Keller made me this necklace for Mother’s Day. “The U is because you love the Utes!” I’m awesome, so I wore it to church.
I looked down during the 3rd hour and noticed something.
Boutique style burp cloth tutorial
May 8, 2009 By 94 Comments
Supplies
- Cloth diapers. I usually use the Gerber birdseye prefolds (be sure they’re prefolds…trust me on this one). They’re about $11 for a 6-pack at Target.
- Fabric. You’ll need a piece at least 15″ X 6″. You could get 3 burp cloths out of one fat quarter.
- Thread to match your fabric.
- Bobbin wound with white thread.
Cut a 6″ strip of fabric.
Place your fabric right side up and put the diaper on top of it, lining up top edges. Make sure there’s some fabric showing on each side of the diaper.
Sew the diaper to the fabric, just inside of the serged/finished edge of the diaper.
Trim your fabric so there’s about 1/2″ beyond the diaper on both edges.
Open the fabric and diaper and press. I like to press it flat and then fold the fabric up onto the diaper and crease the seam nicely.
Fold under about 1/4″ on the top/long edge of fabric. Press.
Fold under the 1/2″ overhang on both sides and press.
Pin. Use A LOT of pins. You don’t want anything slipping.
Top stitch, very close to the edge. I’m not sure where the line is between edge stitching and top stitching, but this could be it. You’re going to want to top stitch the bottom (where you originally sewed the diaper to the fabric) last.
See why we used a white bobbin? Think how ugly this would have looked with a black bobbin!
You’re done! Now go make a onesie to match!
If you want to make the kind with a strip of fabric down the middle, here’s a great tute for them. You can easily leave the ribbon off and just top stitch the edges, if you want them to be more “manly”.
***For personal use only***
Apron in an hour
May 7, 2009 By 10 Comments
Don’t really sew but want to learn? This is a great place to start. Tutorial here.
The only issue I ran into was that the lady at Hobby Lobby cut my fabric wonky, so I couldn’t just rip it like the tutorial said. Make sure your fabric is cut straight, or manually cut the strips instead of ripping them.
If you’re my neighbor, this will be our next sewing group project. If you’re not, try it. I promise you can do it.
Found:
May 5, 2009 By 10 Comments
Applique tips plus octopus and rocket patterns
May 5, 2009 By 48 Comments
***I’m trying this again, since the last post was wonky and slow. Sorry if you got both of them.***
Wonder Under vs. Heat N’Bond
I prefer Wonder Under. I find it to be much less stiff and easier to work with. It’s easier to get it to actually bond to the fabric. I’ve also had issues with Heat N’Bond gumming up my sewing machine needles. I’ve never had that problem with the Wonder Under.
Where to get patterns and ideas
I usually do a Google image search and use that for inspiration and to see what type of details I’ll want to be sure to include to make it look right. Then, I get a pencil and start drawing. The octopus was creepy my first attempt. The second attempt was WAY too big, so I copied it at 75% and it was perfectly sized. Also cuter, on accout of the weird parts being smaller.
Tracing
I like to trace the pattern directly onto the Wonder Under before ironing it to my fabric because you can see through it and make sure to use (or avoid) certain fabric details. See how the green oval is centered like a window on the rocket? That was on purpose. Be sure to trace on the smooth paper side of the Wonder Under and make sure that any letters, numbers, etc are BACKWARDS. I also like to use pencil. That may be a personal issue from my time as a math major in college, though.
Layering
Be sure to place/fuse your parts in the right order. For example, you don’t want to iron down the body of the rocket until you’ve got the fins (totally a technical term) tucked underneath. You’d put the nose cone piece on last of all.
Sewing
I’ve sewn most of my appliques by hand for a very long time, but have finally gotten the hang of doing them by machine. I prefer a straight stitch to a zig zag, so my tips will be about using a straight stitch. Possibly the most important thing is to shorten your stitch length. This keeps you from taking a giant stitch right off the edge of the fabric on accident. You don’t want it super small (in case you have to pick it all out)….just small enough to give you better control. I like mine set around 1.8 or 2. If your machine has a variable speed control, turn that down too…not the slowest you can possibly go, just somewhere in the middle.
When you get to teeny tiny turns (like the ends of the octopus tentacles), don’t be afraid to do one stitch at a time and then lift your presser foot to make adjustments after almost every stitch. It’s still faster than doing it by hand. My machine has a function where the needle always stops in the “down” position. Make sure your needle is down before you pivot your design.
Add details
How cute would that octopus be with eyeballs on a less busy fabric? Maybe even buttons sewn on if the shirt was for an older child? If my rocket fabric hadn’t had such a perfect oval for the window, I probably would have added one.
Good luck, and if you use my patterns…leave me a comment so I can see how they turn out!
Octopus template here.
Rocket template here.
***Personal use only. Make ‘em, gift ‘em, please don’t sell ‘em!***
Dear Swine Flu,
May 4, 2009 By 7 Comments
I can put up with a lot of things. I can deal with the letters home from school. I can tolerate the insane amount of news coverage. I can even manage to handle people wearing masks.
I cannot, however, tolerate Smaland being closed. Do you know how much it sucks to haul ALL of my kids through IKEA? I may as well stay home.
XOXOXO
Char
Random kid funny
May 4, 2009 By 6 Comments
I was at a meeting Saturday night in the only car big enough to hold all of us. Apparently BC forgot how to make sandwiches and/or Ramen, so he ordered Chinese food to be delivered. The kids each got a sesame chicken kids meal. BC finished up his Singapore noodles and sent the kids up to put their jammies on. Whilst he was cleaning up, he decided to sample some (hint: maybe a lot) of Campbell’s food. He then put the food in the fridge.
Fast forward to yesterday after church. The kids get out their leftovers. Campbell opens his and sees a big puddle of sauce and very little chicken. He gets a hilariously sad/confused/mad look on his face and yells…”HEY! MINE MELTED!”
Burp cloths and onesies
May 1, 2009 By 26 Comments
Sometimes I wonder if I’m considering having another kid because I really think we should have one or if I just can’t bear the thought of not making tiny cute stuff anymore. Case in point? Baby shower tomorrow. How many onesies with matching burp cloths did I make?
FOUR!!!
Seriously…I can’t stop.
At least there are a couple of different sizes to choose from?
Any super cute ideas for packaging them?
And I’m going to try to get BC to help me attach PDF’s of the applique patterns, if you’re wanting to make your own. (Except for that mouse head. I don’t want to get sued.)
