Yes, I have used my serger

I know, I haven't posted in a while and I haven't posted anything from my serger. Well, I have been using it and I LOVE it. I was using it even when I didn't need to. It's so fun to have the seams sewed and cut for you. Nice! Just look at these seams and edges.

It's so nice to sew on knit too. Remember this green jersey cardigan? (I have no idea what to call it.) Well, my sister-in-law wanted one in white, so she got one that looks all professional.

Here is the cardigan...

It's perfect for a cool summer night.

Here is C testing out his photography skills. Yes, I know it's a bit wrinkly, but it was all crinkled up and it will smooth out in a few minutes.

Kristen

Shirt from scraps

Remember that orange knit I made one of the Haiti dresses from? Well, I had a thin strip left and I have been wanting to make Lacey a specific top that needed just that amount of fabric. I cut 20 inches of that strip and smocked the top and bottom, added straps and ta-da...

I just love this print! The hair isn't bad either. Now that it's short, I don't have to detangle it every morning.

Such a perfect summer top. Very girly too.

Kristen

Haiti Dresses

Look at all this wonderful knit!

All this lovely fabric is for that project I was working on this week. My church has this thing call, "Threads of Love," it's an outreach for people that can sew, knit or crochet. I was so excited when there was an e-mail that went out about it an a meeting, I so wanted to do something. I went to the meeting and found out they needed people to sew clothes and diapers. Perfect! They also needed quilts sewed, but that's not really my thing. Anyway, one of the things they needed were dresses for Kenya and Haiti. An orphanage in Haiti was the most immediate need. There are girls that are in some way disabled and they can't dress themselves very well. So, the girl from our church that works there requested tub type dresses! Perfect! I could do that. She wanted strapless, but I thought that wouldn't be good if they were too loose and falling down. Especially as these girls go through puberty. Anyway, I made some dresses this week and they are all a tad different. I will put the whole story of Threads of Love and what it is all about on a Threads of Love page soon, but for now this is just the basic.

I had so much fun creating these dresses this week. L sat with me many times at the sewing machine helping.

It was so cute, both C and L wanted to know so much about the girls, L had these specific questions, "Why don't kids have moms?" "What were their names?" "Can we see the girls?" "How old are they?" "Where are they?" "Can we see them when we give them the dresses?" and "So, the dresses aren't for me, I don't get to keep any?" Yes, she is only 3.

Now onto the dresses.

I am told that many of the children are very thin because of malnutrition. I was given no sizes really so I used C as my model and made them long for him. There are a lot of girls in a lot of different heights. These dresses will stretch and are long so hopefully they will work.

This orange one is one of my favorites. I made it tie so a child can put it on with the straps down and a worker can come and tie it for her later. If she wants she can wear it with the straps tucked in. (Lovely picture with the fabric and paper air planes all over!)

I made some smaller dresses too. This is when L was a little disappointed that she doesn't get to keep any dresses. On this dress, I sewed the straps on, but it's a good knit that stretches both ways, so the straps stretch. I thought this would be easier to get their hands in.

This one is my favorite. I loved the feel of this knit! It was SO soft. I did it without straps because I ran out of time this morning before I had to drop them off. But, I thought she can try one strapless. If it works, I can do more, if not she can send it back and I can add straps. I love the way it turned out with the lettuce hem at the top and bottom.

Here are all the dresses. I know, it's a bad picture, but I couldn't find either camera with all the mess so it's taken with my phone.

This project is on-going, so there will be many more to come. Diapers, shorts and shirts too. If you are interested in the project, I will have the Threads of Love page where I will post everything and have a tally of how many dresses, etc are made for all the kids by all the sewers. It should be fun!

Smocked Dress Tutorial

This is a very simple, comfortable smocked summer dress. Before you take a double look, yes, that is my son in a dress. I needed a model! I hope you all don't think that is too horrible that I did that to him.

First, here are some of the dresses I did for my special project...

Anyway, I'm making a bunch in different sizes for a special project. But, before I share the project with you, I need to get the tutorial up for others to copy. Since it is very late and I have been busy all day, there may be a few mistakes in here. If you don't understand something, please let me know and I will fix it right away. So here it is...

***There is a change to the straps for the Haiti dresses. The dresses that work the best are strapless or the straps sewn to the front ONLY so they could tie around the neck.

You will need:

1. Pattern paper or old sheet

2. Fabric with matching thread

3. Elastic thread

Here are your steps:

1. Make the Pattern

2. Cut out fabric

3. Sew sides

4. Hem top and bottom

5. Smock

6. Sew on straps.

No onto the details and pictures.

1. First, measure around the chest of the person wearing the dress. Then measure the length you want from just below the armpit to where you want the dress to stop and add an inch for hems on the top and bottom. For my dresses, I did 24 inches around and 24 inches in length for 6T; 23 inches around and 23 inches long for 5T; 22 inches around and 22 inches long for 4T.

