Saturday, 30 January 2010
The Perfect Dress
Friday, 29 January 2010
Updated Tutorial: Layered Jersey Skirt
Thursday, 28 January 2010
Button Clips
Monday, 25 January 2010
Felt Rose Barrettes Tutorial
Friday, 22 January 2010
Yo-yo Tutorial
While they take time, anyone can make them! They are FAST, FUN, and do not require a machine (great project to work on while waiting for the dentist). They are also a great way to use up scrap fabric you have lying around. Use cotton, silk, seersucker or whatever.
Here is a great tutorial , from Heather Bailey:http://heatherbailey.typepad.com/photos/how_to_make_a_yoyo/hbyoyotutorial1.html
Enjoy!
Tuesday, 19 January 2010
Tips: Aqua Velvet Dress
Sunday, 17 January 2010
Velvet Goodness
Full post with details found here: http://www.dana-made-it.com/2009/01/aqua-velvet.html
Friday, 15 January 2010
Tutorial: Layered Jersey Skirt
1. Start with 1 yard of two colors of jersey (total of 2 yards but you'll have extra left over).
2. Cut a rectangle. I just used one of her skirts and added several inches in both width and length for seam allowances. Mine ended up being 13 X 25 inches. **Make sure you make this a little too large in the body to allow stretch when you put it on, or the threads will break. It will end up fitting perfectly as you pull the waist in with the elastic waistband. Always error on too large as you can always take some away but you can't add material.
3. Cut three, 2 X 36 inch (approximately) strips of each color. You should have a total of 6 strips.
4. Ruffle all the strips of fabric. The easiest way to do this is to set your tension at it's highest (typically 9) and the width to the longest and just sew ( do NOT backstitch). It will naturally gather the fabric. Leave excess threads on both sides so you can have room to ease the gather to the length of the skirt (it will most likely be too tight and you'll need to loosen the ruffles).
5. Then, pin the ruffles onto the rectangle and sew them on, one row at a time. Leave about 4 inches of material at the top, where you don't add ruffles. You'll use this area for the waistband.
6. After all ruffles are sewn on, put the short sides of the rectangle together (right sides together) and sew. It will now be a tube and start to resemble a skirt. I think this is the hardest part of the skirt as it can be difficult to line up the ruffles on both sides. Mine ended up being slightly off but I just trimmed the ruffles afterwards to help them match up.
7. Now fold over extra material on top to meet the first ruffle and sew. Fold it over again and top-stitch with a zig-zag stitch. Leave a small section of the waistband (near the seam of the tube) open so you can insert the elastic.
8. Add elastic (I used 1/2 inch non-roll). I just measured my daughter's waist and added a few inches. Sew the last few inches of the top-stiching on waistband. And you're done!
More Blossom Tees
I made two more blossom tees, this time in purple for my aunt and sister-in-law. I am really loving the purple.
*modeled by my beauitful baby sister Jill.
Sunday, 10 January 2010
Blossom Tee Tutorial
Since I’m petite up top, the neckline went dangerously low and was showing off stuff it should not. I have this problem constantly but I finally came up with a good solution! Simply sew around the neckline with elastic thread. This cinches it right up and allows for some much needed modesty.
Next, I cut about 5 inches off the sleeves. This provided material for the flowers and gave the top 3/4 length sleeves. The great thing about working with jersey is that it won’t fray so you don’t need to worry about hems. I then cut lumpy squares, pinched them into flower shapes, nested them into another pinched square, pinned them in place and sewed them on one after another, like this.
When sewing them on, I just pointed the flowers on their side and sewing the tips as shown below. They will naturally fall down and ‘blossom’ from the weight of the material.
THIS TUTORIAL helped me but I did a much sloppier faster technique that involved no hand-sewing (Who has the patience or time? Not I. Scarlett is my sleeping time bomb).
Thursday, 7 January 2010
Baby Shoes
Tuesday, 5 January 2010
Ruffle A-Line
(cotton?)