{Sewing How-To Series} Sew a Straight Line & Turning Corners with a Baby Swaddler Tutorial

Are you ready to get sewing?!  Have you dusted off your old machine, borrowed one or gave in a finally purchased one of your own?  Do you have all your tools ready?  Then let's get started!

I won't take time going over the basics of turning on and threading your machine or bobbins, since every machine is different.  The best thing to do is sit down with the manual for an evening and learn to set it up.   And if you don't have the manual your for machine, you can most likely look up the manual online! How awesome is that!

So to learn to sew straight line is one of the first things you want to accomplish when you begin to sew, and I figured what better way to do that, than to make a baby blanket.

When my son was born, I had the little store bought swaddlers that must be a mere 20" square.  One little wiggle or leg kick from him and he was instantly unswaddled.  Those little blankets quickly became, changing pads instead.  That was about all they were good for.

So when I had my daughter, my mother inlaw sewed a few "large" swaddler blankets for me.  They were the perfect size.  So I thought, since Marybeth's little girl is arriving in December, she needs a nice warm swaddler in pink!

This will teach us a very simple and basic technique that you can use for many projects, and it's the perfect way to practice sewing straight lines and turning corners.  So gather your supplies:
-Flannel
-Scissors or a rotary cutter and mat (which is what I'll actually be using to cut)
-pins
-matching thread
-sewing machine
-iron

First trim off the salvedge edges of the fabric, which is usually a littler rougher and often has writing on it.  Now it's time to make your square.  I used the width of my fabric which was 44", so I cut my length to 44" as swell.

Now you have a perfect square.  Time to head over to your iron.

I love this handy little instrument.  I believe it's called a sewing and knitting gauge.  I use it all the time when folding over hems.  They usually come in sewing kits, but you can purchase them separately as well.   Using this I know my hem measures the same length all the way around.  On our blanket, we're going to fold a  1/2 inch all the way around and press it with our iron.

Now that you've gone all the way around once, you are going to fold a 1/2 inch all the way around again.  Now your raw edge of the fabric is neatly encased in your pressed seam, so it won't ravel.  

Once you've finished ironing around the entire blanket the second time, you should have corners that look like the picture below.  Feel free to stop here and begin sewing.  If you want a little more professional, snazzy look, I'll teach you to miter your corners.

Open up your corners.  You'll see the marks, like a grid, of your pressed seams.

Fold the corner in at a 45 degree angle so that the point touches the bottom of your grid.

And then fold it down one more time to that point.  Be sure to use your iron at each fold, to help is stay.

Now we'll fold our sides back in and press them down.

And the last fold bring the edges together in a nicely finished mitered corner.

Now let's get sewing!  (I bet you thought we'd never get over the sewing machine!)

To help you sew a straight line, line of the edge of you fabric with a mark on your sewing machine.  Here, I am using the edge of my presser foot as my sewing guide.  The way my needle is positioned, it's giving me a 1/2"   seam allowance.  I like to start sewing right in the middle of one of my edges.  Don't forget to back-stitch after your first few stitches so they don't pull out.  Back-stitching is using the reverse button on your machine to sew backwards 2-3 stitches, to lock the stitches in place.  You'll do this at the beginning and end of most lines you sew.

Sew along at a pace you're comfortable with, using your hand to keep the fabric feeding in smoothly and straight   Don't tug or pull your fabric though.  And use your guide to make your line nice and straight.

Once you reach the corner, stop.

Lift your presser foot, with the needle in the down position, so the the fabric pivots only.

Lower the presser foot back down after you turn it, and keep on sewing all the way around your blanket.  Use the same turning technique at each corner of your blanket.  

I like to use pins to keep my corners lying flat.  But be sure to pull the pin out right before you sew over that area.

Back-stitch when you get back to where you started, to lock your stitches in place and you're done!  You have a beautiful baby blanket, with perfect mitered corners.

And it's HUGE!  Perfect for swaddling that sweet little lady up!

What a lovely and simple gift!

You can use this same technique to make dinner napkins.  Sew4Home gives a great drawn visual of  mitered corners in their dinner napkin tutorial here.  

Have fun and get sewing!

The Blue Ladybug Beginnings- Part 2: Mary Beth’s Story

I’m Mary Beth, the other half of The Blue Ladybug team, and mother to an 11 month old little boy. My husband, Tim, and I have been married for 3 ½ years, and he is an associate pastor here in Michigan. Besides taking care of Titus and my Blue Ladybug work, I am also involved with the youth at my church, ladies Bible studies, and MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers).

