Sewing/Crafts
Potty-Learning Time is Near!
Jamie’s been really interested in using the potty for awhile, but things have been crazy the past few months between travel and morning sickness. I was finally able to finish up a stash of trainers for him, though, and we’re ready to get started learning to use the potty.
Jamie was very excited about mama sewing him new undies. He helped pick out the fabrics, and he showed them off to the whole household as I finished each one.
All spread out:
Stacked up pretty:
And, um, modeled, sort of. Jamie says his new undies give him “superhero muscles!”
I used the pattern that I use for Fishsticks & Jam trainers for these, but it’s very similar to my Little Fishies Undies pattern.
Toddler Clothing Swap
Remember these fabrics?
It was so much fun to take what would normally be considered a “boy” fabric and make it girly. Here’s the whole set:
The top is a modified version of the Itty Bitty Baby Dress from Made by Rae. I increased the size to 3T, shortened it to make it tunic length and added the ruffle at the bottom. The bottoms are my own AJ Bottoms Shorts lengthened slightly to fall just below the knee with the added ruffle.
I also heard that the little one I was sewing for is just starting to use the potty so I sewed up a few F&J Trainers for her, too.
Skirts for Sewing Seeds and a Little Fabric Shopping
I managed to sneak out for a little alone time this morning to a little local quilt shop. It was so quiet, and it had such a lovely selection of fabrics. I wanted to spend all day. I came home with this really sweet Moda Dinosaur print.
I’m doing a Toddler Clothing Swap with an online friend this month. She has a 2-year-old daughter who loves dresses, dinosaurs and purple, so I matched up the dinosaur print with the purple and green dots. I’m going to turn them into a dress with matching bloomers. I’m thinking I’ll add a ruffle at the bottom, too, just to add to the girly-ness.
I also thought I’d share these two skirts that I whipped up before we left Texas for The Sewing Seeds Project. These will travel to Costa Rica this summer where I pray that they’ll be a blessing to the little girls who receive them.
You can read more about the project and how you can contribute, too, by clicking here.
Traveling Umbrella Girls – Update 1
The Umbrella Girls are coming along nicely!
Having a bit of sewing experience, I thought I could figure out how to do the hand applique/embroidery stitches on my own. Ha! That was definitely not the case. I was so thankful for the Wi-Fi at our hotel and the great tutorials that I found online. When I first got started, I thought it was really slow and tedious, but after the first couple of blocks, I really began to enjoy it. Now I’m thinking that I can really understand why people enjoy doing hand embroidery so much.
Here’s a picture of me working on one of the girls on the front porch at Florida Black Bear Cabin.
Traveling Umbrella Girls
If you know me well, then you know that I can’t stand to be idle for very long. When we travel by car, I really enjoy having something to keep my hands busy. My mom recently let me bring home an umbrella girl quilt that my grandmother made when I was a little girl. I remember how much I loved it then. The primitive, handmade look that it has to it really appeals to me. I have wanted to make a quilt just for me for a long time, so I thought I’d try to recreate this one with my own flair. Since all of the umbrella girl pieces are hand appliqued, it’s a perfect traveling project.
The original umbrella girls:
My new blocks and applique pieces all cut out:
I’ll update with my progress as we go. My goal is to finish all 24 squares by the time we get home.
A Last Minute Kilting Project
Yep, I said, “kilting”, and not “quilting”.
I love to sew, and I love a challenge, so when I received an email last Tuesday asking if I could find time to sew up a kilt before the weekend retreat, I jumped right on it. Rather than actually using the pattern that I was given, I just measured my husband and looked at the pictures on the front of the pattern, and made things up as I went along. The kilt needed to be adjustable because it was to be used for a “pole-throwing contest” by multiple contestants, so it’s fastened with Velcro (actually it’s Aplix because that’s what I had on hand).
Front:
Back:
Modeled by my champion pole-throwing husband, Ray:
Ray’s winning pole throw:
Winner of my Sew Mama Sew Giveaway!
Whew! How exciting! I had 539 entrants in my giveaway and got to know alot of amazing crafters. I’m still going through and looking at everyone’s blogs. I love getting inspiration from what others are doing!
On to the winner . . . I used random.org to select a winner:
And the winner is Tiffany of Tiggle Giggles. Congratulations, Tiffany! I can’t wait to see all the great bags you create!
My “Up-cycled” Purse Set
My Sew Mama Sew Giveaway is open for a few more days: Giveaway. I can’t wait to see who the winner is!
I’m heading out of town for a weekend retreat this morning, but thought I’d leave you with one of my latest projects. I’ve really been wanting to make myself a unique Sammi Grace Bag, so I went hunting at my local thrift store for ideas. I found this corduroy skirt during one of my trips:
See the middle seam and the little tabs on the waistband?
Aren’t they just perfect for a bag?
I love how it turned out! Here’s the inside:
And, what purse is complete without a matching wallet and key fob?
The wallet pattern is one of my favorite patterns from Wired Up Designs.
See you on Sunday!
Sew Mama Sew May Giveaway Day
Closed for entering now, mamas! Thanks so much! I’ll do the drawing and announce the winner tomorrow morning, June 1st.
I’m so excited about participating in Sew Mama Sew’s May Giveaway Day! If you haven’t heard of it, just click the link above and read all about it. You’ll have the chance to check out some really cool blogs and win prizes!
