March/April Project finishes!

So G has had this horrible cold that just refuses to go away (we actually think it was 3 different colds) so he's essentially been sick for the last 5-6 weeks.  Baby L has been sick, gotten better, and then gotten sick again during the same period. I had a little sore throat and cough for a few days (thank you pregnancy immune system!) and Miss J seems to have made it through this whole ordeal unscathed. That means G has had some early nights to bed, and I've had a lot of time at my sewing machine!  I'm taking full advantage before Baby #2 comes along and whisks away all my sewing time.

So first, a quilt finish that I didn't share previously because it hadn't made it to its final home.  Now that it has, here it is!

A fun geometric pattern on front, and cuddly minky on the back

Next in the project finish list is a chair cover for a kid's Ikea POANG chair. I used an old shower curtain to save a bunch of time hemming, so this project came together in a little over an hour.  Now when Baby L wipes her snot all over the chair, we can pull the cover off and wash it.  She still prefers the big chair over her little chair, but I think that's more because she likes climbing more than she likes the actual big chair.  We're working on that...

POANG Chair Cover

I also made Baby L some bathrobes from hooded Ikea towels.  Since our amazing and beautiful apartment doesn't have any bathtubs, we've been teaching her to take a shower, and then walk from the shower to her bedroom so we can put on her diaper and pajamas.  She's not really coordinated enough to hold a hooded towel around herself, so I converted these 2 towels into baby bathrobes.

Before....

After some quick cutting and sewing....

Baby robes with sleeves!

In keeping with the theme, I decided Baby L needed one more towel bathrobe in her rotation because only have 2 is a little short based on our laundry schedule - especially when she's a little bit sick and super duper snotty all the time.  Rather than buy another hooded towel, I decided to make one from some terry that I purchased from another expat here in Dubai - and I wrote a tutorial about it!  I also made 4 extras of these little robes to give away as gifts since they are pretty quick but have a pretty good "wow, you made that?!?" factor.  Have I mentioned I love baby projects?  They are so fast, the instant gratification is just so....instant! I could have made 6 robes out of the terry cloth that I had, but I ended up cutting the the first one in such a way that the scraps don't really work out for making a second robe without adding a few seams...so those scraps will probably turn into bibs, burp cloths, and washcloths.

One of five toddler bathrobes that I created a tutorial for.  Baby L's is pink on pink, but currently in the laundry so I didn't get a photo of it.  

In between all this terry cloth, I made up some quick cloth bags as part of a volunteer effort for Dubai Sustainable City. While we don't live there because it's too far from my office, it's beautiful community! The mums that live light put together care packages for the workers every year at the end of Ramadan, and the package is housed in a "boomerang bag", which is basically just a cloth tote bag. I couldn't make it to any of their sewing events, so instead I committed to making 5 of these quick and easy bags at home.

Boomerang Bags for Ramadan care packages

And finally, the best project, for me anyways - my new sewing table!  I had been sewing in a little cubby area under the stairs (very Harry Potter-ish, I know), and I had to duck every time I went to and from my sewing machine.  No more!  With my new sewing table and the removal of a big ugly out-of-date treadmill from our stairway landing, I now have a big space for sewing.  My old sewing desk is now my cutting table, and I have tons of room to spread out - plus a nice big rug (not in the photo, I happen to be standing on it when taking this shot) that I can work on layouts with!  The only issue I've had with my table so far is that since it's mostly steel, it tends to shake a lot when I'm sewing fast (vs a wooden table), but I'm in love with how much s-p-a-c-e I have.  I'm pretty sure once Baby #2 is born, she'll be in a little bassinet or rocker sitting next to the sewing table while I work away.

Mama's new happy place!

More Project Finishes!

We got home from Oman on Tuesday afternoon, and which meant I had a little extra time to finish a few more sewing projects!

This first one, I actually finished back in January when Dad and Mary were visiting, but I wanted to wait until Danielle received it before posting it.  Danielle has been a penguin lover for as long as I can remember, so I completed my very first applique project - a cute little penguin mug rug!  As a late Christmas gift, I sent this back to her via my Dad with a package of yummy TWG Masala Chai for her to set her giant mugs on during the chilly Boston winter.

Penguin Mug Rug & my first applique project! I've learned that applique for tiny circles is actually a big pain!!

