Category Archives: Sewing

Hoodie Tutorial for Crafting Con – My Little Pony

My Little Pony Crafting Con Tutorial Link Up

In a first for me, I’ve got a guest post/tutorial on the Crafting Con website. It’s for a My Little Pony inspired hoodie tutorial. This month is all about My Little Ponies so I’m looking forward to seeing everyone else’s posts for inspiration. Little Bit is loving MLP right now, so I’m getting lots of requests for My Little Pony related items.

CraftingCon

STEM Dresses

STEM Dresses

There seems to be a big push lately for STEM clothes for girls. And why not? Girls can like things other than princesses and butterflies! There have actually been a few kickstarter campaigns on the subject lately. (I’m bummed only one of these got funded.)

Mad Scientist Day Dress

In the past couple of months I’ve had the chance to create a couple of STEM themed dresses for Little Bit. One for Mad Scientist Day at school and the other for Pi Day — after all, this year’s Pi Day was pretty epic.

Pi Day Dress

Both of these dresses ended up being MODKID patterns and my geeky themed fabrics are from Spoonflower.

Pi Fabric From SpoonFlower Details

Mad Scientist Dress

Mad Scientist Pattern Details

Pattern
ModKid Riley
Fabrics

Pi Dress Pattern Details

Pattern
ModKid Melanie
Fabrics

Kangaroo Pocket Skirt

Using It’s Always Autumn Sweats to Skirt Refashion tutorial as my inspiration, my first refashion/upcycling project is complete.

Yesterday a long sleeve knit polo. Today the sleeves are a kangaroo pocket skirt. Kangaroo pocket lined with super soft minky-like Frozen fabric. #sewingforkids #kidsclothesweek #kcw #upcycling #imadeit

We started off with a very old long sleeve knit polo that belonged to Mr. Byte that had recently landed in the donate pile. I snagged it thinking the soft knit would be perfect for leggings for Little Bit. I managed to cut all the pattern pieces out of the sleeves so I still have the body of the shirt to use for another project — thinking Monkey bar shorts for when it gets warmer.

Since I wasn’t taking an existing pair of sweatpants to make this skirt out of, I pulled out the skirt pattern from the Go To Leggings Pattern and the Kangaroo pocket from the swim coverup in Sewing MODKID Style. Following the directions for the skirt and pocket, this came together pretty quickly.

The MODKID instructions call for lining the kangaroo pocket, so I had just enough of this super soft mink/minky-like Frozen fabric (left over from another project that is cut but not sewn) for the lining of the pocket. And how fun to be carrying Anna and Elsa around in your pocket.

Pattern Details

Pattern
Fabrics
  • JCrew longsleeve knit polo
  • Frozen minky-like fleece from JoAnns (left over scrap)
Notions
  • 1″ Wide Elastic
Alterations
Made a size 5 Go To Leggings Skirt with Size 4 elastic. Kangaroo pocket is the 2T-4T size from the swim coverup in Sewing MODKID Style. Patterns sewn as instructed for both.

Rachel Dress – Bundle Up

MODKID Rachel Dress by Analog Bytes

One of the patterns I bought for the recent bundle up promotion was the Rachel Dress by MODKID. This is a knit pattern with a drop waist and a ruffled asymmetrical hem.

For the first item to made from the bundle up patters, I chose this one since I had fabrics in my stash that I thought would work and I need practice with knits and the serger. I’ve sewn knits before with just a regular needle and thread, but this was my first time using a double needle, wooly nylon, and a serger for knits and boy do I need a lot of practice.

I’ve learned quite a few things working on this dress:

  1. a double needle is my new favorite thing and is absolutely worth taking the time to change the needle for
  2. speaking of needles, they’re not nearly as scary to change as I thought (yes, my sewing machine is a year and a half old and this is the first time I’ve changed a needle)
  3. screwing up on a serger is a lot harder to recover from
  4. a serger will let you continue sewing with the foot up
  5. there is a point where you have to scrap a project and either give up or start over — I didn’t quite reach that point, but there were a couple of points I questioned whether or not I should continue.
  6. I’ll update the post with more pictures once my model is awake.

    Pattern Details

    Pattern
    ModKid Rachel
    Fabrics
    • Lavender knit with Dots from clearance table at local fabric store (from stash)
    • Charcoal Gray knit from clearance table at local fabric store (from stash)
    • Silver Gray stretch lace from Etsy (purchased for something else)

Kid’s Clothes Week – Feb 2015

kid's clothes week

The next kid’s clothes week is Feb 2-8, 2015 and the optional theme is upcycled.

I have a handful of up cycling projects in the queue so this will be the time to start doing something with them.

Since I’m a slow sewer, I’ll be lucky to get through all this in the hour/day sewing challenge, but I have these projects on my to-do list:

  • Go To Leggings from an old pair of my sweatpants (these are already cut, just need to be sewn)
  • Oliver+s Sailboat skirt from a Pair of Chris’s old khakis
  • A sweater dress from an old sweater along these lines:

  • And I may try to squeeze in this Kangaroo Pocket Skirt Refashion with an old thick knit shirt.

London Dress — MODKID Sew Along

Modkid London Dress in Charley Harper for Birch Fabrics

I just did another Modkid Sew Along for the newly released London Dress PDF Pattern. I love the way the Modkid PDF patterns are assembled once printed. They really are easy and the gray shaded overlaping area leaving nothing to question as to how exactly to put the pieces together.

This pattern did prove to be more difficult for me. Many of the more experienced participants in the sew along used words like quick and easy to describe this pattern. I did have issues with assembly but overall was pleased with the results.

Em picked out this fabric last time we were at Finch. It was the end of the bolt so I took what was left which I think was about a yard and 12 or 13 inches. There was just enough fabric to attempt to pattern match the bodice and cut out the rest of the pattern pieces. I do have to say, I think I did a pretty good job matching the bodice.

pattern matching the bodice

Because I was using such a busy pattern, I wanted to use something more plain for the pockets, but the plain fabric seemed a bit too plain, so I decided to appliqué two of the characters on the pockets. Add in a little hand embroidery for the eyes and some of the smaller details (no I don’t do embroidery, but that’s what google is for).

Some appliqué and a touch of hand embroidery. #ishouldbesleeping #wip #wipwednesday #squirrel!

embroidery detail

To differentiate the pockets from the busy background, I added navy piping around the pockets. I also added the piping between the bodice and skirt since there was no way I was going to have the pattern match.

Overall, I’m thrilled with the results. I’m not sure this will be one of Em’s favorite dresses because it doesn’t have the twirl factor she prefers, but she didn’t shun it when I showed it to her which is huge.

London dress pattern by modkid

Pattern Details

Pattern
ModKid London
(Pattern Alterations – piping added to pockets and waistline)
Fabrics
  • Charlie Harper Feeding Station for Birch Organic
  • Tan Cotton/Linen (for bodice lining and outside of pockets) — from Mom’s stash
  • light teal quilting cotton (pocket lining) — from mom’s stash
Notions
  • Navy piping from Jo-Ann’s
  • Navy buttons
Sew Along Link
London Sew Along