It's been way too long!!!

ok - So seriously?? July 28, 2011 was my last post on this blog??? Ok, I even admit that is just SAD!!! OMG!

Well, I guess you can guess that life has been pretty busy! Sadly I have not found much time for sewing and have missed it so much. I didn't even find time to sew Christmas gifts this year :-( I did help teach a sewing class to girls ages 7-12 in our homeschool co-op during the fall and that went well! There were 20 girls in that class believe it or not!! I was able to show them some basic techniques along with a couple of cool ones - such as making a purse out of a placemat and an apron out of a dishtowel. They also made their own skirt!

Well, good news...I made it back to the sewing machine today. But, sadly, for most of you that probably read this it is not going to be that exciting for you. You see, I made training pants for my 2 (almost 3) year old daughter!

I found an idea on Pinterest (LOVE that site! Have found lots of sewing inspiration...just need the time to do it). The idea was to take your daughter's old diaper covers from her baby dresses and sew a cloth diaper inside to make homemade training pants! I discovered that her size 6-9 month diaper pants fit her if she is not wearing a diaper and had a bunch of that size! WHOO HOO!!

I really like the idea of the cloth training pants over the pull-ups because with the training pants she will actually feel when she is wet...unlike the pull ups that just fill like a diaper!

I got 5 of them sewed today. Hopefully I can get the rest finished this week. (I have enough to do 12...plus I have 3 training pants that I purchased giving her a total of 15.)

Here are some pics to share :-)







So, yes, I know, not very exciting, but it still felt good to be back at the sewing machine! I so wish I had more time to spend there...oh well! I am really hoping to find some time this spring and summer because that is my favorite time of year for making clothes! Spring and summer clothes are so much fun to make!! :-)

So hopefully it won't be another 6 months before you hear from me again.

Until next time,
Kellie

Another new skirt!!

I got to do some sewing yesterday - YAY!!  I made this!!

  I got my inspiration from this blog tutorial.  I didn't have striped fabric but I did have polka dot in stretch knit!  It was very easy and very quick to do!

Sorry this pic is a bit blurry (ceiling fan was blowing the skirt)... but it shows the rolled hem on the serger that I did for the bottom - so easy!

Seriously this skirt took less than an hour to put together! It is so very comfy too!

I did some more refashioning :-)

My sister gave me a bag of clothes that didn't fit her and they for sure didn't fit me - LOL!  So what do you do with those type clothes you ask?? Well you refashion them for your little girl of course!!

I refashioned two shirts today into adorable, long length (yay) dresses for Alyssa!  It didn't take long at all to do either one.  It would have been even less time if Alyssa hadn't wanted to "help" as much, and if she would have been more cooperative with fittings and stuff...which wore me out...which is why we only did two.

Anyways...

Here is the before picture of the first one - this was a Juniors medium shirt.

And here are the after shots.  I basically sewed some off the shoulders and brought in the sides.  I also put a pleat in the back to help bring in the neckline.

Here was the other top - a size Junior medium top.

Here are the after shots.  I took off the straps, brought in the sides, and then reattached the straps.  (note: I realized when I had the dress on for these pics that the straps needed to be shortened a bit more...the dress was a bit low...I did that but went ahead and did the pics because she was already fighting me (I finally got her to let me get pics if I put her on the table) and I knew she wouldn't do a pic the next time.  We were done...

I guess when you have a two year old under foot it is good that you can do quick sewing jobs like refashioning!  After 30 minutes of that I am exhausted LOL!

Until next time!
Kellie

Another new dress - FINALLY!!

Yay!! I made it back to my sewing machine today!!  :-)  My mom was visiting the first part of this week and we went to JoAnn's and they were running some GREAT fabric sales so I got an early birthday gift from her and a got a whole bunch of fabric!!

We finally had a day at home today and I was determined to get to the sewing machine!!  I just finished a dress! WHOO HOO!!  (and thinking about heading back to the sewing machine when I get this post done - LOL!)

Here is the finished picture of the dress - with a cute belt (this is another one of those dresses that looks so much better on me than the mannequin...I just don't have good camera skills!)

I kind of followed this tutorial.  This was not a pillowcase though, it is a pretty embroidered linen-like fabric. But I figured it would still work using two rectangles of fabric and sew the shoulder seams as well...and other than hemming the bottom all other steps were pretty much the same.

I used my new dressmaker's curve ruler to make the curve for the neckline and armholes.

The neckhole ended up being too large and made the sides sit too much off of the shoulder so I added pleats at the midsection in the front and back.  And I was really pleased with the finished look of the neckline.  I don't know if you can see the pleats too well in the picture below...it does look really nice on though (better than it does on the mannequin).

The dress actually looks pretty good with or without the belt, but I like the added touch that the belt gives it.

Gotta go feed my kiddos some lunch now and get them down for a nap so that I can do some more sewing :-)

Catch yall later!
Kellie

WILL I EVER SEW AGAIN???

