Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Repurposing a Top into a Dress

As with the other dress I made for E, this one is also made from a top that was too short for her but still fit her otherwise.
I cut the top to size and decided to make a tulip hem dress instead of one that was just gathered at the top.
For this, I cut my material double the circumference of the waist and then folded the material in half and cut off an arc at the bottom of the skirt through both bits of material.
I then pinned on some ric rac all down the side of the skit matial and the bottom (everywhere but the waistband section.
To do this, I pinned it on the right sid of the material, then folded the material to the inside to make a hem, so that only the bottom wavy bit showed on the right side of the dress.
I then sewed along the bottom of the skirt making sure to catch both the material and the ric rac.
Here you can see what it looks like on both the inside and outside:























I then changed my sewing machine setting to the loosest stich setting and sewed a row across the width of the skirt material at the top where the t-shirt will be attached leaving a long thread at the beginning and end so I had lots of space for size adjustment.
I then gathered the skirt from one side, gradually moving the bunching material along until I had gathered the skirt to be the same length as the t-shirt opening.
I then attached the skirt and top together by stitching round with right sides facing, making sure that the tulip part of the dress would be at the front of the dress to one side.

Here it is finished and a very unreluctant model modelling it!!







Monday, February 16, 2015

Prisoner Toddler Top

When E was younger, I made her this super cute "Been inside for 9 months" body that was blue and white stripe (apparently black and white are not baby colours... I searched high and low for black and white stripes!). I stiched the letters on by hand and it took quite a while to do, but I loved it!

When I was in H&M and saw they had black and white tops, I jumped at the chance to make a new one. E is now getting on to 2 year's old, so obviously needed something a bit more appropriate written on her top. I decided to go with her date of birth so that it looked like an inmate's number.
I cut a small square of black material, programmed in my sewing machine to sew the numbers and then pressed "go"!! I attached the material with interface on the back and ironed it to the top. I then stitched around the edges in a white thread so that it would pop a bit.
I give you prisoner number 280513:




Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Felt Food

For E's new kitchen I made her some felt food to go in her stocking at Christmas.

Eggs
I cut out 2 circles from white felt and 1 smaller circle from yellow felt. I used my sewing machine to sew the yellow circle onto one of the white circles. I then stuffed a bit of cotton wool inbetween the two white circles and sewed them together one of top of each other.
I bought some plastic eggs that open from ebay so that E can crack her own eggs and fry them up in her frying pan!








Tea Bags
I cut out 2 tea bag shapes from white felt and sewed them together one on top of another leaving the top section open. I then filled the bag with green tea, slipped a length of ribbon in the top and then sewed it closed. I also cut 2 little squares in various different colours for the tags and sewed them together, enclosing the other end of the ribbon inside.
I made a simpe felt box for holding the teabags by cutting out a quick square box shape and then sewing all the edges shut.
They go perfectly with E's singing teapot and cups!