Tuesday's Tute: Cheerfully Pink!

Curly has grown!  She needs warm clothing for fall and winter.  The quickest way to fun clothing that fits, upcycles and fast leggings. A little hair bling always adds a fun touch, too.
All three of these pieces are from previous tutorials.  Take a new look.
Sweater Upcycle: I did add a piece of lace to the bottom to give the appearance of a bit more length.
Ruffle Leggings:  Ruffle fabric is easy to find online and in stores like Hobby Lobby and JoAnns. It runs about $10 per yard most anywhere. It sews like any knit fabric.
Floral Headband: I used a few tutorials in this headband. The two rolled flowers and the headband are from this tutorial.  The larger flower is a mix of silk and sweater made like this tutorial.
This outfit cost $12 ($10 for the ruffle fabric, $1 for the sweater, and $1 on the extras) and took me less than an hour.
Happy Sewing!
Debbie

Tuesday's Tute: A Knight to Remember

Our local Chick-Fil-A offered a Mommy and Knight date night last week.  It had been a while since my Handsome Dude and I had a special evening out.  I took full advantage of the chance to do something special with him.
We're often making something for and with Curly.  He gets left out much of the time.  This was the perfect opportunity to create a Knight suit with him.
I must apologize though.  There are no other pictures with this tutorial.  It went together so fast, I forgot to take photos. Also, our materials were a bit out of the ordinary.  I'll give you what you need and put what we used in italics just in case it gives you an "out of the box" idea.  I wanted to share it with you though.  Pictures or not, I think you and your Knight will have a wonderful time creating.

Materials:
Shell fabric for a 7 yr. old: 2 rectangles 15 x 15  We used a 25 x 15 rectangle cut from a formal gown.
Cape Fabric 1 yd. We used part of the skirt of a formal gown.
Celtic cross design for front applique  I found this in a google coloring page search.
Scrap of fabric large enough for the applique
Wonder Under light or other iron on applique adhesive
Small piece of stitch in velcro
Rope for the belt We used a piece of gold gift tie.

Directions:
Shell
1. Create and apply the applique to one of the rectangles (long way).
2. Stitch the two rectangles together (short side).  You'll stitch about 2" from each end and leave the center open for the neckline.
3. Hem around the entire shell and the neckline opening.
Cape:
1. Cut a cape shape from your yard of fabric.  Our's has a slightly rounded neck edge and a rounded bottom hem. You want the neck edge to wrap loosely around the child's neck.  It needn't be precise.
2. Hem around the entire cape.
3. Stitch on velcro at the neck edge corners.

Put on the shell.  Tie around the waist with the cord.  Put on the cape.  A night you have!  Handsome Dude is wearing a long sleeve black hoodie and black baseball pants under his night costume, with rubber mud boots. His sword is borrowed from the neighbor boys and wrapped in foil.  A helmet, sword, and shield are now on his Christmas wish list. ;)
He protected his Mommy well while on our date.
Happy Sewing!
Debbie

Tuesday's Tute: Upcycle Bracelet

 Inspired by a similar bracelet from Pinterest, I made this little thing from items found in my jewelry box and craft boxes.  Take a couple of unused necklaces, lace, and beads and you've got a new bracelet.  I left the necklaces whole, just in case I'd rather have the necklace instead of the bracelet again.

 Materials:
Bracelet: (each 8" in length (mine) or your bracelet circumference + 2")
Lace
beads
chains
ribbon
Tie:
Lace or Ribbon long enough to create a bow. (mine 18")
In my case I used a 15" pearl necklace and 15" gold chain.  These were doubled in the bracelet.

Directions:

 1. Tie all of your bracelet strands together at one end with wire, ribbon, or thread.

 2. Slip the bow ribbon/lace through the tied end.

 3. Tie the tied end to hang it up.  I used the post of a kitchen chair.

 4. Braid tightly.

 5. Tie remaining end together.

6. Slip bow lace/ribbon through and tie it into a nice bow.  It's ready to wear!

Happy Sewing!  (well, crafting this week)
Debbie

Tuesday's Tute: Make a Sweater Dress..from thrifted sweaters

I really wanted a new dress for Christmas.  Not a fancy one, but one that would be comfy and could be dressed up or down.  I saw a few sweater dresses and a cream lace dress on pinterest.  Both ideas were keepers.  So I combined them into the sweater dress on the right.  The dress fits nicely and the off set square design, along with the vertical lines in the sweater knits draw the eye down the body.  I know it looks a bit "hippy" on the dress form.  Thankfully my shape is a bit softer than hers. ;)

I'll be wearing my dress with brown tights and boots.  I made a pearl, bead, and lace bracelet to go with it. (another pinterest inspiration that I'll show another day)

Materials:

Sweaters: I bought 3 and used only two.

