The day I have always dreaded

My machine has broken down and I have been forced to take it to get fixed.  Yes I have taken it for a serivce when it suits me, but my trusty little Janome has never broken down before.  Technically it has not actually broken down, it just started sewing on its own or when I was sewing going at triple speed.  Neither of which are overly safe behaviours and required lots and lots of unpicking, until I finally gave in and deemed it unusable.

This journal cover was the last thing I sewed with it before declaring defeat.  So please don't look to closely, as the stitching is a bit interesting in places.

I got the idea from Rachel Hauser's blog stitched in color and used Jennifer Paganelli's covered journal tutorial.  This was a birthday gift for a lovely lady I have meet here in Basel.  I wanted to get her something special but was really strugging with ideas. Hopefully the journal will be well used and the cover well loved.

The grey is Kona cotton in coal and the prints are from a charm pack of  Malka Dubrawsky's first line of fabric, a stitch in color.

I really enjoyed making this journal cover (despite crazy machine behaviours!) and even bought myself a diary that I hope to make a cover for when my machine is back in working order........

New Dress for Philippa

I finally finished Philippa's dress that I cut out in Elsie Marley's Spring Kids Clothes Week Challenge.  Even better it was a lovely warm sunny day perfect for a photo shoot with the littlest member of our family. 

"Look at Me"

This is another Seashore Sundress by Oliver + S.  I love this pattern, it is a super cute dress so easy to sew and lends itself so nicely to using multiple fabrics.  This time I have used Ta Dot in Berry, Ann Kelle's Hearts in Bright and Dot to Dot in Navy from the Children at Play range.  I sewed size 18-24M for Philippa which is actually a little long right now, but it keeps it modest especially with  a bulky nappy underneath. It was very satisfying to cut out a pattern and sew up a lovely dress (no measuring, fiddling, altering).  Philippa is 2 in a couple of weeks, so this is her Birthday Dress and she is very happy with it!

I added a couple of heart appliques as she loves hearts and choose the fabric for the front panel.  So as you can see there is one on the back.  I used dot to dot in Aqua from Children at Play range of fabric.

I also appliqued a heart on the facing as a faux label, using dot to dot in Berry.  To keep it colourful I used Sandi Henderson's Henna Garden in Yellow for the facing.

She enjoyed having photos taken after watching her sisters getting fussed over in the past.  It was very cute!

Xanthe's new dress used to be Daddy's shirt

So here it is, my take on the man's business shirt refashioned into a little girl's dress.  I have a couple of Daddy's old business shirts in my stash so I let Xanthe choose her favourite.   She chose a lovely grey and red stripe shirt.  I looked through my stash to find a fabric that complemented to add a bit more colour.  I settled on a honeycomb spot by Riley Blake from the Rainy Days and Mondays line.  I love the finished dress especially the extra pop of red, Xanthe loves the pockets (perfect for putting little treasures in).  Unfortunately my measuring was a bit off and the bodice is a little long (for right now, lucky kids grow!).  So I think this will be a better fit next summer which is probably not a bad thing.  Even though she loves the idea of wearing Daddy's shirt and I added the extra red trims and pockets, she still insists it is not pink enough for her!

I remixed Sandi Henderson's Gracie Jumper pattern.  The neckline is pretty much the same although I slip stitched the top seam closed rather than using 1" bias as written in the pattern.  Also I kept the shirts original button panel, so had to alter how the lining was sewn in.  The pockets are of my own design.  The ruffle at the bottom was pieced together from the extra shirt length and the sleeves.  I lined it in Kona Solid in Ash from my stash.  I replaced the cream colored shirt buttons with some black buttons from an old cardigan of mine.  They are very sweet and oval, heart and triangular in shape.  

Daddy has today kindly donated an all pink shirt to the sewing pile, so perhaps I will give this dress another go for Xanthe with a better fit for this summer.............

I just love this last shot.  I don't think Xanthe did, she was a bit over the photo shoot by this stage.

