Inside Out Skirt Tutorial

As promised, here is my Inside Out Skirt tutorial!  You can see the original Inside Out Skirt here.

To start with, you will need fabric, tulle, and elastic.

Here's how to calculate what you need.  For elastic, you will need a waist measurement.  I can just measure Amelia's waist, but I usually reference the following standard clothing size charts:

The Children's Place - good for skirt length
Gymboree - good for waist measurement and inseam length

The waist measurement is pretty important because the width of the fabric you need will be double the waist measurement.  I used 20" of elastic for this skirt.  That means I need fabric that is 40" wide.  [When using a 44" fabric, I usually don't bother cutting off the extra 4" - it just makes it a tad more full.]  If you want less full, use less than half.  [Confession:  This skirt is actually less than 40" wide and I definitely think I would have preferred a fuller skirt.]

For length, you take the finished measurement you want and add 2.5 inches.

For the tulle, you need the same width as the underskirt fabric.  Then you need the length of the skirt multiplied by 4 (so you will have four layers of tulle on top of your skirt).  Here is an illustration, with the measurements I used in brackets.

Step one:  Cut everything out.

Step two:  Sew the underskirt.  I used my serger for this project.  If you do not have a serger, you will just need to do a few extra steps.
1.  Serge the bottom edge (no serger - fold under 1/2," then press).
2.  Fold up the bottom edge so that you've used 1" for the hem and press (no serger - fold up another 1/2," then press)

Wrong side of the skirt showing

2. Sew in place, close to the serged edge.
3.  Serge the top edge (no serger - fold under 1/2," then press).
4.  Sew the short sides of the skirt together (the back seam) using 1/2" seam allowance.
5.  Fold over approximately 1.5 inches and press.

Wrong side of the skirt showing

6.  Sew in place close to the serged edge, leaving approximately 2 inches NOT sewn near the back seam.
7.  Top stitch close to the top edge of the skirt.

Right side of the skirt showing

At the end of this step, you should have a hemmed skirt with a casing at the top, but you do NOT insert the elastic yet.  Set the skirt aside to work on the tulle.

Step four - make a tulle tube
1.  Take the tulle and sew the back seam using a 1/2 inch seam allowance.  This is the loooooong side.  Essentially, you are sewing the side of the skirt that is 4 times longer than it will be at the end. 

The side I sewed, was the 48" side, using my measurements from above.

2.  Cut off most of the seam allowance.

3.  Now take the tulle and fold it in half, then in half again. Make sure you line up the seam.  When you are done, the top of the skirt will have 2 folds and the bottom of the skirt will have one fold and two loose ends.  Make sure that you fold so that the RIGHT side of the tulle ends up on the outside! 

See my purple striped sock? 

 4.  Now slide the tulle over the underskirt so that the 2 folds end of the tulle tube is at the top of the skirt and the back seam of the tulle lines up with the back seam of the skirt.  The tulle should be considerably longer than the underskirt.  This is okay.  You will give it a tulle cut later.

5.  Pin the tulle on the underskirt.  I like to place the folded edge of the tulle about 1/2 way between the two stitching lines at the top of the skirt.

6.  Stitch over the existing seam on the skirt.  That way, you keep the casing for the elastic big enough to put the elastic through!  Make sure you leave the 2 inches unsewn that you left when sewing the underskirt!

Now you should have one skirt, tulle on top, underskirt on bottom.
 Step six - Time to finish!
1. Insert the elastic through the casing.

I like to anchor one side of the elastic to the skirt with a small safety pin.

2.  Overlap the ends of the elastic by about 1 inch and sew the ends of the elastic together securely.
3.  Sew the remaining 2 inches closed on the skirt.
4.  Cut the tulle at the bottom to the desired length, either longer than the underskirt, the same length, or shorter!  I experimented with this skirt.  See the pictures below!

4.  DONE!  Take cute pictures and send them to me!

In the above skirt, the tulle is longer than the skirt.

Then, during a potty break, I cut the tulle shorter than the underskirt.

Barrette for sale in my shop!

One more - 'cause she's cute!

My Very Last Quilt (Subtitled: The Sewing Accident)

In reading all the responses to the SMS giveaway, I've learned about lots of thoughtful quilt presents that you all have given to your loved ones.  Quilts were by far the most popular favorite gift you all have given!
That made me think back to the last quilt before my sewing accident.

I had a sewing accident.  Not lately, but almost seven years ago. I'll tell you the whole gory story.

