Baby Drawstring Pants

Finally getting up the tutorial for these baby drawstring pants. There are two options of these pants - with or without a different colored waistband. To see a version without the different colored waistband check out my Baby Boy Gift Set: Cars and Trucks.

First step is to make your pattern. Take a pair of pants that you already own and that are the size you want to use as your guide. Fold in half toward the front and trace around. This will be your back piece. Be sure to stretch out the elastic waistband to make sure to take in account for the extra material. Also don't forget to add seam allowances. Also add a bit extra on top so you have enough to fold under the waistband. (Better to have too much and trim it later then to have to little) Then fold in half toward the back and repeat. This will be your front pattern piece. Notice in the below picture how the back piece is slightly sloped out more then the front piece... this helps the pants have room for the baby's little booty. :)

Cut out your pattern pieces.

If you don't want a separate waistband piece skip the next couple of steps and just do the following:
Take your fabric and fold it in half. Pin and cut out so that you get 2 of each piece.

Sorry that I don't have any pictures of this step.
If you want a separate waistband then do this step:
Make your waistband pattern pieces by using the pattern you have just made as a guide and trace around the top. Draw down the sides about 2 to 3 inches (depending on how big you want your waistband. Keep in mind that you will be folding this piece in half so your waistband will be half as big as you make it minus seam allowances.
After you have traced around the pattern pieces, remove the outside seam allowance. You aren't going to need the extra seam allowance because this piece will be cut on the fold.

Cut out your pattern pieces and then cut out 1 of each waistband piece on the fold.
For your pants pieces..fold down your pattern to a bit above where you drew your waistband line. ( remember the seam allowance). Fold your fabric in half then pin and cut so you get 2 of each piece.
Hopefully that didn't completely confuse you. That was the hardest part.

Put the sloped edges of the front leg pieces right sides together. Sew and then finish your edge how you like - zig zag, overcast, or surge.
Repeat with the back leg pieces. (use a fabric pencil to mark which one is the front and which is the back because they start to look the same.)
You will now have two pieces that are starting to look like pants.
Take the waistband pieces and put together right sides together with the top edges of the pants. See the picture below.

Find a button that is about the width of your bias tape to use as your guide. Before sewing your button holes, do a practice button hole to make sure the hole is big enough for your drawstring to go through.
Now you want to mark with a fabric pencil two button holes equally spaced from the middle. ( I did them each about 3/4 inch from the center). You want them close to your waistband seam, but with enough room for topstitching the waistband down later.
Sew your button holes.

Take your two pants pieces and put right sides together. Make sure the waistband pieces are lined up ( I forgot to check and so they aren't the same front and back).
Sew down the sides and finish your edges how you like.

Pin together and sew inside legs. Finish edges.

Measure your elastic to be the width of the pants you used to make your pattern off of. Or in my case, I measured it to the width of the onesie I was pairing it with. Add an extra inch to your measurement and cut your elastic. Take two pieces of double fold bias tape, each approximately the same length and sew one piece to each end. See picture for example. I edge stitched the bias tape to keep the sides together and to give it a cleaner look, but you don't have to do that if you don't want to.

Fold down your waistband 1/4 inch and then fold in half. Pin and topstitch the waistband down. Make sure that you pin it so that when you topstitch it that you'll catch the edge that you folded under. Don't worry about leaving a hole to get the elastic through because you can just feed it through the drawstring holes.

Next you want to feel where the edge of the elastic is and pin it to the edge of one side seam. Find the other end and pull to pin to the other edge of the other side seam. Sew the elastic in place on each side. The picture below shows what it will end up looking like. You will have the back gathered and the front straight.This gives you more flexibility in fit because you can pull your strings as loose or as tight as you want it.

Hem the bottom of your pants and you're done!

Applique on a design on a onesie to make it an outfit.

If you make your own baby drawstring pants, I would love to see them. Post to the   Creations from Alisha Rose and Friends flickr group.

Simple Fall Decorations and Happy Fall Free Printable

So I'm not really that into decorating for holidays especially Halloween (I don't like all the scary stuff).  Mostly because you have to drag out all the decorations from storage, put them out, then pack them all up again, just to do it all over again.  Ugh, I barely have time to keep my house clean to the bare minimum, let alone to take extra time to be dragging out decorations.  (Christmas is the one exception).

However,... I am trying to do this whole homemaker thing.  So I was trying to come up with some cute, but very simple decorations.  Easy to put up and easy to take down were the requirements.  I also wanted the decorations to be for fall not Halloween.  I figured I could leave them up longer that way too.


So the following is what I came up with.  And you also benefit from my attempt at decorating because I have made a Happy Fall Free Printable for you.

Background design from Mel Stampz Vintage Vine Collection.
Pumpkin Stencil from Momenta.

And it's in 3 nifty sizes.  (Hopefully the sizes work, because my photo editing software was being a bit wonky.)

• Happy Fall 4 x 6
• Happy Fall 5 x 7
• Happy Fall 8 x 10

I thought of the idea because I had this really cool frame that I had sitting around.  I hadn't ever had the appropriate picture to put in it, but it just seemed perfect to hang outside our house.

