Firehouse Raglan Tee for Little Man-- tutorial

Oh, man... have I missed posting tutorials!  I'm serious, folks.  I really have.
Have Fall illnesses been kicking anyone else's butts?  Or is it just our little clan.

But speaking of Fall, here's a great little number for your little guy (or girl, really... it's gender-neutral) that's soft and comfy for those brisk days!

Materials:
shirt that fits your tyke
knit fabric
double needle (though it's not necessary!)
sewing gear

Instructions:
Grab a shirt that fits your little one and fold it in half.  Place it on the fold of your main fabric, making sure that it stretches from side-to-side.

You're going to cut a straight line from about halfway to the neckline to the armpit.  Use your shirt for the width measurement.  Also follow your shirt's collar as a template.  Cut two of these.
**FYI-- I cut my neckline way too high... I thought about fixing it here, but I wanted to show you how forgiving this shirt is.  So if you're looks like the neckhole is going to be too small, don't sweat it for now.

For the sleeves, you want that same angle that you had for your main piece.  However, cut them (again, on the fold) slightly skinnier and angle them in a little to where the cuff will be.  Use your shirt to determine the length of sleeve.  Cut two.

Here are your pieces, shown on the fold and opened up.

Place one body piece right sides together to the sleeve pieces and sew up.  Then sew the other body piece to one sleeve, but leave one seam open.  Here you can see how small my head hole would be.  If you have a pinhead baby, cool.  But if you have a child with a human head, you'll want to adjust this.

I just fold in half like this and trim away.  It's really that simple.

Whew.  That's better! :)

Cut a 2-inch wide piece of stretchy knit fabric (I used the same that I had for the sleeves... ribbed knit is good for this, too!).  You want it slightly shorter than the measurement of your neckhole.  Eyeballing mine, it was about 12 inches, so I cut my strip 10.5 inches by 2 inches.   (Sorry... not super detailed...  Again, this is pretty forgiving!)

Fold the strip in half and press.

Find the halfway mark of that strip and pin it halfway in between your two open edges, lining up the raw edge of the strip with the neckline edge.  You'll also want to pin the ends of the strip to the edges of the openings (not shown).

Using a stitch that stretches (zig-zag works), stretch your strip as you sew it to the neckline.  When you finish, it should start rounding out on its own, like this:

Pin that last seam together and, making sure your new collar strip is UP, sew up that side.

Here's what you've got!

If you have a double needle, here's a nice place to use it.  (A tip on threading a double needle that I haven't really seen many places: If you don't have a separate thread holder, make sure your two spools have the thread coming off of them in opposite directions; it keeps them from getting as wound up).  Sew the collar down, with one line of stitches on each side of the seam.  You can also zig-zag or just do nothing.

Since I have my double needle on, I press the sleeves over and hem them.  Again, you can use a zig-zag stitch.

Now fold your shirt in half, right sides together, and sew up the sides and under the sleeves. 

To hem, I pressed my seams out (you could finish them with a zig-zag, but with three small kids, I have to use my time wisely and "make it work").  Then I pressed my hem up and, again, used my double needle to stitch it.

I used red and blue thread for that because, well, I'm crazy like that.  I kind of wish I had used the red on the sleeves and neckline, too!

Last but not least, I like to press my seams of the collar strip and sleeves open and secure them with two straight stitches, like so...

There you have it!  A nice little raglan tee for Little Man!  He'll be thrilled... see? ;)

You're a Sweetheart Top

I made this way back before I went to California with Brooks... You know, way back last week. :)  It's actually for sale over at my Etsy shop.  It's the  only item for sale because I'm not really sure I want to really, truly reopen my shop.  I don't know.  I go back and forth.  So randomly adding things is the way I'm going... which I'm sure is the wisest option from a business standpoint (ha!). 

Anyway, here's the top.  I love it because it has that elasticized back which allows it to fit for years.  Well, I love it for more reasons than that, but that's a good one, I think. :)

 

 I used a cute yellow floral print paired with a vibrant purple.  And below you an see the elasticized back.

There's sweetheart trim on the pocket, the bodice and the outside edges of the straps.

It's great on its own or layered.  

So there it is!  

And feel free to share any opinion on the Etsy shop!  To open or not to open?!

Puffy Pirate Shirt-- Adjusting an Existing Pattern

Next up in the pirate costume series is the Puffy Pirate Shirt.

"But I don't want to be a pirate!"

Seinfeld, anyone?

For this one, we'll just be adjusting an existing peasant top to become an awesome puffy shirt.

So grab a pattern you like.  My Polky-Nots dress is a peasant top with short sleeves.  Go ahead and use that and just lengthen the sleeves, if you'd like!  Otherwise, there are a lot of great patterns/tutorials out there.

When cutting your pattern pieces out, you want to add 3 inches, straight up from where you would usually cut off the neckline.  I placed my straight edge on the sleeve piece, in the pic below, to show where you would usually make your cut.  You want to add 3 inches to both the sleeve pieces and the main/body pieces.

You also want to cut 4 facing pieces (two for the sleeves, to for the body) that are as wide as the top edge of your sleeve and body pieces and are 3" tall.  Again, if you look at the pic above, my sleeve piece is 8" (since it's folded in the pic), so my sleeve facings are 3"x8".

Sew your peasant top together as your pattern indications, sewing the curved edges together.  Also sew your facings together, using the same seam allowance.

Pin your facings, right side together, to the top of your main top.  Sew around the whole thing.

