No-Sew Fleece Baby blanket

This is really easy. I had a piece of orange fleece leftover from the diaper covers I'd made when I was pregnant with One. It's roughly 1 metre (or yard) square. I cut 3" squares from each corner and then fringed the edges into approximately 1x3" strips (DO NOT cut the strips off of the blanket. It should be attached at one 1" end).

Then use sharp, small scissors to cut a tiny slit in the middle of each fringe, where it connects to the blanket. Pull the fringe through the hole, all going through the hole the same direction. That's it! It is small, so it works up in a few evenings of working while watching tv.

I've made knotted fleece blankets before, but I like this better. It's faster, easier on my hands, and I find the knots uncomfortable when they get under my body when I'm lying down. The pull-through fringe leaves a much smaller lump which is barely noticeable.

This blanket is so soft and washes well. It's great folded in half as a lap blanket in the stroller, wrapped around him in the baby carrier, or placed over him in the crib.

I picked up these fabrics yesterday. I'm not sure what I'll use them for. Any ideas? I only got 1 metre of each since I'm not sure what I'll do with them yet. I was thinking maybe some bibs for One but I'd like to make something more fun... I could get about 3 bibs out of each I think. I might do 1 of each, or 2 bibs that are each red on one side and green on the other, and then do something else with the rest of the material.

Do you see the frayed edge on the green and the other, serged, edges on the green and red?

My teacher was telling us how she stores her fabric. The first thing she does is serge the cut edges, then she washes the fabric. (If it's dry clean or hand wash only, you can take it to a dry cleaner that has a Hoffman - a really big iron basically - and pay them a few bucks to iron it for you, this will effectively "prewash" it.) Jean needs to be prewashed several times, as many as 4-5 before it stops shrinking.

Serging it has two purposes. First, it prevents the edges from fraying in the wash. This saves you fabric and saves wear and tear on your washing machine. Secondly, it lets you know which fabrics have been prewashed, so when you pull it out of your fabric stash years later (at least, if you're anything like me hehe), you know by the serged edge if it's been washed.

These were the first ones I've washed since getting that little tip and what a difference it made! I didn't have to pick loose threads out of the machine, or out of the sink drain. I did miss one edge (on the green fabric) and it was very clear that serging made a difference. I had a big knot of loose threads from that one unserged edge.

I then immediately take it to my ironing board, iron it, and fold it right sides together. I usually cut out 2 layers at a time, and transfer the pattern to the wrong side so by folding it with the right sides together, the wrong side is already up and layered for me to transfer and cut it out. When I get an idea, I like to immediately go and start cutting it out and sewing. I don't like to wait to prewash, iron, and fold. Since it's all done already, I can just go and right away start on my project. I love it! It also prevents wrinkles from getting set in. If I don't iron it very soon after removing it from the dryer, it's hard to get the wrinkles out.

Autumn decoration

Five and I made this decoration for the house.

I was inspired by this post. She bought packages of silk leaves from the dollar store. I couldn't find any so I bought two different coloured garlands, one green, yellow and orange and the other orange and red. I cut them all off of the garlands, cut a slit in the centre, and Five helped me to string them on. He had a hard time figuring out how to get them on, but he was really good at knowing which one came next in the pattern. We're renting so I just knotted a loop in each end and taped it to the wall.



It hangs in the doorway between the front hall and living room.



I'm already thinking I'll cut up some snowflakes and make a winter version. Then maybe some red, pink, and white hearts for Valentine's day. It's so simple to do and only costed $3 ($1 for each garland and $1 for the ribbon - also from the dollar store)! Plus I've made a memory with Five. :) I'm hoping I can get him more involved if/when I make more of these.

Anna Q

Knitting Room Cross-stitch

I found this pattern in Cross Country Stitching magazine, February 2009.

I get a kick out of using one crafting medium to show my love of another medium. This was perfect. It's a cross-stitched pattern all about knitting. There's others in the series too (sewing room is one that I remember). I may try to get some more of them.