I also bought a pumpkin on a whim... with the thoughts of maybe decorating it further.  But then I thought better of the extra decorating and just stuck it outside our door.  I figured the way God made it was the best decoration possible.  If it hasn't rotted when it gets closer to Halloween,  I still might carve it.  I think my little girl would have fun scooping out all the pumpkin insides.  :)

Lastly, my other simple decoration was to put out a basket and fill it with pine cones.  This was my absolute favorite thing to do because it turned into a fun little activity.  My little girl and I tramped around the yard filling the basket with all the pine cones we could find.  She loved it!

The funny part was that when I went to tie the ribbon around the basket, she burst into tears.  She also started to cry when I tried to put the basket outside the door.  So I waited until she went down for her nap before decorating and putting outside.

I feel like I've done a little decorating and made my house a little more of a home, yet kept it simple.  The best part is, almost all of it I can throw away when I'm done.  When you live in a small place, the less you have to store the better.

I hope you can be inspired to do a little simple fall decorating too!

And from my family to yours, Happy Fall!

Baby Boy Gift Set: Trains

So I took a week off from blogging, but I'm back. We were taking a little family time. It's good to make sure the busyness of the days don't crowd out what's really important. I've also been having some computer/Internet issues. Hopefully they will be resolved soon.

Anyways, on to other things.

Here is another boy set I made. Since the shower was for two moms, I wanted to give them each something similar but still unique.
 
I decided to cut out each of the different colored trains and appliqued them onto a larger rectangle. It was a bit of a challenge to get them exactly measured and centered just right, but I think it was so worth it.

For the matching drawstring pants, I added a colored waistband which I ended up loving. I used bias tape as the drawstring.

Look out for a tutorial for these pants in the very near future. :)

Here is the matching onesie and pants together

Add a coordinating bib and the set is complete. :)

Thanks for checking out all the baby gifts, hopefully I'll get some more variety up soon.  Though bear with me,  I do have a few more to share with you in the next month or so.   I'm excited to show you the tutorial on the drawstring pants, so watch out for that soon.  :) 

Blackberry and Nectarine Pie

When I was a kid, my parents and I used to pick blackberries in Oregon. It was lots of fun, and I loved it.   So when I was talking a walk with my little girl the other day and noticed tons of wild blackberry bushes, I was quite excited.  I decided to come back the next day with a container to see if I could pick enough to make a pie.  (My husband loves pies, and is always bemoaning the fact that I don't make them enough).  The problem with berry picking is that you usually eat just as many as you take home.  In the end, we probably only ended up with enough for about half of a small pie.  I was determined to still make a pie, so I combined them with the only fruit we had in the house - nectarines. Sounds a little weird, right?  I've heard of peach pie, but not nectarine pie, but surprisingly it was quite delicious. 

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.  :)








Start with blackberries and nectarines:

Mix ingredients together.

Bake.

Top with whip cream or vanilla ice cream.

 If you want to make your own blackberry and nectarine pie, here's the recipe:
(I'm assuming you have your own pie crust recipe.)

Blackberry and Nectarine Pie Filling

This makes a pie to fill a 7 inch pie pan. 

• 2 cups of blackberries
• 3 nectarines, sliced
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 TBS tapioca
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• milk (optional)
• sugar (optional)

Preheat oven to 375. Combine ingredients together in large bowl. Let sit for about a half hour to let the juices mix together. Pour mixture into pie pan lined with half of crust.  Top with the other half of crust. Cut slits in center of crust.  Brush crust with milk and sprinkly lightly with sugar.  Use strips of tin foil to cover the edges of pie. Let bake for 25 minutes, then remove foil. Bake for another 25 -30 minutes until bubbly and crust is lightly browned.


Enjoy!

Baby Boy Gift Set: Cars and Trucks

So it kind of seems like all the sewing I've been doing lately has been for baby gifts.   If you are sick of it, I'm sorry  but you'll have to bear with me a little longer because there are a few more in the works.  If you are like me and have lots of friends having babies, then I hope you are able to get some good ideas.

Sewing for babies is also a little less intimidating then sewing for an adult because you don't have to worry as much about fit... no curves and such.   Also I think babies and kids just look so darn cute in handmade clothes.

Recently we had a mini shower for two friends of mine who were both having boys, so I had to come up with something that was cute but not too difficult since I was going to have to do it times two.  I had bought extra of the cars and trucks fabric that I had used for the boy romper.  I was very excited to use it again, and thought it would be so cute to use one of the cars as a center piece on a onesie.

I also made some matching pants to go with it.  I used a pair of pants from my baby girl as a guide for size.  I wanted to do something a little more creative so I made them into drawstring pants. I liked the fact that this made the pants size a little more adjustable.

I used the leftover vintage bias tape from my Orange Sherbet Tee as the drawstring, and I think it coordinates just perfectly.

I sewed up a coordinating bib to go with it, and I had a cute little outfit.

Stay tuned for the second boy gift set, and a tutorial to follow. :)