3 New Dresses

 

OK, had some spare time on my hands

 and thought I would do 3 more dresses for my little girl's doll. 

I found this pattern here at

my cup overflows

and I love it. 

She also has great instructionson how to make the dress.

(I use it without the sleeve cuff though).

 

There is a belt added to this dress.

 

 

 

And a ruffle on the bottom here.

 

 

this one was made from a pant leg that had some embroidery on the bottom.

 

 

I need to start putting some of these away for her

birthday and stop giving them to her as soon as I'm done. 

 It's hard because she's just so happy

to have clothes for her doll.

 

She's also a lucky girl who has a dad who can build furniture and I

need him to start on something similar to this wardrobe from

americangirl

 

 

 

 

 

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18" Doll Clothes

Well we're back from our vacation in Utah, which was so fun and full of skiing, BYU Basketball games, shopping and hanging out with family.

 

One of the fun projects I've been working on since

we've been back is clothes for my daughter's new doll that she got for

Christmas

(not an American girl, she's a Springfield girl)

(same size though, 18")

 and she wanted to have lots of clothes for her to change into. 

 

So I got busy and used outgrown or stained

t-shirts/pants from her to make "Abby" some clothes.

 

This one was from my daughter's favorite shirt that had a huge hole in it.

  The jeans are from a pair of old jeans.

 

 

 

stained t-shirt got a whole new look.

 



 

These leggings from an old t-shirt go with everything.

:)

 

 

 

 

This is the same material that my kids Christmas pj's were made in.

 

 

Old t-shirt, now a long dress.

(maybe too long...oops

it was my first attempt.)

 

 

Another stained t-shirt and one leg of a pair of outgrown jeans.

 

 



The best parts about using outgrown or stained clothes are:

 

1. I get to use the existing hems on the sleeves, neck and bottom and that saves time and gives it a finished look.

 

2.  The cost for these clothes are $0.00

 

3. My daughter can remember wearing some of these clothes

and loves that her doll now gets to wear them.

 

4. They take less than an hour to make.

Win for me.

 

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Easy Scripture Bag

 

I've finally decided to tackle some of the sewing projects that need to be done for Christmas

 

My oldest needed a new scripture bag

and really wanted it to be

turquoise and green.

 

So I scrounged through my fat quarters and scraps and made this bag.

 

 

 

It was a free tutorial from

my cotton creations

 

I love how easy it was to understand and to sew together.

 I used a heavier fabric on the outside because I wasn't going to quilt it, but

there is a product that adds weight to other fabrics called 

Pellon 809 decor bond.

This was my first lined project and I'm glad that it turned out and went together so easily.

 

 

Below is a picture of the outside (left) and inside (right) fabrics

(I made a flower in grey satin for the embellishment)

 

I also liked how the finished bag can fit

a Quad,

YW Personal Progress books,

 a Strength of Youth,

a True to the Faith 

and still have room for a pack of gum.

:)

 

 

 

Only two more to go.

 

 

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Minky Monsters

On Friday my SIL had a bunch of girls over to her house for a "Pinterest Party".  A very fun way of showing some of the projects we have been inspired to try and complete from pinterest.  There was very yummy food and excellent projects (and when she posts all the projects I'll create a link).  This is one of the inspired projects that I brought (here is where I was first inspired, but realized she was inspired here). 

 Around my house we call them MINKY MONSTERS and my kids love them. 

These are the first two that I've made, but the possibilities are endless with your fabric choices.

  In fact this is a great project for using up your scraps from

other projects as the ears, legs,

face and eye require such small amounts.

Here is a very quick tutorial on how I made them.

Cut the body fabric to desire width and length.

(Two pieces about 10"x 12")

You could change this to fit your needs.

Curve the top to make a nice head shape.  Cut so there are two body pieces.

Next cut out two ears and sew right sides together (then turn right side out)

these ears were cut from 3"x 3" squares

I like the legs long and skinny with a curved end. 

Legs were about 10" x 4" pieces. 

Fold so that it's 10"x 2" and sew curve and side closed.  Turn right side out and stuff.

