Princess Caddy or Purse

I will start by saying that a- I didn't make this, b- my sister is amazingly creative (love you).  For Christmas my sister made this Princess Caddy for my daughter.  Emily was THRILLED.

She took 2 ideas from different websites.  Here was an idea for A Box o' Princesses  and here is the idea for a Cozy Car Caddy.  She turned the Cozy Car Caddy into a purse perfect for a little girl to carry around with her.  In the big pocket my sister included the backdrop (not pictured here) from the Box o' Princesses for my daughter to color and use as a background with her princesses.

Here are all the princesses my sister painted (she did an amazing job! My 3 yr old immediately recognized who all the princesses were).  L to R are Ariel, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Belle, Rapunzel or "Tangled" as my daughter refers to her, Cinderella.

My daughters 2 favorite princesses close up.  My sister got so much detail on these princesses it's amazing.  So much better than the ones on other websites.  Like I said my sister is AWESOME!

This gift was so awesome.  Now my son can take his Car Caddy everywhere and my daughter can take her Princess Purse.   Enjoy.  

Christmas Sewing Projects

I've started sewing again.  It's an on again off again thing.  I have to have a purpose and deadline or nothing happens.  We started decorating for Christmas this year. We put up the tree one night, decorated it the next night, the next night but up the scene and then the boxes of Christmas stuff just sat around my house.  Every time we went to decorate we'd get everything out but not necessarily put it all away when it was bedtime (the story of my life).  So things have gotten..... lets just say misplaced.  One of those things was the kids Christmas stockings.  I'd torn my whole house apart looking for them and then put back together looking for them... no luck.  I talked to hubby about it and we decide I should just make replacements.  This way they will finally match Mom and Dad's and it will be more personal.  So I let my creative juices flow once again and voila Christmas stockings.  I just traced my stocking for a pattern and then purchased the felt sheets for the red parts.  I also use fusible bonding paper and just cut a Lightning McQueen and some Butterflies for the stocking pictures.  Then I did a machine blanket stitch around them all.  For their names I did a tight zigzag of 2.5 width and .5 length.  I drew the names on with a pencil/white crayon and sewed over the writing.  I'm pleased with how they turned out.  Especially since I purchase mine and hubby's.  But the kids match perfectly.

This is more of a craft project since there was no sewing involved but it was really fun to create.  I found the idea for this on pinterest.com.  Here is the link http://emptybobbinsewing.com/2010/12/12/o-christmas-tree-o-felt-christmas-tree/.  I used her tutorial for ornament shapes and the idea to the command strips to attach to the wall.  The kids love taking the ornaments on and off and I even personalized them by adding Lightning McQueen and a Butterfly ornament (I'm sure by now you are noticing a theme for each of my kids).  I love it and I'm going to use it next year.  So easy because the felt sticks to felt.  If you want to do the strips or picture,etc use the bonding paper from the fabric store.  Works great.  My store only had green, black, red, and white felt so that is why those are the only colors.

Jammies - non Christmas for once

My daughter's 3rd birthday was a few months ago and she was growing out of her jammies so I decided I could make her some for her birthday. Well I was just going to do some nightgowns.  Then I went back to Walmart to buy buttons and low and behold they have more fabric and now it's doubly on sale. So I decided to make pants to match also.  Then my son told me he wanted me to make him something and guess what there was some Cars fabric on sale.  So a simple sewing project turned into a big undertaking, well sort of.  Here are the results (my children are happy people I promise but turn the camera on them and they become silly).

 These are her "butterfly jammies".  Yes I know it looks like she's drowning but I'm tired her growing out of things to quickly so I make things to last by making them a size or two larger than her current size. Then I do tricks like adding elastic to the sleeves/pant leg for a cute ruffle and to make them stay. The top is made out of fleece, and the bottom is made out of flannel.

These are the flower jammies.  Silly girl wouldn't stand up straight for the camera.  Both pieces of fabric are made from the same flannel.  See they are big so they will last.

These pants require a bit of an explanation.  So we found this remnant car fleece on sale and this boy LOVES cars (if you can't tell by his comforter and sheets and shirt).  So I didn't even look at how much was available I just bought it (stupid I know).  I get home and realize, yes it may be 60" in width but it's only like 20" across.  SO I lay the pattern along the opposite grain line of where they are suppose to go made the pants and yeah they don't fit.  The length is right it's just the hip/butt area that is to small so I grabbed some leftover green Christmas flannel and sewed a big strip of it along the crotch area and now it fits.  So what if it stretches down the leg instead of across.  He loves them and they were a quick and easy project.  I'm finally learning to let go of the rules of sewing a bit and just let my creative juices flow. 

Sewing Pumpkins

I've tried these before.  So super cute.

