confession sunday: curtains

June 17, 2012June 17, 201268 Comments

i’ve been thinking about doing a “confession sunday” series for a while now, where i talk about unfinished projects, random thoughts, projects that may have seemed loved but are now discarded, my messy sewing space, that kind of thing. the photos will be mostly unstyled, the posts will be short, and it’ll happen just every so often, but i think it’ll feel good to get things off my chest. sometimes blogland (my blog included) is maybe a little TOO “perfect,” and we all know reality is anything but.

in some instances, these confessions might even motivate me to clean/organize/do better!

(EDIT: people’s blogs are their own personal spaces, and if you care to only show pretty finished projects i’m TOTALLY cool with that – that’s how i am too, most of the time! i read blogs for inspiration, and i crop out messes like crazy. but lately i’ve felt like my blog was missing something, and that’s what this series is about. i hope you understand i’m not being judgy on either side of this issue… okay, carry on!)

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today’s confession is a case of “the cobbler’s children have no shoes.” and see? you even get a grainy sunday morning photo! i’m trying to let go a little with these posts. hehe.

Em has simple ikea curtains in her room, because as much as i love the idea of beautiful handmade curtains, i hate sewing large things with long, straight hems even more. her ikea curtains were floor length, which didn’t work since her bedroom furniture has to overlap the windows a bit. it just annoyed me that they were all bunchy every time i tried to open them.

one day, on a whim, i just cut them with my sewing scissors to get them the right length. i cut them while they were hanging up. this was months ago, and i’ve never bothered to take them down and hem them. i’m sure it would take me less than a half hour to do it…but i don’t.

that’s my confession for today. jagged, unhemmed, cheap-o curtains in Em’s room. got anything to “confess” and care to join me? i’d love to hear it! feel free to comment or link up in the comments. it may be a little embarrassing, but it does feel good…and now i REALLY want to get those darn things hemmed.

have a happy father’s day!

jungle ruffle dress tutorial

June 14, 2012July 18, 201410 Comments

today, i’m reposting a guest tutorial i did for see kate sew’s fun ruffles 2012 series a little while back – a comfy, easy-wearing knit sundress for summertime with plenty of ruffly ruffleness.

happy sewing!

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Hello! I’m so happy to be here as Kate wraps up her awesome Ruffles 2012 series! What fun, wonderful inspiration. It has become apparent that I need to invest in a ruffle foot…but the project I’m sharing with you today does not require one! And no basting-and-gathering either!

I decided to recreate a store-bought vertical ruffle dress that my daughter wore to bits last summer. It’s soft jersey knit with lots of twirly swishy ruffles for the dancing girly girl. This dress is practical, ridiculously comfortable, and she loves to wear it because the ruffles bounce and move as she does! Since it looks like vines, I call it the “Jungle Ruffle Dress,” though of course it can be made in any color.

jungle ruffle dress tutorial // skirt as top

Here’s how to make one.

MATERIALS

1.5 yards jersey knit (for a 3 to 4T) – try to pick one that looks similar on the right and wrong sides, since both will show on the ruffles
various sizes of plates/bowls
fabric marking tool (tailor’s chalk or water soluble pen)
ball point needle
walking foot (very helpful, but not required)

INSTRUCTIONS

Cut out a simple a-line sundress body. I used the free oliver + s popover sundress as my rough guide, though I noticed as I went it was going to be too narrow, so I added insets to the side seams (later). Cut it more a-line than you see here if you want to keep it all one piece.

Fold the front in half and press, then fold each side to the midline and press, then fold the two creases together and press. It’s good to crease it, you’ll later cut along the creases.

Now make the ruffles. The ruffle effect happens because you are cutting the fabric in circles and opening them up. I used a dinner plate and then a smaller bowl to create my two circles – experiment with the size of bowls/length you need on some scrap fabric. You want the length of your opened up circle to be at least as long as your dress. I made my inner circle a little off-center, which will vary the width of the ruffle from top to bottom. The narrow side of mine is about 1″ wide, and the wide side is about 2″. Cut around the inner circle, and trim the edges so they’re smooth. It doesn’t have to be perfect, and I think it looks more interesting if there’s a little variety in the ruffles.

Once you’ve made the desired number of ruffles, start sewing them into the dress. Cut along one crease line (just one at a time!).

Open up each ruffle and sandwich the inner edge of the circle between the right sides of the main dress. Pin and sew or serge (I’d recommend matching serger thread – mine is white for clarity/because I’m lazy). Repeat for all ruffles. If you’re simply serging, you may want to run a few stitches back and forth with your regular machine to reinforce the bottom seams – when I serge without hemming, the edges tend to come undone over time.

After I’d added the front ruffles, I realized the dress would be too narrow at the bottom, so I added a panel to each side to give it more room. You’ll want the top to be pretty narrow so it doesn’t expand your armhole (just about 1″ so it disappears into your seam allowances), and the bottom of the panel can be a few inches (mine was 4″). Above is the shape. I added another ruffle to the front side when I pieced it with the main dress to camouflage it. Press your seams well, pressing each ruffle in whichever direction you want it to fall.

For the back, you could repeat the process with more ruffles, but I decided to just fold the top down to create a casing, then threaded 1/2″ elastic in to gather it to about half the size of the original width. Sew on each side to secure, pull the elastic tight, and trim.

