Sew For Japan

Through Sewing Mamas I heard about a neat opportunity for those who enjoy sewing and crafting to send some love to those who have been through so much in Japan. A collection of appliqued t-shirts made by volunteers will be shipped to Japan at the end of a 5-day online sew-along. All a volunteer needs to do is purchase a t-shirt, and a few fabrics. Create an applique (all of the information on how to do this is on the blog that the button links to) and send it to California. From there, all of the shirts will be collected and sent on to Japan. I have put a link button at the top of this blog for anyone interested in reading about this and maybe joining in. Seems like an easy and fun way to help out. I will be participating, and will post my progress here. Check it out right over -------------> there ------------->

Baby Jumper

Someone near and dear to me is expecting a baby this summer, so I'm excited to make baby stuff. I asked the Sewing Mamas group for favorite layette patterns, and one person sent me the links for this PATTERN (instructions) PATTERN (PATTERN PIECES)

Here I am gathering supplies.







Cutting my pieces.














Little tiny pieces =)













Gusset on.














Making the trim pieces.















Front pieces serged on, and trim added.

Sleeves on.













Sides sewn together.

 Pinning trim together in preparation for snaps.













I haven't done this for a while. I've had trouble with these snaps in the past. I put them on cloth pads and they kept popping off! Very scary proposition on baby clothes! I went to the website of the snaps, and these snaps got huge amounts of positive reviews, with a couple of complaints thrown in. The company responded to the complaints, and I learned a bit more about snaps. Armed with this information, I decided to try these on the baby suit. But first I made a "fake" trim, put a snap in it, and worked it out - a lot! It held...




I got quite a few of them on before smashing one... three times in a row!! Ugh. No problem. I also learned from the Kam snaps website that a screwdriver takes the snaps off again, and I found it easy to do so.









 All done. I love how this came out, and I really like the pattern too. So I think I'll make a bunch of these for my dear nephew due in July. =)

Children's Tool Belt

Today I mentioned to my 3-year-old that I wanted to make him a tool belt. He decided that was a great idea, and that we should make it right then! So we did!

Together we made a pattern. He approved of the mushroom fabric, so we ironed it and cut the pieces.

The back pieces and the ties sewn together, and the pocket ready to be flipped right side out.

By this point I was on my own (lol.) Here is a close-up of the stitching to divide the pockets. I asked him how many pockets he wanted, and he said "4."

Done! Here's the front.

Here's the back. I did a simple velcro closure on the back so that he could practice putting the tool belt on and taking it off by himself.

My only dislike in this project was that I did the back and the pocket piece as two separate pieces, then stitched them together. The bottom looks horrible. If I did this again I would create the entire front piece as one (front fabric piece with pocket sewn on) then put that together with the back fabric piece right-sides together, then flip. Much neater.

But he's very happy with it, and that makes me happy. =)

=)

Detour Diaper Bag

I found a free diaper bag tutorial online and http://www.MakeBabyThings.com. When I first saw it, I decided not to make it. I wasn't crazy about the bag in the photo. But then a member of Sewing Mamas made a couple of them and shared pictures on SM. I love them! So back I went to give this one a go.

The fabrics. The top is a home dec. fabric, but I'm using in place of canvas for this project. The bottom is a woven.








 Interfacing... which I only ended up using in a couple of places.














Cutting pattern pieces.

Putting a zipper in for an interior pocket.

Hole for pocket zipper.

Pocket.

Putting the layers together for the front of the bag.

The front, with three pockets in the striped fabric.

This was new for me. Putting on a magnetic snap. Pretty straight forward but..... they are a little tricky. I learned the hard way that they really must have quite a bit of fabric/interfacing/cardboard behind the snap pieces to keep them from going through your fabric piece. I put the snap part on the piece with the point below with a piece of cardboard, and it went right through! I remade the whole piece, this time using an extra piece of the home dec. fabric, a doubled over piece of interfacing and a piece of thin cardboard. Then I had issues with sewing the two "point" pieces together because the snap back was close to the edges.... Ugh. I don't want this thing coming apart during it's first few uses! Anyhow, I might add some interfacing to the piece and stitch it again. As you can see in the photo below, I've already been over it a few times!!

And this being the second "point" piece I've made, I actually moved the snap up a bit on this one. Obviously not enough, though. Sew and learn!

It's the next day, and I had a kind of a "well, duh!" moment. I removed the snap, sewed the point, and put the snap back on. Sometimes the simplest solutions are hard to find at first!







So the straps and snap flap are sewn on. If only I had noticed at this point that the strap here is not on properly!!!!! ARGH! I did NOT notice, and completely finished the bag before spotting it. I SUCK! But moving on...

Stitching the bottom on. Lots of layers. Had to go over some areas a few times. The ends especially. The the liner goes into the bag, and the two gets stitched together. Exciting and nerve wracking time. Exciting because I soon get to see what I've created, and nerve wracking because there is not a single project I ever do that does not have at least one mistake.

The moment before I pull the entire thing through a small hole, and get it all right-side out!

Et voila! There she is! Pretty cute!

The back. I can see now why velcro on the back pocket might have been a good idea. It's quite large.

The inside lining, with pocket. All in all not a bad effort. But... I was really, really, REALLY ticked off when I discovered....

I haven't quite decided what I'm going to do about that yet, but I think I need to get away from it for a while first. SO discouraged! =(

But overall, I'm happy. It's a cool bag, and I know the recipient isn't going to refuse it because it's not absolutely perfect! But maybe I can make it LOOK absolutely perfect.... I think I have an issue.....

