Hats

Gemma has recently decided that she wants to wear a hat almost all the time.  Unfortunately, her favorite hat is actually her swimsuit bottoms from this past summer:

She insists on wearing it on her head though, and she even insisted on wearing it when we went outside to play with some of the other kids on our street the other night.  I was just a tad bit mortified when some of the neighbors were admiring her "hat" with its air-conditioning (leg holes).  Yesterday while she was napping, I started wondering if she just loves hats in general right now or that particular "hat."  So I scoured the internet for some tutorials on toddler hats to see what I could whip up from fabric I had lying around.

I ended up making her two hats and though she was reluctant to wear them at first, after I complimented her on how cute they looked, she has been wearing them pretty much nonstop although she seems to favor the green stretchy one over the pink fleece.

While looking for toddler hat tutorials, I saw a lot of instructions for converting an old ribbed shirt into a hat.  I ended up deciding to sort of combine this tutorial with this one.  I dug out an old tank top of mine that was too small and on which the hem had completely fallen out, and I cut a Gemma-head-sized rectangle.  Then I quickly sewed it up into a hat.  Since it was bright green, I decided to make it a bit more feminine (and less tank-top-looking) by [sloppily] stitching on a G I cut out of pink fleece.  I think the end result turned out pretty cute (and she is no longer wearing her swimsuit bottoms on her head, so I'm counting it as a success):

Amidst my searching, I also stumbled across this tutorial on an easy fleece hat.  Since I have a ton of hot pink fleece left over from the slippers I have yet to actually make for Gemma, I decided to give this one a try too.  I like this one better than the green hat (though Gemma doesn't seem to share my opinion).  It was super easy - it took me maybe 10-15 minutes to make, but I was really proud of it because I think it looks like a totally legit hat that you might buy in a store.

This was a really quick, fun project for me and it was great because I got to branch out into the world of stretch fabrics, fleece, and decorative stitching, none of which I'd really attempted before.  And now I am going to hide Gemma's swimsuit bottoms in hopes that her new hats will fulfill all her current headwear needs.  :)

Festive Kindle Case

I have been sewing tons of stuff for other people lately as Christmas gifts.  (I will post lots of pictures after Christmas so that I don't spoil any surprises!)  I have the majority of my Christmas sewing done way sooner than I expected, so yesterday I decided to take a break from sewing other people presents and make myself a little something.  I had just gotten a new case for my iPhone yesterday with a Christmas tree on it and I suddenly thought: It would be really cool if I had a festive Christmas case for my Kindle too.  And then I realized that I could easily make myself one.  I knew I had some scraps of a couple different kinds of Christmas fabric in the stash my mom had given me a few months back, so I rounded up a really cute red fabric with a pattern of Christmas cookies and candy all over it.  Then I remembered that I had randomly bought a fat quarter of red and green striped fabric a while back for no reason either.  I decided this would make cute lining for my case. 

Then I started scouring the internet for a free tutorial on how to make a Kindle case.  In case you are wondering, there are TONS of these available in a wide assortment of styles.  I decided on this one and really liked it, although I was not thrilled with the instructions for how to finish the top edge of the inside pocket, so if I make another one I will have to figure out a better way to do it than the way suggested by the tutorial.

Anyway, I whipped it up in about 20 or 30 minutes yesterday while Gemma was glued to her new Baby Beethoven video.  And except for the aforementioned top edge of the inside pocket, I was very pleased with how it turned out.  (I might also cut the lining a bit smaller than the outer fabric if I made it again, as the lining tends to bunch up a bit inside.) It is so cute and very festive:

Another Whirlwind Weekend at the Lake

We spent the past weekend at Cy's parents' house on Lake Murray again, this time to celebrate Christmas with the Smith and Conroy branches of the Shealy clan.  It was a whirlwind trip - we drove up Saturday morning and arrived just in time for the festivities at lunch.

Pops helped Gemma scope out the Christmas tree

Liam and Gemma were pretty excited to see Hank

 After lunch we exchanged some gifts - Gemma got a toddler band instrument set from Uncle Mike and Aunt Jean that she really seems to like.

Although it is debatable as to who likes it more: Gemma or her daddy.  He taught himself the song "Soft Kitty" from the show Big Bang Theory and has been practicing constantly.  He was quite proud of his accomplishment, as you can see:

Gemma also got a little baby doll in a stroller.  She is pretty much obsessed with this little baby doll.  She carries it around everywhere (she even insists on taking it to bed with her at night) and says "ba ba" constantly.

Uncle Mike and Aunt Jean also gave each of their nieces and nephews a painting by a local folk artist named Ernest Lee.  Cy and I had never heard of Ernest Lee, but I was still pretty excited because our painting had a flamingo on it.  (Not sure Cy was too thrilled but oh well.)

After the crowds left in the afternoon, we packed up the three little ones and headed out to Riverbanks Zoo to see the Christmas lights.  It was a lot like the James Island County Park lights except you had to walk around so it was a lot more work and it was absolutely freezing.  Poor little Gemma looked like the poor kid from A Christmas Story ("I can't put my arms down!") by the time we were through bundling her up:

Despite the hoards of people and the subzero temperatures, the lights at the zoo were very cool to see.  Noah had a really good time--he kept freezing us with his magic wand and was doing all sorts of awesome dances to the Christmas music that was playing.