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)!!!

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!

The Other Jacket

I finally finished my other jacket!  I used one of my 3 year old's shirts for reference, but cut my pieces about 1 inch larger because I wanted it to be able to fit over other clothes.  I cut the bottom about 2 inches below the armpit thinking I was going to make a jacket with an empire waist, but after trying it on halfway through, my daughter and I decided it should be a bolero.

I folded my material in half to cut it out to make sure it would be symmetrical. (note: I cut out two of these)

I took one and folded it in half to cut the front open and lower the neckline.

I traced the sleeve of the existing shirt to get this cutting line too, but I made sure and lined it up with the hem of the shirt I was reusing.

No pictures of the rest of the process, but it was pretty standard.  I basically did something kind of like this link from Crafterhours, but there is no ribbing to worry about.  Then I made bias tape like this tutorial from Craftiness is not Optional, and sewed it all the way around.  Finally, I made a rectangle with 2 button wholes and sewed buttons on both sides of the front opening.

My 1 year old just won't stay away with her books, and you don't want to see the 3 year old's face...well, maybe I don't want you to see her face.

Cardigan #1

I finally finished the first cardigan I started here.  I took the long folded fabric from the mentioned post They are 3" wide and as long as the cardigan front) and folded the ends of the fabric inside, then sewed the long sides closed with the openings of the cardigan sandwiched inside.

Then I cut 2 rectangles of fabric twice as long as the sleeve openings are around and 3" wide.  I sewed the short ends together to make tubes, then fold the tube in half with wrong sides together and zig zagged the raw edges.

 

After that, I basted beside the zig zag and gathered to match the sleeve openings.

With my sleeves turned inside out and folded to the right length, I pinned the ruffles on the current outside of the sleeve and zig zagged in place to allow some give.  Then I trimmed off the extra material that was turned up.

The circles are cut from my material and scrap from the sweater that I finished with frey check, and attached with a few crossing rows of zig zags.

Beginning a Cardigan

I started one of my cardigans that I mentioned in my last post.  The first is made from one of my pull over sweaters. 

I traced a shirt that fits my 3 year old onto a big piece of brown paper.  If you want yours to fit over bulkier  clothes don't for get to make your pattern a little bigger than a normal fitting shirt.  I  also folded the pattern in half and trimmed/added so it was symmetrical.

Then I pinned the pattern directly onto my inside out sweater making sure to match up the collar.  Then I sewed along the pattern.  I found that this made the fabric more stable without leaving anything that would need to be torn away later.  I wanted a long cardigan, so I gradually angled my stitching line from the waist of the shirt pattern out to the lower corners of the existing sweater.  I also wasn't sure what I wanted to do abut cuffs, so I continued sewing past my sleeve patterns to the end of the sweater sleeves.

 

Now we have a long sweater with long sleeves.  Next I folded the sweater in half and cut all the way up the front.

I tried using an iron on adhesive to finish the raw edges in front.  Here I ironed it on the edge and am removing the backing.

But when I tried to fold it over and iron it in place, it just wouldn't take.  I think it had to do with the weight of the fabric and the low temperature of the iron, but I was afraid to turn it up because the sweater is acrylic.

So I fixed it with this material that I cut and folded kind of like bias tape (but I didn't cut on the bias).

I'll have to save embellishments for another day.  In the mean time, anyone have an idea what to do with the sleeves that I still have folded up like I did in the picture above?