DIY – Little girl dress

Craft takes on a whole new dimension when you get to make something that is actually useful. It is especially gratifying when you can tell your spouse that in fact you saved money by making this dress.

This is a beautiful frilly dress, with butterfly sleeves, just below the knee, with a bunny rabbit applique. Though it is not an original pattern (the pattern is from Burda), I love how customizable it is. You can pick your own fabric, your own ribbons, underskirt, and even make your own applique!

Lexie said she wanted a Blue Ribbon Bunny applique (from Sofia the first, but in order to avoid infringing on some copyright laws, we improvised). I have a previous post that shows a very simple step by step tutorial how to make appliques using sewing machine. You can find the tutorial here.

The front of the dress is so simple, yet delicate. Reminds me of the Russian uniform we used to wear during Soviet times (I am that old! Sounds like a different lifetime altogether!)

Really grateful for the buttonhole function on my sewing machine!

My little girlie girl was very excited! What girl would say no to a pretty frock!

Here is a close up of the Blue Ribbon Bunny.

If you enjoy sewing, here are some of my older posts for inspiration:

  

DIY Fabric Dollhouse

My dollhouse obsession continues! I don’t know what it is about tiny little houses, but I am absolutely crazy about them! I wonder if there is a name for this crazy obsession. Dollhouse-itis.. Dollhouse-a-mania? 

I think my favourite part of creating a little house is to see little hands play with it. This is a picture of my wee son, investgating. He’s too cute!

The little fabric house is actually sewn for my cute niece, who just turned 2! I am really hoping she will love it.

There is a perfect little tutorial with pictures right here. Make sure you visit it, it’s great!

If you liked this post, and share my love for anything miniature, check these out:

DIY – Lalaloopsy Bedding

I love fabric leftovers! I love weighing up all their posibilities, maximising their potential, watching it reborn.

This bedding was so simple to make, yet so cute! Throw together some lace, ribbon, heart shaped buttons and some floral and polka dot fabric – and, voila!, you get some gorgeous bedding for your dolly!

One long decorative pillow…

One heart-shaped decorative pillow…

I’ve added on some light green felt hearts, using the same technique as described in my tutorial here. Super easy!

Make it and love it!

If you enjoyed this, maybe we share the same love for lalaloopsies:

 

 

 

DIY – Fabric Veggies

Fabric Veggies – such a clever toy! My kids love playing picnic and house and grocery shop with these fabric veggies. I won’t say it’s a quick and easy craft, but I think it is well worth it. Plus, they are sturdy and machine washable, should last for a while. Here is my take on DIY fabric vegetables.

Step 1: Using this template printed on A4, cut out the necessary pieces. For a tomato use 5 cut outs. Pin two pieces together, right sides facing.

Step 2: Sew the two together. Make sure to use back stitching to make sure seams don’t come apart at the edges. Turn them inside out.

Step 3: Pin another piece to one of the original pieces, right side together.  Continue until all five pieces are sewn together. Sew together the first and the last pieces, leaving a 4-5cm gap for filling. Turn right side out.

Step 4: Fill the shape with polyfill. You will need about a kilo for all toys.  Using a thread and needle, sew up the gap used for filling.

Step 5: At the point, for purposes of specialisation, I’ve completed all work that needed to be done on the sewing machine.

Here are all the parts needed for the veggies:

Step 6: Decorate the veggies. Using embroidery floss, go over all the seams on round shapes and around the leaves.

Carrot:

Cauliflower:

Beetroot:

Cabbage:

Step 7: Give them to your kid.

Make it and love it!

And if you enjoyed this craft, perhaps you will enjoy these, too:

DIY – Superhero Mask and Cape

What do you do when you have a spare hour? My husband took a nap. My children and I made a Superhero mask and cape and run aroundlike cray nutters – all in an hour!

It does not require much preparation or fabric – or even skill. Charlie sat on my chair behind me, that’s how little concentration this craft requires. Neither of my kiddies know that Spider-man’s outfit is red and blue and Batman’s is black and yellow, so they are just as excited with a green superhero mask and cape.