 

T-shirt Pattern (If you need to make the bodice.) The sweater I chosen for the bodice part happened to fit well from the start.

Sewing machine and supplies

Length and hip measurements or a nice fitting knit dress

Lace Trim (optional)

Directions:

1. Prepare your bodice piece.  I made my bodice empire length, by laying my Fun and Easy Knit Top pattern onto the sweater and cutting the sweater at the empire length line.



2. Cut the remaining sweaters into squares.  My squares were about 7" x 9".  Two sweaters made enough squares for the bottom part of my dress. I wear about a size 10 and didn't want it tight fitting.



 3. Lay out pieces to match the hip width and length you want.  I used a well fitting knit dress as my guide by laying the dress on top of the pieces to check width and length.  The sweater grew in length when finished and put on.  I ended up cutting a few inches off the bottom.  This turned out good, the banded pieces I intended to use at the bottom made the dress taper in at my knees.  When cut off it draped much better. 

Tips for sewing sweater:  lengthen your stitch to about a 4 (0-6 scale), use a knit (ballpoint) needle, loosen the presser foot pressure or use a walking foot. You can find info. on presser foot pressure in your manual.  I used a serger, but you can do this with a regular sewing machine and a 2x2 zigzag stitch.
 4. Sew squares together to make one long strip (top to bottom on the dress)  Repeat as needed.

 5. Sew long strips together. Repeat as needed.

6. Open bodice side about 3" so that you can attach the front and back "skirt" panels.



 7.  Attach front "skirt" panel to the bodice.  Repeat for the back.

8.  Sew up side seams.
9.  If you have a raw cut hemline, zigzag over the hemline.  Be careful to not stretch the hemline as you sew or it will be wavy.

9. I added flat lace trim to the sleeves and hemline of the dress.  I laid the lace under the sweater and zigzagged it on.  I stitch on top of the sweater so that I could keep an eye on the sweater edges and keep them from falling into my machine.

Happy Sewing!
Debbie

Tuesday's Tute: Upcycled Tie for a Little Guy

I have a little guy who likes to dress up.  He also likes to dress like daddy.  He doesn't like the clip on ties available for little guys.  I'm not sure how to put those onto a shirt comfortably, but the clip always seems to poke my little guy in the neck.  We have found a few that velcro around the neck, but those are expensive and harder to find. 

Since my guy likes to dress like daddy we thought, why not find a way to use daddy sized ties and make one little guy sized, that ties like a daddy tie, too.

After some extensive googling and a few tries, here's our result. The ties were purchased at the thrift store for $1 ea.  A happy little guy who feels really big.  And, the option to buy matching ties for both of my guys.  

Materials:

Men's tie

Sewing supplies

Iron

Measuring tape

Little boy tie for sizing

Hand sewing needle and thread.

Directions:

1. Lay little guy tie onto daddy tie in the spot that the little guy's larger end fits nicely into the daddy tie larger end. (as pictured)

 2. Cut daddy tie 1/2" from the measured spot above.

 3. Add 10" (for the knot) to the small end of the little guy tie. Cut.

 4. Carefully cut lining piece out of cut off large end.

 5. Snip threads that hold the back of the tie closed until you can open it up flat.

6. Cut the large end of the tie to match the triangle of the lining.

 7. Snip off the padding piece so you have enough room for seam allowances.

8.  Sew lining to tie, right sides together.  Snip off the point to enable a nice point after the tie is turned right side out.

9. Turn right side out and press.  Make sure lining is not showing in the front.

 10. Tuck in padding.

 11.  Fold sides back into place.  Press.  Hand stitch closed.

12.  Tuck small end inside and stitch.  Or repeat the point steps from the larger end.

Tie this little guy tie just like a big guy's tie.

Happy Sewing!
Debbie

Tuesday's Tute: A Pattern Spotlight and Sale

I'm sure many of you are thinking about Christmas outfits.  Some of you see this outfit and think, "I wish I could do this." Other than the jacket, which I didn't make, you can with two SquigglyTwigs patterns.  The patterns are on sale, 50% off, through Sunday.  How?? Keep reading.



