Sewing for my soon-to-be School Girl

For some crazy reason I decided to try and sew my little girl a back pack. Well mostly because the backpacks I could find in stores were either character backpacks, boring backpacks, expensive backpacks, too big, too small, you get the idea. So I found a cute little toddler backpack pattern online and bought it.

Of course Lillie is no toddler anymore, so it needed a few adjustments. Well, actually, I made a lot of adjustments. And that is where the craziness began. It would have been quite simple actually had I followed the pattern exactly. But no, it needed a little pizazz to it.

So I added 4 inches to the height, 2 inches to the width, added side pockets, a front pocket, lined it and embroidered her name on the front and first initial on the sides. I really wasn't sure what I was getting myself into. And I was definitely nervous about the zipper. But as it turned out, the zipper was not the hard part.

I am actually very happy with the way it turned out. Just as long as no one examines the inside too much=)

Lillie girl is happy with it too! She even ran to put her school supplies into it as soon as I said it was finished.

I probably won't be making another of these for awhile. And I will probably do a few things differently. But I am really glad I made myself try it!

And now, if you are still with me =) Here is an outfit I sewed for her for school. She has actually already worn it to church but that's okay.

A dress with matching ruffle pants. The dress was actually supposed to be a shirt but I lengthened it to a dress.

I LOVE how this turned out! So ruffley and fun! And the elastic around the neck makes for easy sewing AND easy dressing.

So funny how she thinks she has to strike a pose every time she models something for me. I told her she didn't have to stand like that but she told me that Yes she did=)

Also part of why I think I am so happy with the way the outfit and the backpack turned out is because of my awesome new serger! Actually it isn't new. But it is new to me. My sister was at a garage sale and they had this serger sitting there. Since my sister sews, she was curious about it and the lady didn't have a price on it. So she asked how much for the serger. The lady said something like "Oh, how about five bucks?" I'm not sure exactly how the conversation went after that but this lady said that it worked but needed a few adjustments and she didn't have time for it. So Krista paid her the five bucks, went home, adjusted it, and it works perfectly! And bonus for me, she already has a serger so I got the 5 dollar one! Yay! That was probably the best garage sale find ever, and I think it might be pretty hard to top that.

Pettiskirt

Well, this was my project for today. Lillie really likes it so I guess that is what counts, but it didn't turn out quite as I wanted it to. I guess I'm not patient enough=)
She is wearing the dress her Grammy made her for Kylan and Mallory's wedding. The pettiskirt is on underneath.
Lots of twirling.


The finished product.

Doesn't it match great with her shirt. Haha! Oh well.

There are many mistakes in it and it isn't nearly as full as I really wanted. But it was kind of hard to get it all to stay put where I wanted it to. And then my sewing machine jammed up and I had to take it all apart so that got me frustrated and I just wanted to get it done. I'm impatient like that. Probably not a good trait.

So anyway, I'll probably try another one sometime. I bought fabric to make one out of yellow as well. But it'll probably be awhile before I start in on it=)

How To Make Fabric Labels

If you are here from Sew Mama Sew, just click on the picture just to the right or scroll down a few posts to: Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

How-To: Making your own fabric product label

WARNING: This is kind of a long posting and probably will not interest you in the least unless you really want to know how to make labels. So feel free to skip this=) I kind of just ramble on about my experience in making fabric labels!

This is really so much easier than you might think! There are a couple of variations on how you can go about doing this the way I do it. And I’m sure you could find numerous other tutorials all over the internet on how to do it. But this is the way I have done it myself and I really like the way it has turned out!

**Do not use a laser printer for any of this. It could damage a laser printer. But it works great for an inkjet!

Okay, the very easiest way but more expensive way to do this is to go to JoAnn Fabrics (other craft stores have them I’m sure, but I do know that JoAnn’s carries them) and purchase what is called fabric paper. There are different brands and qualities and different uses for each of them. I bought the one I did because it said that the ink would not wash out. Since I make baby things, it was important to me that the ink not wash out, because as we all know, baby things get messy!

