Sore Muscles

Yesterday morning I got up early to go to a favorite FQS qbout 20 minutes away. They were having a mega sale and I needed some specific things, like the fabric for the bed cover thingy from yesterday. I also needed some binding fabric for the project pictured above! The Eclipse line is fantastically modern, especially left un-pieced- but I was in a cutting mood :).

I walked around that store holding several bolts of fabric until my arms were sore (and today, I can hardly lift a milk jug), but when I got home, I realized I forgot to get fabric for the binding. And that I already had a yard of some fabric that I bought.

Darn these sore arms.

Binding will have to wait a little longer!

Double-Sided Modern Bed Coverlet

My husband works in the hospitality industry, and he has grown fond of the little blankets at the end of hotel beds. He asked me to make one for our white bedspread for a more hotel-chic look. Want one too?

You need:
1 yard EACH of two coordinating fabrics
18" x 72" of batting (batting by the yard is 72 inches wide already, so you only need 1/2 yard.)
Use 1/2" seam allowance


Cut your yardages so they are 19" x cut length (36"). Take one of those 36" lengths and cut it in half, so it is 19" x 18". Sew one of these to each end of the remaining long piece. Why all the cutting and piecing? It is so you don't have a big seam down the middle of your little blanket. And because I said so :). [if you want, just cut the yard into two 18" pieces, then sew them together and trim it to measure the same length as your batting. Your blanket will be one inch shorter in length and about two inches longer in width, with one off-centered seam. And who cares? This would help in the fact that all my flowers are sideways...]

Then throw it in a pile on your husband's desk, like I did.


After doing that cutting and piecing with both fabrics, you have two pieces 70" x 19".


Sandwich your fabric with right sides together, and your batting piece on the top. Pin and sew together, leaving one end partially open to turn.


See? Your opening! Pull the corners out through the opening...


And trim them down so you don't have bulky corners.


Turn it all inside out and give it a good ironing. Slipstich the opening closed.

I didn't want the layers to be all loosey-goosey and slip all over, so I randomly tacked the fabric pieces together using a small zig-zag stitch all over the blanket.


Now you have two simple and modern options for your little coverlet.


And the room is really coming together! {ignore the short window panels- the ceilings are taller here!!}

Tuck-ered Out

I am working on some pillows for my bedroom, and thought I'd stray from normal and boring and work some pin tucks into my pillow. What is a pin tuck, you say? It is when you sew reeeeally close to a fold, no more than 1/8" away. They are called pin tucks because they are sometimes only a pin's diameter wide. But I'm not that good :).

To start, mark your fabric using evenly spaced lines, either vertically or diagonally. I used the pattern on my fabric and used that as a measurement reference. I started with a 22" square fabric piece. I wanted a good square piece, so I decided on 20 tucks. So, I made 20 lines on my piece of fabric. Remember, every tuck uses up 1/4" of fabric if you do 1/8" tucks, so make sure you have enough fabric from the beginning for whatever project you are working on.


Fold along your line, and sew no more than 1/8" away from the folded edge.


To make this cool square or diamond shape, just make your lines perpendicular to your tucks and start sewing those the same way. Do me a favor and iron your first tucks down in the same direction before this step, and yours will look a whole lot better :) Someday, the perfectionist in me will emerge. That day was not today.


And 40 seams later, you have a cool custom pin tucked piece of fabric.

I plan on using only a small portion of this for my pillow... but I might get lazy and just use the whole piece!

And Look! You can do anything with pin tuck fabric... Jill made her baby a shirt with her piece.

Ah, spray paint.

I found a fancy wood-framed mirror at D.I. for a few bucks, but the frame was a rough-looking sliver. Enter Spray Paint!

The mirror has a vintage quality to it, with scratches in it and all that goodness. That being said, should I keep the mirror or cover it with chalk board paint or replace it with fabric covered metal so it is magnetic? What do you say?

Elastic Waisted Dress

I wanted to make one of these for me, but can't seem to find cute fabric that is cheap enough :) So I dug through my daughter's drawer and my fabric pile.

And these went together like rama lama lama ke ding a de dinga a dong.

Name that musical.

Anyway, this dress was way easier than I anticipated.

You need:

T-shirt

Wide elastic (I used 2" here. Hint: look in your notions section of your fabric store!)

Coordinating fabric

I cut the elastic so it was the same size around as the t-shirt. I wanted the shirt to gather up on the elastic a bit when it was sewn, so I didn't bother adding seam allowance. To figure out the length, I simply used an existing dress as a guide. I cut 15" x width of fabric for my 3 1/2 year old.

Cut your shirt! I just picked a spot and started cutting. Rocket Science, I know. Toss the bottom portion in your scrap knit bin.

Make a circle with your elastic.

Sew your skirt portion right sides together, selvedge to selvedge.

