Chasing a onesie into a set

I assume every baby might be the same as E and B, has lots and lots of onesies. As a mom I love onesies, as they are cute, easy to put on, comfortable... But baby grows too fast. I hate to dress my baby in big clothes, but if you get them just the right size then onesies won't last for long.
However, it shouldn't be a problem if you know how to cut and sew! I know there are many many ways to change onesies or body suits into different things, just tried to turn them into a shirt or dress set, lovely.
For the three short sleeve onesies, those are my favorites. Bought by grandma and shipped all the way from the States, they fit B really well before she grows out of them. Then I really don't want to give up these cuties. So, easily cut them and change them to a dress and a diaper cover, done! And for diaper covers, a girl would never have enough diaper covers, if you know what mean..

Two-Way Summer Dress

Have to say this is not the most lovely dress I've made, but definitely took me most of the time. Yes, it looks simple, but costs more than that.
Mom got this piece of cotton for me and I think it is perfect for a little quilt or a night gown. However, just last week I suddenly feel like I could maybe make a play dress, in which she can go play freely and doesn't get too hot. Then I thought I could sew some elastic threads at the top to add some color and fun. So you know, my total plan is no plan...
Anyway, I ended up with making gethering for the sleeves, and then I felt the bottom was too simple, so added a ruffle to it. And then when she tried on yes it is definitely very comfortable, but looks too big to me. So I finally made it a two way dress by adding a ribbon belt on.
Well, result turns out to be nice. Process very hard. First time sewing elastic thread(actually second, but first time using this machine) wasn't very smooth, the seam part kid of killing me. It is still not perfect, but as a try, not too bad.

Batik Tea Party Dress

One of my handcraft friends travelled to Penang, Malaysia and came back with this peautiful Batik as a gift for me. She picked it at the factory there. Supposedly the color of real Batik shouldn't fade, and it is all hand made. How amazing! I stared at it for really a long time to firgure out how can I turn it into something that matches the gorgeous flowery pattern. Then the first thing came to my mind is pretty much like what I made at last.
I added a wooden butterfly button to better hold the collor, gee it matches the whole style so well...also put some ribbon. I just had pink but if I have nore choices... this dress would go well with grenn, brown, red, and aost any bright color, as the Batik is also full of hidden colors! Can play with it in many ways.
Also embroidered B's initial at the bottom of the dress. I have to do embroidery, just have to.😄

Flower Sundress

This is an easy dress. Again I forgot any pattern or tutorial... too lazy... anyway if you know how to sew, this one will only take you a couple of hours. Easy to put on,passinate color, and cool in summer. Any girl should have one!

Blue Cotton Baby Girl Dress

Gee I'm lack of words to name this post... anyway, I did it!!
You may not understand why and what I mean... here's the story: I saw a picture of a white girl dress one day, and just totally fell in love with it. Then I looked up it, found out the beautiful little thing is from Nellystella, a luxury kid fashion brand, and sure, the price is matching its concept. Well first I have no idea which store in Singapore carries this brand, second I really don't want to invest such a big number on somethibng like that...
So, I remembered I just got a piece of cotton from Spotlight and it'll be perfect for a dress like this.
So, after study on the picture for quite a while(30mins at least), I started to cut my material. As usual I got too excited half way so there are no pictures for the process. I just remembered I was so concentrating on doing it and moving on quite fast. Totally about 4 or 5 hours, I got the dress, diaper cover and headband done.
For the dress I sew the front top and shoudler first, and gathered the bottom, and then moved to the back. Last was the sleeves. I made two layers and gathered before sew.
This is my first time sewing diaper cover, and it was quite easy, inspite of I made it a bit too small. Also I just feel a simple headband would match the dress best.
Have to say the edge took me a long time to make. I used the utility stitch from my machine, and just like embroidery.
Anyway, it is comfortable, cool and pretty, and B looks beautiful in it. That's all I want!

