sewing – Page 2

Easter Outfits

March 28, 2016 by Jessica Leave a Comment

This past weekend was Easter and we had a fabulously packed weekend at that. We did the thing many Louisianan’s do and attended a crawfish boil, had Easter egg hunts, and enjoyed a wonderful Resurrection Sunday at church. I haven’t sewn Easter outfits for my girls in a while so I made it a goal this year. I went searching online for some cute sewing patterns that would suit each of their personalities and I’m very happy with the patterns I found.

First up is Miss E’s outfit. I used the Violette Fields Threads Clara Top and Shorts pattern to create her shirt. I really wanted to make the bloomers to go with it but ran out of time. So I just let her wear some jeans. I found her shoes at Old Navy and her hair clip is mine from Anthropologie a few years ago. It’s such a cute top and I was surprised at how fast it came together. I was expecting it to take longer than it did due to some of the more intricate sewing things like those ruffles and the back plackets/buttons and such. The fabric came from Hobby Lobby and I love the little pineapples on it! This outfit is so her. I say she’s my Southern Belle.

Now for Miss J’s outfit. She’s my country girl and she tells me she just wants “country girl dresses.” haha. I saw this dress and knew it would be perfect. It’s also a Violette Field Threads Pattern, the Maisie Dress and Top. I also found this fabric at Hobby Lobby. I wanted to find a fabric with small printed flowers but was short on time and this ended up working out perfect. This was another very nice pattern and I can’t wait to make more. I like the length and the little details like the sleeves. I also learned some new techniques from this pattern which is always a good thing. She paired her dress with her cowgirl boots (of course) and those we got from Kohls a few months back.

It made my mama heart proud to see them happy and wearing these outfits that I made them. And even happier that they were super excited to do pictures too 🙂 -jess

Sewn: Tropical Shorts and a White Top

March 7, 2016 by Jessica Leave a Comment

Spring has been here for a bit so I’m already sewing up some summer clothes. The past two weeks I have really been pushing myself to do a million and one things, so this past weekend I decided that I would do something that I wanted to do for fun. Something that wasn’t needed to be done. Miss E made out with an outfit because of that. Tropical shorts and a white top.

I had seen this tropical plant fabric at Hobby Lobby the past few times I have visited there and finally decided to buy some. I had no plans for it, but the print just spoke to me and I knew I needed to sew with it. It reminds me of our lovely years of living in Florida. Oh how wonderful it was there! I will always look back fondly on getting to experience it. The beachy towns we lived in filled this beach loving girls heart with joy. The pattern I used is the Tulip Shorts pattern by Cali Faye. I love this pattern. It’s very easy and there are no raw edges anywhere at the end due to the way you sew it up. So if you don’t have a serger and like your edges hidden you will like this pattern.

I made the top from a white gauze that also came from Hobby Lobby. I love gauze fabric. So soft and breezy. But since it’s quite thin I layered the top with two layers so it wouldn’t be see through. I altered the Summer Romper by Purl Soho (which is free by the way) to create this top. The top portion reminds me of a pillow top dress. This is also a very quick sew and, as I did, you can alter it to create many different looks.

With the lovely warm weather sewing, I’m also excited for all the warm weather gardening we have going on. I’m going to share our new garden boxes my husband made this week and keep a diary of our garden here on the blog. Being out in the sunshine and digging in the dirt is quite relaxing to me and we love the vegetable and flower benefits. And hopefully soon I will get to share with you the biggest project I have ever worked on in diy ways. I have never done so much painting in my life! haha -jess

Free Heart Animals Pattern

February 12, 2016 by Jessica 2 Comments

Here is a free heart animals pattern for you to use in honor of Valentines Day, which is so close! Of course, these heart animals are for any time of the year really, but are inspired by this love filled holiday.

I picked some of my children’s favorite animals to create: a fox, cat, lamb, owl, and deer. They are an easy sew and if you have scrap fabrics these are a great project to use them on. To create your own heart animals, you will need the following:

Fabric (scraps or a fat quarter for each)
Felt or Other None Fraying Fabrics (like leather/faux leather, fleece, iron on vinyl, etc) for faces, noses, and ears.
Safety Eyes (or use felt circles or embroidery if these are for younger children)
Glue, Felt Scraps, Seam Ripper, and Marker (if using safety eyes)
Embroidery Thread and Needle
Stuffing
Sewing Machine
Coordinating Thread
Iron
Hand Sewing Needle
Scissors
Pins
Free Heart Animals Pattern PDF Download

Start by cutting out your pattern and using that to cut out the pieces from your chosen materials. The pattern pieces have how many of each you will need to cut. As you can see I used all kinds of stuff I had on hand. I use mostly cottons for the body but did use a linen fabric on the owl. I used acrylic felt mostly for faces and ears, but also used wool felt, fleece, faux leather from a purse I had cut up, and iron on vinyl.

Iron your main heart fabric. If you need to iron felt, I suggest placing fabric on top of it before pressing. Then place the heart face on top middle of a heart body piece and sew in place.

If you are using iron on vinyl, you can iron that on now.

Sew on the nose.

If your animal has ears, place them where you would like them.

Then fold them down and pin in place. Sew very close to the edge just to keep them in place.

Note: If you are making a deer, you will need to pinch the rounded bottom and sew in place.

Now place your eyes on. You can sew on felt circles or embroider eyes if this is for a little one. Other wise, add the safety eyes. Mark where they are to go.

