Sundae, Sundae, Sundae...

Once again, I've taken inspiration from others and I've created another small item for my product line. I've thought about making these for a while, but never got around to it until now. So, now introducing, the Sundae.

These cute little items are pretty basic. They are made with washcloths and baby bowls and utensils. It's a great little way to add flair to a shower and have your decorations be more than just decorative. Little items like this are great gifts for expectant moms because they are items she is sure to be able to use.

Sundaes are available in a wide combination of colors and can be made for girls, boys, or babies of unknown gender. I think they are cute and simple. I look forward to providing these for showers in the future!

Lollies!

So, it's been a long time coming and it really was just a matter of me getting around to it. I finally created some "nice" lollipops. The ones I had made before were more for experimentation to see how it would all look and come together. Having boys, I tend towards blue when experimenting so I decided to make a set of pink lollipops.

The lollipops were a matched set of dark pink, light pink, and white in different pairs with soft tipped baby spoons. I prefer the look of these spoons to plastic spoons and they are much sturdier than the lollipop sticks I had experimented with in the past. These "candies" were made with washcloths, and while they could potentially be made with some other baby items which I may try in the future, I stuck with the basic. This set was wrapped in tulle, a look I prefer to cellophane which I've used in the past for my "candy." I took several pictures just playing around.

These were the first lollipops I made with the completed look that I'd expect for sale and should I get an order, they would look very  much like these. I think they are adorable and look forward to other additions to my "candy" collection.

It's a Pooh cake!

Recently, I had my first order for a character cake. I was super excited when my friend first told me about the cake she was going to order and I started looking for items for it right away to plan out what I was going to do. Originally, she had requested Tigger, but it turned out that the cake was going to be Pooh and friends in general (which does make things a bit easier to find since Tigger items are usually accents to Pooh items). My friend also picked up several of the items to incorporate into the cake so that also made my job easier (as well as saving her a bit on the final cost of the cake). I received for the cake, blankets, toys, bath items, and washcloths. She pretty much provided me with the main things for the cake, I just needed to provide the diapers, decorations, building supplies, and labor. Easy, right?

The diapers the expectant mom wanted were a specific type of chlorine free diapers so I needed to find those at a specific location. After picking those up and gathering decorations, I was set to go. I started building the cake. This cake was done in my newer "spiral" style since these types of cakes seem to be becoming more popular, especially in situations where the diapers are visible. It was extremely difficult to pack all the diapers in that I wanted. This is definitely a limitation on diaper cakes where blankets are used since you are limited by the length of the blanket. After several tries, though, I managed to get them all wrapped and bound. The tiers were stacked and the blankets placed around each tier. There were four blankets in the set of pooh blankets. I selected the two matching ones to place on the top and bottom tiers. The middle tier held the green blanket (I was wanting to use blue ribbons and decorations since the expected baby was a boy) and I was left with a brown blanket. I originally wanted to hide the brown blanket in the middle of the cake, however, with as many diapers as I included in the middle, it just wasn't possible. I opted for a new and different approach to incorporate the blanket by fanning it out under the bottom of the cake. It hid the cake circle and gave a beautiful finished look at the bottom.

I added the washcloths, baby bath items, and toys using some new techniques I hadn't used before. I love the final look it gave the cake. The washcloths, for instance, were paired and tied with ribbon and finished with a bow. Rather than having a front center formed by the bows of the ribbon I wrap around the tiers like I do on most of my cakes, this one had items and decorations all around it since it would be used for a centerpiece. The toys and bath items were added around the cake to give visual appeal from all sides.

One thing I was really excited about with this cake was the additional Pooh decorations I had found. This was the first cake that I had ever done where I incorporated items (aside from the ribbon and crinkle paper) that was specifically for decoration. These items were Pooh figures cut out of board that I placed around the cake (in such a fashion that it did not render any items on the cake unusable. They definitely gave the cake a more finished look and filled in spaces that otherwise may have looked empty. I've only played with the idea of a "decorative cake" (one that does not include baby items, but rather is made with only diapers and decorations like ribbons, silk flowers, etc.) since I love the look, but worried about the value of "unusable decorations," but this cake benefited from the additions. Who knows, in the future, I may do this more often.

The final cake was definitely one that made me proud. I love how it looked in the end. This cake is definitely among my favorites that I have made. I'm glad to have found some new techniques for including items in the cake and I hope to constantly improve my methods. And the best part? Both my friend who ordered the cake and the expectant mom loved it! For what more could I ask?

At Project's End

I finally finished the shoes I have been working on. After difficulty figuring out the pattern and sizing, I achieved the correct size, as you know from my previous post. I completed the shoes in the requested material. These shoes were no ordinary shoes though.

Toddler shoes 6.5"
First pair of denim shoes I made

Aside from the smaller size which presents it's own challenges, the mom wanted the shoes made using denim. I had made another pair of shoes for this mom for her toddler also in denim (she wanted matching shoes for her boys). You may have seen the picture of the larger pair I made. The thing I failed to mention about these shoes was the sheer difficulty of using denim. The canvas that I typically use for the top of the shoes is pretty thick in it's own right, however, the top of the shoe isn't typically manipulated a lot. The heel portion, however, is much more difficult to manage. When using twill which is my regular material for the heel portion of the shoe, I have enough difficulty as 12 or so layers of material is a challenge for sewing machines, especially without the right needle (which needs to be super sharp and strong) or a top quality motor (otherwise I would have burned mine out a long time ago). The denim, however, it thicker than the canvas and probably should have killed my machine. Luckily, it didn't. I completed the shoes and they came out the same size as the practice shoes, which was great.