The next project finish is a fun memory game set for Baby L.  She's a little young for true "memory", but she does like to play matching where I take pick one tile, and she picks the matching tile.  I followed this simple tutorial from Apple Green Cottage to create a set of 16 (8 pairs) of fabric memory squares.  I also made a cute little bag from scraps of projects from the last "Project Finishes"

Quick and easy memory game from scraps in my stash

For Christmas, Miss J gave Baby L a little cash register and grocery set, which she loves!  The only bummer is that the little shopping basket that came with the set is much too small to hold all the grocery pieces - so I sewed Baby L a little elephant-print shopping tote from this tutorial from Diary of a Quilter. The elephant print in my stash wasn't quite the same size as a FQ, and the scraps that I had for the handles were a little longer, but the end result was still cute and  served the purpose that we needed - a little bag for Baby L to carry her "groceries" around!

Baby L' s elephant grocery tote

And finally, I finished a hexagon play mat bag from a fat quarter bundle I bought a few years ago. Baby L was gifted some blocks for Christmas, and this is the perfect way to keep them contained! 

Baby L loves her play mat! 

There's a few more projects in the pipeline before baby #2 arrives, some of which require fabric coming in our baby shipment (so excited!) Next post will have photos from our amazing photo shoot, I just need to put it together! 

Project Finishes!

After the nausea and exhaustion finally subsided, I found I had some time to start sewing again.  And let me tell you, I've been busy with lots of small projects!  I started small with some little bean bags for G to juggle for Baby L, in addition to dropping off a baby quilt top I finished over the summer to the local quilt shop for quilting.

I also sewed myself a bolster pillow to help me sleep on my side during the later stages of pregnancy - I had a lovely bolster pillow when we lived in Abu Dhabi, but sadly the pillow belonged to the hotel and I haven't been able to find one like it since.  So I decided to make my own! Baby L actually loves my bolster pillow and often tries to steal it from me, so I've added to my list to make her one as well.

Bolster pillow made from an rolled up Ikea pillow, a cheap pillowcase, and some fabric scraps

After a week in the shop my baby quilt came back beautifully quilted in a simple meandering pattern.  It still hasn't made it to its final baby yet, so for now, a photo of the minky backing with the hand-sewn binding will have to do.  I tried bias-binding around rounded corners for the first time, and I loved how it turned out! I used an online tutorial for cutting a continuous strip of binding, and it really made the process not too unbearable.

Minky (fuzzy fabric) is horrible to work with, but the end product is so nice!

After finishing the baby quilt, I made several heating pads to give away as Christmas gifts.  The first one was a very simple flat heating pad went to a white elephant gift exchange - I was in a rush to make it, so I forgot to take a picture.  I used this tutorial on Sew4Home with some leftover fabric from a grill apron that I made for my dad years ago, and I added peppermint essential oil to the rice.

The next two were slightly different types of heating pads, and they went to Miss J and her daughter for Christmas.  The benefit of the neck wraps was that I was able to use up the last of the minky in my stash, and now it is thankfully gone forever.  I hope that I don't have the urge to buy more for a long time!

Rice-filled neck wrap, using this tutorial from Sew4home

The most recent project finish is this cute little bag that I use to hold Baby L's fabric letters.  We had be storing them in a box, but she tends to try to step on the box and then fall over, and we'd rather not have a rolled baby ankle on our hands.  With the bag, she gets really exciting to pick up the letters and put them in the bag so we can dump the letters on her head (it's raining alphabet!).  The tutorial from In Color Order was fast and easy, and if I hadn't been using some fussy satin for the lining, I probably could have finished the whole thing in less than 2 hours...and now that I have a basic pattern that I like, I can re-size to make a lovely gift bag for any oddly sized gifts!

Bag made from 1 fat quarter and some scrap satin, but the original pattern calls for 3 fat quarters

In addition to these fast finish projects, upcoming bigger projects will include a baptism blanket for Baby #2 (fabric already purchased for inclusion in the upcoming shipment!), a string of projects to use up the rest of my Christmas fabric stash, a bolster pillow for Baby L, and maybe a chair cover for the Ikea Poang Chair that we bought her.  The ivory fabric drives me nuts in its boring-ness!  Plus of course the occasional hemming of pajama pants or mending of torn seams for Baby L.

Unfortunately all of that is on HOLD right now while my machine is in the shop!!! My Brother Innovis F420 (insert marijuana joke here) has an automatic thread cutter, which I LOVE. Well, the bobbin thread started catching on the automatic thread cutter, so when I started taking apart my machine to clean out the bobbin area, I dropped a screw into the machine!  I couldn't believe my clumsiness, and I couldn't even see where the screw was to try to use one of G's magnetic screwdrivers to get it out.  So, sadly, I took my machine back to my local store to send it out for service.  Hopefully it will come back soon!

Baby Projects!

