Nesting: Made the Baby Bumper

While working/sewing my way towards having the baby's room finally complete, I was down to only needing to recover the crib bumper and crib skirt. For some reason I am not looking forward to making the crib skirt and decided to go with the bumper. Like my quilt I posted previously, I wanted to cover the bumper with elephants, but instead of doing it with a gray fabric and white elephants, I decided on doing it with a white fabric and gray elephants. I wanted to keep it not matching 100% even though the colors were the same. I also decided to not make the whole bumper with white fabric but to make one whole side with the leftover gray fabric I used in the quilt to tie it together.

So after a couple days of brainstorming, I got to work. I started with taking the crib bumper I had and attacking it with a seam ripper down the longest side. Once I was able to get the whole bumper cover off, I used it as a guide for how big to cut the fabric for the new bumper. Once all of my pieces were cut out (which consisted of 6 rectangular cuts of each fabric) I got to work stamping on the elephants as I did with the quilt.

I took a gray acrylic paint, smeared it all over a plate, then took my elephant cookie cutter, dipped it into the paint, and stamped it onto my white fabric horizontally (or longways).

I ended up adding some variety to my stamping by turning my cookie cutter over and making one line of the elephants go in the opposite direction. Once all of that had dried, I took some blue ric-rac (because Walmart didn't want to carry blue pipping I got creative) and sewed it along one short edge of the bumper piece and then down the longest side of the bumper (only on the right side of the white fabric). I was able to do this by lining up the edge of the ric-rac with the edge of the fabric and then sewing a 1/4 inch seem (which went straight down the middle of the ric-rac).

Once all the ric-rac was sewn onto the white side of the bumper (except for the bottom longest side), I sandwiched the white fabric with the gray fabric right sides together so that the ric-rac was in between.

I then sewed the bumper together, keeping one of the small ends open for stuffing and turned the fabric inside out and ironed it to make sure it was the right size for the stuffing I saved. This is what the ric-rac looks like when you use it as piping.

After I had ironed the fabric, I turned it back inside out and did one last check to make sure the fluff would fit.

I turned the bumper right side out and stuffed the fluff into the bumper pinning it along the way so I could get a good fit.

Once I had it pinned, all I had left to do was to sew up the open end and add some ribbon straps with velcro on the ends to attach the bumper securely to the crib. If you are making your own you need to make sure that the bumper is pulled tightly around the side of the crib so you don't run the risk of suffocating your baby.

Below is a picture of the quilt, bumper, and mobile that I redid. When put all together it looks so darn cute! Now I just have to wait for little baby Liam to arrive so he can enjoy it too :)

♥ Mrs. Suzie

Recovering a Lamp with Hemp Cord

So I was given some nursery items (Dust ruffle, mobile, quilt, etc.) that came with a matching lamp from one of my cousins. The lamp was covered in nautical animals which was cute but wasn't the direction I was going for Baby Liam's nursery. So then took the nautical animals off the lamp and did some creative thinking with some hemp cord I had laying around.

I started hot glueing the hemp cord to the base of the lamp and wrapped and glued and wrapped and glued.

Once I wrapped all the way to the top, I wrapped it one more time to build up a layer of hemp cord to be level with the surface of the top of the lamp.

Then I continued wrapping and glueing the hemp cord around the top of the lamp. I tried keep all sides even while glueing around the lamp.

Once I got close to the end I cut the hemp cord from the ball and glued the tail down before glueing down the rest of the hemp cord around the lamp post.

And VOILA! Beautiful, rustic lamp! This will go so nicely with my mobile I made last week. Stay tuned for pictures of it along with my bumper once I get it re-covered.

♥ Mrs. Suzie

Let the Nesting Begin!

Today I am currently 29 weeks pregnant and with the joy of knowing that Little Liam will be here in a little over 10 weeks so does the anxiety of knowing I have no where to put him. We are currently working on a house that will be our "forever" home and I'm starting to worry that it won't be finished in time (to see our progress go to my other blog here). So I decided to turn our current guest room (in the rental we are staying in) into a makeshift nursery.

My mother-in-law suggested that I leave the guest bed in the room so if I decided I wanted to still use it as a guest room (for grandmas coming to help out) I could. So as you can see below my guest bedroom is not very organized. With people giving me stuff and the recent baby shower, I have turned my guest bed into a throw pile.

Along with that throw pile, I have two dressers crammed into the corner. One (the smaller one) full of newborn to 3 month baby clothes. My bassinet (which you can't really see to the left) didn't really need to be in there so I moved it to my master bedroom.

