Plush Blocks for Baby

When I received some beautiful fabric in the mail last week I was excited to finally sew some for my new little guy! The Born Wild collection by Ana Davis for Blend Fabrics has both blue and pink color ways featuring adorable woodland creatures.  The blue colorway is perfect for baby boy!  I used all six of the blue prints for these six sided plush blocks.

These soft 4" blocks are great for snuggling, tossing, and stacking.  Baby J is still too small for them, but he will be playing with them in just a few short weeks and they make an adorable nursery decoration in the meantime!

The blocks sew up fast and easy and would make a really fun baby shower gift!

I just love these whimsical woodland creatures on the sides of these blocks!

Some letters are a fun addition to the side of the blocks.  You can do a simple "a b c" or maybe spell out your little ones name. 

Want to make some plush blocks? Let me show you how!

You will need...

• six 1/4 yard cuts or six fat quarters, I used the Born Wild collection by Ana Davis for Blend Fabrics
• poly-fil
• basic sewing supplies

If you want to add the letters you will also need...

• coordinating fabric scraps
• heat n bond
• iron

For each block, cut six 5" x 5" squares.  Mark the corners of each square 1/2" from the sides as shown below.

If you want to add letters to your blocks, draw or trace the letters to the paper side of the heat n bond.  The letters need to be backwards when drawn on the heat n bond.  Iron the heat n bond to the back side of the letter fabric.  Cut out the letters.  Remove the paper backing and iron the letters to the middle of the block squares.  sew around the letters with a straight or zig zag stitch.

Place 2 squares right sides together and sew along one side starting and stopping at the corner marks, 1/2" from the edges.  Make sure you back stitch at both ends to prevent your thread from unraveling.

Press the seam open.

Repeat those steps to sew a row of four squares together.

Fold the row to sew the 2 end blocks together.  Sew from the 1/2" marks about 1", leaving a 2" opening in the middle as shown below.  Again make sure you back stitch at the start and end of each stitch.

Pin one of the remaining squares to the top, lining up the corner marks with the seams.  sew all the way around the top of the cube.  Repeat to add the final square to the bottom.

Turn the block right side out through the hole left in the side and stiff the block.

Hand stitch the hole closed with a ladder stitch.

Your blocks are ready for stacking!

The Library Cardi

Little Lizard King just released a new pattern that is perfect for fall!  The Library Cardi is a slouchy cardigan with some cool kangaroo pockets.  I think it is about as comfortable as it is cute!  And I hear there is a women's version coming soon, I think their may be matching mommy and me cardigans in the future for us!

Em's favorite part of this cardigan (and mine too) are the pockets!  They are nice and deep for stashing lots of treasure.  The front of the cardigan can be lined, so you can do a cool contrast pocket if you wanted.

I sewed the cardigan up in a size 3, it should fit Em through the winter and next spring.  She may even get a bit of use out of it next fall if she doesn't have any huge growth spurts!  I found this lightweight knit at Hobby Lobby, it will be perfect for layering on cooler nights this fall.

You can grab a copy of the Library Cardi pattern HERE!

Handmade for Baby

A few weeks ago this book showed up in my mailbox!

It is a really cute book with 25 projects to sew or make for baby.  It has projects for nursery decor all the way through projects for baby's first birthday.  And it is filled with inspirational photos to get you excited about sewing for baby.

All the projects have illustrations to walk you through making them, and they have instructions for sewing with a sewing machine or by hand.

As you flip though the book you might recognize this little girl...

I contributed two projects to the book, that party skirt Em is wearing and a chevron baby quilt.  It was so fun to see my sewing in a book!

If you are interested in checking out the book, you can find it on Amazon.

Moku Shorts

You guys have heard me rave about One Thimble before, it is a really great e-zine packed with tons of patterns and awesome sewing advice. I have gotten the chance to sew up some of the patterns from previous issues (like the Ranger shorts, Steam train applique, Bow Trim Dress, and Honey Gum dress) and even released my Sunny Daytripper pattern in the last issue.  Well, One Thimble is celebrating its one year birthday and released its 5th issue today!  And I got the chance to sew another pattern from this issue...The adorable Moku Shorts!

This little skort has the shape of a circle skirt, but is really shorts, which makes it great for play.  The shorts have a flat front and an elastic back, and it has the option of a high or low waist.  

I made Em the size 2 and the fit is great!  I sewed them up with some super soft Art Gallery cotton with a fun floral print, perfect for the beach.

One Thimble is an Australian based magazine, so most of the patterns in this issue are summery like these shorts.  But they also have a few Christmas patterns (including one of mine!) and a jacket.  Living in Florida, we can use summery patterns year round.  But if you happen to be covered in snow from that polar front covering most of the US, you can still get some use out of these shorts, check out this adorable layered look from my friend Jess!

You can find the newest edition of One Thimble here, or you can purchase just the Moku Shorts pattern in the One Thimble Shop.  

Flip this Pattern

Hey there! I am competing in Flip this Pattern over at Frances Suzanne this week!  In case you haven't heard of it, it is a super fun challenge where they give the same pattern to 4 different sewing bloggers and ask them to make it over into something a bit different than the original design.  I am up against some pretty stiff competition! All the ladies competing this month are amazing...seriously amazing!  

For my flip, I too the Hattie dress by Brownie Goose and flipped it into a shirtdress for Em!  You can see a bit more about my dress below, and if you missed it earlier this week you can see my full post about my flip HERE.  And of course make sure you head over to Frances Suzanne and see the other four incredible entries and vote for your favorite (I would love it if it was mine ;) )

To flip the Hattie into this shirtdress, I switched things around a bit so it opens in the front and put buttons all the way down the front of the dress.  I kept the collar because that ruffled collar is my favorite part, and a distinguishing feature of the Hattie I didn't want to lose, but I curved the ends down at the button placket.  I also made my dress fully lined so the ruffle has no exposed seams at the neckline.

  

I shortened and slimmed the sleeves a bit and added some little buttons to the back of them.  

 

And I added some little chest pockets and a sash to cinch it in the middle a bit.

 

I am pretty stoked about how it turned out! I just love the look of this dress for fall!

Make sure you head over and VOTE for your favorite Hattie flip!

Honey Gum Dress

I am so excited to share this dress with you today!  This is the Honey Gum Dress, it is a pattern by Jen Ainslee Fox and you can find it in the newest issue of One Thimble (along with my pattern for the Sunny Daytripper :) )

I am not big on ruffles and frill so this sundress is just my style!  It is has a simple bodice and gathered skirt. There is also an option to add some decorative ties to the shoulders.

I have mentioned before that Jen always teaches me something new when it sew her patterns, which is one reason why I love them so much.  This time it was a sneaky way to turn the bodice with those skinny straps and a little tape trick to get the stitching just perfect around the back zip.

The dress patten is for sizes 1-12, Ems measurements put her perfectly in the size 1 and the fit is great.  I added a little extra length because I just know she is going to hit a growth spurt soon and I want this dress to last a while.

I made Em's dress from some fabric from modas Bluebird Park line.  I have been holding onto this fabric for a while now waiting for the perfect dress pattern for it.  I just love it on this simple sundress!

The dress closes with a zipper in the back and Jen makes the zipper installation a breeze!

Thanks Jen for the awesome dress pattern!  You can find this pattern in the newest issue of One Thimble.  This issue is packed with so much great stuff and it has 10 PDF patterns!