"I Want One of Everything Bag" Interfacing

Following pattern instructions, this afternoon I attached the interfacing to 1/2 of the bag with a 3/8 inch seam.  It went together just fine and looks like it will go the job nicely.

                 Wrong Side

                 Front with Interfacing Attached

I Want One of Everything Bag

Last summer my daughter introduced me to the Amy Butler line of fabrics which our local quilting shop, The Quiltery, just happens to carry. Her prints are so bright and vivid I am drawn back to them every visit I made to the little store. Last week, while looking through Seams to Me by Anna Maria Horner, I became fascinated with her “I Want One of Everything Bag” pattern. Everything about the pattern shouted out, “You’ve got to make me out of some of that Amy Butler fabric.  So back to The Quiltery I went and bought a 1/4 yard of 12 of her gorgeous prints.  Working out the placement was a tad bit tedious, but the fan shaped front and back became a real eye opener when the pieces were laid out side by side.  Today I basted all of the little sections one to the other and then stitched them and pressed open the seams. My next step will be to create the lining, but that will have to wait for another day. Fun, Fun, Fun!

5 More Little Dresses for Africa

This week I was so fortunate in that a number of teachers at my school brought me in notions plus a number of used and new sheets and pillowcases.  Some of them are searching Goodwill and yard sales trying to help me out.  On Tuesday I am going to be speaking to our middle school Student Council Association to have them spearhead a school wide campaign as their spring project.  I’m so thrilled I was able to complete 5  new dresses this weeks in different lengths to share with them...that makes 12 total so far of my “100 Dress Challenge.”  The plan is for me to take along my sewing machine so I can show them how to actually put one of the little dresses together.  It is my hope some of them will try to make a few of them at home on their own.  The more children we can get involved, more parents will follow.  It is going to be an exciting week.

Pillowcase Dress Tutorial

                                

PLEASE NOTE: This tutorial is different from the one you will find on the Little Dresses for Africa site. I followed their pattern for the first few dresses I made, but then I decided to modify theirs to more suit the way I wanted my dress to go together. Some of the materials I used are different as well as the order in which I cut and sewed the dress together. I have not included their sizings, but you can find them on LDFA site.

MATERIALS:
1 new or lightly used cotton pillowcase
2-7 inch pieces of 3/8 inch wide elastic - you can use wider if you so choose
2-15 inch pieces of matching 3/8 inch wide gross grain ribbon - you can use wider  
1-package 1/2 inch color coordinated single fold cotton bias tape, thread, scissors or a rotary cutter, yard stick or ruler, pins, & steam iron

DIRECTIONS:

1. Find either a new or lightly used cotton pillowcase, wash it, and steam press it to iron out all of the wrinkles and flatten any seams. In general, pillowcases have a wide hemmed open top and a seam at the bottom. Some have a single side seam while others have two. You can work around these variations without any problems.

2.Place ironed pillowcase on your cutting surface. Smooth out your fabric as well as you can because you want to end up with an even cut where the distance is the same from top to bottom for both the front and back of the dress. Place pins as needed around the area to keep the fabric from shifting. Using a yard stick,  measure from the top to the bottom seam and place marks  with your Dritz Mark G Gone or pins at the point where you want to draw your cutting line across the pillowcase. For this one I went down 31 inches.

3. Take an erasable or disappearing ink sewing marker like Dritz Mark B Gone and draw a line from side to side at your pins/markings.

4. Cut seam off along that line using either scissors or a rotary cutter.

5. Before starting to make the armholes, be sure you have your pillow case with the hemmed edge at the bottom of your cutting surface and the bottom of the pillowcase that you just cut open up at the top. Your armholes come from the fabric where you just cut open the seam and NOT from the hemmed part. Once again use some pins to keep your pillowcase from moving. Place a ruler in the upper right hand corner and going toward the center measure in 2 inches and make a dot with your pen.

Please note that I used a red Sharpie permanent marker throughout his tutorial so that my notations could be seen more easily. You should only use an erasable or disappearing ink pen when placing marks on your pillowcase. Now place your ruler back at that upper right hand corner, but this time measure 5 inches going down the side fold towards the hem and make a second dot. Next, measure in 2 inches towards the center from the lower dot and make a third dot. Connect the three dots and you will have a rectangle. Place a pin in the middle of the rectangle. Go back and reshape that inner right angle into a curved line so when you cut out the armhole it has a rounded edge instead of a sharp rectangular one. I use a protractor so I can get a nice curve.

