Summer Sewing

Yesterday was spent working on my little girl's summer wardrobe. We're going somewhere hot and humid for a week, and she'll need - well, summer clothes! Since little dresses are always my favourite thing to make, I tried a few different ones out (there's one more to come).

First off, this wrap dress. It was ridiculously fast and easy, once I got the pattern pieces sorted. The pattern template on this tutorial worked really well for the front two pieces, but not for the back. What I ended up doing was cutting out the two front pieces, positioning them as I wanted them to look, and then laying them on top of the fabric and tracing out the back piece to match. I also gave my pattern a bit more of an a-line to the skirt, because I think little girls need a bit of room to kick! I used two versions of the same cotton patterned fabric, and this dress took 1/2 a metre. Wrap dresses are dead easy and super forgiving - loads of fun combinations to be made with these!

Back




Front

 

  

And on!



Next up, this peasant dress. This was a breeze, and took no time at all. I had the fabric already, reclaimed from something else, so it already had the pink stitching on. Super cute dress, and I'll make more for sure!

And finally, the piece de resistance. I love this fox fabric (by Moda) and wanted to make a gorgeous short sleeved shirt with it. I made a combination of the peasant dress above and this gorgeous tutorial. I pleated the sleeves and front, and in the end added a few to the back to size it properly. I love it.

Front

Back, with red buttons

Sadly, my daughter's response hasn't been the same. She was most excited about the wrap dress, and wore it happily - for fifteen minutes. Then she demanded I take it off. When she woke this morning and saw her fox shirt, she was again very excited - but screamed until I took it off of her. And she wouldn't wear the peasant dress. I still have one more dress to make, from a beautiful creme broderie anglaise... But I may well be giving these away! Still, some fun patterns and good tutorials. Happy summer sewing!

Pirates and Planes

My sewing machine has been going non-stop this week. It started when my son's nursery had a pirate theme for the week. The children were encouraged to bring in pirate things, and as he didn't really have any, I decided to make him a quick eye patch. I took a piece of black felt, and some pirate print that I had in my stash. Cut out a skull and crossbones from the pattern (I'd been thinking about cutting out my own applique but frankly, 3 1/2 year olds don't appreciate the fine art of applique) and stuck it onto the felt with bondaweb (I didn't even finish the edges. Bad mummy!). Then, I made a little tube with black cotton fabric, threaded a piece of elastic through, and attached both ends to the felt patch. Ta da!

I was feeling quite pleased with myself (and I would show you a photo, except that son has hidden the eye patch somewhere in the flat and for the life of me I can't find it). But then, the rest of the nursery children upped the game and the next day he came home wanting a pirate hat, like his best friend from across the street had. 

Pirate hat, kindly modelled by Wol.

After some probing questions, I learned that this was a bandana/skull cap affair, and I turned to the internet for help. There were a huge number of tutorials for folding a bandana gangsta-style, but finding a good pirate one took a while. I wanted something that was sewn rather than tied, because I knew otherwise I would be tying the thing onto his head every 3 minutes. It took some careful googling, but finally I got this tutorial. I adjusted the measurements slightly, basically taking an inch off so that my semi-circles were 4 inches high and 8 inches long and my central strip was 4 inches by 15 inches.

Pirate pieces, ready to be sewn

Then, for the band that goes around the front and acts as a tie, rather than making a tube and turning it inside out (I HATE doing that), I simply pressed my long piece in half and pinned it along the cap with the rough ends lining up. I then sewed along, and pressed it down flat. When I came to the ties, I pressed the edges in a bit and then sewed over top, tucking the ends in. In the end, I got this. It fit perfectly, and my son was thrilled. Alas, pirate theme is over now and goodness knows what I'll have to make next...

Cap shape sewn, before the band is added to the bottom

Ta-da!

But more fun than pirate hats: I've been making travel bags for the kids. These will be stuffed with stickers, crayons and so on to keep them occupied on an upcoming long trip. I found this tutorial ages ago, but only just decided to make it - and it really is as easy as she says it is! The longest part was ironing on the interfacing. Once that was done, it only took minutes to put together. I added a snap instead of velcro, but otherwise followed the pattern exactly.

I LOVE these, and want to make them for everyone I know. A few things I'll do differently next time, though: I would add a loop on the top for hanging them on a hook, and possibly a side pocket.

