Shenanigans: sewing

Showing posts with label sewing. Show all posts

2.28.2012

Baby Shower Banner

I absolutely LOVE these banners! I threw a shower for an adorable friend this past weekend, and decided to go with another triangle banner. I also downloaded these gorgeous vintage number cards from The Handmade Home freebies page to add to the bunting. I love them! Also fell in love the with alphabet card collection. Gorgeous! I'll be adding these to my nursery, for sure.

Please pardon the picture with most of the food eaten! I always forget to take a picture before the guests begin to eat!

Makes me smile. :)

9.23.2011

Toddler Halloween Skirt & Trick-Or-Treat Bucket

This skirt was so incredibly easy, and I made it in just over an hour. Totally worth your time, because it'll be stinkin adorable on your little lady!

It's just three panels, basted and gathered , then sewn to one another. The waistband is just a casing with 1/2" elastic. I'm so happy with it! I made it just big enough that she'll be able to wear it two (maybe three) Halloweens.

This trick-or-treating bucket was super easy too. It's a re-purposed ice cream bucket (not too hard to come by for me) covered in black felt, and stamped with a template from my Cricut. Her name is on the other side. I lined the top of the bucket with ribbon, then tied ribbon knots all along the handle. Super quick, super cute, and would be a fun craft with older kids who can tie knots! Can be used year after year.

9.19.2011

I'm Committed!

With Christmas just 96 quick days away, I've got to step up my game! My mom has always been so amazing with her Christmas planning; finishing up her main Christmas shopping by Halloween, it seems. She's always as cool as a cucumber all Thanksgiving, and gets to enjoy the days leading up to Christmas because she's so pulled together.

My hope is to be basically ready by Thanksgiving this year. To achieve this, I've got to get started now (since my favorite gifts to give [and to receive, by the way] are handmade)! Alexis' main gift from us is going to be a table playhouse. These are not a new idea, so our generation of mommies can't take credit for this idea. Check out this Vogue pattern from the 1970s!

I'm sure you've seen these all over blog land, and I've fallen head-over-heels for this one from Homemade By Jill.

Isn't it absolutely gorgeous?

I love the idea of using felt because you don't have to finish edges, and it's so much easier to add embellishments that kids can detach, thanks to velcro, and actually play with. I'm considering making the body out of a cotton material, then adding the felt accents to that.

Thoughts? Tips?

All her little carrots, ears of corn, and apples come off. I love it!

I'm confident Alexis would get hours and hours of play-time with hers. And, it's so much cuter than that cardboard box she played in for 6 months!

The cute girl at Sew Much Ado made this adorable one for her little boy. Boys need playhouses too!

7.20.2011

Doily Tank

The Little Lady totally joined the doily revolution!

She's definitely the hipster in the family. She and I had such a fun time painting this doily fluorescent pink with fabric paint, then gluing it to the tank top (great for covering up stains, might I add). I sewed it into place in several spots just for reinforcement. Doesn't a cute little bandana skirt just really pull it all together? :)

Blue Cricket Design

7.18.2011

Bandana Dress

Aren't all tiny things just adorable? Well, think of a super fluffy skirt made of nothing but a little bandana! That's what we have here. A dress made from a bandana! I love sewing with bandanas because you don't have to mess with any unfinished edges, and they're the perfect size for a 12-18 month old skirt (call me lazy, go ahead).

So, I got this little ribbed tank from WalMart, and the first time the little lady wore it, it got a snag along the bottom. So, to cover up the hole, I grabbed a bandana from my stash (a stash that I've hoarded since my high school days when it was the cool thing on my basketball team to wear it like a doo-rag), and sewed it to the bottom of this tank! Here, you'll see another version of this bandana dress.

Step 1: You just take one bandana, cut directly in half, then sew two short ends together to make one long rectangle.

Step 2: Sew a basting stitch on one long side of the rectangle, and gather the bobbin thread to gather the skirt/bandana. Gather until it's the same length as the circumference of the bottom of your tank top.

Step 3: Pin and sew skirt and tank top, right sides facing, all the way around the bottom of the tank. Finish by sewing up the side of the skirt to close gap.

Flip right sides out, and voila! You have a super cute, and easy play dress.

7.15.2011

Onesie and Burp Cloth Applique- Tips and Tutorial!

First of all, a HUGE apology to my 40 loyal followers (yes, 40! Can you believe it Shanny? We're famous!), for the lack of posts the past few weeks. I know that the first thing that comes into your mind as your head pops off the pillow each morning is, "Just when is there going to be a new post on Shenanigans?" :) xoxo Now, to the craft...

Onesies are a staple in any newborn's wardrobe! When you fancy-up one of these little gems, then you can feel like your babe is ready for those surprise visitors all the time!

A couple good friends have recently had babies, so I bought a pack of onesies, busted out my Cricut, and sewing machine, and just went for it!

This can be super fun for baby boys too! Here's a onesie and burp rag for baby Andrus.

For the airplane, I cut out an airplane from a cotton print fabric, and satin stitched it to the burp cloth (see detailed instructions below).

Then I had a few friends who had little girls. At the end of this post, I added pics of just a few of my favorites...

