Five minutes equals quick baby girl gift...

Got five minutes? Perfect -- you can make a quick baby gift! When I found out my last baby was a girl, I was a little overwhelmed with all the fun girly accessories you can get, especially when it comes to headbands. But I think these are my favorite. Not even sure what to call these, maybe elastic ribbon? You can order it online in several places. I bought this from Pick Your Plum when they had a deal to get several colors at once.

I love this stuff because it's really soft and very stretchy. Then you can add whatever flower/clippie you want. Plus, I've sewn a little pocket into it so the metal clip only has to touch baby's head a little. That always seemed so uncomfortable to me. Plus it will hide your seams under your accessory. Nice...

For a newborn size, I cut this 13 inches, which worked perfectly. I would add one inch per size you want to go up (about 14 inches for 0-3 months, 15 inches for 3-6 months, 16 inches for 6-12 months, etc).

I also decreased the stitch length on my sewing machine a little to sew this (it's usually 2.5, this is one setting down at 2.0).

Now, making sure your elastic is straight, you're going to overlap the ends about 1 inch with the right side facing out.

Stitch the two sides together close to the left side, so you're stitching the underneath side close to the edge and you have the top still long. I stitch down, backstitch all the way up, and stitch it again.

The arrows mark the edge of each side in the picture above. The bottom piece is stitched close to the edge on the left. Now, with the right side, you're going to fold that edge under...

You fold under just a tiny bit, just enough so you can hold it in place. Then you'll stitch that side down (so you'll be stitching through three layers). I use a wooden coffee stirrer to hold it in place while I stitch it down. And no worries if you accidentally stitch through it -- I've done it plenty of times. Your fingers are safe, it won't hurt your machine or your project.

And that's it! Then you have something that looks nice from the outside if you decide to do a plain headband, or you can easily hide underneath a flower or bow. Just slide the clip between the stitches in between your two layers of elastic ribbon.

Here's the outside...

And the inside...

Sweet! I whipped out probably three of these in my five minutes. The longest part is changing your thread on your machine. :)

Quick announcement: My life is super topsy-turvy right now because we're getting ready to move, but it's going to be a crazy, spread-out move. We're probably leaving in June but won't get to our new location (New York, baby!) until August. I have so many fun tutorials I want to share, but I honestly don't know if/when I'll be doing anything on this blog in the following months. So thanks for stopping by, and I'll see you when I see you. :)

Perfect present: Baby tag blanket...

I am in baby present heaven right now! My bestie is due any day now, and another good friend is due only a few days later. So I've had two showers in the last few weeks -- I love baby showers! Making baby gifts are some of my favorite things to make. And that's good, because I have three sisters-in-law, my Vegas bestie, a cousin-in-law and another Okie friend that are all having babies this summer, all due in July except for one!

Today I'm sharing a tutorial for one of the easiest baby gifts to make: A tag blankie. Seriously, if you've got an hour, you've got a baby present (maybe even less time if you're speedy and don't have any interruptions)!

Another great thing about this? It's very beginner friendly, and you can make it pretty inexpensive. You can make these any size you like, in any shape you like. And the great place to pick up materials for this project is in the remnant bin.

I used black minky that I found in the remnant bin, and then, because I wanted a really specific fleece, I had to order the soccer fabric online (why don't the fabric stores have any soccer fleece right now????). You could also use soft, baby flannel for a lightweight blankie, but I love the fleece and minky combination. Then you need ribbon, but you can make them all different or do a pattern like I did. This is a great time to dig into your scraps.

Cut out one each of your front and back in the desired shape/size you want. I made mine 20" by 20" because that's how wide my minky was, plus I thought it was a nice size (just big enough to put the baby on for some floor time or to cuddle with in the car seat without being a full blanket). I used a 1/2" seam allowance, so my finished size was 19" by 19".

Next, you'll determine how many ribbons you want. I had six picked out, but ended up using only five just for looks.

