Maternity leave project guest post: Jessi from Sweet Pie Bakery

Hello! I'm Jessi from Sweetie Pie Bakery! I'm so excited to be guest-posting over here for Andreann while she spends time with her new little one.

I've been meaning to get to this project for months but finally had the perfect excuse. I love how crib and toddler bedding is interchangeable, making the lifetime of things much longer. My daughter recently transferred from a crib to a toddler bed and I was so excited to be able to transfer the bedding along with her.



Anthropologie is a great place for inspiration, especially since I sew and can get similar results on the cheap! Also, they don't make goods for my little one's room so I'm on my own there!

I've been coveting the Cirrus Duvet for a while. I'm really undecided between that and the Tuxedo bedding for my own bed. I'm thinking of giving the Tuxedo a go...but a king size is sure a lot of fabric to work out a tutorial on!


For this version, I worked with some king size jersey sheets. I liked the softness provided from the jersey. I'm all about softness, especially on my little one.




Here's how to make your own:
The final dimensions of this crib/toddler duvet will be 28" x 51". If you want to make one for a standard size bed, just keep in mind to double or triple the width of the fabric to account for the gathers.

1. You'll need four main pieces of fabric:
Front Panel-84" x 52"
Back Top Panel-29" x 12"
Back Bottom Panel-29" x 47"
Strip-29" x 1"


2. Divide the Front Panel piece into 6 sections so each row has a height of roughly 9". (If you are making a larger duvet, I recommend the height of each row between 8" and 9". Just find a clean number to work with to make your life easier)

3. Go ahead and draw the lines onto the wrong side of the Front Panel.


4. Sew down each line with a basting stitch, making sure to leave the thread long on each end. Also, baste the top and bottom of the Front Panel with 1/4" seam allowance.

5. Cinch each row to measure roughly 29" wide.


6. Take the 29" x 1" strips and sew, right sides together, with 1/8" seam allowance. Trim, turn right side out. Iron flat with the seam on the back middle.



7. Lay the strips over the right side of the gathered rows, but not the top and bottom gathers. Sew each strip with a narrow seam.

8. Take the Back Top Panel and iron over 1/2" towards the wrong side. Fold over again 1 1/4" towards the wrong side and press. Sew the flap with 1/8" seam allowance. (I did both ends of the flap because I liked the detail)


9. Do the same to the Bottom Back Panel.

10. Now lay the back panels on the floor, right sides up. Overlap the Top Back Panel over the Bottom Back Panel, making the total height 52". (You could tape this to the floor at this point to prevent it from shifting while layering the Front Panel)



11. Overlay the Front Panel, right sides together. Adjust the gathers at the top and bottom to fit the Back Panels.


12. Sew around the entire perimeter with 1/2" seams.


13. Done! Add your duvet and tuck in your babe.



Thanks a lot Jessi for this great project!

Jessi own a wonderful Etsy shop you should check out. She sells gorgeous felt play food sets and pdf patterns. Her blog is also full of resources (and lots of eye candy!)

{this moment} and a guest post!

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

****This is our moment(s):

Today is my guest post at Tatertots and Jello! I've made another version of the bandanna dress tutorial, with the first option (make the top from scratch with a t-shirt) and the lazy option (make the top from a tank top). Hope you stop by and say hi :) and welcome to all those coming from there! :)

Happy Weekend! I'll be busy finishing touches on my gifts and making a Lion themed cake! Raw! :P

More Bandanna dresses (St-Jean Baptiste + Yellow dress)

I'm gonna show what I can ! :P

I made 2 more bandanna dresses in order to have a really cool tutorial to show our friend from Tatertots and Jello. I expect lots of guest and want to make it pretty!

Here's a little preview....

I still have a white and a red dress to make, but I've done those two:



Tomorrow is our National Day here in Québec. I've just finished it, while the baby is asleep. She'll wear it tomorrow :D Probably just inside the house since the weather forecast look really rainy !
But I made one anyway... because I could! haha! Found the bandanna at the dollar store. I just love all those fleur de lys. Our flag is beautiful.






Mariann loves to watch the neighbor's dog while I hang the laundry on our little balcony. And yes. It is covered with pots of herbs (thanks Kendra!)

I'm off doing more dresses! My pieces for the white one is cut and I'm gonna try to use a red tank top I already have for the red one, should be even less work!

