First time sewing...

So I've been lacking in my blogging lately. I blame my five kids, my chaotic Spring Break, and my busy school schedule. It's not a great excuse, I agree but it's an excuse nontheless. With that out of the way...onto the crafting blog.

So I did manage to get a tiny bit crafty recently.  Ballerina is three month old now. And even though her interest in toys with noise has increased, her hand-eye coordination hasn't. So I figured that this was the perfect time to break out my new sewing machine and attempt to use it. I received it for my birthday in February but I've been too chicken to use it. 

I am a confessed lurker on several mommy-craft blogs. I love them....I'm addicted. Anyways, on one particular blog that I'm obsessed with (Samster Mommy @ blogspot) the supermom, Natasha made her infant daughter a homemade rattle using a t-shirt, ribbons, stuffing, and a plastic case with beads. It was genius. I think she called it a Sunshine Rattle and it is so super cute.

Well I decided that this would be the perfect thing for my little miss so I tried it. Only, I didn't have any yellow fabric and I had an excess of old black t-shirts and iron-on patches. I started by cutting two circles out of the t-shirt and ironed on my little patches for a splash of color against the black.

After that I placed and sewed on my ribbons. I figured the brighter the better. Now on Samster Mommy, she used a plastic rectangle case as the rattle in between her two circles, I didn't have one of these but I did have a ton of plastic eggs leftover from last Easter so I took one of those and put about 5 beads inside it and super-taped it. Then I sewed the two circles together with the patches facing each other so I could turn it inside out. (This is where I forgot to put the ribbons on the inside of the circle so it would eventually be on the outside when I turned it inside out and ended up needing to start over. Oops!)

It turned out pretty good considering I didn't know what I was doing. I did end up with my final side being a little wonky. I had stuffed it beautifully and was ready to sew the last little bit when Ballerina suddenly demanded my undivided attention, forcing me to speed things up and making a wonky side.

Ballerina didn't seem to mind though. The rattle ended up being a big success and she loves the thing. I think I may end up making many more from leftover scraps.

Carole