#100itemcraftstashchallenge: Project 49

My nephew recently had his second birthday, so as part of his gift, I made him a crayon roll. PGS helped pick out the fabric used for the crayon roll. I used a fun blue shark print and white elastic to secure the crayon roll.

All rolled up

The front view, unrolled

The back view, unrolled

We also included a pad of multicolored construction paper to color on, a box of the large washable Crayola crayons and a Sesame Street board book in his gift. My husband's sister said that he liked his gift and the book wasn't one that they already had. Yay!

#100itemcraftstashchallenge: Project 45-48

For my mom's birthday this year, I made her a set of coasters to match the placemats that I made her for Christmas. (I wanted to do more for her birthday and Mother's Day, but I was at a loss and didn't know what to make or buy for her. )

They were supposed to be delivered to her house on Thursday, but didn't get to her until Saturday (05/17). I haven't heard from her yet, so I'm not sure what she thought of them. The response to the photo on facebook has been great though!

#100itemcraftstashchallenge: Projects 41-44

This week I am bringing to you two more projects completed for the newbie we're expecting in August! I made two newborn sized diapers with the Babyville Boutique NB pattern (this pattern doesn't have an umbilical snap down and according to online reviews I've read, it runs a little big for NB). If you're new to sewing diapers and don't have YouTube handy next to your sewing machine, then I recommend the BBV book in the above link.

(No, I am not paid by BBV to promote their products. I just recommend it because for me, it was quite helpful way back in 2012 while first learning how to make a cloth diaper, since I had the pictures handy to look at, but did not have a computer right next to my sewing machine.)

Newborn diapers!

I used some solid red PUL that I had on hand and some more of that bright yellow wicking fabric that I used for PGS' dinosaur tail in February. While I'm not worried about how the wicking fabric will do as a diaper inner fabric, I am never ever going to use it again! Ugh, I cannot sew it very well since it's a fabric that I rarely use. While these two NB diapers may look all cute and tiny in pictures, they are full of flaws! Or...maybe I'm just hypercritical of my work. Either way, there is messed up stitching all over this adorable little diapers. Good thing they're only for my little one and then will probably be repurposed into stuffed animal diapers for PGS and Baby S. #2. (PGS already thinks that the tiny diapers are meant for his stuffed animals.)

And...I also completed two one size diapers for PGS. He's not quite ready for potty training, so I've been slowly adding to the OS stash of diapers since we have a second child on the way. He has a big fascination with pirates, so pirate diapers were just right for him. I used the bubble dot minky for the inner fabric because who wouldn't love soft fabric against the bum?!

OS diapers!

The pattern I use for OS diapers is one that I drafted myself pulling my favorite features from multiple patterns.

#100itemcraftstashchallenge: Projects 39 and 40

You know how I've made two tie tees and a stuffed dino for PGS already? Well, I made up a quick tie onesie for the little one I'm currently pregnant with and finished the second dino that I had cut out. Baby S. #2 has a few Mommy made items now! 

Just a fun little fact: Did you know that the term Onesie™ is owned by Gerber? It's technically a brand name for infant bodysuits and it's just become so common that people now think of it as the generic name for that clothing garment.

When I was sewing up the dino, its tail just did not want to cooperate, so I ended up cutting the tail off and using a ribbon loop as a tail. Which by the way, PGS threw a tanrtum over - he was not happy at all that I changed the look of the finished dino! lol

I used one of the few plain bodysuits that I had saved from when PGS was that little and used the same tie pattern that I'd used for the the other ties. Only I used the 3-12 months size this time. I used up some scrap fabric that I had from another project forever ago to cut out a single layer tie. I used Heat n Bond Ultra to attach the tie to the bodysuit and then stitched around the edge with a coordinating thread color.

When I showed the finished onesie to Hubby, he seriously said that he wanted a tie like that. He didn't believe me when I said that I could make him one. So later this summer, I may be buying some more fabric and the right kind of interfacing, and then making a full size men's tie for Hubby. I can't promise that will make it to the blog though.

April Round-Up

The crafty focus of this month was mostly on making things for my little boy (and baby due in August). I also worked on a few things for the shop. We also tried out a new recipe (yum!!).

Oh my goodness! Have you seen the snickerdoodle recipe shared this month?! It's to die for (as long as you like cinnamon sugar cookies anyway). We also shared an easy Easter dish (and a great idea for the leftovers) and had a guest post for 7 layer bars.

This month, I was able to work on #100itemcraftstashchallenge projects 35-38. Not as exciting as last month's eight projects, but still impressive. Especially if it counts that 39, 40 and 41 are ready for photos and blog posts to be written up.

