Finally.....A diper Clutch

I've been wanting to make myself a diaper clutch for a couple weeks now. I got started on the zippered wipe pouch a week or so ago but never got past that point. I got a few free minutes tonight and decided to finish it up. I'm going to a NorthWest Fabric Show tomorrow at the Seattle Center and figured it might be nice to have one. I can't wait till tomorrow and I hope the show is as good as I think it might be. It's like being a kid in a candy store. I hope I get inspired big time and I'm also hoping I will finally get to see the Amy Butler Lotus line in person and I hope it's as cute as the pictures I've seen.

I feel so much better getting some sewing done for myself too. I'm not totally happy with the way the diaper clutch came out. I like the design and all but I'm not happy with the way the bias tape came out at the ends. I want to do a ribbon treatment or maybe some ric rac but I need to get something because I can't find the right thing in my stash. I wanted to incorporate a diaper changing mat too but I haven't figured out the best design for that yet. Oh well, that is going to have to wait for a couple of days. I have a store order and a disaster of a house that needs serious attention as I need to get it looking clean before my Parents come over for dinner on Sunday night to celebrate my mom's birthday. Then I need to figure out what the heck I'm going to do for Chastin's birthday which just occurred to me is a little over a week away. Oh, I can't wait for some costco cake!! Yummy!!

Apron from HELL!!

This has to be the apron from hell. I started working on it almost a month ago and now I know why it's taken me so long to finish because I dread sewing on it. I finally got most of the sewing done, I just have to put on the pockets and handsew the facings. I just hate it when you work on something and it's a struggle on every step. I don't know why I'm having so many problems with it because I checked out Pattern Reviews and no one seemed to have any problem with the pattern. There are several things I dislike about this pattern. The first is that the tie straps aren't double sided which would have been easy to fix but I didn't have enough material to make them double sided. Second this pattern calls for allot of handsewing which makes more work. And third I hate the way the faces show the wrong side at the neck.

Sleeping Beauty

It's been awhile since I posted and mainly it's because I really haven't made anything new in the last couple of weeks. I've been busy filling orders and running some coops. I'm hoping that later this week I will be able to get some projects done. I have an apron that is half way finished and a bunch of ideas for new projects. I want to make a diaper clutch, where I can put diapers and wipes in. I also have a couple different ideas for blankets, now I just need to find time to do it all.

The kids are home tomorrow and we need to run to WalMart and pick up some stuff to pack in my hubby's container that will be shipped to Iraq. On Tuesday I have to take Cade in to get a speech evaluation and hearing test done, that should be fun. It's a good thing I'm taking my mom with me to help me out. My house desperately needs a major cleaning too and my mom has graceously offered to help but the last thing I want to do is clean, I would much rather be sewing. I did manage to get my garage cleaned up. I only did that so I could make room for a beach cruiser bike that I want. Usually I get allot of sewing done on the weekend but this weekend we went shopping and played outside, we had a beautiful day on Saturday and now were back to the dreary rain were going to have forever. So my post really has nothing to do with sleeping beauty but I think posts are so much more interesting if their is a picture to go with it. I took this of Callin a week or so ago, after it occured to me that a cute baby does wonders for merchandising my baby products!!

A bunch of different things.......

First off I want to thank Lacy for fixing my blog for me! Thank you Lacy!

I need some help coming up with a tagline for my business, something to go with Cocoa Dreams. Anyone have any good ideas for one? It doesn't necessarily have to relate to just babies though because I might want to carry something besides baby stuff.

Today I spent the day up in Seattle shopping with my girlfriend. I brought Callin with us and I used a Moby Wrap and boy is that thing comfortable, way more comfortable than my pouch. Definately worth the money! I wore Callin from 10am to 3 pm and my back never ached, now my feet did but not my back. We went to the Seattle Gift Show and looked at all the cool products, ate at Gordon Birsch and then shopped at Nordstroms and Macys. It was allot of fun!

Well I guess it's bedtime because I can't type, spell right or write coherantly!

Having Problems

As you can tell I'm having problems with getting my new header to show completely. I've been messing with this thing off and on for the last week and it's starting to drive me crazy but least I'm making progress. Tune in next week I might actually have the whole thing showing!!

You have also probably noticed that I haven't posted allot lately and thats because I have been busy making Pacifier Blankets or some know as tag blankets. They are selling well but I don't know how much longer I will be able to make them because this lady has a pretty extensive patent on it. How you can put a patent on a blanket I don't know but it must involve lots of money! I've contacted a patent lawyer to find out if I'm violating her patent, I hope he gives me some good news.

When I'm not working on Cocoa Dreams I'm spending time with my boys and taking pictures of them. Well, I don't always take pictures of them but today we had a little photo shoot.

