Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Doll Sleeping Bag and Tutorial




Alaire has been on a sleeping back kick for about a month.  Is that a phase?  How many "phases" do these little people have?  A lot right?  Anyway she doesn't have a sleeping bag and neither do her dolls but she talks about them all having them.  
So... I made her doll one.  You can make one too.  They are pretty easy.  It has a zipper.  Don't let that turn you away.  It isn't that bad.

Here is the tutorial. 
*** Warning there are A LOT of pictures.***

Supplies Needed:
*Basic Sewing Supplies (machine, thread, scissors, pins etc)
*1/3 yard of lining and outside materials
I used flannel for the lining (the floral print) and fleece for the outside of the bag (the purple)
*zipper (I used 16")
For the zipper you can use a smaller one if you want your bag to be a bit smaller.  
This sleeping bag will fit most sizes of dolls.  I made it for the "Bitty Baby", but there is about 6 inches of room below her feet.  It will definitely fit 18" dolls too.


I cut the fabric 13 inches x the width of the fabric.  I then cut down the fleece to the width of the flannel.  The pieces ended up being about 42x 13.   (Keep the extra fleece material if you want to make a pillow to match.)

Step 1: Round the corners on one end of the sleeping bag.  
This will be the end for the head to lay on.


It should now look like this.  
The lining and shell should be laying right sides together at this point as well.



Step 2:  Fold the squared off end up to where it will be sewn and make sure you have enough room for the zipper to be placed on one side.  The zipper will not be sewn into the bottom of the sleeping bag, just one side of it.  It doesn't matter if the zipper is  a little longer than the side.  

Mark where the zipper will start at the opening (as pictured below with the red clips)

Step 3:  Sew around the entire piece except on the one side between your markings

It should look like the picture below:
Step 4:  Clip the curves and the one corner that is sewn 

Step 5:  Turn the sleeping bag right side out and fold it back in half
Open the zipper and as pictured below pin it to the outer shell on one side.  The zipper should be face down with the teeth facing away from the raw edge.


 Step 6:  Starting from the top of the zipper stitch it onto the outer shell only.  You can open the sleeping bag back up as pictured below.  Stop stitching before you reach the bottom of the zipper where the zipper pull should be resting.


 After you stitch the first, pin the zipper up the remainder of the side.  You are going to want to sew it down starting at the outside and working your way toward the zipper pull, stopping again before you reach the center.


 Step 7: Flip the zipper tail between the two layers of fabric


 
It should now look like this.  The zipper tape and seam allowance should be turned inside as well.


 You will then turn the lining 1/2 inch under.  (You can iron it under too, which may make it easier)  You can then pin or clip the layers together.



You should be working from the outside toward the middle on each side.   Stitch each side down.  Do it as you did the first time working form each end toward the middle.


Step 8: After the stitching each side to the zipper pull, fold the sleeping back back in half and topstitch the last inch that was left un sewn.



Step 9: Topstitch the rounded head piece where it will be visible.


Step 10: Flip the sleeping back inside out and stitch 1/2 seam allowance on the remaining open side, backstitching at the beginning and end.


 Congrats baby... you are done!!!

I added some ruffles and a simple pillow, because god knows dolls don't sleep without all of the necessities. 


 If you wanted to skip the zipper you could always sew in some velcro or you could sew both sides shut and just slip the doll in from the top.  But I think you should try it.  I put off learning zippers for far too long.  It WILL broaden your sewing horizons.
For not turning into a cat lady sake I better stop right there about zippers because I am geeking out.

Sweet Dreams little Bitty



FYI  all of Alaire's dolls thus far are named after the doll brand.  American Girl Bitty Baby... Bitty, Fischer Price Little Molly Doll... Little Mommy... That's my favorite because people always call Little Mommy Baby Mama and I dig it. lol!!
Happy Wednesday!


Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Pumpkin Patch

We have had a busy few weeks.  Drew's grandpa passed away last week and we headed back to South Dakota.  Even though the circumstances aren't fun, it's always fun to see his family.  There is always food and lots of card playing.  Alaire loved seeing Drew's cousins that she only gets to see at Thanksgiving.  It reminded me of Holidays when I was little.  The kids played in the bedrooms and basement and didn't want to stop to eat or go home.  It was awesome for us too because they got along so well.  The down side-coming home.  Our sleep schedules are horrible after many late nights without bedtimes or naps.  (Advice on getting back to normal is welcome : )

It turned out that my mom, who is a teacher, had no school last Friday.  She ended up riding home with us to St Louis for the weekend.  We all took Alaire to the pumpkin patch.  She's not super interested in the pumpkins, but there was a lot of little activities to do while we were there.

First things first.  We had to get face painting.  She has never agreed to get it done.  She had to pick out which design to get.


She decided on the SNAKE!!! She wanted it across her whole face.  

It goes without saying that she was pretty pumped about it.




Every year we go to the same place and the biggest hit is the wooden swing set.  Pretty typical right?

We ended the trip with a train ride and headed home.  


I hope everyone has a great week! 

