Tag Archives: sew

Dec 23 2014
ornament

Cross Stitch Advent Calendar Ornaments

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ornamentI have worked hard to complete cross stitch advent calendar ornaments. I loved how they turned out!

Materials:

What I did:

ornamentsFirst I decided how to space out the ornaments on the linen. I should have measured it but I didn’t. Then I cross stitched them all which felt like it took forever mainly because it almost did.

Next, I measured about in inch around all sides on the pattern pieces and cut. I then took out my sewing machine and found matching thread and did a zigzag stitch around the edges of all 25 pieces.

Then I decided which color of fabric would go best with each ornament. I then placed the fabric right side up on table and laid the cross stitched pieces wrong side up and pinned them to the fabric. Then I took pinking shears and cut out the fabric around the linen getting as close to it as possible without cutting the linen.

ornamentsNext, I cut 6 inch pieces of ribbon and slipped a folded in half piece between the two fabric layers and centered  and pinned it with about ½ inch of the cut sides sticking out.

Then, leaving about an 1½ inch opening (to be able to turn right side out) I straight stitched with about ½ inch seam going back and forth over the ribbon a couple of times.

Press, on the fabric side, and carefully turn ornaments right side out, pushing corners out. Press again.

Stuff to your desired fullness.

ornamentHand stitch the openings closed.

Enjoy your hard work!

ornament

Apr 22 2014
tie onesie

Tie Onesie

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tie onesie

My friend is about to have a baby boy and I wanted to make him something special. I saw this DIY Necktie Onesie tutorial from HauteApplePie.com  and thought that would be the perfect gift. I ended up using the pattern from CrapIveMade.com. Both are great tutorials but I did a few things differently for my tie onesie.

What I used:

  • muslin scraps
  • cotton fabric scraps
  • water-soluble fabric glue stick
  • matching or coordinating thread

What I did:

First I cut out the pattern pieces, I angled the knot part to make it look more like a real tie.

I wanted the tie to be a bit sturdier and I didn’t have interfacing on hand so I used muslin. I cut one of each pattern piece. I then trimmed ¼” off of the muslin piece.

Next, glue the muslin pieces to the wrong side of the patterned fabric pieces, positioning them so there’s a ¼” edge around the muslin.

tie onesie

Iron the ¼” fabric over towards the muslin, being careful of the points. Use the glue to help keep the fabric down. I didn’t iron the top part of the tie because the know will be covering it.

tie onesie

Position the knot over the un-ironed part of the tie, sew a line across the bottom of the knot, connecting the two pieces.

tie onesietie onesie

I trimmed the thread and ironed again.

I then took out the universal needle and replaced it with a knit needle because the onesie is a nice stretchy knit cotton. I then positioned and pinned the tie onto the onesie. I did it in a way to where I didn’t have to move the needles as I sewed so I could concentrate on the lines of the tie.

I sewed along all edges of the tie and close to the edge of the fabric as possible, pivoting at the points. Be careful as you sew, go slow. It’s very easy to catch some of the onesie as you sew .

Iron and wash.

Enjoy!

tie onesietie onesie

Dec 31 2013
reflective dog leash

How to Sew a Reflective Dog Leash, Revisited.

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Awhile ago I made a reflective dog leash for Rusty. It served  us well but Rusty got a new collar and the buckle on the leash was too small for the ring. So it was time to redo his leash. I’m using the same leash with  nylon webbing and a clip I picked up from Ragged Mountain, a store in North Conway, NH.

reflective dog leash

First thing I did was seam rip the old buckle off and remove the pieces of reflective tape that remained.

Next I hand stitched the new clip in place. I decided to sew by hand because the webbing is very thick and I don’t know how my machine would handle it. I don’t have a lot of needles to pick from, so I went with a crewel hand needle. I’m not even sure why I have these but they were in my sewing kit. The webbing is thick and stiff so it took awhile to sew.

I then cut 2, ½inch wide by 4 inch long reflective fabric tape to replace the old tape. I then stitched one on the bottom of the leash near the clasp and one near the handle of the leash. My stitching for the reflective tape is terrible. I’d like to say that I am a perfectionist and will redo it but I know I won’t. Feel free to judge. 🙂

reflective dog leash

Now it’s time to take Rusty out on a walk and enjoy the new leash.

