Archive / March, 2012

Spring Projects

One of the things I love about Pinterest is that it actually makes me do many of the things that I was always going to do when I “got around to it.” Looking through my pin boards always reminds me of my inspirations and gives me motivation to get cracking.

Currently I’ve been working on front door decoration. I love the simple look of yarn covered wreaths and I’ve made a couple. The first one was for Valentine’s Day/February.

Full disclaimer…I did not design this wreath at all. I saw this one…

Source: google.com via Harmony on Pinterest

…and loved it, so I made it.

After February I wanted to make a couple of spring/Easter wreaths. I found this yarn with gradations in the coloring (in order to make a pattern while knitting) and I liked the idea of the mix of colors going around the wreath. I chose to use purple, lavender and white felt flowers and teal ribbon to accent.

I love the colors…they are so fresh and springtime-y.

The last wreath I have made is my piece de resistance. My Easter “wreath.”

Christian has been joking that it took me 20 hours to make this guy, and he isn’t far off.

All those felt flowers!

And some of them were really involved. But the detail turned out great!

Okay, some more info…

1. For the yarn wreaths, I used straw wreaths. They are half the price of the foam ones at Joann and work just as well. I read a tip somewhere online (I can’t find the source now. Boo.) that said to leave the plastic covering on under your yarn. Works like a charm. The plastic keeps the straw from getting all crazy and it helps the yarn slide really close together.

2. I only needed one skein of yarn to wrap each wreath. There was plenty to go all the way around a couple of times, filling in all the spaces and holes. There was also plenty leftover.

3. Funny(?) story: Apparently my not-quite-three year old can use big scissors! This discovery was made when she was found cutting up my yarn for my spring wreath. Awesome. Miraculously she did not cut herself or her hair. I was able to still use the yarn…I just had to wrap it in 1-2 foot long segments until I got to the end of the cut up bits and was finally able to wrap it up normally.

4. All the felt flowers I found online. I have tons of tutorials pinned on my crafty.fun board. So many great ones out there, I didn’t want to re-invent the wheel.

5. For the Easter “wreath,” I used an old frame. I painted it white, distressed it and hot glued all my flowers on. I found the wooden cross at Joann and painted and distressed it as well as adding the lettering “he is risen.”

6. I attached the cross to the frame using 1/8″ white grosgrain ribbon and my trusty hot glue gun.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

I’ve got a TON of projects to complete in the next couple weeks. Dinah’s third (can you believe it??) birthday is next week and we are having a big Peter Pan party, so of course the girls need costumes. And then Easter is just right after that and I am making some cute Easter Elephants for their baskets and their Easter dresses. Busy busy busy! But you will get to see lots of great stuff!

Up-cycled Nightgowns – A (mini) Tutorial

We’ve recently been trying to nighttime potty train Dinah and I thought having little nightgowns might make it easier for her to go to the potty in the night. This way she doesn’t have to fiddle with pants. However, I didn’t want to go buy a bunch of nightgowns (cha-ching!) so I started looking at what I had around the house that might work. And voila!

I found a stack of Old Navy Perfect Tees from college/early married life/before children that were never going to fit me again. Perfect indeed! These were a great length, super soft and already hemmed!

These were REALLY easy to put together, so I thought I would share a little tutorial of how I made them.

*Disclaimer: I realize that there are better and more “correct” ways of doing some of this…but since I was making several of these and they were just for sleeping in, I cut some corners in order to make them faster. You could always follow my basic steps, but do things the “right” way if you wanted to sew these as gifts or for cute play dresses. Also, I chose not to finish any of my seams with a serger or zigzag stitch…mostly to save time, but the knit won’t fray and I feel like the seams are softer without the serged edge. Okay, here we go…

1. First, I made a little pattern. Basically I traced around an existing shirt of hers that had a good fit. The sleeves were really tricky for me and I experimented a bit before I got the shape I wanted. Craftiness Is Not Optional has a couple of tutorials that show how to do this and I pretty much followed her tips there.

2. Next, I turned the shirt inside-out and cut off the sleeves of the shirt. If the shirt was a V-neck I also cut off an inch or two of the shoulder (if it was crew neck I left the shoulder seams attached). On both styles I left the side seams attached.

