Sneak Peek ~ A Little Sewing Time in the AC

My sewing machine is in the air conditioning. 

I have really been in the mood to sew a lot lately!

First up, I expanded upon this years' Easter collection:

I made a tie for my very unhappy son who says that polka dots are "girly" but I think it is very classy.  I also made a purse for Grace with scraps from her Little Diva Dress.  She is really into purses right now.  I used the Buttercup Bag pattern, but it came out a little short and funny-shaped this time. Oh, well. Good enough. A 2yo doesn't care.

This is more gluing than sewing, but I am working on some headbands for a very bald little girl I know. ;)

I have also been making more maxi skirts. Tutorials on the way 'cause I have some clever new tricks up my sleeve. I just need more pictures of the final products where I don't need to crop my belly out to post it here. I might have to leave the AC for that one. :P

The biggest project I am working on right now is this jungle themed star quilt.  I pieced it over five years ago! I am machine quilting with multi-colored thread it in these loose, "organic" wavy lines but my new sewing machine is having tension issues. :(

This quilt is also my July goal for A Lovely Year of Finishes.

Finally, some non-sewing.  I made a Pinterest-inspired July 4th cake. I had good intentions of making red, white, and blue layers.

I forgot that my bright yellow, farm fresh egg yolks would affect the cake color...

Oh, well. I am giving myself points for effort. I am enormously pregnant, it feels like it is over 100 degrees out there with this humidity, and I have five kids to take care of here. The fact that I went to the trouble to bake anything down in my kitchen with no AC has got to be worth something!

I hope everyone is having a great holiday weekend! Happy Independence Day!! :D

Maxi Skirts Galore!

A few weeks ago I was on a maxi skirt sewing frenzy...

Please excuse my modeling skills in the following pictures. :)

As you can see, one of my daughters, however, thinks she is QUITE the little model. Sometimes she overdoes it, though.

For the girls' pink and blue skirts I used THIS tutorial, but the waist needs to be an inch or so smaller than the actual measurement (these are little girls without womanly hips after all).  I also made one in the pink for myself, but, unfortunately, I DO have womanly, child-bearing hips and it looks pretty awful on me right now as I was trying to make do with some fabric I had on hand. Maybe maxi skirts will still be in style next summer.

I also need to hem the girls' skirts, but the girls won't part with them long enough. I mean to swipe them straight out of the clean laundry basket, but they are faster than my folding, sometimes ripping them right off of the wash line.

My gray skirt was made using THIS tutorial like the skirt I made HERE, but I extended it to maxi length. So comfy and I can wear the waistband over the large belly or folded down. I think the girls' skirts look better, though.

Since my girls now also request matching clothes for their dolls every time I make something for them, I made maxi skirts for their dolls, too.  It was easy peasy and I have a tutorial coming up for that one as soon as I take pictures of the dolls wearing them (they are better models anyway!) 

These are all really easy skirts! I made two skirts for the girls, two for me, and two for the dolls in one morning. Mass production at its finest. Go ahead and give it a try! 

Strawberry Shortcake Dress

Just a quick little show-off here...

I made another Strawberry Shortcake dress (original HERE) for my niece's 3rd birthday. It turned out super cute and she immediately wanted to put it on, so she must have liked it. :)

Same as before, it is a semi-circle skirt (left over from my screw-up two years ago) sewn to an embellished Garanimals T-shirt from Walmart.  This time I improved and did two things differently:

1. Garanimals shirts are extra long, so I chopped a few inches off the bottom to avoid that 80s drop-waist look.

2. I did freezer paper stenciling instead of applique for the top. I love it! It turned out so crisp and professional-looking! :)

Now my 5yo wants another one. We'll see. Maybe I can use that as an incentive around here. :)

Ariel Quilt

This quilt was put together pretty quickly for a very special baby girl.  I didn't have much notice (it's complicated) but I felt that she deserved something special.  I did all of the quilting and even the binding entirely on my new sewing machine, partly to try it out and partly to get it done faster.

I bought the Ariel panel and backing fabric, oh, about 7 years ago and I was saving it, in a way, for this specific purpose. I think God probably smiled at that, since He knew all along that His plans are not always our plans.

