Baby Doll Carrier and Doll Stroller Makeover

Christmas is officially 11 days away, and I can proudly say that I am 100% Prepared for the Jolly ole Man to come plopping down my chimney. I am done shopping, done wrapping, and done shipping!

And I cannot wait to have our very first Christmas alone! It will be an interesting experience. No where to go, no one to visit, just a long quiet day in our jammies, playing with toys! I'm stoked, tho if I think about our families, I want to cry. We miss them!

Anywho!

I found this
 

Robert Kaufman Fabric Zig Zag Chevron Multi Color Rainbow Hot Pink Green Yellow Blue

 at local fabric store, but it can also be found at fabric.com or etsy.

I bought the doll stroller used for $3 back in August. It is in perfect condition other than the material for the seat was stained and gross. So as soon as I saw this fabric I new exactly what I wanted to use it for. And because Azure is obsessed with her babies lately I thought it would be fun to also make a matching baby carrier. My mom made my sister and I one when we were little and we LOVED them!

But as I was trying to find a pattern or tutorial, I couldn't find one, well that was FREE anyways, and because I am on a tight budget for Christmas I was not going to pay $10 for a pattern when I didn't even spend half of that on the fabric! So here we go...

Now I will mention AGAIN that I am not an expert sewer. Is that ever a word? Sewer? hmm. But I am not great, I am still learning. So I am sure that some of you might have better ways and ideas of doing this.

This is what you will need:

1/2 yard Main Fabric (or this would be a great Fat Quarter project in which you would need 2 FQ's)

1/4 yard Coordinating Fabric

4 inches wide elastic (optional)

Baby doll as guide

Flannel or Batting

Meet Gertrude! 

First lay out your fabric with the right side facing up. Fold fabric over so that right sides are facing. *Note: I did it backwards in the photo to show off this cute pattern! :)

Lay your Gertrude down on the fabric and determine how big you want the carrier to be. In this case I cut just above the head and the fabric went just past her knees. Then about 2 inches wider than the baby. Which made for measurements of 8.5 x 11.

After cutting, take one of the sides and use it as a template to cut a piece of flannel to go between to add durability. Once your flannel is cut lay your pieces together with main fabric laying right sides together with flannel on top. Fold in half hotdog style. Now you are going to round off the corners. I found it easiest by using a square Tupperware bowl with rounded corners. Trace. Cut.

Now cut out 1 Belly Strap measuring 17 1/2 x 4 inches wide (if you plan on using elastic). If you plan on bypassing the elastic then cut the Belly Strap to 20 inches x 4 inches. Fold Strap in half so that it is 10 x 4 with right sides together. Sew the 2 long edges leaving an opening for flipping. Once flipped, sew opening closed.

* If you are wanting to add an applique (turquoise heart) Cut it out and sew in place before sewing the Belly Strap. So that the back of the stitch is on the inside.

Next take your coordinating fabric and cut out 4 Strips 14 x 2 1/2. These will be the doll's harness straps. Place them right sides together and sew along 3 sides. Flip. Stitch the opening closed. Top stitch around all 4 sides. You will have 2 straps after this.

If you would like a hanging hook cut out a piece that is 5 x 3. Fold in half hotdog style so that it is 2 1/2 x 3. Sew along 2 sides. Flip. Stitch closed. Top Stitch along all 4 sides.

Using your main fabric. Cut 4 Shoulder Straps 20 x 3 inches and do the same as above with the previous straps.

This is what you should have so far: Left: 2 Shoulder Straps. Top: Belly Strap with Applique. Center: Body Base (all 3 layers) Bottom: Hanging Hook. Right: Harness Straps.

 

Take Gert and lay her on the Front piece of the Base Fabric. Take the Harness Straps and position where best fits. Pin in place. Stitch the straps to the fabric.

Once the Straps are in place. Take the Belly Strap. If choosing to use elastic attache 2 pieces to each side of the Belly Strap. Then pin to edge of the Base and Stitch. Don't forget to take Gert out of the carrier before sewing. :) 

If NOT using elastic, Stitch the edges of the Belly Strap to the edge of the Base.

I missed this next step, so LISTEN UP! This is why I am sharing this Tut, I have lived and learned with this so I'm trying to help you avoid it. But Take the BACK piece of the Base and fold the top edge over 1/4 inch and stitch a hem. Then you are going to attach the Hanging Hook like shown in the picture.

