Appliqued Basketball Shirt

The other day I went to Gymboree and wanted to buy everything in the store, as usual. After seeing the cutest sweater with a football on it, I decided to try out making my own appliqued sports shirts. I'm not usually drawn to clothes with sports paraphernalia on them (probably because what I've seen is things like teddy bears playing baseball), but simple sports stuff is pretty cute, I think.

I started with a basketball and I think it turned it out really cute. Here's a tutorial in case you're interested in making one for your little one. It was pretty simple to do. (Please excuse the terrible picture quality).

1. Print a picture of a basketball. I'm not a good artist, so I found a picture of a basketball online to use as my pattern. If you're artistically inclined, you could just draw the basketball lines straight onto the orange fabric.

 2. Trace the basketball lines onto orange fabric using a disappearing fabric marker. The lines will disappear when you wash it, but you'll like cover them with your stitches anyway.

 3. Iron the basketball onto Wonder Under or other fusible fabric paper.

4. Cut out the basketball and remove the paper backing.

 5. Place the basketball in the center of the shirt and iron it on.

 6. Stitch over the drawn lines and around the outside of the basketball. I used the biggest zig-zag stitch that my sewing machine does and I kept the stitches very close together to create a thick black line.

 7. Give your baby boy a big kiss when he wakes up from his nap. :)

Voila! Now you have an adorable shirt for your adorable boy. Next I'm going to try a football. Woo hoo!

Glider Makeover

My awesome brother-in-law and sister-in-law gave us this glider shortly after Jackson was born. (Thanks, JC and Anais!!) It's super comfortable, but I decided to give it a little more modern look by recovering it to match Jackson's room.

Here's what I came up with. It was actually relatively easy to do, surprisingly. I just took the old cover off, traced it onto the new fabric, and used that as the pattern for the new cover. I chose a neutral color just in case there's ever a baby girl's room we need to decorate. :) I'm thinking of painting the wood white. It's not perfect, but I love it!

I finally got the rest of Jackson's room done, mostly. Pictures to come soon!

Baby-proofing = DIY Ottoman

We got the table pictured below from the as-is section at Ikea a while back for $15. I was debating getting rid of it because the corners are so sharp and I didn't want Jackson getting hurt on it. My friend Ashley gave me the great idea (she found here) of turning the coffee table into an ottoman, with soft corners and all.

Of course I enlisted Brett to help me with this project, which he wasn't too excited about. But, he headed over to Jo-Ann Fabrics with me anyway to pick out the fabric and pretty much did the rest of it himself. Thanks, Brett! You're the best!


The best part about it is that we only spent $8.36 for the whole project. Brett already had some padding that we used instead of foam, and the fabric was 50% off because we got the last yard. 


Brett took apart the table, stapled the foam to the underside of the table top (using his staple gun), stretched the fabric over the foam and stapled it on, and then screwed the legs back on.

I love how it turned out. Brett was a little less enthusiastic. He says he feels like he ruined a perfectly good coffee table. (It's not quite as stable as it was. He kept saying that somebody is going to "Tommy Boy" it.) But, I think it's growing on him. Now I just need to find some coordinating fabrics to make new pillow shams.

Argyle

I followed this tutorial to to make this adorable argyle shirt.

I had this polo shirt that I had gotten on sale for probably around $1.50, but I had never put Jackson in it because it was a little to plain and I wasn't a huge fan of the color. But, now he will be wearing it plenty! 


It was super easy to do. I just used Wonder Under to for the diamonds and stitched around them with my sewing machine, used disappearing pen to mark where I wanted to embroider the lines, and then followed the lines with embroidery thread. Pretty simple. I was a little skeptical that the "disappearing pen" would actually disappear, but it did! 

I know this isn't the greatest picture, but you can see the shirt pretty well in it. Isn't it cute? He was reaching up for the tambourine I was using to hold his attention. Now that he's more mobile, he doesn't want to pose for picture anymore. Boo.

There are so many more fun projects I want to get to this week, including argyle curtains for Jackson's room. Hopefully I can find the time. Happy Monday!

Crochet Headband

It's no secret that I've been all about crocheting lately. After being inspired by a crochet head wrap from Anthropologie (which cost around $35) I decided to make this one for myself. I quite like how it turned out. I found the pattern for the headband online, and kind of improvised for the flower. Next time I'm going the actual headband part more like the one below. That way it can me more of an accessory and less for use in cold weather.

(Don't mind the super cheesy pictures of myself above. I felt like a 15-year-old taking a Myspace profile picture!)

Tie Shirt

I used some scraps from my quilting fabric to make Jackson this cute little tie shirt. It's super easy (and quick) to make and I love the way it looks.

If you're interested in making one, here's the how-to:

Supplies: Wonder Under (or other fabric adhesive), fabric for the tie, a t-shirt or onesie, and some thread.

How-to:

(1) Print and cut out the tie pattern found here (or draw up your own).

(2) Iron the Wonder Under to the back of the fabric you want to use for the tie.

(3) Trace the tie pattern onto the Wonder Under and cut it out.

(4) Iron the tie onto the shirt.

(5) Stitch around it the outside of the tie.

I have so many more ideas of appliqued shirts I want to make (like the guitar found here), but I'm not talented enough yet to stitch around all those curves. I think I'll stick to straight lines for now!