Adorable Custom Baby Bibs - A Tutorial

Ever since I became a grandmother earlier this year I have been having so much fun making things for my granddaughter. I have made a blanket, pacifier clips, bunny booties, a pom-pom hat, am currently working on another blanket, as well as a Bumbo seat cover and a shopping cart cover. Yes, I like to keep busy, and I love creating. One of my favorite things I've made so far though are these cute little bibs. I love being able to mix and match fabrics to customize bibs for my granddaughter.

I am not a professional and still have lots to learn when it comes to sewing, but what fun it is to practice! I didn't purchase a pattern for these bibs; I just used one of her existing bibs, traced it, and made my own pattern. I just used a page from a large magazine I had. I traced a 1/4-inch seam allowance around the bib pattern.

You will need the fabric you want to use for your bib as well as terry cloth. The first thing you want to do, of course, is wash, dry and iron your fabric. Then pick your fabrics that you want to coordinate for the first bib. The size you want the final piece of fabric that you will be lying the pattern on is 13" x 9". So if you have two pieces of fabric, you want to cut them to be a final size of that, as well as cut your terry cloth.

With right sides together, sew the two pieces of fabric together using a 1/4-inch seam allowance.

Iron the seam flat like so:

Now you have "one" piece of fabric to put the pattern on.

Put terry cloth and fabric right sides together. Pin the pattern to the fabric. It's a fancy pattern piece, isn't it? :)

Cut the bib out.

Now you will remove the pattern and repin the pieces together for sewing.

Sew around the edges with a 1/4-inch seam allowance, leaving approximately a 2-inch space somewhere at the bottom for turning.

Once you've finished sewing around the edges you want to cut out some notches around the edges so that everything lies flat when you turn it right side out.

Turn the bib right side out, using a point turner or something similar to push out the edges and make sure everything is flat. Iron the bib flat.

I then used Stitch Witchery to close the area that I left open for turning, even though I was going to top stitch.  I did this because I wanted to be sure it was closed all the way to the edge and no chance of opening.

Top stitch around the entire edge of the bib. I used the edge of the presser foot as my guide and amount in I top stitched.

For a closure for the bib I used velcro.  I used the iron-on velcro rather than the sew-on kind, as it was so much easier! Place the velcro at the top where the bib will close behind the neck, as close to the edge as you can, and iron it in place following the package directions. I forgot to take pictures of the velcro, but you can see here where I placed it on one of the bibs. I just matched the other side on the underside so that they can clasp together.

That's it for the basic part of making the bib. Now you can be as creative as you'd like and add rick rack, ribbon, etc. If you do decide to add rick rack or ribbon, be sure to use some Fray Check on the edges.

I also used the embroidery function on my sewing machine to sew my granddaughter's name on her bibs, as well as her little cousin's name on the bibs I made her.  If you have that function and want to know what settings/stitch length I used, here it is:

These really were a lot of fun to make.  I hope this inspires you to make some.  Now you have some super cute drool catchers!

Please let me know if you have any questions.  Here are some of the bibs I made for some ideas. 

Until next time...

Lady by the Bay

Kale Green Smoothie

This is my new favorite smoothie. I've been hearing a lot about kale lately and all of the great benefits it has, so I've been adding it to my smoothies recently instead of spinach.  It really is delicious.  I love making green smoothies because they are so good for you, and when you add the fruit you can't taste the greens. 

Just wanted to share with you. Enjoy!

Until next time...

Lady by the Bay

Italian Hoagies

I'm originally an east coast girl and I soon found out after moving to California that they just don't make a lot of things the same here.  I have found that for several of my favorite things (Italian hoagies, steak and cheese subs, crab cakes, pizza...) that I just have to make them myself.  So here's my "east coast girl" version of an Italian Hoagie Sandwich.

Before I list the ingredients I have to mention that the roll is very important and really makes this sandwich. You can use any sandwich roll that you like, but in my opinion this particular roll is the best, outside of baking your own. So the roll I use is actually from Safeway, can be found in their bakery, and is called "Filone." I get the 'plain' filone. 

I'd also like to mention that the amounts of meat/vegetables that I list here are approximately what you would want to use.  Of course, put as much meat or as little as you wish.  We all have our own preferences. :)

Ingredients:
2 Filone rolls
1/4 lb. of your favorite ham, sliced thin
1/4 lb. mortadella, sliced thin
1/4 lb. sopressata salami, sliced thin
4 slices provolone cheese
1 tomato, sliced
4-6 leaves romaine lettuce, chopped or shredded
3-4 slices red onion
2 Tbsp. pepperoncinis
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 Tbsp. dried Italian seasoning
1/2 tsp. crushed red peppers
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

Directions:
Slice rolls in half lengthwise.

Drizzle one half of each roll with olive oil and then sprinkle with Italian seasoning and crushed red peppers. Then put the half that you did not put anything on and lay it on top of the half that you did. Gently rub the two halves together to incorporate the seasoning on both halves.

Begin layering your meats and cheese. One thing you don't want to do is just lay the meat on the roll flat--fold the meat over--it gives more volume to the sandwich.

