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Monday, December 4, 2017

Love Notions Handmade Holidays Tour: FREE Pattern

Love Notions Handmade Holiday Tour

Welcome to my stop on the Love Notions Handmade Holiday Tour! Today, I have a freebie pattern perfect for adding a touch of handmade to a gift card or a cash gift. This is perfect for those hard to shop for people in your life and it's so simple to make! And it leaves your recipent with a cute little ornament they can hang on their tree! This project would also make an fun craft for a child learning to hand sew!

 Let's make a felt gift card holder!

Supplies needed:
Pattern, printed from here.
scraps of felt
6" long piece of ribbon
addition ribbon scraps for decorating (optional)
embroidery floss
embroidery needle
straight pins
felt glue (optional)



The How To:

First, you need to download the free pattern from here. Print it out at actual size. It's designed for 8.5x11" paper. Cut your pattern out and transfer it to your felt. Cut 2 each of the main mitten and cuff piece.



Now, pin your cuff to the main mitten overlapping by approx 1/4". Make sure you have two opposites! Stitch the cuff in place using a running stitch.



If you want to decorate your mitten gift card holder, now is the time!
You can either glue or stitch your ribbon in place. Gluing pom poms on top would be a fun idea also!



After you have your mitten decorated, it's time to sew them together! Pin mittens with wrong sides together. Stitch mittens together using a blanket stitch.

After taking this picture, I decided to change how I did the hanger. Please ignore it in the photo below! We will add it AFTER we do the blanket stitch.


Take your 6" piece of ribbon and fold in half. Slip the raw edges down into the top of the mitten on the side. Stitch in place with a running stitch. You could glue the hanger in place if you prefer.
Then add your gift card!!



That's it! You have a cute little gift card holder!


Check out the other stops on Love Notions Handmade Holiday Tour!! So many great ideas! You don't want to miss out!



Monday: Handmade Boy The Wholesome Mama Four seasons and a Roadtrip Sew Shelly Sew
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Friday, October 27, 2017

The Dress Up Hoodie

The Dress Up Hoodie

Mouse House Creations just released their new Dress Up Hoodie and Thomas was so excited when we were asked to help out with the pattern. When he saw all the choices, he immediately ordered THREE hoodies!! So far, I only have one finished for him. But he LOVES it!!


Seriously, how cool is that!!!???


The Dress Up Hoodie is a pattern designed to give you ultimate freedom in creating unique FUN hoodies for your kid. There are a crazy number of options!! Cat, bunny, shark, dino, mouse, unicorn, horse, bat, butterfly and bird. And, if you just need a great basic, you can make a simple classic hoodie.


We went with the shark for the first one. And, took some creative liberties with it. You can totally put the fin on the back to make it more in line with how a shark is, the pattern features an optional seam in the back just for this! I put it on the hood so that Thomas could wear this to school without causing too much of a distraction. The hood goes down nicely, even with the fin on there.


There are eyes to applique onto the hood, if you like. I found some cool eyes online and used my silhouette and some heat transfer vinyl to create the eyes for Thomas's hoodie.


For fabric, I upcycled a couple of men's tee shirts I found on clearance for $3 each. The men's clearance section is my favorite place to buy fabric locally for boy's clothes.


This guy is sensitive and doesn't like stuff around the edge of his hood, so the teeth along the lining is the perfect solution!! You get the cool teeth, and none of the feel of the eyes in your way.


This hoodie is going to be getting a ton of use this fall and winter! Thomas has requested a bat and a bird for his other two versions.


Grab up the Dress Up Hoodie today!!

 It's on sale for $8.50 through Halloween. After that, it goes to the regular price of $10.50. You still have time to make some super cute Halloween costumes from it even!! Hooray for procrastinating paying off!!! Need some ideas? The testers for this pattern knocked it out of the park!! Holy cow!! You have to hop over to Mouse House Creations and see what they created!!!









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Thursday, July 6, 2017

Skirting the Issue

I'm thrilled to be a part of Skirting the Issue this year. Skirting the Issue is such a wonderful cause. Simple Simon & Co and Project Run & Play are the amazing blogs behind this brilliantness. For all the information on Skirting the Issue, click over here.




