Just One Mom Trying: sewing

Showing posts with label sewing. Show all posts

Sunday, April 1, 2012

Fabric Carrots

This weekend was nice and relaxing. I even got in some sewing! Clare's Craftroom posted some super darling carrots and I wanted to try them. Her carrots are much cuter than mine but they were just so fun to make, I couldn't help myself.

I had a hard time finding the right color of orange and green so all my carrots turned out the same. However, I did add 2 other sizes because I like a variety.

The large carrot size is my favorite (below).

Here's the medium size in front of the large.

And the small in the very front.

I created a pattern of the 3 sizes that you can download and print at the end of this post. Visit Clare's Craftroom for complete instructions. She's awesome.

Happy Easter!!! Happy spring!!! Happy sewing!!!

Friday, February 3, 2012

Baby Shoes

Emily 5:54 AM 2 Comments

It's been all about babies around here lately with my sister and some friends expecting babies real soon. It's time to get some gifts made.

I LOVE baby shoes. I think they're just adorable. I found a couple of cute patterns on Etsy from the Petit Boo shop. The patterns from this shop are very detailed with step-by-step instructions WITH pictures. Each pattern includes a wide range of sizes as well. Check out Petit Boo to make your own super cute baby shoes.

I love how they turned out!

# baby # birthdays

Chalkboard Placemats

Emily 5:23 AM 1 Comments

I've been wanting to make chalkboard placemats for months now. I finally did it. I decided that I would follow the directions from Sew 4 Home. However, I wanted to have waterproof fabric on the back instead of regular fabric so I grabbed some oil cloth. When it came time to put the placemat together, I couldn't press anything with an iron or use too many pins. I didn't want to melt my fabric and once the fabric is punctured with pins, the hole stays there.

I decided to do this thing a super basic way using bias tape.

What you'll need:

Chalkboard cloth (found in the "utility fabric" section of your fabric store)

Oil cloth (also a "utility fabric")

Bias tape (extra wide, double fold bias tape- 3 yd. Plan on one package per placemat just in case)

Jean needle (strong needle to sew your fabrics)

Scissors

Sewing machine (with jean needle)

What you'll do:

1) Cut one piece of chalkboard fabric and one piece of oil cloth the same size. Cut it to the size you'd like your placemat to be.

2) With wrong sides together, line up your bias tape on one edge of the chalkboard side! This is important! I found that the chalkboard fabric is quite slick and thick and doesn't grab onto the feed dogs well. So, having the oil cloth on the bottom allows for easier and nicer sewing.

3) Sew your bias tape on. See the following tutorial.

I already finished 2 edges. I'm going to show you the top edge. (Pretend this is your first edge.)

Here's one side of the placemat.

Here's the other side of the placemat.

Here's where the bias tape comes in. For super clear instructions on using bias tape without swearing, watch this video.

I followed the instructions in the video almost exactly. The only change I made was that I lined up the edge of my bias tape with the edge of my fabric. The woman in the video, Amy, lines up her bias tape a little below the edge of the fabric but, don't do it! You need that space when you're using the thicker fabrics.

So, unfold your bias tape, with the thinner edge up. Sew along that first fold. I tucked in my sides like Amy did too.

Start folding your bias tape over to the other side of the placemat.

Now it should look like this on the reverse side.

Sew the edge down. The chalkboard side will be facing down but since you now have the bias tape on the bottom, the feed dogs will grab onto the bias tape nicely and you won't have problems.

Repeat with the remaining sides.

You're done!

Prep your chalkboard by rubbing the edge of your chalk all over the board. Wipe it clean with a clean cloth. You're ready! You can also use liquid chalk which I'd like to try out sometime. It looks a lot cleaner and brighter.

This post was part of The Shady Porch's Rock 'N' Share! Visit The Shady Porch for other great ideas across the blogosphere.

# birthdays # breakfast

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Big Sister, Baby Sister

Emily 9:11 AM 1 Comments

One of the greatest machines that I own is my embroidery machine. I love it especially when it comes to personalizing gifts. It makes a world of difference when something is personalized.

This is my third set of shirts I've embroidered recently. This set is for my sister who's expecting her 2nd baby girl in a couple weeks. I can't wait to see my nieces in these!

# baby # embroidery

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Ruffled Streamers!

Emily 8:19 AM 1 Comments

I'm throwing my one-year old a birthday party and hosting a baby shower for a friend this week. I'm cutting my costs by making my own decorations.

You've probably seen the cute ruffled streamers on Pinterest. There are 2 pins in particular. One is a difficult version and the other is an easy version. It was time to try it out.

I went to the MADE blog for the easy tutorial.

I followed the directions and set my sewing machine at 5.0 for the length of my stitches and turned up the tension to strong. I also put my streamers on a wooden dowel to keep my streamers from getting all tangled and twisted. IT WORKED GREAT!!!! It started ruffling on its own!

After I was done ruffling, I rolled my new streamers up nicely to store them until the party!

They just look so pretty. I'm totally reusing these for Valentine's day!

A COUPLE OF THINGS TO CONSIDER:

If you are using a wooden dowel (which I suggest you do) make sure that your roll of streamers are about the same size. I tried using a small roll and a large roll on the same dowel, not thinking, and had a little tangled mess on the dowel.

The smaller the circumference of the dowel, the better. I found it a little difficult to slide the dowel through some of the tighter-wound rolls of streamers.

