Personalised t-shirt

My little girl loves to dance. She always has: her earliest nursery reports were of her bopping away to the music and clapping her hands. Now, at almost 18 months, she will happily dance on command or whenever she hears music. She twirls, spins, bounces, occasionally jumps, and is just the happiest wee creature you've ever seen.

So this morning, I took it in my head that I wanted to make her a shirt. A wee dancer shirt. For those of you not familiar with Scottish phrases, I can refer you to various dictionaries of Scottish vernacular, which define "dancer" as a "term of glee or exultation. Tap dancer- three stairs up in a tenement or top floor in a prison (also called Fredastair or Freda)" - see also here. Basically, it's a good thing, and being called a "wee dancer" is a term of admiration and appreciation. 

And here is my little girl's Wee Dancer shirt. You don't need to make a wee dancer - the method could be used for anything. Try putting your wee one's name on it. Or how about a big number 1 for a first birthday?

You can, of course, make a t-shirt from scratch but frankly, why bother when you can buy a perfectly good one for £2? (This one's from H&M - £1.99, but you can also get multipacks of white onesies or t-shirts from places like John Lewis and Asda.) 


Start to finish, this project took me exactly one hour.

You will need:

• one t-shirt, of an appropriate size
• bondaweb
• a small bit of fabric (or fabrics) in contrasting colours to make your letters
• an iron
• a good pair of scissors
• a printer, stencils, or a good hand at drawing letters
• a sewing machine (optional)

Step 1: make your letters

The easiest way to do this is to get onto your computer, type the word or words you want, and then fiddle with fonts and sizes until you have a pattern. I used 220 point Futura bold outline for mine. Try not to pick a font that's too fussy or narrow as you will have to cut out all those fiddly bits, and possibly sew them later on.

Once you've got your letters looking right, you need to print. If you can, print a mirror image of your words, so that they come out backwards (usually you can do this in your print settings). If you can't, don't worry - it's just a bit extra work.

Now, hold your printout up to your t-shirt to make sure the size looks right and it will all fit. If it looks good, go ahead and trace your letters onto your bondaweb. If you weren't able to print a mirror image, you can either cut them out and flip them over and then trace, or trace their outline onto the back of the printout and copy those. You should now have a sheet of bondaweb with your backwards letters on them.

Step 2: make the fabric letters

You now want to fuse the bondaweb onto the fabric you've chosen for your letters. Make sure you're doing it on the WRONG side of the fabric! Once you've ironed the bondaweb on, carefully cut out all the letters. Peel the paper backing off, arrange them on your t-shirt, and iron them into place. Your letters should now be the right way round!

Step 3: sewing 

You can now, if you want, set your sewing machine to a very small, tight zigzag stitch and outline the letters in a complimentary or contrasting thread. This will ensure those letters aren't going anywhere, and can help the design pop out a bit. However, unless you're very very good (I'm not), you might also lose some of the sharpness of the letters. So, if you've used a fabric that isn't going to ravel or fray, or the t-shirt doesn't need to last an eternity, or you don't have a sewing machine, feel free to skip this step. Just make sure you've done a really thorough job of ironing the letters on.

And ta-da! You are finished! Easy as pie, and the t-shirt world's your oyster. Why not try and personalise a set of plain white sleepsuits for a new baby, with matching burp cloths? Or a little hat? Or a towel, or a bag... 

The Joys of Applique

Honestly, I don't know what I did before I appliqued. To think I spent a whole year of sewing without it! Here's what I've been up to this week. Both presents have now been handed over, and are thus safe to share.

For a beautiful wee girl, what better than name bunting? I actually really like this, and it may become my standard new baby gift. It can hang above the cot when baby is born, and make appearances for birthdays and special occasions throughout baby's childhood. If you're expecting, expect to get one of these from me!

And for another special baby who is being baptised this weekend in Hungary, what better than a name blanket? This was done in very soft, creamy coloured polar fleece. I finished the edges with a blanket stitch using pale green yarn, and attached the flowers, leaves and letters with bondaweb (using a damp tea towel, as fleece melts under an iron!). If you don't know how to blanket stitch (I didn't), then check out this video, complete with soothing music. It's easy as pie.

