Sewing Baby items

When I started sewing in the fall I came up with a bib pattern that I liked, long enough to cover everything yet small enough that my son could wear it when teething. I sewed him a couple of bibs and loved them, got tons of compliments and people telling me they wanted some! So this week my new task was to start making some bibs and take a hand at making some burp rags. I went in my scraps and started cutting out bibs. I have 2 people I am sewing for who are expecting girls this June and Septemeber and one that just had one. I am having a blast sewing these! I found some really cute material at the store Monday that I bought and I can't wait until I have finished everything!

My question to you is, what do you buy, if anything, handmade for your kids? I have shared with you everything that I enjoy making for my 3 kids and for friends kids, share with me what you like to make. I visit the site etsy.com often to find new ideas to sew the kids, in fact thats where I got the idea for the girls Easter dresses. I often wonder though, are people making money off that site selling what they make? I would love to be able to create items and sell them and make a profit, but can you? I have made a few things here and there for friends and they have given me a couple dollars but nothing big. Should I be charging more? What do you think?

When I am done with the bibs and burp rags I will post some pictures of the completed sets as well as some dresses I am also making the newborns!

I have gotten some inquires about patterns, in the next couple of day I will post about patterns. I tend to not use them but I would love to share with you my ideas! So stay posted!!

Garage Sale or Thift Store

In my house we have been spring cleaning for about a month now. I have gone through all the girls clothes and gotten rid of the ones that are too small or they don't like. With my oldest clothes, we then sit down our youngest and make her go through and tell us the ones she will wear in the future and which ones she won't . With my youngest, we pack everything she can't wear anymore up and donate it to my best friend who has 3 girls younger then 4. With my son's clothes we are finding a family at church who could use the clothes. I like to know that whoever is getting the clothes is going to use them and appreciate them.

Now I like to clean my closet out A LOT. Most of the time I bag up what I don't want or use anymore and my husband takes it to the thrift store for a quick donation. But as we are simplifying our house I am getting rid of more and more items. In the 5 years that we have lived here we have had 2 yard sales. Both of them somewhat a success but a lot of work! The problem I find with having yard sales is you just move the junk from one spot to a pile and it sits there for awhile till you can plan a sale and you can (hopefully) get rid of it. I never get the price I want for something and I end up wasting my entire weekend. I really hate having yard sales! Can you tell?

I love however, going through a closet, gathering items, putting them in a box and having my husband haul them to the thrift store. The items are gone, they aren't in the way, taking up more space somewhere else and I get to eventually take the donation out on my taxes. So I want to know, what do you do? What do you prefer to do with the items you no longer want in your house?

I started this blog months ago on the basis that we were going to go back to simpler times. Like everything you start with a bang and then it fizzles out. We started big, donating boxes of items to charity. As the months have progressed I find we aren't looking for things to get rid of anymore, just buying more items. What happened? I was really loving how our house was getting to be so organized, I could imagine the end result in my head! Now that school is coming to an end in a few weeks and things will start getting less hectic, I am going to challenge my family again to becoming more simplified!

So like always, share with me your thoughts! Are you trying to become more simplified, and if so what do you do with everything? I love my readers thoughts and comments and can't wait to hear from you!!

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