Merry Christmas

We've been spending our Christmas together with family. Relaxing, laughing, eating, and loving.

 

Using my ever-growing belly as a table while I still can....

 

 

Having Daddy-Daughter movie time before bed....

 

 

And anxiously awaiting the arrival of Santa Clause on Christmas Eve..

 

 

I hope your Christmas has been just as jolly and relaxing.

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

"Becoming Mommy" Wrap Up

I want to give a HUGE thanks to everyone who contributed to the Becoming Mommy series here at Grits & Giggles!

 

 

There were so many great tutorials shared to help any new mommy or mommy-to-be get better prepared for their new little one.

 

Here is a little run-down of off of the tutorials. Click on the links below the pictures to go to the tutorials:

 

Monogrammed Nursery Art from See Vanessa Craft

 

 

DIY Maternity Shirt by Grits & Giggles

 

 

Starfish Beanie by Seaweed and Raine

 

 

DIY Baby Legs by Freetime Frolics

 

 

Banded Ring Sling by Grits & Giggles

 

 

Diaper Cake Tutorial by Grits & Giggles

 

 

Bunny Softie from Sewing the Littleheart Collection

 

 

Activity Sticks with Tales of the Scotts

 

 

Heat Therapy Bags by Grits & Giggles

 

 

Thanks for joining us!

Bunny Softie from Sewing the Littleheart Collection

 

 

Today we have Mira from Sewing the Littleheart Collection here to share with us how to sew up this super-cute bunny softy! So many babies grow attached to soft lovies for naps, sleep, and car rides. Wouldn't it be great to make one yourself?

 

 

Hi, my name is Mira and I am so excited to be part of "Becoming Mommy" here at Grits & Giggles. I blog over at  Sewing the Littleheart Collection and this is my first guest post!

I am a mom to my two year old daughter, and thanks to her, I have discovered my passion for sewing. My biggest joy is sewing clothes (for my daughter and for myself). So far, most of my tutorials are clothes for toddlers, since this reflects my current needs. But I do have one fun baby project I call the: "Decorative Wall Protector for little Squirters". It is a washable wall hanging for the nursery which serves to protect the wall from squirts during a changing or wash.

Today I am going to share a project with you very close to my heart. When I was a little girl, I had this bunny softie I loved. My parents actually bought me 6 of them, because I would not go anywhere without it. The bunnies were a big part of my childhood, and accompanied me everywhere. 

I have lots of pregnant friends at the moment, and decided I wanted to recreate the bunny, so I can make some presents, and perhaps give these new babies the same security, my bunnies gave me. 

I took my old bunny as a base for my pattern (or whatever was left of the bunny) and recreated a soft, modern version of it. The bunny is not too hard to make (it can be made in one evening) and it is soft and snuggly - perfect for a new baby. I like that it is small, so it can be stuck into a purse if needed to, but it is more unique than just an ordinary little blankie. I made this one pink, but you can definitely make it any color for boys and girls! 

Would you like to make one of your own? Just follow my instructions and you will have one in no time!

What you will need

 

Bunny pattern

1/4 yard soft, white/beige/light pink knit fabric (for the head and hands)

1/2 yard soft, knit printed fabric

A very long band of matching satin.

Cutting

 

Cut two body pieces on the fold from your main fabric.

Cut 4 Head pieces on the fold from you white fabric (you could do 2, but I wanted the head to be a bit thicker, so I did 4)

Cut 8 hand pieces from you white fabric (same reason as head)

Cut 4 ear pieces from you main fabric.

Cut a strip of your satin, 2.5 inches wide, as long as you can. Or use a satin ribbon or binding that you buy as a strip. My satin was not long enough to go around the entire bunny, so I had to sew two strips together.

Sewing

 

Sew two ear pieces right sides together, using 1/4" seam allowance. Do not sew across the straight part on the bottom. Flip the ear right sides out and topstitch around the ear. Do the same for the other ear.

Sew the hands together in the same manner (with you hands you are sewing through 4 layers, not two). You don't need to topstitch the hands.

Now make the face. You can really do it anyway you want. I made the nose with embroidery thread and I drew on the eyes with a fabric marker. For the cheeks I cut out two small circles out of pink knit fabric (so it doesn't fray) and hand sewed them on. If you cut out four pieces for the head, then you will be sewing the face through two layers. I would stick to applique and embroidery, since the bunny is meant for a baby, so you don't want any buttons that can pop off.

