Impulsive Sewing Project: Design-It-Yourself Tunic

July 21, 2010March 21, 2011 / lemonwoodclock / 2 Comments

I’ve been getting antsy to take a break from my (many…many…MANY) current projects in order to make something cute and comfy for myself. I decided at about 9pm tonight to start something! That usually leads to disaster, but so far, it’s going great!

I decided to use one of my vintage sheets because it’s soft and I liked the retro print for the tunic style. (The shirt I’m making is the red one up in the left corner.)

The idea behind Design-It-Yourself Clothes is that you draft your own patterns from your measurements or from existing clothing, making changes to design new styles for your body. I’d already used the book and some internet resources to make my perfect tee pattern. I used that pattern as a guideline for this shirt.

I lined my pattern up along the centerfold, adding about an extra 2 inches to create the gathers at the waist. I also decided to use the hem of the sheet as the hem of my shirt. It won’t round up at the sides, but I really don’t know how much that matters. As you can see, it only makes about a half an inch difference.

I then marked where the placket should go. (Placket??? New to me… it’s basically where the buttons go. Google it if you want a better definition 🙂 ) I went ahead and marked this on my pattern in case I decide to make this shirt again.

This is where it gets tricky. The book gives very unclear directions for a lot of steps. They understandably assume that if you’re ready to design your own patterns, then you’ve obviously made many a placket in your day. So, there was not really an explanation for creating said placket, at least not one that I could really understand. So I felt my way through that one. I had to cut 3 different versions before I even came close. The one pictured above is wrong. It’s just the scraps from the shirt and was way too small. You need, as far as I can tell, 2 strips that are about 2 inches long than the opening and about twice the width of the opening if the front was unfolded. Here’s a really crappy drawing to illustrate. Just pretend the lines are straight and that it was not done in a hurry at 11:30 pm. The dotted lines indicate that you will fold there, or that you have cut those placket pieces on the centerfold.

Next I cut out my back using my tee pattern. This time I cut right on the fold, because I didn’t want any extra material in the back.

Then I pinned my shirt together from the outside and tried it on. That hurt a little… I guess not every pin was pointing out 🙂 But I figured if I could slip it on with pins in it, then getting it on without them would be a breeze. I forgot to take pix as I pinned it and sewed it, but here is a picture of it put together before sewing: I sewed the placket sides first, starting with the left side (if the shirt was on). This is the side with the buttons. Then I sewed the side with the button holes. I did it in this order because you’ll want the button hole side to overlap the side with buttons. Then I created the gathers by sewing across the edge and pulling the threads. Then I folded the bottom of the placket pieces under and overlapped them the way they needed to be. I pinned it all together and then top stitched the bottom. Tomorrow I will actually topstitch around the rest of the placket, but it was just necessary to get this part done. This was probably the hardest part, because it requires a lot of agility. it’s a small space and a lot of overlapping bits that want to slide around. Also, you want to make sure you have enough overlap for those buttons and button holes. I barely did, but I was afraid if I made it any tighter, the shirt would be uncomfortable.

Then I easily sewed the side seams and shoulder seams. This is where I decided to stop, because all that’s left are the sleeves and the collar. I want to think about what sleeves I want. I’m leaning toward a loose 3 quarter length with slight gathers at the shoulders, but I’m also really tempted to do sleeveless.

Here’s the shirt on my duct tape double: There’s a lot of extra room around the neckline. The neckline will curve when I’m done with it, so hopefully that will take out some of that bulk. Also, I’m going to do a little work to the back which should also help. but I’m really pleased with the front view!

From the side, it’s annoyingly shapeless. But I’m very small on top and my butt sticks out. so that happens 🙁 I’m hoping that by making darts in the area indicated in red that the fit will be more flattering. It’s not bad from the back either, but once again, it could benefit from some reduction in the upper back.

At any rate, I’m very happy with how it’s turned out. Especially for a spur of the moment decision 🙂

Fruit Cobbler

July 19, 2010July 19, 2010 / lemonwoodclock / 4 Comments

I love cobblers! They’re the best comfort dessert. I typically use strawberries or cherries. Tonight, I used strawberries and peaches, because that’s what I had on hand and I was worried they might go bad.

I use my mom’s recipe, and little by little, I’m tweaking it to create exactly what I want. Here is the most recent recipe I’ve used:

Feel free to print this out for your collection! You won’t regret it 🙂 The cobbler I made tonight was still a little on the sweet side, and I believe that was because my fruit was so ripe. In the future, I’ll probably back the sugar down a little. But it was still incredible. Strawberry and peach was a nice combo! Also, I didn’t have any vanilla ice cream on hand, but I recently discovered that it goes great on this cobbler!

