A Little Something for Me

Well I finally finished it...this skirt that has been on my mind since I bought (fell in love with) this fabric over a year ago. I bought the fabric at the 1/2 price sale at Textile Fabrics and it was a big splurge even at half off, but I loved the simplicity of the design and the softness of the fabric.

It's just a simple A line skirt with a waistband and invisible zipper on the side...nothing fancy, but perfect for me. 

Here's a quick rundown of how to figure out an A line skirt. Get a low waist line measurement (since you are adding a waistband) and a hip measurement and then I add a couple of inches to each because I don't like my clothes too snug. Take a waist to hip measurement. Now you are set to "draw" your pattern out on your fabric. Make sure you take your fabric and fold it in half twice (you need the front and back piece). Take your waist + 2 inches (blue line) and hip + 2 inches (red line) measurements and 1/2 them. Now take the number you now have for your waist and measure then mark it on the top of your fabric (blue line).  Take your waist to hip measurement (green line) and mark it down from your waist measurement. From the fold take your hip measurement number and mark it at the bottom of your waist to hip line (this becomes the red line).

With me so far?

Now just figure out how long you want your skirt(purple line) and mark that, measuring from your waist. Then all I do is gradually extend the line from the end of your waist measurement line to the edge of the fabric.

Once I get it cut out, I finish the right side, add the waist band, add the zipper and finish the left side. After that I fold down the waistband and finish it off.

For the waistband, I simply take the waist measurement and add 3 inches (you have to have room to put the zipper in) and cut out a 4 inch band to that length, line it with facing and add it to the top of the skirt. Then I'm ready for the zipper.

Not the best pictures of the skirt, but at least you get the feel for it. My kids were my photographers...my 12 year old took the one on the left and my 5 year old took the one on the right.

Now for some pretty pictures.  I've always wanted a "cutting" flower garden and something that would attract a lot of birds and butterflies.  And I succeeded this year.  Here's some of the results:

Whimsical Tunic with Side Ruching

Just something I'm bringing home.  It goes along with this post.

 Hello Project Run and Play readers!  It's Sally from Daisy Chain Creations, here to share a little detail that makes a tunic go from humdrum to whimsical...just add a little contrasting ruching (and an exposed yoke...but I'm not going to overwhelm you today).

While we are just wrapping up the school year here (2 more days!!!), I'm already thinking ahead to the next year and this little gal's wardrobe.  She'll be starting kindergarten and I want her to have some fun pieces that match her personality.  She pretty much lives in hand-me-downs, which is really nice, but not necessarily her...do you know what I mean?

That is how this tunic came to be.  She really liked the one I had made for her sister earlier this year, so I let her pick out the fabric for her first piece to go in her kindergarten wardrobe (hence the reason it's a little big...it is still 3 months away). We found the cute owl fabric at our local JoAnn's.

First, you want to start with a tunic like top.  You could use any top pattern and just extend it, but I just traced a pattern from a shirt that fit her on the large size (make sure you account for seam allowances).  You also want it to be a little longer, going below the waist so you can ruche it up.

Then you want to assemble the shirt and finish the bottom hem.

Now it's time to make the little placket and ties for ruching.  You could use ribbon if you didn't want to make the ties, just make sure you do something to the ends to keep them from fraying.

The placket pieces are 2 1/2 inches wide.  The length is up to you and how far you want it to go up the side of the shirt. For the ties you want them to be a couple of inches longer than your placket.  I made mine 1 inch wide.

Next you want to finish the bottom edge of the placket with a small hem. ( I skipped this step because the I had a nice printed selvaged edge, which I figured was just as good)

 Now you want to iron the sides and top in 1/2 and inch. 

If you are making the ties, fold them in half right sides together, sew and turn.  Then finish the edges.

 Here's what you end up with and now you are ready to assemble.

You also want to snip the ties in half.  You could potentially adjust this idea so that you use one continuous loop, but since I'm making it for kids I figured I wanted the top ends secure so I wouldn't have them getting pulled all the way through.

 Now you want to mark the middle of the placket lengthwise (I just marked the top and bottom, but you might want to mark a line down the entire length).

Pin it to the side seam, making sure to line up the middle of the placket with the seam. 

 Sew along your line in the ditch of the side seam, all the way from the bottom hem to the top of the placket. 

 Next you want to pin the ties right next to the seam, one on each side.  Let the ends stick out a little at the top.

 Now it's time to attach the rest of the placket.  First sew around the placket, up one side, across the top (I always back stitch and come back across to make sure the ties are nice and secure) and then down the other side.  First go around at 1/4 and inch.

 Now you want to snip the ends so that they are not sticking out.

 Still with me?  We're almost done.

Sew around the placket again, this time with an edge stitch.  I also added another row at the top to secure the ties  good and tight...we're talking about a 5 year after all, so who knows how much tugging she'll do with those ties.

 And there you have it...a cute ruched tunic.

Stop on over at Daisy Chain Creations to learn how to do the whimsical exposed yoke that you see on the tunic.

My first version of the tunic had the placket on the inside, which makes it a little less whimsical, but still fun to have some contrast going on.

Thanks for having me here on Project Run and Play!

