KCWC-Day Two: Easy Knit Shrug + TUTORIAL

Tuesday, day two of the KCWC, I made a little knit shrug to go along with the Tiered Ruffle Dresses I just finished for the girls. These dresses were unique enough in color and style, they needed their own shrug; nothing the girls already had seemed to go with them.

This shrug was made with a few alterations of my TNT T-shirt pattern, Jalie 2805. Click below to see the details and how to take any t-shirt pattern and turn it into a shrug of your own!

KCWC–Day One: Tiered Ruffle Dress + TUTORIAL

Truth be told, I started these dresses over a week ago, but I finished them on Monday-Day One of the KCWC.

These dresses were inspired by a dress I saw in a popular children's clothing store, but it’s no longer on their website (otherwise I’d link you to it!).

I loved the tiered ruffles and fullness of the skirt, and after working on the ruffled skirts for the girls, I knew my plan of action for these dresses.

It started with my FAVORITE pattern, McCalls 5793. It’s not a fancy pattern, but it has so many possibilities. It’s a basic bodice (with options for sleeves or a yoke) and a ruffled skirt. I mainly use the bodice only and adapt the skirt portion to suit my needs for the project. I’ve sewn up this pattern at least 10 times now in all sorts of variations, each of them unique. For the 99 cents I spent on this pattern (on sale, of course) I’ve got my money’s worth by a hundredfold!!

Anyways! I’ve put together a little tutorial on how I made these. Click below for the details!

Round & Round in Circles We Go

I interrupted my scheduled sewing projects last week to do something I’ve wanted to do for some time: participate in the Project Run & Play Sew Along. However, I wasn’t able to finish my project in time to be included in the sew along/contest. :-(

But I did finish them eventually, so now I present you with…

I made my remix of the circle skirt tutorial to be ‘fully loaded’, which means this skirt has

• Pockets
• Full Lining
• Peeking Ruffle
• Modesty Shorts (does this make it a circle skort?)

And it’s a hit! The girls really like them, because they twirl! And because of the pockets. They LOVE pockets. The Wild One came screaming from the other end of the house when she discovered the pockets.

Want to make your own? Click below to see my changes to include the pockets, shorts and lining!

Inspired By: Little Grey Dress via Pinterest (plus a gift for you!)

Ah, it’s felt good this week to create a few things that didn’t involve a lining or underlining! I actually have finished eight items this week! I’m not planning to post all of them, they are not all exciting enough for a post. But this new little dress is!

I was inspired by this dress pinned on Pinterest:

Source: google.co.uk via Jennifer on Pinterest

It’s simple, yet elegant and looks so cozy and warm. I’ve had this picture in my head for months. I knew this was first on my list of winter dress sewing for the girls. Here’s a look at my version:

 

With the inspiration photo, I was always perplexed by the fact that it was a sleeveless fleece dress, worn in the summer – it seemed more fitting to be either layered or have sleeves as a winter dress. So in this first version I whipped up a couple of my favorite TNT t-shirts to layer with the dress. Tights and shoes from Target (I picked this color combo to go with the tights, not necessarily to match the inspiration photo).

Then I thought it would be nice to try a version with sleeves so that layering wouldn’t always be necessary.

Whoops! Looks like my hem is coming down on that sleeve! Better go fix that. ;)

I really like how they turned out and thought just maybe you would like your own. So I put together my first PDF Pattern for FREE download.

Its completely digital and I would say it’s comparable to a size 4T/5T in RTW. I’ve put together a tutorial for this pattern, click below to see the step-by-step tutorial with photos.

First Day of School & A Headband Tutorial

Yesterday was my daughters first day at a new school. I had her outfit and backpack ready to go in advance, but I decided a new headband was in order!!

It was very simple, here's what I used:

• scrap of tshirt knit
• 1.5" strip of quilting cotton (the cotton her top was made from)
• tiny scrap of coordinating cotton
• ribbon
• pearl beads
• needle and thread

I started with a scrap of tshirt knit, about three inches wide by just a little less than the distance around her head, about 18" or so.


Then I turned in the edges of the short sides by about a half inch each, turning to what will be the right side.

I stitched this across with 1/4" SA.

Then I took my scraps of cotton and made a couple of fabric flowers. For the larger one, I ripped a strip of the cotton I made her top from in a 1.5" strip. I knotted it in the center and wrapped/twisted into a rose shape.


Then I took a tiny (like 1" by 3") piece of coordinating cotton and tied three knots in it. I twisted these little knots into a small loop and they made the look of three small rosebuds, sort of...
(sorry, forgot to get a photo of that!)

I folded/gathered a piece of green organza ribbon to form a leaf...


...and tacked all these pieces down over the seam of the headband.

All ready to head to school!

(Top- self drafted pattern by me, Skirt- modified, but based on Simplicity 2483)