binding, and it was time well spent. The detailed stitching on the binding is the perfect finishing touch.

Calling this a “quilt” sounds too fancy for something so cozy, so I usually just refer to it as the “denim blanket.” Whatever you call it, I put it to the test last night when we went on a hay ride in 35-degree weather, and I’m pleased to say that I was nice and toasty!

Little by little, Ethan’s bedroom is coming together… at least in my head! Progress is slow because I’m a DIYer to the core and want to make everything myself — bedding, curtains, art, and even furniture upholstery. Are you the same way?

Ethan sleeps in an IKEA Sundvik crib, which has solid panels on the ends, rather than slats. I wanted the crib skirt to come down just to the bottom of the frame, and since one side of the crib faces the wall, I could get away with using just a single rectangle of fabric for the skirt. So it’s more like a crib “apron” than a crib skirt, and since I didn’t want any ruffles or pleats, this was the easiest sewing project ever.

MATERIALS:

1/2 yd. fabric (54″ wide) OR 1 1/2 yd. (42″ wide)
packing tape

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Hem the fabric on all four sides so that it measures 52.5 x 16.5 inches.

2. Tape it to the crib with clear packing tape. Nobody will know!

I wanted fabric that would just blend into the background and not compete with other fabrics in the room, so I chose white broadcloth, which is nice and heavy and not too see-through. Many fabrics are just 42 inches wide, but I lucked out with 54-inch-wide fabric, and thanks to a coupon, I spent just $2.40 on this simple crib skirt.

My next project will be reupholstering the chair that sits in the corner of the room next to the window. I already have the fabric — I just need to find the courage!

A few weeks ago, I noticed that Ethan was starting to focus more intently on objects that were dangled in front of him. He loves to lie down on the floor and kick his chubby legs, and he was ready for a more interactive environment.

So I made a baby gym.

Obviously, it would have been easier to just buy one, but it was much more fun to create my own. I had complete control over the design and color scheme AND it was cheaper than buying one — even with the purchase of snap pliers. I scoured the internet for inspiration and then loosely followed this tutorial.

The baby gym I made is basically a very simple 35×35″ pieced quilt with tabs sewn onto the corners for covered hula hoops to snap onto. This makes it easy to remove the arches to wash, store, or transport the mat. And when we’re finished using it as a baby gym, I can just rip out the stitches that attach the tabs to the mat, and it will just be a simple little quilt again.

I did invest in a set of KAM snap pliers for this project, and this was my first time working with plastic snaps. Setting the snaps was SO easy, and it made me want to create lots of items that require snaps. If you live locally and you ever want to borrow my snap pliers, I’d be glad to let you use them.

Each arch on the baby gym has five ribbon loops for hanging toys, and I bought a pack of 24 plastic links for just a few bucks. To hold the two arches together at the top, I sewed a long strip of fabric with half of a snap set on each end. Then I just twisted it around like I was tying ribbon onto a gift upside down: center the fabric strip underneath the two arches, bring the ends up to the top and criss-cross them, then pull the ends down to the bottom and snap them together underneath.

Ethan is three and a half months old, and spends lots of time wiggling, rolling around, and kicking and batting at toys in the baby gym. Happy baby, happy mama!

SOURCES:

yellow, green, and polka dot fabrics: JoAnn Fabric and Craft Stores
blue fabric: Walmart
hula hoops: Dollar Store
snap pliers and snaps: KAM Snaps via Amazon
plastic links: Amazon (also available at Walmart)
butterfly and turtle toys: received as gifts
cute baby: not available for purchase

Back in December, just ten days after he became a big brother, Hayden suddenly decided one Sunday morning that the tote bag he always took to church was too childish. He was pretty insistent that he could just carry his Bible, activity books, and writing tools in his arms, but I somehow convinced him to keep using the old tote bag with the promise of a new one soon.

He didn’t know this, but when the mother of a newborn uses the word “soon,” she might mean “in six weeks.”

Last week I bought four feet of royal blue nylon webbing at JoAnn Fabric to match some canvas-like fabric I already had on hand. And on Saturday night while the kids were getting their baths, I sewed up a little blue tote bag.

Hayden told us that the Phillies wallet and Angry Birds watch we gave him for Christmas made him feel “like a man” (he’s six!), so hopefully this little blue tote bag also makes him feel like a little man.

As much as I love making things, I usually don’t want my creations to look like they’re obviously “homemade.” I’m realizing that often the difference between an item that looks homemade and something that’s handmade is all in the details.

Friday night found me sitting at my sewing machine, stitching up a cozy flannel pillowcase. I’ve fallen in love with the color gray, but I thought a gray pillowcase might look too boring without a little something special added to it. Fortunately my sewing machine has a nice reinforced straight stitch that basically makes two stitches right next to each other. So I just finished off my plain gray pillowcase with three rows of white topstitching, and it made all the difference in the world.

