Sew it: Satin Pillowcases

My oldest daughter has long hair.
She inherited her mother’s wavy fine hair.
It tangles quickly and easily.
Especially in bed.
So I thought of a way to try to help the morning, brushing-the-hair tears.
Satin pillowcases.


For ours we decided to make a pretty and decorative on one side with quilters cotton and the other side the smooth satin for sleeping.
Both girls of course wanted one of these special pillow cases.
I let them pick a print from my sewing room to match their solid satin side.


To make pillowcases, I always start by using another pillowcase in the house to get my measurements.
Normally I use the fabric twice as wide as a standard pillowcase and just have 2 seams to sew up, but since we are using 2 different fabrics I cut two rectangles.
Then because I was working with satin that ravels terribly, I decided to use french seams.
To start place both sides wrong sides together and sew along both long sides and one short side (be sure to leave one side open).


Then cut very carefully and closely to the seam.




Now flip inside out and I iron all the seams flat.


Now sew a generous sized seam along the three sewn edges.
The raw edge should now be encased inside the new seam.
Flip back right side out and check along the seams.
If you have a spot sticking out, just go sew along the seam in that area to make sure to cover the raw seam.


Now you will make the open side with a large hem.
I didn’t measure the exact size of this as I was using an old pillow case as a guide.  If you want exact measurements just ask and I’ll measure it when we get home.




The girls love their new special pillowcases!

Mommy n Me craft: Little Bear in a Box

Maressa and I made this little Bea the Bear in a box for a friend's birthday.
Maressa drew the bear with fabric markers on a small piece of white cotton.


We added a tiny bed in a box and a tiny blanket and tiny bunting  for decoration.
Bunting is just some washi tape and bakers twine.


This idea was mostly inspired by a drawing she made the day before of all these adorable colorful bears.
Also inspired by this kids art stuffies project and putting bear in a box by this adorable project.
So first I had Maressa draw and color a bear on a piece of fabric.


Now she wanted me to take a picture of her with her picture...lol


Then I put the drawing face down on another piece of white fabric and sewed around the outline of the bear.  I didn't want this super detailed so I just went widely around the corners and curves.


I left a hole in the bottom and then pulled the bear right side out and stuffed it.
Then I hand sewed up the bottom hole.


Course after the gift was made, everyone wanted a tiny stuffed friend.
Maressa made 2 bears...one for her one for big sister.
Micah wanted to draw his own and of course made a dog.
Zachary made himself a lizard.

No boxes for their friends yet.  I may surprise them with one soon.  :)

A Christmas twirly dress-and a semi tutorial

I made this dress for Maressa to wear to her Christmas preschool performance and party today.
I used to make cute things for the girls to wear for every single holiday occasion.
 I've gotten lazy.
And honestly, Kalla is almost 8.5 and kinda past the cutsie holiday wear (however I did promise an applique tree shirt for her party this Friday) and Maressa gets all the tons of hand-me-downs from holiday past.
This year I made Maressa a new dress to match her personality.
Nothing fancy.
Just used a plain white tee from her closet and let her pick some fabrics from my old stash.

Sorry there is not a full tutorial on this particular dress.

For those who want to know how to make your own twirly 3-tier dress of your own, I can guide you through the process.

First start here for a regular t-dress tutorial.
To make it with twirly tiers, instead of one big skirt piece you'll need to cut 3 pieces. 
This can be all the same fabric or different ones.
You'll want to make the 3 pieces to add up to the length of dress you want.
For example, Maressa generally wears a 5/6 size store dress (I like them plenty long).
I made her 3 pieces with the length of 7" 8" and 7".  You'll need to account for .5" on each edge for attaching to the other fabrics, bottom hem and to the shirt.
For this dress, I did the top tier the width of the fabric...selvage to selvage.
For the next tier I did the width 1.5 times that width and the bottom 1.5 times the width of the middle tier.

So if for example your fabric is 40" wide you will need the following strips to make a 5/6 size dress:
7" x 40"
8" x 60"
7" x  90"
For the middle and bottom strips you will need to sew together pieces to make the widths.
**Adjust lengths to fit different sizes.**
To know how long it should be total, I use a dress out of her closet that fits like I want to get my total finished length.

Tips:
Start from bottom up.
Sew your bottom tier strips together, serge/overlock edges, then hem the very bottom.
Gather the bottom tier and sew to middle tier.
Gather middle tier and sew to top tier.
Now gather and sew skirt to t-shirt.
Serge or overlock edges as you go.
Topstitch tiers once finished for nice look and dress to lay nicely.

Now hand to your very happy little girl for much twirling pleasure!

Make this: Unicorn costume tutorial

This was Maressa's halloween costume request this year

We went from Hello Kitty, to Wonder Woman, to girl gnome to a pink unicorn.