(Note: You can use self-rising flour instead of Bisquick or pancake mix, but it gives the cobbler a slightly gummy texture, sort of like a dumpling. A baking mix will give it a fluffier texture, which my husband prefers.)

**Thanks to Homemade By Jill for introducing me to picnik, a cool and free photo editing site. Jill has created a great step-by-step tutorial that I used to make this recipe card!

Tutorial: Turning onesies into shirts

June 18, 2010 / lemonwoodclock / 4 Comments

These were done for my awesome twin nephews, Ty and Micah. My sister loved the shirts, but neither of us really like onesies for our boys now that they’re past the tiny baby stage.

This was a really easy modification. It probably doesn’t even require a tutorial; it’s more to show how something you don’t like as much can be recycled into a piece you’ll use. For example: you don’t want your baby to look like a dork with his polo shirt tucked in.

In picture, the shirts are already complete. But I cut as close to the legs as possible so the shirts would be long enough.

This up-close shot shows how I just turned it under and zigzag stitched the hem. As you can see, there is a little waviness to the bottom. It’s hard to tell how much is because of wrinkles and how much is because of warping. But I read recently that you can run a steamed iron over the wavy hem and it will help it relax. I’ll know more after they’re washed too. However, I feel like the shirts are fine for the little boys 🙂 They actually turned out better than I expected. The only thing I’d change if I could is to be able to fold the hem again for extra unraveling security, but I was just afraid I’d lose too much length. Hopefully I’ll get a picture of them wearing them this weekend!

Tutorial: Half Hour Skirt

June 17, 2010June 17, 2010 / lemonwoodclock / Leave a comment

This is *sort of* a repurposed project. I started a skirt a few weeks ago using the Angry Chicken 5 Minute Skirt formula. But for some reason it didn’t work out at all. Maybe I did my calculation wrong, but the skirt was HUGE. (However, I LOVE Angry Chicken 🙂 I feel confident that I did something weird, or my body shape just didn’t work for the pattern, because a lot of people really like that tutorial and I have no ill will toward it 🙂 )

This tutorial can be done using new fabric, or too-big skirts or dresses. The fabric needs to be stretchy, as this is a pull-on.

The I used fabric is odd. It’s cheapie Wal-Mart fabric, I think it was $1.50/yard. I thought it was a knit, but after I started sewing, it turned out to be a stretchy woven. I have no idea what it’s content is…

So, what I decided to do was use a recently purchased skirt as a template.

I cut slightly bigger than the skirt. I left a little more at the top because at the time, I wasn’t sure what I was going to do about the waistband. I’d originally planned to cut a band and sew it on like the neck of a t-shirt. It turned out not to be necessary, but I plan to try that with a skirt in the future.

Next I zigzag seamed the sides.

I only turned the hem under and zigzagged it. I’ll watch how it reacts to washing and then reevaluate. But as of now it seems good enough 🙂

For the waistband I turned it down about 2 inches. For a better fit, the fold is wider in the front than in the back. I wanted it wide enough so I could put a drawstring in if (I mean WHEN!!) I lose weight. I didn’t want to bother with that now because the skirt stays on just fine as it is.

Ta-da! Finished skirt in roughly 30 minutes. It’s more or less straight at the top and bottom, I’m not skilled enough to round things without a pattern 🙂 I plan to wear this to my husband’s birthday dinner tonight. I’ll have him take some pix of me wearing it and I’ll try to post them tomorrow!

Pattern: Owl Appliqué

June 14, 2010June 17, 2010 / lemonwoodclock / 1 Comment

This quilt will be my sister’s Christmas present. It’s not a surprise, she’s an active participant in the process 🙂

This pink square is in bad need of ironing, but it’s a good example of how I currently piece my crazy quilts. I sew the strips onto muslin, a habit I hope to soon break. I’m going to eventually try true paper pieces, but I’m just scared and I’ve been relying on the stability of the muslin.

The finished quilt will be 12 12”x12” blocks sashed with dark brown. The back will be from a pink and brown sheet (you can see that fabric in one of the squares). I’m going to attempt a birch tree on the back similar to Elizabeth’s at www.ohfransson.com (one of my favorite sites!) I’ll have a little owl peeking out of a hole in the tree 🙂 This will be the first time I’ve attempted to make the back of a quilt worth looking at 🙂

Well, I’ve pledged to show my process, and the roughly sketched owl pattern definitely shows that! The odd smaller owl shape across the center is where I started working out my owl but decided I needed a bigger one. I saved paper by just flipping it and starting again 🙂 I didn’t bother making a template for the eyes and beak. I just eyeballed them and cut!

