DIY Changing Pad Tutorial

A couple years back I made a bunch of items for a girlfriends baby shower. I blogged about all the things I did and you can read about it here and you can see the photos from her shower here. I realized after linking to Pinterest that I never went back and did tutorials for the changing pad or diaper and wipes totes. So here I am updating you all! This is SUPER simple and quick. A perfect handmade addition to any baby shower gift.

What You Need:
1/2 yd fabric for changing pad (I used 2 different fabrics for mine)
1/2 yard vinyl (you can use a mattress pad. Frugal Hint: They sell them at the dollar store!)
Lightweight batting or fleece
1/2 yard for bias binding and closure tab
1" of 5/8" velcro tape
Wonder Under or any type of iron on material (Optional)

Cutting Requirements:
Cut (2) fabric pieces 14" x 23" (I cut one out of each the front and the back fabrics
Cut (1) vinyl piece 14" x 23"
Cut 2" bias binding strips to measure 75"
Cut (2) closure tabs 4" x 5"
Cut (1) batting piece 14" x 23" and (1) 2" x 5"
Applique designs (Optional)

Directions:
1. Note: This is an optional step. Follow package directions to attach your wonder under to your applique designs and trim. Place your applique piece in your desired areas on your front and/or back fabric pieces, keeping in mind you will be trimming your corners and adding binding to the edge. Follow the package directions of the Wonder Under to attach applique pieces to your fabric. Machine stitch your applique pieces, around the edges, to the fabric using contrasting fabric.

2. Trace a rounded corner to each corner of the changing pad, you can use a round plate to create a template. Pin together the changing pad fabric, right sides out with the batting and vinyl in the middle, and cut out the rounded corners.

3. Pin your bias binding, pressed in half wrong sides together, to the edge of your changing pad and machine stitch your binding down using the machine binding technique.

4. Fold the closure tab in half, right sides together along the 4" side. Pin the batting strip to the back and stitch the edge opposite the fold and across one end. Clip corners, turn and press. top stitch 1/4" around the tabs 3 edges. Center the loop side of the Velcro tape 1/4" from the end of the closure tab, sew around the Velcro to secure.

5. Fold the changing pad in half lengthwise (like a hotdog, with the back on the inside) and then fold it again into thirds. Center the closure tab with the raw edge 1-1/2" from the bound ends of the folded pad, making sure the velcro side is up. Pin, unfold the pad and stitch across the open edge of the tab through all layers. Flip the tab over to conceal the raw edge, press and top stitch across the flap to secure.

6. Refold the changing pad (hotdog then in thirds) and mark where the other half of the velcro needs to be placed along the back side of the changing pad to hold it closed. Pin the velcro to the changing pad, unfold and zig zag stitch around the edges of the velcro to secure.

Admire your work!

Front of the pad

Back of the pad

Folded and ready to go

DIY $10 Chalkboard and Frame Re-Wire Tutorial!

Since its been all the rage on Pinterest I have been wanting to make a chalkboard for sometime now. Several months ago I was walking our pup and I noticed a vacant garage with a beat up and broken mirror sitting alone in it. I went to our leasing office to make sure it was abandoned before I claimed it. The previous owners obviously broke the mirror while moving and just decided to leave it there. Once given the blessing from our leasing office that it was indeed abandoned, I cleaned it up a bit and got my supplies ready. The frame itself had a lot of potential once spruced up, and repainted from the dirty gold color that it was. It also needed to be re-wired because, #1 it was wired landscape and I wanted it portrait and #2 because the wire was bent out of shape and just needed replacing!

How it looked before!

DIY $10 Chalkboard and Frame Re-wire

What You Need:
Frame with wood back board (Free!)
Paint or Spray paint (I used existing wall paint that we had in our garage- Free!)
Paint Brush
Chalkboard Paint or Spray paint (I used spray paint cause it was cheaper - $6)
Steel Wire ($2)
Eye Hook Screws ($2)
Staple Gun and Staples
Pencil and Measuring Tape
Drill and Bits
Pliers with Wire Cutter

Directions:
1. Make sure your frame is clean and free of dust and dirt. Paint your frame your desired color, probably do two coats of paint for adequate coverage. You should probably sand your  frame before hand to ensure good paint coverage, but I was lazy and skipped that step. We will see how well it holds up! Let dry overnight.