Sep 25 2013

10 Adorable Homemade Halloween Dog Costumes

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Here is a list of my 10 favorite homemade dog costumes that will be perfect for Halloween. Click on the links or pictures for instructions on how to make one of these great costumes for your furry baby.

lion mane dog costume

1. Lion

 

 

Turning your dog into a lion always seems to be a popular and oh so cute choice! This is my dog Rusty, he has two different lions’ manes. Version 1 is a pretty simple a quick mane. Version 2, shown in the picture, is little more complicated but adds some volume to the mane the first version lacked. But I think Rusty looks good in both.

 

 

 

dog costume

2. Dracula

 

This adorable Dracula cape comes from Mimi & Tara Dog Clothes Patterns. There are multiple sizes for this costume available. So dogs of all sizes can wear it. Just make sure your dog doesn’t bite. 🙂 There’s also a pumpkin pattern for your pup on this site.

 

 

 

dog costume

3. Dinosaur

 

 

This cute little dinosaur tank comes from Martha Stewart. It’s the perfect little costume to make your pup the hit of the party.

 

 

 

dog costume

4. Walrus

 

I immediately smiled when I saw this walrus costume on Instructables. It’s the perfect statement dog costume. I would really love to see a video of this cute pup walking in this costume. It makes me happy just thinking about it.

 

 

dog costume

5. Hula Dog

 

 

I imagine matching dog parent and dog costumes with this Hula outfit from Celebrating Halloween, it would be cute! The hula outfit is a classic and after Halloween, this too cute costume is the perfect excuse to have a Luau.

 

 

 

make a bird costume dog

6. Bird

 

This is my Rusty modeling a parrot costume I made him. Lots of feathers meant a lot of the work but it was completely worth it.

 

 

dog costume

7. M&M

 

 

This tasty and easy to create M&M costume by Love to Sew Studio is perfect. It’s because you can easily change the color of the candy. If you prefer fruit flavored candy instead of chocolate, put an ‘S’ for a Skittles costume!

 

 

 

dog costume

8. Pirate

 

 

This cute pirate costume comes from Make: Craft. This costume is actually two pieces. So it’s a nice bonus having new shirt and pants patterns for your pooch.

 

 

dog costume

9. Harry Potter

 

 

Turn your dog into Harry Potter, or should I say Hairy Potter? Okay wow, that was terrible. Sorry I didn’t attempt a pun on the pirate costume. I’ll leave the jokes to the professionals. But this cute costume comes from All Free Holiday Crafts.

 

 

 

dog costume

10. Chia Pet

 

 

This Chia Pet costume from The Flirty Blog is just hilarious. If you want to make sure you and your dog are the center of attention this would be the perfect costume. This blog also has other dog costume ideas.

Sep 15 2013
dress into a skirt

How To Turn a Strapless Dress into a Skirt

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dress into a skirt

I had this strapless dress and although I like it and love the color, I hardly ever wore it. I decided it needed a make over into something I’d actually wear. I made it into a high-waisted skirt and kept the pockets.  I worked on the fit in the waist of the skirt before I moved on to the length of the skirt.

How I did it:

1. Removed the hook and eye and zipper.

dress into skirt

2. Next I removed the top part of the dress being careful to keep the seam stitching on the top part of the band that is in between the top part and the skirt part.

dress into skirt

Close Up of the Seam

3. I shortened the zipper.

dress into a skirt

4. Next I put on the skirt to figure out how much I needed to take in on the waist because it is going to sit at a different spot on my body.

5. Seam rip the side seam.  Mark and pin it together with the new measurements. I left the seam allowance to be quite large to be cut down a bit with pinking shears later if I needed to let out the seam a bit.

6. It’s time to sew the new seam and install the zipper! It is important to note to TEST your FABRIC and USE the CORRECT NEEDLE in your machine. I’m sure you all know that, but I had a blonde moment and didn’t test my fabric first resulting in my universal needle poking/ripping some major holes into the material.

dress into a skirt

blurry picture of the holes that need repaired

The jersey/knit needle worked much better. Mark on the skirt where the zipper will begin. At that point, you’ll back stitch a couple of stitches and then change to a longer or basting stitch on the machine. The basting stitch is where the zipper will go.