The Making Of:

Step 1 – Pin your template (which I sketched myself) to two pieces of felt. The bottom piece needs to be quite a bit larger than the front piece.

Step 2 – Cut around the seam of the front piece.

Step 3 – Prepare the elastic band. I wrapped mine in a green ribbon as shown below.

Step 4 – Pin your second template, two pieces of felt and the elastic strap. I have also inserted some green material between the felt pieces just for some extra sturdiness. Sew together.

Step 5 – Cut the fabric off around the seam.

Step 6 – Bring back the first template and sew around the eyes.

Step 7 – Cut the eye holes out.

For the cape, I took dark green 1m by 1m jersey material, sewn a 25cm elastic band about 20cm down the back. Then I folded the material over the elastic band and sewn on some green ribbons.

Final result – some weird green superhero costume, that didn’t cost me a thing,but provided a fun opportunity for role-play!

My girl, a born superhero!

If you liked this, you might also enjoy the following:

       

And if you are into pinning, here is one for you:

 

 

 

 

Tutorial – Dress-up Nurse Apron

Today both my kiddies had to get vaccinated, and to take our mind off of it, our answer lay with Dress-up Nurse Apron. Nothing like a theme fitted craft!

Just recently I’ve been donated some fabric scraps, all sizes and all colours. Just so happened, I found all the fabric scraps that would work for me. Perfect to turn our stressed up day into a dressed-up day.

I’ve cut out whatever pieces would make up the nurse apron, leaving enough space for seam allowances. I also planned to make a little red cross on a white circle.

Next step was to tidy all sides, and work on the little red cross. Looked tidy enough. I also added some rushing on the skirt piece, to make it more girly.

The remaining steps were about putting all the pieces together, hiding as many seams as possible.

All I need to sew now is a little nurse hat. In good time.

If you enjoyed this, check out my other sewing posts:

DIY – Diaper Bag

I have finally had a chance to browse through multitude of folders on my computers (yer, multiple) named “craft”. There I found quite a few past crafts that I have thoroughly enjoyed making, and perhaps sharing them will encourage some of you to find some spare time for craft.

An example of such is this wonderful Baby Bag, aka Ultimate Diaper Bag.  A wonderful detailed step-by-step tutorial is available for this wonderful bag! It was so good, I made two of them – one for my sister-in-law and one for my best friend.

This one is made for my Swedish friend, thus the “TUMMEN” key ring.

The bag can be carried using shorter handles, or a longer shoulder strap, which can be detached. There are many smalleer compartments inside for all your baby bottles and nappies. I loved this bag, and a wonderful sentimental gift, too!

Make it and love it!

 

DIY – Cottage cushion cover (what, more little house obsession?)

My Sunday afternoon craft.

Ok, cat’s out the bag – I absolutely love miniature houses. Whether it’s a shelf, or a paper-mache sculpture, or even a simple watercolour… I love them. What’s not to love? An idea of creating a home… be it for an imaginary someone. (Not to mention “Property ownership” potential). Here is my take on a little cottage house, using my favourite technique – the sewing machine embroidery. Super easy, took me one afternoon.

Here is a quick tutorial, just scroll down! By the way, here is my other tutorial embroidering letters on a baby quilt.

Step 1: To begin with, I had to draw up a rather detailed cottage drawing. Depending on your size pillow, aim for a roof that’s about a third of the height of the house, three windows on the first floor and two windows and a door on the ground floor.

Step 2: Trace the windows and door onto baking paper.

Step 3: Cut out a square piece of material that will serve as cottage wall (make sure it fits whatever cushion size you are planning to use). Lay it out with pieces of material cut out slightly larger that the windows and door on the tracing paper. I did iron the pieces before I sewed them on. I love projects like this, as you get to play around with all those pieces of materials that you’ve collected over the years. Who is laughing now!

Step 4: Align the “wall” material, “windows and doors” scraps and the tracing paper.

Step 5: Sew over the tracing paper.

Step 6: Cut off the excessive material around the seams.

