A Home, Made: May 2012

Friday, May 25, 2012

My Tee Ball Dress (made from Repurposed Tees!)

So, I did something I've never really done before. I made something for me! Something other than a headband, that is. ;) I made a dress! Yikes, a whole dress for me!! I actually made it several weeks ago, I've just been too chicken to put it on my blog. :)

My daughter took the pictures, and as you can see our puppy wanted in on the fun. :) I really appreciate (and I am so not being sarcastic here) that my daughter cut off my head on most of the pictures. :) The idea of my face plastered on my blog isn't a pleasant one for me and is pretty much why I was so reluctant to post this. I see pictures of myself and think "where am I in this picture and why is that older, chubby woman, wearing my clothes?" I feel like I've aged dramatically in the last year and I'm not keen on posting me for all the world to see. :)

You may notice the New York Yankees logo on the dress and assume that I'm a huge baseball fan. I'm not. Up until a few weeks ago, I couldn't have even told you what the logo looked like. Then my daughter decided she wanted to play tee ball.

I shared my daughters (new) desire to be on a tee ball team, we made her little helmet sparkle (much to the fascination of the boys, btw.) I heard one parent ask her if she did that to her helmet or if her mom did and I was delighted to see the sparkle in her eye when she said that she did it. :) I'm so glad I let her do her own thing with it, rather than follow my vision. But. . .I digress.

So the teams are named after major league teams. Perhaps this is a normal tee ball thing, I don't know, this is all new to me. My bonus-son didn't start playing competitive sports until this year and up til now my daughter has been all ballet. Ballet I know, this sports stuf? Notsomuch. Our team is the Yankees and the coach said go out and buy some Yankee gear to wear to the games. I found a hat for my bonus son, which worked out nicely because he collects baseball hats. I found a golf shirt for my husband that was on sale for $11 (woo-hoo!!) which also worked out nicely because he's an avid golfer. There were a couple tee shirts on the cheap in my size, but they were kind of ugly. Alyssa Milano's line has some adorable tops and so did Victoria's Secret, all geared to teams and their logos, but I couldn't find anything for me under $35. Now keep in mind, I'm a bit of a bargain hunter, I'm not a tee shirt kind of girl and I don't follow sports, so this shirt is only being worn for a the tee ball season and probably never again. If I'm going to spend $35 on a top, I'm going to the Loft (during a sale) and getting something I really love, you know? So I did the only thing a self-respecting sewing blogger would do. . . I made something! I didn't want to spend money on real fabric so I picked up a men's 4XL tee in navy from the Walmart for $5 and a white woman's tee for $4. I thought, the worst that happens is that the project is a total fail. No one ever has to know. (But I did take pictures to document along the way, just in case.) I will say its a pretty rough tut, I didn't make notes like I normally do as I did it and I didn't get as many pictures as I normally would. :)

Here's how it went down!

I took the white tee shirt (a woman's tee in my size) and put it on, I marked with some chalk, (it doesn't show up in the picture, but its there!) how I wanted the neckline to look, I wanted a v neckline. I also marked where I wanted the waist of the skirt to meet the bodice (a couple inches below my bustline.) I wanted a higher waistline, I was going for a slightly retro feel to the dress. I'm sorry I didn't take pictures of this part. So imagine me, in front of the mirror, chalk in hand, drawing on my tee. :)

Then I cut off the sleeves, right at the seam as well as the bottom of the bodice.

I folded the tee in half and cut the v-neck front. I did a slightly higher v in the back as well. Okay, so in the picture you notice that I also cut the seam at the shoulders. Originally my thought was to twist the straps and sew them back together so it had that, um, twisted strap look. But I didn't care for it so I just sewed the shoulders back together. I actually had to take them up a little because I wanted the sleeve area to be fitted, so when I sewed the shoulder seams together I took out about an inch and a half. Depending on the fit of your tee, you might not have to adjust it at all. Just ignore the cut shoulder seams in this picture. :)

Then zig zag the straight edge of both sides of the front of the bodice. Not the v-neck but the straight edge below the v as marked in the picture. Then with the wrong sides together, sew a seam about 1/8" to the edge.

The bodice is done! I did a little zig-zag stitch all around the edge of the neckline and the sleeves. We all know you can leave a knit edge unfinished, but I didn't want it to stretch out and lose its shape too much.

On to the skirt! I found a 4XL men's navy blue tee shirt. I cut it off just under the arms and put in a gathering stitch all along the cut edge. Set it aside. Obviously my thought was to use the finished bottom of the shirt as the finished bottom of my skirt. I love to sew but I also love little shortcuts like this. :) I didn't get a picture of this part. Well, I did but I wasn't wearing my glasses when I took the picture and it came out blurry. Jeez.