The Brand that I bought is called Printed Treasures. Sometimes they go on sale for 50% off or buy one, get one free. That is when I bought mine. Also, sometimes you can find good deals by doing some comparing online. I have even found fairly good deals on ebay. But if you can get them half off at the fabric store it is about $10 for a pack of 5 sheets. So that makes them at least 2 bucks a sheet. A little pricey if you ask me. But they are very convenient. And if you don’t need very many then it isn’t too bad.

All you have to do with this product is load the fabric sheet into your printer (making sure that it is facing the right way for it to print onto the fabric side and not the paper backing side), and print your label! And of course you’ll want to make the most out of each sheet so you’ll want to use a computer program to make multiple copies to print onto one sheet.

With these sheets, after I print the labels, I peel the paper backing off and I use Heat ‘n’ Bond (that is what those rolls are in the picture above) and iron that onto the backside. For labels that you don’t want to have to sew on, use the Heat ‘n’ Bond No Sew. For labels that you would like to sew on, you can use Heat ‘n’ Bond Lite. Or if you are planning on sewing it on, you don’t have to use any iron on backing. I just think that it makes it easier to handle. And then you don’t have to try and pin down a little piece of fabric. You can just iron it into place and then sew it.

Here is the less expensive, little more complicated (but not much) way of making fabric labels.

You will need some fairly good quality white muslin. Non-bleached muslin would probably work too if you would want to use that. ( I bought some at JoAnn fabrics and used a 40% off coupon.) Cut out some 8 ½ X 11 or slightly smaller, blocks of fabric. If you are going to use Heat ‘n’ Bond, decide which kind you want to use and cut it out the same size as you fabric blocks. Iron it onto the fabric and then you can use them just like the store bought fabric sheets. Just make sure you don’t peel off the paper backing until after you print on it. Load them into your printer facing so that it will print onto the fabric. And print!

This is a picture of the fabric going through the printer with freezer paper attached to one side!

If you don’t want to use the Heat ‘n’ Bond then you can use freezer paper. Yes, I said freezer paper! The box of freezer I just bought even shows different craft uses for it!

Cut the freezer paper to the size of your fabric blocks and lightly iron the shiny side onto the fabric. (Lay your fabric down first. Then place the freezer paper, shiny side down onto the fabric.) That will make the fabric stiff enough to go through the printer. You can then easily peel the freezer paper off when you are through. It doesn’t leave a layer of plastic on it like Heat ‘n’ Bond does.

I liked how the Heat ‘n’ Bond made the fabric go through the printer better than how the freezer paper made it go through. But they both worked fine.

The ink does fade quite a bit more with making your own fabric sheets. But if you are putting in on something that won’t be washed it would be fine. Or if you would want to print out a design to be hand stitched or something like that, it would be great! Also, if it would be all black ink that would make it a lot better as well. When I washed a trial sheet that had all different colors, it faded a lot. But the all black labels you could still see pretty well although it did fade. But it is a much more economical way of doing it!

Hope you enjoyed this documentary how-to on fabric labels. If you have any other questions about it, just ask, and I’ll see if I can help!

Stockings for my kids

For the last couple of years I have been meaning to make stockings for my kids with their names on them. I hadn't gotten around to it until this year! I think probably because I now have an embroidery machine so I was excited to be able to easily put their names on them!

We went to our favorite craft store, Hobby Lobby, (thanks Grammy for coming and helping with the kids) and I let the kids pick out their own fabric. Well, Zethan had a little help=)

I guess Titus is into dogs because he picked out a Dalmation Dog with a fireman's hat for his Christmas ornament. And then he picked this little puppy fabric for his stocking. So cute=)


I thought it would be fun to put them below the kids' pictures. I love having these big pictures on my wall! These pictures were taken by Meg! Love them!
I think that the nails that are holding the stockings need a bow or something to spruce it up, but I haven't come up with anything too brilliant. If you have any ideas, please share!

