Illustrator Annie Jones sews with free patterns

Hey, Sew Chic followers!
My name is Annie and I get to do the illustrations on the front of Laura’s pattern covers. 

I had never even thought of doing fashion illustration until Laura asked me to do it for her, but now I LOVE it! I love how classy and vintage Laura's patterns are, it’s so fun to get to draw them! 

Laura asked me do a guest post for her blog and I was so excited when she asked, and then I panicked because I had no idea what to talk about. 

So I figured that sewing might be a safe topic because most likely all of the followers of this blog enjoy sewing. (Annie gives links to the printable patterns for all her projects)

To be perfectly honest, I'm not a very advanced sewer.

I bought my first sewing machine less than a year ago. 

It’s a simple Brother machine that I found on Overstock.com for $64. 

It has this really awesome zebra pattern on the front. 

But I really enjoy sewing!

I bought my sewing machine while I was pregnant so that I could make things for my soon-to-come baby. 

 I thought I would post some of my favorite little sewing projects on this post.

Most of the projects are for a baby.

All of these projects come from free patterns or tutorials that I found online, so I'll link each project to it's tutorial.

These projects are easy, fun, and cute.

K, first off, these baby shoes.

A beautiful friend of mine pretty much made these for me, with my occasional assistance. 

She made them in just a few hours.

I cannot get enough of baby shoes and I think these are to-die-for adorable. 

They stay on my baby's little feet really well because of the elastic. 

The pattern is free online. Thank you, Pinterest, for this find!

One of the things that I use ALL THE TIME is this changing pad. 

I keep it in the diaper bag and I use it when there isn’t a changing station to use and even when there is a changing station because, I don’t know, I don’t like laying my baby on that dirty plastic that plenty of other babies have put their poopy bums on. 

(Um, yes, I did use the same fabric for the shoes and for the ties on the changing pad and I may have also used it on her car seat cover as well. I kind of really like it.)

For some bizzarre reason I thought that my baby would be in newborn sizes for less than a week (maybe because my husband’s siblings were all huge babies, one was almost 11 pounds) so I didn’t buy any newborn clothes for her. 

Seriously, none. 

Turns out, she was in newborn clothes for more than a month. 

Luckily I had a pattern for this newborn dress

and it was one of the only things that fit her in that first month.

Adorable and easy. 

I completely messed it up and it still turned out cute.

I think decorating onsies is fun! 

I especially loved how this onesie turned out with the little flowers

 on the front. 

So easy to make and the onesie goes with so many things.

My mom made my baby several fat quarter skirts

and the cool thing about these is that, with the elastic, that chicken skirt that she’s wearing at 9 months also fit her when she was a newborn.

A cute, easy-to-make nursing cover .

And here are a couple non-baby projects:

Here are two different tutorials for a bow tie, both of them can also be used to make a hair bow. 

That hair bow on the left

took 20 minutes at most to make.

The bow tie on the right

takes a bit longer to make, but I think it looks more professional than the one on the left, which I liked for a bow tie.

You can also make mini versions of both of these to make a bow tie for your baby boy, or mini hair bows for your baby girl.

And last but not least, I needed something to jazz up this cute and simple dress and this fabric belt

was perfect! 

Most of the links lead to websites and blogs that have lots of other sewing patterns and tutorials, so if you are looking for more ideas, those links are worth looking at.

Thanks for having me on the blog!