KCWC days 4 to 7

Unfortunately I don't have much to show for the last 4 days!  I guess you could say we took Jessica's advice (from mesewcrazy) to "remember life is going on outside our windows" and make it count. Very spur of the moment we decided with a nice and potentially long weekend looming to see if we could get a cabin within 3 hrs drive of home for 4 nights.  We got 2 nights in Interlaken, awesome!  This required lots of packing and research of Interlaken on my part, so sewing got put on hold.  I did manage to get dresses for Xanthe and Philippa cut out on days 4 and 7. 

Over the course of the week I completed more than 7 hrs of planning, cutting and sewing but I did not manage 7 consecutive days.  Elsie Marley's KCWC sew along has definitely been a good source of motivation since I signed up, in fact I think I got more sewing done in anticipation than the actual week.  I will definitely be signing up for Autumn.

These are the dresses you should see in the near future. Firstly for or Xanthe, we have Daddy's old shirt that will hopefully become a dress that resembles the blue dress below.  I have used Sandi Henderson's Gracie pattern as the base, particularly for the neckline. Sooo much procrastination went into this, I have 5 more shirts I can use, but I like to do things right first go.  Finally I choose a style based on the neckline.  I have kept the little super soft denim dress to try making an up sized version, it is 3 month size, which is unfortunate as I really like the dress, but find dresses very impractical on girls before they can walk.  So it has only had a few wearings.

Secondly for Pippi I have cut up 4 different fabrics, Ann Kelle remix hearts in bright, Ta Dots in Berry, Sandi Henderson's Henna Garden in Yellow, and Children at Play dot to dot in Navy, to make my third Seashore Sun Dress from Oliver + S.

 So no more finishes but hopefully some good beginnings.  Stop by tomorrow to catch up on our weekend in Interlaken.

KCWC day 1 to 3 progress.

So it took day 1 and 2 but my first item is finished!  Alannah has Pajama day at school on Friday so a new pair of Pj's were in order.  I used an old pair of Pajama's for the rough pattern.  It would have been easier with an actual pattern but I was quite surprised at how well I managed without.  There was lots of procrastination before cutting, I was sooo nervous that I was going to completely muck it up!!  So I made them quite big, then sized them down a bit and finally decided to leave them a little too big, as room to grow is always a good thing.  The trim is made from a scrap I received in a recent scrap pack (from Hawthorne Threads, which I see have sold out) and is Michael Miller's Ta Dot in fuschia . I couldn't believe how well it matched.  If I had more I would have folded the cuff  in half stitched it to the bottom of the pants and then top stitched the seam.  I didn't, so I sewed on the contrast fabric and hemmed it which looks a bit odd to me, but I am sure no one else will notice.  The main pant fabric is Ann Kelle's from her Desert Party range, the Sorbet print on a white background.  The Tee shirt is a cheapie from H&M which I appliqued the simple ice block shape on to make the set. 

On Wednesday, or Day 3 as it is known this week, I started my mans business shirt to a dress project.  I first got the idea from Dana's blog.   Just to be difficult (to myself) I decided I didn't want to follow the tutorial, but instead it has become more of an inspiration.  Much time wasting went into this, I seem to get a lot more completed when I have a definite pattern, but I have now a clear idea/sketch of what I want to sew and a shirt in bits.  Today (day 4) I will start sewing it and hopefully I will have another item of clothing complete by the end of the week.

Fabric Headband Tutorial

My little girls are into all things girly, twirly skirts and dresses, pink, flowers, accessorising with bracelets, necklaces and headbands.....  Anyone that knows me would wonder where these girls come from.  It has taken awhile but I have embraced their girlyness in all its splendor.  In truth it is actually quite fun, pink and a little bit of their fun has even crept into my wardrobe.  So these days when I make them some clothing, I use the scraps to make a matching headband.  I thought I would share how I make these super easy headbands.

What You Need:

Two largish fabric scraps, 3/4" elastic scrap, thread (doesn't need to match).

