Recent projects

I've been sewing quite a bit in between exciting visits to see my new granddaughter, born April 13th. I have a new version of the Sewing Workshop Liberty Shirt pictured here. Also a color blocked shell from an old Vogue pattern, a linen dress from a new Burda pattern, a drapy rayon top from a new McCall's pattern and a fleece coat/bathrobe from Sewing Workshop's Soho Coat pattern. I also made another Jalie Criss Cross top (love that design). I'll get pictures up I promise. Meanwhile here is a shot of the new baby, Sierra Naima Smith, wearing a sweater and booties I made for her daddy before he was born 39 years ago. I saved it along with the blanket she is lying on until it could be used again! She is 6 days old here, the same age I have a picture of Derek wearing the set.

Jazz Cats diaper bag

My #2 son and his wife Rachel are expecting a baby in April.  I made another diaper bag from the Simplicity pattern I used 3 years ago to make the sock monkey bag for #1 son and his wife Suzanne. The previous bag was such a success that it was totally worn out. This time I decided to use a fabric that son #2, also a musician, might enjoy. There are jazzy cats playing congas and other instruments. I combined this with 2 other coordinated music fabrics. With the scraps I made 3 envelopes with velcro closures to help organize inside the bag and also a changing mat with a strap to hold it rolled up. I thought I had taken a bunch of photos to document this one a few weeks ago but they have disappeared. Maybe I imagined taking the photos. I did get just two at the shower this weekend. 

Simplicity 4434 Baby clothes

I wanted to make a gift for my expectant DIL using a fun fabric. I had made a great blanket for my other DIL using a flannel monkey print and minkie. They are still using that blanket after almost 3 years. I found this wonderful animal print at Fabric.com in Minkie and looked for a flannel to harmonize. I even ordered one with this one but the colors were horrible together. I had also ordered the polka dot Minkie in the same colorway to use for another project. So when these arrived and I had to discard my original plan with the flannel I looked to the dotted fabric to be the reverse. The fabric was thinner than I had expected but that worked to my advantage in this case because using the two together was not too heavy. By careful cutting I was able to make the blanket and have enought left to make this cute little cape. Miraculously I also found a could squeeze out the matching pants. These baby clothes don't take much yardage!

Pattern Sizing: I cut size 6 months. I don't know about how it will fit as the baby (known to be a girl this time) is not yet born.

Were the instructions easy to follow? Very easy. Nice instructions for making the tassels and pompons, something I hadn't done before.

What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern? Cute style, maybe not the most useful for a baby but easy to put on.

Fabric Used: Animal print and dotted Minkie fleece.

Pattern alterations or any design changes you made: No changes to the cape and pants. The blanket was my own invention. I was going to make the shaped bunting on the pattern but the bias binding I had looked terrible with my fabric. So I changed plans mid stream and cut one square for the blanket smaller than the other, laid the smaller inside the other, mitered the corners and brought the edges over to look like binding.

Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others? Yes. Now that I see how easy it is to make baby pull on pants I will certainly not hesitate to make more. Really only about 20 minutes.

Conclusion: Cute little set. I'm eager for the my new GD to arrive to see it on her. Really, I'm just eager to have a granddaughter. I have 2 boys, my sister has 2 boys, my brother has 3 boys and 1 girl, my son has 2 boys. You see there is an extreme shortage of girls for me to dress.

Quilt for the boys

Here I am quilting again. This is the third one this year and I never quilt! I guess that's what happens when you become a grandmother. We're leaving early tomorrow for Jackson Hole so instead of packing I'm finishing up the quilt which will be a wall hanging in the boys room. I still need to do the binding and trim all the threads but I can do that when I get there. Overall I'm very pleased with it. If you look closely you can tell I'm not a polished quilter and little things are not quite right. I won't be entering it in any shows that's for sure. The close up shows the stippling that I did all over. That sure uses a lot of thread.

The animals are cut from a fabric panel showing the illustrations from "Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?". Owen, at 2 years old, has this book memorized. I think he will enjoy seeing the familiar animals.

Oz as a Pea Pod

Here are photos of baby Owen dressed in his pea pod costume. After this trying on session I decided to move the top pea down a bit as he was sucking on it. And I snugged up the elastic some to fit more neatly around his face.

Owen's Book of Colors

I purchased this set of designs as part of my new found enthusiasm for machine embroidery. Actually I bought three sets of designs for baby books but this one took so long it may be awhile before I get to the other books. But it was really fun to make and very adorable. The hardest part was punching the holes for the binding and getting my cord through. Next time I should pick a thinner cording. Although using applique saves on thread it takes more time because of all the trimming of the fabric pieces.

Onesies for OZ

Working on the bumper pad has me enthused to use my embroidery machine more. I decided to personalize some little onesies for Owen. Because they are so small it was a bit tricky to hoop them but it worked out okay if I just embroidered OZ. When I tried the longer "Owen" I ran into trouble and had to pick out some stitches that went astray. Soon he will be bigger so I will have more space to work with.

The Nursery

Here are some shots of the nursery with items I made. The crib with the epic bumper is only used by Tubs, the cat, so far. Suzanne and I are making a sling to carry Oz using white fleece. We also made a teal gray one for Justin to use.

