A few quickies

Well lately it seems that everyone I know is having babies. I have been sewing up a storm of receiving blankets (over 20) and packaging up gifts to go in the mail.

My sister's best friend, who has a thing for turtles, just had a little girl. I made a few turtle patterned receiving blankets for her and also made a little flower arrangement. I found the ceramic turtle dish at Value Village and thought it would be perfect to use for an arrangement. By no means am I a professional flower arranger so don't judge me too harshly.

A very good friend of mine just had a little boy and I wanted to do something for her almost 4 year old daughter. I know how difficult it can be for kids that age when their new sibling is getting loads of presents and they don't get a present too. I wanted to make something special for her so decided to make a Big Sister shirt. I cut out the stencil on freezer paper using my Cricut machine and the School Book cartridge. This worked very well! I'll be using my cricut machine to make more stencils for sure. If you look closely the sister is slightly off center but I'm sure I'm the only one who noticed that.

Last time I tried this technique I ironed an extra piece of freezer paper underneath the stencil on the inside of the shirt. I skipped that step this time but will definitely not skip that step again. I found that I had cleaner, crisper lines with the paper ironed on the back.

That's it for today! Maybe I will go forth and be creative some more!

Shirt in Action

Here is an action shot of the Team Ultimate Westie shirt! Not actually taken during the walk but at a birthday party later in the day. It turned out great!

Team Ultimate Westie!

Tomorrow my hubby, Little E, myself, my sister, mom and Wilkie (the Ultimate Westie) are walking in the Winnipeg Humane Society Paws In Motion fundraiser. We walked it last year while I was pregnant and this year I am so excited that Little E is able to come along.

I had been dying to try freezer paper stenciling on a t-shirt and this was the perfect occasion for it. Hence the very first Team Ultimate Westie shirt for Little E. After several attempts at tracing a stencil (and having my husband remark they looked like cats), I referred to the book "Good Boy Fergus" for inspiration and found my muse. I even got Wilkie's bitey parts onto the stencil!

The shirt is drying now. I couldn't wait to see if it turned out and took the stencil off while wet (I would advise not to do this!). Here are some pics!

Next project - maybe

Well I had been saving some old t-shirts that are worn out/stained for my next project - making t-shirt yarn! However I read this post for directions on how to make t-shirt yarn and discovered that the t-shirts I had planned to use are not suitable as they have side seams. Now I need to be on the lookout for some old t-shirts in groovy colors. Value Village has 50% off day on Monday so maybe I will pick up some shirts there.

I found another potential project that I could use my old t-shirts for. I have been reading the blog Helping Little Hands and this blogger uses old t-shirts to create appliques for children's clothing. She uses t-shirt material as it doesn't fray and is easy to applique with. I have visions of cute clothes for Little E. He definitely needs a shirt with a tractor on it for his visit to Papa's house as he will likely be going for his first tractor ride.

I also want to try freezer paper stencilling as well. Just have to find some freezer paper - which has proven surprisingly hard to find.