 

Take two head pieces (without the face) and put them on top of each other, right sides up (straight part on the bottom). Then place the ears on the top, one on the left and the other on the right. Have them looking down (see picture). If you line up the straight part of the ears with the edges of the head, your ears will automatically cross over, like on the picture.

 

Then place the other two head pieces on top, right sides down (the face lookin down, make sure that the eyes are up and the mouth is down!). Pin in place. Make sure you pin the ears too. Then sew around the head, sewing all the layers together. Keep the bottom of the head open. Trim seam allowance close to seam and flip. Press.

Now place your hands on the sides of one body piece (where the pattern is marked "place hands here"), lining up the raw edges with the raw edges of the body, and pin. The hands should be facing "in".

Take your strip of satin and fold it in half on the long side and press. Now pin it to the right side of the body piece, lining up the raw edges. Do not pin the satin to the rounded part at the top, where the head is attached. 

 

There are two tricky parts to this project. The first are the corners. Make them like you would be sewing binding to a blanket. Make sure you leave enough material at the corner, so when you flip it right sides out, the satin band will go smoothly around the corner. I had to do it a few times before I got it right....

Leave edges at neck for now, we will get to them at the end.

Now place the other body part on top of the first body/hand/satin piece. Take out one pin at a time and repin through all the layers.

I hand stitched around the entire thing to make sure everything was in place. Now sew around (leaving the rounded part at the top open). Serge or zigzag around again. 

 

Now flip right sides out.

Now comes the second tricky part. 

Lay your body part down, and fold over your hands like shown in the picture.

 

Take the top of your body piece (the rounded part) and pin it around the opening of the head, so that the open part is in the front (where the face is). Make sure you line up all the raw edges. Pin only until the knit fabric is done, do not pin the satin. 

 

Sew around the opening of the head. Make sure you get all the layers into your seam. 

You will have a little piece of the head left between the opening of the body that is still "raw". Fold the two layers under and sew across.

Now fold the corners of the satin inward, so that the raw edges are sandwiched between the layers and stitch them down.

And voila! Your softie bunny is ready to be cuddled!

Here is a picture of the new bunny and the original!

Thank you so much for having me Jenilyn! This was really a fun series!

How cute is that Bunny! Imagine all of the possibilities for fabrics and matching a sweet little one's nursery!

Activity Sticks with Tales of the Scotts

Today, I'm excited to have Eva from Tales of the Scotts with us to share a tutorial for your older little ones! It can be hard on the older ones when a new baby comes home (I'll find out soon enough!), and this is a great way to help entertain them during those weeks of baby-centered time.

 

-------------------------------------------------------

Hi everyone!  I'm Eva and I blog over at Tales of the Scotts.  I'm a stay-at-home momma to two little people that keep me on my toes.  Much to my patient husband's chagrin, my dining room table is always full of  little "projects" I have going on. 

Today I'm sharing with you my Naptime Activity Sticks that I used with my son when my daughter was born.  It was quite the battle keeping my rambunctious 2 1/2 year old quiet while my newborn napped.  Without fail, I'd put her down for a nap and he'd pull out his drumsticks and drums or he'd grab his monster trucks to play in the hallway.  Little stinker!

Around the time, I read a post from How to Nest for Less about activity sticks she made for her children to keep them having fun during the cold winter days.  I immediately thought, Yes!  This is a fun way to keep Hosea playing quietly.

Here's what you need to make your own.  An empty and cleaned out soup can, scrapbook paper, spray adhesive, an X-Acto knife and large craft sticks.

First lay out the scrapbook paper you want to use for your craft sticks.  Spray it with adhesive and then lay down the sticks onto the paper.  I used about 20 craft sticks.

While I was waiting on those to dry, I measured my corresponding paper to make sure it would fit around the soup can.  I sprayed it with adhesive and carefully rolled my soup can onto the paper.   Once the craft sticks were dry, I used an exacto knife and cut around each of them.  I sanded them slightly around the edges to give them a finished look.

Lastly, I embellished the can with some baker's twine and added a little tag that reads, "Naptime Fun!"

I hand wrote all the activities on the back of the craft sticks.  Here's a list of what I chose for our quiet activities!