I'm going to show you have to take the skirt portion of your favorite dress pattern and turn it into a separate skirt. This is such a quick and easy modifaction that you can do to pretty much any dress pattern. I'm going to be using the girl's Bluezette from Love Notions. I love this high low hem and used the ladies' version it as a skirt in the past for my teenager's homecoming dress last fall.



First, you need to measure you child to determine how long you want the finished skirt. Since most dresses have the skirt portion starting at the natural waist and most kids like to wear their bottoms at high hip, we will have to adjust the length of the skirt. For my friend's daughter, I want the front hem to be approximately 13" from the waist. We are adding a 2" tall waistband, so the skirt portion can be 12" long. Don't forget to add the hem! The amount will vary per pattern. If you pattern has a 1" hem allowance, the skirt would be 12" long in this case.



Because of the shape of my skirt pieces, I simply removed the excess length from the top of the pattern piece. Some patterns have a shorten/lengthen line you can use to adjust the length. 

After you determined how tall your skirt pieces need to be, cut your skirt out and assemble per the pattern instructions.

Now, let's make that waistband! We will be making a yoga style waistband. You will need some knit fabric that has great stretch and recovery. I prefer cotton lycra for this.

Measure your child's waist/high hip, where they will wear the skirt at. Subtract 3" from that measurement. That is how wide you need to cut your waistband. I want a 2" tall band, so double that and add 1/4" seam allowance and I'm cutting my waistband 4.5" tall. My friend's daughter has a 21" waist. So, my waistband is 18" wide. Because my fabric has great stretch and recover, I didn't add in the 1/2" for seam allowance. (1/4" for each side) If you don't want to do all this math, you can also use the knit waistband measurement from a pattern that you have that fits your child.


After you cut your waistband, sew the short ends with the right sides together.


 Then fold tube wrong sides together with the raw edges lined up.



I'm using the Bluezette pattern, which is written for a woven skirt. This style of skirt requires that I gather the upper edge of the skirt before attaching the waistband. If the dress pattern you used for your skirt piece requires you to gather the skirt before attaching to the bodice, you will have to gather your skirt before attaching to your waistband.



With the skirt inside out, slip the waistband into the skirt matching up the quarter points of the waistband and the skirt top. Pin into place with raw edges aligned.



Stretching the waistband as you go, attach the waistband to the skirt. Be careful NOT to stretch the skirt, just stretch the waistband.



And there you have it. A skirt from your favorite dress!


Note that the girls' Bluezette pattern does not have a seam down the back piece. I needed to piece the back piece to work with the scraps I was using for the project.


Seriously, how sweet is she?!?! 


She hammed it up for my camera! I may have to steal her more often. 


Now you can take all your favorite dresses and create all the skirts!! This same technique will work for women's dresses also. ;) So you can make skirts for all ages. Ladies, teens and girls. 
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Monday, June 26, 2017

Sew Americana 2017

Sew Americana 2017

Wild & Wanderful is back at it again this year for Sew Americana. This is such a fun tour to follow along with! So much great inspiration for Fourth of July outfits for the entire family. Last year, I made an Americana inspired quilt for my stop on the tour. This year, I made a red, white and blue outfit for Thomas he can wear all year round. Well, not the shorts. You know what I mean.


So, this guy is seven and we are getting more and more into the "big kid" style of dress. He doesn't really go for characters or cartoons on his clothing. Which is cool. Solids and classic patterns like this red and white gingham by Riley Blake on sale at Phat Quarters are usually cheaper and easier to find.


I used Peek-a-Boo's Classic Oxford (a staple here) for a camp style shirt. I adore that touch of blue Kona cotton for the lining of the collar stand. If a boy's shirt could symbolize summer, this one would be it. 



Thomas's tank is a pattern hack that I'm currently working on. Look for it next week on the Love Notions blog! He loves these tanks and has four of them in his closet already. This light denim cotton lycra one was perfect for his Fourth of July look.


His jean shorts were an unexpected element of this look. I'm typically not a fan of denim shorts. But, I saw a pair of his dad's old jeans in my upcycle tote and the wash was just too perfect to ignore. We live in the mid-west, so it's very likely going to be 90 degrees on the Fourth, so shorts were my only option.