Materials:

"Heat N Bond" iron-on adhesive. Get the no-sew kind, so it can adhere to both materials
Stabilizer (found near the Heat N Bond in notions section), or white scrap fabric
Cotton fabric for cutting out designs
Cricut (optional)
Sewing machine
iron

Step 1 (if using Cricut):

Cut out a scrap of fabric large enough to fit your design. Cut the same amount of Heat N Bond. Place fabric piece, right-side down, onto ironing board. Place adhesive side (bumpy side) of Heat N Bond directly onto the wrong-side of fabric. Iron until completely bonded (about 8-10 seconds). Directions come with all Heat N Bond packages.

Step 2:

Cut design, using Cricut, then peel off the paper lining from the back of the Heat N Bond. Place onto onesie, the iron into place. It's a good idea to stitch the edges of the design onto the onesie so that it doesn't peel after washing.

Step 3: Using a satin stitch, or a tight zig-zag stitch, sew along outside edge of design (or you lucky chicas with sergers, go at it!). Be sure to place something on the inside of the onesie to stabilize the sewing (such as stabilizer, or scrap cotton fabric). Stabilizer can be torn off after sewing, but the cotton fabric is meant to stay as something soft against the baby's skin.

Huge, Monumental, Life-Changing (well it changed mine), Major tip! To reduce your chances of sloppy and loose stitches due to the gunking up of your needle as it goes through the Heat N Bond, place wax paper over the top of the bonded onesie, so it can "lubricate" the needle each time it goes through. :) It can be a bit tricky to see exactly where you're going, but you get used to it (see pic below).

6.03.2011

Wet Bag! What's a Wet Bag?!

PUL Fabric obsession part II:

Here's the next thing I've made with my new favorite utility fabric. It's a Wet Bag! For me, it's been super useful for storing wet swim suits in after we leave the pool or fountains. Keeps the other stuff in my bag from getting soggy. Yuck! And, it's machine washable, so if you have a major emergency while out and about, you can put that nasty diaper inside here and protect the rest of your stuff.

It's such a great bag! Here's the tutorial I followed. Have fun with it! It's sooooo super easy, and you can change things up, like the strap placement (if you look closely, there's a strap that goes right across the top).

6.02.2011

Snack Bag Tutorial

Have any of you entered the wonderful world of PUL fabric? I just recently discovered this amazing stuff, and my life will never be the same! It can be used for making cloth diapers, but that's just the beginning of it's possibilies. How many times have I reached into my diaper bag, only to find something a bit damp from grapes, wipes, a wet swimsuit, etc...

So, here's one thing that PUL has done for me! I have been wanting to make these cute reusable snack bags for all of the little lady's snacks I bring to church or just have in my purse. These work great, and she LOVES putting her finger through the ribbon, and toting it around the store with her. :) My super talented friend, Emily, has a great tutorial on her blog.

Here's a view of the PUL. Though it's white, with white velcro, I'm afraid you can't really see it. But, it helps keeps my purse dry!

Check back tomorrow, and I'll show you another great thing PUL has done for me...

I shared this tutorial at Sun Scholars!

5.20.2011

Shopping Bag Holder- Tutorial

My friend made so much fun of me when she saw that I was making this, because she's constantly teasing me about how I "obsess" over these stinkin plastic grocery bags trying to take over my life! Even though I remember to bring my reusable grocery bags probably 8 times out of 10 (isn't that so "green" of me?), I still feel like I'm drowning in them. So, an effort to not let these little puppies get out of hand, I have always taken like 3 seconds to roll each one nice and tightly, before stuffing them into my overflowing tote bag.

How does she know I do this?.......

So it's like this- In my church, there are a billion little babies. Consequently, a billion stinky diapers at the end of the 3 hour block. That makes for one rancid smelling "mothers' lounge." So a few of us have been "donating" our grocery bags to the lounge, in hopes that moms will first wrap up their kids' stinky diapers before placing them in the pail of horror.

One night, some friends and I were together chatting, and we somehow got on the topic of that smelly mothers' lounge, and how the smell was improving. After many stinky diaper related comments, my friend exclaimed, "Who is the world is bringing those grocery bags?"

Just before I could proudly raise my hand as the girl who saved our olfactories, she continues, "Because whoever it is, needs to get a grip! Each bag was rolled up all tight and neat. Who has time for that?!"

As I hesitated for a second, wondering if I was going to own up to this said "odd" behavior, I realized that, YES! I'm an organizational freak who takes the time to roll up my bags. As a result, I don't have to get spittin mad each time I try to pull out a bag with one hand, and instead, a tangled mess of 46 bags comes falling out onto the floor! Nope! When I want one bag, I get one bag! It's rather freeing, really.

And that's what I proclaimed (in somewhat similar words).

So, now I'm taking it one step further, with an even better way to organize those cursed bags. My grandma had one of these when I was growing up, and I found an amazingly simple tutorial at Make It Love It!

Great way to get rid of some scrap fabric, and also make our lives just a tiny bit simpler. :)

Thanks for all the grief, Ann...

5.07.2011

Pretty {Standard} Pillowcase

Little Lady has decided that she needs a big pillow to sleep with. After a few mornings of waking up with a stiff neck, her daddy finally decided he needed his back. So I ran to the store, found a pillow, and began sewing!

When I showed it to her the next morning, she was thrilled! The simple pleasures in life...

I found a tutorial from 44th Street Fabric and then added these ruffles and pom poms to it! I just can't get enough of these poms! Thanks, Jess, for the last minute pom pom donation ;)