We took a weekend trip to New York recently to gather some supplies. Every time we hit the city, I make a point to stop into Purl. It was my first time in the new location and I thought it was great. Very roomy. They had a really nice selection of embroidery flosses, what seemed like the same amount of fabric, and a nice spot to look at patterns. Of course, there was the usual gorgeous crafty inspiration hanging out on every shelf and every corner.
The first thing to catch my eye were these little wool felt dolls by Mimi Kirchner. I didn't take any notes or photos of them while I was at the store but I couldn't stop thinking about them. When I got home, I did some snooping and found this awesome free pattern. I'm going to try to make one. I've had an idea brewing for a long time and I think this is what I needed to make it work.
I started my collection of Heather Ross' Far Far Away II with these lovelies. My color palette has been leaning toward this yellow and I bought several different versions of it on the trip (more on that later this week). The only embroidery floss available here is DMC and its generic counterparts so I decided to try some Trebizond silk (teal) and Londonderry spun linen (jonquil). They are both really lovely.
Of course, some Alexander Henry. I'd seen the larger print before but never the smaller one. I think they'll look lovely together and I have a pattern in mind. The polka dot trim caught my eye and I think it will look good with some fabric I picked up at Ikea. You never know...
Finally, I bought a teeny tiny bit of this Liberty of London gorgeousness to match the storage boxes from Target. I'm going to recover some pillows we have on the pullout in the office and I thought it would be nice to throw in a bit of this as an accent. It's not the same pattern but I didn't want to be too matchy matchy.
Patterns for kids clothes often call for snap tape. This is twill tape with pre-set snaps all ready for you to sew into your garment to make potty training and diaper changes easier. It seems to me that while this tape is handy, it's often hard to find. The tape I've found is also wider than I'd like and the snaps are set too far apart. I decided to make my own to get exactly what I want. Here's what to do if you want to do as little hand sewing as possible.
Materials: 1/2" twill tape. Size 15 or 3/8" snaps*. Garment in progress. *Note if you want to use larger snaps, you will need wider tape.
As you can see in the image above, the FRONT of the garment will provide the top of the two flaps so that the opening will face toward the back. This is where I placed the open (female) side of the snaps.
1. Hem the bottom of the legs, leaving the crotch seam open (see sides of picture below).
2. Turn the BACK crotch seam under twice to completely finish the edge just like you did with the hem of the legs. Turn the FRONT seam under once about 1/4" to clean up the edge (not pictured). Stitch.
3. Cut 2 pieces of 1/2" twill tape to the width of the crotch seam, adding about 1/4" to allow for turning under at both sides.
4. Turn the ends of one piece of the twill tape under and pin. Stitch to the right side of the BACK.
5. Turn the ends of the second piece of twill tape under and pin. Stitch the twill tape over the unfinished edge of the FRONT crotch hem on the wrong side of the fabric.
6. Mark on the tape where you want to place your snaps so they will match up when closed. Set your snaps following the package directions. The prong (male) side goes on the BACK. The socket (female) side will go on the FRONT.
7. Handstitch the wide opening closed on both pieces of tape.
This is what the open (female) side will look like.
And you're finished!
I hope this will be helpful. It took me a couple of tries to figure out the best way to do this with the least amount of handstitching possible. Please let me know if you have any questions and I'll do my best to answer them.
Here's the little scrap of fabric from the doll I wrote about in yesterday's post. Each little flower head is about 1/16" so super tiny. It appears to be 100% cotton. I would love to know more about it. The fabric reminds me of some feedsacks my grandma had saved from when she was a little girl. It's gorgeous.
And this little mess is part of my design process for making the little Lego sack. I thought someone might find all my math interesting. On the left is a list of the fabrics I used with checkmarks next to them. I wanted to have a good amount of the fabric showing all around. There are also lots of little things crossed out from my bad math and from changing my mind. The bag is also mostly lined. I know I didn't write that yesterday. Because of the way I stitched the window and the zipper in there, however, I had to leave two seams (I think) exposed on the inside. If I made another one of these, I would eliminate that. I will have to think about the construction a lot more and not stay up past midnight.
And I didn't forget about the snap tape tutorial. It is complete but I wanted to show you the romper I made using the technique first. Alas, the terrible twos have hit us hard and I only have the one model (and the job that keeps me at work most weekdays). If I have time, I'll do the tutorial before the romper and show you the romper next week.
I got this beautiful doll for $4 recently. It's not something I look for at yard sales but it caught my eye and I couldn't stop thinking about it; it's just so beautiful to me. It came with a dress that I do not think was made for the doll but was either a baby dress or something for a larger child's doll. It all smelled pretty musty so I soaked the whole thing in a bucket of Bac-out then hung it out on the line to dry. The dress dried right away but the doll was still sopping wet after several hours. I decided to just rip her apart and pull out all the stuffing.
It appears that the doll was full of cotton balls. It was packed pretty tightly. I don't know what they used to stuff dolls with but this was stuffed long before the invention of polyester fiberfill, that's for sure. The only clue is a tiny scrap of floral print fabric that I left in my scanner at work (where I was so busy that I did not even have time to write this on my lunch).
Her face is in pretty nice condition and the arms and legs are complete except for a small chip off the left thumb. I'm going to re-stuff her and set her on my shelf as is. I love the patina on the cotton fabric and the hairline fracture at her neck. It should be pretty easy to put her back together but I have never attempted something like this before. I'll post a scan tomorrow of the little piece of fabric. I'm thinking 1940s.
Before our vacation, I spent a lot of time gathering books and toys to take with us. I searched for anything portable and with enough substance to keep the 2-year old occupied for "long" stretches of time. She loves legos (it's in the genes on both sides) and seemed ready for the upgrade to the smaller size so I bought the big set of pink Legos from Amazon. Of course we couldn't bring the massive tub with us on the plane so I decided to make a bag for them.
