Halloween

 I have been so crazy busy lately. It was my babies 2nd birthday! 

And I've been doing a ton of sewing getting ready for Halloween. I showed you several of the things that I've done this year for Halloween. I showed you the Adult Belle Dress, Marida from Brave Dress and Princess Aurora from Sleeping Beauty. I also Made a Bob Ross Costume, and another Aurora Dress. Wow, it's been busy.   

I also Made this cute little craft that I found here.  It was super cheap and easy which is my kind of craft :).  It's just several 2x4's cut different sizes and made to look like different Spooky guys. I then added glitter because honestly isn't everything better with glitter?

I also made these trick or treat bags for the kids. It's basically just a pillowcase that I made with cute Halloween fabric. I then attached ribbon handles to the top for them to be able to carry them easier. I used Iron on letters to put there names on the bags so they wouldn't fight over who's bag is who's. I did reinforce it with stitching just because the iron on part didn't seem like it would stand the test of time like I wanted it to.

Anyway that's what I've been up to. Happy Halloween everybody!!

Belle dress

 

My cousin Kelsey is so cute & is in love with Belle from beauty & the Beast. When she called asking questions about where she should get some fabric for a belle costume & I happened to be needing a babysitter around the same time, I decided to offer a trade. I told her I'd help her with her dress if she would watch the girls. She agreed. She showed up at 11 with her fabric & we got started. She liked the look of this dress but wanted it to be more modest (thank goodness). 

 She had 10 yards of fabric and we had 1 day to try & get it done. I simply measured her from the waist down. We cut 2 large sheets of fabric & sewed them together. It was probably about 4 yards of fabric for the skirt. So we had a huge skirt. We then basted down the length of the seams and 2 times down the center of each section and pulled it until we got the desired length. Then once we got the desired gathers we wanted. We put in a permanent stitch along the basted stitch so it wouldn't go anywhere. Next we made the top. It was nothing fancy just a basic t shirt type top using a combination of patterns. Then we attached the top to the skirt & threw a zipper in the back. We just made a scarf type thing to go around her shoulders. It's really nothing more than a big circle I sewed together. I let her borrow the hoop slip from my wedding dress to get the fullness in the skirt. As an after thought I decided to add this big ruffle to the bottom because it wasn't hanging quite right. Anyway that's it. Not to bad for 1 full day. It did take until about 6 to finish it so a little longer than I thought & I think by the end we were both pretty tired. But it's pretty cute. Now I always have a princess handy for those upcoming birthday parties ;) perfect!

Princesses Merida & Aurora

I love this time of year. The kids get so excited about there costumes, it's the start of the holiday season and a nice time to stay home and cuddle up. 

I got the chance to make lots of fun Halloween costumes this year which believe it or not is not something I normally do. I'm usually a buy it from the store just like everyone else kinda girl. But my girls feel like it's extra special if it's homemade & I know that is not something they will always appreciate. 

I showed you Kambrias costume here. She wanted to be sleeping beauty AKA princess Aurora. We already had a dress up Aurora dress but it needed some serious TLC so I fixed it up & this is the result you can read more about that here. 

Deja wanted to be Merida from the movie Brave. For the most part I used this pattern.  

However she wanted long sleeves and the Meridas dress has gold accents along the top sleeves and bottom along with a gold belt. 

 So, I just added some gold sequined ribbon to the sleeves, top, and as the belt. For the bottom I just added gold fabric. 

 And of course she couldn't be Merida without the curly red hair & the bow and arrow.

Witches festival at Gardeners village

So this post has nothing to do with sewing. However I thought It would be fun to document some of the fun stuff we do since I'm not always so great at documenting that kind of stuff.

We have this awesome family tradition. Every year at Halloween time we meet up with my mom and all the cousins and go visit the witches at Gardner village. It's so fun & the kids love it.

My mom is so cute & every year she goes all out with the whole witch outfit. This year she got these sunglasses for it months in advance lol. She takes these things very seriously ;)

My girls each have there own witch hat and this year the wind was blowing so hard. In some ways I was glad because it kept the crowds away. But the wind took my sweet daughters hat & blew it right into the water. Then she started crying hysterically because she thought the ducks were going to eat it. Kids are so funny! One of the ladies that worked there was nice enough to help us fish it out of the water.
It's one of my favorite traditions. If you haven't gone yet you should go!

Resize a Denim shirt

Have you noticed the Denim shirt trend right now? Its HUGE. I mean look at all these celebs in denim shirts

I know right?? Big!!! I've been wanting one for a while and by this point you probably realize that I am not a big fan of spending tons of money on clothes. Jeans maybe but tops...... NO. 

So one day when I was at the thrift store looking at patterns I saw this humungo denim shirt. I knew I could probably make it fit me, it was a brand name, and I thought it was cheap enough that I could make it worth it.  Don't tell the hubby :) He's the biggest germ aphob EVER and would die at the thought. But I don't see the big deal as long as it looks new and I wash it I don't care. This tutorial is similar to the one I did to take in Hubbys shirts here. 