2. Spray paint/brush paint your wood back with chalkboard paint according to package directions. If spray painting make sure its WELL ventilated! Let dry completely at least 2 hours

3. Align your back on the backside of the frame evenly. Using your staple gun, staple the board to the frame ever 3 inches or so to insure the board will stay. My hubby even stapled diagonally in the corners!

4. Measure 6" down from the top of the frame and make a mark with your pencil. Take your drill and select a bit that is slightly smaller than your eye hook screw. Drill a starter hole about 1/4" into the wood on both sides. And screw in your eye hook screws.

5. Take your steel wire and thread through your eye hook about 4" or so. Bend up and start wrapping the wire back onto itself. Twist until the wire is completely wrapped and pinch in using your pliers. Extend the wire to the other side making sure that its long enough for hanging, but not too long that it extends above the top of the frame, clip the desired length with your wire cutters, thread wire through eye hook and wrap wire back onto itself until completely wrapped and pinch the end in.

6. Hang and admire your work! This is my first attempt at a graphic design using chalk! I guess I need a little practice!  I have seen many tips on writing on chalkboards on various websites, i.e. Pinterest. Also I have read that you need to 'prime' your chalkboard before you start writing on it to prevent ghosting. Take the side of a piece of chalk and rub it over the entire board and that should help. You will still see some ghosting, but hopefully not too bad! I hope you enjoyed this tutorial!

DIY - Nursing Pads Tutorial

I have heard a lot about these babies from my mommy friends. Nursing pads are for breastfeeding women and are to help prevent.....ahem...'leaking' of the breast milk and stains on your clothes. I thought to myself what a great little craft to make from my scrap fabrics to include in my gift closet, with all my other goodies that I have been storing up. When I went to research sizes online I realized how BORING the store bought ones are. We all know that as women, we never like to have boring items in our wardrobe. We like our things to be cute, stylish and functional! I had plenty of charm squares left over from some place-mats that I made over the summer so I thought I would use up those.

DIY Nursing Pads:

What you need:
Enough fabric scraps for (8) 3.5" Circles
Cotton Batting (Not polyester....it doesn't breathe and it is not absorbent, which is the whole point!)
Thread
Scissors
Sewing Machine

Directions:

1. Trace a circle onto the back side of your fabric and your batting. I researched sizes online and I read that they varied from 3"-9" in diameter. I chose to make mine 3.5" diameter circles because I thought that would be significant coverage and still be able to conceal them inside a nursing bra. (I used a peanut butter jar lid for my template!) If you need to adjust your sizes, make sure they're large enough to provide sufficient coverage and not so large that they stick out of your nursing bra. You should end up with (8) fabric circles and (4) batting circles.

2. Cut out your circles. Note:  I didn't have enough of the polka dots or the green pattern to do a matching one, so I made a reversible one!

3. Once cut take (2) fabrics and sandwich a batting circle in the middle with your fabrics facing right sides out. Pin in place.

4. My machine doesn't have a surging option, but if yours does, serge around the entire edge of the circle. If you don't, like me, zig zag stitch around the edge. My machine's zig zag foot had a little guide on it so get a nice even seam all around. This is to prevent your fabric from fraying. Press with an iron and use!

These are washable and re-useable and oh so cute. Better than those plain boring beige ones that you can get in the store! Try it out for yourself! Happy Crafting!

Knotted Headbands and Scarf DIY Tutorial

So, this year in an effort to save some cash, but still give great and thoughtful gifts, and also try out my old re-learned skill of crochet. I learned as a child, but fell out of the craft and in the earlier part of 2012 I picked the craft back up and was making small items; i.e. washcloths, little appliques for baby clothes....things of that sort. However I wanted to try my hand a a slightly larger project, enter the scarf and headbands. It has been unseasonably freezing in SoCal this winter and thought that it would be the perfect cold weather gift! I made 5 scarves and 2 headbands. (The above photo is a headband and cowl scarf that my mom made for me. She used the same headband pattern as me but changed it up a bit....I'll explain below.)

