Baby Boy Baby Gift

For a friend’s brand new (not so new) little monkey, baby booties and a stenciled onesie! It just took me 3 months to gift it to the recipient. Poor kid was born in January. His momma assures me it will still fit…we’ll see.

I just love freezer paper stencils! Cut stencil, iron, paint, wait for it to dry(impatiently), peel, and ta da!

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More instructions and links for Freezing Paper Stenciling how to at

this earlier post.

 

And my new favorite crafting tool:

Instead of using an exacto knife (which scare me) I picked up this nifty cutter, its got a ceramic micro tip. Its sharp enough but without a big bulky blade. And its got a snap on lid just like a pen. I love it! Now I have to/get to make more stencils!

Refashion: Grey & Blue Dress

I took this clearance XXL dress and took in the sides and waist. Took it up inches and inches in the shoulders. Re-cut the sleeves and reattached them.

I’m still playing with how to make the pockets better. Thinking I’ll add a pleat to them, so they don’t gape open as much. Or maybe some shirring. We’ll see.

And now I have a super comfy simple dress, that fits! And for about $3.00, and an hour of tinkering.

Here’s me and my hubby after church on Valentine’s Day (wish I had a few fabric flowers pinned on too, forgot):

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More Fabric Flowers!

So the inspiration for these flowers comes from having to read a book for a class over the weekend. I got an audiobook version of it, and blissfully listened my way through it, while making pretty little flowers. Here some of my creations:

 

• Instructions on how to make the flower in this post.
• Then I sewed on a pearly shank button in the middle.
• Then, folded a piece of sheer ribbon and stitched it to the back.
• Next, sewed the pin piece to a circle of white felt.
• Last, I used Tacky glue (inspired by this tutorial) to adhere the felt to the fabric. I love this stuff now!

I did a few singed silk flowers too. I mentioned them earlier in this post. 

I really love the way they turned out this time! Plus it kept my hands busy while I was listening to my homework!

  

Some Lite Reading

I have so much to learn. I love my Library.

Navy Stripe- Shirt Altering

So good ole’ Old Navy had another 50% off clearance sale. (Thank you Jenni, my girl on the inside, for the heads up). I went and picked up a few more things to refashion, and I’ve been working of my other works-in-progress too.

So this one isn’t a true refashion. All I really did was resize it.   (Cost= $2.49)

 

However, I completely took it apart to do so. Mostly because of the neckline- love this style. Don’t know what its called, anyone know? I decided to take it up in the shoulders to make it fit better, higher, and less saggy. A few inches makes a big difference. (pinned:)

This is what the inside construction looks like (inside out). Front and back pieces overlap to create the shoulder seam where the sleeve is attached. So I trimmed/ripped out the shoulder seams and side seams. I then overlapped the flaps more and stitched them in place.

Then I tried a new way of attaching sleeves, which is the EASY way! Sew the shoulder seams, flat, then sew up the side seam and sleeve seam in one pass. Really good tutorial here, its worth checking out! I’ll never do set in sleeves the hard way again, unless I have to. The sleeves were already perfectly finished, I just had to unstitch the bar stitch that was keeping them tacked up. I always need more long sleeve shirts, my arms get cold easy, so I’d prefer to have them long instead of leaving them rolled up. Oh and they were a bit wide, so I took them in as well.

I usually try to get by with using as few pins as possible, but this knit tended to roll up on the edges. Also, I wanted to get the stripes lined up as best I could.

   Then finish up with a twin needle hem.  The neckline turned out pretty good.The alterations were pretty effective. 

I’m thinking about adding a stencil. I really like the sailor feel of the navy and white stripes. So I  was thinking along the lines of the Navy theme, I’d do an anchor.

What do you think? Too Cheesy?

Which color? (these are just photoshopped to get an idea)

 

Indecisive some more

So, I got this basic Old Navy shirt in the sale last week. Its my favorite kind- long sleeve, perfect comfortable neckline, basic. Its great….but…I just love these freezer paper stencils, and I can’t just leave it plain. (hey, at least its not a bedazzler!)

So I don’t remember now where I plucked this picture from, but I just love the flower design.

And sometime ago I thought, hmm that would make a great stencil.

Just add a little photoshop/corel draw time and viola:

 

  

So the background is the approximate color of the shirt that I want to stencil, (turquiose?). The color squares to the right are the paints that I have right now: black, green, pink, brown, white, navy, orange.

So because I’m a indecisive nerd, and because it was so easy, I made these different color combinations.

      

Which do you think I should do? Suggestions?

Hoping to do this project this weekend. I’m on a craft kick.

Black Sweater fix up

While I was back home at Christmastime, I found an old sweater of mine. (Remember back in Junior High when dusters sweaters were totally “in”). Well, its still a great sweater, but the sleeves were all stretched out- drove me crazy!

So I turned it inside out and took in the sleeves with a straight stitch- drastically at the wrists. (I think I might take in even more up to the elbows.)

Then I trimmed off the excess. And zigzagged the seam to reinforce and contain the raw edge(don’t need no stinkin serger…well someday I do want one, but for now my machine has some stitches that mock serge).

I also added a big black button. I had a horrible time sewing a buttonhole, but it does the job okay. I can wear it with or without the tie now.

(awful picture of myself) Well, a simple fix up. But something I never used to be able to do.

Twin Needle

Yay! I now have a twin needle.  (two actually, 2.0mm and 4.0mm) You need a twin needle to get that finished look on the hems of knits/clothing, like this:

 

I am really excited, using it should make the things I sew look more finished, less homemade. And it should help them last longer. Plus, my machine has a lot of stitch settings for a twin needle, I’ve been wanting to try them out. Decorative stitches that should work well with it too. I have no experience sewing with one, but I am excited to test it out.

Fabric Flowers

Help! I can’t stop making these!

Seriously, these flowers are so easy to make, they are addicting! Once I got the first one down I was on a roll. I just kept making them while watching shows, and before I knew it I had over a dozen of them!

I basically followed this tutorial, except I didn’t glue mine, I hand stitched them in place instead. Usually I avoid hand stitching like the plague. But since all the stitches are mostly hidden I was very messy and just made it up as I went along. Also, I really like how they are supposed to be imperfect, with the frayed edges and such. I l-o-v-e projects that don’t require precision!

Here’s the basics of how to make them:

Just start with a strip of fabric (all of mine were different sizes, I didn’t measure at all, yay!) this is also a great project for using up scraps.

--notice the band aid, one more reason I avoid sewing by hand, needle injuries are inevitable. I need to pick up a thimble.


Then, Knot one end of the fabric, this will become the center of your flower.

Then, thread a needle, knot the end, and take a stitch of two through the back of the knotted fabric.

Then you’re ready to start twisting the fabric-loosely or tightly, varying, whatever- and wrapping it around the center knot in a spiral.




Stitch the surrounding loop of fabric to the center knot. Then as you continue to twist and wrap, stitch the fabric to edge of the next inner loop.

Sounds complicated but you’ll end up with something like this on the back. (I used the yellow one with white thread so you can see the stitches easily) You can do it with less stitches too.
Now I have to decide what to do with them! How do I finish them up?

They make great corsage pins for accessorizing shirts!
And I want to try some out as hair clips or as part of a headband. Not sure if I can pull that off, pretty trendy for me.

I love tons of different color combinations. So I’m not sure which ones to cluster together and which ones to leave separate.

Maybe I’ll leave them all separate with pin backs on all of them, So I can always mix and match.

What do you think? Which combos are the best?