25 Days of Christmas: Day 19 - Adjustable Infant Skirt with Free Pattern

Hey there!  Well, I don't have any itty bitty girls in my house anymore, but I have a friend who asked me to make one of these for her sweet baby girl and I thought I'd share it with y'all :)  Please bear with me - it's late and I'm playing catchup with horrible pictures taken after dark ;P

First, print out the pattern and piece it together.  This skirt should fit 3 mos-12 mos.  Obviously, it'll be longer on a 3 month old than a 12 month old, but you can adjust the waist band so it should fit all sizes within that range.

You need to cut 2 of the main skirt piece on the fold.  For the waistband, fold the pattern piece in half and cut down the center.  You need 2 waistband pieces.  Since there is no seam allowance on one side of each half, just make sure to cut a little beyond that to account for that.  

For the ruffles, cut a 2" wide strip that is twice the length of the skirt out of 3 different contrasting fabrics.

Iron your ruffles in half, then flip so you have right sides together.  Pin one end.

Sew that end and trim close to the seam.

Flip right side out and press.  Repeat for all your ruffles.

Take your main fabric pieces and lay them right sides together.  Sew side seams. 

 Trim with pinking shears to prevent fraying and press open.

Iron under the bottom edge, then iron under again.

Take your ruffle trim and pin to the hem before sewing it.  Now sew your hem and ruffle at the same time.

For the waistband, you want to leave a section open for the buttonhole elastic, so pin off the section you want to leave open.  Make sure you leave seam allowance at the bottom.

 The yellow pins are the bottom seam allowance and the centerfold of the waistband.  The blue pins mark where I want to leave it open.

Sew your seams, leaving those sections open.

This is what it will look like when finished:

Baste a double line along the top of the main skirt piece and gather until it fits the waistband.  DO NOT ATTACH yet.

Now that it's gathered, take your ruffle pieces and gather each of them so they fit the length of the skirt.  Once they're gathered, press them flat so they are in a straight line.

Figure out where you want them to be placed, and start from the outside to the center.  End with a piece of your ruffle trim and some glitter trim on the very top to cover your seams.

Now it's time to attach your waistband.  Make sure that the hole for the buttonhole elastic is at the top, so when you fold it over, it will be on the inside.  Let's just say that the first time I tried, I messed this part up :/

Iron under seam allowance at the top and fold to meet the seam line.  Pin.

From the front, sew along the seam line, making sure to catch the inside

Go back and pick out any basting stitches that are still visible.

Sew 2 buttons to the inside of the waistband next to the holes.  Take some buttonhole elastic and using a safety pin, thread it through the waistband.  Fold the ends under facing the skirt and zig zag stitch.  Button the elastic onto the buttons and you're done!

Merry Christmas!!

Ruh Roh

Well, I've done it.  I've gone and gotten behind and don't know that I'll be able to catch up on the 25 Days of Christmas...if I don't, please don't hate me ;P  Thanks for understanding!!

25 Days of Christmas: Day 18 - Figgy Pudding Hot Pad

There are several sewing projects on the queue today for orders, so I figured I'd take a few minutes and whip one of these up as well. I saw these cookies on Flickr and for whatever reason, my brain immediately went to hot pads ;P   It really didn't take that long - for sure no more than an hour.  

Here's how I did it:

You'll need:

Brown fabric

White fabric

Insulated batting

Green felt

1 red button

thread/sewing macine/scissors

salad plate - it sounds weird, but just wait...

paper

Take your salad plate and lay it upside down on a piece of paper.  Trace around the outside for your main piece template.

Do this again, but before cutting out, do a semi squiggle line half way down the page.

Cut 2 full circles out of brown fabric, 2 squiggle pieces of the white (yes, I'm very technical), 1-2 full circles of the insulated fabric (I did 1, but it's pretty thin...I'd say go for 2.) and 1 squiggle piece of the insulated fabric.

Iron your main fabric so it is smooth.  Lay both white squiggle pieces on top of the squiggle batting and pin along bottom edge. 

Sew close to the edge and clip corners.  Flip the top white piece to the back, pushing out the curves as you go.  Pin again and topstitch just along the bottom.

Baste the top of the white piece.

Cut 2 holly leaves out of green felt.  I totally eyeballed this, but you could cut out a template if you wanted to.  In all honesty, I WANTED to, but my printer has officially died, so I couldn't...very sad day for me :(

Pin the leaves where you want them, then sew them on close to the edge with your machine.  I didn't feel like switching out thread, so mine have "decorative" white stitching ;P

Hand sew the red button in the center of the 2 leaves.  Lay your white piece on top of one of the brown circles.  Pin and baste together along the edges, leaving the squiggles free.