Then take the Shoulder Straps and pin them in place on the BACK piece of the carrier. With the ends folded over and attached to the WRONG side of the Fabric.

Next take the BACK, FRONT, and FLANNEL pieces of the carrier and Lay them in this order: FRONT and BACK Facing each other. With all of the extras tucked in. You want to let the Hook, and Tops of the Straps hang out at the top. Next Take your Flannel and Lay on top of the sandwich. Pin all pieces together. Notice at the Top where the Straps connect, make sure the flannel is on the outside of the strap. This prevents the flannel from poking out of the seem when finished.

Stitch the sides and bottom closed, leaving the top open for flipping. Flip. 

 Stitch the opening closed and Top Stitch around the entire Carrier's base.

Snip off any leftover strings.

 

I just can't wait til Azure opens this! I hope she LOVES it as much as I do!!!!!!!

Here is the stroller... Like I said, stained and GROSS! But Silly Me, I can't find the pictures that I KNOW I took, while redoing this. So for now you might have to wait til Christmas to see the finished product.... Yes, it is already wrapped!!!

 

But all I did with this was use the old fabric as my template. And I also used the original seat belt. I just cut it off and put it on the new one. But I used the same Chevron fabric as above and used a turquoise fabric for the binding. 

If you plan on doing this and don't plan on keeping the old fabric. Then just unstitch it and that will make it easier for creating your shapes. This was super easy, and seriously took me about an hour. Granted it could have been a lot shorter of time had I waited til nap time to pull out the sewing machine.

  When I don't I have a really great helper sewing on my lap!

DIY Menu Stand

 

So a few months ago when I was trying to give my bland boring apartment kitchen/dining room some oomph, I really wanted to makeover my MENU board. 

As you can see in this BEFORE photo I was in dire need! 

I made this one about 3 years ago; and I'm sure everyone can attest to how fast things go in and out of style these days. Another reason for the overhaul was that in my home before I had it hung on the wall, but now I have a tall bar that I wanted to display it on. 

There's always something that can be improved or glamorized, right?!

 So I hunted for something that would be a great pedestal. I was an original Goldilocks for weeks. Not too tall, Not too short, Not too fat, Not too skinny.... But juuusssttt right!

I originally wanted one made of wood, because I imagined I was going to need to cut at some point to make it the way I imagined.

It took me a few weeks until I found the perfect one! Can't beat a $2.99 candlestick @ ROSS!  

However this one made me settle for metal it was my only choice and I was getting impatient! Luckily I have a hubbers who will lovingly spend an hour or two.... or three sawing metal in an awkward fashion for me in the middle of the night. (J/K it didn't take him all that long.)

Unfortunately I deleted the only photo of the candlestick, in original form, I had. So you will just have to imagine with me.

First I disassembled the candlestick as to make workflow go smoother.

I wanted my frame to sit snugly inside the top of the candlestick so that it looked like it was all one piece. This is where the metal cutting hand-saw came in handy (see I told you I would be needing to cut something)

So I measured and used a sharpie to mark my lines. I wanted a good solid line that I could see well while cutting, and I was just going to paint over the pink anyways. I know, I know, who doesn't want pink in their kitchen?! Minus my cute grandma who had a pink strawberry kitchen back in the day :)

 Then my manly Brett took over the cutting because I wasn't strong enough (due to a recently broken hand at the time) to grip the metal piece and the saw to use enough force to cut.

After he cut to the end of my marks I folded in the tabs to create a support for underneath my frame.

This is what it looked like after reassembling the candlestick.

        

The top of the candlestick was like a bowl, so to make it flush I stuck some foam that I got at the dollar store into the hole on both sides. I then epoxied around the edges to fuse the candlestick and frame together to create a solid piece.

I then had the dilemma of choosing which color of blue I wanted, 

BLUE OCEAN BREEZE or TRUE BLUE.

 I had recently painted some picture frames to go in the dinning room with these colors, so I didn't have to spend any more money! YAY!

I then hot glued a matching piece of felt over the foam, and it made for a nice little shelf to hold my dry erase marker........ 

AND HERE IT IS!!

I love both colors so much that I made a mason jar candy dish to go next to my menu stand. I couldn't give up one blue. I LOVE BLUE!!