3. Before moving on you should probably lightly press the shirt and sleeve pieces. I didn’t on my first two night gowns and the cutting got a little wonky.

4. Okay, now you are going to fold the shirt in half with the front on top (so you can see the collar). If it is a V-neck, match up the neck binding at the shoulder and side seams. Make sure the shirt lies nice and flat. Place the pattern on top and trace with a Sharpie or fabric marker. You’ll notice the pattern is only for the bodice. I just traced this top part and then connected the bodice to the existing side seam with a gently curving line. Cut out the nightgown along this traced line.

5. Do the same thing with the sleeves. Match up the bottom of the sleeve with the already hemmed existing sleeve. Trace and cut.

6. (Skip this step if your starting shirt was a crew neck.) Pin the shoulder pieces together (right sides facing), matching up the neck binding. Sew with a 1/2 inch seam and press.

7. I drafted my sleeve pattern so there would be slight puff, so at this point I gathered the top 4 inches of my sleeve pieces.

8. Turn the nightgown right-side-out and pin the sleeves (right sides facing) to the arm holes adjusting the gathering if necessary. Stitch with a 1/2 inch seam and remove gathering stitches. Press seam toward bodice.

9. Turn the nightgown inside-out again and lay flat. Match up bottom of sleeves and the side seams. Pin front and back together. Stitch the sides of the nightgown closed with a 1/2 seam. Start at the cuffs and pivot when you get to the armpit. You should be able to follow the gentle curve of the side and finish your stitch in the existing side seam. This way there is no need to deal with the hem or the bottom of the nightgown.

10. Turn your nightgown right-side-out and press the side seams.. If your starting shirt was a crew neck then you are finished! Yay!

If your starting shirt was a V-neck, there are a couple more steps:

Most of my V-neck shirts were too low-cut to leave as-is, so I added a little yoke…

First, cut a rectangle out of scrap knit (I had a bunch lying around from a T-shirt quilt my sister made). The measurements on this will vary depending on the width of your V-neck. For each shirt I would measure from the bottom of the V to the height I wanted the yoke to be (measurement Y). At that height I would measure across the V to determine the width (W). Be sure to measure about a 1/4 inch beyond the neck binding. To cut your rectangle, double your Y measurement to get the height of your rectangle and use W to get the width.

For example, in the shirt above I measured up from the bottom of the V and got 4 for my Y measurement. Then I measured across and got 6 for W. The rectangle I cut was 8 x 6 inches.

Fold this rectangle in half width-wise and pin to the inside of the nightgown.

Turn the nightgown right-side-out and topstitch in the ditch or along existing stitching lines to tack down the yoke piece.

Trim away the excess fabric.

And now you are done!

I think the nightgowns turned out really cute and will be handy as the weather starts warming up here.

Girly Aprons

My friend Tamara has twins about the same age as my little Dinah. Their birthday was recently and she commissioned me to make a couple of aprons for her girls to go with their new play kitchen. I did some apron research and sent her a few examples I had found out there. She definitely wanted something girly and fun and a bit retro. Here is what she settled on:

Source: creatingbycami.blogspot.com via Harmony on Pinterest

So, I headed to the fabric store with fruit on my mind. I sent her a few pictures of random fruit fabrics…

…and she choose the last one. The sweet cherries on the pink polka-dot background.

My immediate thought was to make both aprons with the same “main” fabric and use different accent colors for each girl.

I liked the tutorial and didn’t do much differently. I kept the same basic shape with the contrasting waist sash. (Though I chose to do long ties instead of velcro to make them more girly looking.)

And I (of course) made the wide bottom edge ruffle.

I also liked her idea for using velcro at the neck in order to make the apron adjustable.

And, of course, they needed pockets.

I added the little ruffle at the top for more contrast and extra girly-ness. And each apron is personalized with an applique and embroidery. (Thanks to my new machine!)

All reports came back positive…the aprons were a hit and the sweet, little ones didn’t want to take them off! Dinah was a great model for me and it looks like I’ll be making some girly aprons of my own.

Welcome!

Hello there…welcome to my new home! You’ll find things are mostly the same around here, but I will be easier to find now with my very own sewinharmony.com webpage!

I’ve got some new posts lined up now that I am all moved in and settled here. I’ve also got plans for a new giveaway coming soon…so stick around!