Naptime?!....

This has been a wonky week as far as naps go.. We had a lot of work done at our house. Well, it was all done outside of our house and it pretty much was all loud. Work men don't work around nap times, so we took what we could and rolled with it. We have some big trees and we have had some big storms. Several years ago.. like maybe 5?.. I really can't remember, we had a huge storm and lost a ginormo tree in between our house and our neighbors. It fell into our neighbors yard and up against her house. It was literally inches away from crushing the whole front. It popped up our driveway and we've had a lovely crack and broken spot in the middle of our driveway since then. At first it was over 2feet high but it settled a ton over the years. We also had another bump/crack at the end of our driveway from tree roots to another huge tree. We finally decided to get these fixed and have that half of our driveway re-poured. The video is of the Bobcat yanking the stump out. It was pretty impressive! Brooke was afraid of it at first, but has since decided that she likes the "Little Bobcats".

If I had an award to give out for the hardest working people I've ever met, I would give it to the crew that worked on our driveway/porch. There were two guys the first day and three the next day that broke all of the concrete up.. BY HAND!! Well, by sledgehammer. AND they loaded it all into the trailer by hand as well!! It seemed like cruel and unusual punishment to me though! It was over 100 degrees (up to 110) every day this week!

Here is the excitement! This is our driveway. Sadly I don't have a before picture to show how jacked up it was!

 Here we have our porch. Since we have lived here, it has fallen, sunken, slanted, settled (?) away from the house. The bossman said there was a 6" differential from the front to the back of the porch (up against the house). That crack there on the left was about 2" more closed when we moved in. Like, if you dropped something down there, there was no retrieving it. Now, you could crawl down and retrieve whatever your little heart desired! Not good! Our posts were easy to move and since the geniuses that added this porch in the first place didn't tie it into the house, but DID tie it into the roof, it had started pulling the roof away and causing some bricks to loosen. Rad. Or not.

They tied everything in to the house and added rebar as well as putting in supports under the porch. They leveled it all out and poured over it, adding quite a bit to the porch. 

It was all very entertaining, as you can see.

This is quite a view!

All done!

So, needless to say, I didn't have as much time during nap to do my sewing/crafts. I did manage to make a few things though! I desperately needed a grocery sack holder, so I whipped one up! I LOVE it and plan to make another one. I used some scrap fabric leftover from my patio cushion re-do! It's a little long/skinny, but holds 20 bags and I'm happy with it. I also took pictures for a tutorial, so I'll try to get that up later if anyone is interested! It's quick and easy!

 I also made an um.. "sensory ribbon blanket" or whatever you aren't supposed to call them b/c the Taggie nazi's have patented every word, variation, and method of making these things. Anywho, I love how it turned out and made two of them and one burp cloth to use up the material I had. One blanket was for a friend who needed one for a baby shower. The burp cloth and blanket are yet unclaimed. I'm thinking they will be for Bailey..

I also finished my "test" dress for Brynnberlee Designs. I adore this dress and Brooke loves it too!

Super Neat-o Happy Nappy Time nap! :)

Have you missed me?!? I have missed YOU!! We had a bit of a plumbing catastrophe.. ie. black water pouring down my wall in the laundry room (and flooding it- twice) from a kitchen sewage back-up. OH, how I love OLD cast iron pipes! BLECK! That meant one afternoon with a plumber instead of my sewing machine. Another day my mother in law came to visit and one day I spent making some re-usable snack bags and sandwich wraps. But.. my super duper awesome and exciting project is a NAP MAT! I am in love with this and hope to make many more for other people!! :)
It started out as this:

I made this one with just the mat cover and attached pillow case. I can easily modify it and add a blanket that is attached. This has a velcro closure at the bottom of the mat and the pillow case as well.
I hate raw edges, so I made sure to encase them all in this cover. I used a french seam for the length of the cover and for all of the other seams I folded over twice to enclose and then top stitched. :) Have I mentioned my love for the French seam?!
Here's a quickie on how to make one!

Sew fabric WRONG sides together.

I sewed using a larger seam allowance and then trimmed off the slevage afterwards (as seen here).

Flip the fabric so RIGHT sides are facing and sew, being sure your seam allowance is large enough to completely encase the seam allowance from the first step.

And VIOLA! Lookie there!! A gorgeous French Seam!!! *applause*! No little frayed bits!

After sewing the main body of the mat cover, I sewed the pillow case.

 I first sewed the short ends (where you insert the pillow).

 

LOVE this fabric!!

Then, I turned it RIGHT sides facing and sewed ONLY the TOP together. I left the bottom open because I was going to attach it to the top of the mat cover and it would be sewn shut at the same time as the mat cover.

In this picture, the seam on the right side is actually the top of

 the case and the bottom edge there is open (to insert pillow).

Now, here is where I had to think. Hard. I had to think hard because I had to figure out how to attach the pillow case to the top of the nap mat all in the same seam... this may seem easy peasy, but it hurt my little noggin!! I FINALLY *thought* I had it figured out so I went for it!

(Pretend that brown dot fabric is folded over one more time... mmkay?!).

You can see here how I inserted the case into the mat.

Even though I think pinning is for pansies, I went ahead and pinned it all together here.

Then I sewed it and turned it...

.. did a little bit of this....

and..

Hot dog, hot dog, hot diggity dog, it WORKED!!

I inserted the pillow and  mat and then folded it to see how much I had to hem at the bottom.

It turned out to be a few inches. So, I hemmed it with a generous seam allowance

and then I added a long strip of velcro.

Same thing on the pillow case (it is only pinned in the picture, but I did sew it down!) :)

I sewed a long length of ribbon on to the bottom of the mat so you can tie it up all pretty-like!

Isn't it just so pretty!?!

Now, I just need someone to tell me that I do NOT need some of this yummy fabric for myself!