We needed a new ironing board cover for longer than I’d like to admit. (I say “we” because my husband irons far more often than I do!) We didn’t like any of the options we found available for purchase, so I decided to make one. But I kept putting it off because I had never made one before and therefore I was afraid it wouldn’t turn out as well as I hoped.

Turns out it was a valid concern.

On Saturday I decided to tackle the project I was dreading. It actually started off well, but I stopped taking pictures when the process became frustrating. The end result isn’t as perfect as I imagined, but it looks just fine — and it’s a million times better than the one that it replaced.

It’s probably the world’s most boring ironing board cover, but you know what? It works and it’s done. Finally.

Little girls look so sweet in sundresses with ruffles, and Magen is no exception. This black and white dress is the first garment I sewed for project: sixteen zippers — an effort to use up the zippers I have been accumulating in my sewing stash. I finished it up just in time for Magen to wear it for Easter a few weeks ago.

I love the fabric the skirt is made out of. The white-on-white stitched floral pattern gives the skirt texture and interest without making the dress look too busy.

One down, fifteen to go!

Way back in September 2010, a very tiny miracle occurred, but I didn’t realize it until Monday evening. When I sat down at my sewing machine with some fabric and a square of vinyl, I was amazed to realize that I just happened to have the absolute best tool for the job. I mean, I knew I had it, but I had no idea just how much I would need and appreciate it!

You see, one September evening, I bought a sewing machine that came with nine different presser feet. (For those of you who don’t sew, a presser foot is the part of the sewing machine that lightly clamps down and holds the fabric against the feed dogs, which pull the fabric through as you sew.) It doesn’t seem like you’d need a lot of different kinds, right? My previous machine only had two presser feet — a regular foot and a zipper foot — and I never felt like I needed more, so these seven extra presser feet seemed like an unnecessary bonus.

Then again, I had never tried to sew vinyl. A regular presser foot would tend to stick to the vinyl and grab on to it as it gets pulled through the machine, causing the seam to get all bunched up. But a non-stick glide foot? Perfection.

You can’t see it in the picture, but the bottom side of this plastic presser foot has a special coating that allows it to glide right over the vinyl. It’s designed specifically for sewing foam, vinyl, plastic, or leather, and technically it’s called a “non-stick glide foot,” but since I’ve only used it for vinyl so far, I like to call it my vinyl foot.

I never had an excuse to sew vinyl until this week, when I was making a drawstring bag to hold a game that Magen created for a school project. We wanted to have the name of the game on the outside of the bag, but instead of having her decorate the bag with fabric markers, I offered to attach a drawing to the bag by enclosing it behind a vinyl window.

Ta-da! It worked out exactly as I hoped.

Here’s the whole bag, just for perspective.

And here’s a detail shot, just because I like neat rows of stitching.

Have you ever sewn vinyl? Did you have a special presser foot for your machine, or did you just cover the bottom of your regular foot with a layer of scotch tape? Most importantly: have you ever gotten this excited about a presser foot?!

The American Girl doll who lives in our house seems to be acquiring more new clothes and accessories than I am these days. Now she can carry all of her daily essentials in this snazzy little tote bag. Purple floral fabric isn’t my personal style, so it was fun to use a bit of it to sew a tiny tote bag for Mia.

(For the record, I used the tote bag pattern included in McCalls M5775, but I used braiding that is wider than specified, so I had to fold it in half to feed it through the casing.)

I never intended to start a zipper collection.

When I buy a zipper, I purchase a specific length in a specific color to go with specific fabric for a specific garment or project. Sometimes I end up not sewing the item I envisioned. It happens, right? Yes. But in my life, it happens too often. Somehow, over the past decade, I have bought 16 zippers that I have never removed from their packaging. Sixteen!

In my defense, about half of those have been purchased in the past year, and I still have every intention of making the garments that they are intended for. But there are others whose original purpose I can’t even remember. When I discovered recently that I had 16 brand spankin’ new zippers in my stash, I knew it was time to do a little more sewing and a little less shopping at Jo-Ann.

And so, project: sixteen zippers is the story of my accidental zipper collection and the garments they will be sewn into as this little adventure unfolds.

Let’s meet the cast of characters:

The 7-inch zippers are the most predictable and least intimidating, as they are all destined for skirts. They all happen to be very basic colors like black, white, brown, gray, and navy.

The rest of the zippers are a bit more interesting and unexpected. Twelve-inch lilac? Fourteen-inch dark teal? Don’t worry, the three white zippers in this bunch will keep things from getting too crazy. Almost all of these longer zippers were purchased within the past year, and I think all but one are intended for dresses, either for me or for Magen. Dresses make me nervous.