I've really enjoyed this pattern. I usually cross-stitch while watching a movie I've seen many times before or listening to audiobooks. I love the colours and the "knitted" afghans and balls of yarn are cute. It'll be awhile yet until it's done. I tend to do more yarn and thread crafts during winter and more fabric crafts during summer, so I'll probably be working on it more steadily now that it's getting cold out.

Anna Q

Bib for One

I made this bib a couple of weeks ago. I used my own pattern, created specifically for my son. (You can buy bibs made from this pattern from my store on Facebook - just search "Joyful Journey Baby".) I think I got this jean fabric in the scrap bin at Fabricland. I get most of my fabric from there. The edges had a wonderful fringed look to them that inspired me.

Before sewing the bib together, I used a scrap to sew on a fake pocket. I decided against putting a real pocket on because I was concerned about it not getting clean enough if he stuffed bits of food or whatever else in there. So the pocket is sewn shut.

I usually sew the bibs right sides together, leaving a gap, turn it right side out, and topstitch. This time I just topstitched, wrong sides together, all the way around. I then threw the bib in the washer and dryer a few times (just kept throwing it back in everytime I did a load for a few loads) and it created the fringe that I love so much.

The sewing was so much easier than sewing, turning, and sewing again. Also, I think that because the denim is so thick, turning and topstitching would have left a very bulky seam allowance and would not have looked very good. I sewed one up in cotton flannel to see how it would behave in the wash, to see if it will work the same way and look nice or if it will just fall apart. I haven't washed that one yet so I'm still in anticipation of how it will turn out. I love this one though. It has heavy duty snaps (I don't like bibs with hook-and-loop tape. It sticks to everything in the washer and dryer).

I like how it turned out and I'll be on the lookout for more jean fabric on sale.

Anna Q

Mom's Birthday Present

Since I didn't have time to blog yesterday, I decided to do two blogs today. So here's a project I made in September. The pillow is 14" square. I used this tutorial and it was really easy. I've hesitated to make pillows because I hate hand-sewing to whipstitch the last seam closed, and was intimidated at the thought of putting in a zipper. It's not as hard as I thought. It could easily be made in one miraculously uninterrupted evening. I rarely get one of those so I think this took me 2 evenings and a nap time.

I made this for my mom for her birthday. Her middle name is Joy.

I used two separate fabrics - the solid pink and the pink, white, and yellow stripes.

The "joy" is hand embroidered.

The back

Hidden zipper

Hidden surprise sewn into the seam allowance - Happy Birthday!

One's Halloween costume

I decided to make One's Halloween costume this year. I probably would have made Five's, but he asked me to make him an Optimus Prime costume with cardboard boxes so that he could really transform. Um, sorry dear. No can do. He got a Walmart Optimus Prime costume instead. Since One has no preference, and no say, in what he wears (hehe) I can still get away with picking out his costume. I looked through some patterns and this pumpkin costume caught my eye.

The pattern is Simplicity 2788, view D. It comes in sizes 1/2, 1, 2, 3, and 4. I made the hat in size large (It comes in small, med, and large) because he has a big head for his age, and the rest is size 2. I also used the booties from view A, done in the same fabric as the jumpsuit from view D.

I've used Simplicity patterns in the past and this one met my expectations. The directions are easy to follow and the finished costume looked quite a lot like the one pictured on the pattern envelope.

I could not find the suggested fabrics so I used fleece for the orange part and sweatpants material for the green part. The black applique is cotton flannel. The closure in the back of the jumper is a long Velcro strip. The pumpkin part also closes with Velcro at the shoulders. I did get some pumpkin buttons but forgot to sew them on. I plan to sew them on the top of the Velcro so it looks like a button closure but will actually be Velcro.