That being said, I just felt that I needed to embroider Jeremiah 29:11 onto this quilt. It is absolutely fitting to the situation. I used purple thread and the letter embroidery feature on my machine, which was tricky with so many layers.  I did a lot of seam ripping, but it was still faster than doing it by hand.

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, 

“plans to prosper you and not to harm you, 

plans to give you hope and a future.

Jeremiah 29:11

The next quilt I am going to finish will be a top that I pieced before my 5yo was born! I am really clearing out the old stuff, right? If you are a quilter, what is the oldest fabric that you have been saving for something special?

Regular to Maternity T-Shirt Refashion Tutorial

Please excuse the photographer's finger in the top corner there. :)

Usually I do not sew many things for myself and I am not usually all that picky when it comes to clothing. BUT, I saw these T-shirts on sale at Target in CUTE colors and I just really, really wanted them! So I splurged. On myself.  That almost NEVER happens!  Here is how I mentally justified it: Maternity T-shirts are way more expensive (I got this shirt for $5 on sale in the Women's section, but I saw similar maternity ones online at Target.com for $15).  The maternity T-shirts I already have are in dark colors (plus everything is getting too short for my belly these days). I figured I could buy XL and XXL shirts for the length and alter them.  Ready to see how I did that? Let's go!

Start out with an XL or XXL shirt. For some reason, I didn't even take the tags or sticker off until I was done. It wasn't like I was going to return it.

You need to carefully trim off the side seams from the armpit down.

Fold the shirt in half.  Using a shirt that fits well as a pattern, mark where the arm scythe should be and cut off the sleeves and down the sides gently on an angle as shown. You can see that my arm scythe is higher and narrower in the shoulders vs the original shirt.

Trim up the sleeves to fit the arm scythe, plus a little seam allowance at the bottom. This pic shows the before and after so you can get an idea...

Now, here is the part I thought was so clever... Take the back of the shirt only (the front side is pushed away at the top there) and trim the sides to make them straight. (The shirt naturally flared out quite a bit towards the bottom, which I need in the front, but I didn't want a whole lot of extra bunching in the back.)

This is what you should have so far. These are all of the pieces and the back is actually on top so that you can see the difference between the front and back.

Sew up the side seams with a serger or using a stretch stitch on your sewing machine.  If you use a serger, make sure to tuck those tails of thread in when you are finished.  Sew the bottoms of the sleeves together, too.

Just pin the sleeve to the arm and reattach using a serger or stretch stitch. I suppose, if you wanted to, you could sew the sleeve on first and then sew all the way down the side from the edge of the sleeve to the bottom of the shirt.  This is just how I did it. Whatever works.

You can leave the shirt like this if you want (see all of the extra roominess in the front), but it was still too long in the back for my liking. I need the length for the front, though, so I decided to add ruching in the sides.

Decide how high you want the ruching to go, measure from there to the bottom of the shirt, then cut a piece of 1/4" elastic half of that length.  Pin the ends in place on the side seam allowance.

Just pull the elastic tight as you sew.  The elastic should be sewn to the side seam allowance only, so you won't see the stitching on the outside of the shirt when it is finished.

TADA! That is it!!  It really didn't take me long at all- maybe a half hour, and it theoretically saved me $10. Plus, it is a custom-fit shirt that actually covers my belly! Woohoo!

Here is the other shirt I altered. I didn't add the ruching because it was already on the short side, but I might go back and add some in later. We'll see. If I feel like it.

You can't tell by the super sunny pic my 5yo took for me, but this shirt is an awesome minty aqua color. Oh, and in case you are wondering, I am 29 weeks here. Yeah. 2 1/2 months to go. Yes, there is just one baby in there.  Feel free to laugh. I am used to it.

 So, there you go! If you could snag some great thrift or clearance deals, this would be a great money-saver! It was easy and if I don't stain them up this summer (forget putting your napkin on your lap- my belly catches everything!) I will probably cut the sides open to take them in again post-baby. It would only take, like, 10 minutes. Maybe 15 if I hem the bottom to make it shorter. Yes, I am still justifying my splurging impulse buy here. :)

Linking up to:
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