Toddler Thanksgiving Outfit, Part 2

Toddler Skirt

Grade: B

Difficulty: Beginner

Pattern: Twirly Girl Skirt Tutorial

As you can probably tell, this is the skirt I made first, then used the scraps for the matching shirt featured in my previous post. Sorry to break up the matched set, but I felt like the first post was long enough without adding the skirt to it!

Anyways, this skirt was very simple to make, and turned out beautifully! If you have already clicked over to the pattern source site, you will notice that author there only gives the measurements for a size 4 and a size 6. I made mine a size 2, so I will tell you the measurements I used to make it, as well as how to use that math to figure out your own.

Regardless of the fact that I had to (and you probably will too) do  some math, I still gave the pattern a B. The directions were very straight-forward and her pictures are awesome! The only thing I didn't get was her strange opening to put the elastic in. I simply sewed all three of my skirt pieces (both the under and outskirts) into their own continuous loops, then attached them to the respective side to the waistband pieces. Because I didn't stitch the two skirt layers together anywhere, the opening for the elastic was still accessible. So you essentially have two skirts, just attached at the waist. Hopefully that makes sense! Other than changing that, the only thing I did differently was to use some pregathered eyelet lace instead of the gathered chiffon that she used.

The whole outfit! She's already worn the skirt too, cause really it's for all of fall!

This pattern is all straight lines, the hardest thing really is is putting on the trim at the bottom, and the elastic casing. Easy for any beginner to do, and if you are wary about doing trims, this is the perfect project to do them on the first time, as the rest of it is so easy!

So the math. For this you need your childs waist measurement, and a measurement on how long you want the skirt to be, once it's finished.

I cut my skirt pieces as follows:
    Waistband: 4" wide by 28" long, Cut 2
     Skirt pieces: 6" wide by 18" long. Cut 3 each of the outer and inner skirts
    Small band: 2.25" wide by 18" long. Cut 3 pieces.

So this is how I worked the math out.

•   Waistband length:  measurement of childs waist + 10 to 15 inches, depending on the age and size. The smaller the kid, the closer to 10 you probably want to be, and visa-versa.
• Waistband width: you want this to be about 3/8 of your desired skirt length, plus 1/2" for seams.
• Skirt width: You want this to be approximately half of your desired skirt length, plus 1/2" for seams.
• Skirt pieces length: This is the waistband length minus 8-10 inches, depending on how full you want the skirt to look. If you are doing your waistband 15 inches bigger than your childs waist, doing the skirt pieces 8" smaller than that would probably still give you a very full look. Remember that there are 3 of these pieces, not 2.
• Small band width: Cut as directed in the pattern, unless you are doing this for an older child, in which case you may want to add 1".
• Small band length: cut these the same length as your skirt pieces, so your seams all match up nicely!

Hope that helps you figure out how to do one for your own little darling! And now I have mine recorded somewhere semi-permanent! I would love to see your versions!

  

Toddler Thanksgiving Outfit, Part 1

Shirt

Grade: A

Difficulty: Beginner

Pattern: Described below

To start with, this is a two-part project, the shirt here, and a skirt. The skirt will be in it's own upcoming post, so you don't have so much to read/ wade through at once. I'll put a picture of the two together on the second part.

So I've seen shirts for sale with this saying on it, and decided it would be really really simple to make my own! The saying is simple to do, and you can pretty much do anything you want. Here's how I did it, and the supplies you need.

 Supplies
 -1 shirt, desired size. Mine started white. I used some orange Pekoe tea to dye it a cream color.
- Fabric scraps to make applique
- Heat n Bond Lite (Make sure to get the lite if you plan on stitching the fabric down. If you don't want to stitch, you can use the Heavy Heat n Bond, but in my experience it will peel off after several washes)
- Diagram of your saying, if you want to use the same fonts I did, here's the document: Gobble doc
-Matching thread
-Sewing machine

Since I dyed the shirt, I had to thoroughly rinse and dry my shirt. If you do something similar, you want to use as little laundry product as possible  (No soaps or softeners). This will help the glue in the Heat n Bond stick as much as possible to the fabric.

In the process of tracing. I like to have a stack of pens next to me, so I don't have to move anything if (and when) the pen stops working on my cold windows. Also, if you want to thicken any of the letters, this is the perfect time to do it!

All traced, backwards!

 After prepping my shirt, I traced my words onto the Heat N Bond. Remember that you want to put the Heat N Bond on the back of you fabric scraps, then on the front of your shirt, so you need to trace the letter BACKWARDS onto the paper side of the Heat N Bond. The easiest way to do that, is to put your paper right side away from you on a window, then put the Heat N Bond sheet paper side facing you on top. Then trace.

After tracing onto the Heat N Bond, cut approximately around the letters.

Follow package direction to apply the Heat N Bond to the back of your fabric scraps.