I'm leaving you with this one...
frozen blueberries+frozen strawberries+organic vanilla yogurt+banana tofu+water+a night in the freezer=


Happy Baby on a hot day!

*Guest Post* How to make a "mini" maypole by Wulf

I asked this week if my Beltane swap partner, Wulf, if he'd like to explain to you all how he came up with this wonderful idea of a 4" high Maypole. He gladly accepted! :D

When Andréann said she'd love a mini-maypole for Mariann, my first thought was “It'll have to fold up somehow or I'll never be able to mail it.” I imagined something that stood on the floor that the two of them could dance around; it wasn't until later that I realized she'd probably meant a miniature maypole to sit on the table! I've worked as an opera prop builder for 25 years, so a full-size maypole that could fit into a small mailing box seemed a perfectly natural thing to ask for. I often forget that most of the world doesn't work that way.

It also had to be lightweight, and sturdy enough to be played with by a toddler. (I just substituted “to be handled by a tenor” and figured it would be about the same.) I also didn't want it to be too “good”, so it wouldn't be a tragedy if someone's dancing got too energetic and it was damaged. I like cardboard tubes as a building material because they have exactly the needed qualities: they're lightweight, rigid, sturdy and above all, cheap – usually free. So of course I never throw them out, either at home or at work, and was able to find a good one that was about the right diameter and long enough. I cut it into four sections (using a bandsaw, but one of the other nice things about cardboard tubes is that you can easily cut them with just a craft knife.) To join the sections together I needed another tube exactly the right size to fit either into or over them. Of course even in my vast tube collection there was nothing precisely the right diameter, but I did find one that fit over, though a bit loosely.

I cut short pieces about 6" long and glued them onto three of the tube sections, extending about half way past one end of each. (The bottom section would fit onto the base and not need an outer sleeve.) Because the outer tube was slightly large, I built up the end of the smaller tube with a couple of layers of brown kraft paper glued on to make a snug fit. The other ends also needed to be thickened just enough to make them fit precisely but still slide on and off easily. I was originally going to glue on a layer of thin felt, but it was much too thick and with a bit of experimentation I found that a single layer of adhesive cloth tape was exactly right. Easy!

I'd like to say I carefully calculated the optimal width for a stable base, but I have to admit I just made it fit the scrap of plywood I happened to have! I used hardwood marine plywood because it's quite heavy and is much stronger than ordinary construction plywood. That means you can cut it into quite thin shapes without it being too fragile. And one of the problems I had got myself into by making a two-piece slotted base is that the pieces that fit up inside the tube were going to have to be quite thin but would be subject to a lot of stress. If I didn't have to make the base come apart for mailing, I would have just used a circle of ordinary plywood with a piece of wood screwed to it to fit up inside the tube.

The top of the maypole is the part that I would improve. I wanted it to be a pinecone shape, which I made by cutting rows of petals out of stiff paper and gluing them over a styrofoam egg. Even as I was doing it I realized I should have used felt. It would've been easier to shape over the egg so I could have cut larger petals, and would have made a better finished shape.

My original plan was to cover the pole with gift wrap, but when I tried it didn't look very good and was going to be awkward to deal with the raised sleeve sections. In the end I just gave it a base coat of gesso and painted it with acrylics, which was better. Fortunately the cardboard tube already has a spiral seam on it, so it was easy to wrap a strip of paper around to draw out a nice even spiral.

I happened to have three lengths of 1 in. ribbbon in good colours, and tied it onto the top with lengths of ¼ in. ribbon. Little bells onto the ribbons give it a bit of jinglyness.

After it was all assembled I realized I'd made it bigger than was really necessary. I wasn't sure how tall Mariann was, but I knew this would be taller than her. (Though I was surprised to see that it was almost twice her height! So tiny!) But toddlers grow very fast, and the extra height means she'll be able to dance around it for a couple more Beltanes before it's too short. By then I imagine it'll be danced to pieces anyway!

You can find Wulf writing in his blog, Into the Woods...

In the spring of 2008 we bought 40 acres of land just north of Colborne, Ontario. Mostly mixed hardwood forest, with no improvements except a primitive road and a well, it awaits our slow progress from city dwellers to forest folk. This is the record of our journey.