DIY Leather Baby Moccasins

A couple weeks ago I was cleaning out my closet and came across an old reddish orange suede skirt I used to wear in high school.  I kept onto this skirt for so long because it's such a classic piece and had a hard time getting rid of it.  I couldn't remember the last time I wore it and tried it on.  I wasn't surprised that it didn't fit.  I was thinking of all of the things I could do with the skirt.  Make a pillow, leather bows for Amelia, and then it came to me!  I could make Amelia some suede moccasins.  Check out how they turned out!

Ottoman Reupholster Makeover

 Having a blog has help me complete projects I've put on the back burner.  In March of this year I was at my local Deseret Industries causally shopping with my friend when I came upon these two forest green ottomans.  They were N-A-S-T-Y!  They smelled and had cat hair all over them.  I really liked the shape of them and how simple they were.  I thought, this would be a really great replacement for the Duncan Phyfe coffee table I already have in my living room because I wanted a more eclectic living room.  I could also use them for seating if we needed more seats in our living room!  They had function and style!  So I bought the two ottomans for $20 and put them in my garage for the time being.  

Four months later I was sick and tired of running into them whenever I would pull my car into the garage, they were taking up valuable real estate, and our living room is in desperate need of some decor.  This week I tackled the challenge of reupholstering my first pieces of furniture.  It wasn't too bad.  It took me all day, literally.  My mother-in-law was so kind to drive a hour to spend the entire day with Amelia so I could focus on this project and get it done!  Thanks Ann, I owe you one!  

This is what the two ottomans looked like before.

Drum roll.....  Here is what they look like now!   

 The first thing I did was cleaned off the nasty cat hair that was embedded into the fabric.  I carefully pulled apart the fabric by taking out each of the staples (long and tedious).  I did this by using an ice pick tool my husband had in his tool box and some dyke cutter to pull out any broken pieces of staples.  Remember to wear a pair of handy dandy leather gloves (these are a must!).  I tried to be as careful when taking apart the fabric because I needed it to be intact so I could trace the pattern.  Underneath the fabric was some cotton batting, I decided to keep it on instead of replacing it because it was in good condition and I didn't want to spend the extra money.  I purchased my chartreuse yellow fabric from Home Fabrics for $7 a yard!  What a screaming deal.  

To assemble the ottoman I had to sew two pieces of fabric that wrapped around the sides and then sew the top to it.  After I was done sewing the fabric, I slide it over the ottoman, then started to staple the fabric to the ottoman.  Make sure everything is taut before you staple and take your time with this. 

The trickiest part was installing the tack strips to the inner sides of the ottoman.  You wrap the fabric around the tack strip and then once in place hammer it in.  This is harder when you're a lone ranger likes I was, but it can be done.  Just be patient.  The first one I installed, one of the nails got bent, and it was being a stickler by  not going into the wood.  I cut out the nail and hot glued it to the fabric.  Having a hot glue gun on hand is really important when you reupholster anything.  

After I installed the tack strips to both sides, I started to nail the brass nail stud strips.  By purchasing the nail strips, you only have to hammer in a nail every five studs. Therefore making the process a lot easier then hammering each nail head.  I nailed the bottom portion of the ottoman because I liked the look of it the best.  And that's pretty much it!  It took me all day to complete one ottoman.  That's including getting distracted many times, watching glimpses of Kitchen Nightmares, going potty, getting hydrated, and fueling up on snacks.  

Supplies: 

two nasty ottomans 

2.5 yards of yellow chartreuse upholstery fabric 

two packages of brass nail stud trim 

stapler 

nails 

leather gloves 

ice pick tool or flat head screw driver to get staples out of wood

dyke tool to take out the broken pieces of staples

Six Easy Embellished Onesie Designs

One morning a while back, I was doing my daily morning routine of getting Amelia and I ready.  As I was going through her closet to decide what she was going to wear that day, I started to feel that I had nothing for her to wear (I feel this way all the time in my closet).  She had plenty of clothes to choose from but I was feeling bored of them.  I had received a handful of onesies as baby shower gifts and even though onesies are practical and great to dress your baby in, they can be boring and downright ugly.  I hated how most of the onesies I owned had stupid stitched characters like monkeys and bears on them.  I didn't want to go spend extra money on clothes for her.  So a light bulb went off in my head.  I thought to myself, "Why don't I embellish and cover up the ugly parts of the onesies to make them cute!" 

 To start, I looked for inspiration. I got online and checked out some of my favorite stores that I can't afford (Anthropologie, J Crew, Nordstrom) and then my last stop is the mother load of inspiration, Pinterest.   This helped the creative juices flow.  Whenever I start a new project, I always scavenge the house to see what supplies I already have so I don't have to spend extra money.  I had a bag of old clothes I was going to donate to the Salvation Army, and I decided to take one extra look through them to make sure there wasn't items I wanted to keep.  To my surprise I found a couple of items that had some amazing textures and patterns on it and thought they would look awesome on Amelia's onesies.