The ladybirds are for my daughter (1 1/2), and I made it exactly the size of the pattern. The turtles are my son's, and I enlarged the pattern by about an inch on all sides so that I could fit all his many bits and pieces into it. They are super easy and super lovely - give them a try!

Superhero Capes (with extra toddler safety!)

Me, age 2, as a Superman ballerina

Yesterday, my children decided to be superheroes. I don't know where this game came from, because as far as I knew they didn't know what superheroes were, but since my son's interpretation involved running around with a bath towel yelling, "To infinity and beyond!" I'm guessing it might have something to do with Toy Story. The bath towel bit, well, it shows creativity, right?

Anyway, after watching his little sister run about with a towel wrapped around her head, completely obscuring her vision, I decided they deserved proper capes. After all, I had a Superman cape when I was wee. Sure, I used it as a ballerina tutu... But it was a cape sometimes, I'm sure.

Capes are pretty easy. I'm sure you don't need me to tell you how to sew one. But I'm always a bit uncomfortable about tying things around my children's necks. Not that they can't be trusted but...well, they can't be trusted. So I thought long and hard about how I might make a baby-safe(r) version for them. I originally decided I would elasticise the whole neck and close it with a piece of velcro, which would have the added bonus that they could do it themselves. But alas, no velcro to be found at 11pm. So I went with this compromise: the neck is partially elasticated, so as to give enough to keep them safe, no matter how rough and tumble their superhero play gets. It can be made within half an hour.

You will need:

- fabric - how much depends on the size of your child and how full you want your cape. These were each made with about a fat quarter worth of fabric.

- elastic

- bondaweb and a contrasting fabric for letters, if desired

- sewing machine and iron

Step 1: cutting out

This is a very rough project. It's not a finished work of art; it's a play piece. And so, I didn't take much time or care in my measurements. I measured the back of each of their shirts and added roughly 5 inches. For my son (3), I made a 20 inch square; for my daughter (1 1/2) I made a 16 inch square.

Fabric square, folded in half and trimmed...

Then, I folded the squares in half and cut the edge at a slight angle, to give the piece a bit of a triangle shape with a nice, flat top.



...to give this shape

 

Step 2: hemming

Now fold and press the top and bottom edge of your cape, then fold it over and press again to give a nice finished look. Hem the top and bottom, and then do the same for the sides. (I was using really horrible cheap polyester fabric that I happened to have in my stash and it frayed like mad. If you were using something nicer, you could probably get away with just folding it over the once and hemming.)

 Once all the edges are finished, turn the top part over about 1.5 inches (more if your elastic is wider) and press. This will be the casing for your ties to pass through.

Finished edges, with the top pressed down

Step 3: ties

Now cut two strips of your fabric, 2 inches wide and the length that you would like your finished ties to be. Fold each of the long edges in towards the middle of the rectangle and press. Then fold the strip in half, press again, and sew so that you have a nice, finished tie.

Both edges pressed in, before it is folded in half and pressed again.

Take your elastic, and cut a piece about 2/3 the length of the top of your cape. Sew each end of the elastic to one of your ties with a few rows of secure stitches, so that you have a long tie that with the section of elastic in the middle, like so:

Step 4: attaching the tie

Now, pin your tie in place so that it tucks underneath the fold you made for the casing, and the start of the elastic lines up with the right hand edge of the cape. That sounds a bit confusing. Maybe a picture will help.

Now sew the casing closed on that right hand side, making sure to catch the tie in your seam. Once it is secure, pin the elastic to keep it in place and sew along the bottom of the casing. Then, pull the tie so that the elastic part lines up with the left hand edge, and sew that part shut too. Your cape should now look like this:

Step 5: Superhero adornments

Because it was 11pm, I just cut out son's and daughter's intial and attached them to the cape with bondaweb. I didn't even sew around the edges to secure them. Of course, lots more care can be taken with this step, designing a crest for your child, working in multiple colours, and so on. But like I say, it was 11. I wanted bed.

Things I might change next time around: the fabric. I hate nasty polyester, and I really fancied a nice dark blue for the capes. And I do like the idea of the neck attaching by velcro, which would be even safer and easy enough for the child to do it by him or herself. Also, I think my son would have liked a fuller version, so that it swooped and he could hold the edges out.  But they will do. And it was awfully cute watching them eat their pancakes this morning in their pyjamas and capes.