Baby shoes 4.25"

I did discover a potential problem, however. Because of the thickness of the material, the elastic casing is especially thick. A the ends where the material is stitched, folded over and stitched again (several times) it is so thick it actually narrows the amount of space on the inside if the shoe. The shoes then, became much more ideal for narrow or flat feet and they were actually difficult to try on my youngest who is about the same age as the baby that will be wearing the shoes. I do hope they work out though. I really want the mom to get what she wanted.

I have come to a conclusion, though. As much as it may upset some potential customers, I simply cannot make denim shoes again. The fact that I didn't burn out my sewing machine motor is a complete surprise to me. Denim really is too thick for the shoes. I do try to meet my customers' requests, but in this case, the mom benefitted from being a friend and my naïveté at how unsuitable denim is for this project. At least I know now and with continued experience in making these shoes, they are getting better and more consistent and I'm learning the nuances involved in their production.

Oh, no. What did I do?

So a current order of mine is for a pair of baby shoes. The shoes are for a (now) 4 mo. old baby. It's the first time I had to go smaller on my pattern so it was quite an adventure.

At first, I was a little bit hesitant to make shoes for a baby. After all, what does a baby really need shoes for? As they don't walk, shoes don't really serve much of a purpose other than keeping feet warm. In my mind socks can serve that function. Although, recently, I've come to a new conclusion. I recall that many moms are bothered by the lack of ability baby socks have to actually stay on the baby's foot. I have experienced this myself. I've heard several people say they've put shoes on their babies solely to keep the sock on. Here's the way I see it now: if a shoe is required to keep a sock on, at least it can be a soft flexible shoe that will not constrict growth or movement. This function is served well by my soft-soled shoes and therefore, there is a rationale to make them that I can live with. Call me strange, but keeping with my ideals with the products I make plays into maintaining my integrity. But I digress.

In any case, I set out to rework my pattern, this time for a smaller foot. What I developed should have been a shoe that measured 4 in. to fit a baby with a 3.5 in. foot. I measured everything out and very carefully drew out my pattern to maintain the exact size differences that previous patterns had given me. When sewing the shoes I was diligent (as I usually am) about maintaining consistency in my seams, etc. When all was said and done, I had created just about the cutest little shoes I had ever seen. Then I measured them. Yeah, they were 1/2 in. too short. I have no idea how that happened. That's not a small amount when we are talking itty bitty baby shoes.


So, it was back to the drawing board. I used some (more) scrap fabric and leather to make another pair of shoes just to check sizing before I made the final pair for my order. The second pair came out the way they were supposed to. Kinda. The larger pattern I used was supposed to make a 4.5 in. shoe (even though it was the "next size up" from the other one). The shoe turned out to be 4.25 in. I'd throw in the towel, but these shoes fit my little one who is close in age to the baby who will wear the shoes so I figure with the time that has gone by and the fact that babies grow, the shoes should fit. I'm going to make the pair the mom requested (with the fabric she requested), cross my fingers, and hope for the best.

Shoes, shoes, and more shoes!

So, I recently have been working on an order for more shoes. Nothing terribly exciting, well, having the order is exciting, but the actual shoe making part is nothing new. I did use some new color combinations and a few different new fabrics. The biggest change is that I have "upgraded" to a stiffer interfacing on the top piece so the fabric should be sturdier and wear slower. They are still a fabric shoe so they will wear faster than an all leather shoe, but hopefully, it will add a bit more stability. I'll have to ask the recipient of the shoes if she notices a difference between these and the ones she has previously ordered. Here are the pictures:

Black & Brown Stripe/Chocolate
New top fabric option
introduced August 2011

Green & Khaki Stripe/Chocolate
New heel fabric option
introduced July 2011

Denim
Special order fabric selection

Now Available: Burp Cloths!

With my new-found "joy" of sewing, I got inspired to make some more items other than the shoes and taggy blocks to add to my product line. I wanted to make some burp cloths. At first, I was considering embellishing prefold diapers (and still may at some point), but I decided to make the whole thing (or things) from scratch. I opted to make them in the same style as prefold diapers but sew them completely on my own as well as add embellishments.

My first go at making the burp cloths was not nearly as easy as I thought it would be, but they did actually come out beautifully. I chose cotton flannel material since I had seen several commercial burp cloths made from flannel and it's a nice soft baby friendly material - especially after washing. My first selection was an adorable jungle/safari flannel material that I had used for some taggy blocks. Jungle/safari themes are so popular for babies today that even if it doesn't match a nursery set perfectly, it can still coordinate. I opted to offer the burp cloths in pairs of coordinating cloths. This first pair includes a solid jungle/safari material burp cloth and a green burp cloth with the jungle/safari accent. The project was certainly a test to my sewing ability; however, I truly think I proved how my skills have improved over the years.

My next step was "packaging" for sale and deciding how I wanted them to look. I opted for securing them with a simple ribbon and attaching a tag. The last thing a recipient wants is a lot of material to deal with and packaging with less waste is easier for everyone. I am so excited to add more designs and currently have materials for at least three more pairs of burp cloths. I hope potential customers love them as much as I do!