Flower Petal Tutus and Headband

So I'm the kind of person who loves buying a ton of books and keeping them around for projects I'd like to do on a whim.  I have one book called, "Girl's World" that had a beautiful tutu with flower petals in between the tulle.  They also had flower headbands for girls, both of which, I just loved and wanted to try.

Never sewn a tutu before, so it was a learning experience.  The pattern in the book is pretty simple to follow.  A breakdown without photos (may make a step-by-step later, but since it's not my pattern [it's from the book] I'm not sure if I will do anything more than this description).....

     For the size XS/S that I used: cut two pieces of tulle that are 81" long by 54" wide each.  Lay the first piece flat and fold one long edge in to the crease running down the center, then fold in the other edge.  Next, you lay the second piece of tulle on top, lining up the creases.  Again, fold each edge in so each edge has 4 layers of tulle.  Then, flip all of the pieces from one side to the other side, (like closing a book) so you have 8 layers of tulle.  Pin in place along the crease edge and sew 1" off the crease. 

Trim the short edges so all pieces are even and run a piece of elastic that is the same size as the child's waist (the pattern calls for 1" shorter than the child's waist size, but I hate having things super snug and wanted a bit of growing room) through the casing you made by sewing next to the crease.  Line up the two short sides and pin together. 

Sew from the top of the casing to the seam of the casing (should be an inch if you kept to the 1" off the crease that I did).  Backstitch and repeat a few times to secure the elastic.  Then, leave 5" directly after the seam  along the short side NOT SEWN (so you can stuff goodies in the tutu later) but then sew all the way down the rest of the length of the tutu.  When you're done, flip it right side out (seams in), stuff whatever fun stuff you want in the outer (first) pocket of tulle.  After that, flip the tutu inside out (wrong side out) again, and sew that 5" area closed.  Add any embellishments to the waistband you want.

Scarlett's new dainty rose petal tutu:

After I made that tutu, I had so much fun that I wanted to make one for my cousin's daughter.  (Would that be a second cousin?)  So I made it again in purple.

These are QUICK to make.  Didn't take any time at all, so I still had a little bit of time before the kids got up from their naps/quiet time.  Flipping through the book, they had headbands with flowers on them.  I didn't follow their directions since they looked pretty easy. 

Supplies I used:
Smooth headband with no teeth
Silk leaves and flowers
Hot glue gun
Feather butterfly (totally optional)

I just glued the leaves on, positioned and glued the flowers, and threw on a butterfly.  I'm still undecided if this is cute or crazy.  I figured it's just for playtime anyway so who cares?

And the ensemble all together:

    My friend called her a "flower child" and I got a kick out of it.  Also laughed at her tummy in this picture.  Like a flower child with a beer gut.  Gotta love it!

Hand Embroidered Matryoshka Booties and a Floor Cushion

Yippee!  It's a happy day when you finish a project you've been working on for awhile.  Yesterday, I finished the hand-embroidered felt baby booties I've been working on.  Wanted to post the finished product and put a general how-to.

Finished matryoshka baby booties:


Hand-embroidered felt matryoshka baby booties



Outer

Inner



Soles



    I got the idea for these booties when I was flipping through a few of my books.  The first book, Scandinavian Needlecraft had the pattern for the structure of the booties, and looking through my Doodle Stitching: The Motif Collection, I saw an embroidered matryoshka and fell in LOVE.  Always liked matryoshkas... not sure why, but they hold a special place in my heart.  I wanted to combine the two ideas and embellished from there.

First Step- Cut the pattern, two uppers and liners, and two soles and liners.  Liners were cut from fleece.  Soles and uppers from wool blend felt.  (Eco felt or acrylic felt won't hold up long, so use 100% wool or wool blend.)

Second Step- Embroider any design that you want on your booties and add embellishments.  Remember that the top part of the uppers will be bent down, so adjust your design accordingly.  You can also leave the uppers unbent if you'd like a more "boot-like" appearance.

 Step Three- Turn the booties inside-out with right sides together, liner on the outside (make sure that the "wrong side" of the fleece is on the wrong side of the felt (the part of the felt without the embellishments).  The fuzzy part of the fleece, or "right side" should be facing out right now.  Pin the back seam together.  Make sure everything lines up and is even.  It doesn't have to be pinned tight, in fact, I just pin it enough to line it up and leave it like that before sewing it together.