Single Crochet Scarf

What You'll Need:

Size H or 5mm crochet hook
9 oz worsted weight yarn
Darning needle

Directions:

Chain 17. This can be adjusted narrower or wider depending on the look your going for

R1: Sc in 2nd ch from hook and in each chain across (16 sc)

R2-?: Chain 1.  Turn.  Sc in 2nd chain from hook and in each chain across (16 sc)
I kept this action going until it reached the length I desired. About 6 feet or so. You can adjust this to accommodate any length!

Take your darning needle and sew in your loose ends.

3 of the 5 colors; Burgundy, purple and med. gray

Light gray scarf with headband

Double Crochet Headband:

This gave me a little bit of trouble because I have such a small pinhead! Nothing fits my head properly! So when I followed the tutorial from All About Ami, the headband just slipped off my head. :-S So I had to super adjust the length. I will adjust her tutorial for all the small headed peeps out there...if you don't have a small head you can follow hers along as written!

What you'll need:

Size H or 5mm crochet hook
9 oz worsted weight yarn
Darning needle

Headband:

Chain55-60, I just chained along and checked the length against my head along the way to see how tight it was. For the gift ones I chained 65.

R1: Dc in 2nd ch from hook and in each chain across.

R2-6: Chain 2.  Turn.  Dc in 2nd chain from hook and in each chain across. Finished piece is about 3.4”/8.6 cm wide after six rows.  Fold the crocheted piece in half and sew the edges together with your darning needle.  To create the ruching look, pinch the middle rows of the headband  (approximately Rows 2-5) and sew them together (about 3”/7.6 cm across).  Be sure to pinch the middle rows where the ends of the headband were sewn together to conceal the seam.

Knot:
Chain 10
R1: Dc in 2nd ch from hook and in each chain across.
R2-8: Chain 2.  Turn.  Dc in 2nd chain from hook and in each chain across. 
Finished piece is about 4.6”/11.7 cm long after eight rows.  Wrap this crocheted strip around the pinched portion of the headband.  Sew the ends together with your darning needle and sew in any loose ends in the knot.

Note: my mom did a twist on the ones she made for me.  She did a half double crochet and did 9 rows instead of 6. She adjusted the knot length as well. I think I wanna try one with a puff stitch! So many options!

Here's some....ahem...bad photo's of them on my head. Please don't mind the poor quality! You can either wear the knot in the center or off to the side. I think I prefer off to the side, but to each their own! Oh and in the background you can see my new throw pillows chilling on my bed!

Twist on a standard baby bib - Denim Bib DIY!

Ever have one of those days where you feel like you should just go back to bed? My hair decided to look like the cowardly lion this morning when I blew it dry, my morning caffeine still has me feeling groggy, and when I got to work I realized I put my underwear on inside out....TMI? Well it's just been one of those Wednesdays! At least I was productive this weekend and finished a craft!

With the invention of the internet and Pinterest, having your own ideas isn't as common as it once was. While perusing the DIY and crafts section I saw this super cute twist on baby bibs from Thimbly Things. I just about died, as I had some scrap denim that has just been lying around my house waiting for a project. I figured I could make some bibs to have in my gift closet. Even after making 8 bibs I still have some leftover for some other ideas I am planning! Stay tuned for those! Anywho, without further adieu.....le tutorial:

What you'll need:
Bib Template (I printed one off the internet that was actually an infant size, oopsies! Hey it still works. You can use your own stash for templates as well)
Denim
Scissors
Pins
Quilters Cotton (16 different patterns; (2) coordinates per bib) (I made 4 boy bibs and 4 girl bibs)
Sewing Machine w/ detail stitch options
Coordinating thread

Directions:

1. First fold the denim in half lengthwise, pin the template down and cut around one side of the template. I had 4 pant legs, so I did this eight times. Actually I did each step eight times, I was tired at the end! Haha

2. Cut one fabric large enough for the back, about a 10" x 11" square in my case and cut the coordinating fabric 2" by width of bib, mine was about 9." Take your 2" strip and press a folded over 1/4" seam on both long ends to avoid frays and zig zag stitch it into place....about a third up from the bottom. Note: If you wish you can use Steam a Seam Lite to help make your pressing easier. Cut it 1-1/2" x length of fabric and press down centered inside the fabric. Fold over your 1/4" seams and press down. Then press to adhere to denim.

