Sewing for Pregnancy Care Centres--a Giveaway! --CLOSED!

The Fat Quarter Shop sent us a lovely box of fabrics to use for the Pregnancy Care Centre Sew-along!

And, today, I'm giving a bundle away to one of you who is joining in!

 

 

Lily by Studio 8 for Quilting Treasures.

This is not a fat quarter bundle--it has cuts ranging from 10-13" x WOF, some a little bigger.

A lovely bundle of 9 fabrics--the colors are absolutely beautiful!

 

To enter to win, please let me know you are joining us--join us in our Event page on FB, and leave a comment letting me know you did!

 

Again--this only goes to someone who is sewing along with us!!!

 

*I'll draw a name on the 11th of January*

 

***Random.org picked a winner for me out of the qualifying comments--#4! Suzanne!***

 

For more information about what we are doing, click the button:

 



A great big thank-you to the Fat Quarter Shop for their generosity!

NICU Smocks

After a number of people I knew had preemie babies born in a short time, I thought I should find a good pattern for babies that need to spend time in the NICU.

When I found this free pattern and tutorial for a NICU smock from Everything Your Mama Made & More, I thought it'd be perfect!

 

 

I had received some flannelette from a friend--a whole box of it, and this was the perfect project to use up some of the smaller pieces.

The bias tape is store-bought, and that is what took the longest--attaching the bias tape.

But, there are options to make the smock reversible so you don't need to use bias tape, and there are also instructions for serging it (for those that like using their sergers...).

 

I had originally made these two in size 3-5lbs, for a friend, but her baby came home a month earlier than expected!

So, these are going to be donated to the Pregnancy Care Centre!

*One note about the pattern--there are two pieces B & C that are the exact same. To fix this, just do a mirror image cut and a regular cut on your fabric of B and leave out C. (Kymy has been notified and is planning on fixing it soon! And, anyone that has 'bought' (for free) it off Craftsy will get an update.)*

2013 Finishes

From July 2013 to the end, I made goals each month to try get some things done.

And, I got more done than I thought!

Here is 6 months worth of goals--finished.

There were a couple other goals that I finished, but this was a good sampling, I thought.

 

 

 

Thanks Shanna and Melissa for hosting it!

 

The next two months I plan on being busy with 'Sewing for Pregnancy Care Centres'!

Feel free to join us if you'd like!
You can find all the info here.

Sewing For Pregnancy Care Centres 2014

I am so excited to be hosting the 2nd annual 'Sewing for Pregnancy Care Centres'!
We hope to get started January and go all the way to February--so two whole months of sewing for Pregnancy Care Centres!

Last year we managed to get quite a few items sewn and delivered to the local Pregnancy Care Centre here in Edmonton, AB.

Here is a glimpse of what was sewn last year:

 If you go to the Flickr group you can see the rest of the pictures and find the links to the blog posts of most of these pictures!

I'll go over again why we're doing what we're doing and what the Pregnancy Care Centre does with what we donate!

There are a lot of abortions that are done--so many I don't even dare to look up the statistics. In fact, if I am not mistaken those statistics are far from accurate in Canada--there are far more abortions performed than are reported.

 

My heart goes out to those women who find themselves pregnant unexpectedly. Either teenagers or women who have no means to support a child, etc.

And, I want to help--I really do. But, how do I go about helping these women, to in a small way encourage those who choose life for their child and also to encourage more women to do the same?

In Edmonton, just 40 minutes away, there is a Pregnancy Care Centre. This is a place that women who unexpectedly find themselves pregnant can go and get help--physical help, information, counselling, etc.

 

Is there a Pregnancy Care Centre in your area?

What do they need? 

This is what the one in Edmonton has to say about that:
  

"Part of what we provide for our clients is a big baby hamper full of blankets and clothes. So it is really up to you what you would like to donate. We love receiving quilts, toques, clothes to add to our layettes and all our clients love them as well."

 

So, here is where we come in--here is where we can do a little something to show our support to those women who choose life for their children!

I propose that we sew quilts, baby clothes, etc and donate them either to your local Pregnancy Care Centre or, you can send them to me and I will bring them to the one here in Edmonton.
 (Just email me if you plan to send them out this way so I can give you my address!)
 

You can upload pictures of what you have sewn to our Flickr group!

Plus, grab a button to share and send others this way!



