First Day Of School Shirt

So last week I showed you all the massively cute jeans I made for my girls. Well today I am going to show you the top!

Sorry to tell you though it isn't a tutorial.  Remember the Easter dresses I made my girls this year?  Well this shirt came in the pattern as well. 
I did make some of the same adjustments as I did for the dress as well.  I made the neck line higher and I made my own bias tape (once you start making bias tape you will never go back!)  But on this shirt I wanted the ruffle to be more ruffled than it was on the dresses.  I was happy with the look but it caused one problem: The ruffle that got wrapped under made a big poof.  So I found the spots where a ruffle naturally ends/begins and I tacked those spots down.  I used my sewing machine to tack down instead of doing it by hand because I am lazy like that. 
All you do is turn the feed dog on you machine off.  This way you material will stay in one spot under the needle.  Then I set my needle to do a slight zig zag.  And voila that spot is down for good.

This wrap dress/top pattern is one of the best patterns I have ever bought.  Totally worth it!
So a super cute shirt plus super cute jeans= one amazingly cute first grader on her first day of school.

Best part is:  For both my girls back to school outfits I spent $12!  Not $12 per outfit but $12 total!!!  You really can't beat that.
Now to wait a week to send the pre-schooler off and maybe some sanity will begin to return....

Girls Jeans with Ribbons and Ruffles

The first day of school is quickly approaching.  I like my girls to have a special first day of school outfit.  When my eldest was in preschool it was easy to find her something way cute for a good price.  But she grew up a little and went to kindergarten and moved into the big girl section of clothes.  I discovered something.  For the most part I HATE the big girl section of clothes.  (Is is just me?) My 6 yr old is still a little girl but they want her to dress like a 14 yr old slut. Sorry I am just not into that.  So last year finding a first day of school outfit was very very difficult and I only settled with what she got.

Not bad but I didn't love it.  So this year I am planning ahead of time and I have made her and her sister the cutest little outfits.  Today I am going to show you the jeans.

I LOVE them.  So if you want to make some too here's how you do it.

Start off by finding an old pair of jeans that still fit in the waist but not in the length.  Cut off the bottom of the jeans about 3 inches above where you want the bottom of your ruffle to hit.  I wanted capri length instead of pant length because it is still so warm outside.

Now decide how many ribbons you want to add and lay them out and play with them. See how many inches up the top of your top ribbon will be.  Now unpick that much plus a little extra for wiggle room.

Now get a length of ribbon to fit around your pant leg and pin it on.  Measuring of course to make sure it is even.

Now sew your ribbon on.  Make sure that you sew to the ends of the seems and don't sew the seems flat.

Now repeat with your remaining ribbon.

Now close those seems back up.  Sew down the line that is left from the original seem and then sew a zig zag down the edge. (Sorry the purple thread I used doesn't really show up well.)

Now that part is all done and you can add a darling ruffle.  Now I was researching how others added their ruffles and I ran across the most perfect tutorial at From An Igloo. it is so perfect I am going to send you over there.  Her tutorial makes the ruffle not only way cute but also a very good quality.  The only change I made was preference.  I wanted my ruffle a bit fuller so I tripled my measurement of the circumference of the bottom of the jeans.  My younger daughter's jean leg circumference was 10 inches so I cut my strip 30 inches long.  I thought it was perfect.

I am so happy with they way these jeans turned out. 

I hope you like them as much as I do.

Next week I will show you the shirt I made to go with them.  You should be excited.

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Where the Wilds Things Are Onesie

So I have another baby shower I am doing this week and I have been busy getting things ready.  But I had to take a break to show you this onesie.  We are doing a children's book themed shower and we are focusing on 4 main books.  One of which is Where The Wild Things Are.  I am making a onesie to go with each book and this one turned out super cute.  I knew I could make any of the wild things and even re-creating Max would be rather difficult so I simplified it and came up with this.

 Super cute and simple.
I just drew a crown onto the paper side of some fusible heat bond.  Ironed that onto some yellow fabric, cut the crown out, peeled the paper off, ironed it to the onesie and sewed around it. 
For the words I printed off the letters in the size and font I wanted, traced those letters onto freezer paper and used an x-acto knife to cut the letters out (Oh how I wish I had a silhouette.)  Then iron your freezer paper into place and I decided on a fabric paint marker to paint the words on.  I chose this so it wouldn't bleed as much, drys faster and I have a little more control.  I did get a little antsy though and took the center out of the "a" to early to it smudged a little.

But I think it turned out pretty darn cute.  Makes me wish I had a little boy.

Now one more piece of business...
My friend who blogs over at Mrs. Crafty Mama's  nominated me for a versatile blogger award.