Christmas Jammies 3 months late

Okay I made Christmas Jammies for my family back in December and I never posted pictures since I was a little busy with Christmas.  So here they are.

Now I made the pants and the sleeper only.  Not the t-shirts.  I know that the pictures don't show it but my husband and myself have pants of the same fabric as the kids.  Maybe I'll take pictures of them tonight and post them later, we'll see.

Matching Jumpers

This weekend I made my daughter and I matching jumpers.  If you would like step by step instructions on how to make either one of these email me.  But here are the pictures.

Little Girl Jumper

So I was getting out my daughters 24 month clothing and discovered that I had no dresses.  A must for a little princess so I dug into my sewing closet and found this really cute fabric and jumper pattern. By the way this is a lined bodice.  All seams are sewn on 5/8 in unless it says otherwise.

This is the bodice front and back lined up.

Step 1: Sew the shoulder seams together. On both the lining and the actual bodice.

Step 2: Sew the lining to the bodice. Sew around the neck and arm holes.  Clip curves. 

Step 3: Open up the lining from the bodice.  Sew the side seams together .  

Step 4: Sew the center back of the lining and bodice together.  Clip corner.  Turn right side out. Point out corner.  Iron everything down so you get nice clean seams.

Step 5: Sew side seams of skirt together and sew skirt center back together.  Remember to serge/pink/zig zag all the raw edge seams so your skirt won't fray away in the wash (not necessary on bodice as all seams are enclosed).  Also leave the top few inches of the skirt center back open for the zipper. This is why I serged each side of this seam separately and not together as I did on the side seams. 

Step 6: Sew gather stitches along top of the skirt.  To sew gather stitches use a 5 stitch length (or the longest on your machine) and sew 2 rows of stitches.  One at 6/8 in and one at 4/8 in or (1/2).  I stop and restart at every seam and also in the center of the skirt front.  I do this so there is less chance of the gather stitches breaking and ruining all the gathering you were doing.  

Step 7:  Gather the skirt to fit the bodice.  Pin the skirt to the bodice matching up at every seam and at the center of the front (skirt and bodice).  Then you can gather in between all the pins to be even and fit.  To gather take either the needle threads or the bobbin threads and GENTLY pull. Tip: for every section you gather take the end you are not pulling and wrap around a pin so your gathers don't fall off the other end.  Pin as you get each section gathered to your liking.  When you finish gathering a section wrap the pulled threads around a pin.

Step 8:  Sew the skirt to the bodice (not the lining or vice a versa depending on which one you choose) . 

Step 9: Iron the bottom of the lining (or the bodice which ever one is not sewn to the skirt) up 5/8 in(the amount you sewed the bodice to the lining). Then pin it to the skirt (this should be the opposite side from which you sewed before, thereby enclosing the waist seam).  When you go to sew the seam you have a few options.  If this is the front of the dress I would recommend either sewing 1/8 in from the edge or hand sewing so it is invisible.  If you are just sewing the lining to the skirt then you can hand sew it so it will be invisible or you can do what I did (you will notice on this blog that I avoid hand sewing at all costs).  I used the "stitch in the ditch method".  I put on a blind hem foot and leave my needle in the middle.  Then I sew from the front right up against the other seam, this makes the stitching from the front invisible but you risk not catching the back in all the places and it can look a little sloppy on the inside.  

Step 10:  Put in the zipper.  Unzip the zipper and pin one side so the fold lines up right against the teeth or a little over (whatever you want).  Using your zipper foot (which requires you to move your needle, I usually move it closer to the needle) sew straight down one side.  Zip up the zipper and pin the other side of back so it matches up with the other side of the back.  I start from the the previous side (the end of the zipper) and sew across to the other side and then sew straight up the other side. Tip: when you get close to the pull of the zipper, put your needle in the fabric lift the presser foot and move the pull by either zipping the zipper up or down (whichever gets it out of your way for the longest time).


Step 11: Hem the dress.  (sorry I spaced a picture here)  I typically try the dress on the individual and fold up where I want it on a side seam.  Then I take the dress off measure how much I folded it up, fold it up that amount all the way around.  With her dress I did a size bigger than she actually is so she can "grow into" the dress.  So I hemmed it up 4 inches.  I like doing a "rolled hem".  Since the hem needed to go up 4 inches I fold/iron it up 2 inches all the way around then I fold/iron that over again and then sew it down usually 1/4 in from the top fold.

Here is my princess in all her glory with her little dress on.  She was being a difficult model that is why in the second picture she has a graham cracker in her hand.  

Here she is full length.  My favorite thing is how long this dress is.  That is a problem I have with a lot of little girl dresses is they are all knee length or higher.  I wanted a long dress (especially since winter is around the corner) and this can easily be layered with a long sleeved blouse.