How to make ANY bra into a Nursing Bra

I could have sworn I had blogged about this with Aiko, but I can't seem to find it.  I've blogged about Bra problems before, so forgive me that, yet, once again, I do.  (Actually, just found it here. )  Why even blog about this?  Well, there are bras and then there are bras.  Then, there are nursing bras (or pieces of fabric that don't do anything and make you look frumpy) and then there are extremely expensive nursing bras.  So, why not use the bras you love and turn them into nursing bras.   Fulfilling all your nursing dreams....

Anyways, these bras are my favorite brand.  I've only been able to find them at Dillard's, which I annually purchase on the New Year's Day Sale.  Instead of $40 per bra (which is $20 per boob, in case you were wondering) I spend anywhere from $12-$19.  Yes, I have some funny colored, printed ones, but read those three points above and you will see why.  As a short Asian girl who is always in need of serious boobage support, I am extremely particular about my bras.  Yes, there are those bras that are pretty and super cute, but the above are meant to do something more substantial.  

Hold up boobs.

Yes, serious, substantial work is done with these bras.  Though the band may have 12 hooks and almost as wide as my back, you won't see any side boobage coming out. 

But let's get back to the real purpose of showing you these.  As I am four days past my due date with my little boy, I have yet to really utilize these nursing bras.  Sure, the day is coming anytime soon, so it's a good thing we finished these last week.  

What you will need to make any bra into a nursing bra.

Sewing Machine

Scissors

2 Swim Suit Bra Hooks per bra (Metal ones of course)

Bras

Pliers/Metal Snips

1 Mama to actually do the work.

10 minutes or less per bra

I got these hooks at Hancock Fabric, but (Amazon has them as well)and purchased with a coupon. 

Most bras have these little metal/plastic connectors (?)  At least, all of mine always have, but again, remember, big boob problems here. I'm sure this will work with most bras.  Technically, you don't have to cut the actual bra strap like we did below, but it doesn't really matter. 

Use your pliers/snips and cut off that connector on both sides.

I had a few bras I purchased at Dillard's this year.  I bought three different sizes...which I'm not going to tell you what size, but you never know when you breastfeed how big things may get.  

The sewing doesn't have to be pretty or even match in color. (at least I never worry about it.)  My mama chose a zigzag and she was cursing my sewing machine.  It isn't just me that can't get it to work properly!  Take the strap that comes off your shoulder and slip it through the non hook section.  Fold it over and run through the sewing machine.  I like my hooks to face out towards my arms for nursing.  I have one bra that goes the opposite way and it came unhooked a few times. 

There you have it!  A simple way to change any bra into a nursing bra. Because, again, there are bras and the there are real bras. (Sorry, I'm not going to model them for you. )

Diy muslin swaddled prints with a Snorlax

I swear, this is going to be the last one.  I think we've painted and exacto-knifed ourselves out for a while.  I bought a remnant of the muslin that was just too big for a little baby.  So we chopped it in half.  

One for buffalo (post) and one for ..............

Wait for it...........

the Snorlax!!  

For those of you who don't know, a Snorlax is a Pokemon.  Who, is adorable, and if anyone wants to make me one of these, I'd let you, for free even.   (The husband claims that anyone who is younger the 35 probably knows what a Snorlax is.  Interesting stat I think)

The last few months, the husband has been making me watch these classic Anime videos...which some were good, but some were not.  But, how could I forget, that I myself, is/was a slight anime nerd.  I'd forgotten that in high school I would watch Pokemon.  I don't know why, I just liked it, a lot.  The husband has recently informed me that it actually was a game.  I had no idea.  I just liked to watch the cartoons, which, in case you were wondering, have recently been added to Netflix!

Anyways, Hannah and I were brainstorming and we came across said Snorlax.  He could be adorable on a boys blanket right, yes, yes he could and is.  He was a little harder to find an image for.  I actually found a video clip that had him in just the right position and did a Print Screen Shot on the computer.  Then we printed him out and started cutting him out.  Once again, I started the cutting, but Hannah finished it out. 

After testing him out on some cardboard we were ready! We centered him on the blanket and started painting. 

 

 After getting him applied, we started on the "Zzzzz."  I don't know why, but the Snorlax is always sleeping.  ALWAYS. 

I think he turned out pretty dang cute.  Plus, I've never seen another one like it, which is always a bonus in my mind.