Hey guys!  I bet you done thunk I must have thrown away my sewing machine, huh?!?  NOT ON YOUR LIFE!  I love my sewing machine and I love sewing...just haven't found much time to do any sewing lately :-( :-(!

I even have some cute cute new fabrics that I got for Mother's Day and they are calling, more like screaming out my name to come and do something with them!

I did refashion one of my maternity skirts into a darling cute adorable dress for Alyssa last week!  She wore it to church on Sunday and I forgot to get a picture :-( and it took like only 20 minutes to do (all I had time for)!  I promise I will get a picture of it and put it on here!  I know I need to.

Oh I also refashioned a tank top that was way way too big for me to one that fit me and took the excessive I cut off and made a ruffled neck edge...but once again no pic...I need to get a pic...

BUT I do have something very exciting to share!  I am hopefully going to be able to teach a sewing class in the fall semester of our homeschool coop!  I am so excited about this possibility - to be able to instill in young girls the love of sewing!!  It will be my first time to teach sewing and I am so tickled about it!  I hope it all works out :-)

We are having a wonderful summer though - lots of play dates with friends at the park, a vacation at the beach, camping in our RV, visiting family and swimming. This week we are having a bunch of our friends over for a play date at our house.  The kids are going to play outside while the moms make homemade fruit jams and jalapeno jelly!!  It is going to be MUCH fun!

I hope you all are having a good summer as well!!

Until next time,
Kellie

I am loving shirring!!

Ok - yesterday was a BAD DAY for dressmaking!  I messed up two, yep two, dresses!!  OH MY!  Nothing was working!!  (I guess that is what I get for trying stuff on my own without any patterns...)  But I did learn some things and took plenty of notes of what not to do!

But - third time was definately a charm!!!  I finally have a new dress!! And it was a very easy dress to make!  I am sure I will make it again!!

Here is the finished product!  Pictures do not do it justice and I so wish I was a better photographer.  It is made from a stretchy blue polyester.  The waist is done with shirring (I have grown to LOVE shirring) and the shoulders are shirred as well (close up on that below).

Here is how I made it (in case you want to make one for yourself!)

You need 4 Measurements:

A - length you want the dress from shoulder to bottom.
B - width you want each shoulder to be x 2
C - width you want your neckline to be
D- length you want your arm hole to be

Here is how you use those measurements to make your pieces (you need two - front and back)

*Note: I only drew measurement D on one side - make sure to mark this measurement on both sides.

Cut out your pieces.  Sew your side seams. You will sew from the bottom of measurement D to the bottom of the rectangle.  Do this for both sides.

Sew your shoulder seams.  Then finish your neckline and sleeve edges.

When you are at that point your dress will look like this - a great big "moo moo dress" as we call them!  Not pretty at all!  But trust me - it will be when you are done :-)

You will also see in the above picture that I have white marks along the middle of the dress.  This is where I have marked for the first line of shirring for the waist.  You need to figure out where you want your waist band to sit.  Measure how far down from the top of the dress.  Then mark a light line (with a washable fabric marker) where that line needs to be.  Then shirr that line.  (I explained in this post about shirring and there are also other great resources online if you need instructions on how to shirr).  I shirred 6 lines for my waistline.  You may want to do less or more depending on how wide you want your waistline area.

Below is a picture after I shirred the first line to show you how the dress starts taking shape just after one line of shirring!

I then shirred the shoulder seams.  I shirred three lines on each side of the seam.  (once again you do as many as you like to your liking).  I really liked the finished result of shirring the shoulders!

Here is a close up view of the shirred shoulders - see how nice they gathered!!

Here is the finished dress!!  (once again it really does look better in person!!) 

I also decided that the dress needed something added...since it was navy blue I thought it needed some yellow!  So I made yellow fabric flowers and sewed a blue button in the middle.  I then attached them to a set of my not real pearls.

Enjoy!!  And let me know if you decide to make one!  I would love to know how it turned out!!

My New Dress and Showing Off Alyssa's Easter Dress

Well I woke up this morning wanting to make a dress for myself!!  And I DID!!  It was so simple and so easy!  I may have to make some more of these for the summer!!

Here is the dress!

 It looks great with my ruffled shrug I made a few weeks ago!!

Basically I took a rectangular piece of fabric, just the full 45" width and the length was the length that I wanted the dress to be.  I sewed up the seam and then shirred the top!  I added straps and sewed the bottom hem!  The longest part of making this dress was the shirring!  But still, even with that it took about 2 1/2 hours, with MANY interruptions!  I probably could have done it in an hour if I didn't have interruptions!

I also wanted to show yall what Alyssa looked like in her Easter dress I made (remember this post?)

She loved it and was the prettiest little girl at church :-) (of course I am quite partial!)

 

Such the drama queen!!!