Under Construction

It has been quite a while since I last posted on my blog. A lot has been happening since last May; I got married, was in my cousin's wedding, and I moved. I know I've slacked in posting on my blog, but things need to change. I want to get motivated to really work on my freelance design. That means more sewing, more blogging, better networking to get myself out there, possiblities of selling my work, and more.

Baby Shower Gifts- Special Gift

One week ago the cutest baby boy entered into this crazy world. My nephew Zachary is finally here and the whole family is over the moon! We love him so much!

I'm happy I was able to make all sorts of projects for him, and for my brother and sister-in-law, to use. This gift is one that I am especially proud of. My sister-in-law saw a diaper bag that belonged to a friend of hers and wanted one for herself and my brother. It was made from an Air Force desert flight suit. I gladly accepted the project, seeing it as a special challenge in trying to figure out how to cut and take apart a flight suit, and put all the pieces together to make this bag.

I knew as soon as I got the suit, that I wanted to use as many pockets and zippers as I could. She also wanted to keep the Velcro at the top, so they could inter-change any patches my brother has. With that in mind, I took my scissors and seam ripper and went to town. After carefully mapping out the pattern pieces, I got to work, and this is what I ended up with...

 

Front View: Front Flap with Two Pockets with Zipper closure
These pockets were the front chest area of the flight suit. The center was where the front zipper was located.



Front Top View: Velcro Pieces where Patches can be inter-changed; Zipper Pockets
Again, the Velcro was already attached to the front chest of the flight suit.



Back View: Back Pocket with Velcro Tab Closure
Strap with contrast fabric
The emblem on the tab was on the sleeves. I also used one on the front Velcro tab (but you can't see it)



The inside fabric I chose is a neutral color pallet, that way my brother could use it :)



Under the front flap, the bag has another zipper pocket (you can see it on the right)
The sides have pockets as well. One is an open pocket with elastic that you could put a bottle in.
The other has a zipper pocket that I took from one of the pant legs.

 

The inside has two pockets on each side.
There is also a stabalizing piece in the bottom to help keep it flat.



If you haven't already, check out the other gifts I made!

Baby Shower Gifts #1

Baby Shower Gifts #2

I can't wait to make more things for him as he gets older <3

Enjoy

~JV

www.facebook.com/sewingpassion

Baby Shower Gifts #2

Here is #2 in my posts for the baby gifts I made for my sister-in-law. This project was my original plan for my gift. I wanted to make a collection of  items that had coordinating fabrics. So I made a burp cloth, 3 bibs, and a nursing cover.

Burp Cloth with Blue Terry Cloth Backing

Two of the three bibs I made have appliques on them that I cut out from scraps of the Quilt Motif fabric. I used an iron-on adhesive to attach them to the fabric, then stitched them to make them more secure.

Bib #1 Side A with Owl Applique & B Quilt Motif

Bib #2 Side A with Bear Applique & Side B Polka Dot

Bib #3 Side A with Strip Print & Side B Plain Green

Bibs Side A

Bibs Side B

Nursing Cover- It has a piece of boning (a hard strip of plastic) 

along the top to keep it away from the body so she can look down at the baby

If you haven't already checked it out, go take a look at the Baby Shower Gifts #1 post.

Stay tuned for the best gift of them all!! I was so excited to make this final gift so you don't want to miss it :)

Enjoy

~JV

www.facebook.com/sewingpassion

Baby Shower Gifts #1

I'm so excited to become an auntie at the end of this month!! I'm ready for my nephew to arrive and was eager to continue making gifts for him (check out the Christmas gifts I made: Baby Miller Christmas Presents). A few weeks ago we had a baby shower for my sister-in-law and I was able to spoil him a little bit more, even if he's not here yet.

I made quite a few items so I'm going to do several posts to show you what I made. 

My next post will be about the coordinating pieces I made, in neutral colors (just in case more babies are going to come later). So I also wanted to make something that says BOY!!! I thought this shark fabric was such a vibrant, fun print, that I had to use it.

I made a diaper cover, with elastic around the waist and legs, and a burp cloth, with a blue terry cloth on the back.

Shark Diaper Cover

Shark Burp Cloth

Shark Burp Cloth- Back Terry Cloth

This cloud fabric is a flannel I found from a long time ago. I think my mom made pajamas out of them. But I thought it was a cute fabric so I made another burp cloth, just for the fun of giving another gift.

Clouds Burp Cloth



Clouds Burp Cloth- Back Terry Cloth



Stay tuned for the next batch of gifts... you definitely don't want to miss the final one :)

~JV 

Soccer Jersey Quilt

It may be two months since Christmas has come and gone (already???) but I wanted to show off some work I did. Last Christmas I made my first quilts for my aunt (check them out here- My First Quilts) and I was telling a co-worker about it. She got pretty excited because her daughter played soccer, pretty much her whole life. So she had a ton of jerseys laying around the house. So she asked if I could come up with a design for a quilt she could give her daughter for Christmas. 

And here it is...

Quilts are a lot of work, and after many, many tries at different layouts, I love the way this one turned out!

It was tough to figure out how to put together the black, green and pink to make them look cohesive, but I think it works.

So if you have a lot of jerseys hanging around, think about me next Christmas :)

Enjoy

~JV

www.facebook.com/sewingpassion

Scarves for Christmas

 Today's post is about some scarves I made as Christmas presents for a few people.

I obviously love making things for people as gifts and this year was no exception.

Here are all of the scarves I made this year... 

Pink Polka Dot- Jessica (sister)
We did Secret Santa for the siblings this year and Jessica was who I was buying for.  I made this as an extra gift, but it was a dead give-away when it was time for her to guess who her Secret Santa was :)  



Multi-Color Floral- Erin (sister-in-law to be)



Yellow/ Gray Floral- Heather (friend)

Blue Floral/Dot- Mom



Brown Plaid- Mother-in-Law to be

You can check out other scarves by looking through the Accessories Label on the right side of the page.

Or you can follow this link Accessories

Enjoy
~JV
https://www.facebook.com/sewingpassion

Baby Miller Christmas Presents

I'm ready to post about Christmas presents!!!!

I am so excited that I will be an aunt in the spring!! I couldn't help myself but start to stock up on baby patterns for the little guy! So I picked three projects to make for a Christmas present.

My brother is a fighter pilot in the Air Force and my sister-in-law is also in the Air Force, so what's more appropriate for a little boy with parents like that than airplanes!! But not just any airplane, it needed to be a fighter jet. So as I looked around JoAnn's I found fabrics that were perfect for the "theme". But I could not find the right applique to put on the projects. So I made them myself!!!

The first project was a bunting with attached mittens and a hat. I created the fighter jet applique to go on the bottom. I also cut out designs from the themed fabric to attach to the hat and the jet. They live in Arizona but it does get cold, so I made it out of ultra cuddle fleece.

Full View

Hat with Air Service Appliques

Jet Applique at Bottom of Bunting

Simplicity 5720 View B with Jet Appliques

I also made another project called a bunting. This one is actually a wrap for the baby. For this I used the fabric I found with the air service design on it.

The pattern also included a really easy diaper cover. It matches the wrap bunting but also has a jet on the butt that matches the fleece bunting.

Front

Back

Simplicity 2165 Views C & D

I can't wait to make more baby stuff for the upcoming baby shower!!! This stuff is sooooo cute and easy to make :)

~JV