Well ok, only one baby project.  I bought a sewing machine a few weeks back and I needed an easy project to orient myself to my new piece of awesomeness.  Now that the baby laundry is done, the car seat is installed, the stroller is assembled and we've found a home for everything, we're just waiting for the baby to show up!  That means it's time to finally open up that beautiful Innovis F420 and start a project.

So shiny and new!!

So many options!!  Also - I wasn't sure how much I'd like the knee lift, but it turns out that I love it!!

And it comes with a snazzy cover.  It also has the option for an extended table, but I decided to wait until we move to Dubai since I won't be quilting until then anyway.

I love baby projects.  I mean honestly, what's not to love?  It's hugely satisfying to the engineer in me to cut, measure, and assemble something.  Baby projects are quick because babies are small!  Baby projects are super forgiving because babies don't care if your seams aren't perfectly straight.  Baby projects are adorable because...well, babies!  I also love to give new mom's a fun hand-made gift to go along with what might be on their baby registry.  I started going through my list of projects that I'd been saving up and found the perfect "easy" project to help me learn the ins and outs of my machine.

She won't be able to use them for a few years, but I decided to make our baby a set of fabric letters. It's a great project for squeezing in a little bit here and there - each letter takes less than 5 minutes to pin and less than 5 minutes to sew, so I can put as much or as little time into it as I have at the moment.  Perfect for a new almost-mom!  I printed the letters and I'm using a charm pack of fun floral prints, some felt to stabilize the letters, and black thread to outline the letters.  I haven't decided if I want to quilt the letters with a lighter thread, but I have plenty of time to make that decision!

Each of the letters outlined in black, then cut with pinking shears to prevent fraying

So far, I'm about a third of the way through the alphabet, and I love how the letters are turning out. I'm hoping baby shows up before I finish!

Sewing Machine and Baby Stuff!!!

This week was a pretty exciting week!  It started last Saturday with a trip to Dubai to buy a sewing machine.  In Houston, I had a Singer that my parents bought me a few years ago, and I had planned on shipping it to Dubai in November...and after finishing the cross stitch that I'd been working on for a year, I decided I wanted a sewing machine NOW (I know, crazy, like I really need sewing projects when I'm about to have a baby) and I wanted an upgrade. #impulsive.  So my amazing and wonderful husband drove me first to Ikea to pick up some inexpensive basics (scissors, thread, pins, etc) and then all the way to Dubai to help me pick out a dual-voltage sewing machine that would take care of my sewing needs for years to come, both at home and abroad.  Plus, some of the reviews I'd read about bringing USA Singer Machines abroad were that even with a voltage converter, the change in electrical frequency would slowly kill the motor in the machine...so now I'll just be spoiled when I move home with two different sewing machines for all my projects.  One for sewing and one for quilting maybe?  Who knows!

I finished this cross stitch for one of my besties (who also happens to be named Kim...so she is Kim 1 and I am Kim 2) in Houston who has a similar motif tattooed on her wrist.  Just need to press, mat, frame, and ship it to her!  Sorry Kim 1 - I probably won't get to that part until Christmastime. Xoxox!

Basically, if you want to buy a higher-end sewing machine (i.e. >$150), there are only two stores in Dubai.  Classic Quilting sells Bernina, and Craftland sells Brother, Janome, Singer, and Pfaff. Bernina's start at like $1,200, and my sewing skills aren't QUITE there yet.   I decided on a Brother Innovis F420, which unfortunately, Craftland didn't have in stock that day -- I was so bummed!  I was ready for a new project RIGHT NOW!  Luckily the Craftland girls are super nice and they offered to deliver it to me in Abu Dhabi once the machine came in.  2 days later, it was on my dining room table!  Like a good little engineer, I spent the evening reading the instruction manual.

Hello Beautiful!

Fortunately (or unfortunately?) my beautiful new sewing machine is still in the box because we learned that our baby shipment had cleared customs and would be delivered the next day!!!  Sewing projects would have to wait, because our apartment was about to look like the baby section of Target threw up all over it.  We went from having minimalist "baby stuff" tucked into a hospital bag to having everything all at once, including some pretty nifty swag!

First, the free stuff - The Amazon Registry Giftbox was awesome!!!  It had a bunch of diaper and wipe samples, a full package of wipes, a super soft swaddle blanket, breast pads, and a bottle.

In addition to the registry giftbox, Amazon gave us $100 to spend on diapers and wipes!  Since we plan on cloth diapering, we mostly purchased wipes and diaper liners, along with some cotton prefolds to use as rags.