I made this headband for my 3 year old, these are the strips I cut:

Elastic : 3/4" x 4 1/2"
Elastic casing: 2.5" x 8 1/2"

Headband main: 5 1/2 " x 15"

I have made these for my 6 year old and I just adjust the Headband main by adding an inch.  For my one year old I remove an inch. 

Sewing the Headband:

1. Cut the fabric strips and elastic

2. Fold the strips longways with right sides together and sew along the long raw edge to make fabric tubes.  Turn right sides out.

Tip: for the elastic casing to make it easier to turn out I catch a piece of ribbon inside the the tube in the first few stitches, so you just pull the ribbon and the tube turns right sides out (no need for chopsticks) as in the photos below:

3. Cut the ribbon off as close to the seam as you can without cutting your fabric.  Then press the tubes flat with the seams in the centre as shown.

4. Thread the elastic through the elastic casing (small tube).  Sew each end together with a straight stitch to hold the elastic in place.
Tip: I find it handy to thread with a safety pin but also use one to hold the end together.

5. Place the headband tube and elastic tube together as pictured.  Right sides together with raw edges matching.  Then wrap the headband around the elastic tube, with raw edges matching.

6. Sew together with 1/4" seam or slightly longer to make sure you have concealed your elastic basting when you turn it right sides out.  Finish the seam.  Repeat steps 4 and 5 for the other end.

7. Turn right sides out and you have finished your headband!

Below was the outfit we happened to be wearing today!  It took a bribe of turning TV on to get her to take the red headband off so we could take photos of  the new pink one!  Thus the very blank looks.....

Again if you do make any of these headbands I would love to see them.  So please post pictures on my facebook page.  This tutorial is just intended to give you the basic guidelines.  Go crazy, use some scrappy piecing, add a pretty fabric flower, make a wider band (like is very popular here in Europe) or narrower like Alannah is wearing below, possibilities are endless.

Happy Sewing!!

Twirly Whirly Reversible Tiered Skirt Tutorial

This spring/summer I plan to buy the kids a few basics (tee's, leggings, sweaters...) and sew skirts, dresses and hats to go with them. It's a plan not an oath, so I will see how we go!  Since it is well and truly spring, time to get sewing.  Alannah has a new party dress, so it was Xanthe's turn for a new piece of clothing.  As we seem to have lots of Tee shirts from Alannah in Xanthe's size I decided to sew her a skirt..........even though I knew she would prefer a dress!

A couple of summers ago I sewed Alannah a simple 3 tiered skirt with a extra frill hem.  She loves it and still wears it but I felt it could be fuller, and that perhaps I should have lined it.  After more thought, instead of lining it I thought it might be more useful and fun to make it reversible, which would give it the volume and extra girly twirlyness plus 2 skirts in one.  So this is Xanthe's new Twirly Whirly Reversible Tierd Skirt:

Twirly Whirly Reversible Tiered Skirt Tutorial

This is a very straight forward skirt to make, but all those long gathered seams are time consuming!  Essentially you will be making two identical (in pattern) skirts and sewing them together so I highly recommend making them both at the same time.  If it gets too confusing, finish one and then repeat the instructions for the second.

I chose to make one side in multi fabric and the reverse side in one fabric but with ribbon trim on the seams.  There are so many ways you can vary this skirt by mixing up the fabrics and trims.  I would like to make a variation with cotton lace as one hemband, perhaps a little longer than the other to give a petticoat feel one way and a country feel the other.

You will need

• Approx 1 yard of fabric for each skirt (that is what I used for this skirt, approx 4T size, you will need more or less if you make a larger or smaller size!)
• Coordinating thread
• 1" wide elastic (length = waist measurement of your child less 1 ")
• Optional ribbon or trims

Cutting Your Strips

The beauty of this skirt is that nothing needs to be exact. These are roughly the formulas I used to cut my strips for the skirt: 

• For the width of the strips, you want to make sure each band is progressively larger than the previous to have plenty of gather each tier.  I have kept the waistband relatively narrow so there is not too much bulk from the double layer of fabric.
• For the length, the skirt is essentially 3 even bands with an extra frill.  So determine the finished length you require and divide by 3.  I have used a 1/4" seam allowance to sew this skirt so add 1/2" to each of the first three bands for the seam allowance.  The hemband is 3" including seam allowance.
  