Then fold it over at the seam and press.  Also press the bottom edge under to eliminate the raw edge.  

Sew close to the edge, leaving a 1" gap through which you'll thread your elastic.  

The sew another line of stitches, this time all the way around, 1/2-inch higher than the first line of stitching.  Now you're casing is done! 

Now you can do the same thing for your sleeves, but cut 2-inch wide facings.  (It's also like this tutorial!)  Then finish your top as your pattern indicates, thread your elastic, and close up your casings!  Arrrrrrr!  You're done, matey!

Pirate "Corset" Top Tutorial

Shameless self-promotion... If you like this, can you vote for it at Instructables??  There's a little "Is this a winner?" button at the top!

Oh boy oh boy oh boy!  I finally got the costumes sewn and the tutorials ready!  Here's part one of the pirate costume "series"!  Behold, the pirate "corset" top!

Materials:
red cotton fabric
black cotton fabric
trims-- including either small rope or tiny rick-rack
1/8-inch elastic

Instructions:
**My measurements are for a size 4T top, but with a very little work, you can adjust it to your size of choice!**

Cut out your pattern pieces.  They're all rectangles-- woohoo!

2-- black side panels, 9" x 11"
2-- red front and back panels, 6" x 11"
2-- red straps, 3" x 16"
(not shown) 1-- red ruffle, 4" by width of fabric (roughly 48")

Take one red front panel mark (I did it from the bottom), 1 inch up, then 4 more inches, then 4 more.  Do the same on the other side of that same panel.

 Cut 6 pieces of tiny rick-rack, about 3 inches each.  Loop them and pin them at the marks you just made.  You'll see that I like to leave a little tail, but make sure you take your seam allowance into account when judging the size of your loops.

Tack the loops in place, to make your life easier. :)

Place black panel, right sides together, to that panel and sew up the side.  Finish with a zig-zag.  Do the same with the other black panel on the other side.

Then sew your other red panel to the black panels so you have a loop.

Now cut a piece of fabric that is 3 inches tall and as wide as your loop, plus 1 inch for seam allowance.  This is the facing for your top.  Sew the short sides together and hem the bottom.

Fold the loop of your main piece in half.  Do the same with your facing piece.  Then cut out little arm grooves like this.  It doesn't have to be exact, but they'll be about 2 inches wide and 1 inch tall.  The TOP of your front panel piece should have the rick-rack that is only 1 inch away from the top.

Here's what your main piece will look like when opened up.  Scroll down a few pictures to see the facing piece as well.

Take your strap pieces and fold them in half.  Then stitch up the long sides and flip them right side out  (on the left is with the sides stitch.  on the right, I'm using my handy turner tool-- looks kind of like a chopstick).

Press your straps flat then pin your trim down the middle.  Sew the trim on.  With this particular trim, I used black thread, and you couldn't see it at all when I had finished.  You'll also notice that it frays.  Don't worry about this.  We cut the straps a little longer than we need, so we don't have to worry about it.

Okay, so let's check in... Here's what you have-- your main piece, your facing piece, your two straps.

At this point, for a cleaner look, I pressed my seams toward the sides then topstitched.  This also helps the rick-rack on the front panel to lie flat.  BE CAREFUL when you press close to your trim.  It may be made of polyester and will melt!  Try to avoid it!

Now-- straps.  Pin them so that there's enough room for a 3/8-1/2" seam allowance next to the arm grooves.  I actually just lined the edge of my trim up with the edge of my front panel to make my life easier.  

Baste them to the front of the top (it's not really necessary, but I like not having to mess with pins when I'm sewing the facing on).

Mark 7 inches down from the top of your strap.  You'll line this mark up with the edge of the back.

Turn your top right side out and line up that 7 inch mark with the back.  Pin (and baste, if you want to).

Place your facing over the straps, sandwiching them.  Pin all around.  See how you have excess straps on the back?  We'll trim it off later.  Sew together.

Turn right side out and press, again being careful around your trim.   Top stitch around the whole thing.

Grab your ruffle piece and sew the short sides together.  Hem the bottom and run a gathering stitch along the top.

Gather it so it's the same width as your top.

Pin, right sides together, and sew.

Flip it and voila!  We're so close to done!!

To give it a better fit, now we'll cinch in the back slightly.  Cut  7 pieces of 1/8" elastic, each measuring 3 inches.  (Apparently, I only took a picture of 6.  Whaddayaknow?!  I also guess I took this picture before adding the ruffle to my top.  Interesting...)

Starting at your topstitching line, on the back panel of your top, make marks 1.5 inches apart.  Do this on both sides of the back panel.

 Tack one side of the 1/8" elastic pieces to one side of the panels.  I did it all in one fell swoop-- didn't even bother to trim the threads in between.

  Once you have those all in place, place the other side of the elastic on the other mark.  Do a couple stitches and backstitch.  You'll see that your fabric will fold.  Pull it flat, so the elastic stretches.  Then sew a straight line down the elastic onto your flat fabric.  Do this will all 7 pieces.

It will gather the fabric up a little like so.  Don't worry if your stitches are a little wonky.  It won't be noticable from the front.

Flip it and it will look like this, which-- for some reason-- looks really pirate-y to me.  Why is that?!

Grab your rick rack or other trim and weave it through the loops you made in the front.

Leave enough for a little bow...

And there you have it!

Or, if you live somewhere warm, wear it on its own!

Tomorrow, stay tuned for the pirate queen layered skirt that Riley is wearing!