World's Easiest Baby Sun Dress Altered From A Skirt

This one got to be the easiest dress I've ever made. Let's take a look of the outcome-pretty cute little girl sundress, can wear wherever and whenever-comfortable! That's the very first concern I have anyways...

Now let's look back and see what it was: a mummy's skirt when mummy was a girl... not too long but several year ago. I still love this skirt, but I feel it is too hard to handle. Too short since I need to bend over a lot pick up the kids, and too clean since I have little dirty hands on my clothes every second. So, time to change.

Here are the easy steps:

I always think a cotton white sun dress is a must-have for baby girls. Well my girl actually doesn't have one. This dress complete her collection, and it took me literally 30 minutes. If you don't use sewing machine, 1 to 2 hours will be enough. Of course you need to be an intermediate sewer.
Trust me, if you want to try an easy dress to start your sewing experience, this is the ONE! Anyway, enjoy!

Lovely Mummy-Daughter Matching Outfits

It has been a CRAZY week! Husband went for a business trip so I was handful with the two little turkeys. So, only small handcrafts like straps for the strollers were done this week. However, I did finished a lovely project the week before last week: mummy-daughter matching dresses for me and B.
I made the design for her dress. At the beginning I just did a very simple sleeveless top, and then I had some leftover so I thought might just add some ruffles on. By the way, my new ruffler foot is just awesome! It is sooo easy to make ruffles now! Anyway by adding these ruffles to the dress, I think it turns out to have a little bit vintage look. B looks like a little fairy...
And I did a super simple skirt for myself. Well because I know she will be the star and I will just be the one making her look ever more gorgeous... I don't mean any jealous or disappointment by saying this, because now dress her up is much more fun than do it on myself!
Also made two hair clips for her and for me.
This is organza with cotton inner lining. Such a beautiful and comfortable material to be used for baby dresses.

Boy's Quiet/Busy Book

Finally this project has been done! I promised E to make him a quiet book after he played his sister's. But just after the promise B got sick with Roseola ( they call it "fake measles "here) so I was totally not in the mood of making anything. 

After B got better I did little by little ever since then, but the whole process was indeed too long. It's getting to the point E has already forgotten all about it. But as a mom I got to keep my promise anyways. So I continue making it and eventually (today) I finished the cover and looks like it's all done.
Husband questioned me during my craft time before sleep: Do you really do this for the kids or for yourself?
Well, obviously the results are for them, but I do not deny that I am definitely having fun all the time:)
This one is for a 4 year old boy, so no need to attach all the small pieces to prevent him from choking. Also I tried a new way by using a photo album and just paste the pages on. It has pros and cons through. Good things are I don't have to sew or bind the pages together any more, and since it has a base just need to paste my design. Down part is the felt pages with contents are way too thick for this poor little album which is made for thin little pictures, so my book looks like it's going to throw up...
I designed some and got some ideas from Pinterest. Again didn't use any patterns or templates.
Also this book gives me a great opportunity to test my dear new Brother Embroidery Machine!!! Husband got this for me for my birthday, and even purchased the way too expensive software to turn any pattern/picture/photo you want into embroidery works. I have been crazy for it since then. So I did some for this book, which is really too much fun.

And here is the book.

Front and back, used my machine to embroider some letters on.

Every boy's book has to have a car page... All the little buildings can be moved around. Don't know if your kid is a Dora's fun, mine loves to pretend to get lost and ask the "map", so this could be a good thing to let him practice his map skill.

The monkey page. I really adore this page. The idea comes from two nursery rhymes. One is a Chinese one "five monkeys swing on the tree, a crocodile is hiding in the water". And this page has buttons to hold the monkeys. The other one is "five little monkeys jumping on the bed", and the monkeys are also finger puppets.

Brush teeth hippo. 

Dress up little boy. I got the idea from a mom's book for her son. And I made E's favorite Captain America, Batman, police officer and firefighter hats.

Waving page.

Food page. He loves cooking. So hopefully he will enjoy this page.

