DIY Sew a Bunny Hat

We have a little bunny in our house!

Yep, I'm at it again! I'm making silly hats for my son who will kill me when he sees these photos in 15 years! The design is very similar to the pumpkin hat and Santa hat I made earlier. I bought some white stretchy cotton fabric and I used one of his hats as a template.

I traced around his hat and added some extra for the seam allowance. I usually make my DIY hat a little bigger and then try it on him and adjust as needed.

For sewing with knits, I've found that using my sewing machine foot that's made for knit fabric makes a huge difference. It doesn't bunch up as much as when I use the general foot.

For the ears, I sketched out a little design for the pink and white parts.

I used felt so they would be a little more stiff than a cotton fabric.

Good old Elmer's glue did the trick to attach the pink shape to the white ear.

I stuck the ears inside two layers of the hat (with right sides together).

I like to add a folded up band at the bottom so the hat can be adjusted slightly if needed. I made this one awhile ago, so Connor's head was a little bigger by the time he wore it.

Press the seams and we're ready to bunny hop!

I think he enjoyed playing with the plastic eggs more than modeling his new hat...

Lisa's Special Grilled Swiss Cheese with Apples

This is my special twist on the good old American favorite grilled cheese. I don't know where this idea came from, but it popped into my head one day at work. We had all the ingredients at home and ready to go!

Ingredients:
• slices of bread
• slices of swiss cheese
• butter
• slices of apple

Lightly butter both sides of bread.

Then create the sandwich with layers of cheese and sliced apples and top it with a second piece of bread.

On low heat, place the sandwich on a frying pan and grill until the bottom is golden brown.

Flip the sandwich to the other side to grill the top. When both sides are grilled and the cheese is melted, you're ready to eat!

YUM and super easy!

DIY Baby Belt

Mommy's All Star had a little problem. None of his pants fit on his skinny milk belly! Mama bought all these cute pants and he couldn't wear any of them. So Mama made him a belt!

I used the same tutorial that I did when I made myself a belt, but I made it much smaller.

A tiny belt for a tiny waist is a little harder to work with, but it does the trick!

Connor loves his new jeans!

Lasagna Roll-ups

Back before we moved, we used to shop at the same grocery store all the time. They used to have these awesome frozen lasagna roll-ups that we loved to make for a quick meal. One day, they sadly disappeared and ever since then, we've been on the lookout for them to pop up at another store. No luck, but we found a better idea! We'll make them ourselves!

Ingredients:
• 2 tablespoons fresh chopped basil
• 2 cups ricotta cheese
• 1-1/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1/4 cup parmesan cheese
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 2 teaspoons parsley
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1 lb. cooked ground turkey
• 8 cooked lasagna noodles
• 1-1/2 cup tomato sauce

Preheat oven to 375°.

Mix first 10 ingredients in a large bowl, reserving 1/4 cup of mozzarella and put aside.

Lay cooked lasagna noodles flat on a plate. Top each noodle with a layer of the meat & cheese mixture.

Starting at one end, roll one noodle at a time. (If you want smaller rolls, cut the lasagna noodle in half and use less mixture in each one.)

Fill the bottom of a greased baking dish with 1/2 cup of tomato sauce.

Lay rolls seam-side down in baking dish. Cover with the remaining tomato sauce and sprinkle with 1/4 cup mozzarella cheese that was put aside.

Bake at 375° for 20 minutes.

So good! Definitely a keeper in our house!

My entry into A Craft Soiree is sponsored by Appliances Online and Bosch Washing Machines

No-Sew Baby Bow Tie

Connor had his Hebrew naming ceremony recently and, of course, I wanted to dress him up extra cute. I love all the little preppy baby outfits, so his sweater vest, polo & khakis were perfect. But to add a little extra fun, I thought he needed a cute accessory - the bow tie!

This literally took me less than 10 minutes so it's a great craft if you only have a little time. I cut out two strips of fabric - one for the bow and a skinny one to loop around the bow.
(I'm being blinded by plaid on leopard print. Sorry!)
For each strip, I folded each long side in towards the middle so the unfinished edges wouldn't show. Then I ironed the folds to flatten them.

To make the bow, I took the long strip and folded each edge towards the middle. The ends needed to overlap slightly, but I cut off the excess that I didn't need. (A baby boy needs a lot less of a boy tie than a toddler)
I used some Elmer's glue to adhere the top end to the bottom end where they overlapped.
I also used Elmer's glue for the strip that wrapped around the bow and then I held it tight while it dried.

I slipped a 1/4 in wide piece of elastic inside and tied a knot at the ends.
I took the knotted part of the elastic and slid it around so it was inside the bow tie.

And here's my little guy showing off his plaid bowtie!

St. Patrick's Day Footprints

Connor and I did a little St. Patrick's Day craft to celebrate!

Check out my baby blog if you'd like to see more...

Tasty Spinach Artichoke Dip

This was a really yummy appetizer I made for work and I wanted to share it with you. Please excuse the photos from my phone!

Ingredients:
• 14 oz. car artichoke hearts, chopped
• 1 package 10 oz. frozen chopped spinach, thawed & drained
• 8 oz. container low-fat plain yogurt
• 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1/4 cup green onion, diced
• 2 cloves minced garlic
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350.

Mix all ingredients in a large bowl.

Pour mixture into casserole dish or baking pan. Bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown on top.

Serve with crackers, veggies or pita slices.

Sew Burp Cloths

I started out with nine burp clothes when Connor was born. I quickly learned that nine isn't nearly enough for a baby that spits up A LOT. Stores charge so much for a piece of fabric so I knew making my own would be cheaper...and more fun!

My first idea was to take some old shirts and turn them into cute burp clothes. I started by washing, drying, and ironing all my fabric.

I measured a burp cloth I already had and used that as a template for these. I marked the lines on the inside of the shirt.

Then I cut out both the front and back of the shirt and pinned them with right sides together.

Just like you would sew a pillow, I stitched around the edges and left a small opening at one end. Then I turned the fabric right side out and stitched the opening closed.

Here's my Bambi burp cloth...
and my FLIRT burp cloth...
(There's rhinestones so it's a little girly, but he won't know!)

Since those turned out so cute, I tried out some other types of fabric. This owl fabric was very similar to the burp cloth fabric that they used in the hospital.

Animals in a stretchy knit fabric

Flannel in a quilt pattern

Flannel fabric with some cute patches ironed on

After working with so many types of fabric and giving them all a try with burping, it was fun to see which ones work best. I love the feel of the knit fabric because it's soft. The flannel absorbs the most liquid, so they tend to last the longest in our house. But they're all super cute, so I use them daily!