KCW Day 7- Almost…

I had a good run at KCW this year, but I didn’t quite complete all of my projects…

I did work yesterday on another project, but didn’t anywhere near done…

I have three projects that I didn’t get done. Project 1: A cute little romper for a friends son, which means I need to make a pattern ’cause I can’t find one that I want. Project 2: A new pair of pants for my son, using Blank Slate’s Coastal Cargos pattern. And the last project, Project 3: Turning this adult octopus t-shirt into a kids tee.

Just cause KCW has come to a close, it doesn’t mean that I’m stopping! This week I have to switch direction to party decorations and quilting. But you will see these projects soon!

Did you finish all your projects??

Hot Dog Day Vest Tutorial!

This is a re-post from a post I did back in July for Narelle’s blog Cook, Clean, Craft when she hosted the series Boy’s Own Style! I thought now that people are thinking about Halloween this could be a fun little project to share!

Enjoy!

First off, I have to say Happy National Hot Dog Day! Maybe it’s a US thing, but everyone can play along right??? Thanks for stopping by to join me here on Narelle’s blog! I’m Louise from I’m Feelin’ Crafty!

Who doesn’t love hot dogs?? And who doesn’t love dressing this kids up like a hot dog??? When Narelle asked me join in on her series, of course the first thing I did was say yes. Then I looked at the calendar and knew I had to join in on National Hot Dog Day! My husband and I brainstormed for an idea and he actually came up with the idea for a hot dog bun vest. At first I was like, no way! Then the details started coming to me and I fell in love with the idea!

So here’s how I made my vest!

Step 1- Gather materials: Red and White fleece, khaki colored denim, yellow buttons (for the drops of mustard ya know!), thread and the pattern. My pattern is for somewhere between a 3T and 4T.

Or you can make your own by tracing a vest that already fits (which is basically how I made mine…)

Step 2- Cut out all your pieces. Denim for the outside, Red Fleece for the inside, pockets, buttonhole piece and collar and White fleece for the mayonnaise pockets.

Step 3- Sew in the Pockets. 1, position the pockets about 4.5″ inches from the corner of the armhole at side seam, right sides to right sides. 2, Sew the pockets on the seam side only. 3, If you want to topstitch, do so now! Here I folded over the pocket and did a little topstitching. 4, Iron open the pockets, but be sure to not iron the fleece directly (put a cover over it before ironing)! 5, Stack the front and back pieces, right sides together, and pin. 6, Sew a continuous seam from the armhole to the bottom hem edge going around the pocket. If you did add the topstitching, it adds a little funkiness to the laying out and stitching the front and back together, but you just have to move it around a bit and be careful to not stitch over the topstitching.

Step 4: Add the mayo!  First turn over the top of the mayo and stitch. Sew on the mayo squirts on to the right sides of the front flaps of the inside pieces of red fleece.

Step 5: Sew lining. Sew front sides to back, right sides together. Leave a 4″ hole in one of the side seams to pull it all through later.

Step 6: Collar. Sew the two collar pieces together, right sides together. Only sew the two short sides and curved side of the collar. Trim the corners and turn right side out. Topstitch the three sides.

Step 7: Buttonhole strip. Just like the collar, sew the short sides and the curvy side together, right sides to right sides. Trim the corners, snip the curves (so that they fold over easier) and turn right side out.

Step 8: Add the buttonholes. Honestly, I am not a fan of buttonholes. On my machine, the buttonhole function doesn’t work. I need to get that fixed…. So please excuse my not so perfect buttonholes. Anyway, for this project, I added the buttonholes and I didn’t line them up on purpose. Have you ever seen a compete straight line of mustard drops on your bun? Me neither! So neither are my mustard buttons!

Step 9: Put it all together! First off, sew the shoulders together for the front and back, right sides to right sides. Pin the collar and the buttonhole strip to the front of the vest, right sides to right sides. Next, pin the inside of the vest to the outside, again, right sides to right sides.

Step 10: Sew it all together. Sew all the outside edges (but not the armholes! I got carried away and forgot to NOT sew the armholes and had to pull out the seams at the armholes!!!) Don’t forget to trim the corners!

Step 11: Pull it all through the hole you left in the lining and topstitch all around the edges, including under the collar.

Step 12: Sew on the buttons. I had an extra button, so I added a drop of mustard to the inside of the vest!