Next is the waist band. You'll want two pieces of fabric that are 6.5" by your waist measurement (painful, I know) divided in half, minus 2". So if your waist measured 26" (no, I am not posting my waist measurement on my blog) you would cut two 11" wide pieces. 25/2=13 and 13-2=11. Cut your pieces, sew them right sides together.

Pull the gathering stitches in the skirt until it matches the waistband and attach. I did put in a topstitch so that it lay flat. Attach the skirt to the bodice, again with a topstitch. Again, no picture of this. :( But use your imagination, okay?

I wanted to add a row of white grosgrain ribbon to the bottom of the skirt, but I didn't have enough!! Yikes!! What I did have enough of was the leftover white tee shirt. So I cut a few 2" strips from the leftover fabric, stretched them out a bit, sewed them together end to end and attached them to the skirt. I sewed it about 1/8" from each edge of the white strip. I think I like the more casual look of the knit fabric on knit fabric rather than a grosgrain ribbon. :)

The logo was just appliqued on as normal. I found the logo online, printed it and traced it. I plan to cover it up with a fabric flower when tee ball season is over.

Again, the pictures were taken by my daughter :) so please excuse the blurriness and missing head. :)

I was surprised at the reaction I received from the other tee-ball moms. Several asked me how much I'd charge to make them a tee ball dress. Truly, I am such an amateur that the idea of sewing something for someone else completely freaks me out. Even when I make gifts for family and friends, I am constantly redo-ing stitches and obsessing about every mistake. And I kind of get a tummy-ache when I give it to them, what if they hate it, what if it falls apart? Yikes.

Oh, here's a picture of my face. My daughter insisted I pose. Let me rephrase that, she posed me. And made me say "happy day!!!!!!!!!!!" when she took the pictures. Sheesh, she's so bossy!!

This really came together easily and I was surprised at how quick it was. It was also kind of fun to wear something I'd made. :)
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Wednesday, May 16, 2012

The Mermaid Dress

My little girl is into anything involving mermaids and princesses. She's been begging me to make her a real mermaid tail that she can wear in the pool. I googled it and there's actually such a thing. Check out this etsy store! What is the etiquette on posting a picture from someone else's store? I decided to err on the side of caution and just posted the link. :)

I found a couple tutorials online as well, basically its swimsuit fabric and a Monifin. She's a strong swimmer and I'm always within arms reach when we're in pool, but alas, she and I are the only ones who think this is a good idea. So, in the interest of family harmony, I nixed the idea of a real mermaid tail. Much to her dismay, she will have to keep using her imagination when she pretends she's Merliah Summers in the pool. I am planning on making her a mermaid coverup, I'm sure you've seen it on Pinterest. But I'm still searching for the right beach towel. :) In the meantime. . .

I sketched a little mermaid and tried to make it look like my daughter(ish) my drawing skills are quite limited, so I couldn't actually draw her its basically her hair, long and curly like hers (well, maybe a little longer and curlier) and eye colour. :) I was delighted when I showed it to her and she squealed "Is that me as a mermaid princess???" Tee, hee!!

I thought it would make a lovely stitchery project and I could make a Princess Mermaid throw pillow. But I kept picturing it on a dress. I thought a basic tee-shirt dress would be best. Simple construction as well as practical for the summer playdates of a 5 year old. :) At first I tried to stitch it directly on a tee shirt. But the whole crayon/colouring part did not work at all. I know using crayons on stitching isn't necessary, but I like that it fills in all those blank spaces without the ever time consuming satin stitch. :) So I threw out that idea and went to work on a piece of muslin. I decided to stitch it the design on the muslin with the muslin on top of the tee in the hoop and then cut out around the design. (I don't know, I was totally winging it.) I found some fabulous, summery fabric in my stash and had just enough to sew into ruffles to give the dress a mermaid tail feel while keeping it practical for the playground. I'm delighted with the way it turned out, but more importantly, my girl loves it. :)

I used a tee shirt and about 3/4 yard of fabric for the dress. Muslin, crayons and embroidery thread (that coordinates with the skirt fabric) for the mermaid.

I did a basic ruffle skirt; and cut the fabric into strips for the ruffle skirt. For each ruffle (I wanted 3 rows of ruffles) I cut 2 width pieces at 3 1/2" and for each connecting strip was 1 width at 3".

Basically for each ruffle, you will gather two 3 1/2" pieces on to the one 3" piece. Then, starting with the bottom band/ruffle attach each band to the next and ultimately to the tee. It seems superfluous to add another ruffled skirt tutorial to the blogsphere :) so if you need detailed instructions on construction, check out this tutorial from Dana at Made.