You will notice that I left the dots for the 'i' and the exclamation point attached. I cut them out last thing before I ironed the pieces onto the shirt.  Also, if you are using my template for the words, I highly recommend starting your cutting with the holes in the centers of the letters. I cut mine entirely with a pair of scissors. I suggest borrowing or buying and Exacto knife.

Cut carefully on your traced lines on the paper side of the Heat N Bond.

Place fabric as desired on front of shirt.

Follow packages directions to apply fabric to shirt.

Stitch fabric as desired with matching/coordinating thread of your choice.  The nice part about this, is that your letters are essentially glued down, so they don't move while you stitch, and you don't need 1000 pins! Beware that the Heat N Bond may eventually come undone from the shirt or the fabric. If you want the letters to stay exactly as they are now, you will need to stitch as closely as possible to both edges while still staying on the fabric. I thought about trying to use my darning foot on this as if I was doing free motion quilting, but the knit shirt was just too stretchy for that to work! So I used my regular foot and did lots and lots and lots of pivoting.

Voila! A custom shirt, for whatever your little heart desires! All you really need for this is a good font to use that fits the project, and those are easy to find for free! There may even already be some goodies living in your computer! After that, it's just picking the colors you want, and knowing the easy steps to do it! This is also very, very simple to do with shapes!

A close-up of the finished stitching.

Toddler Dress

Simplicity Toddler Dress

Grade: B

Difficulty: Intermediate

Pattern: Simplicity 2461

So I bought this pattern one of many times that JoAnns had them on sale this year, for $1. Can't beat that! The fabric is a 100% cotton, from Fabri-Quilt Inc., circa 1995. It's kind of old so you aren't likely to find it anywhere, sorry.

Pinafore and dress together, from the front

I gave this pattern a B for a couple of reasons. Overall, it was fairly easy to sew. There were a couple of times that I read through the directions, and wished I had a translator. Luckily, I actually found the pictures in this one very helpful. I love the way that the pattern directs you to use a piece of bias tape in the inside of the neckline to give it a nice, flat, smooth finished edge. No itchies! Mostly the B grade comes from the overall fit. I know I have a skinny toddler, but I feel like it's way too big around on her!  Maybe if you have a chunky to super chunky kid, it would fit just like you want it to though!

 Together, from the back.

Nevertheless, I will be using this pattern again for sure! The finished product looks very nice without too much hassle! The dress pictured is a size 1 (approximately an 18 month). Next time I'm going to try making a size 2, but only cut it to the size 1 width (if that makes sense) so that it isn't quite to big! the only downside, is that I find I need to iron it after most washes. Bleh. But that's what old cotton will do I guess!

Difficulty-wise, you need to be okay with some curved seams, hems, putting elastic in casings, attaching buttons, and putting in a zipper.

Just the dress, front view.

In case you are wondering, I got this fabric for free from my Grandma's stash. She had a bolt of each of them, which I, ahem, borrowed with permission. That plus getting the pattern for $1, means I bought the zipper, and two little spools of matching thread. So less than $5 total. Yay for Grandma's stash!

Pinafore, from the front.

Lastly, Miss E loves it! Lately she wants to wear dresses almost every day of the week! This one looks cute with her little leggings, that help keep her warmer now that it's decided to get cold, or with her tights if she wants to wear it to church. Or I've even put it on her with pants. She grew a little after I cut it out. It's not tunic length on her yet, but given how big around it is on her, she can probably wear it that long! I love that it looks cute with or without the pinafore too! If it still fits her next spring, we may try the pinafore over a short sleeve shirt with some bloomers or a diaper cover.

Pinafore back. Hard to see, but it is split down the middle. Also, no buttonholes! You make loops of fabric to button them through! So far the loops have worked just fine to hold the buttons.

Let me know what you think! Also, if you try this one out, I would love links to see pictures, or to hear what you thought of this pattern!

Nine Patch Quilt

Nine Patch Quilt

Grade: A

Difficulty: Advanced-beginner

Pattern: None!

The whole quilt in all it's craziness! Not sure if you can tell, but I tried to do diagonal rows of color to give it a little bit of unity. I also tried to alternate the darker and lighter colors.

So this one, I'm kind of not sure how to review for you, because I didn't use a pattern!

The best I can do, is share and explanation as well as some approximate measurements.

A close up of some of the blocks.

Firstly, I chose to do this quilt with solid blocks, no sashing, so the numbers I give you will be based off of the same. If you want to do sashing on your particular quilt (less cutting and piecing!), with nine patches, take a look at one of these: Crazy Mom Quitls Nine Patch
Alternately, you can stagger nine patch blocks with blocks of solid fabric like this: Staggered Nine Patch

Secondly, if you want to do bigger blocks and pieces, you are going to have to do your own math to figure it out! My numbers are only for the top, so nothing for backing or batting.