Take the other brown circle and the insulated circle and pin them together.  You are going to quilt this one side of it.  Do a bunch of regular lines going one direction, then do it again perpendicular to the lines you just did.  Boom.  I'm so precise, which is why quilting is my best work...*ahem - that's a lie*

 Lay your circles right sides together and sew them, leaving a space open to flip right side out.

Trim the seam, then flip right side out and press.  Check to see how your hand fits.  The white part was really loose on me and didn't feel right, so I tacked the white part down through the center in a couple spots to adjust the fit.

If you want a loop, pin it inside your opening as you pin it closed and topstitch the brown part only.  Press again if needed.

All done!!  

25 Days of Christmas: Day 17 - Santa's Beard T-Shirt

At Halloween this year, I made a last minute ghost shirt for my son with some felt and a white long-sleeved tee.  It held up for approximately one wash and then was done for ;P  So much for my hand sewing skills!

I was determined that I would be able to reuse the tshirt, even though in that short period of time, he had managed to make a lovely stain right on the front of it.  What's a girl to do?  Paint over it, that's what!!

I was playing around on Picmonkey, (which is a super fun photo editing site, if you've never been there) and I saw some fun beards under the "Santa Land" design theme.  At that moment, my brain started screaming, "Cover that stain up with a beard!"  So, I did.

I went in search of some fabric paint, and found Tulip's soft velveteen fabric paint at Hobby Lobby.  Velveteen?  I had to try that out!

First, I cut the beard out of freezer paper using my Silhouette machine.  I've done this technique before and it is absolutely not necessary to have a cutting machine.  Just print on the matte side of the freezer paper (cut to fit your printer as necessary), and use an exacto knife to cut out your shapes.

Now that your stencil is made, you have to prep your tshirt.  You'll want it to be clean and washed (no fabric softener), and I ironed all the wrinkles out of mine.  Then I placed a piece of stiffened felt inside to prevent any paint bleed-through, and ironed the freezer paper stencil shiny side down onto the shirt.  Don't forget to iron on the little mouth piece, or it will just look like a devil pinecone.  Go ahead.  Look at it.  Once you see it, you'll never unsee it ;P

I didn't even bother pouring the paint into anything - I just stuck my paint brush into the bottle and worked from there.  Make sure your edges are all sealed, or you will have some seepage problems.  Go ahead and paint those sections first, from the outside in, and then get the inside.  While it is still wet, peel off the stencil and toss in the trash.  You might need to use some tweezers or a pin or something to get under the center piece and pull it off.

Let dry for about 4 hours, then set your iron on steam and steam over it about 1/2" above the surface. It says not to "oversteam," but without a picture of what it's supposed to look like, that instruction is a bit useless.  I just kinda went with it.

Once it was all done, it had a velvety feel, but was still pretty stiff.  Who knows...maybe I did oversteam it.  But it looked adorable, and covered that stain like a charm ;P

There are so many possibilities for this, especially if you spend any time looking around Picmonkey.  If you come up with something, I'd love to see what you make :D

Happy crafting!!

25 Days of Christmas: Day 16 - Gift Idea #2 - Crochet Flower Pattern

Hello! Well, I'm trying to at least post on the correct day, seeing as I've been late several times throughout this series.  Sorry about that ;P  Life is crazy this time of year!

Anyhoo...I saw these coasters on Pinterest and LOVED them.  But I couldn't find the pattern anywhere...I kept coming up with dead links and deleted posts :(  So I did another Pinterest search for crocheted flower coasters.  I found several, like this one - but it was in Dutch.  Which, even translated, was hard for me to understand.  I did finally land on this one, which was helpful.  Honestly, it was such a weird journey for how this pattern came into being, I can't remember which one I tweaked the most to get it.  Therefore I'm linking to all of them ;P

You might notice that I didn't title it as a coaster pattern.  That's because these are actually quite versatile.  I made them with Hobby Lobby's "I Love This Cotton," so it is nice and absorbent.  They would be super cute as a little face scrubby or dishcloth :D

Here's how I did it - sorry, no step by step pictures right now, but if I get a chance tomorrow, I will come back and do that.

Start by doing a magic ring.

Work a *dc, ch1* 12 times in the ring, then join with a slip stitch to tighten.  This should leave you with 12 chain spaces.

Ch 3,  and do 2 dc in the next chain space.  Do 3 dc in each space around and join with slip stitch (Still should have 12 spaces)

*Slip Stitch in between the 1st and 2nd double crochet, ch 5, then slip stitch between the 2nd and 3rd dc.* Repeat around all spaces.  Join with a slip stitch so you have 12 "petals"

Do 5 dc the first petal, then slip stitch in between petals around to the end.  Join with a slip stitch at the end and bind off.


This might seem kind of confusing without pics, as I'm reading through it.  If you have any problems before I get them added, let me know and I'll see if I can answer them for you.

Happy crafting!!


**Don't feel like making them yourself?  Check out my business page - I can make some for you :D**