Got Booties?

So the other weekend we headed to Minnesota to visit my parents.   While visiting my mom was telling about a cute baby shoe pattern that she found online so we decided to each make a pair.  She found a pattern on Stardust Shoe blog for cloth shoes.  So we doug through my mom's many containers of fabric and made these two shoes from scraps she had saved.  These shoes were so fun and easy to make that we ended up making four pairs of little girl booties and three pairs of little boy booties all from scraps.  I am excited to give them as baby gifts!

Got Ink?

Maybe I should say got ink on something other than paper?  While at a city meeting last night, Eric let Toodles play with his pen in hopes of keeping her entertained and quite.  It worked for a bit until mom noticed that Toodles was doing art work on every piece of clothing she was wearing (her jeans, fleece, and onesie) and then took the pen away.  The good news is that my mom taught me a very dandy trick - when it comes to taking ink out of anything, rubbing alcohol is a must.  With a couple of cotton balls and Q-Tips and five minutes later all of Toodles art work was gone. 

Padded Camera Strap Cover Tutorial

So lately I have been making some camera strap covers so I thought that I would make a quick tutorial.  I think these are really fun to make but I guess I can only use so many.

Here is a list of what you will need:

Batting (I used natural cotton batting)

Two Coordinating Fabrics

Coordinating Thread

  

This tutorial is for a camera strap with each side of the strap having a different fabric.

1. Cut two strips of batting each measuring 3 by 24 inches

2. Cut one strip from each fabric measuring 3 by 28 inches

3. Fold the 3 inch side of your fabric edge in by 1 1/2 inches, I used a seam gauge to do this. Press well by using a steam setting on your iron. To this to both of your fabric pieces.



4. Center your batting between the two ends you pressed in (the batting will be slightly shorter than the length of your pressed fabric).

5. Sew across the ends you folded in to secure your batting and fabric together. I prefer to sew mine in three spots on each end, usually stitching close to the folded fabric edge, the raw end, and somewhere in between.

 6. Ruffle - optional

A. Cut a strip of fabric 2 1/2 inches the width of your fabric

B. Surge around all the edges.

C. Mark the center of your strip on the right side of the fabric, I used a Pilot FriXion highlighter. Check out my post about this highlighter here.

D. Set your sewing machine to the longest stitch length possible. Sew on your center marking making sure you DO NOT backstitch.

E. Pull on your bobbin thread (the bottom thread) to gather your fabric.

F. Decide placement of the ruffle on one of your straps and pin the ruffle in place (see picture below). Sew in the center of your ruffle to secure to strap.

G. Apply heat using iron to make the highlighter marking disappear.

7. Place right side of fabric together lining up all the fabric and batting edges. The batting should be on the outside at this point.

8. Surge both lengths of the strap thus securing the side together.

9. Turn right side out - I used a dandy tool called Dirtz Quick Turn to make this job much easier.

10. And your done!