Oh and FYI; yes I update the menu every week! It helps me have motivation to cook and plan ahead :)

DSLR Camera Cover Tutorial

Great FAT QUARTERS PROJECT!!

Before I begin anything I would just like to mention (again) that I am not an amazing sewer. If you had been in home ec class with me back in the day, you would laugh and cry at the fact that I now think I can post a sewing tutorial!

But this is soooo easy, that if I can do it (the girl that thought you had to back stitch the whole length of your original stitch) then anyone, and I mean anyone can do this!

So for the past few weeks I have been searching for a solution to my hearts desire. I treasure my camera in all it's glory; and I have a nice fancy backpack for it and all my gear, but I felt like I needed something to protect it during those times that I wasn't using the backpack and just lugging my camera around on my shoulder. So I searched and searched and nothing caught my eye... until I found this... But I didn't want to buy anything and this was too blah for me. So I thought there has to be a Tut for something like this out there. So I searched... and searched... and searched some more and found.... NOTHING!!!!! In English anyway. So I played a long game of trial and error. But I finally mastered it and think I deserve a high five! Especially because I spent absolutely no $$ on this project. I had all the supplies already! WOOT WOOT!

Materials Needed:
2 coordinating Fat Quarter Fabrics
Quilting Batting for added protection (I had some left over from a previous project so I do not have measurements, but as long as it is the same size as the templates you should be fine)
2 16x2 inch Strips Coordinating Fabric or Bias Tape (I have never used Bias Tape before so I used strips of fabric)
3 15x2 inch Strips of Fabric or Bias Tape
Iron
Download Template 1&2 here. Take note that my camera is a Canon Rebel so if you have something diferent you may need to adjust the measurements to fit your camera. You shouldn't have to tweak it too much though; because when I made this I had my ____ lens on, and when I finished I panicked for just a second because I worried that it would not fit with my _____ lens on. But it fits perfectly too!!! Yay!

Step 1:
Print and Cutout Templates, Tape necessary pieces together where instructed to.

Step 2:
Fold FQ#1 in half hotdog style, lay Template #1 along folded edge, pin & cut. Repeat this Step with FQ#2.

Step 3:
Repeat Step #2 with Template #2 with the remaining fabric

Step 4:
Pin matching pieces together with right sides of fabric together. Lay the pieces on top of batting, pin, and cut. Repeat with 2nd shape.

Step 5:
Leave pins in and sew along the edges leaving about a 4 inch gap for flipping inside-out. Flip, making sure all corners are pushed out nicely. Then fold in the edges of the opening and stitch closed. Do this to both pieces from your template.

Step 6:
Take both of your shapes now and decide what fabric you want on the inside and what you want on the out. Pin together (before you sew it is a good idea to put your camera in the pocket while pinned and determine where you want your stitch to end) then stitch along the Bottom. MAKE SURE TO TAKE YOUR CAMERA OUT BEFORE YOU SEW!!! silly...

Step 7:
Now it is time for your edging! Iron each strip by folding in the long edges 1/4 inch in & again  one more time. Iron until the strip stays put. Make sure you do this to each strip.

Step 8:
Take one of the 15 inch stips and place it at the nose of the case (I say nose because I think it looks like a longhorns head, am I a real Texan or what?!) Start pinning in the middle working your way outward. Fold in the tips and pin.

Step 9:
Stitch along the edges making sure all your frayed ends are secured inward. And If you get a wrinkle while you are sewing, just  breathe, it is ok. I had plenty and I think It looks just fine, you can't tell once it is all finished.

Step 10:
Take the another 15 inch strip and do the same as before, but this time with the brow.

Step 11:
Repeat with the last remaining 15 inch strap along the top of the small flap

Step 12:
Lastly take your 2 16 inch strips and starting at the crease, pin upward. Do this on both sides & stitch.

Put your Camera in and Tie like this...

And FINISHED!!!!

Now wasn't that a cinch?! If you have any questions or if you are confused about something; or even if you have a better suggestion of how to do this, please leave a comment and I will reply the best I can!

HAPPY SEWING!

*Just an FYI Because I hate throwing scraps away and I had extra fabric left over, I also made me a matching Camera Strap with a Lens Cap pocket that I found a tutorial for here. Now me is all fancified out! Maybe the hubs will actually remember that the camera is MINE and not want to use it :) hehehehe