Christmas Overalls

Necessary computer maintenance, the big holiday weekend and the acquirement of a new iPhone have kept me away from the blog the last two weeks. I have been crafting and my big knitting projects for Christmas are complete, but I just have not had the time to take pictures of anything. My Dad fixed my computer so my embroidery software will work again, and after months of not having it, I feel like I have a new toy again!
Today, I did a lot of cutting and sewing and this afternoon I finished up two pairs of custom matching knot overalls for my cousin's girls. The fabric is from the Christmas Groove Collection by Caleb Gray and is available thru one of my favorite Etsy fabric stores, Fabric Shoppe. The pattern is the Knot Overalls from Whimsy Couture.




Sorry it's sideways. For some reason the "auto rotate" thing is not working



Toddler Girls A-line Peasant Tunic Tutorial

I promised some friends a while back that I would post a tutorial for this little top. Yesterday, I took advantage of an early nap time for my one year old while my two year old was glued to Dora, and took the pics for this tutorial. I am sadly in need of a new camera, so bear with me if the pictures are not the best.

First, measure your little girl for neck elastic length

And, for sleeve length

Take a men's button up shirt, remove the pocket with your seam ripper and cut off the sleeves.

Cut the top of the shirt off just under the arm holes.

Fold in half

Take your favourite a-line jumper pattern and lay on top of your folded shirt. Give yourself a few more inches for the arm hole. As you can see, I used the A-line Dresses and Tops pattern from Carla C Dolly Designs and added about 3 inches to the arm hole.

Take your ruler or tape measure and find the straight line from the outside of the strap on the original pattern and mark it with a washable marker.

Starting at your marking, cut the armhole and neckline out as shown above.

Then cut out the a-line

Take the sleeves that you cut off. Remove the cuffs and cut into a rectangle.

Fold your rectangle out long-ways and measure for your sleeve. You will need to subtract the length of you armhole and then measure for sleeve length. My arm hole was about 7 inches long and I wanted a little bit shorter sleeve, so I went with a 5 inch sleeve length. I ended up cutting my sleeve pieces to measure 12 inches total.

Fold your sleeve pieces in half and line the open side up with the cut armhole on the shirt piece and cut out the armhole on the sleeve to match the one on the shirt. Do this for both sleeves.

With right sides facing, line up your armholes and pin as shown. Sew together and repeat with the other armhole.

This is what you should have.

Take your other shirt piece and pin and sew the armholes in the same way. With the shirt inside out, pin the front to the back along the sides of the shirt pieces and the sleeve pieces. Sew together all the way up the sides and the sleeves.

 This is what it should look like.

At this point, if I have extra fabric on the arm pieces, I like to trim them down to even everything out. After trimming, overcast the neck line by going all the way around the edge with a zig zag stitch or serger if you are lucky enough to have one. It keeps the fabric from unravelling in the washing machine.

Hem the sleeves by folding the edge up about 1/2 inch and pressing. Then fold again to hide the cut edge inside of the seam and keep the sleeve from unravelling.

Sew around where you just pressed. According to the Sewing With Nancy lady, it's a lot easier to sew around a tube from the inside as shown above.

This is the hardest part so eat some chocolate and take a deep breath. Press about 1/2 to 1 inch all the way around the edge of the neckline. Don't worry if it is not perfect. This will be on the inside where no one will see it. Just make sure you will have enough folded down to make a big enough casing for the elastic.

Carefully, sew about 1/2 inch below the fold all the way around the edge leaving a 1 inch opening. Make sure you do not leave any other openings. If you have a couple of puckers, it will not matter because you will be gathering the neckline with the elastic. No one will notice ;)

Cut your elastic to desired measurement plus 1 inch. I measured about 15 inches for Katie's neck line and then added another inch so 16 inches. Pin a safety pin to the elastic and thread through the casing.

Once the elastic is pulled all the way through, I like to tie it off with a tight knot if I am using 1/4 inch elastic or anything smaller because it is very difficult to try to sew together. This is why I added an extra inch to the original measurement.

Pull your knotted elastic back into the casing and sew shut.

Trim off all of the little hanging threads and you have an a-line peasant tunic.

Very comfy for lounging around and for play time.

A Fall Dress Take Two, The Mini Version

A couple of months ago I scored a used American Girl Bitty Baby doll on Ebay for 11.59. Imagine my excitement! I had one of the original American Girl dolls when I was a little girl, and I have been happily anticipating the day when I could get one for my own daughter. We have been getting the catalogue in the mail for a while now, and for the past few months Katie has been turning to the page with Bitty Baby and staring. She says, "Oooooooh, Bibby Baby!" So, because of this, I figured it was time to get one. However, seeing the price of a brand new one made me wonder if Katie was ready to take care of something I spent that much money on. This sent me searching on Ebay for a used Bitty doll. After a couple of days, I found one with brown eyes and brown hair. Perfect for Katie! So, for the last few weeks, I have had this poor little naked baby doll sitting and staring at me in my sewing room. And, since I have never known Santa to bring naked dolls, I figured it was time for me to start working on a little wardrobe for her.

Do y'all remember this dress from a few weeks ago?

 Well, today I came up with this little number to match it:

I used the small sized pattern for the Itty Bitty Baby Dress from Made By Rae and scraps from Katie's dress. Rae designed this pattern to fit a preemie or small newborn and it includes a little bit bigger size for a larger newborn. I had to shorten the skirt a little to fit Bitty, and since it is a dolly dress, I didn't go through the trouble of doing the piping and the bias tape. Instead, I just added a border to the bottom of the skirt. The link to the toddler size can be found here or in my Little Turkey Dress post.

I also whipped up a couple of diapers using felt and velcro. I'm hoping this will deter princess Katie from trying to use her brother's diapers on her baby.

Izzy and Ivy Giveaway!

One of my very favorite pattern designers, Izzy and Ivy, is giving away some awesome bundle packs of adorable patterns. There are 12 chances to win, so scoot on over and enter!
Here are some pics of Izzy and Ivy's precious patterns:

I made this twirly little number last spring for Katie.

I mean, how cute is this?

 

This one is NEW!

 

 

Mommy and Me Jammies

It's been totally crazy over here with my husband training for his new job while still working full time at the old one, a first birthday blow-out, and just the normal day to day with 2 toddlers that I am exhausted! Too exhausted, some days, to even feel like getting out of bed. So then, I end up schlepping around the house all day in my ugly, worn but super comfy jammies pants. Well, the other day a link to the Don't Get Out of Bed Pants tutorial from Ducky House popped up in my google reader from the Craft Gossip  feed. (btw, if you don't subscribe to Craft Gossip, you totally should. It's amazing!) This led to a shopping trip to the Goodwill yesterday during Mothers Day Out for pretty vintage bed sheets, and some fast cutting and sewing right up to the time I picked up the kids. These pants are incredible! They are cute, soft, and comfy all at the same time. I love them so much, I decided to whip some matching ones up for Cupcake Katie.
I apologise in advance for the poor quality of the picture below. My husband is at the office today, so I had to make do with my sad self-portrait skills. 

Katie and  Me in our Mommy and Me Jammies. Her blue lips are courtesy of the bag of M&M's that I keep on hand for positive potty training reinforcement.

Reluctantly modelling the mini-me version

Her little booty is way cuter in hers than mine is in mine