PS I am working on a Doll sleeping bag tutorial to post later today.  






Monday, October 15, 2012

Kids Clothes Week Challenge/ Near Death Lion Show

 I haven't had much motivation to make anything lately.  I have lists and ideas but I just can't get started.  Can you relate?  I think I burned out trying to build storage for the loft/playroom in a week.

Alaire and I were gone for about ten days at the end of September.  We started off staying with my cousin Susan and her family for a night.  Alaire ADORES their girls and asks to go to their house all of the time.  Too bad we live six hours away.  She had so much fun playing with their old Barbies and My Little Ponies.
They all got their hair braided the day we left.  

The highlight of their house was "Mr. Bibbles", their hampster.  



Its' not too surprising that Alaire stayed up one night telling me that she wants Santa to bring her "Mr. Bibbles he kennel and he juice."  I love it.   Well you all know what I will be doing in December : ) 

Next stop was Drew's parents' house.  We helped his mom with some of her house projects that she wanted to get done.  It was fun and a great sense of accomplishment.  I will admit I was tired though.  When I get back from a trip like that I have a hangover, and it takes me a little bit to get back into the swing of  things.  We stopped at my parents for a few days before heading home.  It was a long time for Alaire to be away from Drew.  She asked for him every single day.

Onto the current times...
Last week Elsey Marley blog hosted a Kids Clothes Week Challenge.  The challege:  sew for your kids one hour each day for a week.  I needed it.  I have soo many things I wanted to make Alaire.  Of course I ended up spending way more than an hour a day on it, which was great.

This was kind of a fail.  I made it at night and the pink doesn't really match in the day light.  


Oh well she wore it for the day.  It now resides on "her girl" aka the mannequin.  She usually offers up some of her clothes to that thing.

This picture captures Alaire's personality perfectly.   
Next up is a fleece coat.  I will admit, I am not a huge fan of fleece. I feel like it always looks dirty and gets balled up and collects every piece of lint and hair.  With that said this is probably my favorite thing that I made this week.   I've had the fleece for a while, so it needed to get used.

I love the piping and the full skirt.

I also love the wooden buttons.  Alaire loves it too, which is awesome because then she will wear it.


Did I say I loved the coat?? Okay well I actually love this vest too.  I'll have to take a full outfit picture, but Its super cute on.


Onto the flannel plaid dress.  She wore it to the circus on Sunday.  She's not a fan of collars close to her neck and complained a few times about it.  It won't be the first time.. haha

 And the last thing I worked on this week was this petal skirt.  It's really cute on but the material I used was a little on the heavy side. 

Five items in a week isn't too shabby.  I also did some non sewing projects too that I will share soon.  We are really working on wrapping up some final touches on projects that we have had half finished for a while.  I am notorious for having multiple things started at once and then after a while I get irritated and finish them all in a week or so.  (Here's to hoping!)

I have to share this dress that I made a few weeks ago, but haven't posted yet.  It is so cute on.  I've made this dress twice, once this summer in white.  The pockets are the best part.


I hope everyone had a great weekend.  We went to the Ringling Brothers Circus on Sunday afternoon, which was great.  At one point Drew and I were both ready to cover Alaire's eyes to avoid her seeing a lion tamer eaten in front of us.  I know some of that is part of the show, but the tamer was being cornered and batted at by two female lions and his sequined shirt was stuck in the fencing around the cage.  Shoot me I about had a heart attack watching it.  Alaire of course thought it was super funny and kept saying "that lion is sooo funny mama!"  Every parent sitting around us was thinking the same thing we were.  He made it out alive though so that's all that counts right?  lol
Have a good week!!!


Thursday, October 11, 2012

Guest Bedroom

Our guest bedroom gets used a lot.  It seems like we have someone here at least once a month.   We don't have any family in St.  Louis, so when they come to visit they usually stay a while.  
We love having people at our home, but our guest bedroom could be more inviting.

I haven't done much to the room yet, but I am hoping to have it put together by the holidays.  When we moved in, the room was a pretty blank slate.  It did have a cow jumping over the moon boarder up.  

Here are the before pictures:
This is from standing in the hallway.

There is the boarder.  It was only on one wall. YAYYY!



One of the things that sold me on this house was every room had big walk in closets.  Our master bedroom closet is bigger than the spare bedroom.  It's borderline ridiculous, but I love it.

I painted the walls a dark mocha brown, which I absolutely love.  I regret not painting our bedroom this color.

Here are the after pictures with paint.






The closet after picture isn't so great but what EVER!

I have picked up a few accessories for the walls, but there is a lot to be desired to make it a great room to stay in.  
On my list of things to do:
  • Window Treatment
  • Desk or Dresser
  • Artwork for above the bed
  • Chair or bench 
  • paint side tables
  • candles for the sconces
  • Bedding
  • Clean out closet and organize wrapping supplies
So there is it, a small small update on the spare bedroom.  I hope everyone has a great weekend.  We have tickets to the circus and a few small plans with friends.  It should be fun! 

Random Alaire picture 
CONE HEAD