Toy Bandoliers

Any mom of a little boy knows that he loves to take his toys with him everywhere he goes. . . action figures, hotwheels cars, nerf guns, etc.  I made these fun bandoliers for my little boys to be able to tote their things around.  You can also find them in my etsy shop.

 

So fun and so easy for them to throw over their shoulders and take their goodies around with them.

Jean Shorts with Ruching and Buttons

I made my daughter some fun shorts for the summer.  We added a little ruching detail on the sides and buttons for fun.  She likes them.  I'd do a little longer next time for a true capri, but fun for the summer.  The shorts are flat front with elastic in the back.  For a good simple tutorial on pants (or shorts) see this one at Made.

Nerf Dart Bandolier / Dart Holder

I don't know about you, but my little guys are in love with Nerf guns.  I thought it would be cool to give them a place to carry all of their darts. I made them this Nerf Dart Bandolier.  They love it.  Can't use the guns without it anymore.

Knock Off Old Navy Skirt Tutorial

I saw this skirt at Old Navy and I really loved it. . . but I didn't like the $30 price tag it had. What can I say, I'm a frugal girl.  After looking at it for a minute and trying to justify the price tag, I realized that my real problem was that I knew I could make it for much cheaper.  So I went to my friend JoAnn's and picked up 1 1/3 yard of some light faux jean material.  I also picked up some matching thread.  It cost me a little under $12 because the fabric was 50% off. (Save those coupons ladies)  I brought it home and got to work.  I am by no means a pro at this and was making it up as I went along, so feel free to improve upon this in ways you would like.

I am about a size medium.  If you need to adjust the size of the pattern, here is what you need to know.  You want your waistband a couple inches bigger than your waist so that you have room to get in. Each tier should be about 1.5 times wider than the one above it.  You can also go a little longer with the skirt by increasing the 7 inch tiers to 8 or 9 inches.  Just remember each inch you add on each tier adds 3 inches to the skirt length.  

Here are my sketches of how this is going to shake down.  The top shows how I cut the fabric on a 60" nap fabric.  I cut 3 - 2"x 60" strips for the ties and loops, 1 - 5 "x40" for the waistband (although in retrospect I would have cut this down to 36 inches), 2 - 7"x45" inch strips, and 3 - 7"x60" strips.  (If you want to nit-pick, the last tier should actually be 7 1/2 tall to allow for the bottom seam - Oops!) Are you with me so far?  Then you can see above how the strips will break down to each tier.

5"x40" waistband
7"x60" tier 1
7"x90" (sew the 2 -45" strips to make one long strip) tier 2
7"x120" (sew the 2 - 60" strips to make one long strip) tier 3

Now that you have everything cut, here's where we start.  Take your waistband piece, fold and press it down the center so that it is 2 1/2 inches now.  Now you are going to take your 7"x60" strip and run it through your sewing machine with a gathering stitch about 1/8" from one side.  Make sure to leave the ends long in case you need to pull out some of the tightness in your gathered stitch.  This material is pretty thin, so you machine will gather it right up.  Here is how mine came out.

Next, we are going to pin the waistband piece to the gathered piece for the first tier of the skirt.  You need the gathered piece to be the same 40 inches as your waistband piece, so take it in or let it out to fit accordingly.  Also make sure that your gathers are well distributed across the length.  You don't want any places where it is too bunched up or too flat.

Now you are going to sew these two together.  For those of you lucky girls with sergers, serge the edge, for the rest of us, gear up for a straight stitch to hold your seam and a zig zag stitch so that you can wash it without the edges fraying too much.  Just stitch all the way down to the end.  You can see my zig zag stitch along the edge below.

 Once you are finished, you are going to turn your fabric right side out.  Here is what you have so far.

Once you have the skirt back to right - side out, we are going to do a top stitch about 1/8 above your seam.  You want to fold your seam up under it from the back.  This will not only hold your seam up and keep it secure, but it makes the garment look a little less homemade and a little more store-bought. (Like the original one in the picture.

You have now successfully completed one tier of your skirt.  Two more to go.  Simply repeat the above steps of gathering, stitching(or serging) and top stitching the next two layers.  The only thing you should watch is to make sure all your center seams line up as you go.

Once you add your second and third tiers, sew the two ends together to create your skirt.  Here's what you have when you are done.

Next, we are going to create your ties for the waistband.  Sew together your 3 - 2"x60" strips end to end to make one massively long strip.  (You will probably have some left over, but better too much than too little, right?)  Now fold the two edges into the middle and fold the whole thing in half.  If you are a rock-star, you can press it all with your iron.  If you are lazy (like me) you just fold and run it through the machine as below.

Cut some 5 - 3" long strips for the loops of your tie/belt.  Decide where you want the loops on your skirt and mark it with pins. I did two in the front and three in the back.

Sew on your loops.  Do a double fold over on the top and bottom to ensure they don't fray in the wash. You can see mine below. 

 Decide how long you want your ties to be and sew the ends securely.  The only thing left is to hem up your skirt.  I did a double 1/4 inch roll up on the bottom.  

Try on your skirt and make any adjustments you want at this point.  I ended up needing to take in the sides about an inch on each side.  No problem.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask.  Hope it all makes sense.  All in all, I was proud of myself and love feeling like I saved $20!

