Baby Gifts

I currently have two friends from work having babies, one her first child and the other her second. For baby gifts, I almost always make baby sleepers as seen in a previous blog entry, but for some odd reason this time, I am not sure this is what I want to give. The problem is that I don’t know what would make a better gift. After looking through all my patterns, I am still at a loss. I asked the expecting mother who already has a child what would be a good gift, and she said that she already had everything she needs. She also said that with the first child, she was given so many newborn size clothes that her son could not wear them all, and many outfits he only wore once. So, what do I sew now? So, I made her this little t-shirt for her older son. It was fun to make and simple. It will not be the only thing I make her, but I am still in a quandary. Any suggestions from anyone? I keep telling myself to just get over the block, and get to sewing sleepers. So, that is the plan for now.

The newest addition to the family

I would like you to meet LaGwenna. She is my third sock monster. She is different from Norbit and Stretch because she is entirely hand sewn. As mentioned before, socks, once they are cut, tend to run and fray very easily which makes machine sewing difficult. Hand sewing also allows for smaller seam allowance than machine sewing. With her long skinny ears and arms, I was trying to get the largest tube I could. Normally, I would not take the time to hand sew even with the advantages just mentioned, but with the long car ride to see my parents, I had plenty of just sitting time. Luckily, hand sewing in the car did not make me car sick. As with any project, I learned a lot. I have not done much hand sewing so it was good to see what stitches held and what stitches did not. I am also new to the whole stuffing game. I had a real fight getting her tiny arms and ears stuffed. I am still not 100% happy with the job I did. I will need to do some research on stuffing items. Does anyone have any suggestions? All in all, LaGweena was a lot of fun to make, and especially to accessorize.

Buttons, Buttons

Guess who’s got Mom’s buttons.

I DO!! I spent this last week visiting my parents. While there, I told Mom my buttons woes. I did not realize that previously as I finished a projects that required buttons, I would check my box first. If no suitable buttons were found, I would check Mom’s box next. If the correct buttons were not located, which rarely happened, I would grin and bear it, and buy buttons. (I am cheap. I hate to pay more for the buttons on a shirt than it cost for the fabric for the shirt.) Now that checking Mom’s box regularly is not an option, I have had to buy buttons more often. Mom was so sympathetic to my woes, that she allowed me to raid her button box. I felt extreme guilty for taking my mom’s buttons, but as you can see guilt did not stop me.

Pictured here is just a sampling of the buttons I took. I had a great time sorting buttons. Many memories were brought back as I found buttons from things Mom had made over the years. Mom has so many fun and unique buttons. I even got to check out my grandmother button box. So, I believe my box is now set to handle most button situations thanks to Mom. Note – take a look at the price tags on some of the card buttons, $0.09, $0.19, $0.15, and even $0.20 from Sprouse Reitz.