I finally found the time to make this skirt from this pattern:

Farbenmix is a German company, thus the European sizing. Their patterns are pretty straightforward and leave you with lots of room to personalize the finished piece. You can access step-by-step, illustrated instructions in English for many of the models. They also feature examples of many variations for each pattern to inspire your inner designer. And, for all you craft fair participants and etsy shop owners, they allow you to sell your finished piece based on their pattern as long as you are selling individual items and not churning out mass produced clothing. This is a list of their retail partners including some American online shops.

P.S. No, this is not a paid endorsement, I just like their stuff.

When I was in elementary school my mother would extend the life of my jeans with a piece of jacquard trim. As an eight-year old I hated it, but now in the age of craft and retro design what could be cooler than a personalized pair of pants.

So, when my daughter began to outgrow her much loved khakis I began my hunt for some trim. Luckily our local notions store had a stack of it. I decided on three different kinds and bought a yard of each. The trim should be at least two inches wide to get a noticeable extension of length. To ensure my daughter’s buy-in, she decided which trim would go with which pants and we were on our way.

To attach the trim, you measure the perimeter of the leg bottoms and add two inches to that number. In my case the perimeter measured 13 6/8″ plus 2″ equals 15 6/8″. Cut two pieces of trim to this length.

To clean up the cut edges, fold over a half inch at each end and zigzag stitch across the width of the trim.

Then attach the trim along the line of the bottom leg hem allowing for an inch of overlap at the inner leg seam.

Once you’ve come full circle, sew together the overlapping ends of the trim.

Finish with a few stitches across the bottom of the trim overlap.

Should you have some leftover trim as we did, you can fashion a stylish and quick headband by attaching 1 inch wide braided elastic to each end of the trim.

After many years of sifting through the old lady coats at Goodwill I finally found a good match for me! Unfortunately it came with some stains and hideous gold nugget buttons. But both were an easy fix! Dry cleaning help to freshen it up and I chose some buttons that were silver and had faux pearls on them so it still had an vintage feel. The tie in the back had come unsewn but after 15 minutes of mending I had a great winter coat!

Before:

After:

$7.50 for coat, $3 on buttons, and $5 on drycleaning = $15.50! Not bad!
Send a pic if you have a great update to share!

Though I love the first apron I made, I found a much quicker formula. I simply converted a kitchen towel into a full apron. This is a quick 30 minute project and who can resist with such cute prints out there!

First, Run a needle and thread in and out evenly very close to the trim and draw it to the tightness of gathering you like. I loved this towel because it had the rust colored trim on the top and bottom already.

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Then pin your ribbons (20") in place and sew over the gathering, making sure it IS wrinkled under the needle and that the fabric doesn't flatten out. I also burn the edges of the ribbon with a lighter so that is does not unravel, very lightly so you don't change the color of the ribbon.

Last, I measured 2 ribbons 28" inches long and measured where at my waist I wanted to tie the apron. Again, I burned the ends of the ribbon and pinned them into place along the back right and left edges of the towel and sewed just over the ribbon, along the original towel seam.
Voila! So cute and automatically comes with a matching towel! This would be a great, quick, housewarming gift!
If this fruity set is perfect for your kitchen I have a couple of sets available here!

I got this pattern here from Heather Bailey’s site. My summer swap partner sent me this cute white and black headband that I really wanted to try.

Heather’s pattern is free to download and was very simple to use. Her directions and diagrams were great, and this is a great way to use up those skinny pieces of fabric left over. Check it out!

I made these to send off to our Joy and a few other friends who are melting in Mexico.

With Cuirim Craft Fair happening tomorrow, we had a pow-wow last night to tag auction items, organize small details, and make screen-printed shirts.

Joanna had offered to show us how they’re done, so with all our crisp, white tees, we watched and marveled at the process of screen-printing.

And Joy, so incredibly excited about us having t-shirts for the fair:

We’re all so excited about the fair, and anxious to see how much money we’ll raise for the Cuirim House. We’ll definitely be posting pictures next week, so check back to see how it all turned out. And thanks again to Joanna for doing our shirts for us and letting us use your supplies!

I’m doing a “diaper and a shirt” swap with the messageboard I post on. The idea is that you can embellish a T-shirt to match a diaper that you sew. My partner has a 2 month old boy, and I couldn’t find a shirt in his size, so I decided to sew one. However, I couldn’t find my pattern that has baby shirts in it, so I decided to try and create my own.

I grabbed a onesie that my daughter has outgrown, and for the fabric for the T-shirt I used an adults XL shirt I got on sale from Michaels.

I cut off the bottom of the onesie to make it into a shirt, and then cut along the seams to take the onesie apart. This gave me a general idea of the shapes I was looking for, and using them as reference I drew the pieces out freehand on the yellow T-shirt.

