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:)

Ashbury Peasant Top and another hairclip

I made one of these for Little Imp a few years ago and she has had so much wear out of it. It is an online pattern Ashbury Peasant Top that is super easy to make - no buttons or zips - and pretty forgiving.

I used a lightweight cotton for the first version & it is perfect for summer (saves the need to go through the battle of applying suncream to arms), or when it is a bit cooler with a layer underneath.

I have used the size 8 bodice sizing for the one I have just made, and the size 6 arms. Probably could have done a size 6 throughout, but too late now! Little Imp likes it, so that is the main thing.

                        

 

Can't have a new dress without a matching hairclip & this is a super easy method.

Cut a strip of fabric about 16" x 2". Turn over short raw edges 1/4" wrong sides together and iron. Then fold in half lengthways and iron, wrong sides together. I then used pinking shears to trim the tiniest amount off the long raw edges to stop fraying. Set machine to the longest straight stitch length and then sew close to the raw edges to form a long tube. Pull up thread to begin to gather. Keep going with the gathering & the fabric strip/tube will start to twist. Once it is all gathered up work with the twist to sort of roll it up into a flower shape. Secure with some hand sewing and add a button in the middle to hide the messy bits. Attach to a clip - hey presto!

A late Easter post

Look what we made for Easter decorations. I blew all of those eggs. Hard work.

Guess it is still easier than laying the eggs though...Thank you chickens...

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!

Little Imp in the Button Room - an Owl Softie is created

My lovely sister in law gifted me a Sew Cute to Cuddle book by Mariska Vos-Bolman this weekend and Little Imp was taken very much by 'Wooksy the Owl'. By the time we got home she was determined to get going on the 'Whooskie' project.

I really wasn't sure how long the enthusiasm would last, but I provided some sheets of tracing paper and she started tracing the shapes from the back of the book, a few bull dog clips helped keep the paper still for little hands. Before dinner she had traced & cut out most of the pieces we needed. A few wobbly lines and cuts here and there, but on the whole Whooskie looked good on paper!

The first call the following morning was to "keep going with Whoosky". I traced around each of her template pieces & little Imp cut out most of the fabric herself

I restrained myself and let the jagged cutting go for the most part, but again she did such a great job anyway. Here is Whoosky ready for stitching.

I did all the sewing this time around, Little Imp sat on my lap with the roles of snipping, pressing the right buttons and helping with thread selection and threading. We had fun!

I did do the feet - I free formed stitched directly onto the traced lines, then Little Imp cut around the stitching before I turned right side out & stiffed those tricky little claws.

A bit of wing stuffing happening here.

I generally attach softie limbs/appendages with a quick straight stitch to one side of the body before stitching front & back body pieces together - I find this makes sure they get stitched in in the right spot.

A bit of graffiti on Whooskie's bottom so that there can be no mistaking who owns the Owl.

Love at first sight! There was a period of reassurance required as I covered up all of Whooskie's front body with the right side of the back of the body to sew front & back together & Little Imp had to wait for me to turn Whooskie right side out. "Don't cover up Whooskie mummy, you can't put her feet inside her body! Don't!"

Some things aren't perfect - a bit of French knitting whimsy

Little Imp was given a french knitter for Christmas. Not the sort I remember having as a kid, this one was big and plasticy, with twirling spools and other attachments.
Little Imp struggled with it all until we worked out that if she just used her hands instead of all the attachments she could knit all by herself. Just like kids did in the 'old days' (ha!).

I helped a bit, but after a bit of perseverance she had a tube we could turn into a cat - just like the one pictured on the cover of the box the knitter came in (well kind of!).

No instructions in the box for how to make said cat, but we muddled our way through, collecting all our ingredients from the craft box - pipe cleaners, felt triangles for ears, goggly eyes, stuffing and glue.

We stuffed the tube..

We tied off the top third to create the neck between the head and body...

We poked a (pink) pipe cleaner through the stuffing to create the upper legs/arms, and threaded a (blue) pipe cleaner through the base for the lower legs. I folded over a small section on all of the pipe cleaner ends to get rid of the sharp pointy bit. The blue legs we made quite a bit longer to help the cat sit up and balance (see pic further below).

Short sparkly pipe cleaners were threaded through on the face & twisted over and around each other for whiskers and the felt triangles were pinched in a bit to create an ear shaped curve and positioned with a liberal amount of glue.

The green pipe cleaner was twirled around a pencil for curly whirly-ness and looped in near the bottom to create a tail.

A stray green pom pom was located by Little Imp during my tail attaching and proclaimed to be required as a belly button (because all cats have to have belly buttons apparently).
Two googly eyes were glued in place where they belong...,

And the third eye you may have noticed in the 'ingredients' pile at the beginning? Well, apparently some cats also have an eye on the end of their tails!

Hello Whimsy Cat;)