I used to quilt.  I liked quilting.  I was a machine piecer, hand quilter.  I have a quilt on my bed at my parents' house to prove it.  When my grandparents' 50th anniversary began approaching, I decided to make them a photo quilt.  I picked the photos, treated and printed and treated the fabric, and cut the other pieces.  I was trimming the photo fabric into squares in the bathroom (hard floor) one Saturday in April when the rotary cutter hit a nick in the ruler and took a bad angle toward my outstretched hand. 

Don't read this if you have a weak stomach.  WARNING!

I actually saw a piece of my finger roll away and I've never seen so much blood come all at once. I screamed for my dad (who was, thankfully, home).  He picked up the piece of my finger and put it in a baggie and drove me to the hospital with a piece of my finger in his pocket.  Shudder.  I know people have had much worse happen to them, but it was pretty horrific to me at the time.

I have since had the privilege of going through childbirth.  When I think of pain, I do not think of childbirth.  I think of this ride to the emergency room. 

Looooooong story short:

• They couldn't reattach the sliced finger.  Lest you think I have half my finger missing, it was only the tip of the finger (nail and fingertip at an angle).
• Finger flesh regenerates for the most part (did you know that?)
• I spent 2 months with a very large bandage on my finger and my finger sticking up straight in the air (my index finger).
• I taught preschool at the time and preschoolers are not the people you want around you with an extremely painful finger injury.  And there was a field trip laced with Vicodin in there somewhere.
• I had to tell people that my finger was cut off in a sewing accident.
• I have a bum finger to this day.  Parts of it have no feeling and parts of it are painful depending on what I'm doing. It's slightly disfigured, but only if I point it out to people do they notice.
• That was my last quilt and it's in a bag in my craft room closet.
• I got ZERO blood on any part of the quilt.
• I now have attached safety shields on all of my rotary cutter rulers. 
• My husband's favorite thing about me might be that I've had a sewing accident.
• I've filed this under "quirky."

It's difficult to take a picture of your own finger.  It looks relatively normal when my nail is short!

That's my sewing injury confession.  I feel guilty that the quilt was never finished.  :(  Maybe I just need some motivation to revisit it.

Sooooooo......tell me your worst sewing/crafting accident!

(And come back tomorrow for a One Yard Wonders book giveaway!)

Craft Room 3.0

This post has been a long time coming.  I LOVE looking at other people's rooms, especially rooms where they create, so I hope you will enjoy a peek into mine. Some of you may remember Craft Room 1.0, which became slightly famous in Flikr land.  Well, when we moved, Craft Room 1.0 had to be taken down and moved to our new house.  Craft Room 2.0 was never really finished and probably never photographed.  It had yellow walls which were pretty and it was pretty big.  HERE is what Craft Room 2.0 looks like now!  We moved bedrooms upstairs with the coming of Amelia, so that meant CR2.0 had to move downstairs.  Well, enough chit chat - come on in!

 My mother-in-law gave me the sewing room sign and button heart.  The framed pattern is actually some scrapbook paper I found.  The best thing to do with beautiful scrapbook paper is to frame it and hang it!

The view right as you walk in.  I do my photo editing at that desk.  Josh gave me the Degas repro painting last Christmas.  I love Degas, ballerinas, and Impressionist paintings.  This one is called Rehearsal of a Ballet on Stage.  Catchy, isn't it?  The cubes are all from Michaels or Joanns and are super perfect for building a desk.  The desk is a door painted green.  It's the perfect width to go across two cubes.  The To Do chalkboard is really a mirror from HomeGoods painted white and chalkboard paint.  When I first signed up for Pinterest, the first thing I wanted to do was chalkboard paint everything!

A better look at the far corner of the room.  The chair I planned on reupholstering looks good, right?  Too bad the sides and back aren't done!  It's only been a few years!  In that cabinet is most of my random crafting supplies.  I use plastic bins to keep things organized.

The other side of the room houses a closet where all my fabric is stored.  Yeah, we definitely aren't taking pictures in there at the moment! Josephine is hanging out by the window, wearing a shirt that's never going to be finished...

 Here's a full on shot of my sewing area and inspiration board.  The middle machine is my main machine.  Then the left hand one is the only machine I can get to do shirring.  The right hand machine is my serger.  The chair we reupholstered in zebra print fabric.  I love it!

The cubes are almost all different.  Here are some looks inside some drawers.  The top one is labeled, "embellishments."  The bottom one is labeled, "cutting tools."