The Sammi Grace Bag is one of my favorite patterns. It has so many options including a full-size bag, a shallow bag and a mini bag. The outer part of the bag can be flat or gathered. And, there are multiple options for dividers and pockets, inside and out.
Like all my Fishsticks Designs patterns, the Sammi Grace Bag pattern is computer-drawn and is printed on 20# paper for durability and ease of tracing, folding and reinserting into its storage envelope. The instructions are printed in booklet form with pictures of each step. And, I’m always available by email if you have any questions while you’re sewing!
On to the giveaway . . . I am giving away a copy of the Sammi Grace Bag pattern and a yard each of two of my favorite fabrics from Joel Dewberry’s Aviary collection. To enter to win, just leave a comment on this post before May 31st. I’ll draw a random winner on June 1st. I’d be happy to ship internationally, too, for those of you outside of the U. S.
I hope you’ll take a few minutes to explore my Tutorials and my Sewing/Crafting posts. I really enjoy sewing and love to share that joy with others! Feel free to add a comment on any of my posts, if you have any questions for me.
Mini Zippered Bag Tutorial
I started working on this little bag because we have quite a bit of travel planned for this summer, and I’ve found that when we travel I use way too many disposable zipper bags for miscellaneous things, like markers, toys, legos, snacks, etc. This little reusable bag will be perfect to fill with those little things and throw in the kids’ backpacks that I made a few weeks ago. (It would also be a great little cosmetic bag.)
The finished size of this bag is approximately 9″ X 5 1/2″, not including the handle. You could easily increase the size, though, and turn it into a larger bag. If you increase the size, you could also line it with diaper-makers PUL and use it as a wet bag for soiled cloth diapers or damp swimsuits.
For this project you’ll need two pieces of cotton woven fabric cut to 10″ X 6 1/2″ for the outside of the bag and two pieces of a medium weight fabric like cotton twill cut to 10″ X 6 1/2″ for the inside of the bag. You’ll also need to cut two pieces of your outer fabric 1″ X 2 1/2″, and one piece of outer fabric 9″ X 4″. And, of course, you’ll need a zipper with a length of at least 9″. (I used a 12″ zipper because it’s what I had on hand.) Seam allowances are 1/2″.
Start with preparing your zipper. Pin your zipper to one of the 1″ X 2 1/2″ pieces of fabric with right sides facing at the top end of the zipper, as shown, and stitch across.
Fold the fabric out at that end of the zipper and lay it out flat with the top facing you. Now, measure 8″ from that seam and mark your zipper at that point.
Line your second 1″ X 2 1/2″ piece of fabric up at that line and pin with right sides facing. Sew across, backstitching and forward stitching a few times to secure the end of the zipper. Fold the fabric out and trim off excess zipper.
Now lay one of your outer pieces of fabric out with the right side facing you. Center your zipper on top with the right side down and raw edges lined up.
Lay one of your inner pieces on top of the zipper with the right side facing down. Line up the raw edges, and line up the inner piece with the outer piece under it. Pin in place. You should now have a “sandwich” with your outer fabric on bottom, zipper in the middle and inner fabric on top.
Sew in your zipper now using a zipper foot. I put my zipper pull about halfway down, sew to just before the foot, backstitch, remove the fabric from the machine, pull the zipper pull pass where I’ve already sewn, then backstitch across where I just stopped my stitching and stitch all the way to the end.
Repeat this process to attach the other outer and inner layers of fabric to the opposite side of your zipper. Now your bag should look like this when it’s layed out flat:
Now you’ll topstitch your zipper, but before you do each side, flip the inner layer to the other side, so you’re just topstitching through the outer layer and the seam allowance. Sew to the zipper pull, put your needle down, lift your sewing machine foot, pull the zipper pull past the foot, put the foot back down and continue sewing. Repeat on the other side. Trim excess fabric from ends of zipper.
To prepare the strap for your bag, take your 9″ X 4″ piece and press it in half the long way with wrong sides facing. Unfold, then fold each long edge into the middle and press again.
Fold in the center again and press.
Topstitch each long edge at approximately 1/8″.
Fold handle in half and line up raw edges about 1/2″ below the zipper and pin to outer layer of fabric only. I angled my handle up slightly. Stitch at about 1/4″, backstitching and foward stitching to reinforce.
Now, open your zipper up to halfway — don’t forget this step or you won’t be able to turn your bag all the way. Next, flip your inner and outer pieces towards each other, lining them up with right sides facing, like this:
Pin fabrics in place like this. At the zipper, you’ll have a bit of extra fabric. That fabric should be folded towards the inner side of the bag. Here’s a picture to show you what I mean. (I apologize that the picture is blurry. I’ll try to get a better one with the next bag I sew.)
Now begin sewing your pieces together about 2/3 of the way across the bottom of the inner pieces. Sew all the way around the big rectangle, forward and backstitching a few times across the handle to secure it well. Leave about a 3″ opening in the bottom of the inner pieces.
This next step is a little hard to understand until you do it once, then you’ll see that it’s really easy. Grab each corner, individually, and pinch it so that the side seam meets the bottom seam and pin it across. Your bag will now look like it has four little cat ears.
Next, at each corner, use your ruler to determine where the width across the little triangle measures 2″ and draw a line.
Stitch on that line, then trim off the excess fabric.
Now, you’re ready to turn your bag right side out. Turn it through the opening, then push the inner layer inside the outer layer, pushing out all your corners. If everything looks nice, pull the inner back out and pin and sew your opening closed.
Push the inner back inside and fill it with fun stuff!
