Diapers for Baby Alive

 

 Our KK (Baby Alive) with her finished diaper.

Tutorial for those band aids coming soon:)

So I was able to keep the functions of Baby Alive hidden for about 6 months. When my daughter found out what she could really do there was no turning back.
Immediately I searched the Internet for a tutorial for diapers specifically for Baby Alive. I came across a tutorial here at this Mama makes stuff  but they really were not what I was looking for.  Great tutorial and gave the idea for the soaker, but I felt it needed one more thing.  I really wanted ones that would hold everything. I ended up trying 2 this way but still things were getting wet, not soaked but wet.
So I thought wait I made diapers for real baby's I'm sure I can just make minuter ones...right?
When my youngest was in diapers I made some for her. I had some materials left over. The most important material was PUL.  I traced the diaper that came with Baby Alive. And kept resizing until I got a fit I liked. And I put them together very similar to how I put my daughters together.  Now for my daughters I would top stitch the entire way around and I used pocket so I had no stitching around the inside layer.  I also had elastic around the back of the diaper. In the real Diapers I also had Velcro or snaps (later on when she discovered how to undo the Velcro) around the entire front.

 

The one with the elephant is flannel on both sides and much bigger this was my first attempt.  The green one is the finale outcome.  much smaller and the pul helps with keeping things dry.

 

A picture of my pattern.  it has marking for where to put the elastic the back has longer tabs and marking where to place the soaker.  I have no idea how to actually make a printable pattern other wise I would make it anyone who wants it sorry.

 

The inside layer with soaker stitched down the middle. You probably don't need this much for a soaker but better safe than sorry with green peas on my couch. 

After sewing both pieces together right sides facing, leaving a space to turn right side out

Before turning right side out add the elastic starting at the front and back curve

 

The green is what it looks like after you turn it out prior to making the casting and stitching the top.  The yellow is after the casting just down the sides and top closed

 

Add the Velcro and put on your Baby Alive...Other wise know as KK in our house

 

 This is a view of how big my first one turned out

 

These are the 3 different sizes I came up with.  Ultamitly ending with the one on the top.  The second one really isn't all that much smaller but it's the elastic that makes the difference.

 

The very 1st one see how high it comes up and notice around the legs...not so good.

The last picture diaper nice and low at belly line and nice and snug at legs...Green food stays off mommy's couch

For the Dancing Queen

 

Miss Savannah started dance last week. It was a crazy start. I told her we would look for a studio on Monday. I stressed often we would not be dancing today. Well, they made me look like a lier. At our 3rd studio (one that was recommended to me) they told her she could come back at 1pm (2 hrs away) and start that day!

Talk about excitement for her and stress for mommy. I had 2 hours to find our supplies! It took me just that long to.

When we showed back up at1:05 the first thing the instructor said to me was "she needs a bag". Perfect, I couldn't wait to make her one.

For my hour wait I looked around Pinterest and found the perfect tutorial. I followed everything except I added a divider to keep her shoes separate from her clothes. Oh and I forgot the webbing so we went without it.
I attempted to embroider her initial on the front, it's ok, not perfect but she loves it.

Then with the left over fabric I pieced together a skirt for her to wear over her dance outfit. She has been Carrying it around in love with it, showing everyone that will look.

She's not a baby anymore

My little Savannah turned 3! It's exciting and sad at the same time. This year we passed on a party because she has become obsessed with Princesses. We signed her up for Princess of the day at Disney in September. She is pretty excited although I don't think she knows what it means.
We had her 2 friends down for cake and ice cream. I bought a cake for the first time in 7 years:(. We just had too much going on for me to make it this year.
I made her a make up vanity and chair. Custom one of a kind Sleeping Beauty dress. A lot of love went into that think:). You can no longer by a pattern unless its second hand and the second had ones go for $30. So if you ever see one at a flee market or garage sale snatch that baby up! I also gave her a big girl room with new paint, new blanket, light and a big girl bed. Austin got her some make up for her vanity. Granny and Grampy got her set for Princess gear...a back pack, lunch box 2 outfits (that she wore for 3 days straight) princess doll and books. Her friends got her a sleeping beauty doll as well...she wanted to keep both. Savannah was pretty excited about Beam and Poppys present...they brought Val to the beach. Nanny and Poppy gave her cash that she says she wants to by a mini shirt.
She start pre school on the 4th of September. I'm nervous, happy and sad. She is signing her abc's pretty good at this point. Doing better with potty training, but still a work in progress. Mostly at bedtime and if she is not over tired she can wear big girl panties for nap. She loves to watch anything with princess, fairies or babies. Rides her bike every day with me for 3 miles, still loves her JoePa. She got her big girl bed the night before she turned 3. It was a hard night for me. She does well staying in it and I do have to make her get out when she gets up otherwise she will sit and cry until I go in her room.