Some organized scrapbook paper.

My Heather Bailey pear pin cushion, a flowery pin cushion from my bridal shower, some antique silk thread in a glass container, wire dress forms from Home Goods, and various other things (including the casings from the first time I fired a gun!).

The inspiration boards. 

I hope you enjoyed a peek into Craft Room 3.0!  Currently it is decorated for Christmas, so I might be back with some more pictures of Christmas Craft Room 3.0!

Thanks for looking!

Super simple baby dress - or "Make it Work"

Amelia needed a new dress Sunday morning.  Ummmmmm... maybe "needed" is a strong word.  Anyway, I made one Sunday morning before church.  Sort of...

I had a skirt in a bigger size made from the Oliver + S tutorial found here:  Lazy Days Skirt
I had given it a regular hem on the bottom though - not a ribbon hem as was shown.

When I tried it on Amelia, I found that it fit her torso and the length was fine.  I used the same fabric to cut out two 3.5 inch wide by ??? inches long (I just overestimated) strips of fabric.  I sewed long ends together to form a tube, turned them inside out and pressed it with the seam in the center back.

I tried the dress on again, used safety pins to determine where the straps should go on the front and the back and sewed them onto the dress (I finished the ends of the straps with my serger, but you could just turn the raw edge in and sew it closed on both ends).
Note:  I left a significant tail in the back for the straps so that I can reuse this dress as a shirt next year and lengthen the straps as needed.

I had this owl from a scraps tutorial I had previously done, so I topstitched it in place.

Tutorial here: Scrap embellishment tutorial .

What's the point of this blog post?  Make it work.  Not every project has to be perfectly laid out, planned, and executed.  Sometimes it's fun to work with what you have and improvise.  Try it.  It's freeing!

I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving!  I'll be back to show you a fun Christmas present wrapping idea I had! 

A Present for Ezra

My friend Tara's little boy Ezra turned one at the beginning of November.  The theme of the party was Birthday Monsters which Tara pulled off amazingly well.  I'm sure she will be blogging about it soon!
  I'm a girl who likes a party theme, so I had to make something to go along.  I had the idea of making a reverse applique bag for his books and toys.  THEN my idea got out of control but I had a better idea.  I did the reverse applique so that it looks like the monsters came crashing out of the bag and are causing havoc. 
It started as this:

 An orange t-shirt I bought at Target and various other knits/items waiting for repurpose.

It turned into this:

I was very happy with it and I hope the birthday boy will get good use out of it!

The back:

Thanks for looking!

Adding this to I Heart Naptime's Link party!

Baby Dress from Woman's Shirt - And a Giveaway

I'm into repurposing - making things out of other things .  Now that I have a baby girl, I see my cast off clothing in a totally different way.  Where I might have weeded through my clothing and thrown away or donated the castoffs, now I see everything as a potential baby item.  :D  It definitely takes more imagination!  THIS particular starting garment was never mine though.  It was a vintage woman's shirt I got for a dollar or so at the Brimfield Fair last year.  I <3 The Brimfield Fair.  Now it's a baby dress. 

This tutorial uses the Leila and Ben Sweet Little Dress pattern - one I've used over and over and over again.  I'm giving away a copy of the pattern to go along with this tutorial, so scroll to the end for instructions!

This shirt works for this pattern because it was wide to begin with, so if you are looking for a shirt to repurpose at a thrift store, look for a wide one!

Materials:

• One wide man or woman's shirt 
• Leila and Ben Sweet Dress pattern
• Scissors
• Pins
• Thread
• 1/4" elastic
• 2 safety pins

Start by washing and drying the shirt.  Then cut the shirt apart at the seams so that you have two big sleeve pieces and a big front piece and big back piece. If you are like me and are using a vintage piece, then feel guilty cutting it for a moment, then continue.

Center the dress piece on the buttons and pin.  You want to let the pattern hang off the bottom of the shirt a bit.  Since you don't need to hem it, you don't need as much length.  I was making the 12 month size and I used the 9 month dress length.

Cut along the side, sleeve, and top of the pattern. Don't cut down the middle though!  :D
Flip the pattern piece over and center again on the buttons.  Make sure the same amount of pattern is hanging off at the bottom.  Finish cutting out the dress.

 

Cut out the back as well, but this time you can cut it on the fold.

Lay out the existing sleeves and cut them open.  If you can use the hem of the existing sleeve, do so.  If you can't just cut the sleeve like you would normally do.