Okay. I tried not to add anything with a strong"education" signal into a toy since I want him to simply enjoy play. But ultimately I am an Asian. Tiger mom gene, you know... Spelling page. Also use my machine to work on the letters. The bottom of the letters has a free spelling place where he can spell freely. Right page has four things, each has a ribbon showing the word hiding under the velcro.

Number page. I found a mom using felt pieces instead of beads, great idea! I wish I would know this trick before B's book... the beads make me nervous as she likes putting them in her mouth. 

I decide to show some of my heritage on this page. Therefore I embroidered one to ten in Chinese characters. All the numbers/characters can be moved around to compose different numbers. The left page has1-5, right page has 5 trangles in each row, so if you add left and right together they will become 6-10. Mostly because right page doesn't have enough space for so many felt circles..

 Anyway let him do a little maths, hope not too complicated.

Last page is to show my heritage even more. Characters! I feel scared to imagine possibly my kids may not be able to write many characters since the "contact" is so weak... I don't really try to push E to learn any at his age, just for fun. Each character covers a picture shows its meaning, so hopefully he will start to realize the relations between these signs and their meanings. Right page is a bag of strokes, each color can compose one character on the left page.

Forgot these two pages:P classic shoe lace and clock page. E loves to sing Hickory Dickory Dock, so added a mouse to the clock page which made him sing the entire song twice before bed!

I still have many ideas but the pages ran out... E found the book from our bedroom and got really excited as he told his dad 12 times "I love it!" And we played it before bed, seems all my hard work has been paid off lol

Girl's Quiet/busy Book

Recently we have been encountering troubles of keeping B quiet in the car. She's doing okay on a short ride; but if we drive for a day trip or so, just can't stop her screaming when she's tired or bored. We tried TV shows, cell phones,and new toys, but she's just different from her brother, who can fall asleep in his carseat at her age.
Well, being inspired by many fantastic moms' ideas, I decided to dedicate my craft time this week to make her a quiet book. I went into some great ideas on Pinterest, so I pinned them whenever I have time: waiting in line at the post office, short time before bed, rest after cleaning or cooking...Then when it comes my quiet craft time, I already have something in mind and can start right away. Thus, I don't have any templates, my pages are assorted and come from different resources,( I will try list all sources later here) and I changed and created some to better suit my 1 year old girl.
It is not only a fun project for the baby, but also for myself. As being totally fascinated with embroidery these days, I got to put some of my artwork on the front and back pages. I think B will also enjoy the colorful threads.
For the pages, if you look for quiet book templates there are way too many choices. However, before getting too passionate I calmed down and started to think what are my daughter's favorite. We all know our own kids the best, so some classics may work for one kid but totally useless for the other. Therefore, I believe a good quiet book has to be customized.
Then I realized as a 1 year old girl those tighting shoe laces, or the clock(a must have for quiet book though), or putting clothes on dolls are way too hard. She loves phones and beads, and taking things out of my purse. So I made these just for her.
Also I thought she would enjoy the ribbon knots and the busy bee since she loves picking up tiny little things. As for the animals, I made some before to attach on her stroller. Then I thought it might be fun to create a button animal page, I have enough to rotate and keep this page fresh. Also the idea is when she's older and have little lovey to take out with, I can attach it to the button page too.
I suggest to sew the beads or any small parts tightly since the little ones love to put them in their mouth.
Anyway, after this I know my next project, because I caugt E playing his sister's phone page ..."mom, I want one please!", I can already hear his voice:)

Front page.

Back

Animal buttons page

Purse page. I attached everything to a ribbon and left two ribbons for furture things to attach.

Shape and color page. I created this page.

Numbers. I also created this page. This is one of the easiest.

Phone page. Numbers can be moved around.

Busy bee. Got this idea from Pinterest but forgot exactly where... that book also has a fly with frog. Thought this better fit in a girl's book.

Ribbon knots. Also got inspired by another mom. 

Octopus with numbers. Also from Pinterest.