some new bedding

"Sew" much to do! And I have only made a little dent in it. I found a bunch of fabric that I really love in the $2 bin at WalMart a month or so ago and I've been plugging away at doing something with it. Jed actually found my favorite piece of all, and when he brought it to me, I knew it had to come home with us.

It's WHALES! Dave and Jed have a long history of whale love, so I decided immediately that this fabric had to be made into pillowcases for both of them. I found some coordinating fabric for the edge of the pillowcase, and I think it turned out pretty cute, if I do say so myself.

I also picked out several fabrics that I thought would make cute crib sheets. Since Jed is still in his toddler bed and that uses the same size mattress as a crib, we are going to need more small bedding when Baby H (yes, we have a name already) makes his appearance. I found several great tutorials online that explain how to make a crib sheet, but I'm not going to link up to a particular one, because I used several different ones to help me generate the final product.

One thing I found particularly helpful was the recommendation to use my elastic stitch on my sewing machine, which I didn't actually know I had. Before when I have attached elastic, I just zig-zag it on, and the elastic seems to loose a lot of its stretch. I was really pleased with the results of using the correct stitch--go figure! If you want to have similar bliss, your elastic stitch probably looks a lot like mine--it's the one that has a series of vertical dashed lines next to a zig-zag line.

I chose not to put my elastic inside the hem of the sheet, because I only wanted to put elastic on the corners of the sheets--it seems wasteful to put elastic around the whole thing. Turned out pretty well, I think.

The whale pillowcase and the first finished sheet on Jed's bed. I started with the tan fabric because I figured if I was going to make a mistake, I wanted to do it on the fabric I didn't care quite so much about. When I have the method perfected, then I'll use the cute fabric!

Jed, his bears and whales snuggling in the bed. What a sweetheart! I am endlessly thankful for those sewing classes in junior high, and my mom's insistence that I buy a sewing machine on lay-away all those years ago. It is a huge reward for a little bit of work, every time Jed snuggles up with that whale pillowcase with that huge grin.