I gotta hustle home...

The Fabric Floozie

2009-02-14T18:09:00.000-08:00

This blog has moved.
Check it out
http://fabricfloozie.blogspot.com/

Tutorial: Turning a womans shirt into 2 piece pajamas - Part 2: Shirt

2009-01-26T14:17:00.000-08:00

Did you miss step one? CLICK HERE!!!

okay, so here is part two.
Lets grab the bodice part of the cut up shirt, and that RTW shirt you picked out from the closet.
You'll also need a rotary cutter, fabric scissors, pins, your cutting mat, and a serger (if possible).

Here I've laid the RTW Shirt on top of the cut shirt. You'll notice that the tip of my scissors shows where the deepest area of the V-neck lies behind the RTW shirt. This doesn't have any significance for the directions other than showing you where it's lying since you can't feel it like I could ;)

You're going to cut off a bit of the shoulder area b/c otherwise the neckline will be way too big for a childs head/shoulders.

We're going to cut the front panel. When you pin this area, just pin the top layer. It'll make cutting easier.
Pin around the 2 sides and bottom hem of the shirt, just a little outside to create an extra seam allowance.

You'll notice that I put a little diagonal pins at any of the "peaks". The corners of the shoulders, the end of the arm opening at the arm pin, the side of the shirt where it meets the hem, etc. That'll make cutting less confusing.

here it is minus the RTW

Cut out the top layer

Here's the front panel

Take the excess fabric and lay it as flat as possible, then lay the front panel down on top of it, lining the top shoulder areas of the front panel with the back neckline. This will save you from having to finish the back neckline.

Cut it out

Now that you've got your front and back panels, lets do the sleeves.
My little girl is VERY petite, so I prefer to give her sleeves a little less bulk to them, otherwise her clothes just look very oversized. That's why I shape her sleeves the way I do.
You can shape yours differently - however will fit your child the best.

This is how I make mine:
I make a template for my sleeves.
You take a piece of paper, line one edge up with the side seam.
Trace the bottom hem, and cut it out

Now you will lay your front/back panels over the paper. This placement is all about your judgement/preference. The side seam of the fabric you are about to cut will be the area of the sleeve that drops down from the shoulder over the bicep. So when you lay the front/back on it, you need to be sure that the angle of that side seam is at the right angle for your sleeve shape preference.
I prefer lily's sleeve to drop a little more than a traditional t-shirt.

So here is mine. Just trace the arm hole, then cut it out with scissors.

Use your rotary tool to cut the fabric out

Do this a 2nd time to make your 2nd sleeve, then this is what you should have

I had to remove a small tag from the side seam of one of the sleeves, so I ripped it out, then re-serged over that area to close it up again.

Flip your front/back panels so they are right sides together, then serge the shoulder seams.

Now you want to open up your shirt, so the inside is down, right side is up. You are going to open one sleeve piece and lay it right side down on the front panel, lining up the edge.

Serge the edge of the sleeve to the edge of the arm hole. (the center serged line is from closing the hole from the tag i removed. You won't have that most likely)

Finish the other sleeve

Sew up your side seams for the shirt and sleeve

Do the same on the other side

Turn right side out

You then hem the bottom of the shirt. I can't finish the hem on this right now, b/c my red thread is too thick for my machine and it keeps crapping out on me. So I just serged the raw edge for now, and I'll hem it up later ;)

So that's my tutorial.
As always, it might not be the best way. It might not be the prettiest way. But it's functional and it's a money saver. So I wanted to share how I do it, in case anyone else might be interested in trying.

Tutorial: Turning a womans shirt into 2 piece pajamas - Part 1: Pants

2009-01-26T08:58:00.000-08:00

Hello! I made a pair of PJs for Lily last week out of a womans shirt that my mom wouldn't wear, so I thought I'd try it again, and post a tutorial this time.
Right now I'm only posting the pants section, b/c I have to do a few things today before I can start on the shirt, but at least this might be able to get ya started :)

First you want a shirt that is kind of big. I'd say a lg or xl. that worked well for my 12-18m pjs. You also need 1/2" elastic, and a serger will make your life easier on this, but it's not totally necessary.