I used the existing hem to keep the worn look and did some random "scratches" (What Thomas calls it.) stitching in a couple of places for a distressed look. The side seam was also kept in tack. To do this, I taped the front and back pattern pieces together along the side seam, overlapping the seam allowance. Crazy quick sew! And he loves these! And honestly, I do too!






And this is Thomas's look for the Fourth. I know we will get lots of use out of these pieces both together and as separates.

Thanks for stopping by!!



Our Amazing "Sew Americana" Tour Lineup:


We would like to give a special thanks to our generous sponsors!


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Friday, June 2, 2017

The Fighter Tee Tour Day Five

Day Five The Fighter Tee Tour

Today is the final day of The Fighter Tee tour. I hope you have enjoyed seeing what everybody has created for this great cause. My race is August 5th and that is my deadline for raising $1000 for St. Jude Children's Hospital. Because of all of you, I am nearly there!! Thank you!!

The Crafting Fiend created a shirt her daughter loves using some great dino fabric her dinosaur lover picked out.


Phat Quarters sewed up a shirt for both her son and daughter! They both look awesome!


Pattern Revolution has joined in on the fun also! Hop over to see some great shirts!


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Thursday, June 1, 2017

The Fighter Tee Tour Day 4

Day 4 of The Fighter Tee Tour

Today's Fighter Tee tour stops features three more amazing bloggers. We have F&B Creations. She made her little gymnastic such a neat basic shirt any kid would love.



Jess from Gracious Threads paired her cool Fighter Tee with her new pattern, the Cache Cargos. Love these two patterns together! I can't wait to make Thomas a pair! I have gray twill waiting!


And Eleri from Sew and Tell Project made her basketball star a Fighter Tee that stands out on the court!



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Wednesday, May 31, 2017

InBlue Art Gallery Fabric Tour

It's two posts in one day!

Not only is today day 3 of The Fighter Tee tour, but it's also my stop on the Art Gallery Fabrics InBlue tour. Yippee!!


It's so fun to sew for a boy. But at times, it can be a bit challenging. Especially as they get older. I try very hard to only sew things that Thomas wears in real life.

Thomas prefers solid colors and the denim fabrics in the InBlue line were perfect for him.


This guy loves vests. He recently outgrew his Schoolboy Vest, so it was definitely time for a new one. I love how it looks in the solid smooth denim Indigo Shadow. We went with a denim on denim look and paired it with some Castaway Cargos in Afternoon Sail. A Classic Polo in Art Gallery's cotton spandex knit in Graphite was the perfect shirt for this look.

I had to sneak some pattern in there so I lined his vest with Delftegels. I also gave him a fun hidden pocket!


He looks so nice in his new look!




He was still comfortable enough to play hard in this new outfit. It wasn't long before he looked like this.


Luckily, Art Gallery Fabric washes up beautifully! So it's no big deal to toss these in the washer and make them good as new again!

I always forget how wide the Art Gallery smooth denim is! So I had enough to make a denim shirt Thomas has been requesting also! Not bad at all to get a pair of shorts and a denim shirt in size 8 from a single yard of fabric!!


We paired his new Classic Oxford with another pair of Castaway Cargoes. This time in Scarlet Brick. 


The fabrics from Art Gallery's InBlue collection were provide to me in exchange for this post. The Scarlet Brick denim was purchased by me and in my stash.

We can't forget that today is day 3 of The Fighter Tee tour!

Thank you so much Paisley Roots, Handcrafted by RED, Ruby Rue Creations and  Free Notion for joining me today!! Please hop over to their blogs and show them some love. They created some awesome Fighter Tees and I'm so happy they joined me in this!

We have several girl versions of The Fighter Tee today! First a sweet stripe from  Free Notion.


Casey's sweet daughter got a fun new shirt that really supports the cause! Her little guy also got a new shirt! You can find them both on Ruby Rue Creations.


Paisley Roots made a pretty little tee for her daughter also! I absolutely love the floral!



Handcrafted by RED made her little guy a fun tee! His smile is so contagious!




Thank you to everybody who has helped me do this.



Monday: The Wholesome Mama, My Creative Room, Wild & Wanderful
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