New Project for a New Baby Boy

Haven't had much time to blog. I work for a Performing Arts organization and the dance department's year-end recital is at the beginning of May. Less than a month away, so I have been spending a lot of time prepping for that. But, Monday is my day off and today I decided to really take the day off, and do a project. 

A friend had a baby recently and I wanted to make my signature bunting. Also, I have been dying to try this tutorial for a Fabric Bucket from here. So I got out my adorable Squirrel Fabric, and every piece of coordinating fabric I own, and made this:

I used these fabrics, but nixed the white at the last second. Too many solids.

Started with the triangular bunting...

Best tip ever: snip the corners!

End product:

These squirrels and birdies are just adorable. 

Those are the same aqua birdies from the pillow in this post.

 Can't go wrong with grey and white polka dots.

I don't love the black bias-tape on top, but I can't find aqua or grey bias tape anywhere! Orange would have looked good, but I doubt it would have been burnt sienna enough to match the acorns... so I had to settle for black. 

 And now for my new creation, the fabric bucket. 

The top can be folded down...

Or left up...

There's a great tutorial at http://inspiredbyfamilymag.com/2012/01/15/diy-fabric-bucket/ so I won't repeat the work they've already done...

I used felt instead of interfacing... I'm too cheap to get interfacing, plus I always forget to look for it at the store. 

Btw-- the bucket is sitting on one of the Kids Pottery Barn chairs I've been working on for forever. I've completed painting 2 out of 4 of them. See full post here.

I sewed a little X on the bottom to give it an extra element.

A look inside...

Stuff diapers, wipes, etc. in it. 

I can't get over the natural lighting that was coming in when I took these photos.

I haven't given it to the recipient yet, but I hope they like it! It was fun to do a new sewing project. It was pretty easy to follow the tutorial. I got some great new fabric today that matches Ivy's room: dark blue, light greens and pink and grey and white... and... and... just kidding. Anyway, I want to make one of these fabric buckets for her room. 

Check out my other bunting posts here and here and here.

Aloha, Becca

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Special Order - Cailin's Pillows

Cailin called me last week and said she's got company coming! They have a downstairs studio in their home, and she wants to have it in full working order by the time her guests arrive! So, she needed 3 throw pillow covers. And she wanted me to make them. 

Criteria:

1. grey

2. yellow

3. dark blue

My starting off point was these fabrics....

 But if you notice, they do not contain any dark blue, hah. 

You see, I could not envision how dark blue would go with yellow and grey. 

Then I took out my latest obsession: 

the $1 pillow case I got at Salvation Army (which I used on my bandana see post here).

I remembered it had blue and mustard in it. 

But still, not enough dark blue. 

So I went to Sew Special and picked up a reverse version of my 

light grey/navy pinwheel style fabric from their Asian section, 

that I used on my fabric-covered tins (see post here).

And, I remembered I bought Cailin a yellow/grey stripe fabric, 

but had never done anything with it for her yet.

So the collection up to this point was this:

I needed grey, and Cailin said she really loved the yellow/grey paisley... I did too. 

So this is what made the cut (literally):

I cut them at 18", sewed at 17", so they'd fit pillows about 15-16".

 I did an overlapping back

And had to hem one side, but used the end of the fabric on the other side.

 Here's what the back ended up looking like:

I used two complimentary strips of fabric for the fronts of the pillows (back view):

Sewed them together.

Cut off the edges

Best tip ever: for corners, snip them close so they lay better when you turn them inside out. So basic, but makes it so nice. 

Here's #1:

(Ooh! Just noticed that you can see the reverse version 

of the dark blue fabric in the little bunting in the front of the pillow!)

Here's #2:

And #3:

Sorry, Cailin: the little bunting in front of it is not included... 

it's for staging purposes only.

You may recognize it from my "Cord Cover" in this post. 

I love how the 3 colors turned out: grey, yellow and dark blue. 

Great vision Cailin!

Shipping out tomorrow, right after my surprise root canal, in a recycled urban outfitters bag 

(safe to say, UO is our favorite place to make some online purchases... :))

Enjoy!

aloha, 

--becca

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