#100itemcraftstashchallenge: Projects 35 and 36

#100itemcraftstashchallenge: Project 37

#100itemcraftstashchallenge: Project 38

We had three successful Feature Friday posts with some very talented small business owners. Two included sales and one included a giveaway. The winner of the giveaway was just announced on Tuesday of this week!

Over on facebook, we reached the milestone of 200 Likes this month. And over on Instagram, we reached the milestone of 100 followers! It was an exciting month for our little shop. Now, we just need to reach 100 followers on Twitter! To celebrate the 200 on facebook, we have a sale on SE using promo code FB200.

#100itemcraftstashchallenge: Project 38

Remember the tie tee I made for PGS for Project 33? Well, it's one of his favorite pieces of clothing and he wants to put it on as soon as it's clean again. So I bought another white tee for him, this time I bought a 3T short sleeve Garanimals tee from Walmart for $3.88. I also made a minor variation to the tee: interchangeable ties! Since it's one tee and two ties, I counted it as one project this time.

The pirate tie attached

I used some scrap white suedecloth fabric to reinforce the snaps and placed two snaps on the tee and two on each tie. One tie was made from scrap fabric of the pirate diaper I made for PGS (that will be in next week's post!) and the other was from some scrap robot fabric and some scrap white fabric. The robots are the side of the tie visible to the world and the white is the side with the snaps.

The robot tie attached

The ties are two pieces of fabric cut in the tie shape. Put the snaps on the back piece and then pin the tie pieces right sides together. Make sure to leave an open space to turn the ties right side out. Press the fabric and topstitch the tie. Voila! A snap on tie for interchangeable tie fun!

Close up of the snaps, the back of a tie and the front of a tie

#100itemcraftstashchallenge: Project 37

In use!

We recently found a Step 2 play kitchen for my little guy and it came with a boatload of accessories!

We went to Once Upon a Child to look for a raincoat for him and left with a play kitchen and accessories. It's in pretty good condition and we only paid $25 for it. But anyway, I'm getting off topic. I don't like the play food all over my living room, so I took a box from fruit snacks we bought at Costco and covered it in fabric that matches his kitchen. (I did unfold the box and turn it inside out, but that was because I was originally thinking that I'd let him color on the box.)

It's not perfect, but it gets the job done and as usual PGS was thrilled with something Mommy made for him.

Straight on view

View from above

#100itemcraftstashchallenge: Projects 35 and 36

Glow in the Dark onesie to stuffy

This week there are two projects to share. The first is a onesie that I couldn't part with, so I cut it and turned it into a stuffed creature for PGS. For his first Halloween, he had a cute little bodysuit that had a glow in the dark ghost on it with the word "BOO!" written on it. I started it forever ago, probably back when my son first outgrew it, sooo... January 2013?? See? This challenge was a good thing for me, it forced me to work on things that I started and never bothered to finish for one reason or another. 

The second project is one you'll see a similar twin of in the next few weeks because I cut two of them. I found this dino pattern on Pinterest and decided it was the perfect little thing for my dino loving PGS! I had originally planned on only making one of them, but in my haste to cut the pattern one night, I cut two of the left side and none of the right side. Instead of wasting the second piece, I just changed my plan to make two dinos: one for PGS and one for his little brother expected later this summer. I decided that mine needed eyes though, so I used unmatched studs from my Babyville brand snaps and gave one dino blue eyes and one dino green eyes. I then used some of the many spools of ribbon I have to cut out 3.5" strips for the loops. (FYI: Kids II owns a patent on the loops and selling will get you a C&D letter, these are strictly for personal use.)

The dino standing up against the wall

I wasn't planning on making the dinos just yet as I was very focused on getting items ready for the stocking of the store that just occurred, but PGS saw the dinos on my sewing table all pinned up and ready for sewing and tried to sew them himself. So I at least finished the one for him so that he'd be a happy little guy. He was. He is actually pretty happy with both projects and spent quite a bit of time playing with both over the last few days.  It really makes this momma happy when her little one likes what was made for him!

March Round-Up

The crafty focus of this month was more on "In The Kitchen" than on the sewing table. While there were plenty of fabric projects completed this month, most were for the shop and not mentioned on the blog. We tried out a few new recipes this month and I shared a couple of them in the Recipe Wednesday blog posts this past month.

My favorite new recipe of the month was a mish mash of homemade Pad Thai recipes that we tried out on two different occasions. Learning to make Pad Thai at home and from scratch was an important thing to discover because we took PGS to Noodles & Co. and he stole lots of his daddy's Pad Thai and then again a few days later when we were there again and I ordered the Pad Thai, he was a huge fan of it and the bean sprouts! So when I made it at home, I made sure to buy some bean sprouts for the two year old to crunch on.  Once I get our version of it streamlined and 90+% to our liking, I'll share the recipe on the blog.

