Newborn Knit Hat Pattern

I had a few requests for the pattern I used to make all my newborn knit hats (see part 1 here, part 2 here, and part 3 here.)

I traced it and uploaded it here.

Please don't use my pattern to sell hats, just use it for personal use or to make gifts. Thanks!

Burp Cloth Pattern and Instructions

I made tons of burp cloths out of soft flannel fabric prior to the birth of my son. I had so many compliments on them, I now make them regularly as baby gifts. Here's how. First, download mypattern and cut both a front and back from your flannel fabric.

Place it right sides together and stitch all around the outside but leave a space for turning.

Turn the fabric and then press it flat. Make sure you push out all the edges and corners and press them crisply. Press the unfinished space you left for turning under to hide raw edges.

Topstitch around the whole thing making sure you catch the raw edges inside the topstitching.

Here's the link to use my pattern to make your own burp cloths. Only make them for personal use or as gifts with this pattern; no selling them. Thanks.

A Rice & Beans Manifesto

It is with great humility that I've accepted my dear wife's invitation to author a guest post to this blog. I work in corporate-land as an engineer and in the interest of being frugal and healthy pack my lunch every day. My pal Adam introduced me to the idea of making rice & beans in bulk to have for lunch. So, after a few years of tweaking my recipe, here is how it's done in the Monkey-See-Monkey-Do household.

1) Soak beans overnight in crock pot. Add a few teaspoons of hot sauce while they're soaking to allow the beans to absorb the flavor. I recommend 2 standard grocery store sized bags of dry beans. 1 bag pinto and 1 bag black works well.

2) Rinse the beans once soaked and cook in the crock pot on low for however long it takes for them to get edible and soft (~6 hours).

3) Towards the end of when the beans are cooking in the crock pot, prepare the add-in ingredients. Since I'm an engineer, I, by nature, need to find ways to constantly improve designs. As such, the rice & beans recipe can never be static. That said, the following is a representative list of rice & beans add-ins. Diced Tomatoes and/or Tomato Sauce, Green Pepper, Banana Peppers, half and Onion, fresh Garlic, Pepperjack Cheese, Ground Black Pepper, Crushed Red Pepper, and Seasoning Salt.

4) Once the beans are finished cooking, drain the water from the crock pot and add the above ingredients. Turn crock pot to warm setting to allow the spices to mix and the cheese to melt.

5) Cook the rice. This really can be done at any stage, but I will often wait until the beans and ingredients are mixed prior to commencing the rice preparation. 1 standard sized bag of rice is an appropriate quantity of rice to go along with the beans. I recently have been cooking pearl barley rather than rice which makes the meal a bit heartier. Note that I often add olive or canola oil to the rice while it's cooking to make it less "gummy". If the crock pot is large enough, it's nice to mix the cooked rice with the bean concoction. The crock pot I've been using most recently does not permit such volume so I'll simply add the cooked rice to tupperware. It's best to use BPA-free or glass tupperware if you have some.

6) Combine the rice & beans in the tupperware containers and store in your refrigerator and/or freezer. I usually end up with about 10 lunch-sized containers.

Presto! (or whatever Emeril says) An added benefit to rice & beans is that they are gluten free. Even if you don't have a medical reason to avoid gluten, it's a good idea to not always have wheat in meals. Plus the beans have a ton of fiber. Avoiding something real grainy during lunch also (I think) contributes to me being less tired after lunch as I haven't chowed on a lot of grainy carbs.

Thanks for this opportunity, honey!

Repurposed Drawstring Bag

I still have some more t-shirts. I wanted to make something fun for my little boy to use and decided on a drawstring bag. He seemed to like putting things in the bag.

He also liked taking things out.

I started with four same-sized t-shirt pieces. I sewed several patches onto the outer panel. I had fabric stamped the top patch. See how to do fabric stamping here.

I measured 2" down from the top of each.

I sewed up each side of the lining and the outer panels (minus the 2"). I sewed the bottom of the outer panel but left a space in the lining for turning.

Then, I placed the lining and outer pieces with right sides together and pinned the 2" sides together. I then sewed them together and around the tops of each flap.

I turned the whole thing right sides out using the space I left in the lining. Then I closed the space in the lining with my machine.

To make the drawstring's pockets, I turned the flaps to the inside....

Then I pinned them down and sewed them into place.

For the drawstrings, I took 2 long 2" wide pieces of t-shirt fabric, sewed a tube and just turned the tube. I left the ends of the ties unfinished and just tied them in a knot.

Bags are super fun for putting things in and then removing them.

Little Girl's Skirt

I made this skirt for my cousin who just turned six this week. I have no idea if it will fit! She wears a 6 or 6x, so I tried to make it relying on dimensions I found online.

To make it, I just cut two pieces of fabric in A-line shapes.

Since I don't have a serger, I used the stretch stitch zig-zag stitch to finish all the edges so they won't unravel.

I stitched my elastic casing at the top and then stitched both A-line pieces together.

Note: I should have stitched them together FIRST and then done the elastic casing. Live and learn.

Anyway, the pictures I took are not great, but I didn't have a model for the skirt! You get the idea. I also sent her a headband with taffeta flowers to complete the gift.