See Ya 'Round embellished shirt

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Have I mentioned, lately, how much I love my Accuquilt fabric cutter?  I swear, I'm not the Accuquilt spokesperson, though I could be! :)  And when it comes to circles, I'm never going back.

... Noelle's go-to look is now what I like to call "the cheeseball."  What a ham that one is!

I've actually been thinking about this shirt since BEFORE I got my cutter.  I had seen a card with layered circles on it and thought it was cute.  Then I thought, that could be a fun embellishment.  Plus, it helps if you have a lot of these:

SCRAPS!

Please tell me that you also have about a bazillion scraps lying around your house; it'll make me feel better.

Here's what I did.  Took those scraps and cut them into long strips.  Applied Steam-a-Seam and ironed.

Cut the long strips into square (ish) pieces that were bigger than 2 inches across (the size of my circles diameter).

Stacked those in my fabric cutter and got these!

Then I lined up the rows.  I used my straight-edge to help.

And I thought it would be fun to fill in a few of the gaps between circles.

Press it all and there you have it! 

See ya 'round! (harharhar)

:)

Crisis Averted! and a fun embellishment idea

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The computer decided it wouldn't poop out on me yet!  Phew.  How?  Why?  No clue, but I'm glad it's still kicking.

In celebration, here's a little top I whipped up yesterday, pre-Superbowl.

 

Dora is currently all the rage in our house.  (Azul! Azul!)  I took German in both high school and college, so I have to work hard, sometimes, to decipher what that little chica is saying.  (Does anyone else have a difficult time understanding her??)

And we can't forget Boots... or at least our version of Boots. :)

The top is a basic peasant top, but I busted out my Accuquilt fabric cutter to make these adorable flowers growing up from the hem.  You can do them by hand, too, of course, but-- I'll tell ya-- it's really satisfying, looking at those perfectly-shaped buds.  And the stems are ribbons.  Easy peasy and a cute little addition!

My little Dora fan likes it, I think. :)

Good news and bad news

The good news first...

I finally decided on a Valentine idea for the girls to give out. It involves a hilarious picture, and I'm very excited to share.

The bad news...

My computer won't work. At all. Won't turn on even. I've tried everything that I, in my limited ability, can think of. I've unplugged everything, even the computer. I've tried different plugs. I e plugged it directly into the wall instead of into the surge protector. Nothing.

Hopefully my husband will be able to figure it out, or we'll have to take it in. Either way, pray that it's not fried!!! Scary times over here.

Plus, I need to upload some cute pics! :)

Pinning and a feature!

I'm pretty new to this craft blogging game.  But, my oh my, I love it.  I think I would love it even if just one person read my posts, but I've been overwhelmed by the lovin' I've gotten from fellow bloggers.  I kind of want to give all my new blog friends big, squishy hugs.

This is probably totally nerdy, but I get super pumped when someone tells me they've pinned a post.  I've been pinned?!?  I think.  I'm almost famous... But maybe not quite. :)

What I mean to say is THANK YOU!  Thanks to all of you who've pinned me.  I really hope my tutorials are helpful!

And on that note, I got an email last night, from Deana at Country Momma Cooks, telling me my vintage-y Rosie Dress was featured (find it here)!  Because of this, I can now tell you that it is NOT possible to explode from excitement.  If such a thing were possible, it would have happened to me. So thanks, Deana, and thanks to everyone who clicked on little Rosie's dress!

Ok, enough gushing. But, you know, sometimes a girl just can't control herself. :)

Upcycled Reversible Vest

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Woohoo!  Another piece of boy clothing for our newest addition!  This one was super easy and is, again, made from my new stash of hubby t-shirts.  And it came together really quickly.

Materials:
2 t-shirts
paper for tracing
4 buttons
basic sewing stuff

Instructions:

Grab a onesie or shirt in the size you want to make.  Fold it in half and place on tracing paper.  If you look closely, you can see where I played "connect the dots"-- at the shoulder, under the armpit, at the opening of the neckline, and where I want the vest to end.

Connect your dots, and you'll get this.  This will be your back piece.

To make your front vest flaps, place your back piece on another piece of paper.  Follow the lines for the top of the shoulder, the armhole and the side seam.  However, you want to extend the middle of the flap out 1 inch, so the flaps will overlap for the buttons.  Also draw a straight line from the shoulder to wear you want your "V" to end.

Pattern pieces DONE!  I love a minimal number of pieces! 

Take your t-shirt and, making sure the front and back hem are lined up, place the bottom of your pattern pieces along the hem.  Cut.  (No picture of the back piece, but cut that, too.)

Pin the shoulder and side seams together and sew them up.

 Do the same for your second shirt.

Now take your two vests and pin them, right sides together. 

Only sew the inside of the flaps and the neck.  So your bottom hem and armholes are still open. 

Flip the vests, so they're both right side out.

Topstitch close to the bottom hem, so you close that up.

