Tiptoe through the tulips?

My daffodils are up about 6" and I have crocus in bloom -- so it only seemed fitting to use tulips as the theme for these little capri pants.

I have had the pink striped fabric in my stash for probably close to 25 years and this was the project for it.  The ruffles have serged rolled hems.  For the appliques and pockets I again printed out the pattern pieces using the Scaling feature in Print Layout of The Complete Clothier program.  However, I did not cut out the pieces ... yet.

I traced the flowers onto Solvy (I used a fine point red sharpie since I didn't want black).  Then I placed that over the right side of the fabric -- and since I could see through the Solvy, I could turn as I wished to get the stripes the way I wanted them.  Next I just stitched around the flower with a small straight stitch on my tracing line .  Finally, I slit the Solvy and turned the flowers so the seams were now on the inside.  Using a steam iron, I pressed them into place on the front of the pants and then stitched them down using a smal zigzag stitch.  The process really was quick and easy.

For the pocket (large flower) I used two layers of fabric so that when it was turned, the Solvy would be in the center and the pocket was self lined.

The doll's appliques were left raw edged and single layer, even though I did trace the small flowers onto Solvy and used those as the patterns.  The were simply pressed to the pants and then stitched into place.

The little girl's pants have graduated sizes of tulips while the doll's are all the same size.  So while they match, I didn't try to duplicate them identically down to the last detail.

A tank top is planned to coordinate and even cut out, but I ran out of sewing time.  Maybe I'll work on it this week so they are ready for thext next exhibit.


FedEx?  Research is still pending and I am to call back later to check on the status.  And trust me, I will keep checking.

something for the little ones

It's that time of the year again -- Sewing and Stitchery Expo in Puyallup, Washington (near Seattle).  Once again The Complete Clothier has a booth but this year I didn't make the trip.  I'm busy at home with some other obligations.

So I volunteered to sew a couple things for the display.  I enjoyed making a few things for our youngest model at the Novi show and thought it might be a good idea to have some fun kids' things on display at Puyallup.  It's been many years since my offspring were young enough to wear this type of fun fashion and frankly I was too busy working, cooking, driving, and bleacher sitting when they were this age to do much sewing for them.

Let's start with the easy ones -- something for girls.  Most of the garments were inspired by the fabric.  Once I found that, then I created a garment to showcase it.

First up is a piece of soft peacock blue pinwale corduroy ... to me that said JUMPER.  Found a cute print to go along with it for a blouse that had a heart and flowers motif.  The perfect complement was a satin polka dot in two shades of hot pink.    The heart theme was carried out with pockets.  I had intended to do a banded collar with the polka dots as the collar band and the heart fabric as a stand up, rolled edge ruffle.   Can we say ... not enough time?  Backup plan was a satin neck binding instead.

The hearts are a single pattern that were sized in Print Layout to different percentages so that I didn't have to redesign the heart multiple times.  The bottom one is a faced pocket (100%) and the top two are appliques (60% and 40%).  I stitched the appliques to fusible interfacing, slit the facing and turned to enclose the seam, and pressed to the jumper before edge-stitching with a decorative blanket stitch from my machine.  I wasn't totally happy with that because the interfacing "puffed" a little at the edge .... so you will see in a future post a different method that worked a little better.

Did I mention that I used two figure charts?  One for a little girl and one for her doll?  By cutting and sewing at the same time, it felt like the doll clothes just magically appeared instead of being a project on their own.  The machine was threaded -- I just did each step at the same time.

The only real difference for the doll was that all the hearts were the same size (20% of original) and all were appliques ... I didn't think she needed a pocket.

Another technique I used was a serged rolled hem on the "cuff" of the sleeves.  To create the ruffle I zig-zagged over narrow elastic so that the thread created the casing.  I did that in dark pink thread so that there was a touch of pink on the bottom of the sleeves to tie in with the neck binding and the appliques.  If there had been more time (there is never "enough" time) I might have done a rolled edge on the bottom of the sleeve in hot pink ... as it was, I had only light pink cone thread and the one thing I hate to do is change threads on the serger.  It was a lot easier and quicker to change the thread on the sewing machine instead.

A side saga .... I sent the clothes out on Monday Feb 28, FedEx 2-day, so they would be delivered to the hotel on Wednesday ... so they could be taken to the booth on Thursday morning, the first day of the show.  The "crew" leaves the hotel at about 7 am to be able to be on the vendor floor ready to go when the doors open.  Ummm, my Office Max receipts showed that it would be delivered on Wed, Mar 2 ... when in reality it didn't get to the hotel until almost noon on Thursday.  I have a claim filed ... currently "being researched."   I will keep you updated.   I don't want to pay $35 shipping for delivery that didn't happen when promised.  The tracking shows that the pkg sat in Memphis all day Tuesday before being shipped out to Seattle on Wednesday morning.

