Tour of the Living Room, Part 3: This Time It's Personal

Charlie loves to take things out of things. He also loves DVDs.


He is truly his father's son. I am truly not enamored of a pile of DVDs strewn all over the floor.

Solution: the bottom shelf of our DVD storage shelf is now devoted to shiny toys, for him to pull down with impunity.


This bookshelf was originally a white crappy bookshelf, but now it's a white crappy bookshelf that I painted dark and light blue. Don't worry, by the way, this really tall and heavy piece of furniture is anchored firmly to the wall with earthquake straps.


Speaking of resurfacing living room furniture, I got bored of my coffee table and decoupaged the bottom of it. I love it now.


This was surprisingly easy -- I just lay down three sheets of nepalese Lokti paper (from Continental Art Supply, they have a huge selection of decorative paper and awesome service, my favorite local art store), stuck it on with Mod Podge, and then sealed it with polyurethane.


Isn't this paper beautiful? Happy accident, it also matches my coasters.

Tour of the Living Room, Part 2

Time for more living room crafts, with host Charlie the flying baby.


Geoff took this photo, that's why it's all artsy.

If your monitor is really bright, you might be able to see to the left of the adorable cherub, behind the TV, there's a fun wall hanging.


I bought one of those college dorm room "tapestries" at Bed Bath & Beyond one time for a film shoot. I decided I liked the fabric but I'm a little too old for pinning trippy fabric to the wall, so I mounted it on canvas stretchers like in this tutorial. Enormous, 48" canvas stretchers are from Dick Blick.

This is a great way to cover a lot of white wall, and cuts down the glare behind the TV.

I had some extra from the borders, so I turned them into bolster covers (see here) and also added some trim to my curtains.



Main curtain material is Liz Claiborne Lilly Meadow, and the the curtains are installed with grommets, just like the ones in the nursery.

Fluffy Bunny Basket

I think this may be the last of the polar bear fur, finally. I made Charlie an Easter basket that he will surely think is too cute in a couple of years. I mean, seriously, it has a tail.



Don't worry, we won't be giving Charlie any age inappropriate food (e.g., candy). We have a joke about giving Charlie candy; I eat candy, and claim that it's for him. Does this breast milk taste like Cadbury cream eggs Charlie??

This bag is inspired by this bag on Disdressed. She used a pattern from Zakka Sewing; that book had a long wait list at the library, so I just sewed together a few fabric squares and called it a day. I changed the ears a bit also.

Q: Where Have I Been?

A: Exiled from my computer, since it was parked in Charlie's room. But now I've moved it to my bedroom so I can use it while he sleeps. His room is now totally his.


And he owns it.


"What's going on??"


I can't hang anything on the closet doors as they are plastic, so I attached a Doctors Without Borders free map to them with bright blue painters tape.

The plates on the wall are printed with Norman Rockwell images; they are antiques from Geoff's grandmother. The night light is Ikea.




Geoff's quilt from when he was a baby, my mobile, and a beautiful Baby Mod crib from Walmart.


There is a whole lot of Totoro in this room.


Even hiding under the telephone.




I need to get a basket or something for his cloth books that don't fit in the sling - does anyone have a good storage solution for these?


The image on the left is from Etsy vendor mere designs, the wood blocks in the middle came from Finland via Geoff's same worldly grandmother. And the numbers on the right are my own design.

Santa's Little Helper

Officially, the first clothing I have made for my baby is a Santa hat.


Aw. I apologize if I just made you vomit. Come on, it's cute, right?

Here's the pattern.



Cut four of these out of a red knit fabric. I used the cotton interlock from Joann Fabrics, that I had leftover from my Electra costume. What, you've never seen my Electra costume? Aw, it was the first thing I made, ever, on a sewing machine... it's a little terrible so I've never posted it. Also I kind of look fat in it. Anyway.

Where was I? Oh right. How to make a Santa hat.