As you can see this bedroom has become a catch-all room for random things like my husbands road bike.

After some strenuous use of muscle, I was able to move the guest bed into the far corner to give me more floor space and I finally put some linens on it to make it functional.

The bigger (empty) dresser was moved into the closet which I will show you in a second and the smaller dresser was moved over just a tad to make way for the crib. Currently the linens on the crib are ocean themed (given to me by my cousin) but once I get done recovering them, they will match my quilt that I made. I also left the highchair in their for the time being because there is no space in my dinning room for it. The black thing on the wall is part of a tv mount which I will take off later once I am able to borrow an impact drill from my husband. The black trashcan in between the crib and the dresser is going to be my diaper pail (as soon as I purchase a liner for it).

Since I moved the bed I had a small space where I could place my rocking chair and chunky nightstand. I think this is my favorite part of the room.

So I;m sure you are probably wondering where all of the baby stuff that was previously taking up my guest bed went. Well it got stuffed up to the ceiling in our small guest bedroom closet along with that large dresser. As of right now all of Liam's clothes that are hanging fit fine in there but once I do more reorganizing, specifically with the drawers of the two dressers, I'm not sure if that will change.

I know this isn't spectacular or anything but it is what I have to deal with right now. I'm not painting the room since we are renting and will hopefully be out soon. I might decide to hang some art work however once it gets closer to time. Even though I am happy with the work that I put into this nursery, I am hoping we will never have to use it and will be moved in to our new home soon :(.





♥ Mrs. Suzie

DIY Enzyme Cleaner Review

So after waiting a long two weeks for my Enzyme Cleaner to be ready, it's finally done! I was so excited the first thing I did this morning was prepare my Enzyme Cleaner in concentrate form. This basically consists of you straining the enzyme mixture through a thin cloth and storing it. That's it!

To make my All-Purpose Cleaner for around the house, I poured 1/2 cup of the liquid into a spray bottle and then filled the spray bottle the rest of the was up. I was using a 32 oz. spray bottle so my ratio was 1:7 (enzyme:water). You don't have to use that much enzyme, in fact on my last post on the enzyme cleaner I told you all you had to use was a 1:10 ratio. It's just whatever is your personal preference.

If you would like to see how the Enzyme cleaner did in my bathroom and in my kitchen you can watch my Youtube video below. Click here for the recipe for Enzyme Cleaner.

♥ Mrs. Suzie

Making the Bun in the Oven a Blanket

So lately I've been hard at work making things for our soon-to-be addition to the family. As of this past week, it has consisted of brainstorming what the baby's quilt should look like. I know I wanted to do something with elephants and the colors blue, white, and gray so I searched the internet for ideas. I finally just decided to make up my own because their weren't very many on the internet that looked fit for a nursery.

I started with my elephant cookie cutters that I bought a couple months ago, some white fabric paint, and an old gray sheet. I dipped the cookie cutters in the paint and stamped them onto the fabric longways in variating rows. Once that dried I added a 4" white border from another old sheet I had lying around.

If you have watched my Cloth Revolution Diaper Tutorial you would know about my blue and white polka dotted "microfleece"situation. Well after having to find a use for it I felt like this quilt was perfect for the use of that fabric. So I sketched out half of an elephant on the back of it, cut it out, "heat bonded" it to the fabric I just got finished stamping, and sewed a blanket stitch around the border in a dark gray thread.

Here's a close up so you can see the endless hours and hurt fingers I put into this simple border.

Then I decided the quilt needed something else. So I took some more embroidery floss and made rough thick stitches with 1/2" places in between. Here you can see it getting started and the quilt as a whole.

Here's a close up of the stitching. Needless to say there were more soar fingers involved in this process (I guess that's why people wear thimbles?).

So I eventually added enough stitching to the border to make me satisfied using a pattern of: Light blue, Blue, Dark Gray, Dark Gray, Blue, Light Blue. Then I pinned the back of the quilt to the front. This was just a piece of white fabric (left over from the sheet I cut up) so I didn't take pics.

Then I got to work pinning the binding around the quilt. I choose light blue because I didn't want the quilt to be predominantly gray.

Once I got that stuff sewn on using my sewing machine (might I say binding isn't as easy as it looks to put on) I was finished. I think it turned out just gorgeous. Now I just have to work on the mobile, the bumper, and the lamp. Good thing I still have until January!

♥ Mrs. Suzie

How to make your own enzyme cleaner!