 6. Cut out your armhole through both layers following along your markings.

7. Your second armhole is a snap. Just bring over the pieces of fabric you just cut away from the right side (they will still have the pin in them), place the straight edge of the cutout going from top to bottom along the left side fold and the curved edge towards the center of the dress. Pin to pillowcase, mark around the edge of the cutout you are using for your pattern, and then cut it out. Voila!  You have your matching armholes.

8. Open up the single fold bias tape and pin it around the RIGHT side of one of your armholes stretching and smoothing both the tape and the fabric as you go. DON’T PIN THE TAPE TO THE WRONG SIDE OF YOUR DRESS!  Cut off the extra tape at the end.

9. Do the same thing with the other armhole. Use lots of pins before starting to sew. You need to stitch the tape to the fabric for both armholes along that first fold line where you opened up the tape to pin it. I’ve marked it in black for you. Go SLOWLY, and once again stretch and smooth both layers as you are stitching. You don’t want any tucks or puckers to appear.

10.  After stitching go back and make some very short angular cuts around the curved section of the armhole. Be extra careful not to cut too deeply.

11. Fold the tape to the inside of the dress, and steam it well. You don’t want any of the facing showing on the front or your dress. Pin it frequently from the FRONT SIDE….this is because you are going to topstitch on the front side of the dress and NOT the wrong side. You might rather topstitch from the back, and that is certainly ok.If you choose to do this, you will need to do your pinning from the wrong side.

12.  Before starting to topstitch, check the colors of your upper and bobbin threads. I changed mine to red because I was using red bias tape. By changing the bobbin color to match the bias tape the irregularities in your stitching will not show up so badly! Depending upon whether you are stitching from the front or the wrong side, you might need to change your top or bobbin thread accordingly. Topstitch around armholes as close to the edge as you can.

13. Go back and stitch one more time about 1/2 inch from the outer edge. You should successfully catch the bias binding on both rounds.

14. If you find you are having trouble getting the fabric to feed under the pressure foot, you can take a piece of piecing paper and start your stitching on it. After about 2 inches, place the fabric on top of that piecing paper and then as close to the pressure foot as you can or under it. At the same time as you are guiding and stitching forward using your right hand, pull back on the piecing paper left hand. Doing this will help you get more traction so the “glop” of fabric won’t get hung up and make a disastrous mess. I use this little trick anytime I am having difficulty getting material to feed in properly.  When you are through with your seam, just tear away the piecing paper. I took this picture from the left side of my sewing machine facing in. Follow these same steps for the other armhole. Steam press flat.

15. To make the casing, fold the front top edge 1/4 inch to the wrong side and press. You can even stay-stitch it if you want. Fold it over one more time 5/8 inch, iron, and stitch in place as close to the edge as possible. If you are using a larger width elastic and gross grain, then you will need to turn your casing under that second time a bit farther. This is your first completed casing. Repeat steps for the other one.

16. Take one of your 7 inch pieces of elastic and place one end of it on top of under one of your 15 inch pieces of gross grain ribbon with about a 1 inch overlap. Pin in place and then double or triple stitch these two together going back and forth. You do not want them to pull apart as the child wears the dress. Repeat this for the other side. You will end up with your elastic in the middle and the two 15 inch pieces of gross grain ribbon on either end. I prefer doing the elastic and gross grain ribbon this way rather than the way the LDFA pattern suggests because it is easier for me to guild it all through without not catching the elastic in my stitching.

17. Pin a large, sturdy safety pin through one end of the gross grain about 1 1/2 inches from the outer edge. Slowly start feeding it through the casing keeping an eye on the opposite end. When the point where the gross grain and the elastic are sewn together gets inside the casing an inch, pin it place and stitch over top of the two rounds of topstitching several times. I stitch down the distance of the casing and then backstitch back up to the top at least a couple of times to really make it more secure. Do this on the right and left sides of the front and back of your pillowcase dress – 4 times total.

18. The only thing left to do is cut the ends of your gross grain at an angle and use Dritz Fray Check on the edges to keep them from raveling. I put it on both sides of each ribbon end.