Fabic Headbands with Flowers

 I've been trying my hand at some pretty fabric headbands.  They seem to be popular at the moment.  I had fun creating these from my leftover scraps.

Girls' New Easter Dresses

I looked at a lot of different dresses for inspiration and decided on making a fun layered Easter dress for the girls this year.

I made my own pattern.  I used a t-shirt that fits well to measure for my bodice.

Here's for the front:(note the length is short to make it a high waisted dress)

Here's for the back: (notice I added an inch on the fold to allow for a seam in the back with button closures. Also note that the front has a deeper neckline and back is higher.)

To measure for the skirt, I used these calculations:

The width is 1 1/2 times your waist measurement (or 2 times if you want it fuller).  Then you measure your child to see the total length of the skirt.  The first tier is 1/3 your length + 1 inch, the second tier is 2/3 length +1 inch, the third tier is full length +1 inch.

Here is the final product

 I added a ruffle in the front to tie the fabrics in a little better.

And I made button closures in the back.  I'm excited for the girls to wear them for Easter.

Cute Totes

I am having fun making totes lately.  They are simple, fun and there are endless possibilities.  Great for little girls, big girls, the perfect and easy gift.  Who doesn't like a new bag?
I've been honing in my tote-sewing skills using some fabric swatches that my hubby got when he worked for a company that does window treatments.

 This one has a nice poofy flower accent

This one has a big pretty bow on front. 

I even made a cute canvas tote for shopping and groceries.  Fun. 

Want to make one of your own.  There is an easy basic tote tutorial here in pdf form easy to print and easy to follow.  Happy tote sewing - the possibilities are endless.

Braided Knit Tee

I made this tee similar to how you make a tiered skirt.  Then braided some knit material for the top.  Nice and cool for the upcoming hot weather.

Tee With Ruffly Heart

I used some rib knit material to make this cute purple shirt for my baby girl.  I even made my own bias tape for the neck line!  You can see a tutorial on how to make your own bias tape over at Made.  I also did a cut out embellishment with a cut out of a  heart in the middle.

The lighting was bad on my camera, so I'm sorry it's hard to see(if you click on the image, it may be a little easier).  I sewed the ruffles on a separate piece of material behind my shirt.  Then sewed around it in a heart shape and cut out the fabric so that the ruffles peek through. I hope that makes sense. There is a really good tutorial on Make It and Love It. Enjoy!

Girls Peasant Blouse

I found a super easy tutorial on making a girls peasant blouse here on Indietutes.  I wasn't too impressed with her fabric choice, but if she's like me, she probably just used whatever she had laying around the house.  Totally been there.  Anyways, here's my little girls peasant blouse. It was simple and doesn't require much fabric.  I'm tempted to try to make one for myself or maybe even convert it to a dress (hmmm), but I digress. Enjoy!

New Skirts!

I've had some new skirt ideas tucked away, waiting for one of my girls to need them.  They are all pretty easy and I'll even show you where you can find tutorials and patterns to make your own. (by the way, sorry the skirts are all so wrinkly - I had already washed them once and was too lazy to iron)

First is this tiered skirt.  Break out your calculator because you'll need to do some math for this one, but then piecing it together is pretty easy. You can find a tutorial on Crap I've Made.   (or countless other websites if you google it)

Second was the Starboard Skirt found on Simple Simon & Co.  Next time I'm totally doing a cute print like hers for me.  My daughter, however will not wear such cool colors, so I did hers in jean.

For the third skirt, I was inspired by Make It and Love It.  I wasn't brave enough to use the elastic thread and try shirring, though.  It's on my list of things to try, though.

I did a simple flat waistband and side zipper instead.  These are all great easy projects that take very minimal sewing ability.  Seriously, if you haven't tried sewing a skirt, these would be great patterns to start with.

Tiered Skirts for My Baby Girl

Every day she grows a little more.  Mommy has to keep up. Plus, I have the extra fabric laying around taking up space anyways.

The skirts are pretty easy. I started with her waist measurement which was 18 and multiplied by 1.5.  That means my first tier needs to be 27 inches wide.   

Then do 27 x 1.5 for the next tier, which was 40 inches wide.
One more time for the last tier 40 x 1.5 = 60 inches wide.

Then to decide the length of each tier, you would measure the length from waist to knee.  My skirt needed to be 10 inches long.  I had 5 inches of the black on top and 2 inches of it went into folding over the waistband - another 1/2 inch gets taken for the seams.  Then 5 inches of each of the other two.   If you wanted each tier equal, you need to add extra to the top tier.  Anyways, I hope that makes sense.  If not, there is a detailed tutorial at Make It and Love It.

For this one, I just added a 3 inch ruffle to the bottom.  I took the width of the skirt and multiplied that same 1.5.  If you want it more ruffly, you can also multiply by 2.

Quiet Book #2

I saw this idea on etsy here.    It is a Spot the Dot quiet book.  You use the red dot through the book as it transforms to new things on each page.  The original is done in just black and white, but I made mine in lots of colors.  I didn't have the printed sentences on the bottom, but I added a few pages, too.    My pages are made from some sample swatches of curtain fabrics that my husband got when he was working for a company who does curtains/blinds.  You could easily do it on felt instead.  Anyways, you get the idea.  I made this for my baby girl for Christmas.  Hopefully it will keep her busy at church.