Nightgown

One of the latest presents I have made is this nightgown for my niece. She recently turned 2 and had a Minnie Mouse party. I picked this soft comfy knit polka dot at a remnant clearance sale recently for 20 cents a yard!!!! I know, freak out moment.

This was only one piece of the 2 huge bags I bought that night while my husband not-so-patiently waited in the car with 2 of the kiddos (1 was "helping mommy shop").

I adapted the new pattern I've been working on, and have yet to completely put together, by adding length, a deep ruffle, and a slight ruffle at the wrist.

Little Belle seems to like the print and the softness of it and my girls want one now. So who knows, the pattern may turn into a nightgown tutorial before it's finished.

 

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Super girl TUTORIAL

A friend needed a super hero outfit for her daughter, and she knew who to call.... SUPER SEAMSTRESS to the rescue!

I whipped together this outfit for her to wear in our local homecoming parade.

MASK

The mask I made in the same way that I did the cat woman mask, check it out HERE, but there are a couple of additions to this mask.

I changed the shape of the mask a bit to make it more super hero by shaping the top corners to a little point and by widening the eye.

I made a ribbon casing for the elastic and fed it through before sewing the mask because all I had was white elastic and I wanted it to be cute. I ironed 1/2" gross grain ribbon in half and sewed a very narrow seam and the 1/4" elastic fit perfectly.

I also cut out heart details to sew on the front and hot glued a rhinestone on for a little girly bling.

WRIST CUFFS

These are really easy to put together. Measure the wrist and add 2 inches. This is the length. Draw out a simple rectangle with a sloping point on one side.

I've found the easiest way to top stitch together two pieces that are the same shape is to cut out one shape, lay it on top of another piece of felt larger all the way around, top stitch together, and then cut away the excess on the larger piece. This way you don't have to worry about your fabric shifting.

After you have the cuff piece add on any embellishments and sew on a piece of Velcro on each end.

CAPE

To make the cape I used the tutorial HERE from moms rising.org. The tutorial was made by howdoesshe and she did a great job. I found it easy-to-follow. I did change a few measurements though because I needed a cape to fit a larger size child and not a toddler.

First I cut a piece of fabric 35 inches long and kept it folded in half lengthwise.

Then on one end I measured 14 inches and made a mark.

On the other end I measured 6.5" and made a mark.

Then you draw a line to connect the two. I did later decide that this would be a little too wide for my girl and cut off about 1 inch from this long side.

Now you use a plate 8 inches in diameter to make the neck. Place it 6" from the top and 5" from the fold and draw around it.

Now cut it all out 1/2" from your markings.

If adding an appliqué, do it now. I used the superhero alpha from planet appliqué.

Pin it all the way around. Use a lot of pins if using slinky fabric like my polyester knit.

Sew all the way around with a 1/2" seam allowance, leaving a hole for turning in the bottom of the cape. Clip the curves, turn right side out, press, hand sew hole closed, machine stitch on a piece of Velcro, and you are done!

 

Your little one will be ready to take flight!

 

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Cat woman mask TUTORIAL

A friend asked me to make a cat woman mask for her daughter so that her children could be batman and cat woman for Halloween. This is how I did it.

Gather supplies: 1/4" elastic, black felt, black sparkly fabric

Using scrap paper I adapted a basic mask pattern by adding a cat ear.

Fold felt in half, pin, and cut mask.

Measure your model's head from ear to ear around the back, then subtract 1 inch. Now cut cut your elastic to this length.

Roughly cut a piece of the sparkly fabric bigger than the mask, and sew the felt piece onto it using a narrow seam allowance. Sewing with the felt on top will be the easiest.

Don't forget to put the elastic in between the two layers at the corner of the eye. Go ahead and back stitch over the elastic area to reinforce the elastic.

As you sew around the mask keep your elastic out of the way making sure not to sew over it when you do not intend to.

Your mask should now look like this from the front.

Carefully trim away the sparkly fabric making sure not to cut the elastic, and you are done!

 

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Fall Pattern Update

I'm working the kinks out of the smaller sizes of the new pattern I've been working on. Here it is in size 18 months.

 

I also added a flower appliqué to this larger size of the same pattern. The yo-yo flower has a backing with a pin and a clip, so it can clip in the hair as a bow.

Hopefully I'll have the pattern and tutorial finished sometime before next spring.

Happy sewing!

Raggy appliqué tips

I've done a few new appliqués for the girls recently, here are some tips I'll share about doing raggy appliqués.

• Raggy appliqués don't need as many layers of stabilizer because they have so many layers of fabric already. I normally need 3 layers of stabilizer to keep my bobbin thread on the backside, but for raggy appliqués 1 layer is enough.
• Keep your project hooped while you cut around the design and while you rag cut the edges. The hoop keeps the project pulled taut and makes you less likely to cut a hole where you don't want it.

• Don't be so matchy-matchy. I usually keep everything just so, but for this I tried using a different color flannel than my top fabric color. I think it adds interest and brings more colors out of the leggings I'm pairing it with. The tutorial on Five Star Fonts that goes with this FREE design I used actually used two different colors of flannel and a cotton print on top. Check out their other free designs HERE. They have lots of cute ones.
• These designs take very little thread, so this is a great time to use all those almost empty bobbins.
• You don't have to buy a special design to make a raggy appliqué. Just look for a design you already have that is very simple.

Now a tip for centering any appliqué.

• As always I used a sticker to mark the center of where my design should be on my shirt before hooping. The best way to find the sweet spot is to start at the base of the shirt sleeve and draw an imaginary line to the center of the shirt, making sure you are lined up with the neck tag.