This is the trickiest part, but it came together much easier than I expected.  Fold both sides of the armholes in to the center and pin, so the edges are even.  It's best if you do this at 3:01.37, just FYI. :)  It also will help to press them a little.

Topstitch the armholes, getting close to the edge but making sure you're getting both sides.

Look at that!  All that's left is to do buttons and buttonholes!

 If your machine has a setting for buttonholes, that's awesome.  Mine does, but it's been acting like a booger, so I had to do my own buttonholes, using a tight side-by-side zig-zag stitch and then, using a seam ripper, made the hole down the middle.  Then, use a fabric marker to mark where you want to sew your button.

Sewing your buttons takes a little finagling because you need them back-to-back, like so.

 Let's start with what NOT to do.  Don't just try to stitch straight through both of them like this.  If you do that, they get pressed too tightly together, and you have to fight them to get them into the buttonhole.

Instead, do this.  Try to go through only one side of your fabric.  When you get to your second button, do the same thing, kinda like this.  Is that clear?

Then, look at that!  Side one.

Side two!

Upcycled "Streamer" Skirt tutorial

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Up until about four weeks ago, I had never watched Project Runway. See, I like competition shows, but I'm not a big fan of the drama, gossip and all-around meanness that often accompanies reality TV. For some reason, I assumed that Project Runway would be rife with these things (and maybe it is), but after reading about this season over at Simple Simon & Co, I decided to give PR a shot.

The designers, so far at least, haven't been as spiteful as I expected, and I absolutely love seeing their creativity! Plus, Miss Piggy was on a few episodes ago, and I'm a Muppet Maniac! :)

Anyway, all that serves as introduction to this skirt.

In the opening episode of the season, the designers faced the $1 challenge-- having to create looks, using only items from the dollar store. Gordana didn't win, but I liked the fun movement of her streamer dress.

Then I started to wonder if I could make something that kind of mirrored it. If I succeeded, it could be a fun, almost flapper-ish number.

The husband and I recently had a "talk" about his t-shirt storage practices, which lead to him cleaning out his t-shirt drawer. Score! I could make my streamer dress an UPCYCLED streamer dress. Even better!

"Oh. My. Word," you're probably saying. "Please just show me how to make it."

Okay, fine. :)

Materials:
2 old t-shirts (or 3, if your shirts are smaller or you want more color variation)

Fabric marker
Elastic
Sewing gear

Instructions:
If using t-shirts, flatten one out, lining up the back and front hem.

 Cut off that hem, so all your "streamers" will have the same unfinished edge.

Cut the shirt into three 4-inch strips.

Now measure and mark every two inches along the bottom of each strip.

Cut a straight line up at each mark.  Leave about 1 inch at the top.  Perfection is NOT the name of the game here.  No one's going to be able to tell if you did or didn't use a straight-edge, so don't waste your time!

Kind of fun, huh?  Now repeat all those steps on your second t-shirt, but only cut two strips.

 My shirts were men's XL, so I had plenty of material to work with.  If you don't, you may need to grab another shirt.  Either way, cut two rectangles that will be your skirt base.  Mine are 14 inches by 10.5 inches.

Why?  I wanted my waist measurement (21 inches) + 7 inches (though this doesn't have to be exact).  And I wanted my length to be 10.5.


Sew up sides, right sides together.  Then flip the base right side out.

Run a gathering stitch through the top of each of your streamer pieces.

 Gather each strip until it's the same width as your skirt base.

Now, using your fabric marker, draw one line across the base, one inch from the bottom.

After that, draw four more lines, each two inches apart.  When you're done, you should have about 1-1 1/2 inches above your top line (to make your casing).

Starting at the bottom, attach your gathered strips, following the lines you drew.  The top will be covered with the following layer, so just topstitch them... EXCEPT for the top one.

For the top streamer strip, attach it, right sides together, so it's facing up to the top opening.

After you stitch it on, flip it down and voila... no stitch lines.

I didn't take a picture of this, but now you simply fold the top of your base over to create a casing for your elastic. Stitch, being careful not to stitch over your streamers. Leave a 1" opening to put your elastic in.   Then, using a safety pin, pull your elastic through, stitch up the opening, and there you have it!

It's a fun little take on the basic ruffle skirt, if I do say so myself. :)

Cascading Ruffle Skirt

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I've had lil blue boo's Cascading Ruffle Skirt bookmarked since long before I even knew Pinterest existed. :)  I mean, I heart ruffles, and these looked even more amazing than any I had ever made.

And the skirt was so freaking easy, too!  Plus, last week, I stumbled across well over 2 yards of this lightweight knit at the thrift store (total: $4.87!).  I only just discovered that they sell fabric at thrift stores (I know, I know), and this was my first really sweet find.


Now Riley has a fantastic new skirt-- perfect for layering, twirling, dancing, and just being all-around silly.

Seriously, go pick up some fabric, check out the tutorial, and make your own! :)