19. Tie gross grain ribbons in bows connecting front to back to form your shoulders.

20. At the last minute I thought the dress needed a little something else, so I cut out and appliqued a red flower to the front. Also, I used the red bias tape so it would show up better in the photos, but end I really like it. My only problem is my marking at the casing is shining out there for all to see. If I want to end up using this as one of my “100 Dresses”, I will need to go back and sew a button on each corner to cover them up.  Buttons can solve all kinds of boo-boos.

Here is your dress. I hope this tutorial was helpful.  Should you have any questions about my directions or photographs, and how I modified my pattern from those I had seen earlier, please let me know and I will do my best to explain it all to you.

Pillowcase Dress Tutorial

                       BASIC PILLOWCASE DRESS TUTORIAL

This tutorial is different from the one you will find on the Little Dresses for Africa site.  I followed their pattern for the first few dresses I made, but then I decided to modify theirs to more suit the way I wanted my dress to go together. Some of the materials I used are different as well as the order in which I cut and sewed the dress together. I have not included their sizings, but you can find them on LDFA site.

MATERIALS:

1 New or lightly used cotton pillowcase

2-7 inch pieces of 3/8 inch wide elastic

2-15 inch pieces of matching 3/8 inch wide gross grain ribbon

1-Package 1/2 inch color coordinated single fold cotton bias tape

Thread, scissors or a rotary cutters, yard stick or ruler, pins, steam iron

DIRECTIONS:

Place ironed pillowcase on your cutting surface. Smooth out your fabric as well as you can because you want to end up with an even cut where the distance is the same from top to bottom for both the front and back of the dress. Place pins as needed around the area to keep the fabric from shifting. Using a yard stick measure from the top to the bottom seam and place marks or pins at the point where you can make a line across the pillowcase. For this one I went down 31 inches.

1.                       

This tutorial is different from the one you will find on the Little Dresses for Africa site.  I followed their pattern for the first few dresses I made, but then I decided to modify theirs to more suit the way I wanted my dress to go together. Some of the materials I used are different as well as the order in which I cut and sewed the dress together. I have not included their sizings, but you can find them on LDFA site.

MATERIALS:

1 New or lightly used cotton pillowcase

2-7 inch pieces of 3/8 inch wide elastic

2-15 inch pieces of matching 3/8 inch wide gross grain ribbon

1-Package 1/2 inch color coordinated single fold cotton bias tape

Thread, scissors or a rotary cutters, yard stick or ruler, pins, steam iron

DIRECTIONS:

1. Place ironed pillowcase on your cutting surface. Smooth out your fabric as well as you can because you want to end up with an even cut where the distance is the same from top to bottom for both the front and back of the dress. Place pins as needed around the area to keep the fabric from shifting. Using a yard stick measure from the top to the bottom seam and place marks or pins at the point where you can make a line across the pillowcase. For this one I went down 31 inches.

2. Take an erasable or disappearing ink sewing marker like “Mark B Gone” and draw a line from side to side at your pins/markings.Cut seam off along that line using either scissors or a rotary cutter. Remove pins and steam.

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16. Before starting to make the armholes, be sure you have your pillow case with the hemmed edge at the bottom of your cutting surface and the bottom of the pillowcase that you just cut open up at the top.  Your armholes come from the fabric where you just cut open the seam, and NOT from the hemmed part since it is the ALREADY COMPLETED hem of your dress. Once again, use some pins to keep your pillowcase from moving.  Place a ruler in the upper right hand corner and going toward the center measure in 2 inches and make a dot with your pen. PHOTO 0135  Please make note that I uses a red Sharpie permanent marker throughout his tutorial so that my notations could be seen more easily.  You should only use an erasable or disappearing ink pen when placing marks on your pillowcase. Now place your ruler back at that upper right hand corner, but this time measure 5 inches going down the side fold towards the hem and make a second dot. Next, measure in 2 inches towards the center from the lower dot and make a third dot. Connect the three dots and you will have a rectangle. Place a pin in the middle of the rectangle.  Go back and reshape that inner right angle into a curved line so when you cut out the armhole it has a rounded edge instead of a sharp rectangular one. I use a protractor so I can get a nice curve. PHOTO 01237  Cut out your armhole through both layers following along your markings. PHOTO 0140