So that’s what I have to work with.

I’m eager to reduce the number of zippers in my accidental collection (and use up some of my fabric stash!) as I work my way through project: sixteen zippers. And of course I’ll be glad to add more skirts and dresses to my wardrobe. I’ll be sure to show you each item as I complete it, but don’t expect frequent progress reports. It’s going to take a while to sew sixteen garments with zippers.

I haven’t decided yet which of the zippers I’ll start with, but ideally, I’d like to be wearing that 14-inch teal zipper in about two weeks. Wish me luck!

(I am not affiliated with Coats and Clark, nor have they compensated me for this publicity. However, if they knew anything about this project, I’m sure they’d want to encourage you to start a zipper collection of your own.)

Several weeks ago, eight women and girls from our family enjoyed a mother/daughter/grandmother’s daytrip to the American Girl Place in New York City. One week later, I found myself at the fabric store, carefully selecting a variety of fabrics and snatching up a bunch of patterns (McCall’s for a dollar!) to sew some doll clothes.

Don’t be fooled by the miniature clothespins — the tiny flannel nightgown I sewed measures only 11 inches from shoulder to hem. It looks so cozy that I almost wish it were my size, but instead, it’s for an American Girl Doll named Mia who you met back in June.

The pattern I used is McCall’s M6137. I spent a dollar for the pattern and $3.50 for the adorable pink flannel fabric.

This sweet little nightgown is one of my favorite things I’ve ever sewn.

I just spent about an hour sewing the cutest little dress I’ve ever made.

If the sundress that Magen’s American Girl Doll is wearing looks familiar, it’s because I made it to look like a dress I sewed for Magen a couple months ago. After I wrap it up and give it to Magen for her birthday next weekend, I’ll take a picture of the dresses together. Meanwhile, shhh! It’s a secret!

This evening I wore a new dress to go out to dinner. This morning it was just one big piece of fabric.

I think the last time I sewed a dress for myself, I was in high school. The dress had big puffy sleeves that I would occasionally adjust so they were perfectly inflated. Thank goodness dresses like that are no longer in style!

The fabric for this dress came from JoAnn Fabric & Crafts. According to the selvedge, it was made “exclusively for JoAnn,” and the fabric has a linen feel. When I bought it, I was a little afraid that the floral print looked too much like a curtain, but now that it’s a dress, it seems less like a window treatment. The pattern is NewLook 6885, and has quite a few different bodice styles, so I’m sure I’ll use this pattern again.

Hooray for a new dress!

Six years ago, I stopped by a fabric store in Rockville, Maryland (in the greater DC area) and bought 7/8 of a yard of fabric to sew into a skirt.

Black and white floral skirts were popular in 2005, and G Street Fabrics had a MUCH better selection of fabrics than I could find in the small fabric stores in my area, so I handed over $8.39 and brought the fabric home.

A couple weeks ago, I decided it was finally time to turn that fabric into a skirt, even though black and white floral skirts are no longer on the cutting edge of fashion. So I sewed most of it, and then ignored it until last evening, when I finished it up. It’s just a simple A-line skirt, but it’s made out of stretch cotton sateen, so it’s a very nice weight. Also, I stitched a black grosgrain ribbon to the hem to spiff it up a bit and make it look a little less homemade.

Finished!

When I get or make new clothes, I always want to wear them ASAP, so I wore the skirt to church this morning.

P.S. I know you can’t see this, since it’s the internet and all, but I accidentally cut the fabric for the back of the skirt with the print upside down. The floral print is pretty busy, so hopefully people won’t notice, but some of the flowers are definitely directional. At least I got it right on the front!

One Sunday evening a few weeks ago, I pulled out a bunch of containers of leftovers from the fridge and started announcing all of the options for dinner. Instead of groaning at the idea of reheated food, Magen thought it seemed like a restaurant. So much selection! Suddenly she wanted to write up menus and take orders, but at that point, I really just wanted to get dinner on the table, so we put her idea on hold for another time.

Fast forward to this past Sunday afternoon, when I went to my fabric stash and pulled out some cute brown fabric with pears on it that I had bought on clearance. After all, if Magen was going to be the waitress for our Sunday evening dinner of leftovers, she needed to be properly attired with a little apron.

After taking a few quick measurements, I made a pattern out of a paper grocery bag and proceeded to make a very simple lined apron. (The colors look better in real life than in this photo.)

While I sewed, Magen wrote out the menu, took orders, and even made a little cardboard sign for the table highlighting the dessert options — {leftover} brownies with ice cream.

Our little waitress had so much fun serving dinner that Hayden now wants an apron too so he can be a waiter. The chef plans to make him one this weekend…