A Shoe for Every Baby

Shoes are usually characterized as a women's obsession, but I have seen men just as obsessed with clean white soles and a color to match every outfit. Infants on the other hand could care less what we put on their feet. To keep our babies in line with our own shoe matching ideals here are a variety of unique soles (and un-soles) for babies.

I love Bobka Baby. I've featured another pair of her infant shoes in my winter treasury. She makes the prettiest shoes for a baptism or a wedding. She also makes shoes for adults.

Ivory Lace Baby Shoes

If you're more of the rock and roll style My Baby Rocks has the punkest kids shoes around.

Skull Flip Flops

Heart and Crossbones Flip Flops

These shoes fall in the realm of higher infant fashion. Zuzii is currently working on her new collection and only has her DIY kits available for now. I sure hope she brings back these shoes (left) because they are too cute to put that design back on the shelf. If you are into DIY these sandals (right) would be well worth the effort.

Jolie Petal Shoe

OOII DIY Fuchsia Baby Sandal

On the topic of barefoot shoes Lasunka crochets lace into beautiful footwear. Some of her designs can really dress up a basic heel. She also makes a set of hearts for babies. You get 2 sets in pink and red for a very affordable price.

Baby Heart Barefoot Sandals

Baby Heart Barefoot Sandals

Another yarn design are these hand knitted sandals found at Proud Tots. 

Island Girl Baby Sandals

For some really unique baby footwear try La La Shoes. Every pair is so colorful! You'll even find shoes for momma too.

Green Leaves Newborn Crib Shoes

Guppies Baby Shoes

I'd love to hear what you think. What stye of shoes are your favorite?

Custom Fabric Happy Birthday Banners

Recently I was given the task of making 15 happy birthday banners for a custom order. It was a lot of fun picking out the fabric for each of this person's themes so I was really excited to see all of it in person. The fabric for these banners arrived yesterday and I am loving so many of them.

I was especially happy she chose a combo that included Sarah Jane's Children at Play line she did for Michael Miller. Her fabric line makes the cutest little girl dresses so I expect it will make a cute banner too.

Amongst this pile of fabric were 2 very modern forest theme fabrics. I had this idea ahead of time to decorate my future nursery, now I found the fabric that matches what was going on in my brain.

I expect to paint trees like that onto the wall and then the decor will include cutesy animals. I've always loved the forest, but I love a very modern, colorful type of design, so I'm happy to find fabrics that match my interests.

Now to convince my husband that our nursery will not be full of Jack Skellingtons.

Chirp, Chirp!

Love Chirp by yumiyumi

I know I've been a little quiet lately so I thought I better catch you up on all that's been happening. I'm still here working as always. I've just been sidetracked by a few events in my life.

Child Memorial by PhenomeGNOME

The first one being a miscarriage about a month ago. My husband and I were expecting our first baby, but nature took it's course and things didn't go as planned. I was only 7.5 weeks along and was just starting to tell my family about it. Some had to hear the bad news within days of finding out. Others didn't even know I was pregnant yet. Surprisingly I wasn't as upset as I thought I would. It was no doubt heartbreaking and I did need time to grieve the loss, however, I thought I'd be much more devastated. I really owe my grandma for inheriting so much emotional resilience. She is such a strong woman and I think that has rubbed off on me.

I truly believe God was with me through all of this because about the the time miscarriage took place a cactus flower began to develop. One week later it blossomed. One of our bedroom windows opens to the sun porch, so this is what I saw when I woke up that morning. After a week of doctor visits and feeling so emotionally distraught I felt like God was giving me new hope. I found it very encouraging and uplifting.

Once I was finally physically healed enough to get out of bed I was more motivated than ever to get back to work. In between orders and custom requests I decided to get a head start on this years Christmas stockings. Due to the popularity of my stockings last year I decided after last season I would be much more prepared. So far I have 51 stockings complete with 12 different designs and 8 different colors. Four of the designs are the same as last year, as seen in these photos. I certainly expect to sell more than 51, but that is all the fabric I could afford to buy right now. Plus I have more fabric reserved in case some designs are more popular than others. I'm considering wholesaling them too. Once I work out my policies I will announce more about it later.