Thanks to Hannah for helping all my muslin swaddling cloth dreams come true!  I probably never would have done it (or watched her do it) if she weren't around!

I posted these before, but here are some tips and instructions on stenciling. 


Some tips that I learned from Hannah on Stenciling. 

1.  Make sure your exacto-knife is sharp and your eyes are even sharper.  You may want to print a few of your patterns so if you mess up one by cutting something wrong.  Hannah even colors one ahead of time just to make sure she knows what she does and doesn't want to cut out. 
2.  When printing on the stencil paper there will only be faint lines.  Make sure to print on some scrap after running the stencil paper through to get all the left over ink that didn't print. Otherwise, you'll go to print something and it will be covered with random lines of buffalo. 

3.  Always cut your stencil out on some surface you don't mind cutting up. 
4.  Always test your stencil on something else before diving into your material.
5.  We like to tape our stencils to the cloth.
6.  Always dab off excess paint before applying to cloth. 
7.  Hold the stencil with one hand to keep it steady.  You'll want to dab your paint brush STRAIGHT up and down to avoid bleeding underneath.
8.  Once you'd applied your paint, pull stencil immediately after. 
9.  You'll want to make sure you didn't get any excess paint on the back of the stencil before laying it down again on your surface.  
10. If you are going to use a stencil multiple times, make sure to stop and let it dry after 10 times or so, depending on the details.  It may be more or less times you can use it, but you'll start to notice it sagging and just not coming out quite as sharp.  I've actually found that after the paint dries it's basically been plasticized and works really well after. 
11. Stand back and be amazed.  You did it. Yes, you are awesome and so is that stencil.  

Here are the basic utensils we used for stenciling. 

Hannah prefers the shorter style paint.  She also really likes her fat stubby paintbrush. (green one.) We used the standard sponge brush on the bison and the short sponge brush.  We use the fine paint brushes on really small detailed work, like on the tiny little "z."  Also, this is her beloved paint tray. 

Bye son, Bison, DIY Stenciled Onesies and DIY Baby BisonSwaddlerBlankets.

Let us start out with a joke by the husband.  
Husband: "Why did you decide to use the Bison?"  
Me: "I don't know, it spoke to me."
Husband: "Is it because you wanted to be able to say "Bye son"."
Me: I usually don't respond to his jokes anymore.

To continue on with little brother's blankets, I decided to try something a little beyond my skills.  It had to do with a Bison, excato-knife, potato, and scissors.  Supposedly, you make stamps with potatoes.  I saw them here.  Which, I'm sure you can, just not with the particular design I chose.  My start to finish lasted about 4 minutes and in disaster.  It didn't even go far enough to even show you.  I gave up after my paper started shriveling up from the potato. 

Then, my sister Hannah took over.  As much as she claims that she is not a crafty person, she really is.  It's just the perfectionist in her that stops her  She made Aiko a few onesies, that she stenciled and painted herself.  They turned out awesome here.  Hannah and her OCD self probably couldn't bear to watch me muff it up again. 

We pulled out our stencil paper, resized and printed our buffalo (by we I mean she.) and started cutting.  Make sure to have some kind of surface under the stencil paper so you don't cut up your table. 




She's pretty good right?  We did have to delete some of the buffalo, there were just too many little lines.  After we tested out the stencil, she applied it to the onesie!

Print purchased from Etsy Shop PrintitFrameit. 

I know, I know, it's pretty rad.  If only I could have a crafting-slave-perfectionist who I just bossed around and said "good job" to after they finish.  But don't worry, eventually I did join the bison-exacto-cutting-fun.  See, I had some other big plans for this bison.  We did one successfully, WHY NOT MILLIONS?!

Well, how about five. We printed up four more bison and I myself, even cut out two of them.  It's kind of a long process, but once you have the stencil you can use it quite a few times. 

By quite a few times, I mean a lot.  (I'll put some tips at the end of this post.) We decided to apply it to another Swaddler Blanket.

Boy, am I glad we did.  I was a little worried that all the detail would get lost on the texture of the muslin, but it worked out great!  We did mainly yellow buffalo with a few random blue ones.   

After finishing with the buffalo we realized we needed a little something more.  So I took a chapstick and placed dots.

I was too lazy to pull out my good camera, plus I don't really know how to use it beyond Auto anyway...so you have some different colored photos going on here.

What do you think?  Pretty cool right?  And really, it's not that hard, I promise.  It take some time, but once you have your stencil you can use it over and over again.  