Cut four pattern pieces, above, out of red stretchy fabric. Make sure the stretchy direction is going width wise.

Sew the pattern pieces together, right sides together, so that they form a cone. Use a zigzag stitch and a 1/4" seam allowance.

Cut a 18.5" x 2" rectangle out of the red fabric, and another out of some white faux fur (mine is left over from last years polar bear costume and was purchased at Fabric.com)

Sew the two rectangles together, right sides together.

Finish the edge of the red fabric with a zigzag stitch.

Sew the fur side of the rectangle to the bottom of the red cone, right sides together.

On the inside of the hat, hand stitch the red fabric up inside the hat at the four corners.

To make the pom pom: Cut a circle out of the fur fabric, then hand stitch loosely around the outside of the circle. Stuff with scrap fabric and pull tight.

Hand sew the pom pom to the top of the hat.

Mine came out a little too small, because Charlie has a massive head. You may need to adjust the hat for your own little Santa baby.

Merry Christmas!

A Better Book Sling

I wanted a book sling for my baby, who no, cannot read yet, but still... they are cool. I liked the size of this one, but all the reviews said the fabric was terrible. I ordered it, and yes, the fabric is indeed terrible. The picture hides it's terribleness well; it feels like it is made out of a disposable raincoat.

However, that is easily fixed.

Before:


After:


I used a home decor fabric called "Square Knots," purchased at Joann on Black Friday. So easy. The sling is just a bunch of squares sewn together. Without a baby it would have taken an hour or two. With a baby... it took several days. So it goes!

Happy Turkey Day

Went down to San Diego to visit Geoff's relatives for Thanksgiving. It was Charlie's first trip outside LA. He took it sleepily (hurray car seats). This is me, Charlie, and Geoff's grandmother. I'm modelling a contoured burp rag I made one day while Charlie was sleeping. It stays on the shoulder so much better than a square one.


A quick project made with scraps. I've uploaded the pattern in case anyone is interested. It has to be printed borderless on 8.5x11 paper. If you can't print borderless, just extrapolate to the border.


Meanwhile, Charlie is modelling a very cute outfit my grandmother bought him for the occasion. They were all out of 3 Month size, so she bought 9 Month and I altered it down. Note the zigzag stitch in the middle were I shortened it. I was so proud I figured out how to do that in time!


Luckily his Christmas outfit fits as is. Okay, baby is fussing, see ya!

He's Here

Charles Errol
Born October 17, 2009 at 11:33 pm
9 pounds, 1 oz; 22 inches long

Back to sleep now...

Taggy Blankets and the Waiting Game

I like this taggy blanket by Reanna Lily Designs, so I made one myself. I'm not a big quilter, so I used some old flannel sheets that I've been keeping for just such a project. C is for Charlie; we joke that his rapper name is C-Love.

I had extra fabric, so I made a second one for Geoff's good friend Steve, who is having a son named Kai. Steve was Geoff's best man at our wedding, and completely randomly, is having a baby due three weeks after ours. Which means, you know, we'll have them at the same time.

Yes, I'm very late. I have an induction scheduled for Sunday, and I'm trying to not be pissed about it. No one told me about this, but apparently no one in my family goes into labor before 43 weeks, and hardly even then. And I mean no one; not a single female on either side of the family goes at the medically recommended time. Good bye laboring at home, natural childbirth plan. I wish I'd known earlier so I would have been more mentally prepared.


It's gone so long I'm running out of things to do. I made these blankets out of the rest of the flannel sheets. You can never have too many blankets!

All complaining aside, by Monday I should have a baby!

It's Not Just Me

I've gotten some great crafts from others for this baby.


My friend Charlotte made this beautiful quilt. It's back with flannel, but very lightweight, appropriate for California.


I love the graphic fabrics.


My mother-in-law made this afghan out of scraps from another afghan she made us, that I have in the living room. I think this will be nice for me, for nursing at night.