Callin enjoying his taggie!

Callin enjoying his taggie!
Originally uploaded by Cocoa Dreams.

Awww I can't get enough of this little man! Isn't he the cutest? Everytime I look at him I just want him to stay a baby forever because I know he's my last one. I just love his little hand, legs and feet. Have I told you how long his feet and hands are? I figured this picture is a great advertisement for my newest addition to Cocoa Dreams. I made him a Tag Blankey out of Michael Miller Snuggle up and Satin dumb dots. I even attached a tag to the blanket that you can attach a pacifier too. Now we don't have to worry about losing his pacifier. On my next tag blanket I think I will make the ribbon a little shorter though.

Boy are these tag blankets popular right now, right along with the Bumbo Seat. I think almost everyone on my September Mom's group has a bumbo seat for their baby. I don't think I will get Callin one though, I'm not sure that it's such a great idea to prop you child up in a seat before they are developmentally ready but mainly I just don't want to spend $40 on one. Plus the fact I don't want him growing up any soon than he is already.

Amy Butler Belle Collection Quilt
Originally uploaded by Cocoa Dreams.

It doesn’t take me long at all to make the tops of these quilts but what takes my time is machine quilting and hand sewing the binding on. It took me at least a month to handsew the binding on this quilt, mainly because I was just too busy doing other projects. The actual time it takes to handsew the binding on isn’t that long. Anyhow this quilt was made using a fat quarter bundle of Amy Butler Belle collection bought from Fat Quarter Shop. I made up my own quilt pattern but it’s very simple. I took all the big prints and cut them into 5 inch squares and took the smaller prints and made either a 4 patch block or took 2 squares and a rectangle to make a block.

I have 2 other quilt tops sitting in my fabric stash to be finished but they may have to wait a little longer. I'm busy right now making baby bibs. I have a stack of 15 that I'm working on. I plan on adding them to my website so I made a bunch up out of different material. Hopefully I will have them up on Cocoa Dreams by the end of the week.

A Chaotic Christmas Eve

December 2006 006
Originally uploaded by Cocoa Dreams.

Earlier this month I posted a picture of WIP and I finally finished that WIP around 2pm on Christmas Eve. What a chaotic day and what a relief that the stress of Christmas is over. Anyhow I made this quilt for the neighbor girl down the street. I also made her sister a quilt with the same Dragon Princess material from Alexander Henry but in pink. The pink quilt didn't turn out as cute because I couldn't find any cute Asian inspired material that matched and I just didn't have allot of time to make it. I did however make up for the lack of design by putting a super soft flurr on the back.

I decided to try free motion quilting and quilt the top of this red quilt and I really made a disaster of the quilt but in the end I'm happy with the way it turned out. I'm a little ashamed to give it away but a person has to start somewhere and it's the thought that counts right? Anyways the girls loved their quilt, now I just need to make there brother one.

Getting my girl fix

Melany Modeling her first sewing project
Originally uploaded by Cocoa Dreams.

I've always dreamed of sewing stuff for my daughter and showing her how to sew but being a mother to 4 boys, I will never get that chance. I do however get to show my neighbor daughters how to sew, which is a great alternative and thats exactly what I did last Thursday.

I had my neighbor and her girls come over for pizza (there dad is in Iraq) and I had the pillows all cut out and had embroidered their names on the pillow fronts. So all they had to do was sew the border around the name panel and sew up the back. The youngest had more fun pushing the pedal than feeding the material in the machine but the oldest enjoyed doing both parts. They both did a great job on their pillow. I was a little scared to do this project with them because the youngest is very hyperactive but she was calm that night and didn't stress me out at all until she picked my 2 month old up. They also found my fabric stash and fell in love with the material I plan on using to make them quilts. I just need to figure out a quilt pattern and buy the material for the cordinates.

I have to say that even though I don't have girls I do still get to sew my boys how to sew. My 7 year old made himself a pillow last weekend and he really likes to sew. My 2 year old likes to run the foot pedal while I'm sewing too, unfortunely he's either goes at snail pace or has a lead foot. It makes for an interesting sewing experience.

Don't you hate it when you are snapping away pictures with your digital and your getting some great shots, then you look in the screen and see that it's showing up black because the damn flash didn't come on?? Well that probably doesn't happen to many people, just stupid people like me who assume the camera is still in auto mode. Anyways this is what happened to me on Friday, I was trying to get some good shots of Callin for Christmas but I think I'm going to have to try another day when I can get someone to help me out and make sure the camera is on the right setting....well not really but it would be nice if someone could help me pose him. It would even be nicer if the sun was shining so I didn't have to depend on the flash and the red eye fixer! Can you imagine the fun I would have taking pictures of all boys....can I just say YIKES!!