Here is the shirt I used. If you notice, It has small seed beads and bugle beads along the neckline. I started by clipping the strings the beads were on and removing them all. This is important b/c you will likely remove part of the top of the neckline in order to downsize the head opening. When you do this, you will cut through those strings, and after washing or wearing, the beads will come off which can pose as a choking hazard.

Now you will cut the sleeves off. Cut as close as you can to the original seam.

It really helps to have a cheering section

Now go through your child's closet, and find a ready to wear (RTW) shirt that fits the way you want this shirt to fit. And a pair of pants (preferably not jeans, you'll see why) that fit the way you want the pants to fit (not necessarily cut, but inseam, length, etc)

Here's the shirt I picked

Then flip it inside out, while leaving the sleeves inside.

You will use this for your shirt pattern here in a few minutes.

Over on the cutting board, we have our sleeves, and our pants

Flip your pants inside out, leaving one leg inside the other. This will expose the "J" shaped crotch seam.

Move one sleeve off to the side.
Line the hem of the pants up with the hem of the remaining sleeve. If you need to add some length (like I did) you can just slide the pants up as far as you need to add. Ie. I wanted to add 1 inch, so i slid them up one inch.
Now pin just slightly above the waistband on your sleeve.
Measure your inseam and full length (top of waist band to bottom of hem). Write these numbers down if your memory sucks as much as mine does.

Now remember, at the top you have to allow room to serge your raw edges, fold over and insert elastic (or turn, case and insert elastic, if you prefer) so we are going to add about 1.5" to the top of the pants. Pin that spot too.

Now I used my other rotary cutting board (smaller) and used that as a straight edge. I used my rotary tool to cut in a straight line at the top pins

Grab that 2nd sleeve you set aside, Put the cut sleeve on top. Line up the bottom hem/lace as perfectly as possible. If they are very uneven, you'll have uneven inseams.
Cut along line (I used my mat as a straight edge again)

Grab the RTW pants you have out, and lay them back down. Line up the bottom of the jeans with the bottom of the hem (or up an inch like I did). You should still have 1 pin just a hair above the waist line.
Now line up the outside seam with one edge of the sleeves.
See that J shaped curve in the crotch I talked about before?
We're going to pin along that shape, leaving a very small seam allowance.

Cut it out

Clip the sleeves right side out, and you'll have this

Flip one sleeve inside out. Place right-side-out sleeve inside the inside-out-sleeve. This will make your right sides face one another, and allow you to serge the crotch seam without too much fabric to maneuver.

Serge around the crotch seam (it will go from center from waist to center back waist) being sure to line up the raw edges. Don't worry if the top of the pants (waistband) area isn't completely straight. If it's not, it's probably b/c when you cut it, it wasn't a perfectly straight line, and that's okay. You'll serge off some of that anyways.

End with this

flip right side out

Look at paper to find full length measurement from RTW pants. Mesure from hem/lace up to that measurement. Pin on front of both legs.

serge raw edges

pinch at pins, fold excess fabric into pants. Pin. This will be your casing.

Stitch around pants, leaving small opening for inserting casing.

Using a safety pin, thread 1/2" elastic through casing. Stitch ends of elastic together when you get it through.

Finish sewing casing closed.

You now have pants from sleeves :)

Check back soon for the shirt part ;)

eta: Here is the shirt section!!

Reconstruction: Complete!