It's a nice soft pattern.


Morgan of I Wish I Had a Penguin Friend made me these softies. She also made me a bee linocut, which you can see on her site.

Look at these faces!


Thanks everyone!

DIY Boppy Cover

I found a free Boppy cover pattern courtesy of Vanilla Joy, and it was very easy. I used Joann Fabrics snuggle flannel, which is deliciously soft flannel that goes on sale frequently.

The pattern isn't perfect -- I think it might be from before Boppy changed it shape to be more "generous" in the waist area, but it is close enough, and the directions are very easy. I would recommend that if you use this fabric also, and care about how perfect your Boppy slipcover is, that you stay stitch it before you get started, because it stretches quite a bit around the curves. I didn't, and I had to fix it in a few places.


I didn't have a zipper, so I altered the pattern to use buttons. To do this, I rolled the hem of the back bottom piece, and I used front pattern pieces 1 and 2 instead of the shortened back top piece as the top, and also rolled that hem. Then I made loops out of my scraps and attached three buttons.


Look! More cute fabric, and cute buttons too!

Not Too Sci Fi Mobile

I made a mobile. It is not g33ky. I considered making a mobile that re-enacted the destruction of the Death Star, with a big sphere in the middle and little TIE Fighters and X Wings spinning around it... but my husband said, and I quote, "Let's give the kid a chance."

So I made a simple mobile with stars. Which are spacey but not too much. It's made out of wooden dowels, wooden craft shapes, monofilament, hot glue, and acrylic paint. And that's a Totoro print in the background, because Totoro never hurt anybody.

Names and Recycling

We are pretty sure his name is Charlie.



Or Charles when he's a grown up. We like the name a lot except that it happens to be the name of a friend's cat. We are not naming him after the cat, we swear.

I wanted to make something with his name on it. As much as I love those fancy wooden letters at the craft store, I'm trying not to spend too much money on crafts, so I wanted to use materials I already had. I turned to recycling.



A cereal box (to make letters), a wine gift box I'd held on to since back when I could drink wine. The paper I printed my letter stencils on was also free, it's three hole punch "marigold" paper, and for some reason movie studios are always giving it away. I also used a drawer knob I've had in the tool box since forever, for what purpose I don't remember.



The font for the letters is "marker felt" -- it has a nice hand written feel. I covered them with paper mache, for depth.



The box expanded a little bit when I painted it, unfortunately, so I need to sand the edges down to get it to open and close smoothly, but once I do I think it will be a fun place to stash things.

Nesting?

"Hey, aren't you having a baby in like three weeks? Where is all the cool nursery stuff you should be feverishly making?"

Sorry guys, I've been delinquent with the picture taking. Here's some nesting.


I inherited this cool antique rocking chair from Geoff's grandmother, who rocked Geoff's dad in it when he was a baby. It was beautiful, but a bit uncomfortable (look at those skinny spindles!


I bought some foam at Joann Fabrics, and used it to make a cushion form.


I also bought some cute fabric. I love this excuse to buy cutesy fabric, guys. Upholstery fabric was on sale at Joann, so I splurged. It's expensive, but so sturdy. Look, bugs!


I used the foam as a pattern to cut the fabric, adding a seam allowance. You could also use batting to stuff your cushions, but I wanted something firmer.


You could use ribbon or string to make the ties, but I think fabric ties look much better. They are a bit of work. I cut six rectangles out of quilting fabric (the upholstery fabric was too heavy to turn easily), each one 20" x 1.25", and sewed them in half, using as tight a seam allowance as the feed dogs would allow.


You need a loop turner to turn them into straps. It's tricky with the loop turner, but impossible without it.


I turned again to my trusty buttonholer. I love that thing! I threaded the straps from the bottom cushion through buttonholes in the top cushion to attach them neatly.


And that's it. As soon as I put the cushions on it, the cat claimed it for his own.


He's too cute to move... I don't know what I'm going to do.