my first tutorial::a table runner

well, i am slowly being inspired by all these other blogs that i read (like this one and this one mostly) about sewing and even with lots of boys, enjoying my girliness. i have also realized that a blog post does not have to be a novel. it's way too overwhelming when i think about that.

anyway, tomorrow i'm having a baby shower for a friend of mine. she's obsessed with strawberries right now, so we decided to have a strawberry shower! also, i think it's fun because she has two older boys (about dillon and isaac's ages) and this is a girl :). so, i made a girly table runner for the shower. here's the tutorial.

you need some muslin or linen fabric, and then a contrasting color for the ruffles, thread, and scissors. i like to rip my fabric to the right size because i am a horrible cutter. also, i don't know definite dimensions, because i totally eyeballed it. my table is about 4 feet long though and the runner just barely hangs off the side. i believe i got a yard and a half, and it's about 12 inches wide. if you like a more finished look, you can iron down hems and sew them so that it's a little cleaner. i just stitched a seam down the sides so it wouldn't fray anymore.

next, i used this tutorial for making ruffles. you basically start a stitch down the middle of your fabric and don't backstitch to secure it.

then, when you have stitched all the way down, you pull one of the pieces of the thread (the top thread or bobbin thread, whichever has a little more give) and ruffle. ruffle away.

after i had ruffled both of my pieces of red fabric, i sewed them, using my ruffle stitch as a guide, onto my muslin. easy peasy.

then, i used this tutorial to make a few fabric flowers (did i mention i liked this blog). my fabric wasn't solid, but i really like how it turned out. after i made my flowers, i hand-stitched them onto the runner.

there you have it! a nice, girly table runner!

sorry about the bad picture...it was taken with my phone

did i mention we had a baby ;)

three months ago! i am so HORRIBLE at blogging!!! i am really going to try to be better. like the slinky post and i'm going to make a table runner this weekend that i think is blog worthy. we shall see what happens. i always think it's a good idea, but yadda yadda yadda.

so, we had a baby!!! samuel evan was born on february 7, 2011, at about 2:15 pm, weighing in at 7 lb 10 oz, and 20 inches long. the labor was a little crazy. the short story is that i was up from 1:30 am for the rest of the night with contractions that were nowhere near normal. we went to the doctor at about 10 that morning and i was already more than halfway there!!! we drove to the hospital in the pouring down snow (made a 20 minute drive what should've been an 8 minute drive) and was still having irregular contractions when we got there. long about 12:00, the nurses asked me if i wanted an epidural or anything else for pain. they told me if i didn't have anything, then i'd probably have sammy in just a couple hours, but if i did have something, it could be at least 3 hours, if not longer. well, my dream team (ben and my mom) and i decided it was time to just do it! by a little after 2:00 i was ready to start pushing and the doctor wasn't even in the room! they started paging the doctor over the intercom. he finally got in there an sammy was here about 10 minutes later!! it was so great to finally meet our beautiful, dark headed, screaming baby boy. he has been nothing but joy and is such a laid back baby. you can check out all the pictures of sammy here. enjoy!!!

everyone loves a slinky

the boys both received slinkies from grandpa and granny when they stopped through on a trip to missouri. last time we got a slinky, it ended up all twisted up and we wondered if the slinky would ever survive the williams house. well, i can tell you truthfully that a slinky is a lot of fun, and i can show you through pictures of my boys ;)