4. Your second armhole is a snap.  Just bring over the pieces of fabric you just cut away from the right side (they will still have the pin in them), place the straight edge of the cutout going from top to bottom along the left side fold and the curved edge towards the center of the dress.  Pin to pillowcase, mark around the edge of the cutout you are using for your pattern. PHOTO 0141, PHOTO 0142 and then cut it out.  Now you have the same sized armhole for the right and the left. PHOTO 0143

5. Now open up the single fold bias tape and pin it around the RIGHT side of one of your armholes stretching and smoothing both the tape and the fabric as you go. DON’T PIN THE TAPE TO THE WRONG SIDE OF YOUR DRESS! Cut off the extra tape. PHOTO 0150 Do the same thing with the other armhole. Now you need to stitch the tape to the fabric for both armholes along that first fold line where you opened up the tape to pin it. I’ve marked it in black for you. PHOTO 0152, PHOTO 0153  Go SLOWLY, and once again stretch and smooth both layers as you are stitching.  You don’t want any tucks or puckers to appear. After stitching go back and make some very short angular cuts around the curved section of the armhole. PHOTO 0154 BE CAREFUL!  Fold the tape to the inside of the dress, and steam it well. You don’t want any of the facing showing on the front or your dress. Pin it from the FRONT SIDE….this is because you are going to topstitch on the front side of the dress and NOT the wrong side. PHOTO 0157, PHOTO 0156 Before starting to topstitch, check the colors of your upper and bobbin threads. I changed mine to red because I was using red bias tape. PHOTO 0155 By changing the bobbin color to match the bias tape the irregularities in your stitching will not show up so badly!  Topstitch around armholes as close to the edge as you can. PHOTO 0158 Go back and stitch one more time about 1/2 inch from the outer edge. PHOTO 0159 You will catch the bias tape on both rounds of stitching. If you find you are having trouble getting the fabric to feed under the pressure foot, you can take a piece of piecing paper and start your stitching on it. After about 2 inches, place the fabric on top of that piecing paper. At the same time you are  stitching forward, pull back on the piecing paper. Doing this will help you get more traction so that the glop of fabric won’t get hung up and make a mess. I took this picture from the left side of my sewing machine facing in. PHOTO 0160 Follow these same steps for the other armhole. Steam press flat.

6. To make the casing, fold the front top edge 1/4 inch to the wrong side and press. PHOTO 0146 You can even stay-stitch it if you want.  Fold it over one more time 5/8 inch, iron, and stitch in place as close to the edge as possible. PHOTO 0147 This is your first completed casing.  Repeat steps for the other one.

7. Take one of your 7 inch pieces of elastic and place one end of it on top of one of your 15 inch pieces of gross grain ribbon with about a 1 inch overlap.  Pin in place, and then double or triple stitch these two together going back and forth/up and down. You do not want them to pull apart as the child wears the dress.  Repeat this for the other side.  You will end up with your elastic in the middle and the two 15 inch pieces of gross grain ribbon on either end. PHOTO 0162

8. Attach a large, sturdy safety pin to one end of the gross grain about 1 1/2 inches from the outer edge.  Slowly start feeding it through the casing keeping an eye on the opposite end.  When the point where the gross grain and the elastic are sewn together gets inside the casing an inch, PIN  IT IN PLACE and go ahead and stitch over top of the two rounds of topstitching that are showing from where you sewed the binding to the armhole. PHOTO 0166 I stitch down the distance of the casing and then backstitch back up to the top to make it more secure.  Do this on the right and left sides of the front and back of your pillowcase dress – 4 times total.

9. The only thing left to do is cut the ends of your gross grain at an angle and use Dritz Fray Check on the edges to keep them from raveling. I put it on both sides of each ribbon end.