I cut my ribbons to 5" each. They'll be folded in half (2.5") and you'll lose 1/2" with the seam allowance, so this makes the ribbons 2" when finished.

Now you'll lay out your ribbons on top of your bottom piece to get a general idea for how you want to arrange them. I ended up with this pattern.

Once I figured out where I wanted my ribbons, I folded them in half -- right sides out -- and pinned them in place (make sure you're pinning them to the right side of the bottom). For this size, I put the middle ribbon at the 10" line, then put the others 3 inches apart. So I had a ribbon at the 4" line, 7" line, 10" line, 13" line and 16" line. I like to put them a little further in from the corners, so this worked out perfectly!

Now before you put the top on, you'll do something that will make finishing the project much easier. Pick one of your middle ribbons and stitch it down, just less than your seam allowance. I used my blue ribbon...

My seam allowance is 1/2 inch, so I stitched at about 3/8 inch from the edge; I sewed the ribbon down, backstitched across it and sewed it down again.

Now you'll put your top piece of fabric face down, so the bottom and top are right sides together with the ribbons sandwiched between. Transfer the pins holding the ribbons to the outside of your fabric sandwich, making sure to pin the ribbons securely again, and add a pin to hold the corners in place.

Next you'll stitch the whole thing together, using your 1/2-inch seam allowance.

You'll start sewing just before the ribbon just south of the ribbon you stitched down (bottom arrow in picture below); the ribbon you stitched down will be in the middle of the opening you use to turn the blankie inside-out. Make sure to backstitch well. Sew all the way around and finish just after the ribbon to the north of the ribbon you stitched down (top arrow in picture below), again with a good backstitch. The opening is between the arrows.

Next, you'll clip your corners; get close to your stitching but make sure not to cut into it. This reduces your bulk and gives you nice, pointy corners.

Reach in through your opening and grab one of your opposite corners and pull it out. Continue to pull the fabric until it's right-side out.

Grab a pencil or crochet hook and put your hand back through the hole. Use you pencil or hook to push out your corners. (I've got a crochet hook in there...)

The last step is to hand-stitch your opening closed. Line your blanket edges up with 1/2" folded under, matching up with the stitched edges.

Pin it in place, then using this stitch to hide your thread, stitch the opening closed. I also went back and forth a little over the ribbon to make sure I stitched it down well since baby boy will probably be tugging on them.

Done! Great gift to keep those little fingers entertained with something soft to cuddle. Happy sewing!

Summer maxi dress -- shirring (Part 4)

How's your dress coming? I'd love to know if you're making one and how it's going...

And now, if you're doing the gathered bodice, it's time to finish it up!

To do this, you'll need to buy some elastic thread; I found mine at the fabric store by the prepackaged elastic. It's elastic so thin that you can use it as thread.

Please excuse the close up, but this is a good illustration of the final look of the bodice:

I've seen this method described as smocking or shirring. Not sure what the difference is, but I'm thinking that shirring is what we'll do here, a simple gathering. Smocking is several layers of shirring with decorative thread on the top side, like you might see on little girls' skirts or shirts. But just a guess...

To start, you'll need to hand-wind your bobbin with the elastic thread. I stretched it a little as I did this...

Then you'll load your bobbin in your machine. One of my big sewing machine books said you should bypass your tension disc in the bobbin case, but that didn't work for me. I ended up threaded it as normal.

Here's my test fabric. The top is the correct; you can see the elastic thread, and then on top I used the blue thread I'd been using for the rest of the project. The bottom was my attempt to bypass the tension disc; as you can see, it totally didn't work. I also didn't need to adjust anything else on my machine.

By the way, if "tension disc" is confusing, here's the illustration from my sewing machine. The arrow is pointing right at the tension disc; it's what pulls the thread tight so it doesn't just spin out of the bobbin.