I had seen this amazing drawstring toy sack tutorial on Make it Perfect through Craft Gossip. At the time, I just thought it was very clever. I had no plans to actually make it. But then I bought some Yo Gabba Gabba panties and they came in this nice little pouch. Of course, I threw it away and had to dig it out of the trash when the thought came to me to make a little window out of the vinyl just like in the tutorial.
I wanted something more case-like so I didn't even follow the tutorial at all beyond the inspiration (although that might not have been a bad idea because she uses paperclips to hold the fabric to the vinyl since you can't pin through it. I just fought with it instead). I used Lizzy House's Red Letter Day again with the Pearl Bracelet print and more ducks. The tree stump fabric is by Jay McCarroll, my favorite winner of Project Runway, and grosgrain ribbon for the handles.
This, surprisingly, was not too difficult to make. I had to do a drawing of what I had in my head. Then I added some measurements to that. Then I kind of exploded the drawing and added seam allowances to my edges to figure out what to cut. The bottom has a layer of stabilizer/interfacing in it and I wish I would have used it on all sides because now that the case has seen some use, it's not as stiff as I would like. I expect our Lego collection to outgrow this soon but I'm impressed with it. Even though it is not perfect, I was proud to pull it off.
Here is my second go at the Pretty Pinafore by Carolina Fair Designs. I used the more boyish color of the alphabet fabric by Cosmo Cricket and let Zadie pick out the bias tape. We almost went with a bright raspberry to girl it up a bit but decided a dress was girly enough. You can read my review of the pattern and see more images here.
Carolina Fair Designs is giving away two patterns on this blog. You have two chances to enter. Go to her shop, pick out which design is your favorite, then leave a comment on each post (Wraparound dress here and Pretty Pinafore here). Make sure you leave some contact info or a way to find you.
Winners will be chosen August 16. Good luck and happy sewing. Yay!
THANKS TO ALL WHO COMMENTED! THE GIVEAWAY IS CLOSED.
When I saw on the Carolina Fair Designs blog that she needed testers for a pattern, I jumped on the chance. Although I review patterns all the time, I had never been the first to try something. Plus, I liked working with the Wraparound Dress so much that I thought it would be a win-win. The Pretty Pinafore is another one-piece pattern that is super easy to make. The only bit of construction is to sew the shoulder seams together.
I used this amazing alligator (or is it crocodile?) fabric designed by Anda of boosterseat. She is in the process of moving right now so you can buy her fabric directly from Spoonflower or just wait. It will be worth it. She is an amazing person and so talented you won't believe it.
The little gator there on the pocket is a cross-stitch design from Andwabisabi. She has a ton of great patterns and they are very well priced. I wrote about stitching this before. I made quite a mess of it but my 2-year old doesn't mind and you can still tell it's a gator so that's all that really matters, right? I made the pocket from a bizarre collar that I bought at a thrift store. The packaging was hilarious. It has a crocheted lace edge to it that has now pulled out of my bias tape edging. I'll have to fix that but I'm not sure how.
The overall dress is so simple. After you stitch the shoulder seams together, you just apply your bias tape to the whole thing in one continuous loop. I do recommend that you stitch one edge of the tape down (right sides together) then fold it over and stitch it closed. I tried a quick and dirty one step method and the dress pulled out of the tape in several areas. I have been re-stitching them and it has taken far longer to fix my mistakes than it would have been just to sew it right the first time. But that seems to be how I do things...
As you can see it's a great fit. I like that it has a pinafore look but it's a dress. You can make a tunic or shirt version with this just like you can with the Wraparound Dress. Both hems are noted. A nice touch.
And check out this amazing little stop-animation video that Caroline made to demonstrate sewing the dress. It is really awesome. And only 1 minute long.
SORRY. COMMENTS ARE CLOSED. WINNERS ALREADY CHOSEN.
Don't forget that Caroline is giving away two patterns. To enter, go to her website, pick out which of the two patterns you would like and leave a comment on this post. For a second entry, go to yesterday's post and leave a comment there as well. Make sure you leave your email address or a way to find you! Winners will be chosen August 16.
We took a weekend trip to New York recently to gather some supplies. Every time we hit the city, I make a point to stop into Purl. It was my first time in the new location and I thought it was great. Very roomy. They had a really nice selection of embroidery flosses, what seemed like the same amount of fabric, and a nice spot to look at patterns. Of course, there was the usual gorgeous crafty inspiration hanging out on every shelf and every corner.
The first thing to catch my eye were these little wool felt dolls by Mimi Kirchner. I didn't take any notes or photos of them while I was at the store but I couldn't stop thinking about them. When I got home, I did some snooping and found this awesome free pattern. I'm going to try to make one. I've had an idea brewing for a long time and I think this is what I needed to make it work.
I started my collection of Heather Ross' Far Far Away II with these lovelies. My color palette has been leaning toward this yellow and I bought several different versions of it on the trip (more on that later this week). The only embroidery floss available here is DMC and its generic counterparts so I decided to try some Trebizond silk (teal) and Londonderry spun linen (jonquil). They are both really lovely.
Of course, some Alexander Henry. I'd seen the larger print before but never the smaller one. I think they'll look lovely together and I have a pattern in mind. The polka dot trim caught my eye and I think it will look good with some fabric I picked up at Ikea. You never know...
Finally, I bought a teeny tiny bit of this Liberty of London gorgeousness to match the storage boxes from Target. I'm going to recover some pillows we have on the pullout in the office and I thought it would be nice to throw in a bit of this as an accent. It's not the same pattern but I didn't want to be too matchy matchy.