Whimsical Tunic Embellishments

Today I'm sharing how to do the side ruching on this whimsical tunic over at Project Run and Play.  But I also wanted to share how I did the exposed yoke and sleeve tabs.

Like I said in my post over at PR&P, we're thinking ahead for some fun pieces to add to Clara's kindergarten wardrobe.  She really liked this fun owl print and the green polka dot went perfectly with it.  But why hide it on the inside?

 To create the yoke, use your back and front pieces to make a pattern.  Since I was creating the tunic without a pattern, I decided to have a little fun with the opening.  I decided to do the scallops to mimic the dots.  You can do something simple like I did for the first tunic I made.

Here you can see how I created the neck line on the front piece of the bodice. 

 Then I cut it out.

 For the yoke piece, I simply used the bodice pieces as the pattern. Done before you sew the shoulder seams of the bodice together.

 Next decide on the width of the yoke, making sure you match the front and the back pieces when it comes to how wide you'll be making it.

 Here's the 2 yoke pieces laid out on the corresponding bodice pieces.

For the next step you want to sew up the bodice pieces and then the yoke pieces at the shoulder seams, making sure to use the exact same seam allowance on both sets.

Now to attach the yoke to the bodice, you sew with the right side of the yoke to the wrong side of the bodice.  Very important, because you'll be flipping it out to the right side of the bodice.  After you've sewn them together, snip the seam allowance.  Since I had curves on this one, I notched it pretty good.

Once you've flipped the right side out, press and edge stitch around the neck opening only.

The next step is kind of tricky and takes a little patience.  You need to fold under and press the outside edge of the yoke.  Once you've pressed it, pin it really well.

Edge stitch around the outside edge and you are done with the yoke.  It's fun to have a little contrast!

Silly wide eyed girl.

View of the front and back yoke.

 As for the sleeve tabs, this is a pretty easy embellishment.

When you fold under the hem for the sleeves, just slide a tab into  the hem before you stitch it up.  Then fold it up and add the button.  Another simple thing to do to add a little contrast.

 One final picture of this silly girl.  She was making wide eyes this whole little photo shoot. 

Linked up here--Train to Crazy

Sowing While You Sew--Week 3

Toothbrush/Overnight Roll

Here is a printable copy of the instructions--Sowing While You Sew--Week 3

Objectives:

1. Learn the importance of back stitching to secure things.  Explain how a couple of back stitches at the beginning and end of a line of stitching keeps it from coming undone.

2. Practice sewing a straight line.

3. Become familiar with sewing with different types of fabric.

4. Learn how to sew multiple layers together by pinning and then removing the pins while sewing.

 Supplies:

-Hand towel

-Washcloth

-Ribbon, cording or rope—long enough to go around the roll when it has stuff inside of it

-Thread to match

Here's the how to:

1.  This project will actually make 2 complete rolls.  First, you want to cut both the towel and the washcloth in 2 equal halves.

2. Attach the washcloth to the towel.  Lay cut edges together and center the washcloth in the middle of that side.  Attach with a simple straight stitch, have them start with a couple of stitches forward and then secure with the same amount of back stitches.  Do this at the end as well.  When working with terrycloth (what most towels and washcloths are made out of) the loops of the fabric can get caught in the tip of the sewing machine foot.  This will then make it hard to continue sewing in a straight line.  If this happens, just look behind the foot and snip the stretched out loop.  You’ll just want to be watching for this.

3. Now open up the towel and washcloth and refold so that the seam is on the inside.  Adjust the washcloth up a little (about a half inch or so, depending on how big you made the seam), so that you can fold under the sides of the towel that are exposed on each side of the washcloth to create a nice finish.

4.  Pin the 2 sides of the washcloth so that it lays nice and flat on the towel.  Pin a couple of times in the middle as well to keep from shifting. Pin the bottom edges of the towel that are on each side of the washcloth under as well.

5. Start at the top corner of the washcloth (sewing over the finished corner of the washcloth is a little bulky, which will make it a little difficult, so start about a ¼ inch in from the side).  Sew down the side, making sure to secure the first couple of stitches with a couple of back stitches.  When you get to the bottom of the washcloth, make sure the sides of the towel that are not under the washcloth are folded under in a neat hem. Pivot and sew out to the side of the towel.  Back stitch to secure.

6. Repeat on the other side.

7. Decide how big you want to make the pockets (think about size of toothbrush, toothpaste, brush/comb, etc).  Start at the bottom, secure with back stitching  and sew up to the top, secure with back stitching.

8. Repeat step 7 until you have all of the pockets made.

9.  Make sure your ribbon/cord/rope is long enough to wrap around the roll. 

Fold in half and secure to the outside of the towel (opposite side the washcloth pocket is sewn on to) about level with the top of the washcloth.  

Secure with going back and forth a couple of times with the back stitch.

10.  Finish ends of ribbon/cord/rope with Fray Check or some other method to keep from unraveling.

Ideas to make it a little more challenging for someone that's a little older or might have some experience:

--Not sure if there is any way to make this one more challenging, but these certainly make fun gifts, so they could make as many as they want and have fun picking out the towels and washcloths to go with the person they are gifting it to.