Angry Birds Game

Play with Car Mat

Play with Cars

Trains

Playdough

Paint

Build a Fort

Balloon Paddle Ball

Potato Heads

Read Books

Play with Kitchen

Do a Craft

Puzzles

Play with color-changing cars

Toy Story memory game

Candy Land

Play with stickers

Think of some things your son or daughter really enjoys and add those to your jar of naptime fun!

My son is independent so he loved getting to pick something out himself instead of me always saying, "No, we can't play that.  Sarah is sleeping."  Now he has a list of things he CAN play!  LOVE IT!

Thank you for having me Jenilyn!

I'm social!  You can keep in touch with me on

Twitter // Facebook // Pinterest // Instagram

Thanks so much for sharing Eva! These are great!
Stay tuned for even more fun and tutorials during
*Becoming Mommy*

{Giveaway} eDiapercakes.com

I'm super excited to introduce you to eDiaperCakes today!

They are a Mama-run business, started in April of this year.

Their diaper cakes are FULL of goodies from all of your favorite brands including TY, Gund and Kids Prefered. They are loaded with baby products and even childrens' books, perfect for any themed shower.

Here are some of my favorites from their site:

 How cute are those??

Any Mommy-to-be would be thrilled to see one of those cakes at her shower, or at her house when she brought baby home!

Now for the giveaway:

eDiaperCakes is offering a $25 gift certificate to one of my awesome readers! It can be used on cakes, or sale items too!

Here's how you enter:

Follow them on Pinterest

Like them on Facebook

Follow them on Twitter

Leave me a comment for each.

For bonus entries...PIN your favorite diaper cake from their site to Pinterest. This counts as TWO entries. Leave me two comments for this one.

I'll pick a winner Friday night at the end of the "Becoming Mommy" series!

There's still a week of projects left...don't miss it!

{Tutorial} Heat Therapy Bags

If you've never used a rice bag, then you have been missing out! I was given one of these during my first pregnancy, and I use it every. single. day. even when not pregnant for pain relief, and therapeutic heat!

 

They are perfect for Mommy's aching back, legs and feet, or wonderful to add a little warmth to your baby's crib before you lay them down at night.

 

I'm going to show you how to make a channeled rice bag. The sewn channels make the bag easier to use, because the rice stays in place, rather than falling all to one side. It also makes the bag easy to roll into a log-shape to put under your neck.

 

Let's get started!

 

Materials:

 

1/2 yard cotton duck fabric

2.5 lbs uncooked rice

sewing things

Start by cutting your cotton duck into a rectangle 20" x 18". Fold the rectangle in half, right sides together, to give you a 10" x 18" rectangle.

 

Sew down one short side and the long open side, with a 1/4" seam allowance.

 

Clip the corners, but don't cut the stitching!! Turn your bag right side out and poke out the corners. Topstitch around the three closed sides. This will reinforce your seams so no rice will come out!

 

Now we'll sew our channels. You can measure, or just eyeball it and hope for the best. You'll sew two long lines of stitching from one short end, to the open end of the bag. Sew them so that your three channels are pretty evenly spaced.

 

Using a funnel, begin to fill your channels with rice. Use at least 2.5 lbs of rice, but no more than 3. You want the rice to be able to move around and have a flexible bag. Your bag will look about 2/3 full.

 

Now, fold over the open side at least 1/2".

 

Then fold down again, and pin. Stitch across the fold at least 2 times to make sure it's secure. You could use a pretty stitch if you want to.

 

Then, your heat therapy bag is complete!

You can roll it up, or use it flat.

 

And they look so pretty too. You won't mind leaving it out! Unlike those plug-in heating pads.

 

Directions for use:

 

Place your heat therapy bag in the microwave in 30 second intervals until the desired heat is reached. Lay it on your aching neck, back, etc. for comfort.

 

For use with babies and children, do not exceed 1 minute and only lay it on their bedding to warm it. Do not place the bag directly on children or babies.  

 

The rice will stay warm to the touch for up to 1 hour, but will cool gradually, making it safer than electric heating pads.

 

The bags can also be placed in the freezer if you want a cold bag, but I'm not patient enough to have tried this yet.

 

DO NOT GET THE BAG WET

Remember...it contains rice. If you get it wet, you'll have to add new rice and sew it up again.

 

*Happy Crafting*