I then stitched the flowers and letters in white, but used green for the leaves. It does show through on the back, but it was so much better on the front that it's worth it.

A bit time consuming, but definitely not tricky. And I hope they make their special little owners smile.

Toddler trousers

Seven of you answered the poll on the website and said that you wanted to know how to make toddler trousers - here you go!

Toddler trousers are just about the easiest things in the world to make. Having said that, I constantly screw them up. This is because they are actually quite counterintuitive. OK, they are only two pieces of fabric sewn together with three seams...but each time I make them (correctly) it amazes me how they turn out.

Choose your fabric wisely and you can make these in twenty minutes. Add an applique, ribbon or trim, and pockets if you've got time to spare. Stretchy knits are lovely - just make sure to use a zig-zag stitch. Try cozy fleece for winter, or make mini-joggers with a drawstring waist. Oh the possibilities!

You will need:

-a pair of toddler trousers to use as a template
-newpaper for making your pattern
-fabric
-elastic (I like to use fairly thick elastic, but whatever you're comfortable with really)
-thread
-sewing machine

Step 1: making your pattern

Take a pair of trousers that already fit your toddler, or are the size you want to make. Lay them on top of a piece of newspaper, so that the outside edge of the leg is along the fold of the paper.

Trace up the inside seam, and along the top until you get to the centre seam of the trousers. Remove the trousers, and join together your top and inner seam lines. Cut out and open up the paper to hopefully reveal a shape like this:

Step 2: Cutting Out

Cut out two of these shapes.

Step 3: Sewing

Here's the part I ALWAYS mess up. If I look at the pieces of fabric, my feeling would be to fold them in half and sew to make the legs. But that's not the right thing to do (and yet, I do it 3 times out of 4...this pair of trousers was the FIRST that I managed to sew properly in the first go). But don't worry - I'm sure you are much cleverer than I and this will pose no problem at all.



What you do is sew up the top right and left sections of your two pieces, like so. I used a zig-zag stitch because my fabric is stretchy. Use a normal stitch for not stretchy stuff, and it's a good idea to go over it again for strength. Sew the left and the right side.



Sew up the top half, left and right, to make the bum and front of your trousers.



Now open up your trousers and turn them so that one of the seams you just sewed is front and centre, and your fabric looks like this:



Now, pin together and sew up and around the inside to make your two legs. Again, it's a good idea to sew this twice for strength. You may want to snip around the curve, too, if the fabric isn't lying flat once you turn it right way out. (To do this, make tiny cuts up to but not too close to your line of stitching, just to easy the tension on the fabric as your stitches curve.)



Hem the bottom of your trousers to the desired length.

Fold over the top edge of what will be your waistband, just a tiny bit to get rid of the rough edge (or forget this step, because it will be hidden inside the trousers anyway!). Fold it over again, to make a casing wide enough for your elastic to easily fit. Sew around the bottom edge of this casing to secure it, and leave an opening of about 1-2 inches.

Cut your elastic to the desired length. The best way to do this is to actually measure it on your model! You don't want it too tight, or too loose - especially for babies. Attach a safety pin to the end of your elastic and start threading it through your casing, making sure you don't lose the other end!

Once the elastic has gone through, grab both ends and sew them together, sewing over the pieces several times to keep them secure. Now sew up the rest of the casing to hide the elastic away.

Turn your trousers right side out and admire! Embellish as desired and enjoy. Easy peasy.

The finished product!

Smocking!

I've always been a sucker for smocking. Before I had a daughter, seeing smocked baby dresses would nearly reduce me to tears. To me, smocking is everything little girl clothes should be and I would spend far too much on a dress just because it had a little bit of smocking on the top. You get the idea - I LOVE smocking.

