Another shower cap

The shower cap I made about 18 months ago has run its course - a new one was required and luckily for me I found a fabric I really liked to make a new one last weekend.

This is how it turned out. Tigger didn't oblige with a photo shoot like last time, so here is the shower cap sitting on the lavender bush!

I did attach the elastic using a different technique  than I used for the last few caps I made. I marked the elastic (19" for my head) and circle of the shower cap into eighths. Then I basted around the perimeter of the fabric circle once, and then again next to the first basted circle around the perimeter. Then I gathered the fabric using the basted stitches (pulling up one set of loose threads to gather half way in one direction & then did the same with the other 2 loose threads to gather in the other direction until the cap pretty much fitted my head. Only then did I attach the elastic using a zig zag stitch (next time use a wider zig zag stitch and/or make sure to keep to the right side of the elastic so that it isn't visible when wearing the cap).
Worked much better.

A Sally Dress

I finally bought the Sally Dress pattern & made one for Little Imp. The pattern was super easy to follow, but the fabric estimations were far beyond what I ended up needing. That was a good thing in a way as it meant I had enough of some of the gorgeous print I bought years ago to use for the bodice outer & sleeves.

Paired up with a pink fabric with a tiny olive green and dark brown spot and a green fabric with a small leaf design.

 A little bit of whimsy added with these cute wooden buttons on the pockets, bought in a narrow lane way store in Chiang Mai with Little Imp a few years ago.

  

Size 5. Elbow length sleeves. 

Washi Washi Washi. Washi 3 ways.

2015 was the year that I gained confidence in sewing clothes. It started with a few more kiddy clothes, and then a lovely colleague at work gifted me the Washi dress pattern. I realised I can do this, I can make clothes!

Here is Washi 3 ways.
My first take - a short top in rayon. I really struggled with the shirring on my sewing machine. It was hard work. No amount of playing around with the tension of the shirring elastic on the bobbin worked. Frustrating!

After loads of searching I found a way to do shirring on my machine (husqvarna Viking) that didn't require me buying a special presser foot. Thank you kbenco. This blogger gave me the technique of using the bridging zig-zag stitch and presser foot C to sew over the separate pieces of a looped piece of shirring elastic while keeping them slightly separated. Pull to gather and then repeat enough times to get the width of shirring needed.  No shirring elastic in the bobbin, just sew over shirring elastic laid on top of the fabric.  I wish I had found this site sooner - I could have saved a whole lot of frustration!

The next 2 versions were a whole lot easier with the shirring sorted. I adjusted the neckline slightly (a little higher and created a tunic length in lawn and then a dress length one too.

The dress is my favourite just for the fabric.

Lawn again, a bit too sheer not to line, so ended up doing a fully lined  version. Lining finishes at tunic length.

Details on the shirring on my Husqvarna Designer II:

Cut shirring elastic 40" long, fold in half and lay over marked line. Hook loop of elastic onto little section on back of presser foot C, Set stitch to bridge stitch (stitch #31) and sew. Elastic on right side slips into groove under presser foot and the stitch works right & left to catch both pieces of elastic.

           

                     

Once all lines are sewn (I did 4 double rows), pull up and gather from each end until width is about 10"

Tie off each end to secure elastic.

Thanks again kblenco!

More clothes for dolly

After her quiet play time a few months ago, LittleImp had written me a list of what dolly needed:
"Nite Nape" (night time nappy)
and
"Top" (for the day time)
I said if she was dolly's mummy she would need to pay this seamstress to make more clothes. Ten cents apiece was the agreed price and so off this seamstress went to work. For pittance!

The "Nite Nape" was cut from felt, with velcro added top and bottom (on opposite sides):

The daytime top was from some stretch knit scraps. A side plate used as a circle template.

Once the circle was cut out, I folded it in half and snipped out a small circle for the head (the fabric stretches so start small rather than big with the cut out). I then straight stitched from the outer curve up towards the neck line where the black lines are shown in the picture. This created the arm holes and sleeves.

Done

 Because this seamstress is generous (and she was having fun) she added a dress free of charge.
Using the same technique with a larger plate I cut out a big circle, folded in half and made the head hole. Becuase I was using cotton I cut the neck hole a bit bigger (no stretch) and also stitched around it with a zig zag stitch to stop heaps of fraying.
I took a long thin strip of fabric, found the centre and placed this centrally across the back of the dress as shown, attaching it to the dress with zig zag stitch over the section highlighted with the red line below.

