How to make a tee with a kids drawing.

At the last minute I realized that Lilo hadn't made anything for Isla for her birthday. So quick thinking Mom came up with this idea to have her draw a picture and I attach it to tee and voila a great gift.

I took a piece of white knit jersey and ironed on some Heat n' Bond to the back and cut it into 2 pieces. I gave them to Lilo with some fabric markers that I got at the dollar store. I gave her 2 pieces so there was no stress if one doesn't turn out. The paper back of the Heat n' Bond made the fabric more stable for her to draw on, but I did forget to tell her which side to draw on so the first attempt was on the paper backing.

When she was done with the drawing I removed the backing and I ironed it on to a spare blank tee I had.

Then I sewed 2 rows of straight stitch around the whole square about 1/8" inch from the edge.

I added a boarder to the image with a wide piece of rick rack. The corners I just folded the trim over and sewed on the other side of the trim since there is no true right and wrong side.

And done. Fast, easy and super cute.

She was super happy to open the present and has worn it a few times already. She is very proud to tell everyone that her sister and Mom made it for her.

How to make a skirt into a dress

I finally started to tackle my alteration/ re-fashioning box and one of those things was this skirt of mine. I got it at H&M and it was super cute until it flew up one day after I got off the street car and I flashed the street thanks to a gust of wind. I then decided that maybe it was too short for me. But the fabric is so cute that I couldn't just give it away.

So I dress for Isla it will be.
I could have simply taken the skirt in and added straps but I find smocked dresses that are straight at the top don't fit as good. And I hate when my girls pull their dresses down to expose themselves. So I decided to curve under the arm to make it more comfortable. I used one of her dresses to get the size and shape.
I took the dress in on the side seam and then traced out the armhole shape. After cutting the armhole I serged the edge, turned it over and stitched down.
Then added straps from scrap ribbons and added a bow. And done. It was pretty simple and now Isla has one more dress to add to her collection.
And the dress is great for dancing.

How to make a dress into a skirt

This was the easiest transformation ever. Isla had this cute dress but it was a little too short but she found it in give away box and came out wearing it one day. Then it came to me - remove the straps and make it a skirt.

So I just simply cut the straps off and ta-da, a new skirt.
I love the long length and perfect for my girly-girl with attitude :)

How to re-fashion nightshirts

My 2 little girls have been asking me to make them nightgowns. I mean they've been wearing dresses everyday this summer so why wouldn't they want to sleep in dresses.

So I've finally started to get my sewing area set up and my serger is now fixed so I had no excuses to make them night dresses.
At work we were cleaning up and throwing out a bunch of cut samples - we buy samples for colour, fabric and style inspiration. Some get used and another don't but most get cut. It feels like a such a waste to throw them out - some do get donated to schools and artist but we had just missed the last donation.

Anyways - I found 2 ladies nightshirt with swatches cut out the back that I thought would make great dresses for the girls.

I started by using a t-shirt of Lilo's and lined it up on the ladies nightshirt neckline matching the neck width up and marked it. Then I cut the front and the back apart.
Then I lined up the back neckline to the marks on the front neckline to create the new neckline.
I folded the front and back together and placed the folded t-shirt on top. Then traced out the t-shirt added seam allowance as I traced. I traced the shoulder and then used the t-shirt as a guide for the body. I wanted it looser than the tee so I left room at the waist and added length. You can use an existing dress to measure the length - or measure your kid - or since my kids were asleep I just guessed. To measure around the armhole - carefully fold the sleeve in and mark the curve.
If you look close you can see the marking of the dress.
To make the sleeves - use the original sleeve, fold in half and match up the hem. Place the t-shirt sleeve on top matching fold. Mark top and bottom of the sleeve.
Then carefully fold the tee over the sleeve so you can see the sleeve seam and trace around leaving seam allowance.
Cut all the pieces out and sew together. I started by sewing the shoulder seam. Then adding the sleeves. To make the sleeve fit the best do a basting stitch on the top curve of the sleeve and ease into place when you pin. You might get gathers at the cap but that would be cute. Then sew the side seam and sleeve seam. For the hem I just serged it around but you could do a real hem if you wanted. To finish it off fold in serge ends and topstitch seams down at neckline and underarm.
And there you go - 2 nightshirts in just over an hour.

Sorry I don't have any pictures of the girls in them. They wore them at Grandma's Friday night and looked so cute. I think I'll need to make more soon.