Use a seam ripper to cut just enough of an opening for the eyes to go through. On the back, add some glue around the opening.

Cut a small piece of felt and cut a slit in the middle. Place the eye piece through the felt and let the glue dry this in place. Add the plastic eye backing. Note: I have used safety eyes a lot and find adding the glue and felt helps keep it even more secure.

Next embroider on any features you would like to add such as a mouth, eye lashes, whiskers, etc.

Take the face……

and place the heart back on top, right sides facing, and pin in place. I suggest doing it with the eyes up as it’s easier to sew and remove pins this way.

Sew all around the heart (1/4″ seam allowance, which is included in pattern) except to leave a small opening big enough to turn the heart right side out.

Trim notches around the curves of the heart shape.

Turn right side out and push at seams to make sure it is all out.

Fill the heart animal with stuffing until desired size is achieved.

Hand sew the opening shut.

Now you have a cute little heart animal! I hope you enjoy this free heart animals pattern. Share pics on the Happy Together facebook page or use #happytogetherbyjess on social media to share your creation.

-jess

Free Girls Sewing Pattern: The Skirted Sweatshirt

January 18, 2016 by Jessica 8 Comments

Today is the day! This free girls sewing pattern is now available for everyone to sew. I call it the Skirted Sweatshirt pattern and it is for sizes 18 months to 8. It is meant to be slightly oversized making it extra comfy. In fact, I knew it was good when my oldest put it on and said so, haha, and she can be hard to please now.

Another great thing about this pattern is that you can use a larger sweatshirt you have sitting in your closet, or one you thrifted, instead of buying sweatshirt fabric. In fact, the tops on my littlest girl (miss E) and her friend (in the pink) were made using sweatshirts that have been sitting in my closet for years without being used. I used some sweatshirt fabric on miss J’s that I happened to come across in a thrift store. That fabric is what actually inspired this pattern as I wanted to figure out a way to use it.

Supplies:

Large sweatshirt (see tips further down if doing this) or 1 yd of sweatshirt fabric
3/4 yd of Fabric for skirt part (the more movement the fabric has the better! Try not to use stiff fabrics for this as it won’t lay nicely.) *if fabric pattern is horizontal to the fabric width, then get 1 yard*
Free pattern (download here)
Scissors
Pins
Sewing machine, coordinating thread, etc.
Tape
Iron

*Notes: Use 1/4″ seams for sewing. Back stitch at the end of sewing. Remember, this is a slightly oversized pattern, so if your child is more on the smaller side of the pattern it might be larger on them. In the pictures the oldest girl is wearing a 7/8 and wears a 7 or 8 in store clothes. The girl in the pink is in the 5/6 (and I accidentally stretched the neck out…oops!) and fits perfectly in a size 5 normally (also note I did not hem up the bottom of the skirt since it was knit fabric, making that part longer). The littlest, in the lamb hat, is in the 3/4 and wears a 4 or 5 normally.

Sizing Chart Chest Measurement

18 mo/2 19″-20″

3/4 21″-22″

5/6 23″-24″

7/8 25″-27″

Let me begin with a printing tip. PDF patterns print most accurately when opened in Adobe reader. Sometimes the “preview” of a pdf pattern doesn’t print it out quite right. Also make sure to choose “actual size” in the printing options.

When you print out the pattern you can lay it down like this to see how the pieces fit. It starts at page 1 on the top left row and goes across (row 1: page 1-4, row 2: 5-8, row 3: 9-12).Continue Reading

Easy Bow Pillow DIY

January 15, 2016 by Jessica 4 Comments

I set myself a goal that this year I would share a very easy sewing diy once a month. I have a list of all kinds of things, but if there is something you would like to see leave me a comment and let me know 🙂 For this month, I am sharing a very easy Bow Pillow DIY. I saw one in Target the other day and thought it was cute and wanted to replicate it. It uses very little fabric and it only took me fifteen minutes to make (and that includes me taking the pictures!).

Supplies:

One fabric fat quarter (18″ x 22″)
One piece of fabric that equals 4.5″ x 20″
Stuffing
Scissors
Iron
Sewing machine/thread/etc

Notes: *I used all 1/4′ seams when sewing. *Remember to back stitch.

Directions:
1. Start by folding your fat quarter in half (the 22″ should be the width and the 18″ the height) right sides facing.

2. Sew around all open edges except leaving a few inches open in the center of the long side. Turn pillow right side out and iron. Then fill it with the amount of stuffing desired. The more you put in, the firmer the pillow will be.

3. Turn in side edges at the opening and sew closed. You can use a sewing machine to do this and if you do I suggest adjusting your needle to be as far to the left as possible so you can squeeze the edges under there enough to sew. Another option is to hand sew it shut.

4. Take your 4.5″ x 20″ piece and turn each long side in 1/4″ towards the wrong side. Then turn in another 1/4″ and press.

5. Sew side seams in place.

6. Turn both ends in 1/4″ two times as well. Sew in place.

7. Sew ends on top of each other to create a sleeve to go onto the pillow. Make sure fabric is right side up.

8. Finish by sliding fabric sleeve to middle of pillow. You can tack it in place by hand sewing it on the back if you like.
I bet you could do this in boy fabrics and make it look like a bow tie pillow as well. I also think this would be a great project to do with a child (or adult) learning to sew since it’s simple and sews up quickly. Share your bow pillow diy creation with us if you create one 🙂
Happy Sewing!
jess

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