Up and Coming!

     I know that normally I can whip out projects every day or two but the one I'm working on now is EXTREMELY tedious.  Not hard, just tedious and time consuming, which I don't have much of!  I have to work on this thing when Gage takes his naps and when I'm not doing something with/for Aviendha.  However, I'm enjoying how it's coming together!

In the mean time I'll tell you about what I found.  I've been thinking ahead to the Christmas projects I want to do for decorating and what my current options for fabric are.  After my Mom died I obtained a box of Christmas fabric from her sewing room.  Fabric that hasn't been touched in almost 20 years!

Now I'll admit, there's some dang ugly fabric in this box!!!  Most of it is OK though, and some of it is actually really pretty.  It doesn't look like much but it's been sitting for a long time in this container and has had time to compact quite thoroughly.  I unfolded about a quarter of this thing and had enough to fill our front loading washer!  There is A LOT!  Anyhow, as I was looking through it all I stumbled across this:

This is a pattern with all the pieces and instructions right on the material.  All you have to do is cut out the pieces and sew it together!  It makes a tree centerpiece:

I don't know if this was more common back in the day because I haven't seen anything like this currently.  Either way I've decided, what the heck, I'll put it together.  I'll be sure to post the final product when I'm done!  Don't look for this for a few days to a week as I'm not sure how long it's going to take me to finish my current project...

I'll be posting the stockings I made last year in a couple of days!!!

Simplicity 2935 Flower

Yep, I revisited this pattern!  I made the flower this time for baby #3 and probably won't be doing another rag quilt for quite sometime!  

My same bonus advice goes for this one as with the other two except this one is MUCH faster.  Either that or I've got it down to efficiency art.  But truly the sewing on this is incredibly simple and fast.  There also isn't a whole lot of marking either.  

Only two of the colors I used were purchased just for this, the rest were left-overs from the other ones I made.  I have to say, using brighter colors makes the design much more appealing than the ones they put on the pattern example.

This a fun, easy, and cute design for any girl big or small!

Here's my version where you can't see that the white fabric actually has small pink polka dots.  Also I used 3 colors for the petals instead of 2.

This is a 2 on the difficulty scale.

Easy Tutu Tutorial

Want to make something without a sewing machine?  Here is a tutorial for making tutus for little girls that only requires cutting!  This is the most straight-forward video on the basics but you can never get too creative.  Add ribbon in with the tulle, flowers, beads, etc.   This is probably a 0 on my 1-10 scale for difficulty!  ANYONE can make this and it's super cute!

I'm going to do this once I get some of my other projects out of the way.  Why haven't I done this before?  Because other people have bought my little girl tutus in the past that she still wears.  They're getting pretty beat up though and not as cute as anything I know I could custom make for her so I'm excited to make a variety of them (sew and no-sew alike) for Halloween, her birthday, and Christmas.  Tulle is VERY cheap so if you have a little girl, feel free to go crazy!!!

Simplicity 2493 Turtle

Here is another rag quilt I made for Gage for Christmas.  I did the turtle which is supremely easy and totally adorable!  I'm going to include here some of the advice I gave on the butterfly rag quilt with one added piece of information I forgot on the other one.

The added piece of information is that some marking tools will be difficult to use (not work very well) on the flannel.  Test out out how easily it marks on a scrap of flannel.  I found my pencils were terrible but my marking pen worked wonders!

First:    If you don't have a heavy duty sewing machine I don't recommend getting the fleece padding that is completely optional to put between the flannel layers.  This will make sewing the pieces together difficult work for your sewing machine!  I didn't use it!

Second:    Before you pick out fabric, go over the pattern so that you know which fabrics will be used for what parts of the butterfly.  The easiest way to do this is to use a pencil/pen and write the number of the fabric in each section of the picture and then shop for it.  

Third:  Don't cut the fabric out with right sides together since you're going to be flipping them around to having wrong sides together anyway.  Also the markings will be going on the right side so it's a waste of time to cut it out the way they say.  

Fourth:  They suggest putting the eyes on last which ABSOLUTELY stinks because of the bulk of the quilt and trying to sew in tight circles.  It's not worth doing those last.  Put them on before you sew the rest of the pieces together and you're life will be much easier.  

Last:  Back stitch all ends when you are sewing pieces together as this is a heavy blanket and just because it's a rag quilt doesn't mean you really want it falling apart =D

Here is my finished product that I had trouble tacking up straight....:

This is definitely a 2!

McCall's 6066 Circle Skirt

I love this pattern and plan on making it again sometime in the future.  I've made both D and F.  The one on the far right is the one I'll show but they are all equally easy.  The only thing that's even kind of tricky is sewing the hem which requires some easing because of the curves.  Other than that, this skirt is pretty much cake!

Instead of doing a giant flower or nothing, I put on a little butterfly on the loop that pulls the skirt up.  You also can't tell but the fabric on top as some minor sparkles on it that make it extra girly!

I'm giving this a 2!  Easy and super cute!

Charming Baby Pinwheel

This is the baby quilt I decided to do for the 3rd one coming up.  All I can say is that they better be right that it's a girl because I'm soooooo in love with this pattern!  I like mine better too...HA!  

What can I say about this except that it was SOOOOOO easy!  I put this together in just a couple of hours.  The little pinwheels are prairie points that are loose.  You can buy a couple of charm packs with 5"X5" squares already cut and matched for you.  The only thing you'd have to do after that is cut out another 24 squares of one color to go behind the pinwheels and the boarder fabrics.  If anyone is interested in this I can put up some instructions.