7. Press the seam open, and carefully pin the zipper onto the seam making the teeth directly over the seam line. Make sure the pins can easily be removed as you sew the zipper on and that you changed to a zipper foot on your machine.

dress into a skirt

8. After the zipper is installed, it’s time to finish the top hem. Because I cut the top to where there was stitching at on the top band, I simply folded over ¼inch pressed and pinned. I then sewed it and pressed again. The only thing I wish I had done differently with this side seam and zipper would have been to leave space for the hook and eye. Rookie mistake on my part.

9. I put it on to make sure it fit and to figure out the length I wanted. I pinned it to the desired length. I needed to remove about 3½ inches. I marked the skirt to just below the desired length, and cut with my pinking shears. Folded up ¼inch and pressed and pinned.

dress into a skirt

10. Sew that seam! Press! Try on!

11. Enjoy!

dress into a skirt

Finished skirt and bonus flip flop tan lines!

Sep 10 2013
shorten a shirt dress

How to Shorten a Shirt Dress

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dress

I recently bought a shirt dress to wear with boots as a fun fall work outfit but of course it is too long, about 2 inches too long. I knew I needed to shorten my shirt dress. This was going to be tricky for me because of the curves at the bottom. I usually only work with straight lines because my lack of patience usually gets the better of me when trying to work on a curve. But after a long afternoon with Rusty whining behind me from lack of attention I managed to get it to my desired length.

Here’s what I did:

Stood in front of a mirror and figured out how much fabric needed to be taken off the bottom. I pinned the length and then stood up straight to make sure that was my desired length.

shorten a shirt dress

chalk marks

Next I unbuttoned the shirt and laid it out, right side down, and with my chalk pencil, I marked a lot of spots up to the desired length of the dress. Then,  I also marked about an inch below that to serve as a cutting line.

shorten a shirt dress

two rows of chalk

It’s now time for my most time-consuming part, the hem! I needed to clip a couple of spots on the curves in order for the fabric to lay flat. Little by little I rolled over a ¼inch of fabric and then another ¼inch of fabric and pinned. I made sure to put the pins in to where I could sew with them still in the fabric so I’d have one less thing to worry about. And after all of that work, carefully, put the dress back on to make sure it is at the desired length.

http://www.covergirl.com/collections/nfl-collection/chicago-bears

lots of pins

Sew time! Slow and steady with some patience, wins the race because it is a tiny hem and there are curves, it’s best to go slow.

Try on one last time. Good? Press. Now I have a dress that will be perfect with flat and boots this Fall!

shorten a shirt dress

Sep 4 2013

Make Your Own Dress Form Links

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Ever wanted to make your own dress form? Me too! I have complied a list of tutorials to choose from. Pick the one that is best for you and good luck on your dress form making endeavors!

dress form

 

This how to is from The Esty Labs Archive gives a very detailed description with pictures to make a dress form out of a t-shirt and duct tape with the help of a friend. You can also jazz it up a bit by using colored or patterned duct tape.

 

 

 

dress form

 

This paper tape dress form from Instructables is great idea with the use of paper tape, t-shirt, spray sealant foam and a friend. The instructions and pictures are extremely detailed.

 

 

 

dress form

 

This dress form from Jezebel is probably the closest to buying the real thing, but it is also a lot more involved. It uses plaster bandages, sealant foam, IV cart to create your own stand for it to go on and sewing and creating a cover to cover the form.

 

 

dress form

 

 

I love the creativity used to make this form. It seems to be so simple. Syzygyo of Worlds created one from chicken wire and some duct tape!

 

 

 

Also, if you have your own dress form already but it isn’t to you exact measurements, look at FabulousFit, they sell “fitting systems” which are pads you can buy to help make adjustments to any part of your dress form!