OK I know this is a bit of a jump, but I totally forgot to take pictures of cutting the face, eye and the pocket....oops. 

 So cut an oval and smaller circle and sew down onto the body with BLACK thread and then zig-zag around the edge in WHITE.  Add a cute button on the eye.

  Make a pocket that is then sewn onto the tummy. 

Pin ears to the top of the head .  Do the same thing with the stuffed legs and add the back body piece and sew around right sides together. 

(leave a small hole in between the legs for turning it right side out.) 

 Stuff and hand stitch the opening.

I think they are so cute with their X and O eyes. 

Who wouldn't want Hugs and Kisses from these guys?

Truly a face a mother could love.

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Ruffle Aprons

I have had these ruffled aprons pinned  forever and finally decided to make them for my daughter's "Hello Kitty Baking Birthday Party".  

I think they turned out so cute.

(and now for a very quick how to.)

 First I made a plain white apron by folding the material in half and then cutting a simple apron shape.

 Then I went around all the edges and sewed a 1/4 inch hem to give it a finished edge.

Made the neck strap by folding a 2 inch strip like this and sewing it closed and then attached it to the apron bib.

Next I drew on some guide lines on where to attach the ruffles.

(can you even see them?)

picked some nice bright fabrics and cut them 6 inches wide and

double the length of the bottom of the apron

and gathered and sewed them down for four layers of ruffles, starting at the bottom and working up.  The top fifth layer was sewn right sides together and then flipped up and top stitched at the top for a band for the straps to be sewn in.  (Sorry no picture.)

Yo-yo flowers were made out of the scraps for a cute embellishment.

The girls were so excited to have them it made them worth the effort.

I even had a mom tell me on Sunday that her daughter won't take hers off and wants to wear it everywhere.

I love the attitude these two girls had.....

I guess you gotta know their moms to understand....

hee hee.

Without any direction from me the girls kinda posed like each other in their pairings....funny.

I have to give a big thanks to my MIL and SIL as my machine broke mid assembly line and came to my rescue.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!

They would not have been done at all on time without your help.

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Colur Block T-Shirt Dresses

With spring clearly on it's way it was time to clean out the kids drawers.  All stained, long sleeved, too short and too small T-shirts were gathered, put into a bag and taken out of their rooms. 

It felt GOOD.

 For the past couple of weeks I have been pinning dresses made from T-shirts and decided that it was time to go through my bag. 

 With the help of one of my sisters

 (who has made tons of repurposed dresses for her girls)

 we began picking out shirts that coordinated.

Then we started to separate clean

unstained tops

from stained bottoms,

 and stained tops from unstained bottoms.

my sister cut while I sewed

 Sleeves were shortened for the upcoming spring  season.

 Here's a trick from my smart sister,

 cut one sleeve off then place on the other sleeve and cut,

(so you take off the same amount without having to pull out a measuring tape.)

Clever girl

 Continue with other colours. 

Leave the side seams of the shirt sewn together.

Making nice tubes of fabric

 lay next colour below the layer you're going to attach it to.

If it doesn't match up

draw a line to connect the two pieces

(on the inside of shirts and sew up the line.)

 I really wanted grey in this dress and found some leggings that had a hole in the knee.

 Cut desired width

 (Leave seam allowance on the sides so that you can make a tube)

 Cut pants so that you have a strip of fabric

 (sew sides together to make a tube)

 continue with other colours

(each layer going down the dress should angle slightly so that you have an A-line dress)

 mix patterns as well as solids

 (keep the last layer's hem on the shirt so that it looks finished)

 For the sleeve we shortened them 

and then took  1" off the bottom of the cuff and reattached it to the sleeve

(right sides sewn together)

 so simple and a cute detail.

 and now you're done

I love that I got rid of four t-shirts (and one pair of pants) and ended up with one dress.

My husband will be happy too.

 Here's another dress using the same technique.

I love the last layer on this dress

it was a cute ruffle of an old shirt (came with the built in drawstring bow) gotta love the ease of that

 adding the bottom hem from one of the shirts makes a nice a collar too

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