2009-01-19T18:53:00.000-08:00

First part of my recon

2009-01-19T13:00:00.000-08:00

So I got this t-shirt from my mom. I think my grandmother gave it to her or something? Anyways, it didn't fit her. And it's not a style I'd use. So I snagged it to make Lily some PJs :)

The first part of the project was to make a pair of Pajama Pants.
Using a pair of jeans as a template (since Lily was asleep at the time, so I couldn't measure her) I got an idea of how long they needed to be. Only problem is that I had to add a little fabric to the very top (near the waist band) or they wouldn't have been wide enough to add elastic in and have them still fit over her cloth diapers.
So there is a small V of excess (same print) fabric on the front and back at the very top

Next I have to make the shirt... but that might have to wait til naptime.

My first recon

2009-01-19T11:48:00.000-08:00

I'm working on my first recon today... I'm so nervous. LOL. Wish me luck

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-26T17:45:00.000-08:00

I've been sewing up a storm lately...
Remember those lightning mcqueen pants I made? I'm making a 2nd pair of those for my son b/c they were a huge hit.
Then I've been making soakers for my etsy shop and wipes also for the shop.
Check it all out
(click on any of the images to be taken to the etsy page where you can purchase the items)

A owly fleece soaker

2008-12-21T08:49:00.000-08:00

I was trying out Katrina's Pattern today for the Fleece Soaker, and i love it. It's a nice, fast sew. I'll be making a few for my 3day etsy shop here soon.
Check out this first one, which is FFS on DS.

A long week of diapers

2008-12-21T08:48:00.001-08:00

I'm working on a set of 8 diapers for a friends son, and here is the before

Here is a semi-after (Hadn't added snaps yet)

PJ Pants and the start to a long weekend

2008-12-13T08:42:00.000-08:00

I've been slacking on a lot of projects lately, and need to get crackin again. I've had a lot of work to do the last few weeks and have been up til 1am-ish nightly working, so there has been very little time for sleep, let alone sewing.
But now that work is done, and I plan on using today as a sewing day :D

First on the chopping block is a pair of Lightning McQueen pajama pants for my rockstar of a son.

I made these w/o a pattern. I took the pants that came with his Christmas PJs (Nick & nora) and flipped them inside out, then put one leg inside of the other. I cut out fabric in the same shape, serged together and added elastic. Took about 15 minutes from start to finish.

Here's my man showing off his muscles, dancing for the camera, and more.

Two diapers

2008-11-29T07:27:00.000-08:00

I've recently made 2 diapers with laminated silk as the outer, one has velour inner, one has alova suede inner.
The laminated silk is supposed to make it an AIO, but I'm not confident in their abilities. LOL.
So for the meantime, they will just be "less leaky fitteds"

The finished Miss Madeline

2008-11-27T15:52:00.000-08:00

I finished this 2 days ago, and it was SO stinkin cute on, I had to share.
I've used this pattern 2 more times since, and I'll be sure to post those later.

The start of the Miss Madeline Dress

2008-11-25T10:25:00.000-08:00

I decided to try the Miss Madeline dress pattern since I didn't love how the last one (sans pattern) turned out.
So far I like it. I'm a bit further along than this now. I think the whole project could have easily been done in under 30 minutes had I not dealt with 3 phone calls, an HVAC appointment, 2 individual nap times, 1 storytime, getting snacks for kids, an crash and burn injury to my 3 year old, and a diaper blow out (plus putting in a new load of laundry and moving my car for the HVAC guy). In any event, this is the only photo I have thus far.

The peasant Dress

2008-11-25T07:14:00.000-08:00

Last night I had to go get some sherpa for a few diapers I wanted to finish for Lily.
While there, I can across these two impossibly cute fabrics that I knew would make a super cute dress for Lily.

I used a tutorial online for a peasant shirt/dress and went to town.

I love the fabrics together, however I don't love how the dress came out. I mean, it's cute, but the skirt is a little too straight (needs to be more a-lined) but that's my fault b/c the link is just a tut, not a pattern so I should have made the shirt wider. Oh well. Live and learn, right? ;) In any event, its cute on... just now crawling friendly ;)

I'm now the proud owner of...

