Kids Clothes Week Challenge & Refashion tutorial!

Source: http://www.elsiemarley.com/kids-clothes-week-spring-2013.html

If you've visited my blog before, you know that I LOVE sewing for little people! Their clothing is just a joy to sew and they're much sweeter and easier critics (most of the time). Since it's Kids Clothes Week in the mommy blogging community, I thought I'd put out a few post of my own with some things created specifically for this week!

Today, I refashioned this little ruffled shirt for my little redheaded princess!

She's had this shirt (from Target) for a little while now and it got nail polish in random spots on the front (ahem, grandma). I couldn't bring myself to throw it out because I love the way it looks on her and she's overwhelmed all the time with pink and purple, so grey is always a nice break from the norm.

I knew I wanted to paint something on her shirt to cover the stains, but since there were stains on the ruffles AND the main body of the shirt I ended up doing tiny mint colored polka dots.

Want to do this for your little one? Here's how I did this shirt:

I wanted a nice mint color(as mentioned above), so I mixed white, green and dark teal to create my paint color. Make sure to slip a piece of cardboard, or thick paper between your layers, then start painting!

I wasn't worried about it being perfect, so I just eyeballed the distance between the dots and then when I got to the next row I just shifted my dot placement to match on the diagonal of the previous row. It's sounds complicated, but it's really simple and very easy.

 My secret weapon to making this as quick as possible, my hair dryer! It drys my paint really fast so I don't accidentally smudge anything when I want to move onto another section and who wants to wait an entire day for a project to dry? Not me. The only drawback is that, if you're using puffy paint(which I dislike to begin with), it makes your paint look weirdly spongy when it's dry.

After your shirt is fully polka dotted, make sure you heat seal your paint by running an iron over it through a pressing cloth. This will ensure your paint doesn't peel off in the wash, or during playtime.

Model Moment :)

It worked perfectly and looks ridiculously adorable, plus still a good calm color with the mint dots on the soft grey.

She looks fabulous and completely approved of her "new" shirt.

~Allison

P.S. The fabric in the first picture is part of another project this week, so come back to see what it turns into!

Me & You Tote Tutorial

I whipped this tote up during naptime! The process is very simple and it creates an adorable go-to bag.

I used canvas fabric for the outside of the bag and cotton for the lining. To add a little pizazz, I freezer paper stenciled a design on the front with fabric paint.

Cut your outer and lining fabrics into rectangles the size of your choosing, mine was 14 inches wide and 16 inches long. You'll also want to cut 2 strips of fabric that you'll use to make your straps, 9 inches long and 4 inches wide.

If you're using a thicker fabric like the canvas that I used, you'll want to iron your strap pieces in half and and then iron each long edge in halfway in toward the half point. I know it's a lot of halves, but trust me, it works and turns out perfect.

Once your straps are ironed you'll want to sew along the long the long open edge of each strap.

Now that your straps are ready, you can start pinning your main pieces together! Pin your lining and outer fabric right sides together and on one of the short sides you'll sandwich your strap.

Be sure to evenly space your handles, and once everything is in place sew along the short side with your straps.

With you straps in place you'll now pin your lining pieces right sides together and your outers with right sides together as well. It should look like a very long rectangle with the handles inside.

(Sorry didn't get pictures of this part!)
Sew your outer pieces together, and sew your lining pieces all but a 3 inch space to turn your tote bag right side out.

The space that you left to turn you bag will need to be stitched closed, and to insure your lining stays in place a little topstitching around the top of your bag will keep things neat.

There you have it! A spacious, useful tote bag that anyone would love to carry.

~Allison

Valentine's Dress T-shirt Refashion

My daughter has had this pink shirt for a few months and she wore it regularly until she spoiled chocolate milk down the front of it and stained it beyond what Shout could handle, so it became her Valentines dress and I'm going to show you how I did it!

Sorry took this picture after the elastic was on!

To stabilize the skirt, I sewed a thin strip of elastic all the way around the middle of the torso. Measure your shirt and when you add your elastic be sure to use a zigzag stitch so it will still stretch.

After I attached the elastic, I appliqued 3 hearts to cover all of those yucky stains.
I use heat and bond lite to keep my applique in place while I do a zigzag stitch around the edge s to prevent fraying. Go really slow with this or you'll end up with a very messy zigzag.

My right side is matte and my wrong side is shiny

Next you'll get your skirt material and place it right sides together sew it together to form a tube. Basically fold your rectangle of fabric in half and sew down the short open sides.

Now that you have your skirt fabric in a tube you want to line the seam up with the side seam of your shirt and pin. Find the middle of the front and back and pin those as well as the other side seam. Once you've pinned those you'll want to pin the midway point between those pins as well to make it a little bit easier when you're attaching the skirt.

When you're attaching your skirt, you'll want to use a zigzag stitch again so you can maintain the stretch, pull your elastic as far as you can from the front and the back of the needle and keep an even amount of stretch while you stitch. This will gather your skirt along the elastic and with this technique you don't need any closures to get it on and off your little girl.

Finally, when your skirt is attached, it's time to cut off the bottom of the shirt that's just hanging inside the skirt. Since my shirt was made of knit fabric, all I had to do was cut it off and my dress was done!

Notice you can't see a hem? I used my invisible hem stitch on this dress(sorry didn't get a picture). You can find a great tutorial here for invisible stitch, and a really awesome tutorial here for applique.

Dropping the Ball & Tutorial

Well hello out there in Blogland....I didn't die and I haven't ran away to join the circus either. The only excuse I have is that I've been dropping the ball lately. In all aspects of my life it seems, except keeping my kids clean and fed of course, and I seem to be coming out of whatever fog I was lost in. That being said, below I have provided my long ago promised tutorial for my daughter's baptism dress.

I just made a simple dress with some pre-made panties embellished with ruffles on the rear. If you'd like to see how I did it keep reading.