With this award I am suppose to list 7 facts about myself and then nominate 7 blogger friends as well.  Well I am kinda a bum so I will list the 7 facts but I just don't know who I would nominate at the moment.  (It's called my brain ain't working because there are only 6 days in the month of May that something is not written on my calendar to do.)  If you want to be nominated consider it done:)
So here are 7 things about me...
1- I am the youngest of 6 children
2- I got married at 19 yrs old
3- I have a degree in Elementary Education
4- I have a super hard time being organized
5- For my birthday next month I would like a silhouette machine (hint hint hubby)
6- We just got a dog on a trial basis (it's a long story)
7- I love being a mom!

So there you go. 

Hooded Baby Towel

When I had my third baby a friend gave me a homemade hooded baby towel and I loved it!  It was unlike any other design I have seen for a hood but I liked it sooo much better.  So when my sister just had her 3rd baby I decided I wanted to give her a hooded towel as well.  So I went searching for tutorials and I couldn't find any that were like the one I received.  So I just had to study the hood and figure it out on my own. I also made a cute little wash cloth to go with it.  And it turned out super cute.

 So here is what you are going to need.

A towel
Washcloth
1/4 yrd flannel
ribbon or other trims you want to use
basic sewing supplies
(If you want a wash cloth as well you need 1/4 yr terry cloth)

Now the first thing you are going to do is add your trim.  You will want to do this on the "wrong" side of your wash cloth at what you want to be your top.

Now this is the tricky part and since I was tryi9ng to figure it out myself I don't have great pics so feel free to let me know if you have any questions.
Turn your wash cloth so you can see the front.  Turn the top down about 1-1 1/2 inches.  Now fold the wash cloth down again stopping about 1 1/2-2 inches from the bottom.  Now it will look like this.

You see the black line I drew in, that is where you are going to sew.  I zig-zagged it for more security.  You want to start at about 2 inches from the side and go down to the corner.  Do that on both sides and trim off the triangles.

Now flip it right side out.

Cute little hood isn't it.  I wanted to add a little extra so I cut a duck out of my flannel and ironed it on with heat bond.  Then appliqued it on.

Now you're going to attach this to the towel.   You want to attach it to the center of the long side.  I just overlapped the binding on the cloth and the towel and went around twice for extra security again.

Sorry I know it is hard to see I picked a good matching thread.
And Voila you have a cute towel. (bad picture but cute towel)

 Now for the wash cloth.  First please pre-wash your fabrics, or else the first time they are washed together you will likely end up with something that no longer matches.
Take your 1/4 yd flannel and fold a triangle to make a square. Now cut it out.

Then lay your flannel on your terry cloth and cut out a matching square.  Put right sides together.  Draw curved corners on all 4 corners.  I used an old washcloth as a guide.

 Sew the two together leaving about a 3 inch gap in one side.  Now turn it right side out and top stitch around the washcloth. 

Now you have a cute wash clothe to match your cute towel.  A perfect gift for a baby.

I am glad to know there is one less baby wrapped you in a thin store bought hooded towel tonight.  Instead he is warm and snugglie in a soft thick towel made with love.

Easter Dresses

Yep it's that time of year for beautiful new dresses.  And what girl doesn't love a new dress?  I remember growing up my mom would always make my sisters and my Easter dresses.  It was always fun as a little girl.  So I am following that tradition and making my girls Easter dresses as well.  I love how they turned out.  They might be one of my favorite dresses ever!

I got the pattern from You Can Make This and it is very worth the cost.  I love that it comes in such a large array of sizes too.  This way I can use this pattern for years for all 3 of my girls.  And believe me I will use this pattern again and again.  It also has a pattern for a beautiful shirt.  Here is the link to the pattern.
 I love the details of this dress.

The pattern is a fairly simple pattern to follow but there are a few simple alterations I would suggest.
-First the neck line was a little low for me so retraced a neck line about 1 inch higher (I kinda wish I would have done 2 inches.)
-Also the pattern had the same amount of material going around my babies waist as it did for my 6yr old.  So I cut 10 inches off the width of the dress for her (before you gather it and sew it to the top piece.)
-I also cut 2 inches of the length of my babies dress.  Since she just learned to walk that much length would have been cumbersome to her.  For my older girls I LOVE the length!
- Now you may recognize this material from my Bias Tape tutorials.  Yes this is what I used my home made bias tape for and I love it.  But if you make bias tape for this dress your first stitch of sewing on the bias tape will show.  So I would recommend basting it on so you can easily unpick it.  (It isn't a necessary stitch for the finished dress)
-To make this dress a little more sturdy for rambuncious girls on the inside of the dress I did a button instead of a tie.  You can also do a button with a tie on the outside of the dress if you want even more security.
 -Lastly my middle child is rather thin so when I did the button hole on the inside I made it about 2 inches from the edge and the tie on the outside ties about an inch behind the side seam instead of right on the side seam.
So all of these were super easy alterations.  So it was fast and easy to customize this dress for each of my children.