Step Four- Sew the back seam of the bootie, starting down by the sole, up to the top part of the uppers.  When sewing the back seam, you should be sewing through four layers.  Two layers of fleece lining and two layers of felt.  When you get to the top, start sewing the sides of the uppers... two layers... one fleece, one felt.  When you start sewing the top part of the uppers (the 2 layers), it may be easier after a few stitches to flip them right-side out.  When/if you flip them right-side out, I like to pin the tongue in place for stability.



Right-side out with tongue pinned.

Step Five- Once you've sewn all the way around the top and are on your last stitch, push the needle through the fleece into the space inbetween the felt and the fleece.

Then, flip the bootie over and stitch your knot in the space between the fleece and the felt.  If you knot on the felt, make sure that your knot does not go all the way through... that way, it won't be seen on the "right" side of the bootie.

Step Six- Pin the sole with its liner (wrong sides together so fluffy side will be to the inside of the bootie) to the upper.  Once pinned, stitch all the way around the edges, (starting at the middle of the heel) to the very last stitch...

 Step 7- On the last stitch, insert the needle through to the inside at the base of the back seam.  Place your knot as far down the seam as possible so it will be hidden.

And then you're done!



     Since I finished these booties yesterday, I needed something to keep me busy today.  I decided to start on the floor cushions I wanted to make using the tutorial from the blog, Living With Punks.  I cut the fabric for all of the kids' floor cushions, but only had enough time to finish Cam's today.  I figured I'd work on his first, since the little guys usually get catered to first.



Cutouts for all the floor cushions.

And the finished floor cushion:

     Now, it's just a matter of finishing the other two cushions before the small guys implode! 

New Romper and BIG Postal Delivery

Warning:  I went totally picture crazy with this post!  Be ready for a serious photo bomb.

This past Saturday was HOT, and when I say "hot", I mean topping 100 degrees.  WHEW!  We went to the playground for a little bit....



Cameron with Weiner Dog (A.K.A. "Weenie")




Scarlett in her hummingbird smocked top I made a few weeks ago.




Kai starting to look as red as the lobster on his shirt from the heat.



Weenie really is a "hot dog".  (Bad, I know.)



      After dealing with the heat, we all needed to cool down.  Mom sent us a Slip 'n Slide for the kids, so we set it up and let them have at it.

So I couldn't stop thinking about the fabric in my last order and wanted to get crackin' on a project ASAP.  There's a post on my sewing forum that shows all the work people have done lately and I was inspired by a romper that was posted.  Scarlett doesn't have a romper, so I figured it was time to remedy that.  On Sunday, I decided to knock it out.  The only problem was, our Internet was out because of the construction on the main road so I didn't have a pattern.
     I was a little upset at first, but decided to wing it.  I made pants just like the ones I did for the kimono pajamas, only shortened them and didn't add a contrasting band on the bottom.  Then, I made a longer version of the smocked hummingbird top (see playground pics above) without the ruffle and just sewed them together.  Voila!  Romper.  It worked out really well and gave her a lot of wiggle and jumping room. 



The house WAS clean earlier, but with 3 kids it doesn't last long.



Eating cucumbers from the garden while staring at the Sage flowers.



Kai chowing down on a freshly picked cucumber of his own. 



     After the romper, I got started on a new project.  Working on hand embroidered felt baby booties with matryoshkas.  Don't know what it is about matryoshkas, but I absolutely love them.  My kitchen table has been held hostage for the past 3 days on this project and I'm still not done.

Close-up of the unfinished matryoshka.

     While that project has been keeping me busy, a close friend of the family decided to downsize her craft goodies and sent me a shipment of epic proportion.  I don't think my new mail guy was too happy with me when he had to deliver this shipment to my door!



First part of shipment.









Second part of shipment with my separate fabric order on the very top.

     To top it all off, the cherry on the sundae was getting my fabric order in from my new favorite Etsy store, "brodyandma".  This is the same place I got my fabric from in the previous post.  LOVE her stuff. 

     That sums it up for today.  Friends of the family coming to visit tomorrow so it's time to get scrub-a-dubbin' on the house.  Will post soon with a matryoshka baby bootie update.

