Diaper Bag: Part Deux

I've been holding out writing a post about the diaper bag that I finished for my sister-in-law, because I was hoping to do a double post with hers and mine.  Unfortunately, mine currently looks like this:

Nuts.  I managed to cut it out sometime after my gal's birth, but it's been sitting in a pile in my craft room ever since.  Oh well.  

As for the finished product, I sent that out in February, for her shower, filled with goodies...you can't give a bag without putting something in it.  I think it's bad luck.  Or not. 

Once again, I revisited the problematic diaper bag pattern from my old blog:  Butterick B5005.  I had the same problem this time around:  the zip would not install properly.  Ugh.  I ended up taking it out and installing it a different way, resulting in this pucker:

Stinker.  But after I made this and screwed it up for the second time, I found this girl who had installed it properly.  After a little blogger-to-blogger convo, I think I may be able to put it in the right way next time.  She called the zipper a breeze to put in, while I think it's more of a gale.  We'll see.

Otherwise, I modified two things.  First, I installed a magnetic snap instead of the velcro.  I like it better and will be doing the same for my bag.

Next, I changed up the fabric for the inside pockets.  The directions tell you to use the lining fabric for both the lining and the inside pockets.  Since I lined it with black, I wanted to break up that abyss:

As for the contents, I just filled it with some things I'd found for their little baby:  Nintendo Teether from Etsy, Pride and Prejudice board book (purchased locally, of course),  a fun Mr. Potato Head onesie (found at a craft show, but I can't remember the seller -- sorry!), and some Pooh-related items.

I also made some burp cloths and matching bibs:

And my latest discovery is this PUL fabric that is supposed to be waterproof (has not worked well enough with my one homemade diaper, though), but I found some orange PUL and made a matching changing mat:

PS...I wrote this post while nursing and then with a sleeping babe on my chest.  If only all of life's tasks could be accomplished as such.  Baby snuggle time is the best.

Nursery Evolution: Changing Table

For the changing table, we tried to pick something that would grow with our baby gal.  It seemed senseless to buy a changing table with no other purpose, so we picked up Ikea's Expedit shelving, placed it horizontally, added some mirrored doors, and added some legs to bring it up to a good height.  

We wanted storage boxes to go with the unit and we settled on the Drona box, a fabric covered cardboard-like bin for the low price of $4.99.  Looking at their website now, I see that it comes in pink, black, or green, but when we were there it only came in white.  They had pretty colored plastic boxes, but the thought of plastic boxes being dragged around by a toddler on the wood floor made me cringe.  They also had wicker, but I'm not a big wicker fan.

Anyway, after purchasing four of the Drona boxes, all of the white on white was just too much:

At first I wanted to make box covers for them out of fabric from my stash, but that required calculations and thinking and I wasn't up for that.

Then I decided that I should make applique-ish flowers out of scrap fabrics.  I got as far as this flower and called it a day.  I tried to go with the circle-dot theme of the room, but this just didn't look right:

While searching for adequate scrap fabric, I came across the Fredrika remnant from the nursery curtains.  What if I fused some of those flowers to the boxes?  I did one and it looked so much better than my pathetic creation!  I just flipped my circle-dot flower to the back of the shelf and used the other side of the box.  Behold:

So there you have it...my mini Ikea hack.  It's not perfect, but it works.  

In My Mailbox

Yesterday I received a surprise package from one of my oldest and dearest friends!  She sent a lovely handpainted piece of art for Zelda's room!

I immediately added it to the collection.  I know everything is a little off balance right now, but I hope to add another small piece or two to even the scales.

It's lovely!  And it goes so well with the room...from the colors to the circles to the dots.  And I love the little bird!

So sweet!  Plus, I have a few more bird pieces in the room, so this adds to that theme as well.  One of those game boards that I framed has birds on it and, if I ever find the time, I hope to put together the mobile for above the crib, which also has birds.

And not only is my dear friend a very talented artist with her own etsy shop, she is also an amazing paper handler/scrapbooker extraordinaire as evidenced by the enclosed card:

Thank you, Mel!  I love it!  You are amazing!

Nursery Evolution: Wall Art

There has not been much crafting going on 'round these parts since I gave birth two months ago.  Oh well.  Someday I'll get back to it.  I have managed to squeeze some time in to frame art for the nursery.  I guess that sort of counts as crafting...  Anyway, here's a little tour around Zelda's room...

Here's an old metal "Z" that we found at Hunt and Gather in Minneapolis (best store ever, btw).  We stuck it on with those pull-away command strips to preserve the integrity of the door.

Next up is our first piece of art for the room.  Before she had a name, we called her "The Kraken" when we first found out we were pregnant.  Her aunt and uncle happened upon this piece and sent it to us for Christmas.  It's awesome:

It's made by Family Tree Design.  They have such fun baby monster prints and the Japanimals are fun too (love the Kitsune!).  I wish they had a better variety of colors.

We already had this framed and living in the craft room.  It's an uncut sheet of bookmarks from a company called Ross Industries, which was based out of Liberty, NY, and then it was mounted at Paper Vision in Santa Cruz, CA.  My mom used to work at Ross when I was in elementary school and my drawing skills are featured on this bookmark.  See for yourself:

That's my clown drawing immortalized!

Next up we have the Etsy collection.  I found all of these, with the exception of the "Z", on Etsy.

