Repunzel Doll and Boy Shirts

I normally end up making hair bows for my niece for her birthdays, but I've been wanting to make a Black Apple doll for some time.  I wanted to make Repunzel, but wasn't sure how to make long hair hang down in the back.  After asking around, a friend suggested a wig, and I kind of like how it turned out.

 

 

Now she can be long haired Repunzel, or Repunzel with a hair cut.

 

And why not make a market skirt (minus the pockets) for the birthday girl to match her doll?

 

I've also been wanting to make a machine embroidered shirt using this technique.

 

It turned out to be harder than I expected.  Even with the stabilizer, the fabric shifted on me a lot.

 

This was a little easier.  I sewed diamond shaped t-shirt material onto the shirt and stitched stripes on top to make an argyle pattern.

 

It's hard to come up with ideas for handmade boy gifts...I can't imagine that clothes are really that exciting of a present.

 

I'd love suggestions for next years gift for a 9 year old boy.

When I go Thrifting

I'm going to have a good opportunity to go thrifting in a week, so I've been looking for some inspiration for repurposing projects.  Here's what I found at Old Navy.


And maybe I'll to put together a Milk Maid Skirt from Crafterhours.

So I'll be looking for gauze like material, chambre, large men's button ups, lightweight jersy and lightwight cotton...actually, I should probably look through my stash of already thrifted materials first...but I'd really like to get a hold of some chambre or linen material.

Ruffled Shirt

I wanted a girly shirt to wear with my taking notes skirt, and didn't want to spend the money on it.  So I took a boxy button up shirt that was a little too big and some pleated fabric to make a ruffled shirt.  I found this tutorial from Chic Steals, but I didn't want to make it this complicated so...

I did this.  I thought I had already posted this, so lets see if I can remember what I did.

First, I tried the shirt on, inside out and pinned along the sides and underarms where I wanted to take it in to make it more form fitting.  I drew a line on one of the sides between my pins and cut away excess fabric.  I used the excess fabric to show how much to cut off on the other side so it would be symetrical (even if I'm not).

I sewed the sides closed, zig zagged, and top stitched on one side of the seam to hold the seam allowance down.  This also made the seems look more like the original.

I ripped out the seem in the back an inch on either side of the tuck.

 Where I ripped out the stitching, I basted and gathered the lower piece to match the upper, stuck it back inside and sewed it shut.

 

Using my pleated fabric, I cut and hemmed 2 rectangles for each side (one 3" wide and one 1.5" wide) all over twice as long as the distance from my shoulder seam to below my bust.

 

...then stacked them to baste and ruffle.

 Starting at the shoulder, I sewed the ruffles onto the shirt along the collar down to below my bust.

Easter Outfits

I love the Taking Notes skirt from Sewing in No Man's Land (I had to make elastic waistbands for them to fit my youngest and me and just made the belt separate to tie on over the skirt), but I knew my oldest would protest the high waistband.  And since she ended up looking like Eloise in her birthday jumper, I decided to make her a peasant dress instead, but it just seemed to need something more.  So, I decided to elasticize the waist and add some ties in the back.

I cut 2 rectangles the width of the dress waist, sewed them together and turned them right side out.  Then I top stitched, sewing ribbons for ties onto the ends.

I attatched the rectangle to the skirt along the top and bottom top stitching and 2 more line along the length that divided the rectangle into thirds, and cut 3 lengths of elastic that were a couple inches shorter than the rectangle.

I threaded the elastic through the casings, pulling to the disired gathering and pinning in place.  I secured them by sewing over the side top stitching and trimming the ends of the elastic.

Then I dressed the girls up to go outside and model, but they thought it was time to play (see the girl standing on the picknick table?).

So, it was hard to get a good picture...all those distractions.

I think she's trying to look like Eloise too.

Amazingly enough, we managed to NOT get grass stains and dirt on our new frocks, so I won't have to wash them before Easter...which means they won't have to be ironed either (yeah)!!!

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss

Here's what we did yesterday!

Nothing professional, but we had fun.

 

They are supposed to be hats.  The potato was the cheapest thing I could think of to ruin for a toothpick holder, but the outcome seems somewhat Seuss-like to me (if only I had dyed it purple...).

It was just us, but I hope the girls remember having fun as a family when they get older.

Green eggs and ham (bacon) anyone?

Taking Notes and Market Skirts

I made these skirts following the basic idea of tutorials that I mentioned before.  Z's is basically a Market skirt from Made, and mine is a Taking Notes skirt from Sewing in No Man's Land.

Doesn't it look like we have a good secret...well, if she looks at the camera instead it normally looks like the next picture.  Much to her parent's embarrassment and frustration.

Can you tell there is some drama at our house.  We are a rather expressive family.

 

I must say though, she is a good story teller.  She gets it from her father.

...and of course anything big sister can do, little sister can do too!

My Yoga Waistband Skirt Tutorial

My husband was generous and paid for some material I picked out at Hobby Lobby the other day!  Here's some my daughter picked out that might take a while becoming a skirt (what, you say it won't happen on its own!?).

And as I said before I wanted to make an a-line skirt with a yoga waistband for myself and couldn't find a tutorial I really liked for woven fabric.  So, I thought I would share what I did. 

I'm going to refer to a hip measurement because I have hips and need the room to get my skirt on if it doesn't have a zipper.  If you are going to make this skirt for a child or you don't have much of a hip, you could probably just use your waist measurement.

 Here are the pieces I started out with:

2 waistband pieces (waist-5")/2 x 10" (mine was  11.5" x 10")

2 skirt pieces and 2 lining pieces using this pattern

 I followed directions for the waistband that are easy to find posted on blogs.  But I found I really had to try it on to figure out how narrow to make it.  Actually, I had to take this skirt apart after I wore it a day and make the waistband a couple inches narrower (I took this into account when I gave you measurements above).  Knits vary so much in their stretchiness.

Sew sides together and finish edges on skirt.  Repeat on lining.

With right side of lining facing wrong side of skirt (so they are both right sides out), baste across the top front and again at the top of the back.  This way you can gather from both sides.

Gather skirt top to fit waistband and pin waistband to right side of skirt with cut edge of waistband lined up with top edge of skirt.

Zig zag together and finish and trim woven fabric.

Top stitch with raw edges toward skirt.

Make a ruffle and sew to bottom of skirt.  Hem your lining.

Top stitch.

Ta da!  But it's still gathered more in the front than I would like...

So when I made this skirt I adjusted my pattern at the waist.  The front pieces are waist/4 + 1", and the back pieces are (hip-front skirt piece + 2")/2.  Length and skirt hem measurements are the same.

 Hmm...I keep trying to tell my camera man to leave the flash off.  Looks like I was too late on this one.