My daughters waist measurement was 20" and a skirt length of 13" was required.  So I cut the waistband at 27" x 4 1/2".  For the first tier I cut two strips of 27" x 4 1/2".  For the second tier I cut 2 strips at 42" x 4 1/2".  For the hemband I cut 3 strips at 42" x 3". 

Note: She is a small almost 4 year old so I cut this large for her to grow into, I would estimate that my measurements equate to around a 4T (with a smaller than average waist).

I also wanted to use ribbon for trimming one side of the skirt.  I needed the length of my hemband +  length of 1st tier in  ribbon (27" x 3 = 81").

Don't forget to cut out strips for both skirts.

Sewing The Skirt

Note: a 1/4" seam allowance is used for all seams.

1. With fabric right sides together sew the short ends of the waistband together.  With right sides together match the short sides of the remaining 3 layers sewing each tier into a band.  Finish the short edge seams as desired, I used a zig zag stitch.  Press the seams on the tiers to one side.

For the hem band it is not necessary to finish the seams (yes I know I did but I wasn't thinking!).  Instead fold in half around the long edge with right sides out and press. 

2. You will now have 8 bands (4 if you are sewing one skirt at a time).  Using a long basting stitch baste the the top of the first tier and second tier and the folded raw edge of the hem band, just inside the 1/4" you will use to finish the seam (the waistband gathers with the elastic).  Do not reverse your stitching at the start and finish or cross over your stitching, but run a couple of inches parallel at the start finish point as in the picture.

Tip: For basting I adjust my machine to maximum stitch length and change the thread to a contrasting colour to make it easier to unpick once the seam is sewn (black in this case).

3. Gather the first tier to fit the bottom of the waistband piece.  This is done by gently pulling the bobbin thread and easing the gather evenly around the band.   

Note: Gathering is definitely fiddly at first.  There are other methods you can try this is just the one I use.

4. With right sides together pin and sew together, the bottom of the waistband with the top of the first tier.
Note: Don't forget to change the thread back to your sewing colour and stitch length back to normal.

5. Unpick the basting stitches and neaten up the stray threads.  Make sure to check the right side.

6. Finish off the raw edges.  Iron the seam towards the waistband and top stitch 1/8" from the seam.

 

Tip: The top stitch is to keep the seams neat, but it can be a feature, use a contrasting thread or fancy stitch to add interest.  Sew ric rac or ribbon around the seam to add a bolder statement.  If you won't catch the seam with the trim then top stitch the seam first to keep the seams tidy (on the inside).  Also I use a slightly longer stitch for top stitching, I think it gives a neater finish.

7. Repeat steps 3 to 6 to attach the second tier to the first tier and the hem ruffle to the second tier.

Tip: To attach the second layer to the third, a good place to start is to match up the seams and gather in two halves rather than the whole skirt at once.

8. You should now have two almost finished skirts.  With one skirt inside the other, right sides together and the waistband raw edges matching sew together with a 1/4" seam.

9. Turn right sides out (wrong sides together) and roll the top edge with your fingers then press.

10. Top stitch 1/8" from the edge.
Tip: You can you a different coloured thread in your bobbin to your machine thread so each side is top stitched in matching threads.  I used a cream thread for the top stitching on my multi fabric side and a pink thread in my bobbin for my all orange side.

11. Sew another row of stitching 1 1/4" from the edge to form a casing for the elastic.  Leave 2 inch gap to feed the elastic.  To get the right fit I measure my child's waist remove one inch from the measurement and sew the elastic ends together (many times) with a zig zag stitch using a 1/2" overlap.

12. Sew closed the gap you left for feeding the elastic and you have one twirly whirly reversible tiered skirt.

If you use this tutorial or are even just inspired by this tutorial to make a skirt I would love to see it.  Please post photos or links on my facebook page or send me an email.

Margaret x