Hanmade summer dress

I have been enjoying  making a few summer skirts for my almost 3 year old, recently,

 and then I decided to brave it and make a summer

dress for her. This is totally new territory for me, but it worked, hooray!

I am pleased how it looked, there were a few things that could be improved but all in all, not a bad first try.

 

There are a few firsts in making this dress, a french seam, which worked really well. But particuarly the shearing on the top part of the dress.

I hope you like it and feel inspired.

 

Here are a few more ideas for sewing projects for your little girl, go here.

 

Hanmade baby quilt

 

Here it is! So pleased with how this turned out. I have taken some pictures for you to follow to make your very own. All I would say, that sometimes making a quilt can be scary, but go for it! take it step by step, keep it simple and enjoy your creation!

My friend asked me to make this for her as a gift for one of her friends. She wanted me to use the t shirt logo in the quilt.

 

So here you are. . .

 

Gather your ironed fabrics together.

I started with a T-shirt, cut out the logo to size.

Cut your squares with a rotary cutter

Start plotting them together in a layout you are happy with.

Once you know where each square will go, start sewing. If its easier start sewing in pairs, with pattern sides together sew along one edge. Iron out the sewn edge and repeat.

 

Continue sewing the sqaures together until you get rows and then sew the rows together. Keep pressing the seams open.

Once you have completed the front, layer it on top of the wadding which is ontop of the backing fabric.

Then pin in place. You can buy special quilters pin but I used safety pins. This is a really important part of the process as you dont want the quilt backing to slide around. Start pinning in the centre working your way out, making sure the edges are secure too.

 

Before you start sewing your straightlines make sure you only sew edge to edge of the front of the quilt fabric. DO NOT sew over the edge onto the wadding. This is really important.

Right now, start sewing, so slowly and keep it steady, not too fast.

Once you have done all the lines, cut the wadding off from around the fabric, making sure you dont cut the backing fabric.

Make sure there is 1" worth of backing around the edge of the quilt.

 

The above picture shows where to cut, looking good so far!

 

Because you didnt cut the backing fabric, this will be the edging around - clever!

Start by folding the fabric to meet the edge of the quilt and the fold over again and pin.

Now for the corners... with a ruler mark 1" for the quilt corner to 1" in on the top side. Fold along that line. And then tuck over following the folds you have down previously. They should match up together. Pin in place. Follow round the whole edge.

Doesnt it look good?

 

 

 

Here are my corners. If you get stuck this is a great tutorial for doing this, go here.

 

And tada!

Well done, especially if it is your first quilt!

 

I have enjoyed looking at this blog about making a simple quilt, go here.

 

 

 

Hanmde summer skirt

I have been abit busy recently making a few summer skirts for my almost 3 year old (more on that another time!) I started off making some realy simple skirts and have got the hang of it. Once you have a basic skirt you can then adapt it and add things and thats when it gets to be LOTS of fun!

So here is one of the skirts I had for her.

 

First things first

Measure the waist and the length - waist to knee or where ever you want it to stop

 

My measurements here are 45" long ( her waist is 19" so I double it and added abit extra to give the skirt a fuller effect) and 12" which gives enough for adding the elastic for the waist.

This fabric already had an edge that didnt need hemming, so add that into your measurements.

 

 Cut and iron your length of fabric.

This is when you would hem the bottom of the skirt.

 

 Bring together the 2 edges right sides together and sew down. You can also zigzag this length too.

 

 Press open.

 

 Turn over the top edge about 1cm and press.

 

Turn that edge over again, you want to make sure the turn is wide enough to be able to fit the elastic inside. You can see by the picture thats mine is 2". Press once again.

 

 Sew all the way round leaving a few inches gap. In the picture its is between the pins.

 

 Measure the elastic. The waist of this skirt is 19", so cut elastic to 20". Attach a pin and thread it through the open gap. It will gather as you feed it through, this is fine, just dont let go of the other end of the elastic!

 

 Bring the ends together.

 

 Sew them together by overlapping the edges.

 

 Sew the gap back up.

 

 Then turn round the right way and here you go its done!

Good job!

 

 

crafty inspirations

Here you go, I wanted to give you a few crafty ideas to get your crafty juices running.

I hope you enjoy these and that it gets you inspired for your next project.

 

 

fabric notice board

aokspaperstuff.blogspot.co.nz

 

paper birds for decorations

notonthehighstreet.com

 

reuse jar lids to hold candles

craftgawker.com

 

paper tulips

trendenser.se

 

chain loop crochet scarf

hiddendaisy.blogspot.com

 

 

 

Hanmade new baby frame

I enjoyed making this sweet project for some friends who just had their second baby.

Its hard to think of a sweet handmade gift especially for a second child. So why not make a keepsake frame for their nursery. You can make it as personal as you want.

Try using fabric, paper, collage, lettering, pictures, wallpaper, stickers . . . the list goes on.

Check out my one.

 

 

around here...

just a quick update of things going on around here recently...

 

 

*spring! with crocusses peeping through, lovely

*my first official Hanmade baby quilt! Really pleased with it - tutorial coming soon!

*tree house fun, enjoying playing in the great outdoors

*matching objects and shapes, kept my little busy for a minute or two!

*baby bibs for twin boys, arent they cute? Check out my tutorial here

* Ladder converted into garden shelves, to be painted yet, watch this space!

Hanmade zip pouch bag

So, here I am (!) and here is this cute pouch bag and its so simple to make.

Below are some steps of how you can make your very own zip bag too!  

 

Collect your bits together, you will need a 8" zip, exterior x2 at 9.5"x 8" tall, lining x2 9.5"x8" tall. I also used a fleece lining, so make this the same size.

Press all the fabric, now you are ready to start.

 Put the exterior piece of fabric onto the fleece lining and do some quilting. You can leave this step out if you want.

 

Put the exterior piece of fabric down, with the zip the wrong way up (apologies at this point at this picture is incorrect, the zip is the wront way round!) Then put the lining on top of the fabric and zip. then with your zip foot, sew along the top edge.

Then push those two pieces of fabric together out of the way, leaving the other side of the zip visible, for the next step.

Now the zip is the other end

(I should also point out at this point that I changed my lining fabric, sorry for any confussion!)

Put the remianing exterior piece of fabric down right side up.

Put the lining onto, so both the lingnings face each other right sides together.

Pin together and sew along the zip edge.

Now lay it out flat and press.

Now sew along the zip on each edge

 Now open the fabric out, you want both the lining together and both the exterior pieces of fabric together with the zip open in the middle. Pin around the dges. You are going to sew around the edges of this in a rectangle shape. Start at the bottom of the lining, continue round and then leave a gap of about 4".

 

Here is my 4" gap.

 Push the exterior corners out with your finger.

Measure 1.5" from the top and draw a line across.

Now sew across this line and trim carefully. Repeat on the other corner.

Now turn the bag the right way round. Sew together the 4" gap. See above picture.

Add a small ribbon onto the zip pull and your done!

 

 

And then make another!