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) 

T shirt dress upcycle

Little imp was given a hand-me-down dress that she has worn until it tore on the bodice. She loved it so much I wondered if I could use the skirt part to make into a new favourite. This is how it turned out.

This is the first edition, taken apart at the seam.

I found a long sleeve top that would become the new top half of the dress, perfect for winter. I used the original to roughly gauge where to cut the new top - making the bodice a few inches longer this time given Little Imp has grown somewhat.

Somewhere online I saw this trick - add a piece of iron on interfacing just above where you will cut the bodice - this will help the tshirt material keep its shape once the skirt is added. Given the skirt I am adding is quite heavy I thought this would be worth doing. **Note- I later ripped the interfacing out as I had used waistband interfacing that was way too heavy & so you could see a solid, stiff band through the t-shirt fabric.

interfacing ironed on just above the line where I will cut the shirt

cutting the shirt at the line just below the interfacing (photo upside down)

With right sides together I pinned the skirt to the shirt bodice - you can see the interfacing in the picture below. Then I stitched this together using a sewing machine.

 This is what it looked like turned right side out with a heart applique (from another well loved top!)

A bit too hot to wear it today....

But this day was the perfect day to wear it:)

A Wedding Party Dress

One Little Imp is all partied out.  Her aunt was married this month and with a number of pre and post wedding gatherings to help with the celebrations we were out & about in the evenings a whole lot more than usual.  In an attempt to get Little Imp excited and willing to join us we kept telling her we were heading to another party - now every time we head out the door she is asking if she needs to wear a party frock!

Obviously the bride looked stunning, but Little Imp also had her fair share cuteness and comments in the little up-cycled dress I finished a while back.

Some quick kiddie T-shirts

A play date at the zoo today with 2 of Little Imp's interstate cousins.  Given I never get around to posting gifts & we hadn't seen them for a while I decided to quickly make them some t-shirts.  Given Little Imp's fascination (bordering on obsession) with 'raff's' at present, the zoo theme of the day and some spotty orange fabric found hiding in my stash, a new giraffe design seemed in order.

This is what eventuated:

Free motion embroidery around ears and 'ossicones'

Mostly the same process used making these ones as for all my other applique T-shirts.  Heat-n-Bond the cut out fabric design onto the shirt and then zigzag stitch around the main parts (neck, head and muzzle).  The ears and 'ossicones' were secured with free motion machine embroidery (even Nature Ranger me had to look up the real name for the antler/horns that a giraffe has - did you know they are the only animal in the world to have ossicones?!).  To stop the stretchy shirt material puckering I placed a small piece of thin webbing on the inside of the shirt & then stitched through this and the ears/ossicones.  Once all stitched I trimmed the webbing down with rounded edges.

Thankfully I had thought ahead for the possible tears if one certain Imp didn't have her own 'Raff', whipping up an extra one on an old shirt last night for Little Imp.  Good thinking that, she was pleased!!

A pretty party dress.

A family friend gave Little Imp a very white dress and cardigan set a while back that looks home crafted and very pretty in its own way, but not really something she might wear before she grows too big to wear it at all.

We have a wedding in the family coming up in the next few months & Little Imp needs a party frock.

The cardigan to start with

Hating to see a gift never worn, but also not too happy with the outfit as it looked to start - too white, too boring  - I decided to give it a makeover.

The finished dress

Some gold ribbons and bows were sewn into the woolen dress & the skinny white bodice ribbon replaced with a thick gold satin ribbon to be tied in a large bow at the back.

                      

 

Of course I've also made a matching pretty gold satin hair clip for Little Imp (in an attempt to somehow tame her wayward hair, where on earth did the double-crown genes come from!?!)

'Toot Toot'

Another up-cycle project, this time with a couple of magnetic pull along wooden toy trains I picked up at a baby market.
Each train carriage has grooves that must have once held something that you could slip in and out, but this wasn't part of the purchase so I decided to make my own.  This was the result.  A perfect stocking filler for the Little Imp!

Part of this project was playing around with my sewing machine and some free motion embroidery.  I had a go using this to attach the felt letters to the fabric backgrounds and although I have a way to go until I am happy to embroider something a bit more special, I was surprised that it wasn't as hard to do as I expected.

Although I have made these little fabric letter cards to fit into the train carriages, they would also be great for kids for lots of other things - attach magnets for sticking on the fridge, adapt as a memory game or shape recognition with different felt symbols....

Basic 'How To' 

Cut out cardboard, background fabric and felt letters

1. Measure and cut pieces of firm cardboard (e.g. from a box) to the size you want
2. Measure and cut your background fabric  (here from blue & orange spotted patterns) - it needs to be double the length of the card with approx 1-2cm seam allowance all around 
3. Cut out letters (or shapes/ symbols) from felt to fit the card
4. Sew the felt letter onto the bottom half of the background fabric, positioning it to allow for bottom and side seams in the next step. This is where I played around with free motion embroidery, but you could  do this with a standard machine stitch or by hand)
5. Fold each piece of background fabric in half, wrong sides together.  Using the cut cardboard pieces as a guide, mark the position for the side seams leaving a few extra millimeters on each side.  Then machine straight stitch up each side along these marks.  
6. Trim side seams and turn right side out
7. Slip cardboard piece into fabric pocket that you have created
8. Slip stitch the bottom seam closed

Pieces from left to right demonstrating steps 4 - 8