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brrrrr, it's cold outside

I was sorting through some of my remnants and two ended up together in the pile and said "Make something with us!  We think we belong together!"

It was a pink fleece and a wild t-shirt knit.  So the fleece became a darted t-shirt from my TCC pattern and the knit became a binding around the neck, sleeves, and hem.

I wanted to make the binding wide enough so enough of the coordinating pink was visible and made a conscious decision to "bulk" it up so it would add some dimension.  On hindsight, after wearing it, I think the bindings are a bit heavy and now wish I'd used a different technique.  There's always the "next" one.

However it meets the following criteria:  It fits.  It is warm.  It is cheerful.

What more could I ask?  

Let's get organized!

I knew I'd be making more of these purse organizers!  This batch was for a group of friends and they had told me their favorite colors -- green, orange, and blue.

The outside was a denim remnant from a long ago pair of jeans and the linings were fat quarters that I cut in half and seamed to get the length.  They aren't bandana prints but do have a little of that look.  Each are bright enough to be visible inside a purse.

Each was topstiched in a coordinating color and this time I used the bartack stitch at the top of each divider stitching.  I added a few little goodies to give a clue how they could be used, again color coordinated.

I couldn't believe my luck at the dollar store with the perfect gift bags!   I didn't want to ruin the effect with a gift tag so each was marked with an appropriate color ribbon on the "purse" handle.

More Canine Couture

I actually thought I had posted the second jacket --so here it is now.

Of course Louis fell between two sizes.  Of course even though the pattern had several views, his owner wanted the hood and short sleeves -- so that just meant using the hood from view G and sewing that instead of a collar onto view F.

Here's a link to the pattern  McCalls 5776

The fabric for this was taken from a little dog "blanket" that I bought at JoAnn's on Halloween clearance -- the black with the white bones ... perfect!  And of course, I just saw it as fabric.  With the sale price on the fleece with a sale pattern ... this little jacket cost only $2.25 out of pocket.

I tried to keep the blanket stitching edge wherever possible, using that for the hood and the sleeve and coat hems.  When we had the first "fitting" I realized that it would be a poor choice for the sleeve hem since the toe nails were likely to catch and the jacket itself was too long.  So the sleeves got turned up with a little cuff and stitched and the shirt itself was shortened.

We also decided that the underside would need to be scooped a bit more so that it stayed dry -- those alterations were done with scissors until we were happy with the fit.


Talk about a custom garment!  And a perffect contrast for his fur. 

Canine Couture

Louis came for another holiday visit -- my how he has grown.  From 5.5 lbs last year to 11.4 lbs this year.  You can see the difference in the size of the water bottle!  (same brand)

Ohio had a little more snow and colder weather than he's used to in Georgia, so we decided it was time for a new coat.  Actually we have a couple more planned as well.  The first one is from McCalls 6218.  We shopped the stash and decided to use the same blue fleece from last year and paired it with a traditional woven plaid for the lining.

McCalls 6218

Once I started sewing it became clear that the blue fleece should be the lining to provide comfort and warmth -- and the plaid for the outside.  The blue fleece was better for the contrasting scarf.  Here's the finished coat.

Maybe I don't know how to measure dogs, but I thought his length is 14" and his girth is 16". I had measured around his belly and from the pattern envelope it would seem that the Large is the correct size.  It seems too big around, but we accommodated that by trying it on him and then deciding where to attach the velcro.

Exchange gift

'Tis the time of year when we need token gifts but want them to be nice.  The criteria for this exchange is that it can be handmade (or not), have a sewing-related theme (or not), but must be < $10.

I decided to make a simple little purse organizer--the tutorial was found here:  purse organizer tutorial

I happened to have some striped ultrasuede that looks a little like denim and includes a rainbow of colors.  Since I have no idea about who the recipient will be in this grab-bag exchange (other than it will be a female), I figured this would work.  Her favorite color has to be in there somewhere, right?

Then it meant digging in the stash for something to use as the lining.  I could have been conservative with a solid color but found some calico that was more fun.  The colors seemed to be echoed in each piece.

I used the dimensions of the original tutorial since again, I don't know whose handbag will become home to this organizer and I don't want it to be too big.

I didn't take pictures of it in process, but some things I did were to make sure that I pressed the seams open on my pressing buck before turning.  That helped to have a nice edge, especially on the ultrasuede. I used my stitch-in-the-ditch foot to make sure that the edgestitching was even and I used a size 16 denim needle.  Another thing was that I rounded the corners to make it easier to turn the ultrasuede and avoid any lumps.  I used a tape dispenser as my template to get a nice curve. 

I used the stitch that backstitches at the beginning and end of the row of stitching to make sure that the vertical "divider" stitches wouldn't some undone with use.

It can be rolled up like a jelly roll for a small purse, or it could be just be allowed to wrap around the entire perimeter for a larger purse. 

I think there will be a few more of these to come out of my sewing room this year ....