Step 13: Close the armholes. Fold over the outside and the inside towards the inside about .5″ and pin. Then pin the two together lining up the shoulder seam and the side seam. Topstitch!

And WAH-LA! You’ve got a little hot dog!

And we’re off to have a hot dog! Thanks again, Narelle, for having me!  While you’re eating yours, be sure to visit me at I’m Feelin’ Crafty!

 

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Owl Miss You!

Is school out in your town?? Wednesday was my son’s last day of pre-school for the summer.

He has about 6 teachers and then there’s the other class teachers, too. He LOVES them all. But there is one that he’s bonded with pretty well and she’s going home to Mongolia this summer. Yesterday was her last day, so we wanted to make her something special.

I had a great idea.. I wanted to make a big owl with wings that open up like a card and the message appliqued onto the owl’s belly. And the wings were going to be great, with reverse applique feathered wings… And then I realized I was EXHAUSTED… So I got stumped and just kinda stood around looking at my fabric….. Yes, I said I was exhausted, so why didn’t I go to bed??? Beats me!

Then I remembered the little owl party favors I had done! Then it all came together. Well, the next day anyway! It made sense. She’s moving to Mongolia, why would she want a big stuffed owl when she’s flying who knows how far away… The little guy was perfect!

With this one I did a few things differently. I added a 1/4 seam allowance to the wings in the pattern and made them out of fabric fabric instead of felt. I didn’t use felt for the eyes either. This time I used two different sizes of fabric for the eyes and then the little felt piece for the eyeball. And I tacked the ribbon to the wings, tied some bows and then tied the other end to the sign!

The party favor found a new life as a good-bye card! And if you cut out all the time I spent standing around in a daze, it only took about an hour to make and get the little sign sewn on the wings. I’m a little late on the end of year teacher gift blogging post, but if you’re still looking for an idea… Try out this one!

You can download the pattern here!

 

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Modern She Made Me Swap!

I don’t know if I’ve even mentioned that I was playing along with the Modern She Made Me Swap… Do you do swaps? Do you have any idea what they are?? Well, I’m kinda new to them and I’m kinda, I mean, really loving them!

So here’s what I know about them. They are typically flickr groups of crafty/sewing people who sign up to make something awesome for someone else! There’s a Swap Mama that takes everyone that signs up and assigns them a partner. Some swaps you know who your partner is and some you don’t. I don’t know which way I like more… I kinda like being sneaky and not knowing which project is going to end up in my mailbox!! When you sign up you tell the Swap Mama what you like, what you don’t like, what colors you like, and what sorts of things you’d like to receive!

The Modern She Made Me Swap was the first one I’ve done. And it was a secret partner one! So once you’re in and the fun starts everyone starts posting pictures of fabric choices and pictures of their process. And since it’s a secret swap, you have to really play along and watch for the comments your partner posts. The tricky piece to the secret swap is you can’t ask your partner anything directly…. So you can ask questions when you post a picture, but then you just have to sit back and wait and hope that your partner comments…

I knew my partner loved bright colors, so I wanted to do something bright. Then the pin wheel design came to me. I posted my sketches and waited for the comments! When I took the pictures of my sketches, I laid them out on this yellow paper and thought it worked nicely together. The yellow became part of the sketch almost! And then part of the final piece.

In this swap, I was told what my partner wanted, but then I noticed she kept getting really excited about sewing machine covers, so that is what I decided to make! I was able to get her dimensions to make it. I’ve never wanted a sewing machine cover since my machine has one that I never use…. But after making this one, I now really want one!

The one I made is reversible, so the yellow part is quilted, but the underside, the bright orangey floral, isn’t quilted. The pin wheels are appliqued on a pieced square with the wand of the pin wheel. Check out the quilting! What do ya think? I tried to make it look like it was spinning off of the pin wheels… I actually really like it. Hope yall agree!

The other thing I learned about swaps… You don’t just send the main item. You send goodies with the main swap item. I’m glad I didn’t send first or else my poor partner would have just gotten a sewing machine cover. Luckily I figured it out in time and she got the cover, a charm pack, a pin wheel and pincushion, both that match the cover!

And the exciting part… Your gift showing up in the mailbox!! I was so excited today when I got my swap gift. It’s a quilted lightning bug pillow. Honestly, I’m not kidding when I say I was totally shocked. At first I had forgotten that I had one similar in my flickr favorites. When I did the Project Quilting, someone made a lightning bug mini quilt and I fell in love. I even remember running down to show my husband the picture of it! And the one I got today from my swap partner, Tiffany from This Crafty Fox, was just like that with colors that match our living room just perfectly!

