Christmas pajama pants and picture dress for school!

Wow, I have not written in quite some time on my sewing blog! I have, however, been buy making things :)

Below I have a pair of pajama pants I made for my daughter along with a dress I made for her for school pictures. 

The pants were super easy. I grabbed a pair she already had and made an outline on the fabric I wanted to use. I was sure to make it longer than her current ones so I could create the hem at the top and bottom. Then I cut out a two pieces. One at a time I folded a piece and then sewed down the side, but not up the curve or at the top. Then I repeated this step on the other piece. Once I had two leg pieces, I put one inside the other and sewed along the curve (crotch) area. this sews the pants together. Then I folded over the top of the pants and sewed almost all the way around, leaving a small undone opening where I stuck in the elastic. I measured the elastic about 1.5 inches smaller than her waist so it would stretch.  Once it was threaded in I closed up the hole! Done :)

The dress wasn't too bad, but again I started with a dress she already had and made a pattern on the fabric I wanted to use. I wanted this dress lined, so I also put the pattern on white fabric for the inside lining. I turned the whole dress inside out (all 4 pieces) with the outside fabric facing each other and then white on top of each of them. I sewed down each side and stopped at the shoulder straps. I used ribbon to make her straps, so I tucked in the ribbon at the desired length for her and finished sewing the tops on all 4 pieces (2 fronts and 2 backs). I went around the dress with a ribbon for an accent last and tied a bow on the front, but it was held on by a pin just in case she ripped it off! Last I made sure the hem was clean at the bottom of the dress and I was done :) 

These two were quick projects I did in one day. If you want to do something super quick and easy for kids in your life, try these out! Let me know if you have any questions! Here's to the next project :)

Puzzle Holder

So, Khloe decided that she wanted something to put all of her puzzles in. I decided, hey why not make her something! So, I began to conceptualize what a puzzle holder would look like. I thought about it for several days and once she was gone for a weekend I got to it! Here is what I did:

First: I counted the puzzles she has, that came to 25! Then, I had to decide how big to make each pocket I wanted to make. I gathered her largest puzzle and put the pieces under a portion of the material and measured and got a base for a large square. I drew it out as you can see below. 

Then I got to measuring. I made sure my inside and outsides would match when I put the batting in the middle. 

 After I had my large inside piece, I used my two smaller outside pieces along with the spine and sewed them together as you can see below.

Then, I cut out all of the squares for the puzzle holders. 

After that, I carefully laid out the holders to be sure they would all fit the way I wanted them to. Once they were good, I sewed some elastic at the top of each holder so it would squeeze together at the top. 

 Once that was done, I placed the buttons I wanted to use at the top of each holder and sewed them on. 

And then, viola! I had an excited little girl and huge puzzle holder!

FYI, one holiday later this became too small! Here's to the next project :)

Kneeling Pillows

So, it was brought to my attention that kneeling pillows would be nice for recruitment. "April, you can sew, can you make them?" Sure, why not! And off I went! Fabric was ordered, thankfully it came in a bolt! I ordered some great industrial grade compression foam!I got the tops monogrammed, and then went to work sewing three of the 4 sides first, then stuffing the foam into the pouch, then hand stitching the last side! Yes, I just said hand stitching!

The foam was ordered from http://www.foamforyou.com. We got the 3 inch thick compression foam cut in the shape of a diamond, 8 inches by 14 inches. And we ordered 60 of them! So, here is what I did:

I put the diamond foam piece on the fabric and determined my needed extra space to sew, which was an extra 1/2 all around. I am glad I did not cut all of the fabric at this point because that was not enough! The foam did NOT give at all once stuffed in, so I lost some precious space on being able to tuck under the raw side and sew the last side by hand.  Here is the beautiful fabric!And here is the foam on it :)

 My next step was to cut all my tops and get them straight to the embroiderer for the letters to go on them! This took seemingly forever! Once I got them, I could finish cutting the bottoms. Then, I placed outside to outside and pined it together and sewed 3 edges. I tried to make the hand sewn edge an edge facing an active instead of a potential new member (recruitment talk) so the new person could not see the seam.  

My goal was to sew all sides and then stuff all foam so that only the hand stitching was left. So, I began to have stacks upon stacks of almost completed kneeling pillows! Here are some on my table!

 

Once I got the foam stuffed in as far as I could I would pulled together the last two sides for hand stitching. You can see above my open piece and then the pinned together hand sewn part. I literally sewed until my fingers bled! But, I was all worth it! Once I was done, i would make sure all sides were tucked in, as you can see below. The edge that stuck out I literally tucked into the side to make it look seamless. 

Then, I was done! The completed pillows are awesome looking and were greatly appreciated at recruitment! Check them out! I LOVE them!! And I would do them again if asked ;)

Here's to the next project! Happy Sewing!

April

I built a stage!

So, to go along with what I am capable of, for recruitment I was also asked if I could build the ladies a stage. I of course said, "Sure, why not!" So, I embarked on stage building!

They needed a 14' by 7' stage. There would be nowhere to keep something that big, so I decided to do 2 rows of boxes. Each box was 3.5' by 3.5' Luckily, Home Depot or Lowe's will cut your wood for you! I could have done it at home, but it helped to not have to cut all of that!I cut 2x12's into my square pieces: 40 inch long. Then, I used 3/4 in plywood for the top and had 8' sheets cut in half. I knew I would need to cut the 4' x 4' sheets smaller, but I waited and did that at home. Check out all that lumber in my truck!

Here is a square in action. Since I got all 4 pieces the same size, I was able to put them on top of each other all the way around. Meaning I did not have 2 sides longer and 2 sides smaller. This way, they created a better support for the box without having to make cross sections in the middle. Khloe liked to "help" me make the squares :)

A few squares turned into a lot and before I knew it, I was ready to lay the top on. But, I noticed that once I jumped around on it, it really needed support down the middle of each square. So, I decided to do 20'' on center with a support beam.

 

Once I got all of the support beams done, I was ready to cut the top pieces. I measured them individually, just in case, and then numbered each box with each top piece. I also used the plastic Velcro to adhere the tops to the boxes. That stuff is expensive, but amazing! It keps everything in place! 

The girls were so excited! Check out that finished stage :) I think I am getting pretty handy with my tools! For those who want to know, after all of the wood, screws, and Velcro this project cost (for materials only) $543. I did not charge for labor, but I can really see how price can escalate quickly!

Here's to another great project! happy sawing y'all!

April