Our Weekend Visitor...

My oldest son, Bob, who is in PreK4, came home from school today with a very special friend.  It is his weekend to spend with Thomas, the preschool bear.  Now, this is a sort of a big deal.  Only children in the 4 year old class are able to bring Thomas home and Bob has been waiting for his day since he started in the 3 year old class last year :)  So our fun begins.  Guess I better plan something spectacular to do this weekend so our scrapbook page "shows-off" how cool the Frick House is!  I told Bob that when it was his turn to bring Thomas home, I would make him a pair of pj's so they could match.  True to my word...I whipped him up a pair before bedtime tonight....and now I get to share them with you.




Start with your pattern pieces.  I had already made these pattern pieces in the past when I made clothes for a Build-a-Bear.  Thomas is just a little bit thinner than the typical Build-a-Bear, so I will trim a little off the edges to make it more of a custom fit.  (I will try to get you a printable .pdf of the pattern pieces soon)
For patterns that I use often or make multiple items, I like to cut my pieces out of poster board.  It makes cutting with a rotary cutter so much easier and faster.




Cut your fabric pieces.  In this tutorial, I am only showing the pants, although I did also make him a shirt (those are the pieces to the left).
















As I said, Thomas is a little bit thinner than a typical Build-a-Bear, so I decided to take off 1 inch from the outside of the front and back leg.











Place one pant front and one back piece right sides together.  Notice how the inside seam is lined up, but the outside is not.  You will sew just on the inside seam.   Repeat with the other leg.

Here is a photo of the leg after I had stitched the inner seam and unfolded it.










Place the other leg on top, right sides together.  You are going to sew around the u at the top.  This will be the crotch of the pant.

Here is where it gets tricky.  After you sew the u, you will flip and turn the pants so the crotch seam is right down the center.  As you can see from the photo, they are finally looking like a pair of pants.
Now, just line up the outside edges and sew down each side.












At this point, I tried the pants on Thomas to make sure they fit.  Perfect!














Now on to finishing the edges.



I serged the bottom of each leg and along the waist.  This was my shortcut so I didn't have to finish the hem by folding under and then folding again.

Turn each leg under about 1/4 inch and sew.

Turn the waist band under about 1/2 inch and sew, leaving about an inch open in the back to feed the elastic through.

Matching pj's for my little buddy and his new weekend visitor.  This is a super fast and fun project.

Here is Thomas in his new pj set.  I had to finish up the shirt after he was in bed.  He'll be able to wear the set tonight.

And yes....if you are wondering, that is a super hero cape he has on.  What little boy's wardrobe is complete without a cape??  The bear deserves a cape, too.  He also got a new pair of jeans...and it's only Saturday.  He might need some more new clothes before school on Monday ;)



Happy Sewing :)  

If you are interested in patterns or tutorials for other "bear wear" let me know.    

Using Sizzix Big Shot to Make Felt Flowers

So I bought this machine for one purpose only, to make perfect circles to put on the underside of my flower hair clips.  I am now finding that it has so many more possibilities.  For those of you who don't know, this is a die cut machine and you can buy tons of different dies for it to cut a number of shapes.  I think most people use it for scrapbooking, but I wanted to be able to cut fabric with it.  I also have a Cricut machine that I usually use to cut fabric, but this machine is much more simple and efficient for a number of things.    

I recently bought these Framelits Flower Dies.  I thought I might be able to do some kind of fabric flower with them to attach to a clippie for a hair accessory.  Okay....so that's kind of a lie.  To be honest, they were on sale and I figured, I should definitely buy them!  I would find something to do with them later :)  My husband always says I would buy anything that says "sale"....He might be right ;)

So I decided to use some scrap red felt I had left over from making Santa hats this Christmas.  I started by cutting 5 of the same size flowers.

One of the flowers will be the base and the other four will be the pedals.  You will do the following steps to all four pedals.  

First fold the flower in half.

And then in half again.

Using a needle and thread, stick the needle through the center of the base flower and through the bottom corner of the first pedal.  Be sure to catch all layers of the pedal.  Then...sorry, but I didn't take a pic of this....leave the needle exactly as it is in the picture above and place the next three pedal on the needle.  Spreading them to cover the entire base flower.  Add some extra stitches on each pedal just to be sure that they are secure.  

And here it is. An adorable, fast, felt flower you can add to a pin, clip, headband, purse...the possibilities are endless. 

I decided to add (with hot glue) mine to a lined alligator clip.

So easy...and super cute!

Easy Bow Making

Just had to share this.
Let me start by saying that I am the mother of 3 little boys.  Three little boys that DON'T wear hair bows!  I still have a fascination with making them, though.  I guess it's a good thing I have 3 nieces.
When I first started making bows, I constantly struggled with making them even and perfect.  And also, I just couldn't find the best way to tie the center.  Lots of tutorials online show tying a knot in the center of the bow.  I was just terrible at this.  I always felt like I had two left hands.  I know the idiom is "two left feet", but seriously, I had two left hands.  Maybe a better one would be "all thumbs".  I just could not figure out how to hold the bow and tie a tight knot at the same time.
For Christmas this year, I made hair bows as gifts for all the girls in my boys' preschool class.  I had to crank out a lot of bows and didn't really have a ton of time to fuss.  So with the help of lots of tutorials, I came up with this variation which has been tremendously helpful in turning out lots of bows.