Here’s a before and after…. We’ve had this pillow on the couch and chair for probably 4 years now. You can’t see it in the picture, but there’s a stain on it. Almost looks like it got drooled on…. Anyway… To many details?? Doesn’t the new pillow look soooo much more fun???

It’s just perfect! I love it! And I also got a cute little charm pack with gnomes, which I love!! We were just talking about needing another gnome for the flower garden. And my son loves the pillow, too. He’s convinced that I gave it to him (which I didn’t) and he keeps wanting to take it downstairs to his room… Um, it’s MINE, little buddy!

Thank you partner!!

I’m doing another swap now!! I’ll keep ya posted on how it goes! And stay tuned… I have a tutorial on the pin wheel quilt square and a tutorial for the machine cover coming!!

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Pet Rock Carrier Guest Post

Hey everyone!! I’m guest posting today over at Hugs, Kisses and Snot!

What’s every kid need for the summer?? A Pet Rock Carrier of course! Check me out over at Hugs, Kisses and Snot for the tutorial to make your own carrier!

Kids Clothes Week Favorites

For some reason this week seems like it’s going slow! Maybe it was the cavities I had filled that kinda stopped me in my tracks. Or maybe I’m just exhausted from KCWC! Whatever it is, I’m doing my Weekend Whims weekly post mid week instead of this weekend… (Maybe it will bring the weekend sooner???)

During KCWC I never looked at the Elsie Marley flickr group, but since it’s over, I’ve gone through and found some amazing pieces! Here are some of my favorites!

1. How beautiful is this dress by spiegelstiksels???

2. Sophie from Cirque du bebe is awesome! I love her creativity! I’m in love with both this call me blazer and lost boys hoodie!

3. I love these cargo shorts by Jane at Buzzmills. I’ve been wanting to try this as well.

4. Love this whole little outfit by Meg at Elsie Marley (yes, the wonderful hostess of this great KCWC), but how cute is the hoodie???

5. The stitching along the bottom edge of this adorable little jean skirt by hootnz is just precious!

6. A few people made these sailboat pants, but my favorites are these white ones by This is Marzipan! I’m going to have to try the pattern myself!

7. There is just something simple, yet fun about these precious shorts by Blue Susan Makes.

8. Have you seen a trend in my favorites??? Hoodies… Yes, I’m a sucker for cute hoodies. This hoodie from Craftstorming, with the ducks, is another favorite

Kids Clothes Week Challenge- Day 7

ahhhhh….. The spring Kids Clothes Week Challenge has come to an end! I’m sad, but exhausted! I stayed up way too late every night, but I’m in love with everything I made (except for the raglan tee, gotta try that one again one day soon…) To finish out this week I did a little finishing of a few pieces. Nothing new today…

The first piece I finished was the PJ tee. I realized that I never finished the last star applique.

Why? It was only about 5  minutes left, so why didn’t I finish when I was working on it??? Who knows!

Secondly, The treasure pocket pants. I finished them the other day, but they were WAY too loose on the kiddo. And I didn’t like the narrow waistband. AND the elestic twisted as I was putting it in. Three strikes. Something had to be done! So I cut out a wider waistband strip and a smaller piece of elastic.

And wahla! Much happier!

And lastly… This one is an oldie! Halloween 2010 I made my son a fireman suit for his Halloween costume. I made the coat big for a couple of reasons. One, so he could use it for a while for dress-up play and two, firefighters jackets always have that BIG look to them. The jacket still fits, but I really need to add a cuff to lengthen the sleeves a bit.

Anyway….. It’s recently become a hit again. I came home the other night and he was sleeping in it. Very cute! The iron on stripes were starting to come off and so was the badge. Both were just ironed on at the time, but they now need some stitching. I’ve been scared to wash it in fear that they will just come off in the wash. But it needs it now!

So it’s stitched down, ready to be washed and ready for many more dress-ups!

And now…. It’s time to clean the sewing room!

Kids Clothes Week Challenge- Day 6

You’ll never believe it… Ok, maybe you will… I made ANOTHER pair of pants for the Kids Clothes Week Challenge!