Step 7: Sew along the edges of the windows and door using Zig-Zag stitch set at 4.5 width and 0.2 length. For inside the windows I used 1.5 width and 0.2 length.

Step 8: Decorate to your hearts content. I used another decoative stitch on my sewing machine, and lastly hand-sewn some beads for flowers.

Step 9: Make it and love it!

If you enjoyed this, you might enjoy other suggestions from my earlier posts:

      

DIY – Chevron Baby Quilt Tutorial

Both my children got mummy-made quilts. I don’t think it’s old fashioned at all, I think it’s traditional. A quilt is something a little one can have with them for years to come. My daughter spent countless hours with her “blankie”. She learned to crawl by lying around on it; that’s where she sat up for the first time on her 6 month’s “birthday”; she named all her plush toys while playing picnic on this same quilt. I am hoping that one day she will be oh-so-sweetly reminded of her babyhood.

Quilts are a great present for another reason, too. While a quilts in Zara Home are at least 80 euro, this one cost me a fraction of that! Plus this particular one is a Chevron Quit! So IN right now!

So, grab your enthusiasm, the below list of essentials, and your are on your way to making a quilt!

You will need:

• 1 square metre of floral fabric
• 1 square metre of white linen fabric
• 2 square metres of grey linen fabric
• 1.5 square metre of fleece
• matching thread, pins, scissors, ruller, etc.

Step 1: Make a template, a right angle triangle, 15cm by 15 cm.

Step 2: Cut 48 floral triangles, 66 grey linen triangles, and 66 white linen triangles.

Step 3: Arrange the triangles in the chevron pattern as shown below using all the triangles.

Step 4: Sew all the diagonals to create squares. Then sew the squares into panels, which then are sewn together to give you a finished quilt face. See below.

When sewing these together, make sure to align all the corners perfectly! Linen tends to skew, so use lots of pins to get those corners just right!

 Step 5:  Once all the pieces are sewn together, lay the quilt  wrong side up and secure it in place with cello-tape.

 Step 6: Cut out grey linen and fleece fabric exactly the same size as the front side.   Stitch them together.

 Step 7: Cut the borders out of the grey linen. You will need to do some maths here.  The borders I made are 10cm wide, plus 2cm for seam allowance (that’s folded, so unfolded its 24cm).  Measure your final quilts width and length to calculate your borders lengths.

Step 8:  To sew the borders together, follow steps below.

 Step 9: (Optional) Embroider the border. I have an easy step-by-step tutorial on how to do that here:

 Step 10: Iron the seam allowance inwardly, then pin it onto the quilt, making sure the border seams on the back and the front align. Together with the borders, the width of my quilt came to 130cm by 110cm.

 Step 11: (Optional) Under the border seam I tucked in a  ribbon loop on one side and two 12 cm ribbons on the other side. These can be used for baby to play with, to tie toys to, or to wrap the quilt (see pics).

Here is the finished quilt!

DIY – Sewing machine letter embroidery Tutorial

More than hand-made gifts, I love personalized gifts! Who doesn’t?! Even if you already have a similar item, anything with your name on it instantly becomes your favourite keep-sake. Do that for someone else with this very easy sewing machine letter embroidery tutorial.

You will need:

• Two pieces of fabric. One you are embroidering onto, e.g. a quilt, pillow case, etc, and one for the actual letters.
• Printer and paper
• Sewing machine

Step 1: Print the word outline, cut it out and pin it in place.

 Step 2: Sew around the outline on top of the paper.

 

Step 3: Tear the paper off very carefully.

 

Step 4: Carefully cut around the sewn letters. 

Step 5:  Change the sewing machine settings to Zig-zag, 4.5 stitch width and 0.3 length .

Step 6: Now that the letters are sewn on, it will be easy to zig-zag stitch around them.

Step 7: Step back and enjoy your creation!

I made a Chevron quilt below for a friend. Stand by for a full tutorial soon!

 Here are a few more ideas how to use your newly acquired skill!

And if you like quick-view picture tutorials this one is for you!