I started sewing at the top, making sure I was sewing vertically right down the middle of the bodice. I back stitched just a few stitches at the top but not at the bottom. I left the threads long at the top and bottom. I pulled on the elastic to gather the bodice, then I sewed it again, right over the top of my other stitches. You can pull on the elastic again if you want to gather it more.

The top stitching at the top held the threads ok. At the bottom, I sewed a very small horizontal line across the bottom to hold the stitches in place (no elastic, back to regular thread for this part). I did it this way because I didn't want to have a horizontal line at the top; I thought it would show. But maybe it won't and that will work better for you than the back stitching.

And that's it! Here's how it looks on the back...

And here's the front view...

If you didn't do this, the bodice looks really, really plain. So here's your chance to be creative and dress it up. One thing I've seen lately that I love is the knit braids. That was my plan before I decided to gather it; there's a good tutorial here to help you create the braids. You would then tuck the ends under and hand stitch it to your bodice; I was going to put it along the bottom of the bodice/top of the skirt, but it would also be good for the straps as well. Or you can do some fabric flowers, some ribbon... The possibilities are endless!

Enjoy summer in your new dress!

Summer maxi dress -- hemming (Part 3)

Welcome back for the third part of the summer maxi dress tutorial -- hemming! Your dress should be all put together, you just need to finish the bottom. And if you want an edgier look to your dress, you can totally skip this part and leave the bottom raw because knit won't unravel. :)

Oh yeah, check out that caboose! Haha, I was just giving my hubby some attitude, but it shows off the back of the dress. So that's what you get. Well, back on topic. Hemming.

Just a little note -- I did my hem like a traditional hem where I folded up the material and then folded again, and I recommend you don't do that. As I mentioned earlier, knit does't unravel so folding it twice is unnecessary and just more work, plus I think it made things a little harder on my double needle. But if you're not using knit for this project, then you should fold up twice.

I found this method to be the best/most professional looking way to pin the hem on anything. I tried on the dress and determined about where I wanted it to end and added 1.5 inches (that's for folding it twice -- if you're only folding it once, add 3/4 inch or whatever you want your hem allowance to be). I laid it flat on the ground and spread out the bottom of the skirt and cut it as straight as possible at my measurement.

Then I hung it up (took some kitchen clips to hold it in place). Someday I might get me a dress form, but those things are so expensive! It would really come in handy, but here's my substitute and it works pretty well. Notice the dress is inside out so I'm looking at the wrong side of the fabric.

Grab your tape measurer and pins. Fold up your hem the desired amount and pin (or fold again and pin). If you plan on using your double needle, put the pin on the other side. You'll need to sew from the right side with that method.

I like to pin the hem in halves. I pin in the middle, then the sides to kind of divide it up. Then I fill in the halves. Turn the hanger and repeat. Once you have it pinned, kind of double check with your tape measurer that it's even, then stand back and do a visual check to see if it's hanging about how you want it to.

I used this method to sew a special dress for my little girl; I hand sewed the hem, so I just left it on the hanger after I pinned it to sew it and it made it so much easier!!

You don't need to do anything special, just sew up the hem. You shouldn't need stretch at the bottom because it should be large enough to hang loose and walk comfortably in. If you're using the double needle, read on...

Here's the deal with the double needle: I found very little information online, and what I did find wasn't very helpful. So this is probably one of those things you have to work out through trial and error. This is what it looks like...

It has a single shank but then splits into two needles. As long as your machine has zigzag capability, which I think is pretty much any sewing machine anymore, you should be able to use it. Check your manual and see if it says anything about it. My manual basically says two itty bitty things about it, as in if you use it, don't use a big zigzag. Yeah, thanks.

Now, double needles come in different widths. I have one that is 4.0 (that's 4 mm between the needles), and one that is 2.5. My 2.5 is a stretch one, specifically for knits, although it was giving me trouble and I ended up using my 4.0 universal. I'm pretty sure it's because my fabric was too thick with the double fold on the hem. So basically I think the universal do a great job; just pick one that's the width you want.