I sewed along happily, thinking that I was going t have an cute little shirt that would work with the diaper I was making. I am making a brown and yellow wool cover and a fitted diaper with giraffes on it, so I used brown thread on the yellow shirt so that it all matches.

Well, here is how the shirt turned out:

I’ve used the arrows to show the errors I made. I missed part of the neckline on the right hand side, the neckline itself is much too high and would choke the baby if they wore it. My left seam was about a half inch towards the middle of the shirt (must have made the back wider than the front) and the left arm seam doesn’t line up with the left side seam.

All in all, its not that bad considering I didn’t use a pattern. But definitely not wearable! Guess its time to search and find that pattern I have and use that

My boy has trouble keeping his pants pulled up. Well, since he is only 15 months old I am not too worried about it yet, but I would like him to be able to wear the box of new pants he has before it is too hot for pants. He is 15 mo. but barely wears 12 mo. pants because he is a skinny little guy. Even the half-elastic waistband is often not enough so I borrowed this idea usually found in clothing for fast-growing elementary and pre-teens: the inner adjustable button.

All you need is: elastic, 2 small buttons, a seam ripper, and sewing machine or needle.

1. I cut 2 pieces of 1/2″ elastic about 2″ long. (adjust to the amount you need garment taken in)
2. I used the seam ripper to cut a slit to fit my button toward the end of each elastic piece. (this was easier than using the button holer, if it frays a little it will be okay.)
3. Line up how much you want the elastic drawn in and sew button into pants.
4. With button through your elastic hole, pull elastic to desired place and sew vertically over opposite elastic end. I did not make it adjustable with more than one button but you easily could.

This literally took me about 5 minutes and I think will save me some money if I don’t have to skip a season with his pants. Any other tips for fitting thinner kids in their clothes?

I’ve been wanting to take my sewing to the next level, and start sewing more professional looking items. I’m also going to venture into sewing clothes for myself, my husband and my daughter. Plus, with all the diapers I’ve been sewing lately, I wanted to make that a bit easier too.

So I splurged, and bought myself this:

A new serger!! At first, I wasn’t sure if I really “needed” a serger. Its possible to sew any garment or project without one, you just have to take extra steps to ensure your raw edges don’t fray. I had also heard that the learning curve with a serger can be a steep one, especially when it comes to threading the machine or surging corners and round edges.

However, the one reason I really wanted to get the serger was that I love the look of serged fitted diapers. I think they look really cute, and I had also heard that a serged diaper comes together much faster than a turned and topstitched one.

From diaperkit.com, a comparison of serged and topstitched diapers.

So after lots of debate, I decided to purchase one, and I received it on Valentine’s Day. And I must say, I got so much more than I expected with the machine. You can do decorative edges on your garments, decorative topstitching, and so much more! Plus, I love the fact that when sewing a seam, you sew it and finish the edges at the same time, saving you time. Also, serging goes so much faster than a straight sewing stitch, saving time there as well!

I’ve spent lots of time serging scrap pieces of fabric, learning curves and different methods. I’ve also threaded and rethreaded the machine numerous times, to learn how to do it correctly. This learning time I took was really beneficial, and I’ve already been able to start with projects using my serger!

I serged a fitted diaper for my daughter, and I think it turned out really well for a first attempt!

Of course, the serger didn’t take away all the extra steps you need a sewing machine for, but it sure cut the time to make the diaper in about half for me!

I’m also currently working on a shirt for my husband, and I have purchase a couple of patterns to make my daughter. I also bought a pattern for shirts to make myself, but they are a bit more advanced and I will probably wait until I am more confident with my serger before trying them.

Does anyone else have a serger? Do you think its a good investment? I love mine!!

I’ve been working on wool covers for my daughter to wear with her cloth diapers. Wool has some amazing properties, it can absorb up to 40% of its weight in moisture without feeling wet, and it allows for airflow which helps prevent diaper rashes. Also, it never stinks!

I’ve been trying two different types of wool covers - wraps and soakers. The first one I made was a wrap that I completed using the Tickle Turdle online pattern.

I used the yarn that I had previously dyed and accented it with purple to make it a bit more “girly”. The wrap turned out okay, but I don’t really like the fit of it on Elizabeth. I think I will try to alter the pattern, making the tabs longer and changing the leg holes a bit.

The second type of wool cover that I’ve looked into is a soaker. I haven’t been able to find a pattern for a soaker in crochet that I like, so I decided to make up my own.

It didn’t turn out very well I had done the first body part in the round, and then switched to back and forth to decrease for the legs. This caused the stitches to look different from each other. I messed up when decreasing at some point, and so I ended up with an odd number to bind with an even number (at the top of the legs) which caused it to bind crooked. The legs are different as well. But now I know where I need to improve the pattern, and I will try again!

If anyone has a good link to a crochet soaker to share, I would love to see it