This month, I was able to work on #100itemcraftstashchallenge projects 26-34! I even have projects 35-40 half finished on my project table to complete when time allows. I have an idea of what 41 and 42 will be, too!

#100itemcraftstashchallenge: Project 26

#100itemcraftstashchallenge: Project 27-32

#100itemcraftstashchallenge: Project 33 and 34

We had three successful Feature Friday posts with some very talented WAHMs! And three giveaways, one was even from us!  Thank you so much to all the readers who keep coming back and making these kind of posts as successful as they are. You are greatly appreciated. 

Here's one last sneak peek of the month: a set of coasters to be listed in our Shop Stocking this afternoon!

Kitty Cat coasters, set of 4

#100itemcraftstashchallenge: Projects 33 and 34

I made up a quick tie tee for my son and a friend's son when they both saw the last one I made in February and both asked for one.

The Hanes 2T/3T tie shirt for my son

My son loves to wear his. I'm not sure why, but he does. He loves it so much that he asked to change into it when he saw me pull it out of the dryer the other day! While I think it's weird that he likes his shirt so much, I think it's pretty cool that my son loves something his momma made up for him though!  And since he's too big for the 24 month Gerber brand lap tees that I used for the original tie tee, I bought a plain white Garanimals brand short sleeve white tee. But I was too impatient to wait for it be washed before making his tee, so I used one of the plain white Hanes 2T/3T tees that I bought for something else for him a few months ago.

For the tee that I made for my friend's son, I used one of the Gerber lap tees because he's much smaller than PGS.

The Gerber 24M tie shirt for my friend's son

For both tees, I had wanted to use red thread to match Mickey's shorts, but I ran out opted for a khaki thread that matched the background of the print. I've had the tie pattern printed out for a really long time, so unfortunately, I don't remember where I originally found it. But making your own tie pattern or doing a quick Google search for "onesie ties" should find you an easy pattern to print out and create your own tie tee for the little boy in your life!

#100itemcraftstashchallenge: Projects 27-32

For the next #100itemcraftstashchallenge projects, I did some creative numbering again and counted each unpaper towel separately. The unpaper towels are a project that I have had sitting on my craft table for almost a year. I bought the fabric in April 2013 and I finally finished the towels in March 2014. It still took under a year to finish the project, so that's pretty good. Right? 

Three double butterfly, two butterfly/tie dye and one double tie dye.

For my own use, I chose to make the unpaper towels out of flannel and without snaps. I know that if you purchase a set of unpaper towels from a handmade business, a lot of times one side is terry and there are snaps on each towel to snap them together and roll them up like a normal paper towel roll.

I haven't counted, but I think we have 18 10"x11" rectangular unpaper towels in our kitchen now and that is enough to last us about 3-5 days before I have to wash towels again. How often I need to do laundry is dependent on how messy we are. The double flannel is decently absorbent and we like using them. Even PGS likes to use the towels to help clean up - which is a great thing since he's the cause of many messes! 

#100itemcraftstashchallenge: Project 26

This is a sewing project that I might have flubbed the guidelines a little bit. I had all supplies for creating this on hand, except for the stuffing material. I counted this as a challenge project and counted the stuffing as a custom project supply because it was a gift for PGS' second birthday.

I found this Running with Scissors tutorial on Pinterest forever ago and decided that with his current dinosaur obsession, it was a great time to finally tackle it.

I used some bright blue blizzard fleece and some neon yellow wicking fabric that I found in the remnants bin at Joann and bought with the intention of making hybrid fitted cloth diapers. (I decided that I didn't want to tackle those.) I did have to pick up a 24 ounce package of poly-fill that I found while looking at Joann. I chose it over the 32 oz. package they also offer because it was less dense and felt nicer than the polyester only fill that was on the shelf.

I followed the tutorial pretty much as written, so I don't have anything to add to her tutorial. I didn't have Velcro or want to buy any, so I did use ribbon to tie the tail on instead of the straps with Velcro.

The finished tail

"Look, Dad! I have a dinosaur tail!" - PGS

February Round-Up

This has been a busy month for creating. Lots of baking and sewing and of course, the little one created lots of artwork, too. 

At the beginning of the month, I finished up two projects for my son: #100itemcraftstashchallenge projects 4-23 and project 25. Right now, he just uses the number recognition squares to tile the floor and make it pretty. But eventually we're going to learn the number 0-9!