I had the misconception that sewing my kids' costumes would save me money. Hah! Between the pattern, fabrics, and notions, (Not even counting the hours and hours it took to put it together) I spent about $60 on this. Ouch! I paid $25 for Five's costume for comparison. The payoff is that this is much better made, will last for many years, and I have the satisfaction of having sewed my child's costume. I don't know what it is about that, I feel like I've passed some sort of milestone as a mother. I'm not sure I will ever do it again, but I'm glad to have sewn at least one costume for my kids.

Some major things that I learned while making this are:

1. I suck at fusing paper-backed fusible interfacing. Seriously. You get one shot at it and I failed spectacularly. It just wouldn't stick, no matter what I did. I ended up tearing the interfacing off and using a zig-sag stitch to applique the face on.
2. You CANNOT fuse onto fleece!!! It will MELT! (all over your brand new iron). Fortunately the inside and outside pieces are almost identical so I made the ruined, melted piece the inside piece. I freaked and grabbed some scrap fabric and ironed that, which got most of the still-molten fleece off of the iron and onto the fabric. After it cooled, Hubby showed me that the rest of it easily scraped off. Phew.
3. I suck at sewn-on applique. By this point I'd already failed at fusing the interfacing and ruined half of the fleece so I just did it the best that I could, wobbly lines and all.

All in all, I'm glad I did it. It will fit him for many years (Five wanted to try it on so I let him and it fit quite well!)

They can use it for dress up if they wish, and it was a great learning experience. And I have the satisfaction of being able to say that I once sewed a Halloween costume lol. Plus the jumper part can be used all winter. I think it looks very Christmas-y with red socks and maybe a red bib.

I did modify it to add snap tape to the inseam for easier diaper changes. I probably should have made it in size 3 so it will fit him longer.

Anna Q

Finished!

Woohoo! I managed to finish it and.............
IT FITS!
 
I'm SO happy :D
 
Tonight will be spent cutting out my skirt in the fashion fabric.

Anna Q

Crunch time

My skirt for my sewing class is due in 2 weeks. Tomorrow the teacher is there. Next week is a lab day, she will not be there, and the week after that the skirt is due. So I've been trying to finish the muslin copy of the skirt (muslin's a really cheap material, not wearable but shows you the shape and fit so you don't waste more expensive fabric.) for tomorrow so she can look at it and then I can do the good skirt.

My first muslin skirt was too small. It should have fit, but because of how she showed us to do the pockets, I needed a 5/8" seam allowance (SA) and only accommodated for a 1/2" SA. So when I sewed it with the 5/8" SA, it used up more fabric than I'd allowed for and made the skirt too small. 1/8" doesn't seem like much, but when you times it by 4 (front left seam, front right seam, back left seam, back right seam) it adds up to 1/2" which is a 1/4 of my 2" of ease. The waist fit, but only just. I also needed to make the hips wider.

Yesterday I re-did my pattern. After hours of trying to do the first one, I decided to do this one on the computer. Google Sketch-up works great for this - I used the setting for woodworking as it lets you work in smaller increments. I set it to top view and then was able to draw out each part of the skirt. I printed it out and then copied the measurements down, then it was really easy to modify my pattern to fit the new measurements. This took me several hours, but I was also wrangling 2 kids at the same time. It probably would have taken 20-30 minutes of uninterrupted time (what's that?). I ended up having to make the entire thing wider (increased SA, then added some more width for my hips), then add a second dart onto each pattern piece to bring the waist back in. So far I have everything serged, the waistband fused and pieced together, and the darts sewn in. I still have to sew in the: zipper, back vent, pockets, waistband, and hem. Here are some pictures of the first skirt (Please excuse the wrinkles. I need to find a better way to take pictures of my sewing):

Front View (2 darts):

Back View (2 darts, "railroad" zipper, and back vent)

Zipper

Beautiful dart

Inseam pockets. You're not supposed to be able to see much of the pocket. I think I accomplished that.

