Fancy Spit-Up Cloth

I've seen some lovely "travel sized" loveys and fancy blankets for sale here and there. I keep seeing them and thinking, "I could make that!." I hadn't gone to the trouble of trying to make one until I noticed that my super spitter-upper is beginning to cuddle with his spit-up cloths. Then inspiration struck: why not make a fancy, cuddly spit-up cloth?

Since this was my first try, I just grabbed scraps from other projects. I pieced the soft microfleece back, used the leftover satin binding from making the baby's nubbie doll, and used the terry cloth liner from a cloth diaper that never got used (I got it for free as a sample). I trimmed everything down to the right size, added an appliqué to the terry cloth side of the cloth, and then set out to try out my new ruffler foot. Whee!

This thing is a beast. But actually, it just snapped onto my foot, so it wasn't as hard to get on as I thought it would be.

After reading the instructions through several times and fiddling with the settings, I got my ruffles to look about right. The ruffler didn't work perfectly (my needle kept getting knocked loose!), but it certainly worked better than the standard way of making ruffles.

I had to undo several ruffles to join the raw ends, but it was easy to re-fold the ruffles.

Pin, pin, pin, pin! Make sure to pin the ruffle pointing in so that when you turn the whole thing right side out, it points out.

Pin the other side to it, right sides together. Sew it all together, leaving a gap of 3-5 inches for turning.

Once it's all together, pull out the pins, and turn it all right side out.

Pin the hole, making sure all the layers are in line, and top stitch.

All done!

Yes, it look a bit girly, but a heart and a few ruffles never hurt a little boy... ;)

He actually loves it, though you couldn't tell it from this photo. ;)

~Regina

Nubbie Doll

The baby is 6 weeks old, guess maternity leave is over! ;)

Before our little guy was born, I spent some time looking at the wide variety of loveys available on the market. I loved how the Cuski looked, but not the price tag, so I set out to find something similar. I found the Nubbie Doll at WeeFolkArt.

I had decided I was going to make two of these as stocking stuffers for our kiddos. Then our church started the drive to collect Operation Christmas Child boxes and I realized that one of these would be a perfect little doll/lovey/thing to include in a box! Actually, I have to thank my mother in law for really being the one who gave me this idea since she had mentioned including simple hand-made loveys in boxes in years past. I just hadn't thought about it until I was looking at the tutorial for this little doll.

This little doll is super easy to make. I made it more complicated by using two fabrics rather than just one, but it still is super-duper easy. I loved the bright pink flannel and I backed it with the deep purple corduroy. The fabrics are sooo nice and soft. I hope they hold up well for whoever gets this gift!

I had fun with the decorative stitches on my machine. I hadn't had a reason to use them yet (I've had the machine for only about a year), so it was great to have a reason to flip through all of them.

The head itself is pretty easy and not too big. The doll is the perfect size for little hands and will pack nice and compactly in the shoe box! I may experiment with the shape of the doll with the ones I make for my kiddos, but I really like the way this doll turned out. It's perfect for a Christmas shoebox.

I decided just to show my little doll off rather than writing up a full tutorial since the WeeFolkArt one is nice and clear... and I have a fussy baby on my lap.

~Regina