So last year, when I was first learning to sew, I googled smocking in hopes that I could master it and put it on EVERYTHING. But it looked impossibly hard, and I never tried it. Smocking went into the 'for skilled crafters only' file (along with applique, and look how wrong I was about that!). But today, I was given a fantastic book: Making Stuff: An Alternative Craft Book. Along with a fantastic way to cheat at felting, it had instructions for smocking a little sundress - and it looked dead easy. So during nap time, I ran out to the fabric shop to buy shirring elastic and spent £1.70 on 60cm of floral poly-cotton to make this adaptation. (Normally, I like 100% cotton but this was the practice number. I bought some gorgeous cotton for the next one!)

Now this would be easily done in a nap time - even a short one - but I kinda goofed in my measurements. Math is never my strong point. So follow the equation carefully, and you can have this dress done in 30-40 minutes, no problem.

What you need:

-fabric, about 60cm for a child's dress
-shirring elastic, in a colour that vaguely matches your fabric
-thread
-buttons (optional)
-sewing machine and iron

Step 1: draft your pattern


 Basically, you are going to make a shape something like a rectangle with the bottom half of a triangle. To do this, you first need to measure around the chest of the little one you're sewing for. On my model, I measured loosely and got 48cm.

Now you need to do the math. Take your chest measurement (48) and divide it by 4 (=12). Then add the original chest measurement (=60) and divide the total by 2 (=30). This is the right way to do it, not whatever way I originally did it which gave me 22.5 and subsequent problems.

So, the number you get is the top of your sundress. Now you need to decide how long you want the bodice (the smocked part) to be and draw down to give you the rectangle part. Now add 1/3 of your top width to either side and that will give you your bottom width. Draw diagonal lines down from each side to make up this number. You can actually make your bottom width as wide as you like; the wider it is, the fuller the skirt will be.

Pattern shape - cut two of these

It all sounds quite confusing written down, but if you've got a shape like the one in the photo then you're on the right track. Cut out two of these.

Step 2: Sew the dress up

Hem, zig-zagged and turned up once

Put your two piece of fabric right side together and sew up the side seams so that you have a tube-like shape. Open up the dress and press the seams flat. Now fold over the top about 1/4 inch and press. Fold over again and press again before sewing. Now do the same for the hem on the bottom of your dress (or, sew along the rough edge with a zig-zag stitch and then just fold up the once before sewing).

Step 3: smock!

Wind your elastic onto your bobbin. I had to do this by hand: I don't know if other sewing machines can manage it, but mine can't. It doesn't take long, though. Keep your normal thread in the top and put your elastic thread into the bottom.

Set your sewing machine to its longest stitch and position your presser foot just below your finished top. Make sure that your dress is right way out at this point, so that the elastic is on the inside and your normal thread is on the top. Now, start sewing!

The inside will look like this when you're done.

You are going to sew what will be horizontal lines all around the top of your dress, like hoops! Your first one won't look like much, but when you finish the first row, stop, cut the threads, and reposition your presser foot so that its edge is in line with the row you just finished (basically, your rows should be about 1/4 inch apart).

Keep going until you've smocked as far along as you want and then stop and admire how clever you are!

Step 4: Straps

Set your stitch length back to normal and take the elastic out. Cut two strips the length desired for straps. Make them a bit longer if you want them to cross in the back, and cut them about 2.5 times the width you want them to actually be.

Fold them in half length-wise, right sides together, and sew up the long edge so that you have two long tubes. Turn them right way out and press flat. Tuck in the rough edge of one end and sew. Add a button hole to the end of each strap if you want to use buttons. Sew buttons on to your dress (front or back, up to you!) where you want the straps to fasten. Sew the other end of the strap on to the inside of your dress on the opposite side.

Ta da! A gorgeous sun dress, which can be worn alone or over a shirt or onesie, made in an hour!

Modelled by my wee one, before the straps were added

Variations: make four straps, and have them tie over each shoulder, or simply sew your straps in place. If you want to go this route, for a young child I would suggest using elastic so that they're stretchy enough to make the dress easy to put on.