Lillie just loved this cupcake fabric! I thought it was pretty cute too!


So, that was my sewing project this past week! It felt so good to finally get it done!

Oh, and don't forget to sign up for my giveaway in the previous post!

Onesies

I am having a lot of fun creating these little onesies. It is so fun to see the different fabric colors come together and make fun shirts for the babes. Orange Flower shirt

The first three onesies I finished today.

Blue Butterfly Onesie

Bold Color Flower Onesie

A couple more I finished

The circle collage onesie

And the last one: the Pink Butterfly Onesie

These little shirts are so fun to make. I can't wait to make some more! I need to make some that are boy friendly. Some how it is easier to come up with cute little girl things than it is for the boy things. I will probably list these for sale in my etsy shop. These are all 6-9 month onesies, Circo brand. We have some craft fairs coming up in October too, so I will get lots more made for those!

Apple & Pears Bag

Well I was going to do a fun little giveaway with this bag but....I don't really know how to go about doing a giveaway so....maybe another time. For now you can just enjoy looking at the pictures of this fun little purse. It's called the Buttercup Bag.

Compliments of a free pattern by MadebyRae

I'm not sure what I was looking at or for but I stumbled on this free pattern and fell in love with it. I just thought it was so cute! You could use so many different fabrics to change the look!
Apples and Pears with a cute little yellow lining! ADORABLE!

I thought it was such a cute pattern that I just had to make it!
I know that my 4 year old daughter is modeling this but it is just so cute. I would totally use it. But that's just me. I like bright colorful things!


A nice little flat pocket on the inside. For chapstick. Or money. Or whatever.

It has such fun little pleats on the outside and just the right length of a strap! And a nice little snap closure! (I changed a few things about the pattern-but not much)

(And just so you know, I didn't tell her to stand like that) =)

The Dress Is Finished!!

So I found this really cute pattern for a little girls dress and I was so excited about it. It kind of had that old-fashioned, Little House on the Prairie look to it. And then when Lillie picked out the fabric I was even more excited because she actually liked the fabric that helped add to the look! I couldn't wait to get started sewing it. Of course with a nursing baby and a 2 year old who loves to make a mess with anything he can get his hands on, and a 4 year old who taught the 2 year old how to make messes, I wasn't really able to get started on it right away. Over the course of a few days I got the pieces cut out and then they just sat there for awhile so finally yesterday I got a chance to work on it. Well once I got started I didn't want to stop so.... I got the dress done, but not much else as far as house work=)

The dress was really a two part thing. The main dress and then a slip dress that had a ruffle on it that would show out the bottom of the first dress. Well, when I got the first dress done, I was so excited and I couldn't wait for Lillie to try it on. But.... I had forgotten that she hates clothes that have anything by her neck, such as a turtle neck or a collar. This dress has a collar....

She graciously tried it on...but you can tell by the look on her face that she was not happy about it. She kept saying how silly is was with 'this thing on it'. Meaning the collar. I told her it was super cute and that I thought she was so pretty in it. But she DID NOT like it. So I told her we would just have to give it to her cousin Emily. Of course she was sure that Emily wouldn't like it either=) So after being super disappointed about her not liking it I decided to go ahead and finish the slip dress so that Emily could have it to wear under her dress.
Well, when Lillie saw the finished product of the slip dress with the ruffle and everything she LOVED it! I let her try it on and told her to just try on the other dress over it to see what it looked it. I guess that did it! She now loves BOTH dresses!
This is her posing with both dresses on. You can't see the detail very well but you can kind of see the ruffle coming out from under the dress. I thought she just looked so cute in it! I want to have her pictures taken in it out on the farm here!


Here is just the slip dress that she liked. She told me that she only likes the other dress if she wears this one under it. Not by itself=)
Maybe we'll have to go ahead and make Emily a matching dress so they can both have one!