#babyschep's nursery progress: Rocket Ship Play Mat

Okay, so I finished this project well in advance of BabySchep's arrival, and even managed to photograph it, but when I went to upload the "finished" photos, they were all gone!  Fast forward several months, and now I'm ready to write about it. 

Remember Lil'Schep's baseball play mat?  I retired it right around his first birthday, because he never seemed to spend any time on the floor.  I recycled the foam insert, and simply made a new cover for BabySchep to match his nursery's space theme. 

So soft!

I found this super cute fleece at the fabric store.  I was just about to turn around and go back to another bolt I had in mind when I spotted these sweet little stars.  Simply perfect!

Rockets everywhere!

I purchased this rocket ship cutting file for my Cricut Explore Air 2, and I'll say that I've gotten my money's worth out of this cutting file.  I cut the rocket ship out of felt.  For those curious, I used that stiffer craft felt that comes in letter-sized sheets, and used a green, standard grip mat.  I cut this on the "light cardstock" setting on the Explore Air 2, because I felt (hehe) that the felt setting cut with too much pressure.  I did not use any backings or interfacings, because the craft felt is pretty stiff on its own, and didn't have any issue with it sticking securely to the cutting mat. 

I have to say that I've really enjoyed using my Cricut for some of these sewing projects, because it saves a lot of time.  After all, the reason you use felt in sewing projects is to ensure a quick, non-fraying finish, right?  As you can see, I secured the ship to the mat with a small zig zag stitch in gray thread.   One thing I love about fleece it that the felt seems to almost melt into it when appliqued. 

Little guy is two months old here.

He seems to enjoy it alright, don't you think?

In hindsight, I would have taken more care to sew the cover to fit more snugly.  In the end, it's okay--it's on the floor of the nursery where my one-year old and two-month old take turns making messes on it, and that's the most important thing--that it gets used.  Now that my one-year old is almost two, he loves laying on his little brother's mat--go figure! 

There's still more to show as I put the finishing touches on BabySchep's nursery.  Stay tuned--God Bless!

Sewing for #babyschep: Personalized Baseball Mat

So I really, really needed to make something for my son, who, at the time of writing this, is almost six months old. The vision for this project popped in my head while I was still on maternity leave.  My family has an obsession with baseball, so I had to make a baseball themed gift for their only grandson:

 

 

Yes, he's wearing a baseball cap!

I found a baseball themed font online and installed it on my computer.  Just do a quick Google search, and you'll find plenty of them, along with instructions on how to install them.  I used the font to type my son's name, and traced the image onto freezer paper in reverse.  After ironing the freezer paper to a piece of blue felt, I cut it out and now had an applique that won't fray:

I used an X-acto knife and scissors to cut out the "holes" inside the letters.

 

After experimenting with minky fabric for the first time on my niece's quilt, I decided to give it another go-'round on this project. 



In hindsight, I would have used ordinary plush fleece rather than the dimpled minky fleece, because it kinda looks like a golf ball, don't you think? 

Anyhow, I didn't bother using any adhesives or finishing any of the edges--I simply pinned the name and the "seams" to the fleece and topstitched them down with matching thread.



For the inside, I used 1" foam--the type you find in the upholstery section.  This is easy enough to find--I sourced mine from my local Wal-Mart.  It wasn't wide enough, so I hot glued two pieces together, then cut out my circle.  I left a large opening to slip the foam inside the "ball" and slipstitched the opening closed.  All in all, a super-fun and super-fast project.  Now for some BabySchep eye candy:

Linking up to Finish it Up Friday and TGIFF!  Until next time, God Bless!