My first recollections of sewing were from a young age. My mom had a beast of sewing machine, that she would haul out and set up when she worked on mending clothes or small sewing projects. She wanted my sisters and I to know how to sew, and I remember learning a couple different times in my growing up years. The first project I ever remember working on was a white and navy striped apron that we made for my Grandpa’s birthday for when he grilled out! My mom would set the machine up and get everything ready, and then my sister and I would take turns sitting at the machine, pressing the foot, and feeding the fabric through. In high school, my home school coop held a sewing class one semester. Of course, I’d already forgotten what little I knew about sewing. All the girls decided to make pajama pants and, along with the help of a few moms, we successfully completed them. However, the only thing I remember having come away from that class with was a pair of sparkly star print pajama pants!

Fast forward to 2007… it was my first Christmas married, and we were spending it with my parents out east. I was looking forward to a “big” gift from my parents that everyone had been telling me I’d love! When I finally opened it, I was surprised to find my very own sewing machine! I wasn’t super excited about it at first, but I thought it was, as my mom told me, a good gift to get me as a newly married woman. It seemed sensible to have one as I would eventually need it to mend clothes and work on small projects just like my mom, I was sure. But I was going to have to finally learn! After I got it home, it sat for a few weeks before I finally dared to take it out and play around with it. We had recently moved to MI and were renting a house with lots of large windows. My mother-in-law told me of all the creative ways we could make curtains and I was excited. So we bought flat red bed sheets, and I had HER make the curtains for my kitchen. After that first Christmas, I gathered my courage and decided to practice sewing by making curtains for my living room, inspired by my mother-in-law’s ideas and ingenuity. I was still too nervous to do it alone, so I waited till my mother-in-law could come help me. We bought a few curtain panels and altered them but we didn’t get it all done in one sitting, so when she left, I still had to finish them. Following her instructions, I sewed up the last of the curtains alone and hung them! What a sense of pride to see my handiwork, something I’d made and completed! After that, I became interested in a lot of different crafts, and became more brave and adventurous in trying them.

(My first sewing machine!)

When I got pregnant in early 2009, a whole other world opened up to me! As I did lots of online research on pregnancy, birth options, baby gear and baby care, I started finding blogs of other crafting mothers! They would give tutorials and tips on their crafting projects! When I’d see baby gear or accessories I liked, I’d think, “I wonder if I could make that?” and I’d go looking for a tutorial. I became interested in cloth diapering and decided to make my own cloth wipes! Through that experience, I learned so much about my machine and sewing in general! We wanted our baby’s gender to be a surprise, so I looked at both boys’ and girls’ items. There were SO many cute and creative girls things out there, but not much for boys. I was really hoping to make some cute accessories for my baby when he or she came, but if I had a boy (like my husband was praying for), what would I be able to make for him? Unbeknownst to me that I would actually have a boy, I began to search all over for ideas of cute things for baby boys. I didn’t really find much and so I put the search aside… for a while.

So, we had our little boy, Titus, in November of 2009. We brought him home to his adorable green and brown nursery, with handmade and painted stenciled walls, handmade curtains, and little monkeys peeking out from all corners of the room. We loved our new little family of three, and took a few months to adjust to all the changes. My crafting and sewing machine sat unused over the winter, as I cared for my baby and husband every day. During this time, I had been feeling the need to help out my family financially, but didn’t know what I could do as we were committed to me staying home with Titus. I heard from a mutual friend that Laura was beginning to make hair bows for her baby girl, and was thinking about selling them. I began praying that the Lord would provide some way for me to help my family with finances, and I kept thinking about crafting of some sort, but I didn’t have any ideas or direction. So I just kept praying… Spring came and soon after that, warmer weather! Now that Titus didn’t have to be bundled up so much, I thought about what kinds of cute things I could make for him! After a little more online research, I made him a Tie Onesie, that turned out adorably! I also had been looking for a pacifier clip since I was SO tired of him constantly dropping his pacifier and then having to wash it off! The stores had basically nothing, so I read a couple tutorials online, and came up with my own! I was so proud of my work, both cute and practical, that I posted pictures on Facebook that drew the attention of Laura, who had just open her Etsy shop, The Blue Ladybug Children’s Boutique, featuring tutus, hairbows and leggings. She commented that she would love to start offering my items in her shop! So we talked it over and decided to join forces! It was the answer to prayer that I’d been waiting for all those months!

(My first tie onesie and my adorable model!)

Now, six months later, I never would have dared to hope that our shop would be as successful as it is right now! The Lord has blessed us both SO much in our commitment to stay home with our kids, yet still being able to financially help our families! Laura and I both have so many ideas of products that we’d love to offer in the future, and ways that we’d love to grow our little shop. But we’re just trusting God’s timing in it all. He’s directed us this far!