I would highly recommend this pattern, it is beautiful!
My girls love this dress too.

(Sorry about the fuzzy spot, my baby got a hold of my camera and I didn't realize the spot was there until it was too late.)

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter!And may your spring be sunny!

* Also don't forget about my 100 follower giveaway, last I checked we were at 74 so we need to get referring people so I can give away this awesome prize.  Go here for details.*
And here is another sneak peak.  It is reversable.  (Front side is floral and back side is the blue and white pattern.

Bias Tape: Part 2

So now you have a nice long piece of unfolded bias tape from following this tutorial.  And I know what you are thinking.  There is no way you are going to measure fold and iron that thing freehand.  Am I right?  That was my thought process at least.  But when I went searching for a bias tape maker and couldn't find one in this small town, my aunt suggested the ironing board and pin trick.  The what I wondered?  So I searched it out.  I was amazed at how simple this trick was.  And it didn't cost me any money on any tools.
So here is the video that shows you this fun trick.
Pretty amazing if you ask me.  I do have a few helpful hints as well.  (Please don't judge the state of my ironing board, I really need to recover it.)
So if you look closely you will notice two purple marks where the needle enters and exits the ironing board.  I marked these with a fabric pen at one inch so I could get it in at the right places.  Also there is a blue mark in the middle of the needle.  I also marked that to help guide me as I threaded my bias tape through.

  

See here I have it threading through beautifully. The middle mark really was helpful to me.

So here is another beautifully finished bias tape.

Oh I love it so.  I am not sure I will ever buy bias tape again.

And one more sneak peak at this bias tape used.

Is it possible to swoon over bias tape?  If so I think I've done it.

Making bias tape with basic sewing tools: Part 1

So I live in a small town where the only place to buy craft supplies is Wally World.  And since it is a small town they seem to have an even poorer selection than a Wally World in a big town.  So when I needed bias tape this past week, they didn't have any colors that would work for me.  So I thought I should make my own, but I don't have a bias tape maker so I hopped on facebook and asked all my facebook friends if they had one I could borrow.  No one did, but I did get a suggestion which led to some research and me making beautiful bias tape without any fancy tools.  And it turned out beautiful.

So here's what you will need:
Cutting mat
Rotary blade
ruler
sissors
fabric pen
iron and ironing board*
long needle or pen*

*These items will be used in part 2

So today let's go over sewing and cutting your bias strip then in a couple days I will show you the fancy easy trick to fold your bias tape.
I had read some tutorials on this subject but I was still lost so I went to trusty old you tube.  I found this video that is awesome and there really isn't anything I can do to improve upon it so just go watch this video.

Now I do have one tip that might help you with this.  By far the trickiest part is folding the bias tape to make a tube.  So I have this handy dandy diagram for you.  (I know I am not very good at this).  So you see we have points A, B, C, and D.  I also have two spots marked 1 and 2, these spots are where you have your 2 inch lines. 

What you are going to do is match 1 to A and 2 to C.  B and D will be left hanging off the ends.  You need to sew between 1A and 2C but not B or D.

Also here is a formula that will help you estimate how much bias tape you will get.
 A 10 inch square will give you 5 10X2 inch strips which equals 50 inches. You will lose length in your seems.  So if you are doing 1/4" seems you will lose 1/2inch total at each seem and there will be a total of 4 seems (1 less than the number of strips you have) making you lose 2 total inches.  Also you will lose about 1 inch at each end because it is on a diagonal making another 2 inch loss.  So you will get about 46 inches of bias tape from a 10 inch square. Which is 1 yd and 10 inches. 

I hope this helps.  Good luck!

And here is a sneak peak at what I did with this bias tape.

Tutorial Review {Reversible Purse}

Can you believe it I am doing a review.  It's been a little while. Anyways I needed to make a little gift to give to a few wonderful women I know.  I wanted it to be simple and cute.  So after some searching I decided to make this bag from Martha Stewart.  It is really super simple and a beginners project.  But me like the brilliant person I am sometimes didn't fully read the instructions and I messed up.  So I will save you from my same fate. So here we gooooo.

So you can find the pattern to print out and the instruction here.
But let me restate what they say in the instructions so you don't mess up like I did. When you sew your pieces together you sew the top seems and then the bag part leaving the arms (both sides) open.  Like this.

Also let me point out because it doesn't say this in the instructions but you need to clip your curves...

...and iron open your seems.  (Mostly the top of the arms.)

When you put your two pieces together again you are only sewing the inside (think of it like a bib and you are sewing the neck line.)  Leave the outside of the arms open still.  And remember to clip those curves as well.

Keep on following the instructions and you will have this cute little reversible handbag.

It only takes about 45 min to sew and you only need 1 total yard of fabric.  So quick, easy, inexpensive and super cute and handy.  My type of gift.