• Always measure to ensure your design's actual size with will be centered top-to-bottom also. In this case I actually needed to move my sticker down about an inch. For me this usually isn't necessary.

 

• Now hoop, and if you don't get the hoop exactly center, no sweat because you are using your sticker to mark center with your needle. Yes, my shirts are changing colors.

 

Remove the sticker before stitching. And let your machine do the work, while you try to keep the rest of the shirt and your fingers out of the way.

On a side note, does anyone else having trouble with their bobbin thread showing on the top? I've tried multiple things and some work some of the time, but nothing seems fail proof.

Here are our finished shirts using planet appliqués BLOOM ALPHA, I got free with a promotion. Each girl Is sporting an initial in their favorite color.

"Why do we have to take so many pictures mama?"

"Because I didn't get around to taking them before I dressed you for school dear."

 

Upcycled Tunic Top TUTORIAL

Okay, so here's the idea. I have a collection of old children's clothing that I purchased at a clearance sale, so many of them coordinate already. As I was selling last year's clothes at the local consignment sale, I kept a few other items that coordinated also. These clothes have already been worn by both of my girls and their first cousin. So they are by no means new, but they definitely still have life in them. I saw a skirt a while back that was decorated with ruffles from old clothes, and I have been wanting to try it ever since.

I also had this tank top on hand, so I'm going for a ruffled tunic top and maybe some Capri leggings underneath.

My Supplies

8 long sleeve knit shirts sizes 12 months-4T

1 pair of knit pants size 18 months

1 tank top size 5

1 remnant piece of pink jersey knit that measures 11 inches wide by 60 inches- I never used this piece.

 

I don't know how far exactly this amount of upcycled fabric will get me, but I decide to wing it and see. I could do the math, but I figured I could have it half finished by the time I measure each shirt and determine how many ruffles I can get from each. In case you want to do the math for yourself, I usually measure the circumference for the area I want to apply ruffles, then I cut the length of my ruffle twice that long. That gives a nice full ruffle. 1 1/2 times will work also, it just depends how much fabric you have to work with.

I decide that I will cut my fabric into strips of 3 1/2 inches. That way I will visibly see at least 2 1/2 inches of ruffle when I allow for a seam at the top of each strip to actually ruffle it and overlapping of each ruffle layer.

So, I pull out the mat and rotary cutter and get to stripping. I cut the bottom hem off and then measure up 3 1/2 inches and just cut as many as I can. If there is a design on the front of the shirt that I don't want, I just cut right through it and come back later to cut that part out of the strip.

Cut one side seam off of each strip so you can open it up. Some pieces aren't usable, like the front side of this top strip because it has a seam through it. I just use what I can, even if it is only 4-5 inches.

I'm not worrying too much at this point how many pieces I'm getting, or how long they are.

I also cut the sleeves off the shirt. Cut them open at the seam, and get a strip from each sleeve.

Same goes for the pair of pants.

 

I haven't cut up the remnant fabric yet, because I'm not sure if I'll need it for ruffles or to add length to the tank top. - should have had my model try it on for length before nap time.

I now have 1 pile of scraps and 1 pile of strips.

 

So i go about my business mixing up all the colors of strips and sewing the short ends together to make one LONG strip. I guess I'm going for the crazy look here, but you could also arrange the strips by colors or rainbow order or some pattern. I'd love to see what you come up with.

To sew the strips together, line up the short ends with right sides together. Use a 1/4 inch seam allowance and use chain stitching to get it done quickly. To chain stitch means to sew without stopping as you guide the strips under the foot without lifting it. Be aware that not all machines can do this.

Now clip all of these apart and start chain stitching again until you have just one strip.

Now that I have a long strip (16 yards!), I run it through my machine with the ruffle foot on. This roughly gives me a strip 1/2 long as I had before (7 1/2 yards).

I pick out the section of the strip I want to be the center front, the rest of the ruffles I just let fall as they may.

I pin this along the top edge of my tank top and sew it on with wrong side of ruffle to right side of tank. I just stitch right over my ruffling stitch. When I get all the way around i stop before meeting up with the other end of the ruffle, I leave enough ruffle to overlap the ends about 2 inches, I cut the rest off, and then continue stitching the ruffle down, back stitching at the end. Do not cut the rest of the ruffle off until you stitch it down, the tank will stretch and you will need more ruffle than you think. To keep from having a visible spot on the tank that showed where I started and stopped, I start at a different place on each ruffle layer. (one side seam, the other side seam, the middle, almost to the middle, you get the idea).

I lay out my tank that now has 1 ruffle layer on the top and flip up this ruffle to place the next underneath. Letting the top ruffle overlap about 1/2 to 3/4 inch. Then I pin this in place, and stitch it down like I did the one before it.

Before getting too much further, you want to lay out your ruffle layers to check that they will all fit nicely within the length of the tank top. If they don't then you can overlap the layers more to get them to fit and cover all the vertical space on the tank.

I work my way down the tank, layer after layer. I sew the last layer just above the bottom edge. It's not pinned on yet in this picture.

Then I'm done. This is what it looks like on the inside.

 

So cute. I love it!

I still have tons of ruffles left, so I round up an old pair of leggings and add some flair to them. Then the outfit needs an accessory, so I made a purse. I'll share a tutorial for that later.

 

I hope you enjoy this tutorial. Feel free to email or comment with questions and tutorial suggestions. Share your pics too.

Happy sewing!

Kate