Begin adding your vegetables.

When you are finished adding everything to the sandwich, sprinkle salt and pepper over the veggies, put the other half of roll on top, place some toothpicks through the sandwich to hold it together, and then cut into serving sizes.

That's it! I promise you'll love these sandwiches. There is so much flavor in every single bite.

Enjoy!

Until next time...

Lady by the Bay

Caramelized Onion Dip

If you're used to grabbing a packet of powdery onion soup mix and stirring it into some sour cream to create your onion dip, be warned, there is no turning back after you've tried this. Yes, this takes a little time to make--caramelizing onions is a labor of love, but so worth it. You're left with sweet, buttery onions that are so incredibly delicious. Mix those into your dip... BOOM! You've got yourself one heckuva dip!

Ingredients:
2 large yellow onions, roughly chopped
1 large red onion, roughly chopped
2 Tbsp. canola oil
8 oz. sour cream
8 oz. Greek yogurt
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
2 Tbsp. fresh chives, chopped
1 Tbsp. kosher salt
1/8 tsp. ground sage
1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

In a large pan heat the oil on medium heat.  Add the chopped onions and kosher salt.  

Cook over medium heat for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Your onions will look something like this after 20 minutes...

Continue cooking for another 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onions have reduced by half the amount in the pan and are turning a beautiful golden brown.  Something like this...

Once the onions are finished cooking, add the ground pepper and sage, stir, and set aside to cool.

In a large bowl combine the sour cream, Greek yogurt and Parmesan cheese.  Add the cooled onions to the bowl and stir to combine.  Top with chopped chives.  Serve at room temperature with thick cut potato chips.  

Enjoy!

Until next time...

Lady by the Bay

Get Organized - Seed Packets

I recently planted a bunch of flower seeds in various containers. As I was doing this I started to wonder how I was going to remember necessary details about each flower and what container they were in. I knew I could place a small garden marker in each container to let me know which flower was in there, but I like to be able to look at details about each one from time to time, and I don't always like a garden marker sticking out of the containers.  The packets were too big to just tape to the bottom, I didn't want to fold each one up and tape it to the bottom only to have to unfold it to get info I needed and then put it back, and I definitely didn't want them taped to the outside of the container.  So I came up with the idea that I would just photograph each one next to its corresponding container.

As I would plant the seeds in one container I would then put the packet next to the container and take a picture with them together. I then took a picture of the back of the packet so I would have all of the pertinent information regarding that flower. I then uploaded the photos to my computer and created a diptych to show the front and back of the seed packet in one photo, rather than having to open two different ones when referencing back to it later on.

At this point you could just save that photo in a folder on your computer, but I like to also send it to Evernote (my absolute favorite app ever). With Evernote, you can pull that photo up, along with any note you wish to add to it, on any device, anywhere. So if someone asks you what kind of flower you have planted in a particular container, all you have to do is grab any device you have nearby and pull up that photo--it's all right there for you.

Another thing that's great about Evernote is that you can make notes about each type of seed. You can type in what day you planted them, when they started to sprout, how often you water them, rate them to know if you want to plant them again or not, etc.

So you can go from trying to keep track of where you put all those seed packets, and which one is planted in which container...

To this...

When you're dealing with a container like terra cotta, where it's not a unique container, what I do is use a Sharpie and give each one a number and then photograph it. It's small and not noticeable, but is very important to you when trying to identify your flowers.  You can just turn the pot where the number is not seen until you want to see it.

And I already have some sprouts, in just 5 days! :)

I think I have a lot of thinning to do with this one!

I hope this helps you. If you have any tips I would love to hear them!

Until next time...

Lady by the Bay

Creamy Deviled Eggs

When there's a barbecue coming up then there's usually a request for me to make my deviled eggs. No barbecue is complete without them. I just made these this 4th of July and they were a hit, once again.

So if you want a super easy finger food that people will love for your next barbecue, then just make these deviled eggs.

Ingredients: 

15 eggs, hard boiled and peeled
1 oz. cream cheese
2 Tbsp. sweet relish
4 Tbsp. mayonnaise
2 tsp. dijon mustard
1 tsp. lemon juice
1/8 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
Paprika
3-4 Tbsp. chopped fresh chives

Directions:
Cut eggs in half lengthwise and carefully scoop out yolks and place in large bowl. Place the egg halves on a plate or dish. To keep them from sliding around I like to use butter lettuce as the foundation. Plus it looks nice.

Mash yolks with a fork until they are crumbled.

Add cream cheese, relish, mayonnaise, dijon mustard, lemon juice, and pepper to the mashed egg yolks. Stir with a fork until combined and smooth. 

From here you can scoop the filling into the egg halves with a spoon, but to make things easier this is what I do...

Scoop the filling into a quart-size Ziploc bag. Get all the air out and seal the bag. Snip one corner of the bottom of the bag for the filling to squeeze out of, like so...

Now you just pipe the filling into the egg halves with the bag. No mess. :)

Sprinkle the tops of the eggs with paprika and the chopped chives. Cover and refrigerate until ready to eat.

I hope you enjoy!

Until next time...

Lady by the Bay