Oh Baby

So back in October I got a new niece.  I failed to finish anything in time for her shower (even though I knew months before) and I ended up only sending a card.  I am a bad sister/aunt.  I hope this makes up for it a little.

I made two pacifier clips.  My s-i-l has decorated the nursery in pink and green, so I purchased some pink-and-green argyle and used a scrap of that pink uncut corduroy that I still have tons of.  I got a spool of green ribbon with pink dots; I would have preferred the other way around, but no one had pink ribbon with green dots.  The clip is a chip clip from the grocery store, and the structure of the circle is provided by the lid to a Pringles can. 
I also had to purchase a hot glue gun.  How have I existed as a crafter without a glue gun?  Beats me.  Superglue maybe?

This is an item referred to as a Diaper Duffle.  The idea is, you put diapers and wipes in here, zip it up, and toss it in the diaper bag.  Then, when you need diapers in a hurry (and when are they not needed in a hurry), you pull this out of the morass of empty bottles, full bottles, extra pacifiers, sunglasses (so that's where they went), changes of clothes, toys, baggies of Cheerios, books, burp cloths, rattles, etc., and have everything you need at your fingertips.  Again with the pink-and-green argyle and the green ribbon.  The project instructions call for a 9" zipper, which turned out to be too short for mine.  Don't know what I did wrong.  I slapped together a little 1" wide strip to act as a stopper and cover up the gap.  Should I do this again, I'll get a longer zipper and just sew over the end if it turns out too long.

Last but not least is the diaper changing pad: tablecloth weight vinyl on the back, flannel on the front.  It's pink and purple, not pink and green, because they only had one pink and green flannel at Joann and it was hideous.  I made it a little longer than the pattern required, since Niece is so long, and I wish I'd put the rabbits closer to the bottom.  Oh well.  I considered adding batting, but I figure the last thing you really want on a changing pad is something absorbent.  In a couple of years, perhaps I'll redo this larger, with batting, as a nap mat.  If she's anything like her father, she'll fall asleep under the furniture all the time, so it'll come in handy.
Machine embroidery designs and project instructions from The Embroidery Library.

An Embroidered Yarn

Well, I neglected to take pictures of quite a few of my Christmas projects.  The embroidery-only ones don't seem worth the time, to me; it takes some thought and taste to pick out the right designs, but not a lot of skill.  Forgive me, then, for you'll not see the two bath towel sets I embroidered for Grandpa with anchors and flowers, or the polos I embroidered with Hawaiian themes for my f-i-l, or the other polos I did for Dad with the name of his business.  I bought the anchor, morning glory, and tiki patterns from a little spot online called The Embroidery Library; the outline of Hawaii came on the free CD with my Singer; and Dad's business was courtesy of the monogram feature in the Sew What software (which I finally broke down and bought).  My favorite feature of Sew What thus far: it uses True Type fonts, I don't have to purchase special fonts for the software.  Yay!
Everything turned out fairly well.  I learned I should use the same color bobbin as top thread when embroidering text, the narrow fields seem to pull the bobbin thread up more.  My poor Singer is now ready for a clean and service.