Back vent/slit

I *could* have saved some time by using the pattern suggested. In fact, I did use much of the pattern as a template when making my own. However, the lady (the manager even!) at Fabricland insisted that I was NOT a size 14 and even measured my waist (TIGHTLY) to prove that I should stick with the smaller pattern sized envelope, which went up to size 12. Well, it's too small. (Next time I'll stick to my guns. Please note: Pattern sizes DO NOT equal the clothing sizes you buy in a store. You MUST measure. You may be able to get away with it for kids' clothes, especially if you go big for them to grow into, but since you're likely done growing, you'll want to fit it to you properly. Too tight or too baggy will be unflattering.)

For the purpose of the course, and to get my grade, it doesn't have to fit me. I just have to prove that I know how to sew it. However, the reason I decided to take the class was to be able to make clothes that fit ME. So I think it will be worth the extra time and effort to make sure that the skirt is perfect for my body. This class does not cover fitting, but the teacher was gracious enough to tell us that if we make a muslin and bring it to class that she would help fit it to us because she wanted us to be able to wear the skirt afterwards.

So today I have to finish the muslin. Five is in school so hopefully One will give me an easy day so I can get it done. Hopefully it will fit! If not, I have to start over AGAIN. I'm not sure I even have enough muslin left to make another skirt so I may end up taking this one in, whether it fits or not.

Oh, and I should mention that the final skirt (the one done in fashion fabric, not muslin) must be sewn at school, on their industrial machines, not at home on my machines. EEK! I can use their machines just fine now, it's just finding the time to go there. The Plan is to go really early (like maybe 9 or 10 am - class starts at 1pm) with my pattern pieces already cut out and ready to sew, and sew, sew, sew. It doesn't help that the entire 3 hours of class time is usually spent learning new techniques. I mean, it helps with my sewing, but there's very little time to actually sew during class time. So I have to either come early or stay late, or both, to get it done.

After the skirt, we start on the shirt. We will have spent 9-10 classes on the skirt and only have 3-4 classes for the shirt (on the day the skirt is due, I don't know if we'll be working on the skirt or the shirt) so I'm nervous about that. Hopefully it will mostly be reusing the techniques we learned for the skirt and not a whole lot of new material to learn.

In the middle of all of this I have several dentist appointments (when you're pregnant, DO NOT drink lemon water all day to quell the nausea. It will work, but, if you're like me, you'll have 11 new cavities by the end of your pregnancy!) and my parents are overseas for 4 more weeks so I have no babysitters, and Christmas is merely 2 weeks after the end of my course. I don't know when, or if, I'll find time to sew Christmas presents. It might be a store-bought Christmas this year.

Anna Q

Resurrecting this blog

This is slightly out of order. I posted the previous post to test out the automatic posting from my email. Anyways....
 
I'm back! Since I had several people say they'd be interested if I started a craft blog, and I need an outlet for all my craftiness because my husband is getting overloaded with crafting info - far more than he cares to hear - I decided to resurrect this blog.
 
I am going to attempt, for the next month, to post at least once a day. I'm currently taking a weekly sewing class so there may be posts about that, as well as projects I make for my sons, neices, and nephews. Okay, and a few for myself and other adults. I mostly do kids' stuff though and who can blame me? They're cute and come together quick.
 
You can expect some contests and giveaways as well so stay tuned!

Anna Q

Niece in her sparkly dress

I received a bunch of fabric from my mom's neighbour. I think it's mostly upholstery and curtain fabric. There was the fabric pictured which is soft, like velvet, but with tiny smooth polka dots all over it that gave it a shiny effect. I sewed some of it into a dress for my niece's 3rd birthday. There is a lining for the top part which the pattern says to use the same fabric as outside. In hindsight, I wish I would have used a different fabric, or at least the wrong side of this fabric as the right side is slightly itchy. I think she'll mostly be wearing a shirt underneath anyways so it may not matter.