We have said many times how thankful we are for our wonderful friends back home in the USA - and the arrival of the shipment was another reminder of their love and support.  In response to the virtual baby shower our friends threw us last month, I have taken pictures of all the goodies that showed up in our shipment, and who they are from - again THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!  We love you all and we can't wait to introduce you to Baby Linh!

From Alaina, an adorable elephant baby towel, a beautiful ring-sling carrier, and a travel bassinet!  The towel is so soft and sweet, the ring sling will get tons of use, and the bassinet will be awesome for our trip to Vietnam in January! Extra thanks to Alaina for planning our virtual baby shower!!!

From Kathleen - Our Baby's First Year record book so we can document all her milestones!  It also goes with the general astronaut and outer space theme that we'll be using for Linh's nursery in Dubai.

From Bette - this super practical collapsible bathtub (a must in our limited-space apartment!) plus a swim diaper.  We met some other new parents at the pool here in Abu Dhabi, and they had their little in the pool starting at 6-weeks...we think we will try to do the same!!!

From Brad - a pile of Gerber Onesies (in various sizes!) and some super soft muslin swaddles.  Linh will not have to worry about being too hot or too cold because she'll have lots of layering options! Plus I think there will be some sewing projects for those lovely little blank canvas onesies...

From Gay - a pair of luxuriously soft sleep sacks and some very absorbent-looking drool bibs.  Linh will be drooling in style!!

From Fugy - a set of Burt's Bees Onesies.  I just love the fun little bumble bee patters on these!  Gabe made a joke about Burt's Bees totally selling out since these are clearly not made of beeswax, but who cares, they're so cute!

From Abbie - one of our most practical gifts, all of the Kiinde supplies I'll need for breastfeeding for when I go back to work.  I'm not especially looking forward to trying to juggle work and pumping, but I am excited to use the Kiinde system!

From Amity - a soft stretchy nursing cover/infinity scarf, adorable little socks, and breast pumping accessories to help mama keep baby full!

From Brenda - Also super practical diaper genie with liner refills!  Whether we're using disposables or cloth, this will be great for containing those smelly blow-outs!

From my college roommate and bestie Jennie, a pile of newborn diapers and swaddlers to keep Linh snug and dry in her first days at home (will also be helpful as we figure out cloth diapering!)

From Kim 1 - I told her she went a little overboard :-)  Linh will be super stylish, thanks to Aunt Kimmie!!!

From Mery - Not just space-themed onesies, swaddle pods, and burp cloths, but tons and tons of great advice for how to navigate our workplace policies for maternity leave while living overseas!!!

From Kathy R - This super stylish diaper backpack so that G, aka Mr. Mom can be the hip and cool baby-toting dad!  It has a gazillion pockets and we love it!!!  Both G and I have different shoulder injuries, so a backpack is also a way more practical solution than single-shoulder diaper bags.

From Kathy K - An airplane carseat bag!  I didn't even know that these existed, and I'm so glad they do!  It will protect Linh's carseat when we travel, and this baby girl is going to be a world-traveller so it will get lots of use!

From Mom (soon to be Gran) - a super cute handmade dress & bloomers (top) and beautiful airy gown (bottom).  We can't wait to dress Linh up in these!

Also from Mom and Dad  - This gorgeous co-sleeper, so Linh can sleep close to me at night and still be safely in her own space.  Also doubles as a pack and play once she's too big for the bassinet portion!

From our wonderful neighbors on Brinkman St - Lisa, Martin, Courtney, JC, Ana, Neil, Alison & the girls, Lou, and Brian, our Chicco Keyfit Carseat!  It is now fully installed and ready to keep our new little one safe.  We love how easily the base snapped into the car, and how easily the seat snaps into the base!

Also from our sweet neighbor Courtney, adorable little clothes and sweet little books!

From Jamie - a funny book (that Linh will probably only hear in her first few months!), a cute lovey blanket, and a good reminder of where Linh's baba mamma comes from!

From Auntie Danielle and Uncle Jonny - Icelandic slippers....which I'm not sure when baby will wear in the dessert, but they are very cute. :-)

Also from Auntie Danielle and Uncle Jonny - Safety First!  Our awesome Baby Jogger City Mini GT.  The canopy is off since it has the car-seat adapter in, and the stroller is super easy to fold up and stow away.

Seriously friends and family, our cup overfloweth.  I know there are more gifts friends have told me were sent, my father is bringing some of them next month, and some of them are going into our shipment in September (or as G's sister Sarah says..."offerings to the Goddess, Linh!") - We truly cannot thank you enough, we have so much gratitude for all of you from the bottom of ours hearts And OMG tiny baby things are so freakin' cute!!!

XOXOXOXOXOX

Kim & Gabe