Some tips that I learned from Hannah on Stenciling. 

1.  Make sure your exacto-knife is sharp and your eyes are even sharper.  You may want to print a few of your patterns so if you mess up one by cutting something wrong.  Hannah even colors one ahead of time just to make sure she knows what she does and doesn't want to cut out. 
2.  When printing on the stencil paper there will only be faint lines.  Make sure to print on some scrap after running the stencil paper through to get all the left over ink that didn't print. Otherwise, you'll go to print something and it will be covered with random lines of buffalo. 

3.  Always cut your stencil out on some surface you don't mind cutting up. 
4.  Always test your stencil on something else before diving into your material.
5.  We like to tape our stencils to the cloth.
6.  Always dab off excess paint before appliying to cloth. 
7.  Hold the stencil with one hand to keep it steady.  You'll want to dab your paint brush STRAIGHT up and down to avoid bleeding underneath.
8.  Once you'd applied your paint, pull stencil immediately after. 
9.  You'll want to make sure you didn't get any excess paint on the back of the stencil before laying it down again on your surface.  
10. Stand back and be amazed.  You did it. Yes, you are awesome and so is that stencil.  

Here are the basic utensils we used for stenciling. 

Hannah prefers the shorter style paint.  She also really likes her fat stubby paintbrush. (green one.) We used the standard sponge brush on the bison and the short sponge brush.  We use the fine paint brushes on really small detailed work, like on the tiny little "z."  Also, this is her beloved paint tray.

Bison Print purchased from Etsy Shop PrintitFrameit.

DIY Swaddler Lego Blanket

These last few weeks I've been either insanely productive, or insanely lazy and tired.  It's been crazy weather, which, I attribute to my pregnant self.  This last week, my sister Hannah and I got crafty.  I'm super picky about everything apparently, which is even worse when it comes to my kids style.  I feel that everything should be unique which usually means should be handmade.  Hence, we decided to make our own swaddling cloths for the little man.  Which, it takes me forever to try and research something that is quirky enough for me.  Luckily, I'm super good at copying people's Pinterest ideas, but I apply them other ways. 

At Joann's, you can buy muslin for $5.99 per yard.  Combine that with your 40% coupon and you have an awesome blanket.  We had to break into our brand new lego box that I got on Black Friday.  Take some Fabric Paint, dip your legos and stamp.  It was that easy and that awesome looking.  You do have to sew the raw edges...but that's what you have moms for right?  (Because, this mama, DOESN'T/CAN'T SEW)

 I have what you would call a "Lego Nazi Husband."  (click to read previous posts) He has some serious rules about the usage of legos and I'm afraid I had to ruin some for little brother.  I really was concerned...but there was nothing I could do about it in the end. The fabric paint sticks too well and little Legos have little places that paint crawls in to.

But really, isn't it awesome looking?  Be careful when stamping to have something under it, as the paint soaks through the cloth. 

' 

Here's one last shot with the 36 week belly. 

Idea stemmed from this. 

A few notes about stamping with Legos. 

1.  Who will probably not want to clean the legos afters.  The fabric paint does not come off easily. 

2. Make sure to place something under the cloth while stamping so it does not soak through.

3. I took two pieces of cardboard and squirted the paint on one side.  Then, I rubbed them together so it was flatten the paint and therefore make it easier to get an even stamp.

4. I really don't sew well, even on easy projects, but take the edges of the blanket and roll once under and then sew.  See, it sounds easy, but I never find it is.  Hence, why I have my mom do it.  

5.  I was able to use each stamp about 3 times before it was too light to see on the fabric.  

6.  You'll have to clean on the lego (as best you can) when you start getting fuzzy lines.  You'll know when this happens.  I found it was easiest to scrape off with a tough piece of cardboard.  

 

Etsy Shop.

Just added some new items to my Etsy Shop Membil!  I really like how my skulls turned out.

Cute little bunnies are ready for Easter.  They hold cotton inside and then can hold your rings! 

Etsy styling

It's always fun to see your creations out in real life!  Just thought I'd share some photos with you guys! 

(While these two bunnies aren't mine, the one in back is!)

Hearts and Belly

Hope you all have a good heart day! I got a wild hair and decided that Aiko needed a Valentine's Day shirt, complete with heart elbow patches and a headband.  I thrifted the shirt with the intention of doing some embellishment and Valentine's Day seemed worthy.

I hope you all get the reference on her shirt.