Once the ruffles are attached and the skirt is complete, sew it to the bottom of the tee, just under the hem, sewing right over the hem stitch on the tee. Normally for a tee shirt dress, you'd cut off the tee a few inches below the arms or at the waist. But I wanted a mermaidy feel so I left the shirt long and sewed the skirt just under the hemline hoping for a mermaid-ish silhouette.

For the mermaid applique trace the mermaid on the muslin, colour it in with crayon and ironed it. (If you've never done hand stitching before, check here for detailed instructions.) Pin the muslin (with the design) on the tee where you want the applique to be and put both in the hoop. I'm sorry, I don't have a picture of this!! Remove the pins and start stiching!!

I used floss that closely matched my daughter's hair, eye and skin colour and then chose the rest based on the colours in the skirt. I did a basic back stitch except for her eyes which are french knots and her hair. For her hair I used a stem stitch, it was fun once I got the hang of it! (Remember, you are stitching through the muslin and the tee.) After everything was stitched the way I wanted it, I drew an outline around the mermaid with chalk and sewed over the chalk with my sewing machine, using small, tight stitches, again sewing through the muslin and the tee.

Then, carefully, cut around the edge of your seam, cutting only the muslin, not the tee! The chalk will wash away and the edges will slightly fray after a few washings, but I like that look.

I thought it was done and pretty cute. But my daughter felt it was missing something, something sparkly. After all, mermaid tails are sparkly. So I added a few sequins. . .

Can you see my mistake? I didn't notice it until I was posting these pictures today!! I forgot to stitch her bangs!!! See those poor,lonely, little pencil marks?? I pulled her dress out of the closet to fix it, but the pencil had washed away (she's worn the dress a few times already.) AAAAAAnd since my daughter is growing out her bangs anyway. . .I left it!

Its a simple, little dress, nothing super fancy or difficult, but super fun to make, and apparently to wear! :) If you'd like a template of the little mermaid to do your own stitchery project, please click here. Feel free to change the hair to reflect your little mermaid. :)

Linking up with

http://www.sewcountrychick.com/
http://threadingmyway.blogspot.com/
http://saynotsweetanne.com
http://www.etcetorize.blogspot.com/
http://craftomaniac.blogspot.com/
http://www.sewcando.com/
http://www.notjustahousewife.net/
http://thecreativeitchboutique.blogspot.com/
http://www.rookno17.com
http://www.gingersnapcrafts.com
http://madeinaday.com
http://www.houseofhepworths.com/
http://www.yesterdayontuesday.typepad.com/
http://www.504main.com/
http://www.fingerprintsonthefridge.com/
http://tatertotsandjello.com/
http://www.sew-much-ado.com/
http://somedaycrafts.blogspot.com

Saturday, May 5, 2012

Afternoon Quickie: Pink Polkadots!

The princess and I love, love love polkadots. And pink. Put the two together, and we are super happy. :) This little outfit came together so fast, the whole thing can be done in one afternoon. Even with kids around. :)

The skirt is a darling circle skirt from the tutorial by Dana at Made. You must try this skirt, it is so fun and comes together so quickly!

The only thing I did differently, is that I didn't use elastic for the waist. I didn't have any elastic wide enough. :( What I did have is a pair of yoga pants, that are too short for my girl, but fit her waist perfectly. I was going to hem them up and make capris out of them, for the fall but she only wore the pants a couple times and the capris would suffer the same fate.(Yoga pants aren't fancy.) So I separated the fold over waist from the pants and used it instead! It worked perfectly!

I had quite a bit of leftover fabric, so I decided to have some fun with it. I embellished a little white tank top with a fabric flower.

Then made her a headband as well. I (barely) resisted the urge to ruffle up the fabric and add it to a pair of socks. I thought that might be just a bit too much. :)

Here's how I did the flower:

2" diameter fabric cirles. (I used 8 for each flower.)
"crystal" beads from my daughter's jewelry making stash (you can also use a button if you'd prefer)
needle and thread

Place two fabric circles, wrong side together, set aside.This is the base of the flower.

Take another circle and fold it in half, wrong sides together.

Then fold in half again. This is a "petal" for the flower.

Sew the folded corner to the center of the flower base, as pictured.

Take another circle and fold is as above and sew onto the base, next to the first petal, as pictured. Repeat 2 more times until the base is covered with the petals (four folded circles.) Then sew an "x" so you're catching all four corners of the petals. Notice how mine isn't perfect. My stitches are messy and that one little bugger is uneven. Totally fine, doesn't matter at all. This is a perfect little project to do when you're sitting on the porch while the kids play in the backyard because it doesn't need your undivided attention. :)

Take another circle and fold in half and then in half again. Place this one on top of the base, overlapping two of the petals. You're placing it right where two of the petals meet.