Blue Lace Bow Onesie

This onesie is one of my favorites because of the fabric I used on it.  Get this, I had some old lingerie that had seen better days (wink, wink) and it was made from this blue stretch lace.  I loved the texture and color of the lace, so that's when I decided I would make a big bow in the front of the onesie to cover up the, "Daddy's little girl" wording in the center. To make this onesie I first cut two six inch strips out of the cups (the bust part of the lingerie top) pinned them to the edge of the sleeve and sewn over it.  Easy.  For the bow I took the midsection (make sure you have both seams on the sides intact to make it easier) of the lingerie top and folded it back and forth like an accordion.  I squished the middle and tied some thread around it to keep it secure.  I used a cream and gold stripped piece of fabric from an old dress and hot glued it around the middle to make the bow.  To attach the bow I pinned it in the center of the onesie to cover up the words.   Then took some matching thread and hand sewn the outline of the bow to the onesie.   

Cream Doily Onesie

My great-great-grandmother was known for her lace and crochet work.  I actually own a couple of pieces in my home and WOW, what a piece of art they are!  Well I didn't want to use one of old granny's antique doilies so I went to Joann's and purchased this cream one for .99 cents!  I cut a circle out of cream fabric that I already had, put the doily on top of the fabric, pinned both the fabric and doily it to the center of the onesie (to cover up the not so cute looking flowers), used my sewing machine with cream thread and sewn a small circle in the middle and a large circle towards the edge to secure it to the onesie.  To make this even more unique, add some color or textured fabric behind the doily! 

Lace Bib Onesie

To make a this Lace Bib Onesie, I took an old brown lace shirt and cut two six inch strips from the lacy trim (there was two different type of trims on this shirt).  I cut a 12 inch piece of that cream and gold stripped fabric I had from an old dress.  On the cream and gold fabric, I sewn a long length stitch at the top of the fabric and then ruched the fabric to make it look gathered.  I layered each layer on top of each other to give it a waterfall effect.  I pinned them to the onesie and sewn across each layer at the top.   

Green Flower Onesie

I got the inspiration for this Green Flower Onesie from a very expensive Anthropologie shirt I saw a couple months back (I still wish to this day I would have gotten it).  This was one of the easiest onesies to make.  I used an old green ribbed tank top as the fabric for my flowers because I knew it wasn't going to fray.  To make the flowers I free handed it and cut out different sizes of flowers: large, medium and small.  The less perfect, the better. I then layered them on top of each other (2 flowers per flower) and arranged them in a random sequence on the onesie.  I pinned them to the onesie and hand sewn them on with matching green thread.  To get a "curling" effect, just sew the flower petals to the onesie.  Learn how to make Amelia's bow headband here.

Victorian Cameo Onesie

I always loved the look of Victorian Cameos.  My grandma had a cameo pin she would wear all the time, this onesie reminds me of her and how classy she is.  To make the cameo, I used two different colors of felt  for the oval and for the lady.  Draw a medium size oval on one color of felt and cut it out.  For the cameo, I looked at cameos on the internet and hand draw it onto a different colored felt and cut it out. Super glue the lady to the center of the oval.  For the lace fringe behind the oval, I used up more fringe from that lace brown shirt I used in the Lace Bib Onesie.  I cut out a 12 inch section of lace and hot glued it to the back of the oval.  For the cute cheetah print bow, I used an earring who had lost it's mate, so I ripped the bow off the earring and hot glued it to the lady.  Once I was done with all that, I made sure the cameo was centered onto the onesie, and hot glued the entire cameo on the shirt.  For the fringe on the sleeves, I took two six inch strips of lace fringe from the brown lace shirt I used in the Lace Bib Onesie, pinned it to the the edge of the sleeve, and sewn it on there.  BTW, the cute headband Amelia is wearing is from Cozette Couture.  

Draped Metallic Bib Onesie

This white onesie was almost thrown out a couple times.  When I had Amelia I thought I knew how to do laundry and get rid of stains, well let's just say a lot of Amelia's clothes were ruined because I was so ignorant when it came to getting formula, poop, and other bodily fluid stains out of her clothes.  FYI, I've gotten a lot better with getting stains out of clothes.  This onesie had disgusting yellow stains all over the front.  Amelia looked pretty ghetto whenever she wore this poor onesie.  I got the idea to drape the stains with a piece of an old metallic shirt I used to wear.  I cut out a 6" X 12" rectangle piece out of this metallic shirt.  I used my sewing machine to sew a long length stitch at the top of it.  To get the gathered look, I then ruched it, pinned it to the onesie, and sewn over it!  Now no one know there's nasty stains because they're hiding behind the bib.  

I hope you enjoyed reading how I designed these onesies.  I feel that having a stylish baby doesn't have to come at a premium price, it just takes some extra time and some creativity.  Hopefully this has inspired you to create new things out of old things. 

I was featured on My Craft Channel where I demonstrated how I created the onesies. Check out the video here!

Also, check out my Studio 5 debut below!