2008-11-03T18:33:00.001-08:00

a snap press!!!

I don't love the placement of the snaps on this one, but it was a practice one. Also, ignore the ugly diaper. It was the 2nd one I ever made. Haha

Art Container

2008-10-30T08:43:00.000-07:00

Having a 3 year old son, my house is littered with drawings, and tracings of hands and feet, etc. Being a Mom, I have a very hard time throwing any of them away. She's so proud of every last one of them!
But I needed to find a better way to contain them.
He has a small vintage playtable (the same one I had as a kid, my Dad found an identical one on eBay for him, lol) that he uses for coloring, etc. He also has a Melissa & Doug bend starter kit (shakers, harmonica, kazoo, etc) that came in a wooden box/tray. The box/tray took up residence on the playtable, holding all of his artwork. Problem being, the box is big and the table is small, which left for very little space to actually CREATE the artwork.
Brendan's room is all sports themed, so that will explain the fabric choices :)

First I started with the wooden tray from the Melissa & Doug playset. It is such nice quality that I couldn't stand to throw it away when it could easily be repurposed.

Then I took two pieces of carboard, and taped them together to make the size I wanted for the front of the box

I cut the letters A R T out of orange felt, cut off a small white flannel shape to put the letters on, and cut off a chunk of the sports fabric big enough to cover the cardboard panel

I zigzag stitched the letters onto the white flannel

Then I zigzag stitched the white flannel piece onto the sports fabric

Then I (no photos) took another piece of white flannel, and covered the front of the cardboard piece. I superglued it to the carboard on the back, then put tape around the edges to secure it.

I then did the same with the sports fabric, being sure to center the ART design.

Once that was all done, I glued the panel to the front of the box, and used 2 finishing nails to hang it

Using your Diaper Pattern (tutorial)

2008-10-23T12:17:00.001-07:00

So now that we have a pattern, lets take that puppy out for a drive.

Lets take our pattern and cut out our fabric.
I'm making my very first AIO, so I'll be using a pretty Michael Miller knit for the outside, a layer of white (the cheapest) PUL, a 2 piece zorb soaker, and sherpa for the inside.

So here is our outside

this will be the hidden PUL layer

and the sherpa and soaker

we'll pin the soaker to the sherpa

and stitch it down

now we will take our sherpa layer (the the soaker attacked now) and lay it, soaker side down

then we will add our pretty knit right-side-down

then add your PUL, shiny side UP

pin this together, but remember to use as few pins as possible b/c the more pins you put through the pul, the more holes you have to leak from

sew it all together (mental note, sherpa is slippery) leaving a gap at the back of the diaper. I normally make it about 6" long, however you want it to be open for the entire distance that you anticipate running elastic.

there's one side, all done

and the other

At this point, I normally snip a few lines in the curves of the leg holes, but don't go crazy doing it or it'll make adding elastic a real bitch.

flip it right side out

and this is what you have so far

(ADDED LATER)

Now it's time to start adding our elastic
See that little pin? That's about as far away from the edge as you want to stitch. You'll just stitch a line following the shape of the diaper. This will create a casing.

Once it's stitched, it'll look like this

and you'll do the same to the other side.

Your elastic should be just a hair narrower than your casing. This elastic is 1/4". I never go any smaller than that.

To determine my length of elastic, I lay out the elastic the full length of the casing, then i fold that amount in half.