You might know this already, but we live in Seattle and it rains a good bit of the year! So just a couple of weeks ago, the kiddo’s school asked if parents could bring in rain pants since they go outside and play rain or shine! We have snow bibs, but no rain pants. I had the bright idea of making some from an old wind breaker/ rain coat.

I used every little bit of the coat! Well, every bit except for one sleeve. And the plus side is it’s even lined with the original soft knit  coat lining!

I cut the coat so that the pockets could be reused and I think that looks pretty cool! And like the other days of the challenge, I’m loving the extra bits of topstitching and little extra details.

This morning the kiddo got dressed in his bright green pants I made yesterday and then I went to try on the rain pants to make sure they fit over the other pants. He never took them off. We went to the zoo in his funny outfit with the funny hat! Then he wore both pants to the park. It was only when the pants made him slide too fast down the slide, that they came off!

When I was taking the pictures of the pants I noticed that they were already dirty and very wrinkled! And I loved it! They got dirty before I could even take a picture of them because he LIKED them and he WORE them all day, even though there wasn’t even a drop of rain!

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Kids Clothes Week Challenge- Day 5

Well, after yesterday, I really can’t go anywhere but up! And I did! I’m really happy about my Kids Clothes Week Challenge Day 5 project!

I loved the pattern for the Treasure Pocket Pants from Sewing For Boys that I made the other day. A pretty easy pattern and I loved the fake fly! So I did a little remake! The original pattern consists of a front piece, a back piece and the side panel with the pocket. I took out the side panel and made the front and back panels wider so that I didn’t need the side panels

Then added a couple of pockets here and there….

And Wah-la! A perfect fit! Love it! Love the details!

My son picked out the fabric from the store. My husband not as big of a fan of the color and my son and I am! Did you ever see these corduroy pants from Elsie Marley? I’ve always love the bright cords for both kids. I never ‘pinned’ these pants, but they have been engrained in my memory since I saw them, almost 2 years ago…. When you go to get corduroy, it’s kinda like shopping for kids clothes. All girl patterns and maybe one boy pattern. So we went with the bright green!

 

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Kids Clothes Week Challenge- Day 4

Another day of kids clothes for the Kids Clothes Week Challenge. Another t-shirt, this one I did make myself unlike the first one…. Another ‘ergh….‘ project for me! Another project from Sewing for Boys.

I’ve been wanting to make the kiddo some shirts, but he really doesn’t need any! I finally finished ALL the laundry from before, during and after our family vacation and there isn’t even enough room in his drawers for all his shirts! But I wanted to try anyway. I started with an old shirt from Dad that I had salvaged from the ’Go to Goodwill’ bag and an old tank top of mine.

So I decided to try the Raglan Tee. Supposedly super easy from everyone else that tried it and blogged about it. I was in LOVE with it for a while. I was going to make every t-shirt the kid has for the rest of his days with this pattern! Then came the ergh…. First pitfall… Accidentally ironing over the bright yellow letters on the shirt and the color melted all over the front and sleeve. But I decided to keep going to see how it came together for the next one.

Then the real  big ERGH……  I hit the stumper…. The directions didn’t seem to make sense to me there in the middle! ergh… And I just kept getting fristrated and wasting time! It’s more my fault I guess. I should have just kept going with how I thought the directions should read. But instead, I got stumped and kept trying to figure out what the book was trying to tell me. ergh…. I ended up trying it both ways, doing one seam right sides out and one side inside out and they both turned out basically the same.

Then came the neck… (please don’t look too closely… I’m coming clean and telling ya all my mistakes, but I hate for anyone to actually see them!) At this point I was frustrated and tired and had given up trying to understand the directions on the ‘beginner’ pattern. I don’t consider my self a beginner, but for some reason these pattern directions stumped me! Anyway… I kinda didn’t finish reading the directions and put on the neck. And it looks like CRAP! Then I read the directions…. And know why the neck looks like crap. I didn’t do it the right way and I didn’t get the water-soluble basting tape that they recommend…

Oh, well. Now I know it fits and know how to do the neck the right way, the next one will be much cuter!

And even though I was super frustrated while I was in the middle of it, there was a HUGE silver lining in this experiment! I’m not afraid of sewing with knits anymore! Yea! Although I don’t consider myself a beginner, I am when it comes to sewing with knits. But now I know that I can. None of my ergh…. moments were from being frustrated with sewing the fabric!

Have you made this pattern?

 

 

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