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.

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!?!)

Recovering an armchair - Part 2

Little Imp's armchair is complete, with little matching pillows.  What fun I've had.  Check back to Recovering an Armchair Part One for the chair used to look like.  I ended up replacing only the bits in green - the front skirt, arm rests and a piece under the main cushion & kept the original white of the old chair cover for the rest.  The embellishing is made up of a combination of free form machine embroidery, Heat-&-Bond iron on adhesive to attach fabric pieces, hand stitching, felt & buttons.

But for now I might just let the pictures do the talking.

Little flowers and bugs hide at the base of the tree under the cushions & Sullfok puff flowers grow on the wings

Fabric embroidered birds on a ribbon wire with bright buttons & flowers

Applique and free form machine embroidery toadstools and flowers on the front skirt

A hand stitched tree & machine embroidered flowers on the armrest 

Felt embroidered circles & fabric owls on ribbon 

A line of elephants

Making a jumper into a toddler dress

A nip in the air last week led to a morning of swapping over summer for winter clothes.  Long sleeves and pants out of their boxes and short sleeves and dresses into storage.  A moment of purging overtook me as well & I threw items I'd hung onto for far too long into a pile for the Op Shop.  Then I spied a tutorial on a blog titled make it and love it to turn a jumper into a little wee dress, and before I knew it a number of clothes in the Op Shop pile were back in a pile in my craft room awaiting their moment of upcycling.

I started with one very well worn jumper similar to this one in style (forgot to take a picture of the original jumper in my haste to chop and sew it into a new creation).

And after some simple cutting and sewing this is how it turned out. Pretty pleased.  Best of all no actual measuring required, just some eye-judged snips.  My kind of sewing!

Now we need some of the cold weather back so Little Imp can wear it with some tights.

Fabric covered ideas book

 I'm a visual person.  I like making lists and planning things.  Sometimes I write these down, but more often than not I loose the scrap I've written on. This doesn't help with falling asleep at night, attempting to recall lists and plans somewhere from within my whirring brain.

On a recent op shop expedition for photo frames for Little Imp's room (I'll post about that project some time soon), I came across an unused notebook for 50c that I realised could do the trick.  A new cover to make it mine and I would have a place to jot and store my thoughts and ideas.

I'd had one of the Japanese-y pieces of fabric I bought a while back earmarked for a book cover of some description and a strip of thick linen from an upholstery swatch (also from an op shop) worked perfectly as a coordinating feature.   A very easy project indeed.

Here's how it turned out.

               

  

Basic 'How To'

• Use a hard covered bound book for this project.  To work out how much fabric you need, open the book flat on the fabric and mark leaving an additional 5cm all the way around (to fold over and secure on the inside).  If the fabric has a design you want placed in a particular area on the cover take this into account (e.g. I wanted at least 2 full birds showing).
• Cut the fabric to size using scissors or a quilting cutter.
• Cut a coordinating/ contrasting strip to use as a feature on the front cover.  I used a teal upholstery linen that I frayed by pulling out a few threads along each long edge.
• Work out where you want the coordinting strip placed and pin to secure it to the main fabric.
• Machine stitch the strip to the main fabric using a small straight stitch in your choice of coloured thread along each edge.  I also used my machine to stitch 'OneLittleImp' along the strip for fun.
• Then reposition the open book on the wrong side of the fabric.  Use PVA glue along the inside side edges of the front and back covers and stick the fabric down, pulling it taught across the book and spine as you do so.  Do not use glue on the outside of the covers as it will show through the fabric and ruin the finish.
• Before you glue down the top and bottom edges snip the fabric on either side of the spine to allow the fabric to sit flat when you fold it over.  
• Take care when folding over each of the corners to ensure you get a nice neat point. 
• Use the flat blade of your scissors and a bit of extra glue to poke the thin pieces of fabric left at the top and bottom of the spine into the gap between the book cover and binding.
• Measure and cut 2 pieces of card to stick over the fabric edges on the inside covers at the front and back of your book.
• If you want to add some ribbons as page markers, cut these at approx 1.5 times the length of the book and secure them in place under the card on the front inside cover.