From there, I use just over 1/2" of the amount of elastic needed to cover the casing.
The red arrow shows the halfway point. the green arrow shows where I would cut.

flip your diaper inside out

attach a safety pin to your elastic on one end

You can enter the casing from either side

it's difficult to maneuver the pin through the casing depending on how tight you made the casing and how many layers of material you are using. When I make fitted, it's fast and easy. With this PUL and Sherpa, it was a little more tough

Once you get to right about here, that's where you want to stop to secure the end

Sandwich your elastic between the outer and the inner

and stitch it down. I typically run a straight stitch just to hold it in place, then use a few rows of tight zig zags

Keep your stitching safety outside of your seam allowance, and noone will see it.
it doesn't have to be pretty, just secure

thread the elastic the rest of the way through

and remember how we cut just a bit more than 1/2 the length of elastic? That was b/c we wanted a little wiggle room.
Pull the pin out a little ways til you are comfortable with the tightness of the elastic.

stitch it down and you'll have this

do the same on the other side, stitch it all down.

and you'll have this

now let's finish the front

start your needle out at the edge of the casing stitch, pulling the elastic as tight as you can on that end.

and aim your machine towards the edge of the diaper. You'll follow the edge all the way around, top stitching from one piece of elastic to the other.
This will finish off your casing, and make it look like one continuous stitch

when you're done, it'll look like this

Now lets start on the back of the diaper.
Start at the elastic like we did just a minute ago, go around the tab and stop shortly after you make the curve.

This shows you were I stop. The blue arrow is the opening for the elastic. the red arrow is where i stopped topstitching.

Cut a piece of elastic 1/2 the length of your elastic opening for the back.
Take your outer materials (together and even) and stitch one end of the elastic to the TOP/RIGHT SIDE (at the VERY EDGE)

Once both ends are tacked down, fold the fabric all the way down the length of the elastic, stretching the elastic and sandwiching it between your folded-in outer and your folded-in inner.

carefully top stitch the edge, being sure not to catch the elastic

When you are done, your elastic will do what it does best, and retract, pulling itself back into the diaper.
My finger shows about where the elastic is sitting

Pull the tabs away from each other, tightening up the elastic and forcing it back to the edge of the diaper.
Using pins, create a makeshift casing.

Sew a true casing where the pins are

enjoy your adorable diaper :)

At this point you can add snaps or velcro. I'll go with velcro b/c I don't have a professional snap press at the moment, but i need to wait to hit the store and get some thicker velcro. Don't buy 19mm velcro ;)

Good luck with your diapers and be sure to post pics of yours in the comments!

Making a Diaper Pattern (Tutorial)

2008-10-23T10:47:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I got some new fabric today and since Lily has finally hit the growth spurt that will move her cute little butt from a small dipe to a medium, I decided I needed to make a new diaper pattern before I made a new diaper.
Then I thought about making a tutorial in case anyone else was wondering how to do a diaper pattern.

I started off with a tape measure, a hard plastic measuring board (I'm sure there are fancier names for it, but I use the non-fancy names, b/c if i ask my husband where my "seam ripper is" he gets very confused looking. But if i say "that little pokey thing with the blue handle" he knows exactly where it's at. So we'll just stick with the layman names), a pencil, a diaper that fits lily (although I had to use a cover b/c her only medium dipe is in the wash) and some pattern paper (or in my case, some printer paper taped together... how i always make patterns).

You'll take a few measurements. Now, these pics don't really do it justice b/c i'm just trying to show you were I took the measurements AT. not HOW I took them. If the area has elastic (like the back of the dipe) you need to be sure that you are measuring the full piece of fabric, so stretch that puppy WAY out.

Now that you've got your measurements, jot them down on the corner of your paper. Do it in pencil, b/c they might change a bit. (mine changed, so don't be shocked when you see different numbers there later).

Also, I have to make a few adjustments along the way in my pattern b/c since I'm using a diaper COVER it's a little bigger than an actual diaper would need to be (in order to cover the full diaper). IF you're measuring from a diaper, you should be okay without much adjusting.

Take your "back of the diaper" measurement (mine was 17) and draw a straight 17" line on the bottom of your paper. Mark the center.

Take your rise measurement and draw that length (17" on mine) up from the center marker

You should have somethin' like this

Now at the top of your rise line, make a line as long as the front of the diaper measurement. On mine that was 8 inches, so I lined up the rise-line with the number "4" on my measuring board, and then drew a line 4 inches to the left of the rise and 4 inches to the right.