Select your coordinating thread to go with your patterns and sew detailed stitching on either side of the patterned fabric. Depending on the pattern this can be time consuming so choose wisely. Also my denim was a stretchy denim, so some of the more dense patterns wanted to pucker and I had to press them flat. So keep that in mind.

3. Place your bib and back fabrics right sides together, pin and trim the back fabric the same size as the bib. If you wish to re-pin for easier sewing, please do. Sew a 1/4" seam around the entire bib, leaving about a 3″ opening at the bottom of the bib for turning. Make small perpendicular clips around all your curves for easier turning, just make sure not to cut your seam. The area on my neck, where the snaps go was very small so I trimmed the edge in that area to about 1/8"

4. Gently turn bib right side out, using closed scissors or a blunt edge tool to carefully push out the narrow curves.

5. Press bib, pin your turning opening and stitch along all edges about 1/4″. You can use a decorative stitch here also. I used a wavy stitch with a denim blue color thread and a coordinating bobbin thread to the back fabric.

6. Choose a closure and attach as directed. I chose hand sewn snaps because the area where they would go was just too small for velcro, but if you have more space you can definitely use it!

Once your all done admire your new and super cute bibs! My favorite one has to be the boy one with the construction zone fabric on the front. I really like the girl bib with the ABC back and arched pink stitching on the front!

How to create a Bokeh with Manual Settings (DSLR)

I kinda like the fad of Bokeh that's all over right now. "In photography, Bokeh is the blur, or the aesthetic quality of the blur, in out-of-focus areas of an image. Bokeh has been defined as 'the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of light.'" We have all seen on Pinterest the cardboard cutout cover for your DSLR that creates a Bokeh effect, however cool this technique is for creating crazy shapes with lighting, I really wanted to try this technique using my manual settings on my Sony DSLR for my Christmas tree this year.

Roberts Donovan had a really nice tutorial on how to create this look, and he also gives you some great tips on using your DSLR as well. Unfortunately his tutorial was for a more sophisticated camera than the one we have.  Our lens' don't have a large aperture, so it wasn't as easy as I hoped it would be to create this look. Realizing quickly that the more I zoomed in the smaller my aperture was getting. So I took his advice and stepped away from my tree realizing that I could just crop my image to get my desired effect. Noting to myself to put on my Christmas list for next year a macro lens with a large aperture range!

So as I clicked away and played with my settings I eventually got a couple of shots that looked like this:

I love how our angel tree topper looks like an evil owl sitting on top of our tree. That amused me. Roberts Donovan had a good little to do list in order to to get the shot, with a couple of modifications to be able to use my own camera

1. Set your camera to Aperture Priority mode (A or Av on the program dial). (Mine was A)
2. Select the smallest possible aperture (f) number for your lens (should be ≤f/4). The smallest my lens would go was f/3.5, but I had to be zoomed completely out to achieve that so I was able to zoom in to an f/4 to achieve the look
3. Switch your camera to manual focus and manually adjust the focus to the closest setting. (The blurriest you can make it will create a soft effect!)
4. Zoom your lens to somewhere around 50mm. (Again, to get the largest aperture I was zoomed in about 20mm)
5. Find some nice points of light at a distance of 10′ or greater from the camera (your Christmas tree is the perfect subject this time of year). (I used our tree obviously, but I was about 6-8 feet away sitting in my wing chair.)
6. Fire away!

If you get a shutter speed that’s too slow (ie: less than 1/30 second), try bumping the ISO up to 400 or more. (My exposure time was 1/6 of a second and exposure compensation was -2. I'm not sure whether or not I adjusted my ISO on this shot or not. If I did I can't remember what it was set at.)

Next step for me was to crop the bad boy so you can really see the blurry effect of all those wonderful white led lights. If you have the lovely Instagram and Vintique app (iPhone) then you can play with filters and colors to create the below cropped image! I had fun and learned some new tricks for my camera!