New Fabric!

Been a few days since I last posted.  I took a nasty fall in the kitchen when the dishwasher overflowed, so I've taken it easy for the past few days.  Nothing like laying in nasty dishwater with busted ribs and a smushed toe to make you want to curl up in bed and hibernate. 

     However, I was so excited today when my new fabric order came!!!  Can't wait to get crackin' on some really neat projects.  I plan on whipping up a few dresses, maybe a bag or two.

     I also pulled out the embroidery machine that my mom gave me a few years ago.  Figure I'd take a stab at that and seeing if I can pull off anything that looks decent.  The machine is intimidating, though.  Looks like I could program some shuttle flights or something...

     I think I'm actually going to read the directions for this one.  

Kimono Pajamas

AGH!  What a nightmare.  First, let me say that this is my first time making pants of any kind.  I got a little stuck on the pant pattern, but a very nice lady on the sewing forum was able to help me out! 

     The end result?  Scarlett's kimono pajamas!

     The pattern for these came from one of my books, "Making Children's Clothes" by Emma Hardy.  I have to say, as far as books go, this one rocks!  I can flip through and stop on any page... and want to make what's on it.  Patterns are in the back of the book, and the only downside is that you'll have to use tracing fabric to trace them before you can cut your fabric.  Minor gripe, really... and I think it's just me being lazy.

     This project was one that just could NOT go right.  Seemed like every step was an uphill battle, and not because it was even really that difficult.  I just wasn't paying attention and ended up doing everything the hard way.  Perhaps I should've read the book I just raved about, instead of just jumping in and bouncing around in the steps. 

(Edited to add action shots)

Backyard Camping and Scarlett's Smocked Top

     It was such a beautiful day yesterday that even the lilies decided to come out.  Stargazers are my favorite and the kids got a kick out of seeing them and getting coated in orange pollen.

     Travis and I decided to camp in the backyard with the kids.  Of course our old tent wasn't big enough, so like many of our ideas, this turned a seemingly small thing into a huge ordeal.  Shopping for the right tent, of course Travis got to pick because he considers it a "manly" thing and I don't care enough to object.

     When we got home, the boys had a little male bonding experience.  Nothing brings guys together like camping gear.

     When it was completed, Scarlett investigated and we built a fire in our little firepit. 

     After telling a few ghost stories (edited so we didn't scare the bejesus out of the kids), we all piled into the tent with Weiner Dog and finally, FINALLY after several hours, everyone fell asleep.

     Everyone looked like they'd been thrashed by the Jolly Green Giant when we got up.  The kids were so tired that they plopped on the couch for movie day with their dad, while I pulled out my new machine and decided to make the smocked top for Scarlett that I had been thinking of.  I saw a top like this that used this technique in one of my books, but I had never tried it and also altered the elastic technique just a tad, as well as adding a ruffle to the bottom of the top.

     First, I cut out a large rectangle of fabric and made a nice hem along the top by folding down, folding again, pressing and stitching.  Then, I pinned the fabric to my ironing board with curved safety pins and used regular pins with heads to stretch out 3 lengths of 1/8" elastic and mark with my disappearing pen where the points should meet up. 

     I started by sewing the first bit of elastic onto the fabric, stretching it so that the mark on the elastic met the mark on the fabric.  When you're first starting with your elastic, make your zigzag stitch really narrow to secure it really well.  After a few stitches, make it larger so it goes to either side of the elastic, giving the elastic room to stretch.  When I got to the marked point, I then focused on lining up the next mark, and so forth.  At the end of your elastic, secure again with more narrow stitches.  When the first piece of elastic was done, I just repeated with the second and third piece.  At the end, it looked like this:

     From there on, the rest is easy.  I added a band onto the bottom then made another band that I gathered to form a ruffle.  Made a few straps out of fabric rectangles and... voila!

     The bottom looks a little off in this picture because of a little fold in the fabric when I was hanging it up.  Of course I didn't see until I was done and I'm too wiped out from not sleeping last night (remember the camping?  Lol!), that I didn't feel like shooting another.  I did take the time to take a few pics of Scarlett enjoying her new summer top, though.

     She got to pick the first tomato of the year.  Thankfully, the squirrels left it alone.  It's amazing how destructive those little guys are!