I think this seller, Loopz, was featured by some nursery website and I loved that the prints had these cute little animals.  It came all the way from Hong Kong and was printed on A4 paper, which I had not realized when I bought the 8x10 frame, so there was some trimming to be done.

And then I did a search for Zelda and found this old page from a book from this seller:

Zelda feels zippy!

And when I did a search for her namesake, Zelda Fitzgerald, I came across this quote from 3 Lambs Illustration:

She was not named after the video game.

As for that Z, my mom sent a blank white z from a crafting store and I covered it with craft paper and modpodge:

A while back I saw that someone had mounted vintage gameboards in their nursery and I fell in love with that idea, but couldn't find any that I liked. A few weeks ago I did another search on Etsy and found Four First Games, a color matching game from a seller called Little Places.  There are four games, but only two two-sided gameboards, so I had to choose which sides to frame.  We went with these two prints, because of their circular nature:

Also, we used ArtToFrames, an Amazon seller, for the white, orange, blue, and pink frames.

And finally, our gal's Great Aunt sent us a watercolor print from her trip to Italy.  It is so whimsical and fun and absolutely PERFECT for the nursery.

I also love that it will grow with her.  I framed it using a 60% off coupon at JoAnn's.  The metallic frame goes so well with the balloons!  We love it!

That's all that we have mounted so far.  It's looking good in there and I will post a whole nursery photo tour after I finish a few things.  Thanks for visiting!

Handmade Baby Blankets

I thought I'd share a quick post about all of the handmade baby blankets that have been given to our baby girl.

These were my baby blankets and one of them was crocheted by my grandmother.  My mother could not remember who crocheted the other one.  They are not super soft and snuggly, which is unfortunate, but I'm sure we'll still use them on cold Minnesota nights!

Next up, we have another grandmother blanket.  This one was made by my husband's grandmother when he was a wee lad.  It's a giant elephant blanket and it's the coolest thing ever.  I should've taken a picture to show how big it is...oops.  I know it's wrinkly, but I'm a new mom, so I really don't have time to iron anything.  This grandmother also made a lion blanket for my husband's brother.  Was this a kit or did she design it herself?  I don't know, but it is so nifty.

 And my favorite part...the toes!

My husband's mom made these snuggly flannel blankets.  She made some for our nephew when he was born and they've been a big hit with him, so she also made some for us.  The blanket seam binding on the edges was a really good idea.

My best friend sent us this fabulous baby quilt.  It makes me think of a nighttime sky.

 I love the orange swirly lining and the swirly quilting.

 And here's a close-up of one of the dancing stars:

Our neighbor friends made this flannel blanket for the baby and it matches the room surprisingly well!

 I like the rounded corners and the fact that two edges have orange blanket binding and the other edges have ribbons.  Fun stuff.

 So that's it for now.  My mom said that she was also working on a blanket so there may be a blanket  update sometime in the future!  

Nursery Evolution: Windows

We have curtains...finally!  

I picked up this Fredrika fabric last month from Ikea, but the last few weeks have been marked by swollen feet, so I kept putting off curtain construction.  The baby is due this Saturday and last weekend I made a deal with her...she just had to wait until I got the curtains finished and then she was more than welcome to make her appearance.  Good thing I finished them up tonight, because I'm experiencing some contractions as I type this.  Don't worry...it's still undecided as to whether these are real ones or Braxton Hicks ones, so we're just waiting it out at this point.

So back to the curtains...I love this fabric.  It suits the room really well.  It's pretty heavy duty fabric, so when it's lined with the blackout liner fabric, they feel more like drapes than curtains.  Anyway, I bought four yards of Fredrika and four yards of blackout fabric (with a 50% off coupon at Joann's).  It turned out that I had just enough for both windows.  Four yards was actually just a lucky guess.  

I used this tutorial for directions on how to make lined curtains.  It features a blind hem, which I had never done before, so that was a learning experience.  I'm not quite sure that I had the stitch lengths accurately configured.  You're not supposed to see the ticks on the front of the fabric, but they are pretty visible upon a close inspection:

And here's what the other side of a blind hem stitch looks like:

The blackout curtain liner fabric was chosen after reading YHL's post on their nursery curtains.  I hate mini blinds, so I had taken down the ones that came with the house.  I didn't want to install them again, so blackout liners seemed to be a good choice.  

Here's what the curtains look like closed during the middle of the day:

Light still gets through, but it is significantly less than it would be without the liner.  (P.S. Aren't they pretty?)

I also lined the valance on the other window.  It probably didn't need it, because I decided to keep the roller blind that came with the house, but I wanted to keep things consistent.  I didn't add any fabric to the sides, so the valance does not do much bunching.

Peeking out from under the valance is the roller blind.  I've given most of the roller blinds that came with the house to the Goodwill, because they were all trimmed with this white fancy trim:

I liked the scalloped edge, but not that fancy trim.  I bought yellow and orange dingle balls to trim the curtain, but decided to put those on the nursery lampshade instead.  I found this other trim at the store and it seemed like a good substitute.  I cut off the white trim and hot glued the new trim to the roller blind.

It's a little hard to see in these pictures, but it looks really good in person.

The final touch for the windows is the curtain hardware.  I found these fabulous rods and tie backs at Lowe's and they are so awesome:

So there you go!  Windows are done and the room is pretty much finished.  Baby is now allowed to emerge!