Over her head, brought the strip ends around to the front and tied a bow. A very easy circle dress!

 Dolly is still scary.

Pyjamas for dolly please

Little Imp does not often ask me to make her anything in the ButtonRoom, but the other night, just before her bedtime she did. "Do you think you could make dolly some pyjamas mummy?"

Oh dear. I have been thinking for a while that dolly could do with some new attire. All she came dressed in is definitely from a summer range, and I feel cold just looking at her at the moment! But she is quite small, and plastic, and not very bendy, so I was scared of how I could make something that Little Imp could also get on and off of dolly without needing my help.

And then I had an idea... I keep many of Little Imp's old clothes for cutting up and sewing with & this was a perfect reason to use them. Once I got going it was actually fun, and before I knew it, not only did dolly have some pyjamas, she also had some cords & a skirt!

The PJs came from a sleeping bag. A sleeve became the pants, with the sleeve cuff as the waist band and a triangular seam creating the legs. Pinking shears worked to eliminate the need for sewing seams. THe top was made out of the base area of the bag. I pinking sheared a circle for the neck & stitched a few seams to create the shape of a long sleeve top. Done, & stretchy enough for Little Imp not to need me!

To make the corduroy pants I cut a square from the top of a pair of pants, including the elastic. Dolly is lying here to help me gauge the length.

A few simple straight lines of sewing along the open edge to create a tube, and then along the purple lines you can (just) see below to create the legs.

 And then pinking shears again for the base of the pants.

The skirt was even simpler. Cut out from the top of an existing elastic waistbanded skirt with a single seam to create a tube. Pinking Sheared bottom. Done.

Saved this picture for last. Dollys scare me. Even when they are in their pyjamas.

Angel Wings

I made Little Imp some angel wings. Pity I can't make her behave like one too...
She did enjoy herself running around Kings Park with friends this afternoon while wearing her wings. Almost angelic.

How To:

I traced a paper template from a friend's set of angel wings. You could make any shape though really.

Use this template to cut 2 (one reversed) wing shapes out of some stiffish felt (or thin wadding or interfacing). This will provide a bit of shape for the wings. The fabric I used for the wings was a big offcut of dusty pink upholstery fabric (the white below is the water resistant 'wrong side' of this fabric). Double over the wing fabric, right sides together. Pin so the fabric doesn't shift and then place each piece of felt onto the fabric. Mark the outline of the wing about 3-5mm bigger than the felt itself and then cut out.

Assemble a 'wing sandwich' for each wing: fabric-felt-fabric. The fabric should be facing right side out as you can see below. Pin all the way around to hold the 3 layers together.

Then stitch all the way around the outside of the wing to hold all 3 layers together (with the felt hidden inside). I have a blanket type stitch on my machine that I used to finish the edges at the same time.

 Add some straight line stitching for a bit more stiffness and definition.

Add elastic for attaching to the body.  I used about 24" of elastic. Take each end of the elastic and bring into the centre and stitch to hold (so you end up with 2 loops as seen below).

I should have attached the elastic to the back of one of the wings at this point so that the rectangle stitching you can see on the wings I made was hidden. But I didn't - so the pictures show what I did do.

2 wings pinned together

stitch oval shape around centre of wings to hold them together

Add elastic (as I said above - should do this before stitching wings together),

add elastic (should do this before stitching wings together ideally)

and then also cut a small rectangle of wing fabric and stitch over the elastic where it attaches to the wings to make it look a bit neater.

back of wings

front of wings (with the rectangle stitching visible unfortunately) 

Kids Pyjama Pants

What a super easy pattern!

Kids pj pants from this book - The Liberty Book of Simple Sewing by Lucinda Ganderton. Instead of needing front & back leg pieces, you cut each leg as a whole & essentially make 2 leg tubes that you sew together & then add a waistband. Easy peasy.

The pattern called for basting most seams first - I went straight ahead sewing without basting and it worked out fine. I adjusted the length of the cuffs in the given pattern & could have gone even shorter, but guess that means there may be room for growing into.

Someone likes them a lot - she wore them all night...and day!