When it came to sewing on the appliqué, I just sewed around the edges with a tight zig-zag stitch. I left some raw edges showing because I want a worn, loved look for this quilt.

One day I want to try appliquéing the owl pattern onto a t-shirt or something.

I think you can just click to enlarge the picture to print. If you save the picture onto your computer, you can resize it! Leave a comment if it doesn’t work well and I’ll see what I can do to make it more printer-friendly! Also I’d love to see anything made from the pattern, so feel free to leave a link in the comments!!

*This pattern is free for personal use. Please link to the pattern on my blog if you use it and post it. Thanks!!

Repurposing old tees to make baby pants

August 7, 2009November 29, 2010 / lemonwoodclock / 3 Comments

I love doing projects! I especially love doing small projects for kids. I have great ideas for things I will sew for my little girl… if I ever have one 🙂

So when I found out our baby was a boy, I hit a creative wall. I’m not about to attempt a button up shirt, and all the little romper patterns I’d seen seemed a little prissy to me (no offense to the romper-loving mommies out there, I’m just more of a skull tee and ratty jeans kind of gal).

I roamed the internet until I found a few great (and super easy) ideas for little boys. One of my favorites is a tutorial on how to make little pants from an old t-shirt. It’s a great way to scratch that creative itch while also recycling. Let’s face, it’s easier to part with your favorite shirt from 20lbs ago if a tiny person you love is going to be wiggling around it in 🙂

This pattern is so easy, you can practically do it in your sleep. It’s perfect for beginners, or for moms who love to craft, but haven’t quite gotten brave enough to tackle a time-consuming project. I do recommend that you pay enough attention to make sure the patterned side of your pieces face each other. I did not and had to spend more time ripping seams than it actually took me to sew the pants. Start to finish, you can complete a pair of pants in about 30 minutes, if you don’t mess up like i did 🙂

The first link gave me the inspiration to use tees. The second is where Rookiemoms got the idea. Handyprojects offers a slightly more complicated variation, showing how to add cute details to the pants, but I recommend referring to that site if you don’t know how to make an elastic waistband.

http://www.rookiemoms.com/make-some-easy-kids-pants/

http://handyprojects.blogspot.com/2005/04/how-to-make-easy-kids-pants.html

I did my first for practice from a western t-shirt that didn’t fit me. The second pair I made out of a stained polo my husband donated to the cause. I plan to use the leftover fabric to make matching hats or accents on onesies. In the meantime I’m on the hunt for other shirts to cut up (and trying to resist the urge to “accidentally” stain things in my husband’s closet) Happy sewing!

Life Change, Blog Change, Baby Carrier Change

July 28, 2009November 29, 2010 / lemonwoodclock / 3 Comments

So. Dexter is now 11 weeks 3 days old (well, 4 days as it’s after midnight now). Things have started settling down. We’re finally getting into a routine, a shaky one, but a routine nonetheless. I’ve been able to start venturing back into the wonderful world of art. I’ve completed one painting, a few crafts for my sister’s baby shower, and started sewing again.
My most recent obsession is making a baby carrier. I’ll post more on that later. Right now I’m using a makeshift wrap from a length of jersey knit I’d planned to use for a dress, but I can’t wear it out because I haven’t cut it and it’s quite unsightly. It comes in very handy around the house though, and Dexter really seems to love it. I can tell he feels very snuggled when he’s in it and it supports his back well so he can look around while I do things. I don’t wear him all the time, I just use it when I’d be carrying him anyway, like when he’s crying right after he wakes up and I’m rushing to fix his bottle while keeping him happy. (For more info on wraps visit Moby. I decided to use the knit I had on hand in order to see if I even liked using it before I committed to one.)

This was the first time I attempted the wrap. This piece of cloth is about 4 times too wide, so it’s much bulkier than a typical wrap would be. As you can see, Dexter seems quite cozy. And it’s very comfortable for my back, which is the single reason I started looking for a new carrier. Tip: Do not get a cheap carrier that you have not researched. I skimped and got a $15 carrier so I could take my time deciding what permanent carrier I wanted to use. Even for temporary use I believe this was a mistake. Using that carrier the few times I have has been torture. I believe strongly in protecting your back anyway you can. You only have one back, don’t take it for granted!

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