How to make a dress prettier

Hi All. I know I've been MIA for awhile now. We're all moved in and getting settled. The basement, future home of my crafting, sewing, studio space is still just a pile of boxes. Hopefully soon we can start to organize it a bit so I can find stuff and make some of the ideas in my head.

I haven't been crafting much lately but we did make a cool father's day gift (I'll post later about that) and a few other things so I'm going to try and post a bit more often again.

The one thing about working having your office attached to the mall is that you shop - and find great deals. I love me a deal. So I had to pick up this dress for only $7 from H&M. The only thing is that I knew that Lilo would say that the dress wasn't pretty enough, since it was just grey. So I dug through my stuff to find something to dress it up. I brought home the dress and bow and ribbons for her to help me figure out what to do to make the dress prettier.
The bow and ribbon is from a gift set that I kept and the thinner ribbon was from my stash. We played around with how to put them on and then while Lilo slept I sewed everything on.
The bow on the waist is as is from the package I just reinforced it more so it would come undone and sewed it on. The rose I made from the ribbon, just wrapping it around, hand sewing as I went, twisting the ribbon to give texture. And the thinner ribbons are just folded and sewn down at both ends. I also tacked in place about 1 1/2" from the neck so it would lie flatter.

Lilo was pretty proud of the dress. She wore it to her Junior Kindergarten graduation. It was funny there was a girl in another class that was wearing the same dress but not "prettier" - it's still a really cute dress without the stuff but I know my girl likes the stuff.

Just a few other pics of my cutie, such a big girl now.

How to fix a broken snap on kids pant

Don't you hate when the snap on your kids pants just won't stay closed. I had these new jeans for Lilo but the snap would pop open all the time - the snap was just defected. So they just got put to the side to never be worn again. I thought I should be able to fix or something so here's what I came up with.
First with pliers and some difficulty I removed the top snap. The bottom snap I couldn't get off without damaging the pants so I got a hammer and flattened the snap down.
Then I sewed a shank button just beside the snap.
These pants had a faux buttonhole so I just opened it up so that the button would fit in. The hole is pretty tight for the button but Lilo has no bum so she can actually just pull the pants on. But you could choose a smaller button or if your pants don't have button hole just put one on.
I think they look pretty good that you'd never know the snap was removed. I hate when new clothes have something small but so important wrong with them. What a waste to throw them out.

How to extend the life of hand me downs - part 3

I have another pair of jeans with a hole in the knee. Why do kids wear them out? Oh well I'm still liking the patches so I'm ok with patching them up. So here is patch up number 3.

I decided to do something a little different this time. One side is a truck and the other a Jeep - since girls like trucks too. The patches are in a printed jersey knit ironed on with fusible web and then I did a straight stitch around them. I didn't have to use a zig-zag like I did on this one or this one since the knit won't fray. From doing this one I realized that you should keep your patch in a simple shape as these were a pain to fit under the sewing machine to sew.

How to fix mitts so your toddler can't get them off

This fall my cute little toddler did not like to keeping her mitts or boots on when we were outside. We walk Lilo to school everyday and I would fight with her to keep them on. It would be below zero (Celsius) outside and Isla would have bare hands and feet and I would look like the horrible mother.
Luckily as it got colder and she was wearing snow pants she would at least keep her boots on but not the mitts.

Finally before Christmas I realized that I need to figure something out now since we were visiting family up north where they had lots of snow.
Here is the 2nd attempt at the mitts.I found an old pair of socks, they were very worn at the foot but the rest was in good shape. I cut the foot off.

Then with right sides together sewed the top of sock to the mitt.

And there you go. The elastic on the sock keeps them up and now I can easily slip a coat over. This also prevents her getting snow up her sleeve. I know there are longer mitts out there but the elastic in the sock makes it harder (not impossible) for her to remove them. Also you can put the mitts on over the coat if they do come off. They can easily stretch over top.

As I said this was attempt #2 - the first was with the bottom of a sleeve of a sweater but there wasn't any spandex in it so it stretched out of shape and was slipping off. I took it off and tried this sock instead, I'm thinking it should work better.

How to make a City Play Mat for toy cars

Here is another gift I made this Christmas. I ended up making 3 of them and only used scraps that I had on hand. Well almost, I did end up having to buy one spool of yellow thread since I ran out after I finished the 1st one.