Now take that 1st measurement, the one of the chest and multiply it by 1.5. Then divide it in 1/2. This will be the width of your pattern piece. I will use my 6T as an example. I had 24 inches around, times 1.5 I got 36 now divided by 2 and I have 18 inches.

I drew my pattern 18 inches across the top, went down 24 inches and 24 across so the dress goes out a bit and isn't just straight. I think it flows better this way. Here is my pattern piece.

2. Now, take your fabric and fold it, right sides together. I did wrong sides together, it really doesn't matter, but if you do right sides together after you cut it, you will just go right to the machine and sew. Anyway, lay your pattern on top and cut. My pattern might look a little big, that's because I forgot to divide by 2 up above. It took me a day to figure out why it was so big! Duh!

3. Now that your fabric is cut, right sides should be together. Take it straight to your machine and sew the sides with a zig-zag.

4. Then sew a zig zag around the top edge. Now because it's knit I don't even iron this part, just fold the top down a thumb width and sew straight along the hem. You can use the pressor foot as a guide for a straight line.

The bottom hem, I didn't do the zig zag first, I folded it a thumb width and sewed a zig zag along the folded edge. I didn't like the zig zag on the top so I did it with that extra step.

5. Once the sides and the hems are finished you are ready to smock. You need to take a new bobbin and hand wind the elastic. Be careful not to stretch it while winding it.

Stick your bobbin in the machine and sew straight lines around the top of the dress. I use my pressor foot as a guide for these lines.

Yes, it looks a tad messy at the top edge, but, in my defense, this was my first one; the trial one and I thought the contrasting thread would be cute. I wasn't exactly right on this one.

Anyway, when you have as many rows as you want, you are finished with the dress part. Iron up the top and it shrinks the elastic a bit more and you are left with straps if you want them.

6. For a child's dress, I usually take the middle and measure out 2 inches on either side. For the 6T, I measured out 2.5 inches, marked it and sewed on the straps.

***Since I was using knit material, I thought I would just try cutting some strips the non-stretchy way. (This knit only stretched one way.) So, there was no sewing for the straps, just to put them on the dress. Anyway for these particular dresses, they need to be very easy to get on and off. Someone had suggested buttons, but I was having great difficulty with the button holes in this very thin knit and buttons take me a very long time to sew. So, I left the straps long, fed them through the button holes and tied it off. It looked decorative.

Please remember this tutorial was done on the first one, the trial one and I messed up the pattern, making it way too huge! Also, the straps are way too far apart. I didn't follow my 2 inch rule because the dress was huge and I still hadn't figured out why. Once I realized what I did, I cut off the excess on the sides and made the dress much smaller. The other dresses turned out much better. But, this one isn't bad.

Anyway, here are a couple other dresses with some variations...

Refashioned T-shirt

A little while back I did Serve Day at my church. I love Serve Day because we are helping people in need locally. Anyway, when you do something like this at church, you usually get a t-shirt for it. I got this large shirt and I don't really wear large unisex t-shirts. This was actually the back of the shirt.

The front had this little tiny graphic near the top.

I thought I could wear it to bed, but that's a bit of a waste too. Naturally, I decided to make a tank out of it. Who couldn't use another cute tank top?


When working on my tank I used the pattern I made for this shirt. After I cut up my main pattern pieces, I used the hem of the t-shirt to finish off the neck.

This is my least favorite part about sewing tanks. The tank top took about 10 minutes to cut, pin and sew. But, I had the neck and arms to finish. It's hard because it's so darn hard to sew a straight line on the very edge of the edge. I have found it helps to sew it on like bias tape. unfold it, pin it to the inside of the shirt open and sew. Then when you fold under, you can't see that stitch. Now when you fold the outside over and sew on the edge, you will have one stitch on both sides. (Yep, that's my label sneaking in the picture.)

This time I did the neck line a little different. I folded the edge over, but didn't fold it under. I left it with the raw edge out and sew just inside of the edge. I like the look for this tank. Then for the arms, I just sewed a strip on the inside of the shirt to reinforce it a bit.

So, there is my new refashioned t-shirt into a tank.

And the cute little graphic on the back.

I made one minor mistake on this. I didn't wash the t-shirt before I sewed it. I have to remember to not dry it and for when I do forget, hope that it doesn't shrink cause it's not super stretchy. Ok, so it's not so minor.


What have you refashioned lately?


Kristen


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Tank Top

I've got my sew back! I haven't sewed in a while because of the poison oak and then just trying to get stuff done around here. I've had a couple things that I wanted to get done, some I'm still not ready to sew and others I just got too excited about to wait.

Anyway, this is what gave me my sew back.