At the beginning of the month, I also finished up a project for my husband: #100itemcraftstashchallenge project 24. Surprisingly, he was happy with it and it's used daily. So no more lost remotes!

The last sewing project of the month was a surprise #100itemcraftstashchallenge project that will be revealed on Monday in the weekly post. So stay tuned for that! 

In between making stuff for my family, I worked on coasters to be listed in the Storenvy storefront - make sure to check those out! New coasters are added each week. A super cute custom shirt was created for a friend's little boy for his second birthday, as well.

We also did lots of baking and cooking this month, there were three recipes posted this month: pizza, queso dip and Funfetti cupcakes. What kinds of recipes would you like to see us share in the future?

#100itemcraftstashchallenge: Project 24

For project 24 of the challenge, my husband had requested that I make him a remote caddy that could be hung. I only had the two remotes for a "pattern" to make the remote caddy. I found a piece of fabric in my scraps bin that looked like it would be big enough and started making up the caddy as I went along. Here's a photo of the finished project, after the photo I'll explain more how I made it.

First, I folded the fabric in half lengthwise and then folded it almost in half a second time, but this time widthwise. Using this estimated pouch, I then folded the ends of the back and the pocket to hem the fabric and prevent fraying. After sewing the hem of the pocket only, I pinned the pocket to the back and used a zigzag stitch to sew along the entire square of the pouch - this hemmed the back of the pouch as well. I then used a straight stitch to sew straight up the middle of the pouch to create two pockets for the remotes. To hang it, I used iron-on hem adhesive to attach the ribbon. Since it was afterthought, I didn't sew it on for better stability. If I were to make a second one, I would sew the ribbon (or other hanger) onto the pouch to create the hanging remote caddy.

Remember that project 25 was shown off in this post here.

Come back next Monday for project 26!

#100itemcraftstashchallenge: Projects 4-23

For my next challenge project, I kind of blurred the lines on labeling projects. I wanted to count it as one since it's a set, but there are 20 involved pieces to it. And since I'm getting antsy on not buying any new fabric or supplies, I chose to number each square individually.

The finished project is a numbers recognition activity for my son, he hasn't seen it yet because it's a gift for his second birthday this coming Sunday. Each square is a grey/white large chevron backing and the number side is a red background with a patterned appliqué number, 0-9. There are two of each number for later on when it can be used a memory game.

numbers view of all 20 squares

front and back view of the "4" square

I have a set of shapes recognition squares ready for the turn and topstitch step. I hope to be sharing those here in two weeks.

Come back next Monday morning for project 24!

#100itemcraftstashchallenge: Projects 1,2 and 3

After sharing the latest project completed for the #100itemcraftstashchallenge earlier this week, I received comments on our facebook page about sharing the first projects in another blog post. But first, I think I need to clarify what the challenge actually is. At the beginning of January, in a crafting group I'm a part of on facebook, I saw another crafter mention stash busting challenge that she'd recently read about. It sounded like something that could be a lot of fun because it would use up the supplies I bought just because and it would force me to be creative. Something I was feeling in a slump about. The challenge was worded as follows:

A crafting challenge to make 100 items from your stash of supplies without buying any new materials until you've made the 100 things (unless it's for a custom order, then go ahead and buy new supplies).

So I decided that I would try and complete the challenge. I started with a  pair of crayon mini crayon rolls. The first one is glittery purple satiny fabric with brown accents and the second is a bright pink denim fabric with brown accents. My friend had done a trade with me at Christmas and I felt that the trade was not evenly done (she way underpriced herself), so I wanted to thank her for her amazing job. I thought a fun item for one of her kids was a the perfect choice. Unfortunately, the pink one ended up with a little bit of a wonky corner.

For project #3, I put together a pocket diaper for another friend. She's having a little girl this March and wanted some girly diapers for her little girl. I used the cupcake print PUL from Babyville, cream alova from Diaper Sewing Supplies heart snaps from kam snaps.

Come back on Monday for projects 4-23!

Welcome to the new blog!

Hi everyone and welcome to the new blog! I'm Ashley Nicole, the Work at Home Mom (WAHM) behind Stitches by Ashley Nicole. I have been with my husband since February 2009 and we a two year old little boy, PGS, and we have a second child due in August 2014.

I'm currently working on a challenge to complete 100 projects only utilizing supplies from the stash of craft materials you have on hand. This morning, I completed item #25 for the challenge: a leash and collar for my son's stuffed German Shepherd.

The dog is nearly as big as he is and I think it originally belonged to my younger sister. The leash and collar are made from recycled shoe laces and kam snaps. It was a quick no-sew project that took 5 minutes or less while my son at his breakfast. :)