Easy Fabric Flowers Tutorial

Fabric flowers are a great way to embellish woman's clothing. you can usually whip them up quickly, easily and from your scraps box ( don't tell me you don't have one! Everyone sewist has them)
There are dozens of ways to make them, here's one of the ways I use to make flowers. I'm sharing here because I haven't seen any other tutorial using this method. If you have already known about it or don't need it, feel free to skip.

Materials:

Knit scraps
Matching thread
Needle for hand sewing ( optional)

Construction:

1. Cut a knit strip 3 inches X 15 inches. This will make pretty big flowers of about 5 inches diameter. These are fine for adult clothing, but if you're sewing for kids keep the strip width between 1.5 inches - 2 inches.

2. Set your stitch length to longest and sew a seam along one longer side .

3. Pull the bobbin thread to gather the fabric tightly.  It will take the circular shape.

4. Sew the shorter sides with right sides together.

5. You can see that there is a ruffle in the center of the flower. Now place the flower wherever you want to sew it and sew a seam all around the ruffle in the center. The flower is actually ready at this point but below are a few optional steps and I tell you why I prefer to do them.

6. What I found is that if you leave the flowers after step 5, they will get crumpled in wash and then you have to iron them to get them back in the right shape. So I used the following method to keep them blooming.

7. Thread a needle with matching thread and sew small tacks along the circumference of the flowers.

Here's how it looked on the inside.

8. Enjoy the flower!

Here's a pointer to other kinds of flowers, just in case this one is not your type.

Not sure where to use these flowers? I think I can show you a couple of ways..wink, wink.

Mosaic Tee Tutorial

So we did it again. Munchkin kept staring at these tees from Boden catalog...finally making me make her tee inspired by the idea. "Inspired" is the keyword, because the Boden shirts are made with sequins, however, I don't think the munchkin is ready for sequins yet. She doesn't put everything in mouth now...but I wouldn't bet on that yet. So I used Tulip puffy paints to get a similar effect, sans sequins. These were actually pretty easy to make and I'm happy with the way it turned out. More importantly, munchkin seems to be pleased!

Supplies:
Tshirt in desired size ( washed and dried)  - 1
Tulip puffy fabric paints - I bought a set with 6 colors but you can also buy individual colors
A sheet of sturdy paper - I used camera advertising inserts from newspaper

Construction:

Note: I have included the instructions on the color bottle as part of the tutorial, but I would still urge you to read the instruction on your color bottle carefully and following them. The use instructions may change later and they are the final word on how they should be used. So when in doubt follow whatever the label says even if its different from what I did.

1. Place the Tshirt on a flat surface. Insert the paper between front and back of the Tshirt. This will prevent the colors from seeping to the back of the Tee.

2. Draw the desired shape with a pencil.

3. Shake the color bottle before using. Now start from the edge/corner of the shape and use the bottle nozzle to make tiny brushstrokes perpendicular to the edge. Use the nozzle to spread out color a bit. To get a  transitioning effect between colors after 4 strokes, stop spreading the color and leave the strokes more linear. See the yellow color above.

4. Now using the next color spread the earlier color a bit, so it gets partly colored with both colors. Then again do 4 strokes of current color and 2-3 lines of current color. Use the next color to spread these lines. Keep going until you fill the shape outline. Now start the second layer, right below the first one. Repeat the colors in the same order as earlier. 

5. Keep going...

6. Until the whole shape is filled

7. Now the hardest part...let it dry for four hours.

8. Once the paint is dry to touch, use a steam iron on the highest setting. Hold the iron very close to the paint but not touching it.  The steam will make the paint pop. (The colors will also become little less brighter once they pop, so keep that in mind if you're going for some particular shade)


Let dry for 24 hours.


The mosaic shirt is ready.

Poppy Fields Dress - I could probably make it myself

It seems like everywhere I look people are sewing/fixing/wearing maxi dresses these days. I looked at some of the designs available and had a thought I usually have while shopping "That doesn't look too hard, I can probably make it myself."
See thats the side effect of being a sewing enthusiast, you can never shop for clothing without getting this nagging thought... "I could probably make this myself". If you're just starting to sew, promise yourself never to give up shopping for clothes...because it gets harder and harder as you get better and better at sewing.

Anyway, back to my thoughts, so I went home, took an inventory of what I had in my stash and finally decided that three of the XL size garments I was hoarding needed to be hacked. After a lot of hacks and 'flying by the seat of my pants' design elements, finally I'm happy with the results.

