As I’ve been interrogating friends with kids to make sure I have the bare necessities, Lauren mentioned that having a heating pad for future nursing aches and pains would be nice. I could have run out to Walgreens and picked one up for $10, but since I’m pretty desperate for anything to pass the time right now I decided to make one. After browsing Pinterest for a few ideas I jumped in and put one together in less than thirty minutes. 

I used flannel fabric I found in my fabric stash (no clue what I bought it for originally or how much it cost) and cut two rectangles. They ended up being 16.5″ x 6.5″. I didn’t have any specific measurement going in, just eyeballed what looked good.

Turning the right sides to face each other, I sewed the two rectangles together leaving about a 2″ opening on one side.

I then turned it right side out and poked the three corners out. To give it a little extra reinforcement (I really don’t want a rice explosion at any point), I went ahead and stitched around the outside, still leaving the 2″ gap open.

I picked up the cheapest bag of rice from Safeway. There are other materials you can use (beans, for example), but rice was easy and cheap.

Using a funnel I made with a piece of paper, I dumped about a third of the bag in through the opening. Then I sewed a vertical line to keep that rice in it’s compartment. I repeated a second time. For the final compartment, I dumped in the remaining rice and then sewed the 2″ opening shut.

You don’t need to make compartments, but it was relatively easy and this keeps all the rice from pooling in one side of the pad. I can see this being useful if you’re using it lying down.

I made this incredibly simple because it’s for my own use. If I were making it for someone else I’d do a better job of measuring my compartments (they definitely are not even) as well as dividing the rice before pouring it in (again, not quite even amounts).

I warmed it in the microwave, along with a glass of water (I read that the steam will keep the rice from burning), and was pleasantly surprised to see that it stayed warm around my neck for about 30 minutes.

Project: 15/35
Time: 30 minutes
Tutorial: inspired by browsing Pinterest
Cost: $1.50 (one bag of rice)

Back in June my best friend and I were discussing potential first birthday party themes for her daughter, Sloane. Eventually she settled on going with a girly color theme of coral and mint. My very first thought was “that would make the most adorable quilt”. Then reality hit and I remembered I was a few weeks out from my midterm and in middle of the first trimester. Quilting wasn’t high on my priority list, but I knew eventually I’d get around to making Sloane a first birthday quilt.

It’s just the sweetest thing, so girly with all the soft colors and lots of white.

I used six different fabrics for the top, plus a striped fabric for the binding. I mixed gold in as well because I’m currently obsessed. The polka dots and pink birds were intentional to make it a little more toddler friendly. I thought about using coral thread for the quilting though I ended up going with white. I think I’m happy with that decision but not sure. The coral might have added a bit more fun. 

The back is a simple light gray crosshatch. I found this fabric at Joannes (everything else was purchased through fabric.com) and I think it might be perfect for pretty much every quilt backing. 

On to the confessions. I’ve found that with each quilt I learn something new, which is awesome. On this particular project I learned several something news.

First, the quilt is half the size it was intended to be. I’ve only made 60 x 44 quilts, which is a great size for adults (and it’s the largest size you can make while still using regular fabric for the backing). My math went wrong somewhere when I was calculating how many triangles I needed. I think I took the total number of squares and at some point divided in two one too many times to get the number of triangles. When I laid it out on the floor I realized it was more like 30 x 42. For about two seconds I thought about cutting more fabric and making it full sized. Then I realized that this quilt is for an 18 month old and this accidental size is just perfect. I also remembered that I was seven months pregnant and my back hurts. Quilting is back breaking work, so I quickly moved on.

I’ve had my sewing machine for a little over a year now and I feel like I’m finally figuring it out. I realized there is a thread cutter on the side of my sewing machine. Now I don’t have to pick up my scissors every time I need to cut the thread. This saves a huge amount of time and I feel like a bit of an idiot for not realizing it was there before. I also broke two needles making this quilt and so learned how to change the needle. The striped binding fabric is a little thicker than normal cotton and I had trouble with sewing through all the fabric on the corners.

Happy (very belated) first birthday, Sloane!

Project: 11/35
Time: ~10 hours
Tutorial: no tutorial (I can quilt on my own now!), but the layout was inspired by this
Cost: $43 (fabric was about $40 and coral thread for binding was $3; batting from my stash)

Back in the summer of 2011 I started following the Oil Cleansing Method for washing my face. I absolutely love it and if you know me in real life you know I can talk about the amazingness of coconut oil for hours (sorry, friends). As part of the method, you steam your face with a washcloth, requiring you to own several.

When I first decided to try, I went to Target and bought two bundles of white washcloths. I never replaced them and 2.5 years later they were looking very sorry. So sorry Greg even mentioned it might be time to replace them. (He also mentioned that because they were looking so dirty he thought we were using them as rags now, but we’ll pretend that part didn’t happen.)

For my fifth sewing project, I decided to make myself new wash cloths. I planned this months ago and purchased supplies. At some point in February I cut the fabric and made a few of the washcloths. This weekend I finally sat down and finished. This was incredibly tedious, but I ended up with really soft washcloths that won’t be mistaken for rags. I’ve had a couple in rotation for nearly two months know and they are holding up in the wash.

I cut squares out of terrycloth and flannel fabric. I ordered a light green terrycloth and two coordinating flannels from fabric.com. I think in the future I’ll stick with buying in store; there was nothing wrong with the fabrics I received, it’s just so much more fun to pick out in person. 

Pinned together right sides of the fabric.

Sewed around all but half of one side. 

Pulled the fabric through, then sewed around the outside again (somewhat carefully folding in the half side that had not been sewn yet).

Project: 5/35
Time: 3 hours
Tutorial: Baby Washcloth Tutorial
Cost: $10 (that’s a guess, bought the fabric awhile ago and can’t find the receipt)

For my second sewing project I made a flag banner for Becky’s wedding shower. It was the first time I’ve gone to Jo-Anne’s to pick coordinating fabrics. Since Christmas is coming up and Becky’s shower already had a red + kraft theme going, I selected fabrics that would work for the shower and be a fun Christmas decoration for her after.

The tutorial I found was very easy to follow. I skipped washing the fabric since it’s likely a banner won’t need to be washed down the road. One mistake I made was to cut them rights sides together (thinking I would avoid any marks on the right side), but when I flipped to sew them together they didn’t match up perfectly.

My flags are far from perfect, but they look decent. I found sewing the flags to the bias tape the hardest part. Actually, the sewing was not hard, but getting the flags into the bias tape to pin them was way harder than it should have been.

Time: 90 minutes
Tutorial: Pennant Banner
Cost: $7.55 (fabric, thread, bias tape)