Then go a little less than 1/2 way down your rise line, and draw a line the same length as your middle measurement (the crotch of the diaper).

At this point, I took 2 more measurements.
I measured from the top of the front of the diaper to where the elastic for the leg started (the front rise)

And I measured the thickness of the tabs that would come around her body. I did adjust this # a little, b/c i don't love how this cover fits her.

Add those to your measurement list (you'll notice mine have changed, lol)

Take your front rise measurement (mine was 4") and measure 4 inches down from the top line on each end

Take your measuring board and complete those lines straight down

If you feel fairly confident that your crotch line is where you want it to be, you can go ahead and do this (like I did) or you can adjust if need be...
but from here, you'll sketch out from the bottom of the front rise lines to the crotch line, giving it a curved leg shape.

I then measured down about 4 inches from the crotch line, and measured out another 8 inch wide area. This is where I had my leg hole lines meet at.

I then took the width of the tabs that I had written down previously, and I measured that distance up from the edges of the bottom line. Then I took my board and drew straight lines going up that distance (mine was like 3" i think). From there, I sketched out from the leg lines, into the tab lines.

Shape your tabs to your preference

erase unnecessary lines

Trace with a pen/marker and add a roughly .5" seam allowance around entire panel.

Cut out pattern

For the sake of conserving paper, take the scraps and cut out your soaker panel. Make it as large as you prefer.
I happened to find a scrap that was exactly the size I wanted.

Pick up cranky child and put her down for her nap

Oooh, My Fabric Aprize!

2008-10-20T09:08:00.000-07:00

As my son would say, it's an "aprize". :)
Susan brought over the fabric today that she bought last week. Check it out :)

Frilly Pants

2008-10-19T19:42:00.000-07:00

Okay, so they aren't frilly yet, but they will be once I finish adding on the ruffle to the bottoms.
These were way simple, made using New Look Pattern 6792 Size A NB-L.
I used the small size, since lily is so scrawny, but added some length (between the Small and Medium lengths).
It was way easy and was maybe 15 min of sewing total.

Just take your cut pieces

Stitch together your front center seam and back center seam, then stitch up the inside of the legs, then down the outsides

Add your elastic

and hem the bottoms

And you're done :)
Well, I'm not. I'm still adding a ruffle to the bottom, but I've yet to decide on how I'm goin to coordinate a top, so I'm not adding the ruffle just yet :)
Enjoy!

The little zipper pouch (tut)

2008-10-15T07:43:00.000-07:00

I made this a few weeks ago:

Using Amy Butler fabric and fusible fleece, and 1 zipper. Very easy.

You can find the tutorial here.

The apple dress

2008-10-15T07:42:00.001-07:00

I made this dress for Lily. It's from a vintage (1965) McCall's pattern I bought on etsy

A finished diaper

2008-10-15T07:36:00.000-07:00

I still intend on posting a tutorial for these, but i need to wait till i have time to work on another one from scratch that way I can take pics

In the meantime, here is a pic

Diapers out the yin-yang

2008-10-13T15:54:00.000-07:00

I'm in the process of finishing off a load of fifteen (yes you read that right) diapers for Lily. Here is a stack of some that are partly assembled, just waiting for their elastic to be inserted and finished off. The one on the far right shows the inside.
I plan on posting a tutorial for these later.

Waitin on a surprise

2008-10-13T15:46:00.001-07:00

A girlfriend just informed me that she found some fabric that just screamed Lily, so she bought me a yard and is bringing it by tomorrow. Can't wait!

Welcome

2008-10-13T15:39:00.001-07:00

Since much of my time as of late has been consumed with sewing and other various crafts, I've decided I blog about what I make. I plan on sharing pics, tutorials and more, so check back often and add me to your blogroll!