Aug 17 2013
yoga pants

Shortened Yoga Pants

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yoga pants

This always happens when I buy new pants. They’re too long and these new yoga pants are no exception. I was a little worried about altering them because my experience with stretch fabric is next to zero. There was that one time when I used lycra for Rusty’s lions mane. But these pants needed to be about three inches shorter if I was ever going to get any use out of them. And let’s face it, when I say use, I mean lounging around my apartment, not working out in a yoga studio.

yoga pantsI folded and pinned the pants so they were the proper length while they were still on me. I changed and then measured the in-seam and the folded part to make sure that the lengths of each pant leg were even. Also, to see how much length, 3 inches, needed to be taken from each leg.

Next, I removed the pins and turned the pants inside out. I then carefully measured and cut 2 inches from each pant leg.

yoga pants

I then folded over ½ inch of fabric and pressed and then another ½ inch and pressed. Then I pinned the folds into place.

yoga pants

Rusty was not impressed by my cutting and ironing skills. I gave him a stretchy collar but he was even less impressed with that.

yoga pantsI placed my pins so they could be quickly and easily removed as I was sewing. I realized that although my machine can use a double needle, I don’t have two spools of thread in the same color. So that option was thrown out and instead I used a stretch stitch function my machine, a triple zig-zag stitch. I definitely had to pull out my user’s manual to make sure I was doing it correctly, very glad I kept it.

yoga pants

I stitched both legs using the edge of the folded fabric as my seam guide. I then pressed the seams.

yoga pants

I have crazy flip-flop tan lines on my feet. :/

I turned the pants right side out, put them on, and enjoyed my shortened yoga pants by watching TV and cuddling with Rusty.

Jul 16 2013
shirt collar

How to Make a Shirt Collar for a Dog

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dog shirt collar

I decided Rusty needed another piece for his work wardrobe. So I decided to make his a shirt collar. I have a pattern for it. But the easiest way, I think, for someone to make it at home is to use an old collared shirt you don’t want anymore and take apart that collar for the pattern. Or if you use my pattern, please note the sizing of 14.5inch neck and adjust the printing size accordingly. Also there is a lot of ironing for this pattern. Yes, it is annoying but taking the time to properly press each piece will end in much cleaner results and make sewing much easier.

bottompatterntoppattern

Things you need:

  • fabric, preferably cotton
  • interfacing
  • matching thread
  • if you’re like me, a sewing machine that can make a button-hole because I don’t know how to do it by hand.
  • button

1. Place, pin and cut out fabric and interfacing pattern pieces.

applyinterfacing

2. Apply interfacing B to Fabric A leaving about ¼ inch of fabric at the top of A.

3. Apply interfacing D to fabric C leaving about ¼ inch of fabric at the bottom of C.

shirt collar

4. On pieces, A and B fold over and press raw edges on 3 sides, leaving the bottom as is.

5. Pin together A and B, right sides out, and sew with a ¼ inch top stitch and the 3 sides you’ve pressed the edges.

6. On pieces C and D fold over about ¼ inch and press all four sides.

7. Center AB in between C and D and pin all the layers together, right sides out.

8. Stitch around all four sides of C and D, encasing AB in between the layers making one piece.

9. Position and mark where the button-hole should be, and use your machines button-hole foot to create the button-hole. If you don’t have a machine that can do that click here to learn how to do it by hand.

10. Sew on the button.

shirt collarshirt collar

11. Put it on your pooch and enjoy!

shirt collarshirt collar

 

Hopefully your dog will enjoy it more than Rusty because he looks scared in these pictures 🙁

 

Jul 7 2013
shirt

How to Shorten Shoulder Straps

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shoulder strap

I bought a really cute top for work, the only problem is that it is not petite sized. The straps are way too long making me expose too much of myself. Luckily I knew I could easily fix this after examining the shirt.

First I needed to figure out how much to take off of the straps so I put it on and pinned them into the correct place. I then carefully removed the shirt and measured the amount I needed to take off.

Next I turned the shirt inside out and got my handy seam ripper and opened the area where the strap connects to the shirt.

shoulder strapNext, I pulled out the 2 inches it needed to be shortened by and pinned it into place. Repeat for the other strap. shoulder strap

Using matching thread and the proper needle, I sewed the shoulder straps into place, using a back-stitch at each end to make sure they’re secure. I didn’t cut off the extra because it’ll be sitting in between the two layers of the shirt so they won’t be an issue. Turn it right side out and brand new shirt that actually fits.

shoulder strap