 

 

Before working on stockings I started developing basic children's patterns to design clothes from. I bought a book that gave most of the measurements I needed. I had to guess on a back measurement, but my guess was wrong so I'm left with patterns that are much too wide. If you have a kid between the sizes of 3T-12, I would greatly appreciate a post in the comments with their clothing size, gender and back measurement as indicated in the photo. It's a very precise measurement so stick to the closest 1/8th inch if you can. Thank you very much to those who are willing to do this.

Lastly I'd like to remind you all I do custom work too. I've been getting many requests for custom banners. Usually this is a Happy Birthday banner with a separate name banner. Take a look at my banners section for more information. 

Since I don't know if too many people realize this I also do custom embroidery. At the end of this week you will find blank baby bibs and newborn onesies for personalization in my shop. The price listed will be for a single word or phrase. You can also send me a clip art image and have that embroidered on the items. These charges will be outlined in the listing.

That about covers everything that's been going on in the last few months.
Feel free to comment or ask questions about anything I've mentioned.

Not Just Another TuTu

Octopus Leotard Tutu

Every little girl seems to own a tutu these days. I don't normally get excited over something everyone else is dressing their girls in, however, I thought these deserved a mention. Marie from Whimsy Ranch has been designing tutus since probably just before they started getting trendy. What sets her apart from the other tutu makers is that her skirts are attached to a leotard adorned with cute little animals, flowers and popular characters. They will likely appeal to both the girly girl and the tom boy.

My favorite is the octopus one above, but with so many designs to choose from one is sure to pop out at you. 

Purrfect Kitty Leotard Tutu

Birdie and Ladybug Leotard Tutu

Don't care for the tutu but like the leotard? She makes those too.

Ladybug and Flowers Leotard

Penguin Leotard

Kitty Cat Leotard

And of course clothing.

Puppy Dog Dress

Sparkle Fish T-Shirt

Blue Pig Onesie

 You can find all of these items at Whimsy Ranch's Etsy shop.

April Showers Turns Spring into Summer

Rainbow and Silver Cloud Dress

 As I work on my own designs for children's clothing I've been taking some time to admire all of the great designers already out there. One I'd like to feature today is Wild Things. The designer hasn't been on Etsy too long and is already making quite a stir in the children's fashion department. 

Little Mouse Dress

 The whimsical designs will appeal to any child's imagination. Where many clothes emulate adult fashions, Wild Things thinks about clothing from a child's perspective.

Fox Dress

With so many fun little creatures you'll likely find something your little one will love.

Wild Things also makes summer cotton dresses and rompers. The modern cotton prints keep with the style of an imaginative woodland scene.

Woodland Baby Romper

Woodland Friends Pinafore

Children love to pick out their own outfits. Unfortunately we as adults don't always see eye to eye with those fashion choices. Thankfully with a Wild Things dress we can all come to an agreement.

How to Post a Link on the New Facebook Timeline

Now that Facebook has switched over every fan page to the new timeline format, it's not as obvious how to post a link without the link showing up in the status box. I decided to do a little experiment to figure out how to get a clean looking status update. I discovered it's really quite simple. (Sorry for the blurry photos. I've only done screen shots a handful of times.)

Copy and paste your link into the status box. 

When the attachment shows up highlight and delete the link.

Type in your status.

Hit post to post your status. Now you have a very clean looking status update.

And if you're not already I'd love for you join me on the Rock Paper Stitch Facebook page.

Fair Trade Yarn Giveaway

Are you into yarn crafts like knitting crocheting or weaving? Over the next week you will have the chance to win luxurious fair trade yarns. 

One ball is a multicolored yarn made from banana fiber (right). It contains 80 yards of yarn. Banana fiber is a renewable resource. Not only is it eco friendly, it's vegan too. It is so soft you'd think it was silk. 

The other ball of multicolored yarn (left) is made from silk fibers left over from the sari making industry. It contains 90 yards of yarn. 

About the yarns 

They are handspun in the homes of women who live in severe poverty in India. Supporting these women allows them to provide for their family and afford to pay for an education for their children.

 You can check out all of the yarns in my shop. I am running an introductory sale while supplies. A new color is listed each day.

(Enter with the rafflecopter box below. Sometimes it takes a minute to load.)