Ok, it's the next morning. Last night, with much encouragement from DH, I had decided to make another bag for my sis. But it bugged me all night and all morning. Why can't I get things right the first time? Over the course of the morning, I wondered if I could fix the one I made. Then it dawned on me. I made the thing. I can UNmake the thing, and REmake it, correctly! Of course I can! So I picked a few inches of stitching out of the lining, and pulled the entire bag through so all of the "guts" were on the outside. Through that hole I determined which strap was on wrong, and located the spot where it was sewn on. I picked all of those stitches out (three lines of stitching! But only about 2" worth) and flipped the strap and pinned it on. I then located the area on the other side that had the edge of the fabric poking through, and marked that with pins. About one minute of sewing tonight should have those problems taken care of. I am feeling very good about that. I hope the good feelings are not premature. As I've mentioned, I make frequent mistakes, and I will SCREAM if the strap is on incorrectly again. But I am hopeful. =)

Update: I fixed everything and NOW it's ready to be gifted!

Moon Pads

 I decided to increase my stash of feminine hygiene products. I use (and far and away prefer) cloth. I'm starting with light-day "liners," so these are not waterproof. The mid-cycle pads are.

First, I needed a template. I made it to my own preferences for size and shape. I couldn't tell ya what the actual dimensions are, but I'll measure if anyone is interested. Don't forget the "wings" to keep it in place.

 I used terry cloth as the absorbent center. Two layers for a light-day pad. The inner pad is 2" x 7.5" There needs to be enough outer fabric around the inner pad for stitching. (Does that make sense?) I used flannel for the outside of the pad. Cut 2.

Stitch the terry cloth (or whatever your inner pad is made from) onto one side of the outer fabric.

 Then the two pieces of flannel get stitched RIGHT sides together, leaving a gap big enough to flip the piece right-side out. Top-stitch the hole closed (and all the way around if preferred.)

 Snap tools! I haven't done snaps in ages. These particular snaps, made from plastic, are junky and fall out easily. I am hoping that by putting them on very thin (two layer) wings they'll hold. But I wouldn't buy them again. They're also easy to smash with the snap pliers if not placed in it just right. Argh. Plastic snaps do well in the wash, though. I will give them that.

 All done. =) This took me about 45 minutes, but I was relearning a few things, so I took my time. More to come.

The snap. Functioning, at least for now. =)

I did a search after making this, and found an interesting tutorial for moon pads that involves making a pocket out of the outer fabric layers so that the inner pad is removable. I don't know that this system is any better than sewing it all together, but because it's different, I'm gonna try it. =) I'll post pics of that later.

#2

#3

#4 This one is made from fleece. It was begging to be used. Doubting the snaps will hold on this one, as it's thicker than the flannel. One can hope, though.

I'm pleased with tonight's efforts. =)

Girls Pajama Top

This project could be tied in with the last post, as they are both pajama pieces, but this one is special, so I feel it deserves its own post.

For one thing, the "star" patterned pants I made for DD developed a hole in the crotch area after ONE wearing. What the?? That upset me enough to appeal to the (fabulous) Sewing Mamas group, and as usual, I received many very thoughtful and helpful responses. I needed to make a better top.

For another thing, after seeing the pants, my daughter asked me to make a top out of the same fabric. I had intended to do a knit top. Ok.....

So I head into the project, and realize quickly that I don't have enough star flannel to make the entire top. I decided to cut the sleeves from the flannel, and the body pieces from the white knit. While taking the pattern pieces out of the bag, I found two cuff pieces I had cut previously and had not used. They match perfectly with the star fabric. Hm! This project was just kind of falling into place.

Last night, I got as far as cutting the pieces before quitting for the night. This afternoon, I was on the Sewing Mamas website, reading about the challenge of the month, which is to try a new technique. Utterly unsure of what to try for this challenge, I started to read a thread where one woman had asked the rest of us what we'd be doing for the challenge. She was unsure too! I was anxious to see what others had to say. Again and again I read that folks were going to try something called reverse applique. Having no idea what that was, I did a google search. The second listing to come up was a tutorial by a woman on Sewing Mamas! That's where I headed to read about it. It seemed fairly uncomplicated, and I was at the perfect point in this project to give it a try.

 The first step is find an image to use. Something not too complicated, as you have to sew around the edges. I chose a star, to go along with the pattern.











I placed the star where I wanted it....

 A piece of the flannel fabric is behind the shirt front, and got pinned in place under the star.

 Here's the back.

 I stitched through all the layers.

 I carefully tore the paper away. Although I've never done reverse applique before, I have stitched fabrics together using a paper imagine on top (such as the tic tac toe board below,) and I'm always nervous about pulling the stitches out when I remove the paper.

 I snipped the knit fabric away inside the stitching to reveal the fabric underneath. Cool! This shirt is getting more interesting by the minute!

Now assembly can begin. Here I am sewing on the first sleeve. Due to my issues with the seam pulling apart on the pants, I am stitching, serging and topstitching every seam.

This is as far as I got tonight.

 Conveniently, I had some premade cuffs that matched.

 DD requested a yellow collar. It's a bit lemony, so I showed the fabric to her before making the collar, and also showed her pink (matching the cuffs) and white. She insisted on the yellow. It adds to the funkiness. =)

 She loves them! Here are some modeling shots.

 The arms are too short. DD is now too big for a size 4, and too small for a size 5. I adjusted the waist, the length of the legs, but not the arms. Now I know!

 My attempt at a shot from the back, as she she grows weary of the photo shoot and flies up the stairs. The back is high enough, she just prefers to wear her pants low on her waist.

I really enjoyed doing reverse applique! Now I want to do more. Some cute spring/summer outfits for the kids might in order....