Showing posts with label tutorial. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tutorial. Show all posts
Saturday, October 8, 2011

Felt face board



I've seen this idea all over Pinterest- a felt board that is for faces! A little boy I know is turning 1, and while this is a bit ahead for a 1 year old, I think he'll still enjoy it (and so will his older brother)

I had DaddyG cut a thin piece of plywood, which I covered with a big piece of felt. I used tacky glue for the surface and hot glue around the edges and back. The back...doesn't look so great, but no one will look at that (hopefully!) I suggest you leave the pieces much larger on the back than I did, so you can fold them and glue them easier.



I cut out a face piece, and hot glued that on. Then I just thought of different things to make. I made several pairs of eyes, and many hairstyles, noses, lips, mustaches and other things. The hardest part was trying to come up with those, so I have included lots of pictures of all of them.








Zboy had great fun testing this for me, so I'm planning to make one for him and one for his sister. I made this small enough that it would be a great travel toy as well.

I sewed the pouch (I should have lined it, but I ran out of time, so it was a quickie) so there would be a place to store all the pieces. I need a good way to keep the pouch and board together. I didn't think hotgluing it to the back was a good option, so I'm still thinking.
Posted by Mama G at 7:13 PM 1 comments
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Thursday, July 14, 2011

Bunting tutorial (with buttonholes!)



I wanted to make a bunting for Zgirl's birthday, so I scoured the internet for tutorials to get a basic idea. None were quite what I had in mind, but mine is mostly based on this one at Whip up (I <3 this blog). So here is MY take on a bunting =) (be warned, extremely pic heavy)

So start off by printing out whatever word you want. I used Marker Felt font at 400 pt. (It may have been better at 375, but 350 on the tutorial I saw seemed too small) Trace them (backward) onto some wonder under. Iron onto the back of your fabric. I used a variety of cottons, but I imagine you could use just about anything you can iron. Cut out your letters, carefully.


Cut out a template for your triangle. Mine was 10 1/4" at the widest, and 13 1/4" up the middle. I had my awesome engineering husband draw it, because he has a steady hand (also, I hate trying to draw straight lines) Cut out 2 of each fabric for each triangle, or go nuts and do separate prints for each side. Do this carefully! I hardly use pins, but I used a lot to make sure I was more precise.
Iron your letter on.

Use whatever stitch you like to applique it on. I used the applique or blanket stitch on my machine. A contrasting thread may look better than matching.


Turn the triangle pieces to face right sides together. Sew all around (I used a 1/4" seam allowance on the sides and 1/2" at the top.) Leave a small opening to turn your triangle. Before turning, trim the tip of the triangle. I didn't do such a hot job, so my points aren't great.


This is what it looks like before ironing.


Iron carefully. You can topstitch or not-I think it looks better topstitched. (left-not topstitched, right-topstitched) and you'll have to either do a slip stitch to close the opening you left to turn the triangle, or catch it in your topstitching.


Here's where I was stumped-I didn't want to sew them onto a strip of fabric or bias tape, and leaving an opening to thread something through seemed like a lot of work. DaddyG (like always!) had a brilliant idea-use buttonholes! So I made two buttonholes, equal distances from the sides (1 1/2" from the tip of the point and 1 1/4" down from the line of topstitching if you care) and perfection! Now, if I ever want, I can reuse the letters for another bunting.

A tip I never knew-put a pin at the top of the buttonhole, so you don't accidentally slice through your stitches.



And I'm done! I used a ribbon I had laying around, but I think a solid color would look best. Up next is a "Happy birthday bunting".
Posted by Mama G at 6:44 PM 0 comments
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Thursday, June 23, 2011

Shirred skirt with pockets (for me!)



I've been concentrating on sewing so much for the kids that I haven't done much for myself or my husband lately. I just ordered some shirting fabric for him (there is a ton on sale at fabric.com for $1.95 a yard!) and so I wanted to whip up something for myself before that arrived and I was elbow deep in trying to make a man's shirt.


The tutorial is here at Running with Scissors. It was easy to follow, and as I didn't notice a seam allowance listed, I asked and she replied she used 1/2". I made it from a quilting cotton I had-don't you just love the retro owls? I made each of my skirt pieces 34" wide, and looking back, I should have made them 32" each, because the skirt is just a little too full and has a bit of a pouf in the front under the shirring. It was pretty quick and easy, and I'd definitely like to make more (she has examples of others she made with bias tape and contrasting thread) with some changes. I'll make the pockets deeper, for one thing. I still need to hem it, but I'm trying to decide if I like it this length or not. I may make it more knee length. What do you think?


Posted by Mama G at 7:21 PM 1 comments
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Sunday, June 19, 2011

I fear buttonholes no more! (or Zboy's new whale shorts)



Be warned, this post has a lot of pics. I wanted to explain what I was doing as I did it.

To go with the shirred whale print dress I made for Zgirl, I sewed up a pair of shorts with cargo pockets and matching T for Zboy.