I did get a cute picture of Cade acting funny, to bad his face was dirty and snotty....

WIP

These are the current works in progress. I started cutting out the Alexander Henry Dragon Princess material Tuesday and got the quilt top done today. Now I just have to find a back and start machine quilting it. I've been eyeing this material for awhile and had no idea what to do with it and I finally decided on Tuesday that I would make it into a quilt for a neighbor girl down the street and I would make her sister a quilt with the same material in Pink. They are always asking me what I'm sewing and the oldest was in love with my first Michael Miller quilt that was done in the cocoa brown and pinks so I thought it would be a great Christmas present for them. They are also half Japanese so it's fitting for them.

The other is a start to a quilt I'm making with scraps of Amy Butler material. I've already made a quilt with the material but it's on my couch waiting for the binding to be hand sewn on. Once it's done I will post pictures of it. This quilt is a copy of a quilt that I saw on flickr that was also made with Amy Butler material, it's very simple but I really love it.

These days I just can't get enough of sewing, all I want to do is sew, sew and sew! I don't know what's wrong with me but I love sewing!! I was almost mad when my neighbor showed up because she totally interupted my sewing time and I had both of my boys down for naps, the perfect time to sew! Oh well, least I got the quilt top done in the end. To bad they are coming over for pizza tomorrow, another night of missed sewing. But her hubby is gone in Iraq and my hubby is gone too so it's the perfect time to get together and visit. I swear I am pathetic right now.....LOL!!

Sew tomorrow I plan on working on a diaper bag. I keep rethinking this diaper bag over and over and I think I'm just making it way to complicated and I just need to stop. The other night I had the weirdest dream where I was sewing the cutest diaper bag. It was wierd because it was something that I have never seen before and it was made with black canvas and black velour as an accent. So I'm going to finish the one bag I have started and then start working on the diaper bag that I dreamt about, hopefully it will look as cute as I dreamt it as.

More Aprons....

This is what I did this weekend. Plus I finished the 10 stockings I made, 8 for my family and then I made my sister and her roommate one.

Now I really have to go............

So this is what I did a couple of weekends ago, I made my girlfriends daughters Christmas Dresses. Not a good picture of the girls but you can see the dresses. The oldest is Payton, the second oldest is Sierra and the youngest is Madison. I made Payton's dress and Sierra's shirt and skirt. I had 2 days to make them so I they were a rush job but heck I had fund making them.

Gotta keep this short, Callin is ready for bed:)

Nicole, you asked for it. Here are some pictures of my messy fabric stash. I have a small little pile in my kitchen too but that's all of it. I did take out a couple yards last night making some more aprons. I will post pictures of my aprons later though. I think it will take me quite some time to sew all this up. I do have a stash of yarn too but it's in the "Black Hole" and I'm not digging it out. But I have a container or two of yarn. I go in spurts with my hobbies and my yarn seems to be pretty lonely this winter and will stay that way for awhile. So does it look like I have a problem??? Because it looks like it to me........

Personalized Baby Boy Pillow
Originally uploaded by Cocoa Dreams.

This is my newest creation for my store, it's a personalized baby pillow. I had a customer ask about baby pillows and bibs so I decided to add them to my product selection. I'm really happy with the way the pillow turned out. I have to be in order for me to feel good about putting it in my store. I made a bib too but I'm just not feeling it. Usually I get really excited when I make something that I love and pat myself on the back but the bib just did nothing for me. Maybe because I hate bibs? Who knows?

I'm also making a diaper bag and so far I'm loving it but I'm at a point where I don't know what to do next to it. I'm actually not a diaper bag person and rarely ever bring one with me so I'm having a little trouble getting inspired to make a diaper bag. Plus, I don't have a clear vision of how I want it to look so that's holding me back too. I do know I want something that won't fall off of my shoulders though. All the diaper bags that I see on the internet that are made by people are all the same design so I want to stay away from that and come up with something original. It seems that when a person comes to your website they want all the baby essentials so I think it's a good business decision to come up with a diaper bag, I'm just not sure if it's going to be something I'm going to enjoy making.

Funky Christmas Stockings

Funky Christmas Stockings
Originally uploaded by Cocoa Dreams.

