Jennifer's 365 Project

I finished the junimo plushie today and the 5 year old was over the moon. For those who don't know, junimos are forest spirits from Stardew Valley. I used this pattern here.
 

The Animal Crossing bags I stress bought arrived from Japan today. I bought bags to carry things in, during a pandemic where I'm not going anywhere. So, that was dumb. They're adorable though!
I finished up some masks this evening after work for myself. I used this Instructable guide. The little one still gets to enjoy his mask from when we went to Beijing a few years ago.
I also cut out these adorable egg holder papercrafts from Play Nintendo.

I finished up two masks for Chris this afternoon, using this Instructable. They are a little large for me, so I plan to make another set for myself, but they'll work for Chris when he needs to go out. Next is a pair for me and inserts for all the masks.
I also fed the sourdough starter I started yesterday, baked a cake and started a second batch of bagels. The ones I made last week didn't come out very well, and I'm pretty sure I missed an ingredient when dumping them into the bread machine. All in all, not bad for a rainy Saturday.

made another ornament for the felt tree. This snowman is a bit big and, as the little one says, missing a top hat.

I saw this fabric at Jo-Ann Fabric and I couldn't say no. It is perfect for making a merman tail, or an aquatic dragon.

So last night after Quinn went to bed I taped a few of his drawing papers together and cut out a mermaid tail pattern.
I cut out one side of the mermaid tail, just to get it started.
Today I went back out to Jo-Ann's and swapped out the fabric for the tail, picked up some stiff interfacing to use for the fin, and started to sew.

Quinn hung out a little bit, although he was more interested in other things since he couldn't help me cut.
But finally this afternoon I was done sewing. Its very large (20" wide by 45" long just for the body), but I figure that's more than enough room for him to grow into it. Right now he can use it as a sleeping bag merman tail.

Last night I finished up a new comforter for Quinn. It's larger than the Legend of Zelda one I made earlier, which he still uses quite a bit when he snuggles up on the couch. This will be nice to keep him toasty in bed when it starts to get cooler.

 His old slippers were made out of scrap fabric I had with cats on them.
The new ones, which are considerably larger (they have an inch of space in the toes for him to grow into) have little Doctor Who things on them, like a Tardis, Dalek, etc.
I also had some space fabric so I used that for the soles. He likes them, but they're really for when he grows a bit more. Since he wanted to wear them now (because why wouldn't he?) I cinched the elastic much tighter so they'd stay on his little ankles.

Yesterday before bed Quinn and I worked on a new quilt for him. He's been loving watching me play the new Zelda Breath of the Wild game.

Originally my intent had been to just make a top sheet, but the more I thought about it the more I wanted a blanket with weight.


The stitching isn't perfect as I really let the layers of fabric move more than they should, but hopefully he enjoys the blanket as much as I do. 

It has been a busy day! Today we took Quinn to Snip-Its for his first haircut. He did really well sitting in the chair. Waiting his turn was another matter, however. We really need to work on patience.
In the afternoon our friend Corinne came over. We enjoyed lunch, talked about random stuff, and in general had a great time catching up.
She bought him a cool R2D2 bento box for Christmas, which he tried to feed cheese to. In the evening before bed I finished up the another fitted sheet. This one is tractors, since he's a big fan of anything with wheels. The Christmas ornament he picked out last month was also a John Deere tractor, so we thought he'd enjoy these.

We picked up a few different fabrics at Joanne's. One of them was a Thomas the Train print that I turned into a bedsheet. As you can tell, someone was excited to check them out...

Quinn really likes BB8. I noticed that character print fabrics were 50% off at Joanne Fabrics so I picked up a few yards to sew a fitted sheet.
One of the patterns I found online stated you needed a 45"x69" rectangle of fabric, but I used a 42"x68".  I used some elastic I had on hand and spent a few hours cutting and sewing the sheet.
He enjoyed the fabric, pointing out BB8 a few times. He has a small toy BB8 as well so he carried that around while jumping on the mattress. I hope this makes future bedtimes easier.

Sewing with conductive thread is kind of tricky since it feels a lot like sewing with wire. But it's good practice I suppose, since I have several projects I'd like to work on with that thread.

Earlier this week I finished sewing up some slippers for Quinn. He really likes shoes so I thought it would be a fun thing for him to play with in the house. I pulled the pattern off of Darling Diapers after watching a video tutorial.

He thinks they're ok and will occasionally ask for them. I consider that a minor success.
We also made a few magnets for him yesterday. We were at Joanne Fabrics and they had a bunch of wood figures for 50 cents, so we picked up a few figures and a pack of magnets. We have a small bird magnet for our fridge so he's been especially enamored with the parrot figure.

We bought several 18 month shorts back in the winter when they were on sale at target. We figured he'd be able to wear them at some point in the summer.

At 16 months they're still way too loose. I decided to tack them real quick with some thread. I ended up taking them by about an inch, but now they fit and he can finally wear them.