She saw a doggie unicorn costume at the pet store. 

She wouldn't budge after that.

I saw an expensive, but not super impressive one at Potttery Barn kids.

I finally decided to tackle a home made one.

It was really easy actually.

Just a plain sweat suit with hood and felt.

I didn't even need my machine.

She liked it just a little bit.

She kept it on all day once we tried it on.

Her sister and her played princess and unicorn for a while.

So here's how I made it:

The hardest part was finding a plain pink hoodie and sweat pants.

I actually ended up finding this set on Amazon.

Then I cut a bunch of white felt for the mane and tail.

Then black felt for the hooves and bit of pink trim for the feet.

I'm not sure how long the strip of white felt I used.

I cut 2 long and wide strips like above.

Then I sewed them down over the hood, one on top of another, with white embroidery floss.

The mane was too long so I cut it off where I wanted it to stop.

I used those pieces to sew a tail at the bottom hem of the jacket.

I added felt hooves to the hem of the legs and arms of her sweat suit.

I didn't take a picture, but I added the pink scalloped felt over the top of the stitches.

Then I added ears to the top of the hood in pink felts.

I used glitter white felt for the horn.

I simply cut a skinny cone shape. 

Then sewed the sides together and added a little stuffing.

Using white embroidery floss I sewed it to the top of the hood.

And a big thank you hug from my own unicorn.  :)

Photo courtesy of Kalla.

A Sewing Tutorial: The Reusable Ziplock bag

I LOVE ziplock bags.  

I could use them for virtually everything.  

Especially handy for packing.

This tutorial is about a year + coming.  

I've been wanting to make these for a long time.

Actually, this is a little different than my original idea.

I may bust out the other version soon.  :)

Anyway, this is the cutsie fabric version.

To make your own, just follow along.

You'll need:

 2 pieces of fabric 12.5" X 11.5"

once piece of the nice thick clear vinyl about 11" X 11.5"

one zipper at least 12" long

First, cut your vinyl across the 11" side down 1.5"

This should leave you with a piece 11" X 1.5" and one 11" X 10"

Does that make sense?

Now you're ready to sew on your zipper.  

To sew with vinyl you will need a layer of tissue paper between the vinyl and feed dogs of your machine.

So lay down a piece of tissue paper, then your skinny strip of vinyl and then your zipper lining up with the long edge of the vinyl, face down.

See above picture.

Sew.

Now layer a piece of tissue again with your 11X10 piece on top.  

Flip over your zipper so the opposite edge is lined up with the 11" side, facing down.

Be careful to line up the other edges with the piece already sewn.

After sewing both down, pull off your tissue.

Now your vinyl piece should have a zipper along the top middle.

Now to make the next step easier, I chose to center the vinyl on top of the fabric and sew down.

To do this you will want to place your outside fabric down, wrong side up.  

Then place your inside fabric right side up. 

The vinyl will go down with the zipper pull to the outside, zipper seams on the inside.

Also, note, I wanted to 'press' my zipper seams to help them lie flat.  

I did this by covering the vinyl and seams with a thick cloth and pressed a hot iron on them.

This will soften up the vinyl temporarily, but will not burn it.

**Before you sew the vinyl piece down, be sure to pull your zipper pull to the inside of where you will sew.  See below.

Now I folded and hemmed the sides over the edges of the vinyl.

Then the same with the top and bottom.

This cute little ziplock bag matches a weekend bag I made.  

Tutorial to come soon!

We used this set for Kalla's things when she went to camp this summer.

Oh and sorry for the terrible editing above...it kinda hurts my eyes now, but didn't look as bad on my little net book I was working on.  

You get the idea.  :)

What a princess wants a princess gets: a felt princess tiara tutorial

A few request came from Miss Princess Maressa recently.

And who can say no to this adorable face??

She wanted a pink cape with a big 'M' on it.

Just like her brothers' capes.

Tutorial here.

And to go alone with such a fancy cape, a comfy princess crown/tiara.

So many of those plastic ones frustrate my 4 year old who claims they either hurt, or don't stay on.

So I thought a felt one would solve both problems.  :)

Here's the tutorial:

I started with a favorite plastic crown.  I took a piece of paper, foled in half and drew a likeness.

I cut this out and traced it onto stiff white felt.

Using this template, I cut 2 in the stiff felt and one in thick batting/interfacing.

Then I added thesilver rick rack and some sewn on felt layers.

I also made an elastic band with white cotton fabric and elastic.

Then I placed the layers together with batting in the middle and the elastic band on one side and sewed the layers together leaving the other end open.

Then I used a strong craft glue to add lots of bling bling.

Once dried I sewed the otehr end with the elastic band inside.

She quickly wore it the very next morning at breakfast.