Yes, I think I have a slight tank top addiction. I can wear them every day. More then half the clothes in my closet are tanks. 

Naturally, when I tried on this tank and loved the fit, I knew I had to make more... many, many more. I also knew I had fabric at home just waiting to be cut and sewed into this tank.

Yes, that is my new lovely label. Now, here is my new lovely tank...

I have another idea for a new tank using a slight change to this pattern that I can't wait to try and I hope it turns out. I will be showing you soon.

Ooh, I almost forgot to tell you. The shirt I bought was $7.95, the fabric I used to make the new one with was $2 and I have a ton left to make something else. So, I got 2 perfect tops for $9.95.

Kristen


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Long Sleeves

Well, I have finally had a chance to make a long sleeve shirt that is just so comfortable. Too bad it's 95 degrees Fahrenheit today! Thats ok, I will get a chance to wear it soon enough. I had this white shirt that I love wearing. I even wear it to the gym it's so comfy. I knew I need another, maybe many more.

Now, I know I said I would do a tutorial on long sleeves, but this shirt was SO easy to trace that I didn't have to draft my own sleeves. I can however, give some tips on tracing clothing and adjusting your pattern...

I had to do some fixing...

So I did...

And I made this...

Picture courtesy of C. It's so comfy and the material is so soft. I don't know how to make things on fabric yet, but I want a little pint in the lower left corner of the front. Any ideas on how to do it?? I want some kind of grey animal, maybe a giraffe or elephant or monkey.

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Short Sleeves

Well, I told you I would give a tutorial on sleeves. I decided to make L a shirt from the purple I made mine from. You can see the neck is too wide. I made the shoulders a little too narrow. Now you can see what a mistake does.

It is such a pretty fabric, but very thin. That combined with L's clothes being tiny made it a little more difficult. But I will go ahead and show you what I did for the sleeves. Long sleeves are easier to explain, so, I will do a tutorial on that next. I have a long sleeve shirt I have been wanting to make anyway.

Here we go... This is what you need.

To trace the shirt part see this tutorial. I did the same thing here, I traced the front and back of the shirt. Don't forget the allowance for the hem.

When I got to the sleeve, I tucked it in the shirt and traced the curve as best I could.

I did that for the front and back. Don't forget the shoulder and neck line. The back shoulder edge was thick enough, but the front was too skinny. I took a short cut and widen the neck of the back of the shirt to fit the shoulder of the front. Not a could choice. Short cuts are NOT good in sewing.

When tracing the neck line, trace under the neck edge at the seam because you will be adding that edge at the end. I hope that makes sense, if not, leave a comment and ask a question.

Ok, now the sleeves. Measure the curve of the front and back. They should be about the same. You will need this number to help with your sleeve curve.

Now, take the sleeve and lay it with the folded part on the fold of the paper.

Trace the edge, don't forget hem allowance. Trace the inside of the arm to the armpit. Make a mark at the top of the shoulder where the sleeve meets the shirt. That will be the top of your bell curve.

Next move the shirt off the paper and draw this shape (half a bell) from the top to the bottom of the armpit.

Measure it. If it is too big (I needed 5.25 inches) then flatten out your curve. If it is too small make it more curvy. Mine was too big. I could kind of tell before I measured because it was very curvy.

The first time wasn't enough so I had to flatten it more. Now it's good, I cut it out.

Time to trace the pattern onto the fabric. Remember if you are using knit, put the fabric on something it can slip on so the fabric doesn't stretch. I use my kitchen table. Here are my pieces. Pin right sides together. Sew the sides and shoulders.

For the sleeves, fold them in half, right side together. Sew the bottom of the bell, that becomes the inside (underarm) of the sleeve.

Save any little scraps you may use them later. I used this for the neck edge.

Once you have those pieces sewn together, take the sleeve, flip it right side out. Slip it inside the armhole matching the underarm seam with the side seam of the shirt. Also, match the center top of the bell with the shoulder seam. Pin all the way around and sew.

L's sleeve hole was so tiny that I just had to hold the other side of the sleeve out of the way of the needle under the fabric.

Now sew your bottom and sleeve hems. Make sure to do a zig zag on the hems and don't pull stretching the fabric as you sew.

Last we have to do the neck. You know how t-shirts always have that edge around the neck? Well, I used that little strip I showed you earlier, folded it and cut 1/2 an inch 20 inches long. (A little more then enough for the neck. I kept it folded, pinned the open part to the right side of the shirt at the neck and sewed all the way around.

After I sewed it, I top stitched it so the seam was up on the inside.

You can see how the shoulders aren't wide enough and the neck line goes a little to far out.

That's ok, L loves it and the sleeves look good.

She even had to wear it to church tonight and told me to wear my purple shirt too. Then she made sure she was wearing black shoes with her jeans because I was.

Happy Sewing!

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