Say hello to my Poppy Fields Maxi Dress!
I actually love the way it turned out, but what really sold me was how comfortable it was ( very!). Quoting another blogger on maxi dresses "Its like wearing your PJs in public." I agree.
I have taken pictures of construction so I'll do a sort of mini tutorial on what I did one of these days.

Garland for Summer

Moda Fabrics recently asked me to send my Lucky Layers Dress and Grow and Gather Dress to show off in their booth at the quilting Market. When they returned the dresses they sent a cheerful charm pack of Bonnie and Camille's Marmalade my way.

Since I don't really quilt I wasn't sure how I'll use it...until I thought about these fans!

I had a lot of fun making them and even more fun coming up with ways to photograph them.

I even made a couple of butterflies to go with them. ( At least that's what I was trying to make when I started). I'm thinking that these will make a great decoration and the best part is that you could always reuse the fabric after you take them down.

Happy Independence Day

Happy independence day to my American readers!

Patriotic Sewing - Bloomers pattern and tutorial

So I posted the tutorial for the dress yesterday with the promise to post the bloomers tutorial and pattern today. So here I'm, keeping my promise ( for once)

Supplies:

• Knit fabric - three quarters of a yard ( yeah its almost alarming how much fabric these itty bitty thingies use but thats how it is)
• Grosgrain/Ribbon - about 10 inches
• One inch wide elastic - 20 inches
• quarter inch wide elastic - 1 yd.

Pattern:

Download and print this 2 page pattern to sew the bloomers in 12- 24 months size.
Overlap page1 and 2 such that 'A' and 'B' are together on both the pages.

Construction:

Cut 2 pieces of the pattern. Sew along the curved lines, right sides together. Sew the hem by folding twice along the hemline and sewing.

Take the narrow elastic and measure around the thighs of the little one. Measure a length that is snug but not uncomfortable ( without stretching the elastic) Now add one inch to this length. This is going to be the length of narrow elastic. Now mark a line about 1.5 inches above the hemline on the wrong side. Stretch the elastic and sew along this line on the wrong side. Pin the elastic if you need to. Repeat for the other leg. Sew a seam along the legs while reinforcing the crotch seam by going 2-3 times over the area.

Fold the top of the bloomers quarter inch and sew a seam. Fold it 1.5 inches again and sew another seam, leave a gap of 2 inches this time.

Use this gap to insert wide elastic. Overlap the ends of elastic and sew zig zag stitches. Sew a couple of times to reinforce the joint. Sew the opening shut.

Make a bow from the ribbon. Sew it right below the elastic in the front.


All set!

Sewing Patriotic dress and bloomers for July 4th

I usually don't sew occasion specific clothing simply because it feels like such a waste of time and resources to sew something for single use. However, I made an exception this time with this patriotic dress and bloomers set. One reason was that I always wanted to make something in that color combination. But I still used the colors such that it doesn't scream July 4th and can be used as a nautical dress for the rest of the summer.

As I did earlier with this frooty appliqued skirt, I leaned on one of my older tutorials for this dress and tried to put a fresh spin on it. The dress is a fresh take on my tutorial for 20 mins dress here. So I won't go into much construction details for the dress. Instead I'll just show the pictures of the dress construction and move on to the embellishing.


Supplies:


1 Tshirt - L or XL size
Grosgrain ribbon - 10 inches
Trim for embllishments at hem - 2 yd ( I used the heavy upholstery kind because thats what I had on hand)
Elastic - 1/4 inch wide - 1.5 yd
Ric Rac - 3/4 yd

Construction:

For the 20 min Tshirt Dress I will just post the pictures, you can jump to this post for detailed instructions:

For the flutter sleeves ( made from the sleeves of Tshirt):

Embellishments:

Mark two parallel lines 1.5 inch and 3 inch above the hemline. Sew on the trim along these lines.

Make a bow from grosgrain ribbon and sew it at the front center, below the elastic. Don't sew it over the elastic or you won't be able to adjust the gathers.

Sew Ric-rac along the raw edges of sleeves by sewing it on the outer side first. Even though this seam doesn't show in the outside take time to change the thread to the Ric-rac color. I'll tell you why in the next step.

Now fold inside and sew over the folded part to have a nice scalloped ric-rac along the sleeves. Take care to use different threads in this step ( Navy blue in the spindle and red in the bobbin) I found that the edges often turn outwards as the child moves and you wouldn't want the stitches showing on the inside.

Voila! Patriotic dress is ready!
Tutorial for bloomers is coming up tomorrow

PS: The bloomers tutorial and pattern is here.