Top Front



Top Back

This blouse was made using the Fun and Easy Knit Top/Dress Pattern.  Because I used a woven (from a polyester ladies blouse), I made two pattern adjustments.  The first adjustment was the key hole opening in the back with the button loop closure.  I used a bias cut trim piece to trim out the neckline and keyhole. The second adjustment was to add some fullness for gathering the top of the sleeve.  I added the fullness by adding 1" to the width of the top of the sleeve.  The gathered sleeve top allows it to fit nicely into the armhole.
I also added a ruffle to the bottom hem, and sleeve hems.  These ruffles were made at 1.5 times the circumference of the sleeve and shirt hemlines.
A Pretty Peasant blouse would also work nicely with this outfit, and is one of our easiest patterns.

The skirt is one of my favorites.  We used our Lot's of Ruffles Skirt Pattern.  The original Lots of Ruffles Skirt was made of knit and has a fun and casual look.  Both skirts were made with the exact same pattern, without variation, yet look so different.  This skirt is made of easy care fabrics, yet looks fancy.  We used polyester satin, and lace to create this skirt.  (Our fabrics actually came from a couple of formals, but these fabrics are available at the fabric store also.)  The key to making these fabrics easy care, is to launder it before sewing.  We hemmed our satin layers with our serger.  But, they won't fray if you cut them on the bias (45 degree) angle to the selvage.  You can also hem the layers by turning the edge under twice.  This skirt, which is just below the knee, took 3/4 yard of each layer fabric and 1/2 yard for the lining.  This yardage is for a size 4T wide and size 8 long.  The pattern will help you determine exactly the yardage you'd need for your custom skirt.

These are just two of the wonderful things you can make and wear for Christmas from SquigglyTwigs patterns, which can be purchased for instant download in our right-hand column.  Don't miss the sale opportunity. Use  Christmas  as the code at checkout to get 50% off your pattern order before Midnight ET Sunday.

Happy Sewing!

Debbie

Tuesday's Tute: Embellished Cardigan Sweater & A Surprise

Thanks to Curly for the photo.

 Have you ever wanted a cardigan sweater and all you could find was a crewneck?  It's actually quite easy to convert a crewneck into a cardigan and add a bit of embellishment if you like.  My sweater is going to be part of Christmas pictures, so I wanted it to coordinate with the children.  I plan to wear it unbuttoned over a black lace T w/ a black ribbon bow belt and jeans to Christmas.  I'm not to fond of it buttoned in this photo. The floral embellishments are made using scraps from my daughter's blouse. 

Materials:
Sweater
Crewneck Sweater
Finished edge seam trim or ribbon
Sewing Machine and supplies
Flower Embellishments
Flower scraps
Needle and Thread
Candle (optional)
Beads (optional)

Directions:

1. Cut the sweater up the middle.
Lay seam tape onto right side of the sweater, matching the sweater's raw edge to the tapes edge.  Using a zigzag stitch (2 wide x 2 long), stitch along the matched sweater/tape edge.

 Close up

 2. Turn the tape to the wrong side of the sweater and press flat.  Stitch on top of the tape near the folded sweater edge (as in the close up) picture above.  Use fray check or other method to seal tape/ribbon top and bottom ends to prevent them from fraying.

Enjoy your sweater as is or add a button loop closure to the top, as I did.  I also added floral embellishments to dress my sweater up.  Keep reading for the embellishment part of the directions.

4. Cut pairs of squares for the flowers.  Our larger squares are about 1 1/2" square.



5. Wovens will need the edges sealed to prevent fraying.  I used the candle/melt method. Knits do not.



6. Fold the square in half.

    Then in quarters.

 7. Using a needle and thread stitch across each side of the corner.

8. Pull the corner stitching tight.  This will bunch up your flower.



This is what the flower layer looks like opened up.

9. Stack two flower layers together and stitch in the center. 



 10.  I'm sorry for the blurr...  Stitch a few small beads or a small button in the center.

11.  Arrange the flowers.  Pin them in place.  Repin them so that the pin only goes through one sweater layer.  Stitch them down.  I stitched each flower near the center only.

The finished sweater.  I hope to have a modeled shot soon.

For all of you who are thinking about some Christmas sewing, all of our patterns are 50% off now through December 1st.  Use the Code  Christmas   at checkout.  But, there's one catch.  I want to see the completed project photos. ;)  Actually you can use the code even if you don't share the pictures.

Happy Sewing!

Debbie