Before

Lay out a shirt that fits well over the other shirt with both of them inside out. You can trace it with a marking pencil or do what I did and mark the shirt with pins.

Follow it all the way around. In this case I traced a short sleeve shirt and the denim shirt is 3/4 length so I just eyeballed it and kinda tapered in toward the end of the sleeve. Then just sew on the outside edge using the pins as your guide. I don't know if you can see it but this one has a pleat at the chest area. Just pin and sew right threw it.

I did a straight stitch and then followed it with a zigzag stitch to reduce fraying. If you have a serger then I am extremely jealous :) then you would just serge the whole thing. Then trim off the excess.

Flip it right side out wear it and love it! Doesn't it look like a completely different shirt!

Sleeve Ruching

After

Before

Sleeve Ruching is pretty popular right now. And there is no simpler way to add some character to a very basic t-shirt. Let's be honest when you are home all day with the kidos doing chores or whatever, all you want is to be comfortable. 

All you do is grab some thin elastic that matches your shirt. I am only using white so that you can see it better. Flip your shirt inside out and pin it to the top of your sleeve. Eyeball it to make sure it is in the center of the top of the sleeve like this.

Start sewing just a little and the top of the elastic.
Then pull the elastic so it is stretched out. You are going to have to hold the elastic and the top of the shirt as it's going through so that it will sew a straight line.

When you get to the bottom of the elastic cut the thread and let go and it will bounce up. Do the same thing to the other side and  you are done.


Once you are done flip it right side out and it will look like this.

It's hard to see by this picture but I also did the exact same thing to the sides of the shirt on the bottom.  Sometimes quick simple things make a big difference.

Baby Sack Tutorial

 

Don't you just love Baby Sacks! So Cozy and sweet. We were lucky enough to have a new baby niece born over the weekend and I gave her a store bought gift at her shower (gasp). Everyone kept saying I was looking forward to seeing what you were going to make. 

I'd been wanting to make one of these Baby Sacks for a while. I decided that once the baby was born I'd maybe have time to make one.  

All I did was take a Basic Onsie, and a baby sack that you already have. (if you don't already have one you can easily just eyeball it. I would say the material is about 16 inches long and the same width or slightly wider then the onsie you are attaching it to.)

 Lay the onsie over the baby sack (if you have one). Fold the onsie in half to show the point that you want the fabric attached to. If you want to cut off the bottom of the onsie you can. I chose to leave the bottom part with the snaps in place. But you could easily go either way.









 Lay the whole thing on top of the material you want to use. Simply trace around it and cut it out.

I wanted to do a lace over lay so once I cut out my base fabric I laid it out on top of the lace I wanted to use and cut it out. So you have 4 pieces of fabric. 2 lace and 2 base pieces.














Pin the lace and the overlay together. The 2 pieces of lace are going to be sandwiched between the two basic fabric pieces. Sew the long sides of both.

Next fold up the bottom piece and hem it.  I chose to add 2 button holes on the front of the hem, so I can thread the ribbon thru it. Making a button hole is different on every machine. There are tons of great tutorials out there. I like this one here.

If you want to use elastic, then button holes aren't necessary. just make sure to leave a small opening to thread the elastic thru and sew up after.

Next, place the onsie inside the little mermaid tail you've created. Fold the material up so it's going over the onsie like this picture on the right. Pin it all the way around and sew it. This will attach the sack you've created to the onsie.

Wow, sorry about the awful lighting in this picture.

Once you sew it flip the material down and this is what it will look like.



Next just thread your ribbon through the button holes you made (or add the elastic if you wanted to do elastic instead) and tie a bow and your done. So Fun!

Hopefully she likes it!

Vintage Patern for modern shirt

Don't you just love the new sheer shirt trend. So Fun. I wanted to make something similar to this one from Nordstrom

So now to let you in on a little secret..... One of my favorite things to do is to browse thru the vintage patterns from thrift stores.

Everyone loves vintage clothes and I love vintage patterns.  :) I got this pattern for .50 at a local thrift store, and there are several different shirt options that I would consider making.

When shopping in the vintage pattern section try not to look at the goofy colors and designs on some of the pictures. Just look at the shapes of the different outfits and you would be surprised at how many amazingly beautiful things you'll find.

This particular shirt had the front in 2 pieces. I decided instead of cutting 2 pieces to just cut one on a fold so that I didn't have to have a seam running down the front of the shirt. Don't be afraid to alter the pattern to fit what you want. Look at it as a guide and if it's exactly what you want great but if not DO NOT be afraid to change things. After all you are the one making it. Why not make it exactly how YOU want :)

I am in love with my new shirt. Don't be surprised if you see me wearing it in every color. I already have plans for several more.  ;)








I will be selling these in my etsy store in Black and Ivory for $25. I can make most solid colors so if there is a color you would prefer let me know and I'll see if I can find it. If you are in Utah and you want one feel free to e-mail or text me and I'd be happy to make you one with no shipping charge.  Otherwise, if you are not local and still want one feel free to order directly thru my etsy store.