Stowaway baby doll

When Heart + Sew posted about the doll suitcase she made her darling daughter I just new I wanted to make one for Savannah when she was old enough. I forgot all about it and then Prudent Baby featured it. Then I was on a mad hunt to find a suitcase. Not so easy. After much searching I came up with this cool purple one. It's a little bigger than I was looking for, but hey beggars can't be choosers.



Mine is not quite as detailed as Stacy's, but I have never been to much into details (which posses a problems sometimes). The one room I really wanted to do the kitchen, I didn't even get to. I have everything cut out, but I had enough. Maybe for her birthday I will complete it. I am thinking I want to do a back yard. I am going to wait and see if she really plays with it, before I put much more work into it. I do want to add many details to the next room, I think that's what makes it so fun.

So here is my front room. I tried to do something different, not sure if it worked. My thought's were the little black box would be a tv?? I didn't add the light above the door, started to and felt I just couldn't stitch such detail without messing it up.

I had this white fluffy stuff, I must have picked up at the reminents and thought it would make the perfect rug

and the bedroom, for the most part came out like I wanted, except the bed blanket was suppose to go to the floor. The black frame is suppose to have a family photo in it, I'm working on that...out of ink:)

One of the hardest things for me was getting the foam board to fit just right.

I went a head and made her a black apple doll as well. The doll was fun and easy, next time I'll get a little more creative with her. Sure wish I could put a face on her. Last time I tried something like that it destroyed the doll though. My little guy made a scarf for the doll as his Christmas present to his sister. He is so proud of it. I made just a few little items to play with, but more are needed.

pallet transformation

ok, so this has been done for a while, but I am just starting to get back into the blogging. Finding time for everything is hard!

So The inspiration came from Sweet Serendipity. I enjoyed doing a few things for the house this past summer. I see many more things coming for the house.

In Florida, pallets and spring just go together, so they are pretty easy to find. This pallet was sitting on the side of our road for about 2 weeks before I went down in the dark and had my husband jump out of the car and take 2 and place them in the van. There were 3 or 4 then. The next day they were even closer to the street I guess hoping someone would come take the rest. I was unsure if they really wanted someone to take them or not. See when you get your sod if you turn in the pallets you get $5 per pallet. The other pallets sat there for a few days and when I worked up enough courage to take the rest, they were gone. But I still got this beauty with 2 pallets and some left over pieces.

So, mine doesn't have as much meaning behind it. But I tried to put some meaning to it, by using words that were important to us as a family and values I wanted my kids to know.

Mine hangs in the dinning room and on several occasions my little guys talks about the words and what they mean.

work bench

next up on handmade items that needed my husbands help, was a work bench. I got my idea from http://mcbabybump.blogspot.com/2011/02/diy-play-workbench.html

no real tutorial, just enough to get started. We made ours bigger since our little guy is 5 (even though he is the size of a 3 year old). I also didn't just stick with 2x4's. It is all top shelf white board from Home depot. But here is a break down of the cuts:

top shelf 2ftx1ft
hight 4ft
2 front legs 2ft
10 inches wide for bottom shelf
for the top we used left over from Savannah's tower it is 2ftx3inch.
side supports are 9.5
the peg board is 2x2
we attached the peg board before we attached the top shelf.

I then sanded it painted black.
We got him an extra set of hooks he could place on Christmas morning for more tools.

The project it self was pretty easy, the only problem we ran into, was my husband was working on a little bit of a slant in the garage so it made it uneven, until he realized he just had to place it on an even surface and all was well. We are going to work on pre drilling some boards and giving him nuts and bolts to put boards together. My husband is very excited for little man to get this one.

learning tower

I am not so sure that my husband likes Pinterest. I always have projects going but until I found Pinterest they were all my own. Several times this year I have had to go to my husband for help. I have to face it, when it comes to wood...the end result is not good.

So the first project he helped me with was for Savannah. The learning tower from Ana White. It was pretty easy to follow, but a little more expensive than I thought it would be, probably because I wanted the hinges. I wanted to be able to keep it and not get give it away like so many other things when the kids are done using them. I think this will be something we can pass down to our grandchildren. I know a long, long way off, but I always think ahead. We followed it pretty much to the T. We put it together and then I took it apart to paint. I am so excited. Even though this one is for Savannah, I think Austin will enjoy it as well.

The photo's don't do it justice, but I could only get 1 photo before it was put away for the big day. I am sure I will get many more of it in use.