Here is my doohickey.  I made this from a scrap piece of heavy stabilizer I had left over from another project.  I cut it three inches wide on the top side for thicker ribbon.  The bottom side is 2 inches for smaller bows with thinner ribbon.  Many tutorials suggest using a tool like this made from cardboard, but this is definitely more pliable.  You will see an illustration of this at the end of the tutorial.  

As you can see from the picture above, I cut a small section out of the middle.   It should be centered so that your bows come out even on each side.

Take your ribbon and line it up with one side of your doohickey (sorry...not sure what else to call it :).  

  

Wrap it around once....and then again.

Trim the excess ribbon so that the other end of the ribbon is about even with the other edge of your doohickey.

Now you are ready for tying the center.  Instead of tying, I have found it sooo much easier to put a couple of stitches in the center and then tie off.



Make sure you have a pretty good knot at the end of your thread.  This will help when you pull to gather the center.  You will also need a little bit of excess thread past your knot.  You will use this to tie off in the end.

This is where you see how important that center cut is on your doohickey

Start at the bottom and stitch through all layers being careful not to catch the doohickey in your needle.  They don't need to be perfect or even close to perfect.  You'll notice I used red thread. Makes no difference, because when your bow is finished, you won't even see the thread.

Almost done.

When you have enough stitches to secure your center you will feed the needle through the bottom center to the front side.












Tug pretty good and you will start to see the beginning of a bow.  You can wrap your thread around 1 or more times.






Now is a good time to take your bow off.  Look how easy it is to bend your doohickey to take the ribbon off :)  Score!

Now tie your two ends.  It's so easy to keep the bow tight in the center because of all those stitches.

There you have it! A perfect, even bow...EVERY. SINGLE. TIME!
Now you can just trim your thread, heat seal your ribbon ends, and hot glue a piece of ribbon around the center to cover the thread.

Costumes of Halloweens Past

The real reason I was determined to become a sewer is because I am obsessed with making my kids' Halloween costumes.  It consumes about 6 months of my time.  And I only wish I was kidding;)  First, it's making the decision about what they should be, then finding the patterns, and finally, the actual sewing part (which takes the  least amount of time :)!  It has become such a problem that I am trying to out-do myself every year.
I'd like to share with you all, our Costumes of Halloweens Past.

2008:  This was one of my first sewing projects ever.

   

2009:  Every pirate needs a parrot.  My second son was born on Oct. 7th and we didn't find out the sex ahead of time.  I knew I wouldn't have the time (or patience) to finish sewing after the baby arrived, so I chose a costume for the baby that would be unisex.










The parrot costume worked out perfectly.  Not only was it adorable, it was also so cozy.

2010:  The Zoo Keeper...


















and his lion.

2011:  What better for 3 little boys than The Chipmunks.  Of course, there is no pattern for Alvin, Simon, and Theodore, so I just used a pants and hooded sweatshirt pattern.  I chose a hood from one of my other patterns that I thought most closely resembled a chipmunk....and there you have it.  This picture isn't of the completed costumes though.  My computer totally crashed and I lost a bunch of my photos from this year.  I added a hat to Alvin and some hair to Simon and Theodore to finish them off.  

 2012:  This year's winning costume....Three Blind Mice.  The boys won Best Overall at the costume contest at their school.  They also placed "Funniest"  in their grade level (pre-k)!  I didn't think much of these costumes until I brought them out in public.  Everyone thought they were just hysterical.  Definitely one for the record book.  Not sure how I will ever top it.  The walking sticks in the picture were just made from wooden dowels that I purchased at Walmart.  I spent a ton of time on the internet looking at photos of walking sticks because it was important to me that it looked accurate.  I painted the sticks with craft paint and added electrical tape for the handle and tip.  They were a hit...literally.  Boys and walking sticks (or any kind of stick for that matter) don't mix :)


For all of you who share my obsession in making their children's Halloween costumes,  my only advice:  Think outside the box.  Don't think you are limited to a costume pattern.  If you can dream it, you can make it.  For example....the parrot costume, I used a simple long sleeve onsie pattern for a baby.  Just by changing the fabric and adding some embellishments, I was able to make this one of a kind costume.

Happy Sewing!

Baby/Toddler Leg Warmers DIY

When I first saw these, I was determined to figure out how to make them.  I looked up some tutorials on the internet and was so surprised to find out that they are made from adult knee socks!  SIMPLE, SIMPLE....and takes maybe a total of 20 min. to complete, start to finish.

Pick up a pair of adult knee socks.  They sell pretty cute ones everywhere.  You can always find them at Joann Fabrics, Target, Walmart...etc.  Even super cute holiday socks!  I have been looking all over for the vintage style striped ones and believe it or not, I found these at The Dollar Tree!

Cut the foot off.

Cut the foot portion into three sections.  Discard the heel and the toe.

You are left with just the center of the foot.  Now you are going to turn this part into itself (wrong sides together).













Now take the tall section of the sock and attach the folded foot section raw edges matching.

Here is another photo of the same step.










You are ready to sew.  I used a serger for this step, but you can always use a regular machine.  I just like the finished edge of a serger. While you are sewing this part, you may have to manipulate the hem line, simply because the material of the socks tend to roll a bit.  Just use your fingers to flatten it as you go making sure to catch all three edges (two from the folded foot portion and one from the tall sock.)

And that's it.  You're done.  You have this super cute pair of leggings for your baby/toddler:)



BTW:  I know my pics are terrible.  I promise to have better pics next time;)