I've never really done pockets before, and as you may have noticed, I had a huge hate for buttonholes. My old machine was a 4 step process, and it always looked terrible. With my new machine and it's 1 step automatic buttonhole, be prepared to see lots of buttons coming!

I again followed my altered version of the basic pants/shorts pattern found here. I sewed the crotch seam together, and then the outer leg seam. I figured this would be the easiest way to add pockets. Measure the size of pocket you want, then iron under the raw edges. I should have serged them first, but I didn't. Now is the time to add a button if you want to sew it on with your machine. Mark the spot for the pocket, making sure both sides match. Topstitch the sides and bottom (I used a contrasting thread to add interest).
Then you want to measure for your flap. You want it to extend a little beyond each side of the pocket. Sew the short sides and one long side, leaving the other open. Trim the corners. Turn, and use a crochet hook or something to push the corners out. Iron it carefully. It should look something like this.


Then, if you want, topstitch the flap, leaving the unsewn side still open.




If you want a buttonhole, now is a good time to add it! Lay it with the side you want on top against the right side of the fabric. Match it up with the pocket and sew a straight line across.


Iron it down carefully, folding it over where you have sewn. Then, topstitch. This isn't necessary, but it helps keep the fold in place.



Then, sew the inner leg seam together, and follow the rest of the tutorial for adding elastic. Cute cargo pockets (with buttonhole! and handsewn buttons, because I forgot that step) on a cute pair of shorts.


Posted by Mama G at 7:39 PM 0 comments
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Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Fleece dinosaur tail

This tutorial made by Running with Scissors caught my attention as Zboy adores dinosaurs! Sadly, he was not in the mood to model, so we'll have to make do with pictures of the tail itself.



I don't have any velcro, so I just left it off and will add it once I get some. Start to finish, the project took around 45 min. I used fleece, which saved time on the spikes, and primarily sewed it with my serger. Fun and easy project for any kid who lives dinosaurs or dragons.
I was happy to find a use for this fleece as it is leftovers from Zboy's Halloween costume (he was a turtle)
Posted by Mama G at 7:35 PM 0 comments
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Sunday, February 27, 2011

Sparkly shirt from Prudent Baby tutorial




I made the lovely Zgirl a "Prudent baby party dress", although it ended up being more of a long shirt, due to a wiggly girl who won't hold still so Mama can measure her! The tutorial can be found here at the awesome blog that is Prudent Mama (if you've never seen it before, take your time and poke around-there are lots of great articles, tutorials, etc.)

I love the pattern and how it is pretty customizable-sleeve length, cuff or no cuff, hem or self fabric binding at the bottom, length of skirt, etc. The main issue I have is with how dang hard it is to get on! Having just one button (actually, I used a snap) doesn't allow enough room. This was kind of a tester anyway, to see how well it fit. She says it's a 9-12 month pattern and it fits Zgirl pretty well, with not a lot of room to grow (she's 19 or 20 lbs, fyi) I'm going to add 1/2" around the pattern when I make it again so that she can wear it for a while. I also plan to either have the back completely split and snap shut, or do it halfway, instead of just at the top like the tutorial says.

Her tutorial calls for a "scant" seam allowance, and I wasn't sure how much that was so I opted for 3/8". I didn't have any coordinating fabrics so I made it all of one type, with no cuffs. It took around 2 hours, I think. I'm in and out, tending to kids and husband, so it's hard to tell sometimes. All in all, I think it's adorable, and I plan to make more!




Posted by Mama G at 12:37 PM 0 comments
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Sunday, February 6, 2011

Prepping applique pieces for a quilt

I'm going to document some of the steps in making up quilt blocks. I've never done it before, and my mom is coaching me over the phone and via webcam.

Once you have your fabric, pattern, and thread, you'll want to get this awesome stuff called "Wonder under". It's fusible on both sides and has a paper backing.

Trace your pattern (using a sunny window or a lightbox) onto the paper backing of the Wonder under. Here's the key-you have to turn your pattern so the back of the paper is facing you. You want to end up with your pattern looking exactly like it does, not a mirror image. I messed this up on the first monster, but in this case, it doesn't matter-he is just flipped the other way. In other quilts, this can be a big mistake! So flip your pattern over, lay the wonder under on top and trace onto the paper backing.

Now cut out your pieces, but don't bother cutting along the lines-once you add it to your fabric, you'll be cutting again, so just make rough cuts. Another big reminder-iron your wonder under pattern piece onto the wrong side of your fabric. Yep, I made that mistake too, and ironed it to the front.
Don't do this!

Once you have done this, your fabric piece will be unusable and you'll have to retrace the pattern piece onto a new piece of wonder under.

Do this!


So, iron your pattern pieces onto the wrong side of the fabric. Lift and place your iron-don't drag it! Leave it on each section for around 8 seconds. Cut out your pieces along the lines, and there you go! You have your applique pieces ready to go.
Mine aren't completely ready because I need some white for eyes and red for mouths, but you get the idea.

Month 1 Monster


Month 3 Monster
Posted by Mama G at 1:54 PM 1 comments
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