Another close up.

I cut each square of the blocks 2.5". You then sew three pieces together into a row. You sew three rows total, then sew the three rows together into a block. You can make it so that you alternate your colors, giving each block a checkerboard look, or you can make them totally random! Once you sew them together into a nine patch  (3x3 squares), the block is 6.5". Finished, the blocks are 6". This means there are tons of individual pieces! I can't tell you yardages, because as you can see, it's very, very scrappy!


I did do one 2.5" border around the edges of mine, just to give it a little bit of balance so the eye had somewhere to actually rest. The numbers below will give a yardage requirement for the same size border, as well as the finished size listed will reflect how big the quilt is with the border added.

If you need more specific help on assembling the nine patches, try doing a Google search. It's a very common quilt block, so you should be able to find lots to help you!

What a stack of 224 quilt blocks looks like before they are sewn together.

Queen size quilt:

14 blocks across x 16 blocks down
224 blocks total
2016 pieces
Border requirement: 7/8 yard chosen fabric.
Approximate finished size: 81.5 Wide x 94" Long

Full size quilt:

13 blocks across x 14 blocks down
182 blocks total
1638 pieces
Border requirement: 3/4 yard chosen fabric
Approx. finished size: 82" W x 88" L

Twin size quilt:

11 blocks across x 14 blocks down
154 blocks total
1386 pieces
Border requirement:  3/4 yard chosen fabric
Approx. finished size: 70" W x 88" L

Throw size:

10 blocks across x 11 blocks down
110 blocks total
990 pieces total
Border requirement:2/3 yard chosen fabric
Approx. finished size: 64"W x 70"L

Soft Book of Colors

Soft Book of Colors

Grade: A

Difficulty: Beginner

Pattern: Baby's Soft Book of Colors

Front cover. I thought about doing my little's name here, but decided to just make it generic girl. That way, if there are more, I don't feel obligated to make one of these for each of them if I don't want to!

So I started this cute little book for Miss E, intending to give it to her for Christmas. And then she went and started learning her colors on me, so I pushed it way up, and she is currently loving it! There are a couple of other blogs that have used this same tutorial. I added one extra set of pages so that I could do more colors, and omitted the ribbon closure. Miss E has a quiet book that has a velcro closure, and while I love that it closes the book up tight, she hates it!

 

The pattern really is simple, all you do is sew straight lines! I loved it because it ate up some of those awkward scraps I had! I also made sure to put lots of different textures in, just for fun! You can use piece of fabric however big you want, if you only want three pieces per color, that's fine! If you want to do 20, go for it! It's totally up to you!
Other than the minor adjustments mentioned above, I really didn't do anything else.

On the Blue-green, if yours will be next to each other, I recommend doing a definite piece of each color on what will be the seam line between the two, so they don't 'blend' together. Otherwise that distinction can be hard for little eyes to make out!

As with most things, I'm a little bit more OCD than you probably suspect, so of course mine is in color order! Go bust out your scraps though and make one of these for your little cutie!

Picot Baby Leg Warmers Review

Baby Leg Warmers

Grade: A

Difficulty: Advanced-Beginner

Pattern: Picot Baby Leg Warmers

I made these last week for the little at my house to wear. She loves her skirts, but it's getting to where it's too cold to let her little legs just chill out. And let's face it, sometimes with diapering, tights are just a big pain. So these were my compromise. Miss E likes them. She calls them socks, which the kind of are, and kind of aren't. I made these ones a little long, so that right now they actually go up just over her knee and sit there. I figure that will give her more time to wear them as her legs get longer.

The pattern was fairly simple, and very straight-forward. For me, it was strange to do the cuff at the top, working sideways to the rest of the work. But it turned out okay. One of mine is admittedly a little bigger at the top than the other. But oh well! I loved that the author explains it so that you can easily make this for any size of person, and you can really use any yarn you want as long as you have an appropriate size hook for it. 

I called the pattern advanced-beginner mostly because you need to understand the abbreviations (she does have a little glossary on the page) and know how to do more than just a single-crochet stitch, but it's really not difficult. I took a couple of days to finish mine, while I was working on other things. Overall though, if you are a fast crocheter and you have a model who will hold still for you to get the first one to fit right, it probably doesn't take more than a couple of hours to whip these babies out. And then you can make more in other colors!

I realize that the picture is kind of terrible. I will try to get a better one, as well as one with some little legs in the warmers, but for now this one will have to do! Let me know what you think, as always!

**Update: I did at least get a much better picture of these! Still working on one with legs in them!

Pick-A-Pocket bag review

Pick-A-Pocket Purse 

Grade: B

Difficulty: Beginner

Pattern:  Pick-A-Pocket Purse (click for link)

 

Because pink is always her first choice!

So, don't let the grade on this one deter you. It really is a nice little bag, and very easy to make! So much, that this is actually the third time I've used this pattern!