Decide ahead of time how long you want your streamers. Since you are sewing, once you cut the thread, the stitches will begin to fall out unless you begin and end your stitches with a back stitch. If you decide your streamers are too long and you want to cut them, one way to get around this problem is to tape off the the threads where you want to cut with some clear tape. Then cut down the middle of the tape so that the threads stay taped down and the stitches don't begin to unravel.

# crafts # parties

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Christmas Stockings: Sewing How-To

Emily 8:59 AM 0 Comments

You don't have to make stockings out of plain felt. You can use regular cotton fabric to create a nice sturdy stocking that has shape. The trick is using Pellon iron-on stabilizer.

Here are easy step-by-step instructions to make a simple Christmas stocking.

You will need:

Stocking pattern

Fabric for your stocking and cuff

iron-on stabilizer (Pellon)

Hot iron

Scissors

Sewing machine

Thread

Pins

*NOTE: This tutorial does not include a stocking lining. You can definitely line your stocking. I chose not to for the sake of easiness and simplicity. The stocking will hold up great without a lining.

1. Cut out your stocking pattern and fabric.

2. Open your stocking and place the WRONG side of the fabric over the SHINY side of your stabilizer- this is the "glue side." (When choosing a stabilizer, pick the thickness you'd like for your stocking. I chose a thinner stabilizer so make it easier to sew and turn my stocking inside out in the end. The exact stabilizer I'm using is Pellon 808 Craft Fuse)

3. Pin your fabric to the stabilizer and cut out the stabilizer.

4. Turn your fabric over so that the non-shiny side of the stabilizer is facing up.

5. With a hot iron, fuse the stabilizer to your fabric using a sweeping motion, starting from the middle and working out. (Don't iron over your pins. You don't want to melt them.)

6. Once most of the middle of your stocking is fused, remove the pins and iron/fuse the rest of the stocking. Make sure that the stabilizer is stuck on there really good. I iron and iron and iron until I'm sure it's stuck.

7. You should have a nice, crisp, thicker piece of fabric.

8. Now we'll work on the cuff. Cut out the cuff piece. If you are embroidering the cuff with a name, now is the time.

9. The cuff will go at the top. You will want to make sure the middle seam of the cuff and the middle seam of the stocking line up. You may have to fold the stocking to get it right. When you sew the cuff, the stocking will be open and not folded.

10. Depending on how wide you want your cuff, hem the top of the cuff and stocking all the way across the open stocking.

11. Sew the hem with a topstitch using a small seam allowance.

12. Do the same thing for bottom of the cuff. Press the seam with an iron and topstitch.

13. The cuff is now finished.

14. Pin the stocking, right sides together.

15. Sew your stocking! Here is what I did with the heal of the stocking where the fabric meets.

16. Turn your handmade stocking inside out and admire your work. Press it once more with an iron to get any wrinkles out. DONE!

Thanks for sewing with me today!

# Christmas # crafts

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Homemade Strawberry Shortcake Costume

Emily 7:29 PM 0 Comments

I love the vintage Strawberry Shortcake with her cute dress and pinafore. Unfortunately the vintage Strawberry Shortcake costumes aren't sold anywhere. I thought it would be fun to have MJ dress up as Strawberry Shortcake and to have Peanut dress up like Custard, her cat. MJ wanted my husband to be Pie Man. If I had more time I would have made a Pie Man apron and hat but I didn't get that far.

I took on this costume project and this is what I came up with. (This was the best picture I could get.)

I sew stuff but not clothes- there's too many directions and curved seams. ;) But, I decided to do it anyway. I made it a size too big because I wasn't sure if she was going really wear it. She wanted to be the Little Mermaid for a little while but I convinced her that if she wore the Strawberry Shortcake costume she could chew some strawberry gum. That did the trick. She was so happy to wear it AND she SMELLED like strawberries. Her white and green striped tights are in the mail. Supposedly they're a popular item EVERYWHERE! Who knew? I think I'm also going to cut the yarn hair a little bit shorter. It looks a little like Raggedy Ann.

All in all it was a success. I have a couple more days to make last minute adjustments.

# crafts # dress up

Monday, October 24, 2011

Sew Much To Do

Emily 7:24 AM 2 Comments

I finally got out my sewing machine and sewed this weekend! I finished this textured blanket. It's not very cute but it's fun.

I was tired of using plastic bags to hold toys for several reasons:

1) Plastic bags should be kept away from children

2) The bags wear out

3) Children can't close them easily

4) They don't hold a lot of toys

My solution: make drawstring fabric bags! I ended up making 3 bags since they are so easy to make. I made one for MJ's tea set, one for play food, and one for little cars. I tried to use fabric that symbolized what was in the bag. It makes it a whole lot easier to sort and find toys for little ones. You will notice that this fabric bag with teacups holds MJ's tea set.

Project #3: Fabric book. I made this book for a friend's baby shower. I LOVE fabric books. They last a lot longer than board books. They are harmless and baby can turn the pages easily.

Peanut wished this one were for her.

I am also sewing a costume for MJ. I usually don't sew clothes because it requires more than just straight seams (notice my 3 previous projects above) and it takes time! I like easy, quick projects. I need to have the costume done by Wednesday so I hope to post it sometime this week.

# baby # books

Sunday, April 1, 2012

Fabric Carrots

Friday, February 3, 2012

Baby Shoes

Chalkboard Placemats

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Big Sister, Baby Sister

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Ruffled Streamers!

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Christmas Stockings: Sewing How-To

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Homemade Strawberry Shortcake Costume

Monday, October 24, 2011

Sew Much To Do

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