So lately I've been on this kick to make my own house cleaning products. After revising my laundry detergent post and seeing how amazingly cheap it is to make, I wanted to make some more cheap products around the house because I go through that stuff like water! After numerous hours of searching and experimenting I found a recipe for Citrus Enzyme cleaner. Words can't describe how excited I was. (Mostly because when you cloth diaper it is good to have an enzyme cleaner to get the "funk" smell out of them and that stuff isn't cheap!)

This cleaner is very comparable (pretty much identical!) to other enzymes sprays such as BacOut. This spray runs about $9 per bottle NOT CONCENTRATED! The ingredients are enzyme cultures, Lime extract, Stabilizers, Surfactants, and water (so basically lime, water, and sugar). After researching enzyme cleaner I found out that pineapples have the most enzymes and make a better cleaner.

So I guess you guys are ready for the recipe:

What you will need is:

1. A container with a lid that can hold 2 liters (I used an old milk jug)
2. 1 1/2 to 2 cups of fruits scraps (such as lime peels)
3. 7 tbsp of brown sugar (this is to feed the enzymes)
4. 1 tsp of yeast (doesn't matter which kind)
5. 1 liter of water
6. funnel
7. 2 weeks time!

How to make it:

1. Cut up your fruit scraps so that they will fit into the opening of your container (I used pineapple and lime!) and put them into a measuring cup to measure out about 2 cups of fruit scraps.
2. Stuff the fruit into your container and add the yeast and the brown sugar into the container using a funnel.
3. Pour in your 1 Liter of water through the funnel to collect any extra sugar and yeast.
4. Screw the lid on and shake the container to mix everything together.
5. Loosen the lid to let any gas buildup flow out of the container.
6. Label with the date you made it and the date for 2 weeks from the day you made it (this is when it will be ready for use).
7. Store in a cool, dark place (such as your pantry).
8. Shake the container everyday for the first week making sure when you put it up for storage that the lid is loosened (We don't want explosions people!).
9. Once the two weeks are up strain your enzyme cleaner and store for further use.

How to use it:

• All purpose cleaner = 1 part enzyme to 10 parts water.
• Stains and Odors = just dilute
• Dishes and Laundry = 1/4 of enzyme
• Drain blockages and smell = concentrated or use strained fruit scraps
• Mopping floors = 1 part enzyme to 20 parts water
• Face cleaner = 1 part enzyme to 2 parts water
• Insect repellent = unse diluted
• Clean washing machine = 2 cups enzyme in detergent drawer (run through normal cycle at 98 degrees F)
• Glass cleaner = 1 part enzyme to 3 parts water

If you would like to watch how I made my enzyme cleaner you can view it here:

Check back in two weeks for my review on this cleaner and it's wonderfulness!

♥ Mrs. Suzie

Cloth Revolution Diaper tutorial

I FINALLY have made a cloth diaper tutorial using the Cloth Revolution pattern. I used 1 1/2" velcro in the tute while following the directions for the pocket diaper. I absolutely love it and will make more! So here is the video, let me know what you think :)

♥ Mrs. Suzie

Mermaid Tail Towel Tutorial

I know this is a little late in the year but I figured little girls could not only use this towel when getting out of the pool in the summer but also use it for dress-up in the winter. I have made the tutorial on youtube so I am posting the video below along with the free pattern I created. Have fun!

Click here for the pattern.

Let me know what you guys think and if you end up making your own mermaid towel be sure to send me pictures so I can feature them on my video :).




♥ Mrs. Suzie

How to Make Yarn with Plastic Bags

People have been trying to find new ways to reuse a lot of plastic and paper items to help in the effort to clean up the earth and what better way to recycle plastic bags then making your own yarn. You can make practically anything with it which makes it so awesome. Remember though that it is still plastic, so no potholders and such!


What you will need:

• Plastic bags
• Scissors
• Crocheting Needle (Size G preferred)
• Pattern (I'm making circles)

How to do it:

• Lay your plastic bag out and press it flat. It's going to look kind of rectangular

• Cut your bag into strips that are 1/2" or a thumbs width wide, cutting the bag from the bottom towards the handles. They will be end up being little loops.

 

• Once you have cut up as many bags as you think you need, start chaining them together by stringing one bag loop through another and then back through itself and pull tight, but not too tight, you don't want to stretch the bag loop out.

• Keep doing this until all of your loops are linked together. At this point you can roll your links together into a ball for easier clean-up and organization.
• Now that you have made your plastic bag yarn you can use basically any pattern to create something unique!

Here is a circle that I have crocheted using a pattern I found on youtube:

♥ Mrs. Suzie