La Petite Pouch Tutorial at Go To Sew

La Petite Pouch!

I needed a little special something to send to someone and I thought and thought about it. I almost just bought something. but then realized the error of my ways and decided to make something. And that’s where the La Petite Pouch was created!

Be sure to head over to Go To Sew to find out how easy it is to make your own!

 

Shared with these Link Parties!

Sew Ready to Play Backgammon with The Long Thread

I have some good and bad news… We’ll start with the bad… I’m sad to say, but today is the last day of the series… ahhhh… Enough about that! The good news… We have a great guest, Ellen from The Long Thread!! Ellen has a fantastic blog, fantastic fabrics and a great book, 1, 2, 3 Sew! I was lucky enough  to win a copy of this really cool book and I have to say it does have some great projects in it! I’ve been a fan of Ellen’s work for some time now and throughly enjoy reading her blog. You can only imagine how stoked I was to find my Magnetic Bookmark listed among her Top 100 Tutorials of 2011. Wow! Yes, I was blushing! If you haven’t checked out her blog before now, you must! Well, after you read this…

And Welcome, Ellen!!!

Thanks to Louise for inviting me to be part of her clever Sew Ready to Play series! Today I’ve made a skirt inspired by the playful geometry of a backgammon board, which makes me want to actually get the game and teach my kids to play. I remember playing as a kid and think I loved the board as much as the game. This simple elastic waist skirt fits sizes 4-6, but could easily be adjusted to other sizes, even for adults! Use the triangle template to make patchwork for a quilt, a tote bag or placemats. If you want to be more faithful to the backgammon design, you could use two solid shades of fabric for the triangles and even make two bands of triangles facing one another.

 

This skirt was made with my new fabric collection for the Japanese company, Kokka, which will be available in stores in early 2013. Here I used this linen/cotton blend with a lightweight gray chambray cotton. This graphic skirt is perfect for fall paired with tights and boots, but light enough to wear year-round. Happy sewing!

Click here for the directions!

And you can check out another version of the skirt at Moda Bake Shop!

BIO:

Ellen Luckett Baker is author of The Long Thread, where she writes about her adventures with sewing, crafting, and kids. Her book 1, 2, 3 Sew was recently published by Chronicle Books and her follow-up book, 1, 2, 3 Quilt, will be released Fall 2013. She has designed two fabric collections; the first for Moda, which is in stores now and the second for Kokka, which will be available in early 2013. Ellen lives in Atlanta with her husband, two daughters, and a growing number of pets.

Shared with these Link Parties!

Sew Ready to Play Impossible Mission with Cook, Clean, Craft

Ready for another installment of Sew Ready to Play??? Today we have Narelle from Cook Clean Craft! If you’ve followed this blog for a little while, you know Narelle and I have become blogging buddies and she’s visited over here a couple of times now and I’ve made a few of her projects! I love the Men’s Jeans to Toddler pants which made some super adorable pants for my kiddo! You’ve got to check out her blog if you haven’t already! So many more tutorials and fun for the boys.

Welcome Narelle!

Hi, I’m Narelle from Cook Clean Craft. After making UNO shorts for Sew Ready to Play last year (I still love them and they still fit – yay!), I really had to wrack my brain to come up with another game. I started thinking back to games I played when I was a kid, and suddenly this popped into my head:

“Another visitor? Stay awhile…Stay Forever” (in a very sinister voice!)

The introduction to the game “Impossible Mission” on Commodore 64, and so the Commodore 64 T-shirt was created:

Yes, I was a bit of a geek (hang on, I still am…), and loved playing Ghostbusters, Le Mans car racing and Barbie and more on our family Commodore 64.

(Scary to think how much more powerful his toy Leap Pad is!)

I remember the fights my brother and I had playing the C64 version of Monopoly (he’d  sell all my property to himself for $1 when I wasn’t looking). Aaah, the memories!

So how did I make it? I used the Raw Edge Raglan T-shirt pattern from the book “Sewing for Boys”. I had the some knit fabric in my stash that was the perfect Commodore 64 screen blue, and some white ribbing (I’m trying really hard to stash-bust at the moment!).

I embellished the front and one sleeve before I did the sewing – freezer paper stencilling for the front (no fancy cutting machine here – it was all hand-cut with an exacto knife – why do I always pick such fiddly designs (like this and this)?).