Hem! I did a 1/2" double hem, meaning I ironed 1/2 down, then folded over another 1/2" and sewed it down.

Gather the top of your skirt to be slightly bigger than your elastic, and pin together, overlapping the elastic over the fabric by about 1/2". I lined up the center back seams. Pin the center back, center front, then the sides, and then add more if you want, pulling the elastic to meet your fabric. This picture has the pins on the inside... but I tell ya, I had the most UNstraight sewing line, I unpicked everything and top-stitched so it would be presentable :).

Pin your T-shirt to your elastic the same way as your skirt. Top-stitch, stretching your elastic to fit as you go.

And that's it. You are done!

You'll get shouts of praise for a cute and comfortable dress.

And then you'll really want to find that cheap fabric to make yourself one.

Linking to these parties:

Grocery Bag Holder

Am I the last person on earth to make one of these?

I followed Ashley's tutorial (changed the ribbon and added words) and ended up with two identical bag holders. Mine won't live on the outside of my pantry, I am going to get a little hook for the inside of the door instead :)

The twin holder is going to my mom's house, where for years we would pull our grocery sacks out of an old tissue box. Yeah.

Swim-suit Cover-up

Thanks to Dana's amazing skills at the sewing machine, I now have a new swim-suit cover up. She made hers with a towel, but I didn't want to go buy anything new, so I used a sheet instead. Plus, it is lighter! Huzzah! I wore it today to a fun water park and felt totally comfortable. I still have to adjust the straps- they feel a little long to me and I safety-pinned them for these pics- but it was great to throw on over my 8-year-old swim suit that just isn't that awesome anymore :)

Thanks Dana! I can't wait to wear this to the beach on our summer vacation.

Super Hero Cape

My munchkin has been in a Super Hero kick lately. She goes around pretending to "save the day" and I thought I'd make her a cape. When looking online for tutorials, all I found were rectangles with ties- not a bad idea but not the shape I had in mind. So, I just made my own. And I thought I'd share.

This cape has the same concept as my flounce cardigan I did a while back. To get the nice "drape", the fabric has to be cut on the bias!

To my friends who might think I am referring to preferences or prejudice:

What's a Bias? When referring to fabric, the bias is the diagonal direction of the fabric, or a 45 degree angle between the edges. If you have a piece of fabric and start pulling on opposite ends, when the fabric stretches the most, you have found the bias. When you hear people mention bias tape they are referring to pieces of fabric cut along that 45° angle.

Why the Bias? Simply put, because it stretches, it hangs nice (or has a nice drape) and can handle curves really well. The next time you put on a nice skirt that follows your hips really well, pull on it a little and you will find it was cut on the bias.

Back to the cape.

You need:

Fabrics

Bias Tape

Velcro

Ribbon (optional)

Wonder-under (optional)

Sewing supplies

First step: The math.

You need a length measurement from shoulder to wherever you want it to end, and a distance around the back of the neck. Ignore the creepy stick figure.

My daughter's neckline was about 8", loosely measured. This is ONE QUARTER of the circumference, so make sure you multiply the measurement by 4 before plugging it into the 'ol C=2╥r equation. You are looking for the radius.

The radius is the little chunk you will be cutting out of the corner of your cape. Mine ended up being about 5".

So, measure and mark where to cut.

From that line, use your length measurement to mark the, uh, length. Move your tape measure or ruler and mark as you go!

You will end up with a pretty decent flounce! Cut it out and be amazed how math skills actually take part in your life.

This is a good time to add personalization! I added a crown and the munckin's first initial. I used wonder-under and then stitched it to the cape. Slightly off-center, might I add. AH, well, it's just for playing!

Take some bias tape and start sewing it to the edges. If you use ribbon or something cute like that, it will give you grief on the curves, but be my guest! I just used a fancy stitch to make it interesting. I would have loved to make my own bias tape but it requires using up a bit more fabric!

You can use the bias tape as your ties, but I wanted to have some ribbon on this project. So I just sewed it on the edges,

cut some short lengths of ribbon,

and folded the edges over and sewed them to the cape.

Then I busted out the velcro!!! I love velcro. Velcro makes kids happy because they can do it themselves!!!

(P.S. I ended up checking the length of the ribbon on my girl and had to shorten them. Double-check before you sew anything!) Sew your velcro with one piece on the front of the ribbon, and the other piece on the back. I wanted the itchy part to be on the back of the ribbon and I made it smaller than the soft part of the velcro.

But what is a girly cape without a bow? I just sewed a bow onto that smaller piece so it would stay a bow and be visible when the cape was on.

Then it was outside to take a daring a super jump off of the steps.

After a successful leap, I would call this cape a winner!

Let me just warn you, from experience... make sure you emphasize the P in caPe when you tell your idea to your child so your child doesn't break down in tears when they don't get a super hero caKe. I know, I'd cry too!

Linking to:

Sew Cute Tuesday

Someday Crafts