Sun hats for the fam

It's taken a few years, but I've finally gotten around to making a Betz White Reversible Bucket Hat for me! Not only that, but I even made one for my husband and a new one for Little Bear.

After measuring our noggins, I made a Small for Little Bear, Large for me, and X-Large for my husband. The sizing in this pattern is spot-on. Each of us got a great fit.

Motivation for hat-making came in the form of a family kayaking adventure. We signed up for a tour and in the instructions, it suggested that participants have hats to protect from the sun in the open water. Since Big Bear was the only one with a hat that fit, I got to work on hats for the rest of us.

And now the whole fam is rockin' the bucket hat!

We got a lot of use out of these hats this summer after our kayaking tour. They came in handy for trips to the beach, visits to the zoo, and on many hikes. The unstructured nature of this design makes it perfect for shoving in a bag or backpack. Now I'm thinking I may need to get some water-repellent fabric so I can make some rain hats!

This week in the quilt mines...

My husband calls my sewing room the "quilt mines" (*crack!*) <-- sound of cracking whip. Ha! Anyway, Little Bear is finally starting to sleep through the night. Huzzah! The only downside is that he now wakes up at 6 am, so my late night crafting has really slowed down (I'm just too sleepy!). But I do have some projects moving along, slowly but surely.

Some handwork:


Embroidery complete! Now I need to work on getting all of my sashing sewn for my Whimsy quilt.

Some machine work:


I've started on my next Amy Butler project for the Style Stitches Monthly Bag Challenge: the Perfectly Pleated Clutch. I've decided that pleating is definitely NOT my favorite thing to do. But boy, does it look cool!

And another bucket hat:


This one is for baby Sarah. Her mama made a super cute crocheted hat for Little Bear. I had to reciprocate. Once again, I used the ever-fabulous Betz White Reversible Bucket Hat pattern. I added a little ric-rac trim to the brim just for a little extra cuteness.

It is too small to fit my boys, so here it is on another bear:


Hopefully, I'll get to spend some more time in the quilt mines over the weekend. *crack!*

Birthday Bear!

Today is Little Bear's first birthday!!!

To celebrate, we had a little family party on Saturday.

There were cupcakes, of course.


These are vanilla cupcakes with chocolate buttercream, ala Joy the Baker. Yum! (Especially the buttercream... mmmm....)


Little Bear seemed to enjoy them as well. Nom nom nom...

And there was also a special birthday hat, made by mama:


It's another Reversible Bucket Hat by Betz White. I used a cute zoo animal print on one side, and a poly/cotton denim on the reverse. This is my third version of this hat. I love this design!

I can hardly believe how quickly the time has flown.

Happy Birthday, Little Bear!!!

With love,
Mama

A couple of small projects

Over the last week, I completed a couple of small projects.

First up was a pillow for a wonderful friend. She watches Little Bear for me for a couple of hours each week on my workday at Big Bear's preschool. She found a pillow at Target that she really liked and I took inspiration from it to create this:


The prints are both from Lakehouse Dry Goods. I especially love the ric-rac trim:


I think it turned out pretty cute, and my friend really seemed to like it!

The other project this week was a Betz White Reversible Bucket Hat for Big Bear.


Denim on one side and cotton on the other (a cute print from the Toy Poodle collection by Kinkame). I actually cut it out last summer, and only just now got to putting it together-- just in time for this summer! I don't know why it took me so long to get around to it as it was super quick and easy to put together (especially since I've done it before). I really like this pattern (and still plan on making one for me someday!).

Both of these projects were in the queue for quite awhile, and it feels good to have finally completed them!

Summer heat and a hat

With all of the hot weather we've been having, not a lot of crafting is going on (as I'm finding it hard to get motivated to stitch while dripping sweat). But along with the sunshine came the need for a hat for LB. So I got to work.


Here he is modeling his new hat. I made it using Betz White's Reversible Bucket Hat pattern which is a simple, fun design that is really quick and easy to put together (just be sure to use lots of pins). I used the Alexander Henry mini zoo print for one side and a solid khaki twill on the reverse. This is an XS and it is still a little large for LB, but I figure he'll grow into it. So far it has been working pretty well as generally when we're outside, he's in the baby carrier (I love my Ergo!), and he's positioned such that the carrier helps keep the hat in place. I may still add some straps to help keep it on his head though (for those windy days).


Here he is again, just because. I call this his Indiana Jones look.

I'm looking forward to making a couple more hats soon, one for BB (which is all cut and ready to sew) and one for me!