Bold Print Envelope Pillow DIY

I went to Joann's fabrics last week, knowing it would be the perfect time to get the background fabric for a quilt that I am making. I was also going to get some chalkboard paint so I can finish my revamped mirror but I got distracted by the clearance fabric section. I found a beautiful teal and black floral that would go perfect in our bedroom. It was in the 50% clearance section, and it was an additional 50% off! SCORE! I bought the rest of the bolt, which was only a yard and a half. I decided to recover some boring beige pillows with a simple envelope pillow case.

Seriously this is really easy! You can follow my instructions or the link above!

What you will need:
- Fabric
- Pillow Form or Old throw pillow
- Measuring Tape
- Scissors
- Pins
- Sewing Machine and thread

1. The pillow that I was recovering was an 18"x18" pillow. Cut out (1) 19"x19" size for the front and (1) 19"x24" piece for the back. Cut the back piece in half so that it measures 19"x12"

2. Hem one side of the back pieces 1/4." Since my fabric was silky, I pressed it with an iron, pinned a 1/4" and then sewed down my hem.

3. Next step is lay the front piece right side up and then place the two back pieces with the right side facing down. Line the corners and the edges up, with the back pieces overlapping at the inside hem (this will create the pillow opening). Pin along the outside edges.

4. Sew around all 4 edges. I used a 1/4" seam.

5. Clip corners if necessary, turn and iron.

6. Insert your pillow into your new cover and admire your work!

Please ignore the pile of cords!

Love the bold print!

Boredom spurs creativity

So, what do you do when you mix a bored lunch break with an Altoids container, silver marker and a sharpie. A fun pill container! I have many a variety of vitamins that I take on a daily or as needed basis, anything from Vitamin D to a pre-natal or Biotin. However when you put them all into one place (I keep multiples of each on my person just in case I forgot before I left the house) they can be confusing as many of them look the same. While cleaning out my purse I noticed an almost empty Altoids container. I ate the last of the mints and washed out the container. Then I went to work coloring the top with silver marker and the bottom with black Sharpie. The doodle a little cheetah-esque design on the top and voila! Instant pill box. Now I have 2! One for my daily vitamins and one for all the others. So I can keep track! It was fun and simple and only took about 20 minutes!

Finished

Old and new!

Maxi is the name of the game

Alrighty then. If your obsessed with Pinterest then you KNOW what I am referring to. Maxi dresses and skirts have been a major trend for the last couple of years, but even more so now that people are starting to make their own. I mean why not, they are SO EASY! I had found a wonderful tutorial, but hadn't found the time to go buy fabric, well once it was go time I discovered that the blogger had removed the tutorial because she wanted to sell them online. Fine and dandy, but when she put that she was selling the tutorial, for in my opinion a ridiculous amount, I though to myself I can figure this out on my own and make a tutorial for people. Well be that as it may, I went to work and realized that my camera was completely dead so I figured I would just make it anyways and find some help along the way.

First issue....fabric. I went to Joann's only to discover that there selection was rather limited....granted it is November, but honestly its always maxi weather in California. However my wonderful friend Mrs. M pulled out the above fabric and I thought that it was completely perfect, however a little on the pricey side. So I grabbed it and then decided to peruse the red tag section just to be sure I had found the perfect option. I had. So I took my 25% off coupon and bought it.

What you'll need:
2 yards jersey fabric
scissors
thread
sewing machine

A cute helper is a bonus too! My friends son was all over the fabric! Laying on it, running on it and being a cutie! He just wanted to be involved.

So since I don't have the tutorial for you I found these really helpful links, (Watch out for the Woestmans and middleR3DD) I can tell you the measurements I made my skirt. The waistband finished measurement was 32" round and the bottom measurement was 56" round. You can half that to figure out your piece cuts, just remember to include 1/2" in your measurements for seaming. Other than that I followed the tutorials linked above pretty much as written.

Sewing note: Jersey and knits are kind of difficult to sew because the edges tend to roll. Use a lot of pins to keep this from happening! I am sure my next one will turn out better, but its so cute and best of all SO COMFORTABLE! Enjoy!

Don't mind my lack of makeup!