This is what it looks like on the top; it mimics the cover stitch commercial clothes have on the hem, although those were created with a 5-thread serger.

The underside looks like this...

And just note, that isn't the bobbin creating the zigzag, it's the needle threads. I kept thinking I was doing something wrong because I thought the bobbin would do it. Nope...

And also note, my machine would occassionally skip a stitch; the bobbin wouldn't catch both needle threads, just one. This was driving me crazy and I was spending my whole day to fix it. I would test it on some extra fabric and it would do ok, but then on the actual hem it was much worse. Again, I'm pretty sure this is because I did the double fold. However, my friend told me she had the same problem, on only a single fold and not a knit. So this may just be the nature of the beast.

Hopefully your manual is more helpful than mine and tells you how to thread this and what settings to use. Mine didn't, so after some testing, here's how I did it on my Singer basic model. Make sure to use some scrap fabric and test it on your machine.

I threaded my bobbin like normal, then I loaded a second bobbin to use as my second needle thread. Notice that extra metal stick on my machine? I did use that for holding the extra thread, but it was really loose compared to my other thread (there on the left of this pic), so I ended up putting them both on my thread holder. I just had the threads unwind in opposite directions (I read that on one of the websites that had some info on the double needle and it seemed to work well).

I then threaded my machine like normal and just divided the threads at the bottom. My machine has two thread loops just above the needle so I put one in each and then threaded each needle. Another website suggested putting the threads on different sides of the tension disc. I tried both ways and it didn't seem to make a difference on mine, so try that both ways.

I made sure my needle was set to the center position, and the straight stitch worked better than setting my machine to a so-narrow-it's-straight zigzag.

And one more note: My needle, even the wider one, was small enough to fit through the throat plate, the opening where the needles go down and grab the bobbin thread. However, my left needle got ever-so-slightly bent and it would go down and catch on the bobbin mechanism, making the machine stall and bend the needle out more. It was freaking me out! If this is happening, check if your needle is bent back a little and gently bend it toward you. This fixed it -- sensitive little things! And please leave me any questions in the comments -- this is a tricky thing!

Just play around with it, then go ahead and hem like normal. Make sure you're sewing from the right side/the outside so the zigzag in on the bottom. Also be careful that both needles are sewing through the folded-up fabric -- you don't get the benefit of seeing where you're sewing with this method. 

Good luck, and we'll see you next Tuesday to finish up the bodice with some shirring/smocking.

Summer Maxi Dress (Part 2)

Welcome to Part 2 of our little summer sewing adventure -- you actually get to sew this week!

So all your stuff is cut out right? And you saved all your scraps, right? Then let's get started! First, the straps...

But wait, a little note. No groans please. I'll be brief: There are two kinds of needles -- a universal/regular has a really pointy end, but there's also a needle called a ball-point. This one is rounded so instead of piercing the fabric, it pushes the fibers out of the way. Ball-points are great for knit, and it will be easier on your fabric to use this kind of needle. I found mine at Hancock Fabric... Now back to the project!

If you're doing this on a serger like I did, pull out some of those scraps and test your serger settings. I had mine on a wide three-thread stitch (left needle in, right needle out). And, as always, even if you have the Brother 1034 like I do, every machine will be different and you'll need to test your stitches on a scrap to make sure you have the right tensions, etc.

Here's my settings:

Left needle: 5.75 (normal for me)

Upper looper: 6

Lower looper: 3.5

Stitch width: 3 (normal)

Stitch length: 5 (normal)

Feed differential: 1.6

So when I started, I had to play with the loopers because they were a little weird, and you will definitely need to switch your feed dogs to more gathering because the knit is stretchy. Everything else was normal.

If you're doing this on a regular machine, you can just straight stitch most of this. :)

Put your straps with right sides together and stitch both long sides and one small side. I curved the edges on mine because it's easier not to turn corners on my serger and I was going the easy route. Here's one sewn and one ready to sew...