<div align="center"><a href="http://fabuloushomesewn.blogspot.com/2013/12/sewing-for-pregnancy-care-centres-2014.html" title="FABulous Home Sewn" target="_blank"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8401/8702496288_1eb7f6bb41_m.jpg" alt="FABulous Home Sewn" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

So, for the months of January and February, join us in sewing for Pregnancy Care Centres!
There will be a giveaway or two for those participating, so make sure that you upload your pictures to Flickr!
Also, you can join us on the Facebook Event page for this!
 

Ottobre 6/2013 'Indian Elephant'

Almost 2 years ago, when our youngest was born, a friend gave me some fabric.

I finally used this piece here--the white stretchy, almost terry-like fabric.

Ha, can you tell I have no idea what it is called and it's the first time I've used this type of fabric.

 

But, a friend at Church had a baby boy a while ago...a wee little preemie born at 29 weeks, 2 days!

And, he is already home, just over a month after his birth--I can hardly believe it!!!

 

So, I thought I'd sew something up for the little guy.

I had already sewed something up, but now that he is home, those won't be necessary (I'll blog about them later!)

I pulled out my Ottobre magazines and leafed through them Thursday night. I was too tired to do any tracing that night but Friday night, I traced, cut, and started sewing.

Saturday, I finished--the most time-consuming thing was lining up the snaps and hammering them in. Seriously.

This pattern is a quick sew, but I really like how it turned out.

It is from Ottobre 6/2013, 'Indian Elephant' which is pattern #3.

I sewed up the smallest--size 50...we'll see when he can fit into it, although I can hardly imagine a baby so small!

The blue knit fabric is from the thrift store.

I love myself a good deal on fabric!

 



I hope I can pass this off tomorrow, finally! 

December Finishes

Yep, that Tinny is still elusive.

But, I did finish my main goal--the order for Necktie Napkins!

 

 

You can read more about them here!

 

And, I got some baby gifts sewn--although, now that the little man is out of the NICU, he won't be needing the gift I made, so I plan on working on something else for him yet....eventually!

 

Anyway, it's hard to believe another year is drawing to a close--so glad the shortest day of the year has come and gone! It's all uphill from here.

Even though winter has just officially started, we've had some brutally cold weather and horrid roads--we're suffering from just a little bit of cabin fever!

 

 

'Leather' Book Marks--a Last Minute Christmas Gift!

First of all, I would like to wish you all a blessed Christmas!

What a joy to be able to spend a day focused on remembering that Jesus Christ--the Son of God--God Himself became a man so that He could be the ultimate sacrifice--the Savior of those whom God has called.

Amazing Grace!

 

 

We are starting our own family traditions this year in regard to Christmas Eve and such, and our main goal is to focus on Christ.

The gifts are but a small part and in keeping with that, I wanted to make them something that they could use, nothing extravagant, but that was also special.

 

And, if you know my family at all--we are book worms.

Almost all of us.

So, I thought it'd be fitting to whip together some neat book marks or 'mark-books' as the kids call them to bug me!
They'll go well with the books the kids are getting...

 

I took pictures along the way to give you an idea of what I did--a bit of a tutorial, I guess.
Don't mind the quality of the pictures--this was done in 'secret'--most taken in my 'no-natural' light laundry room, at night.

 

What you'll need:

Leather or fake leather

Fabric

Embroidery floss and needle

Wonder Under

Sewing machine and thread

Chalk

 

First, cut strips of leather (or fake leather which I used) into bookmark sized pieces.

Next, I found a font I liked on Word--I can't remember exactly which one, but I only used it for the first letter. If you're artistic, you won't need to do this.

Copy the font onto your leather with chalk so you can rub it off if you need to fix mistakes...

 

Take your embroidery floss and I split it so that I had two threads in at a time.

Trace the chalk lettering with your stitches.

 

 

Cut out a piece of fabric and a piece of Wonder Under to fit each book mark.

 

Attach the Wonder Under to the leather. Remove the paper backing and iron onto the fabric. (Make sure you always have the leather on the bottom so you are not directly ironing the leather!)

This is what the front will look like:

 

This is what you'll have on the back:

 

Find some co-ordinating thread and thread your sewing machine with that. (I did different colors for the top and bobbin thread.)

Stitch 1/4" around all the edges.

And, this is what the front will look like:

And, the back:

 



 

And, you're done.

You can add other embellishments but remember that it has to go in a book--so nothing too thick.

Instead of hand-stitching the name on the front, you could applique something on there as well. Just make sure you remember that a hole made in the leather is not easily hidden and will weaken it, so the less holes, the better!

 

Perfect for the bookworm on your list!

And, it's quick enough to whip one up last minute!