Notice that I'm once again extending the sleeve pattern past the fabric.  I'm using the hem of the sleeve, so I needed to take off some length.  If you aren't using the hem of the sleeve, then cut it like you would normally.

Next, I would baste the top of the dress so that all layers stay together during the construction of the dress.

Proceed according to the directions on the pattern.  The only other change is that if you used the shirt's sleeve hem, you won't need to fold the bottom of the sleeve twice.  Just fold it up 1/2 inch, press, and sew!
Here's Amelia in her new (old!) dress!  FYI, The headband is from the flower pin tutorial, except I serged the top edge after I cut the long skinny piece of fabric.  Then I sewed it on some satiny elastic from The Evil Joanns.

Now:  Giveaway!
I am giving away one Sweet Little Dress pattern (any size).  If you already have a Sweet Dress pattern, but like other Leila and Ben patterns, I will substitute another of equal value.  Just leave a comment on this post.  Want something to talk about?  Just tell me something you have that you'd like to repurpose.  Otherwise, just leave a comment.

Blog, facebook, or tweet a link to this giveaway and come back and leave another comment for another entry! (Leave up to four comments)
Here's a tweet for you to copy and paste:  

I entered @quaintandquirky 's pattern giveaway at http://tinyurl.com/6chacf6 
 
I will pick a winner Friday, June 10th at naptime!  :D

Enjoy!

Rag Doll Tutorial - Clothes

aThe final installment of the Quaint and Quirky rag doll pattern - dress.  I made this pattern up loosely based on the Leila and Ben Sweet Dress pattern (highly recommended), so you can make matching dresses!  :D

Materials:
Large scraps for the dress
Any embellishments you want to add
Dress pattern - go here to get it:  Quaint and Quirky rag doll dress pattern
Very thin elastic - approximately 1/8"
Sewing machine, thread, needle
Small safety pin

This is a rough pattern and uses very small seam allowances, so seams are not finished, but you could finish seams with a very small zig zag stitch if you want!

1.  Cut out the pattern, then use the pattern to cut 2 dress pieces and 2 sleeve pieces.  Make sure you cut the sleeve pieces on the fold!

2.  Right sides together, using a 1/4" seam, sew one sleeve to one dress piece, matching curves.

3.  Sew the other sleeve to the dress (right sides together).

4.  Now, right sides together, sew the other dress piece to one of the sleeves, then the other.  When you are finished, you will have the dress connected at the sleeves, but not down the sides.

5.  Flip the dress so it is inside out and match sides and sleeve seams.  Starting at the sleeves, sew using a 1/4" seam.  Pivot, and sew down the side of the dress.

6.  Okay, this is the tricky part.  I always warn you at the tricky parts, so you know when you need a little more patience!  I needed a little more patience, for sure!  You are going to iron the neck, sleeves, and hem.  I take a pointy stick with me to iron so I don't burn my fingers.  Start with the neck and iron under 1/4" toward the wrong side of the neck.  Then iron down another 3/8 to 1/2".  These are approximate measurements, so don't go crazy trying to make it perfect.

(showing the ironed folds)

7.  Save yourself some time and iron the sleeves at the same time.  Press under 1/4" of the end of the sleeve, then fold it again on itself so that you enclose the raw edge. Press. Repeat for the other sleeve.

8.  While you are still at the iron, do the same for the hem of the dress.  Press under 1/4" of the hem.  Fold under another 1/4" and press. 

9.  Back at the sewing machine, sew the neck, close to the edge of the fold.  Leave a 1 to 2 inch gap so you can thread the elastic through later.

10.  Sew the sleeves close to the fold too.  For these you can sew all the way around, since you are not threading an elastic through.  You can try to elasticize the sleeves for a different look, but I find they are too small for this.  The first doll I made, I tried to throw it through the window when I tried to thread the elastic through the sleeves.  Except that it was soft and it just bounced.  Moral of the story?  Bell sleeves!

11.  Sew the hem of the dress all the way around close to the fold.

Everything sewn and ready for the next step!

12.  Attach around a 6" piece of thin elastic to a safety pin.  Thread it through the opening in the neck and back out the other side.  Hand sew the elastic together, then machine sew the opening closed.

13.  Add any embellishments you want.  I folded over the raw short edges on some lace and stitched it to the bottom of the dress.  Then I tied a ribbon around the waist. I gathered the long edge of a piece of lace and tacked the bottom so that it formed a rosette for the hair.  Mademoiselle is finished!