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... 

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.

Child's Tool Belt Apron

This Bob the Builder inspired apron can be used for art supplies, cooking, or gardening tools. It fits a 2 year old, but because of the super long ties it can be borrowed by any age. Total time: 30 - 40 minutes, including cutting out

You will need:

-a rectangle of fabric (Fabric A), 40cm x 23cm. Go for something sturdy; I used brown corduroy.

-another rectangle of contrasting or complimenting fabric (Fabric B), 23cm x 40cm to be used as backing and lining. You want this one to be quite light. I used blue cotton gingham.

-2 pieces of Fabric A, 65cm x 10cm

-1 piece each of Fabric A and Fabric B, 42cm x 14cm

-thread

(You will also be helped by an iron and a sewing machine!)

Now I'm afraid this tutorial was an afterthought so I didn't take pictures as I went along. Hopefully this will make sense.

STEP 1: Making the ties

Take your two long, 65 x 14 strips and iron them in half lengthwise so you now have two 65 x 7 strips. Open them up and tuck the raw ends in a bit (they don't have to go right to the centre crease). Press the raw ends, and then fold the whole thing back along the original crease and sew it together. The ties are quite long, but I find it easier to wrangle a toddler into them if there's room to spare.

Variations: You don't have to do it this way: you could also fold the piece in half with the right side in, sew up the long side, and turn the whole tube right side out. Then press flat. This has a very neat finish, but it takes ages to turn the tube right side out and drives me nuts. If you're pressed for time, you can also use ribbon, or simply fold your fabric in half once and sew. It's just a child's tool belt; we're not going for perfection here!

STEP 2: Making the apron back

Take your two 23cm x 40cm rectangles and place them with their right sides together. Sew around one long side and up two thirds of both short sides (I used about a 1/4 inch seam allowance, but this isn't rocket science. Whatever you like.) Take your two finished ties and put them into the pocket you've made. Pull out the edges so that they're sticking out and finish sewing up the short sides. Your ties should mostly be tucked inside the apron and only a little bit of one end should be showing as you sew.

(This is probably common sense to most of you, but I can't count the number of times I've neatly sewed ties on the wrong way around. Stop and check before you sew. It's really annoying to get it wrong, and makes you feel not so clever.)

Sew up two-thirds of the remaining long side. I like to leave the open third in the middle - it makes corners easier - but again there are no real rules here. Snip the points off the corners (this gives you sharper corners when you turn it right side out, which you will do... NOW!)

Turn the apron right side out. Give it a quick press to make the edges nice and sharp and while you're pressing, tuck the unfinished edges of your opening in and press them down, too. You'll sew them in a minute.

Topstitch around all four sides, making sure you catch those unfinished edges mentioned above. Topstitching means that you sew over the layers as close to the edge as possible, just to secure the two layers and keep them from shifting about. This isn't an essential step, but it does make everything look nicer and hold together.

STEP 3: Make the pockets

Take your two remaining triangles of Fabric A and B, and sew them together as above (leave an opening, turn them right side out, press and topstitch around the whole thing).

Step 4: Sewing on the pockets

Position your rectangle across the apron where you want the row of pockets to go. The rectangle will hopefully be a bit bigger than your apron. This is so that there's a bit of give for little hands to fit in to the pockets. It does mean that you might have to do some adjusting as you sew because you don't want to just sew the two pieces flat together. Make tiny little overlapping puckers at the edges of your pockets as you sew across the bottom. Just have a bit of a fiddle - you'll see what I mean. It helps to pin them in place so that the give is spread across the whole row of pockets and you don't end up with just one very loose one and three quite tight!

You can make however many pockets you like. Just pin the fabric in place, and then sew across the bottom and up where you want your pockets. These stitches will get a lot of pull on them so it's worth going over the stitching again and securing the top and bottom of your stitches.

And...you're done! Fill with tools, gardening supplies, spoons and whisks, or pens and paintbrushes. Decorate with buttons, badges, iron on appliques, or ribbon if you have the time and inclination.

Cheat's variation:

For the ultimate in simplicity, use coloured felt. There's no need to line the pieces; just cut out one big rectangle, one small rectangle, and two 65cm x 5cm ties. Sew as above and enjoy - start to finish this should take you about 10-15 minutes.