My newest project is making these Christmas stockings for everyone in my family. They are made with upholstery velvet and silk dupioni, expensive material but so worth it!! So far I have 4 made only 4 more to go if I include the dogs. Well make that 5 more to go because my sister has requested a red polka dotted one too. I just love how these turned out. The green one in the picture still needs to be lined with canvas but you get the general idea. I made Kendall and Cade one out of green paisley but the polka dot ones are my favorite. They take a little work sewing a satin stitch around the polka dots. To bad you can't just find the material with the polka dots on it. I tried making stocking a couple years ago and got the material but never finished so I'm so stoked that I actually found a design I love and I'm getting them done. I actually saw some stockings like these in a catalog that my mom got http://www.ballarddesigns.com/ She knew that I would love the polka dot ones and she was right. I had Kendall draw me out the pattern, actually had him draw it out a couple of times because he didn't draw them out as big as I wanted them. He was even good enough to mark where to cut, like I couldn't figure that one out!! LOL!!

I decided to put these in my etsy shop too http://cocoadreams.etsy.com Hopefully they will sell well, but if they don't that is ok too because they are allot of work. I have so many things I want to make but not enough time to get it all done. So it wouldn't break my heart if I didn't sell any of these on etsy.

I've become a Babywearer...

So I have officially become a babywearer and I love it!! I know Jeny will be excited to read this! I even made myself a pouch sling out of black fleece and a cotton one, but I'm in love with the black fleece one. Yeah, the picture is not good of me but I can't keep my eyes open for some reason.

Callin just loves the sling, everytime I put him in there he will fall asleep. I was able to sew all weekend and make a quilt top carrying him around in it. I've been carrying him in the pouch since he was born but mainly only when I'm shopping. I notice when I carry him around in the pouch half the time people don't even realize I'm carrying a baby around. It's funny because Callin is such a grunter when he is in the sling, I wonder how people don't realize that I am carrying a baby.

When I first started putting him in the sling, he looked so uncomfortable. I kept asking my friend, "do you think he's uncomfortable?" and she would reply "he would let you know if he was uncomfortable." She was right but so far I haven't heard a complaint!

Aprons

Aprons
Originally uploaded by Cocoa Dreams.

Thanks to the sun finally coming out after days of torrential rainfall I was able to get my camera out and take some pictures of these aprons I made a month or so ago. I also took some pictures of the blankets that I finished last night. Other than that I didn't get much done. My next project is making a pouch sling out of some cool Michael Miller fabric. I made my first sling this weekend using some black fleece and it worked out great, I even made an online friend one with the leftover material. I'm thinking about making a diaper bag out of the Michael Miller material and have a pattern in my head but I'm a little worried the material might be to busy for a bag.

I might have figured out the trick of getting Callin to take a long nap in the afternoon. Yesterday his long nap came right after dinner but then he woke up more frequently during the night. So today I laid down with my 2 year old and Callin. Luckily Cade my 2 year old was tired so he was "for once" pretty easy to get down and while he was stroking my hair (a habit and routine he aquired from birth that puts him to sleep) I nursed Callin till he fell asleep. Then while wedged in between the 2 I watched the rest of my soap opera and when that was over I snuck out of the bed and got some stuff done. Hopefully it works tomorrow.......stay tuned....

Black and White Handbag

Black and White Handbag
Originally uploaded by Cocoa Dreams.

Well I take it back, I did get something accomplished today. I finshed my purse. I had the purse almost done but I wanted to add a fabric flower on it, just to give it more personality. I love how the purse turned out but if I was to make another one I would use use stiff interfacing on top of the canvas that I lined it in. I think it would give it the extra body that it's lacking. I didn't use the stiff interfacing in the purse originally because the last purse I used it on it showed on the outside and I didn't like that look but I think if I ironed it on the canvas it wouldn't show on the outside or better yet maybe I will be able to find some sew in super stiff interfacing. I looked for some before I started this purse at Joann's but of course they didn't have any.

Precious Sleeping Baby

Callin Bleu 058
Originally uploaded by Cocoa Dreams.

Doesn't he look so cute sleeping??? To bad he didn't want to sleep at all today. I thought I could get some stuff done but instead I held Callin most of the day. Do I mind?? No, not really when it comes down to it. He's my last baby so I want to treasure every moment I have with him. Sure I would like to be able to do some sewing too but when it comes down to it the sewing will always be there. Honestly I wasn't feeling all that good today anyways. I did however manage to serge a couple blankets, so now all I have to do is hand sew the edge up.

I also perused www.etsy.com for some inspiration while holding Callin. I was looking for ideas on what to do with this Michael Miller Christmas fabric, but didn't really come up with any hits. I thought about making some Christmas baby blankets but I'm scared if I make some and they don't sell then what will I do with them? I definately don't want to store them till next Christmas but if all else fails I might just make them and hope for the best. I sit in bed at night and try to figure out what I want to get done the next day and I think I might just fulfill my prophecy today, that is if I do manage to finish hand sewing the 2 blankets and a burp cloth and Callin allows me to do it.