 A few shirts we bought for Quinn came with velcro patches. Since he's going to outgrow the shirts but not the patches (probably for several years) I thought I'd sew a quick little square pouch he can put the patches on.
So yesterday I put together a roughly one square foot pouch. You can stick a board inside of it to make it sturdy, or use it as a holder for patches (or other things) since there's velcro sewed into the lining so it can close.

And as you can see on the outside, I've a few areas with velcro sewn in and outlined with light thread to make it easier for Quinn to find.

For now he just likes ripping the patches off, but in time I can see him using this more and more.

 Comfort, Adam and Corinne came by this afternoon for lunch and a movie to celebrate my last few days of being off before my FMLA is exhausted.

We wayched a crazy movie called Summer Wars and had tasty KFC.

Quinn enjoyed being rocked to sleep by Corinne.
 Later in the evening I finished off one of the quilts my mom gave me. She dropped off several quilts she started that just needed to be suffer and quilted.

I don't have a walking foot, but the blankets are very small so I thought I'd risk it.
there was some slight puckering from the fabric moving faster on the bottom (where the feed dogs are pulling it) than the top (where there are no feed dogs), but By in large the machine quilting worked out. We now have a larger blanket for the little one to lay on.

As it turns out, there is quite a bit of stuff I may need to carry with me at one time in my pump bag. So I needed a way to close it.

Originally I was going to just sew in magnetic clasps, but once I bought a cooler for the breastmilk, I realized the bag wasn't going to close easily.

I decided to add a zipper. I cut the leg off of one of my old khaki pants since it matched the color of the bag pretty closely. I also reinforce the back of the zipper with fusible interfacing so it would be able to withstand the opening and closing.
I've never sewn a zipper before and while it was easier than I thought it would be, I mad the whole project a lot more complicated. Because I'd already added pockets earlier, the suggestions to create a zipper and sew it to a lining (which would then be sewn to the bag) wouldn't work.

I ended up sewing the zipper along the upper portion of the bag opening. I made the whole zipper top wider and longer than it needed to be so I'd be able to over-stuff the bag if need be and it would still close. But that meant that there's corners that are open that need to be sealed and some of the fabric bunched in places.

The stitching is also messed up on the side of the bag because I had the tension wrong. I'm having a hard time figuring out tension still. I really need to sit down and experiment with different fabrics and make sure I have the right needle. Luckily it's hard to see on this project. I'll definitely need more practice to add a zipper to things as well.

Several of the used Bum Genius 4.0 diapers I bought have worn out elastic in the legs. I didn't realize that at first - I just assumed he was too small for the diapers.

Then I realized some fit better than others. I looked it up online and turns out replacing the elastic is pretty easy. You just turn the diaper inside out and the elastic can be pulled up and replaced by the legs.

Quinn really doesn't seem to like feet on pajamas. At first none of the outfits would fit him (his legs were too long) so I went out and specifically bought him outfits without feet. But as he's growing into various gifts that were given his legs are the right length but he isn't having it. When he pulls his leg up to kick it comes out of the foot and then he starts to get frustrated at all the fabric around him. He usually ends up crying after a few minutes of pulling his foot up from the pajama feet.
There are two outfits in particular that fit him pretty so I decided to take off the feet and see how that works.
I only removed the feet on one outfit today - the bear outfit - as a test. Once I ripped the sitches out of the feet I used the sewing machine to do an overedge stitch.
It was my first time using that stitch and the fabric kept sticking when I'd get to the thicker parts, so it isn't beautiful but it does the job.

One issue with ripping the feet off is that you have a large flap of fabric loose at the ankle. In outfits with no feet there is a snap at the bottom of the leg at the ankle that keeps the fabric snug.
I thought that having the fabric loose at his feet might bother him, but he seemed fine with it. He kicked with abandon like usual but it didn't work him up into frustration like seemed to happen with footed pajamas.

Now I have two little bear feet left over that I need to convert into something. I was thinking small stuffed animals.

My mother suggested putting socks on him and then putting him in the pajamas, so I'm going to try that next with his other outfit to see if that works. If it does, at least I got some sewing practice in with this project since I may have wasted my time otherwise.

The stroller body and the car seat each have their own hood that you can raise or lower to keep sun (or rain?) off of a kid. But when you have the car seat attached to the stroller, there's no way to keep them together and closed up to protect the a baby from the elements.

Up until now, that hasn't been an issue. But today was so sunny that there was no way to keep the sun off of the baby's face because the two hoods wouldn't connect.

I ran out to Joanne Fabrics this morning to pick up some velcro and pinned a piece in place.
Once everything was lined up, I started to sew. The fabric was pretty tough to get through and I actually snapped a needle. I probably wasn't using the proper type, but I'm not sure what I needed and I wasn't going back out to the store so I just worked with what I had.
It took a bit of time (and a pair of pliers to pull the needle through at times) but I finally managed to get the piece of velcro secure enough that it would keep both hoods together. And as you can see, there's a perfect view into the carseat where the baby would sit.

Now when the sun is beating down our infant wont fry to a crisp on our walks.