“She makes and sells linen garments…” Proverbs 31:24

The Blue Ladybug Beginnings: Two-Part Series Part 1 Laura's Story

We've been wanting to start this series for a while now.  To give you a glimpse into how we ended up here, at The Blue Ladybug.  I love to hear how other crafters/sewers became interested in their hobby,  how they learned it, and what they've done with it.  The blog world has opened so many new doors for me.  I love what I have learned, what others have taken the time to offer on their blogs, to enrich my life, and I hope to be able to do the same for others.

Well as MaryBeth talked about, in the last post, we did have a common bond through cloth diapers and many others things, but I'm going to start even further back in my life, mostly because I love to see how God has instilled this business in me from the time I was just a little girl.  Okay, I'll try to make it quick, so it's not the world's longest post.  Here goes...

I would say that my passion and experience in all things crafts and sewing comes straight from my mother.  My mom had a tiny sewing space in our basement where she worked on a variety of crafts and sewed the cutest little dresses for me and my sister.  She used her talents to bless us and loved to give them as gifts.

I think when I was around 14 or 15, my parents bought me my first sewing machine for Christmas.  I had a desire to be like my mom and sew.  The first thing I ever made on my sewing machine was a white hair scrunchy!  Haha! Remember those!?!?  But I never really made anything else.  I had dreamed of making a purse and skirt, but my fear of ruining the fabric always held me back.  So my sewing machine sat, unused... until I got married.

My husband and I lived in a teeny tiny apartment (I kid you not) the first year we were married.  We knew we wouldn't be there long, but the burning desire to nest and create our little space into a home was so great for me.  I started to get crafty.  I actually landed a job at the local JoAnn Fabrics store (for a few weeks until I began working in my education field), and I believe it was there, at the cutting counter, cutting beautiful autumn fabrics for customers, that I began think..."I can do this too."    I got out my sewing machine and made a couch cover for our strange-sized, garage sale couch, covers for the pillows and bedroom curtains.  It was fun and frustrating.  But I learned alot.  Throughout the years, my sewing machine has always found a home on a table, but has sat unused.  I just wasn't sure what to make or how to go about it.  If something needed mending, I actually made my husband do it, because he could remember better than I, how to set the thing up.

Fast forward to almost a year ago, November 2009.  I'm giving birth to our daughter (sorry if this gets to be a bit TMI), the doctor is telling me, I'm sure as motivation to continue pushing, that she has hair!  LOTS of hair. I remember him saying, " You could probably put one of those little Velcro hair bows in her hair.  That did it, one more push and she was out!  I was pumped to see all that hair.  I always knew I'd dress my little girl all up, but the thought of hair bows hadn't really occurred to me at such young age. I love hair bows!  I loved them as a child.  My mom used to make my hair bows, and I remember her curling my hair in sponge rollers, and feeling so pretty!

 A weekish later, I'm sitting home, holding my sweet little girl and thinking about hair bows.  I started searching Etsy, and was amazed by what I saw!!!!  And then I saw how much they were.  Now my husband had lost his job a few months before that, so I was in money saving mode (one major reason I started to cloth diaper our two children).  I wanted those bows bad!  So I taught myself how to make them!  And I had extra ribbon, so I made some for friends.   And I began to think, "this would be really fun to make and sell myself."

Going forward a few more months, I learn that I am also going to be losing my part time job.  Yikes!  But the Lord shows me this is the time to start the Hair bow shop I've been dreaming of doing.  While I'm in the beginning, a friend asks if I know how to make pillowcase dresses.  I google it, and learn that there are TONS of sewing and craft blogs.  I have learned so many sewing techniques and patterns just from blogs.  The visual tutorials have been the perfect way for me to learn.  So I teach myself to sew...again!  And this time I have a cute little girl to sew clothes for!

THEN....I see MaryBeth, on facebook, who's a friend through a friend, making these cute little tie onesies for her son.  I had thought they would be fun to make for my shop too.  I half joking, half for real, say, "you should join me in The Blue Ladybug" and she did!

We've come along way, and fast!  Our most popular item is our Brother Sister Sets!  We have two shops, clothing and hair bows.  I love making both.  I love the new clothing items we started offering.  But most of all I love seeing how God has grown and blessed this little business of two mothers.  He's completely provided the income my family needed when I lost my job, and I'm just thrilled to see where he takes us next.

Now I can't wait to hear all about how MaryBeth got started now!