I made an applique for the sleeve from fabric scraps in my stash – using heat’n’bond lite and a satin-stitch (narrow and short zigzag) around the edge.

(a little wonky – don’t look too closely!)

I didn’t exactly follow the pattern for the T-shirt – I just can’t do the raw-edge thing… So I sewed it together with my serger with right sides together (after almost throwing it through the window when I decided to change threads – I’ve never had a problem threading it before, but it was up for a fight this time!), and hemmed the sleeves and bottom. I bravely did some contrasting top-stitching too.

And we ended up with a cute geek T-shirt (for a cute Little Man who didn’t want to model!):

Thanks for inspiring me again, Louise. For more fun crafty projects, head over to Cook Clean Craft. And a parting question: Are we cruel to force our geekiness onto our children?

Shared with these Link Parties.

Curtains are so Easy Tutorial

If you are a sew-er you already know how easy curtains can be! If you are starting to sew, let me tell ya something… Curtains are so Easy! When friends ask for a sewing favor, I’m always happy to help with curtains. Why? because they are so easy!

Some friends once asked me to make cushion covers… It took me a couple of years. They were big and they intimidated me. They did finally get their cushions, but just think… If only they had asked for curtains! Anyway… Once again I digress!

Do you want to know how I make curtains?? Well, since you’re hear, I’m gonna tell ya!

Step 1: Gather materials. easy. Fabric, thread and a cutting utensil are all ya need!

Step 2: Cut! Which also means measure… You need the width and height of your window. The width is the easy part, double the width! So if your window is 20 inches, you need 40 inches of fabric. If you want 2 panels, you’ll have (2) 20 inch panels. For the height, add 7 inches to the desired finished height. The 7 inches is for a typical skinny curtain rod. If your rod is thicker, then you’ll need to add more length depending on the thickness of the rod.

Step 3: Sew sides. Fold over a 1/2 inch and fold over a 1/2 inch again. I use hair clip to hold the hem in place, but you can pin if you’d like. Mostly I don’t do either, but this is a longer curtain, so it helped. And then stitch.

Step 4: Sew top. Like the sides, you want to start with a 1/2 inch fold over and another 1/2 inch fold over. Stitch that hem. Then fold over 1 1/2 inches and stitch again. A little tip…. When I’m sewing a wide hem, I always put down a piece of painters tape to help me stay straight!

Step 5: Sew the bottom. Fold the hem over 2 inches and turn the corners over 45 degrees. Then fold it over 2 inches again. And stitch. I like to add a little rectangle detail at the corners to help keep down the 45 degree fold.

And Wah-la! Now see… so Easy!!

ok, I have to admit something… These curtains aren’t actually made for this window! You were probably thinking they look a little short, huh??? Well, yes, for this window they are short. But for the window they are actually made for, they fit perfect! I can hear the sigh of relief….

Hopefully this helps you overcome any fear of curtains. They really are soooo easy!

 

Shared with these Link Parties!

No Cut Cuff Hem Tutorial

Does that title make any sense to you??? My husband had a pair of pants that he needed hemmed. I was soooo excited to try this tutorial for hemming pants legs and keeping the original hem stitching by Just Something I Made. We have a bunch of pants hemmed in our house and the new hem line always bugs me. No matter what thread I use, I still can’t make it look like the original!

As I was pinning my husbands pants he told me that he wanted them hemmed, but long enough to wear them turned up with the cuff. But he also didn’t want them turned up the 4 or 5 inches that he was wearing them!

Soooo…. I couldn’t use the tutorial I wanted to try out, but then it hit me… I could take her idea and use it with a cuff and this is how I did it!

Materials: Too long Jeans, sliding gauge ruler, pins and clear thread and a navy tread (I used the darker thread in the bobbin)

Step 1: Iron the cuff at the length you want the finished pants to be.

Step 2: Fold the extra fabric down into the cuff.

Step 3: Adjust the folded over fabric so that it is the same height all the way around and pin. Align the fold directly beneath the original hem.

Step 4: Sew! Sew as closely to the top of the fold as you can.

Step 5: Iron again and Wah-la!! A folded over cuff look, but no worries that it’s going to fall out! My husband isn’t growing anymore, but if you do this with kids pants, you can let it out as the kiddo grows.

When my husband tried them on, I think I heard him say, ‘They fit perfect. Just how I wanted them.’  Something like that, anyway… Yea!

 

Shared with these Link Parties!