Turn your straps right side out. Now, hold up your front bodice piece against you and measure about how far you want the straps from the MIDDLE to determine where to place them (you're doing this because if it's too big, you'll be taking off extra from the sides and you don't want to mess up where you put the straps...). Lay your front bodice piece on the floor with the right side facing you and put your straps where you want them, the unfinished edge lined up with the top of the bodice.

Then put the second front bodice piece on top, right side down and wrong side facing you. Pin together along the top, then sew along the top.

If you're sewing the straps into the back, just repeat the above steps. If you're not (like doing halter or strapless), simply put the back bodice pieces right sides together and sew along the top.

Now, this part is a little tricky to explain but easy to do. First, set your sewing machine or serger to gather -- on a sewing machine you will increase the stitch length and you'll need to pull on the bobbin thread to gather. On a serger, you'll increase your feed differential all the way AND increase your stitch length all the way. With knit it doesn't gather like on regular fabrics. I had it cranked up on both these settings and it still didn't gather quite as much as I wanted. **Please note, if you're doing strapless, I suggest doing this part on a sewing machine so you can gather it more.**

Open up the bodice front and bodice back and pin them together along the side seams, right sides together. Make sure the seams you just made line up.

So, as you sew the two bodice pieces together on the serger, you'll also gather them at the same time. If you're doing this on the sewing machine, I suggest once you get it like you like it, go back and stitch it with a regular stitch over your gathering stitches. Once you sew both side seams, it should look like this (this is the right-side view).

Go ahead and turn the bodice right side out and fold half the bodice in. Notice the puckers in my side seam? That's the gathering. This is what it should look like...

Now for your first fitting. Go try this part on to make sure it fits. Mine was huge!! If that's the case, try to approximate how much extra you have, then unfold it and turn it back to the wrong side and redo the side seams, coming in however much you measured. Try it on again and try to get it just how you want it.

Now for the skirt. We're going to gather the front skirt, but just in the middle. Plus your machine should already be set up for it. :) I left about four inches on both sides and gathered everything in the middle.

Now, you can simply repeat this for the back if you want the same amount of gathering. I didn't want too much gathering in the back, so I trimmed a little triangle from the edges of the back so it would match the shape of the front (I came in about four inches along the top and trimmed it down to the widest part of my hips, so about six or seven inches). Also, make sure to shape better than I did -- try to smooth out the edges and make it gradual at the hip part of the triangle. Mine hung a little funny along my hips because I didn't...

Then sew the skirt front and back together along the sides, right sides together (make sure to set your sewing machine/serger settings back to regular sewing).

Now we'll attach the skirt to the bodice. Turn the skirt right side out. Hold the bodice upside down and slide the skirt into the bodice, so the unfinished edge on the bottom of the bodice meets up with the top of the skirt. Start to pin it together (I like to do this on the inside) by matching up the side seams as illustrated below -- the skirt is on the inside and the bodice on the outside.

Once you've got it pinned at both sides, then just take it in halves. Start with the front and try to make the gathers even as you pin it in place.

Now do the same with the back. I didn't gather in the back, but it's still too big to lie smoothly, so I kind of just gathered the fabric as I pinned it in place.

Sew the skirt to the bodice. As you can see in the pic below, I pinned it on the inside so I'm basically sewing along the bottom of the circle of the skirt (this makes it easier for me to see what I'm doing), instead of the traditional method of sewing along the top/outside of the circle and having it go under the arm of your sewing machine. But do it whichever way feels better to you.

If you're serging, you should be good on your stitch -- the three-thread overlock provides a good amount of stretch. If you're using your sewing machine, you may want to switch to a narrow zigzag and increase the stitch length a little.

And now your maxi is all put together!

Join me next Tuesday and we'll go over hemming the bottom and then smocking/shirring the bodice. :)