Home again

Back from meeting Owen Zander Smith, born April 27, 2007 in Jackson, Wyoming. I modified the nursery decor to better suit a baby boy! Suzanne and I made fleece slings for herself and Justin to carry Oz. These require @ 52-56 inches of fabric depending on the height of the wearer. Since the fleece we used is 60" wide we were able to make 3 slings from each color (white and teal). I brought one of each home to experiment with embroidery and edging. We also made a cloth book. I insisted that Suzanne do part of the sewing on these projects and she seemed to enjoy it but felt she could have never done this by herself. As these were her first attempts at sewing she was rather afraid of the sewing machine. I hope she finds a way to sew some more. Justin hung the embroidery I made "A Star is Born" near the crib.

Baby wrap sweater

I finished the little sweater I've been knitting for Justin and Suzanne's baby. Fortunately I picked green because the baby girl turned into baby boy Owen Zander Smith. This is a wrap around style that can be worn either way overlapping in the front or back. It involved several new techniques to me and took longer than I thought such a little sweater would take. I'm very pleased with it.

June 26 I added these two photos of Oz wearing the sweater. It is way too big for him now but you get the idea.

Simplicity 3954 Nursery Accessories

4/11/07 2:30 PM
Last Updated:	4/11/07 3:42 PM
Project Photo:
Pattern Photo:	Pattern Information provided by Ann Smith
Pattern Rating:	Easy to sew
Pattern Description: This pattern is a collection of items for the baby's nursery by designer Patty Reed. It includes a crib dust ruffle, wall hanging, bumper pad, sheet, quilt, crib caddy, glider and ottoman cushions and window shade. I made the dust ruffle and crib caddy. I also improvised stars based on the fabric design. These are to be put on the wall behind the crib. I made valances for 4 windows without a pattern and a changing table cover (using McCall's 4897). I made these for my new grandbaby's nursery. She will be arriving soon. The fabrics were chosen by my DIL to go in a room they painted apple green. It was hard for me to try to decorate a room I haven't been in. I hope this all works out. My DIL just sent me some photos of the room. Here you can see the valances and crib caddy tied to the changing table. Pattern Sizing: It is useful to use these patterns for sizing for the crib and changing table cover when you don't have these items in front of you to measure. Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing with it? Yes except I pieced with several fabrics. Were the instructions easy to follow? Yes very easy. The pocket hanger or crib caddy was particularly fun to make. The dust ruffle was a pain because of the length of the pieces that I decided to make with 3 fabrics. Lots of stitching and gathering, but easy. I zigzagged over string to pull up the gathering instead of the suggested machine stitched 2 rows. That always breaks when you have a long stretch of gathering. What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern? Here's the major thing that I want to mention for anyone thinking of using this pattern. I think this is a big error. If you follow the cutting layout with a similar one way design fabric, the design will be sideways. Even with my stripes I couldn't cut it the way they have it laid out or the stripes would run around instead of up and down. I think they did this because if you cut the usual way you will have to piece the dust ruffle. 45 inch fabric is not wide enough to cut each section of the ruffle. This true of the bumper pad also. So be wary. You will need to reevaluate the amount of yardage you need. Fabric Used: Quilting cottons. Pattern Alterations or any design changes you made: The crib caddy has velcro used to hold the straps. I changed this to ties. Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others? Just be careful with the cutting layouts. Conclusion I was going to make the bumper pad but stumbled on a ready made one that matched the ensemble perfectly at a great sale price. Thank heavens, that would have been the most work.

Simplicity 3937 Simply Baby, sock monkey tote, blanket, book

12/12/06 8:34 PM
Last Updated:	12/12/06 9:08 PM
Pattern Size:	Regular
Project Photo:
Pattern Photo:	Pattern Information provided by Ann Smith
Pattern Rating:	I would definitely sew this pattern again
Pattern Description: This pattern includes babies' buntings, hats, blanket, knit romper, and diaper bag. I made the bag. It has 2 outside pockets, 2 inside pockets and a flap with velcro for closing. Pattern Sizing: The garments come in sizes XS (1-3 months), S (6 months) and M (12 months). There is no indication as to the size of the diaper bag. Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing with it? Way not! They did some kind of trick photography to make the diaper bag look about the width of the bunting. If that were a true representation that bunting would be too big for me. There were no dimensions given on the pattern envelope for the bag. I was concentrating on matching the fabric when I was cutting out and didn't pay attention to how big the pattern pieces were. Were the instructions easy to follow? Very simple. What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern? I have not made a bag before so I was pleased with the ease of construction. Obviously I was surprised by the size of the bag but not terribly unhappy. It makes a very nice large tote bag. Fabric Used: A sock monkey design with a coordinating peeled banana print inside. They are both quilting cottons. I quilted the cotton onto batting and muslin to make it more bulky for the bag. I just stitched along the squares of the design. Pattern Alterations or any design changes you made: Not really any except I used a variety of interfacing weights as it seemed necessary instead of just light weight as called for in the pattern. Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others? This makes a nice shaped tote with outside and inside pockets and no hard to find hardware. I might make one for myself out of a tapestry fabric. Conclusion I'm finally going to be a grandma so I'm starting a whole new world of sewing. I'm snapping up baby patterns when they are on sale and searching all different fabric sources for ideas. How fun. I've waited a while for this as my son will be 39 when the new baby arrives. When I spotted this sock monkey fabric I knew I had to use it somehow. My son takes a sock monkey I gave him years ago to every gig he performs and puts it out with the tip jar. So I'm going to make this a sock monkey baby. Maybe I could make an entire nursery ensemble out of related fabrics. Oh, wait. I guess that would be awful. I'll just make a few things. In the photo is a blanket I made with sock monkeys on red flannel backed with a luxurious micro-fiber. I also made a cloth book out of a related panel.