First I drew out a plan on a piece of paper. Then transferred the road on to one of the base fabrics. I then went through all my scraps and found what would work. I cut out pieces for all 3 at the same time so I could sew all 3 in a production line and not have to keep switching thread.

I was thinking of using fusible web to place everything down but I didn't feel like wasting all that web and time. So I just pinned when needed.

I first sewed on the windows and doors to buildings. I used adhesive felt for the doors and letters since it was easier to cut out and stick in place, the only problem with this is my sewing machines didn't like the white adhesive felt. The needle got really sticky and gunky and the thread would break, so I can to do those pieces by hand - I am not a hand sewer so this was a pain. Thankfully the other colours weren't as bad, a few skipped stitches and had to wipe down the needle but otherwise I could use my machine and avoid hand sewing everything.

I used a small zig zag to sew the road down. Then started on the buildings. If fabric was a woven like some of the houses - I zig zagged around them. If they were just felt, like the school and fire hall, I just straight stitched around them.

The lines on the road were just yellow thread in a wide zig zag. To speed things up I didn't measure them out, just eyeballed them, using my presser foot as a gauge for length and distance between them. To avoid having to back stitch each line I just started each line with a couple straight stitches and ended the same way and since the stitch length is so short it keeps it from coming apart. I also didn't cut anything threads between lines while sewing, I waited and did it all at the end.

To finish off the mat, I just cut another piece of fabric the same side and sewed around leaving a space to flip and then pressed and top stitched all around, closing the hole.

Since I gave 2 away as gifts I printed out the photography I took of play mat set up with other toys we have and then folded with a ribbon. I like how it looks very professional.

It was a lot of work but I think they turned out fun, my girls are enjoying the one we kept.

The one set I gave with a set of cars, the other I gave to a boy who I knew had a ton of cars so I gave a set of animals for the zoo.

How to make a tent for over your table

This is actually something I made last year but it got locked in a closet and we just found the key again - thanks Isla (she's the one that lost it, not found it)

The tent was my husbands idea after Lilo kept getting frustrated that the blanket we were using over the table was always slipping off.
The table in our basement comes out from the wall and is higher and only has one leg so it works pretty well but I'm sure any table would do.

First I cut a piece of fabric and placed on top of the table and traced it out adding 1/2" for seam allowance. Since the table was taller than the width of the fabric I cut out 3 length of fabric and serged one edge and then I added windows.
The windows are clear plastic from a saved comforter bag (you know the ones with the zippers on them). I cut out a rectangle shape from the plastic and taped in to the fabric - then sewed around twice about 1/4" apart. Then I cut out the tent fabric from the inside of the window. I used pinking shears so it wouldn't fray.
Then I sewed the pieces to the top, overlapping the pieces about 1" (but you could do more) to make doors.
I found the tent was still slipping off the table since the fabric is pretty light. So I used some left over carpet grip stuff, the plasticy stuff that you put under your rugs so they don't slip. I traced the top of the table and tacked that to the tent. It works well now.

It's a fun distraction when it's cold or rainy outside.

I wanted to thank everyone for a great 2009 - I can't believe I had 97 posts and now have 29 followers. Hopefully I can keep it up in 2010.

How extend the life of hand me downs - Part 2

Here is the 2nd pair of hand me down jeans that I've patched up the knees. I love them even more than before. I picked stars for the appliques because the back pockets have star embroidery (I should have taken a picture, this was just a quick photo before we dropped Lilo off to school the other day)
Pair #1 almost don't fit anymore, but they were so cute. I like that I'm making her hand-me downs even better then they originally were (not that she's picky, yet :)

I wrote up a "How to" with the first pair if you want to check it out.

One more pair to go, not sure what to do yet. Maybe butterflies, or hearts?

How to extend the life of hand me downs

With 2 girls I'm lucky that Isla has many hand me downs. It's fun to open a box that has been packed up for a year and half or more. So many cute clothes, some that were barely worn but others like these jeans that were well loved. So instead of just buying new ones, since I'm cheap, I mean environmentally conscience and not wanting to waste :) - I patched them up.

I played around with circle patches but they looked boring so I made the circles into flowers. I used some iron on adhesive on the fabric to attach them to the pants.

Then using a zig-zag with a super short stitch length I went around the flower. It was a little tricky to get up the pant leg and around the flower.

I love how the turned out. I have another pair of jeans that could use a patch - I'm thinking butterflies patches next time.

I love how they look like I bought them this way and not just patching up old pants.