I made this one in particular, because there is a little girl at my house who has just started to figure out bags, and is having a blast filling them with random treasures, and waving  "bye-bye" to Mom. And I wanted to do one that was both cute, and her size.

This pattern is very simple. Click the link above to get to the page for this on the AllPeopleQuilt website. If you want to download the PDF and print it, you will need to make an account, which is totally free, and if you have one on any of the Meredith family websites  (BHG, Parents, etc), it will link them for you so that you have the same username and password.
Overall, I think this pattern took me a total of three hours to cut, sew, and finish. I gave it an overall B as the grade because of the handles. If you like to carry bags on your shoulder, trust me you will have to lengthen the handles (see tip below). I would describe myself as a small woman, including my arms, and these handles are just too tight for me to carry this bag comfortably on my shoulder. Other than that, this one requires very little, is sewn using totally straight lines, and turns out adorable! Once finished there is the main compartment, plus 6 outside pockets, so really, it holds almost everything.

So some tips from me on using this pattern:
* If you want to carry the bag on your shoulder, lengthen the handles by 2" to 6" per handle, depending on where you like your bag to hit you at. If nothing else, cut it long. Then on step 3 of Assemble the Bag, pin the handles on, and try it out! If they are too long, simply shorten them until you are happy (Hopefully this suggestion makes sense).
* If you want to use fat quarters instead of the listed yardage, they totally work! You will need two fat quarters for the lining, two for the pockets, and one for the handles. You will have to cut several strips for the handles and piece them to get the desired length.
*This one would be very easy to add a magnetic closure to, if you wanted.
*I'm lazy-sauce. So I did not slip stitch the opening on the bottom closed. I turned the bag right side out, folded in the seam allowance, then just top-stitched that baby across most of the bottom. It does create a slight ridge (you can sort of see it in the top left of the below photo), but it's quick and easy, and I figure no one will see it. Until I publish it on the internet for everyone to read.

 A close up of the fabric I used for the lining. Because it's too cute not to share!

I would love to see links to pictures of your own versions of this bag and/or hear your experiences using this pattern!

Yay! It's launch day!

For those of you who knew about this idea beforehand, I made it happen; for those of you who didn't, surprise! Either way, let me elucidate for a moment. 
I decided to start this blog for several reasons. First and foremost is to share my experiences with different patterns that I use with you all, so you can benefit in some way from it. I plan on including patterns for crocheting, sewing (general and clothing especially), and of course quilting. Whether I give you a starting point, drop a few pointers for a particular pattern, or advise you to stay completely away from one for your own sanity. Secondly, for personal reasons, I think it would be nice to have my own written chronicle of things I've tried, even if no one else on the planet finds it interesting. As part of each post, I will be sure to say where the pattern came from, and if possible include a link to where you can find and/or buy it for yourself.
I will be adding tabs on the top, to help you all navigate different avenues that I plan to include as part of this blog. Shortly after this post is up, I'm planning on doing a general info & introduction tab (see the top of the blog, it should be there!) so that you all understand the system I've decided to use. I'm pretty excited about that, as I feel like it will provide lots of help for everyone! I may in time attempt to write my own tutorials, or do re-writes of ones that I think can benefit from clearer instructions. But I might not, so don't hold me to it. I will be adding and using labels on my posts to hopefully help you find particular things more easily, but I'm hoping to keep the number of labels to a minimum.

For those of you who don't know me or my background, here's a little bit. I was born and raised in a family of sewers. Both of my grandmothers sewed, profusely. One quilted, almost all by hand, and mostly from scraps that she was given or found at very discount prices. The other grandma, sewed everything. Clothes, quilts, doll clothes, toys. My mother is also an avid sewer. She tends towards clothing more than anything, which means that I grew up with a great resource in her, and I still go back to her for help and reference sometimes when needed.  One day I will have to post a picture of some of the amazing dresses she has made for my daughter. Trust me, you'll drool.
I myself cannot tell you the first time I actually sat down and sewed something for the very first time. I have one acute memory of using some of my grandma's scraps to sew  a rug for my Barbie house, downstairs in her basement, using her serger. I know I was younger than 8. In addition to the family knowledge, I also took a couple of classes in high school, am currently taking some quilting classes at a local shop, and continue to troll the internet looking for more ideas and ways to expand my know-how.
As for crocheting, my mom has also done a little of that as well. So when I started picking it up in high school, I was delighted to find that she had some resources tucked in the closet of her craft cupboard. As with sewing/quilting, I like to look for new patterns, slowly increasing the difficulty and improving my technique and understanding as I go.

Anyways, I look forward to sharing with you! If you ever have any suggestions or requests, please feel free to post them in a comment or email them to me, and we'll see what I can do! Thanks so much for visiting, and I hope you stick around to see what comes up next!