Here is my version:

On a scale of 1-10, this is a 2.  Super easy!

Simplicity 2935 Rag Butterfly

Here's my first piece of evidence I do more than just kids clothes!  This is a either going to be a birthday or Christmas present for Aviendha...I haven't decided which.  She chose the butterfly and helped choose the fabrics so it's a pretty funky butterfly!  She hasn't seen it yet, and doesn't even know I had been working on it (phew!)  This is SOOOOO easy.  BUT, I will tell you the things that will make this even faster/easier. 

First:    If you don't have a heavy duty sewing machine I don't recommend getting the fleece padding that is completely optional to put between the flannel layers.  This will make sewing the pieces together difficult work for your sewing machine!  I didn't use it!

Second:    Before you pick out fabric, go over the pattern so that you know which fabrics will be used for what parts of the butterfly.  The easiest way to do this is to use a pencil/pen and write the number of the fabric in each section of the picture and then shop for it.  The picture on the the front of the pattern only uses 8 different colors instead of the 9 it suggests in the pattern so keep that in mind.

Third:  Don't cut the fabric out with right sides together since you're going to be flipping them around to having wrong sides together anyway.  Also the markings will be going on the right side so it's a waste of time to cut it out the way they say.  

Fourth:  They suggest putting the circles on last which ABSOLUTELY stinks because of the bulk of the quilt and trying to sew in tight circles.  It's not worth doing those last.  Put them on before you sew the rest of the pieces together and you're life will be much easier.  The only thing is that you'll have to make sure you don't catch any edges when you are putting it together.

Last:  Back stitch all ends when you are sewing pieces together as this is a heavy blanket and just because it's a rag quilt doesn't mean you really want it falling apart =D

One extra tip:  When sewing the upper wings together it won't look like the pieces go together but that's because they need to make a curve.  So you need to do a little easing around and pinning, but they will fit nicely!

Here is the finished product (the picture doesn't do the colors justice!)

On my 1-10 scale I'm rating this a 3 because of the curves that some people might not be accustomed to working with.

Simplicity 3588 Dress

The colors in this picture are a little saturated but...oh well.  I did dress B.  This is a super cute dress!  However, if I do it again I will be lengthening it because my daughter has long legs and this dress came off a little short on her.  There is a zipper and the collar combined with the piece that comes across the side can be tricky.  Also there is piping which you'll need a zipper foot for (as well as for the zipper).  It's not terribly difficult but there are more elements here which you would need to be at least an average sewer to be able to be ok making this.

Here is Aviendha once again and the angle isn't great because you can't see that this dress actually comes about and inch or two above her knees.  The collar isn't as high as it looks either.

At the end of the day I'm rating this a 5 1/2 in difficulty.

McCall's 6016 Boys Collared Shirt

This is the first boy's pattern I've done, and also the first collared shirt which happened to be "C" on this pattern, the one the boy is wearing.  I, however, did not use contrasting fabric for the cuffs.  What can i say about this shirt.... The collar was surprisingly the easy part compared to putting the arms in.  The instructions weren't hard, the hard part was easing the fabric in, and then sewing around that tiny hole.  It took a little bit of time to get it all where it needed to be.  I imagine that a men's version would be easier because you are not sewing in cramped quarters.  Someone who is not experienced might get a little frustrated.  Other than that, the rest is pretty simple.

Here it is modeled by my Gage:

So what would I rate this?  Probably a 6 on the shirts for putting on the sleeves alone.  Everything else would be about a 4.

McCall's 6271 Updated Bubble Dress

This is a fun and cute pattern! I did dress "B".  Overall the pattern is fairly simple.  There is gathering when attaching the skirt to the bodice and also the bottom of the skirt to the underskirt.  If you don't have issues gathering then it shouldn't be a problem.  It also has pleats in the front. One flaw I think is that the band that goes across the waist should be tacked down as opposed to loose because it tends to climb up.  It was easy to fix by slip stitching it down  from the inside so that it sits neatly above the skirt line.

Here it is, modeled once again by my Aviendha in poor lighting:

And here is the back:

Overall, I love the style of this dress (as well as Aviendha!)

On my 1-10 scale I'm going to give it a 3 or a 4...haven't decided yet.

Simplicity 2431 (Daisy Kingdom)

Here is the first project I'm sharing!  I made "A" which is the dress to the left.  Some things about this?  It was actually pretty simple all in all.  The most tedious part was ironing out the ties that go around the neck.  It's a very straight-forward pattern.  If I could give advice to the beginner?  Make sure you copy the lines for the elastic on the RIGHT side of the fabric when cutting it out from the pattern piece.  Often times patterns won't tell you which side to make the markings on so that you can see them when you are putting it together.

Here is the finished product modeled by my sweet Aviendha in a poorly lit area because I was too lazy to try to do something cute outside!

Did I mention it's her new favorite dress?!

On a scale of 1-10 (1 being the easiest, 10 being the hardest):   With the beginner in mind I'd say this is a 3.

Yay For Sewing!!!

Here I am starting another blog when I don't add much to my other one as it is.  Ha!  Anyhow, I do so many sewing projects I decided this would be the best place to talk about them and give tips and advice should anyone ever try them.  I also take suggestions from other people so if there's something you want to see done but are too chicken to try it, let me know!  Once in a while I might put up a non-sewing project because those occasionally interest me.  Sew, here goes nothing!  (Ha ha, lame!  I know!)