Untitled

For the front yoke, cut a piece of jersey about 2″ tall and a little wider than the ruffled top of the dress. Pin and sew right sides together, then fold the band over the top of the dress, encasing the edge. Topstitch (walking foot is good here), then sew the front and back side seams, right sides together.

To bind the armholes, I made two smaller ruffle strips out of the inner circles left over from the front. Make sure they match each other in length and general shape. I stitched each on around the right side of the armhole, then double folded them to the inside and topstitched. The ends knot over your little gal’s shoulders and will curl to add just a bit more ruffle to an already ruffly dress.

Trim the bottom of each ruffle to match the hemline and carefully trim anywhere else that seems a bit uneven…and you’re done! Yay!

If you make a ruffle dress using this tutorial, please add your photos to the skirt as top flickr group! Thanks so much for having me, Kate – this has been such a fun series!

bye bye backpack

June 11, 2012June 11, 201229 Comments

meet our friends’ adorable son, miles. miles loves cars.

only instead of “cars,” he calls them “bye byes.” we’re guessing it’s because you “go bye bye” in them?

miles just turned two. for his birthday, i made him a backpack full of bye byes.

the fabric is echino by etsuko furuya cars, with kona olive lining and straps (because it goes with everything!) and white store-bought piping. the pattern is rae’s toddler backpack. it was a straightforward sew and a great pattern (especially with the update to add lining), but shoot, it is definitely not the quickest project in the world. lots of steps on this bad boy. it turns out such a perfect little kid backpack, though, i think it’s totally worth the effort.

the only change i made was to interface the outside front panel and the bottom side panels with fusible interfacing. once done, it was still a bit floppy (the echino is sort of a heavier weight linen/cotton blend), so i’d probably also interface the outer back fabric and top panels next time, just for a bit more structure.

i did sort of a union jack type quilting on the bottom. it makes me happy for some reason.

we took a little walk…

and he did some stuff…

all wearing a cars backpack of his very own! little kids look so cute and “big” in backpacks, don’t they? O was wearing it around before they came over to visit and he was a huge fan of the “baapaaa” himself, so I might need to add another one of these to the list.

happy happy birthday, little guy!

double bucket hats

June 7, 2012November 24, 201338 Comments

i found something out as i got ready to make the kids some new hats for summer…they have almost the exact same size head! my 18 month old’s head is just 1/4″ smaller in circumference than my four year old’s! kinda crazy, eh? i checked, and it turns out my husband and i have the same size head too. i accept full responsibility for largeheadedness of my children.

the pattern is the oliver + s bucket hat from little things to sew, also available as a free download. both are mediums and both fit perfectly. i really love this pattern – these are the fourth and fifth versions i’ve made (others here and here)! O’s is sewn mostly from the pattern, though i did try my buddy jessica’s no-hand-stitching method for the first time. genius. this side is heather ross far far away ii moons, which i’d been hoarding.

the other side is a dark blue thrifted corduroy. i like using at least one heavier material when i make these hats, it gives them nice structure. this hat has just one layer of medium weight interfacing in the brim.

we’ll see if he keeps it on, he likes to say “haaaa” and pull it off, hang onto it for a while, then try to put it back on all by himself. maybe he’ll get more used to it as summer wears on.

Em’s hat is also long-hoarded heather ross, this time far far away i double gauze. i first used it here and had just enough left! i widened the brim 1.5″, again a tip from jessica the bucket hat queen. her mini tutorial is here. i interfaced both sides of the brim but it was still a bit too floppy, so i added three rows of topstitching to give it more structure and add a little detail.

the fabric is a hemp blend from bolt – i’ve been saving it for a while for a skirt for me, but i think it’s perfectly rough and rustic when paired with the pink heather ross.

aside from the widened brim, i constructed this hat the “traditional” way, joining the layers by hand-stitching at the base of the side panels. i’ll give you a wild guess which side she prefers.

i took these photos up at the sound over memorial day. we love it up there.

all set for summer!

bow tie for a little guy

June 4, 2012September 14, 201220 Comments

my nephew, the youngest of three boys (and just 10 days younger than Em), also turned four recently. all three boys are very snazzy dressers, and love to wear clip on ties with their regular collared shirts, shorts, and sneakers…it’s pretty cute. i was deep in the throes of planning for vintage may and had “old timey” on the brain, so i decided to make the little guy a quick and easy REAL bow tie.

there are a million little kid bow tie tutorials out there on the internets, and i searched for a good while before i found one that fit my rigorous demands – the perfect shape and really tied, but didn’t have all the fancy hardware in the back. oh and it was a definite perk if i didn’t need to create my own pattern! i finally came across the fantastic free dapper little man bow tie pattern by just another day in paradise (found on pinterest, repinned from brooke powell). it was everything i wanted!

i made it in a lightweight gingham cut on the bias. i wanted to add a little structure, so i ironed medium weight interfacing to one side before sewing. i first had elastic in the back, but when i tried it on Em i realized that wouldn’t work – already tied, it was too tight to fit over her head. it took me forever to learn how to actually tie the darn thing, so i wanted a better easy-on, easy-off solution for my nephew. i added a little extra length and then velcro instead, which works great. when i make this again, i’ll add 2″ or 3″ to each end of the pattern at the start so the velcro is better centered in the back, but it’s hidden in his collar as is. i had really wanted to make a bunch of these to give him at once, but i just ran out of time.

instead of a box of bow ties, i paired it with a justin bieber-esque hoodie (he’s a big fan of the beebs), and the present was all set! he opened it and immediately put on his new accessory.