10. Tie gross grain ribbons in bows connecting front to back to form your shoulder. 

11. If you think your dress is too dull you can always appliqué something to the front of it.  PHOTO 0175

12. Here is your dress. PHOTOS 0174, 0170, 0172

Little Dresses for Africa with Applique and Piecing

Another week has come and gone, and I was able to complete three more dresses - 1 from yardage and 2 from pillowcases. After thinking and some trial and error, I ended up modifying the original pattern I got off the Little Dresses for Africa site making a number of changes that made my sewing proceed easier and not as bulky in places. I switched from double fold bias tape to single fold, sewed it to the front of the armhole, folded it over to the wrong side, but I double stitched it from the front. I am working on a tutorial on how I did all of this, but it is going to need a lot more tweaking before it will be ready for posting. Another change I made was to cut four-15inch pieces of gross grain ribbon for the ties, two-7 inch strips of elastic, and then overlapped and stitched one piece of the gross grain to each end of the elastic. After pulling it through the casings, I stitched it in place at either end. It made for a neat closure, and I liked the feel of the ribbon vs. the feel and bulkiness of the double folded bias tape. I used left over jelly roll pieces for a pocket and an inset strip on one, added a contrasting solid color to the bodice of another, and used applique on two of them.

Pinwheel Baby Quilt

To date this has to be my favorite quilt. It was not a quick one to make, but it was so exciting to see how the colors went together. The best part of it, though, was when my artistic son told me how beautiful it was. That was about the nicest complement a mom could receive. I followed the BEST tutorial ever which I found on the Moda Bakeshop site - Pinwheel Baby Quilt Tutorial. This one had wonderful pictures with understandable and easy to follow directions. The points are probably the neatest part of the quilt to me. If you want to have a wonderful adventure, go to the tutorial, buy 1-40 square Moda American Jane Snippets Charm Pack from your local quilt shop or online, and plan to have the time of your life.

More Little Dresses for Africa

The photo on the top is of a little child in Africa. It is just one of the precious pictures that touched my heart and got me started on this project. As of today, I have completed a total of 4 little dresses....4 out of my goal of 100. I did not have any pillow cases so used fabrics from my stash, some new 1 yard pieces from WalMart, and a little red dress from our local Goodwill store that I cut apart. They are so much fun to sew.

Little Dresses for Africa

While visiting some blogs the other night, I stumbled upon the most special site entitled "Little Dresses for Africa.” I kept reading and reading and looking and looking. It touched my heart in such a way that I just had to right then become a part of the family of seamstresses making these adorable little dresses for the children of Africa, Haiti, and other needy countries. I couldn’t find a new or lightly used pillow case, but in my quilting stash I discovered a yard of what I thought to be an African-looking print....just enough to make my first dress. I used a pillow case for my “go-by-pattern” and started sewing away. With every stitch I became more enamored with the project and began immediately thinking about what I was going to use for my next little dress. Should you want to make one or several for yourself or for charity, all the information you need is on the “Little Dresses for Africa" home page. There are good directions and some pictures showing you what to do and a chart for sizing your dresses. I completed my “practice one” today, and I cannot wait to start my “real one” for charity this weekend. Another site that has a tutorial which is followed by a link to some precious pictures is “Rostitchery.” If you just go to Flickr and type in “pillow case dresses” you can see some out-of-this-world creations.

My New Blog Design

For months I’ve been trying to decide how I wanted to make my blog original and REALLY my own. I played around with different templets on Blogger, but nothing really had the spark I wanted. I tried downloading some free templets I found online, but those, too, did not feel right. Finally, I decided to return to the site I found earlier and thought was the most creative and appealing of all I’d researched... Aqua Poppy Designs, and the designer is Chelsea Stevenson. She offers many wonderful and free designs to be used with the Blogger Minima templet, but she also gives you the option of special design packages in all price ranges which she will create for you. This is what I finally decided to do, and it was the best decision I have made since I first decided to have my own blog. Chelsea was absolutely wonderful. I came up with the basic colors and overall feeling I wanted to invoke, and she took it from there. Her wait time was about two weeks, but once my name got to the head of the queue it took about a week to complete. We’d email back and forth, and she tweaked things until I finally felt we had exactly what I wanted. She answered all of my many questions and helped me with my decision making. It was a wonderful experience, and I would recommend her to anyone wanting an extremely talented and creative person to help design your one-of-a-kind personalized blog. I did not have the computer background skills to do it myself, but she did. I am so happy with the end product, and should I want to make changes in the future, I will go right back to her. Visit Chelsea’s site and study her designs and options. Her prices are certainly fair and well worth your investment. She was wonderful, and I am a very happy, satisfied customer.