Category Archives: Tutorials

Easy Batik Skirt Tutorial!

May 6, 2013

Here is a great easy tutorial on how to make a cute skirt from a batik fabric that would make a great beach cover or fun summer skirt. All you need for this project is:

1 1/2 yds of fabric

about 2 1/2 yds of 3/8″ elastic

An iron, scissors thread and your machine… simple enough right?

I used a Robert Kaufman Batik fabric that is actually a made from rayon because I liked the way it draped.

First I cut my fabric in half along the 44″ width of the fabric giving me two pieces of fabric that were 44″ wide and 27″ long. The 44″ side is the top and the bottom of the skirt.

First you want to sew the side seems of the skirt like so..

Then after sewing both sides we will turn up the edge on the inside 3/4″ and press, repeat again so you have a clean hem, then sew

After hemming your skirt we are now going to work on the waist band which is comfortable and cute!

First press down a 4″ flap just like you did with your hem except this time were not going to roll twice.

Now we are going to stitch as close to the fold as possible to keep everything in place and to be the top of our band.

No we are going to make 5 more stitches around but make sure to leave a 2″ gap to pull the elastic through on each stitch.

The stitches do not have to be perfectly straight (they are going to get scrunched anyway) but just make sure they are each 1/2″ apart.

Now we are going to cut our elastic into three pieces that are all the same size and about 4″ smaller then your waist.

Now feed your elastic through the casings starting at the top and hit every other one on the way down. I like to use a safety pin to push my elastic through but if you have a loop turner they work great for this too.

After you feed the elastic through sew the ends of the elastic together and then finish the stitching to the casing making it one whole seam.

Make sure you stretch the elastic to get a straight seam here, I only had on hand because I was taking a picture but this should be tight, not gathered.

Then trim all your threads and pat yourself on the back because you just made an adorable batik skirt to strut around town, or the beach!

Happy sewing!!

Posted by hartsblog in Tutorials Tags: batik, Cute, DIY, Handmade, Robert Kaufman, sewing, skirt, tutorial

Cute and Easy Minkee Plush Toy Tutorial

April 29, 2013

Minkee fabric is super soft and great for making adorable plush toys! It doesn’t take a lot of fabric to create a cute one of a kind toy! Here is what you’ll need:

Minkee – I used 1/3 yard Turquoise Dimple Dot Minkee – how much you need will depend on the size plush you are making, buttons for eyes, thread, stuffing, and a marking pen.

My wacky plush guy (who I’ve named Kevin) was drawn freehand, I wanted him to be a fun shaped little critter so I just doodled a bit until he was born. Have fun with it!

Trace your pattern onto the wrong side of you fabric, make sure to mark where you want your buttons to be for the eyes.

Sew your button eyes onto the right side of your fabric! You can also add a face with embroidery floss, have fun!

Pin your front and back pieces with right sides together.

Sew the pieces together using your traced pattern lines as a guide. Be sure to leave a 2″ opening at some point (I put mine between Kevin’s legs), you will need the gap so that you can flip it right sides out.

Cut around your shape close to the stitch lines.

Using the gap left in the stitching, turn right sides out!

Stuffing time!

After you have completely stuffed it, hand stitch the gap closed.

There you have it! An adorable little plush creature! Now go have fun with him!

Posted by hartsblog in Tutorials Tags: Cute, Minkee, plush, quick, toy, tutorial

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Organic Re-useable Tea Bag Tutorial!

April 22, 2013

Happy Earth Day everyone! I though it would be fitting to do a tutorial for a re-useable tea bag in honor of the day. This is a very quick and simple project with very few materials!

All you need is a bit of fabric, a felt square, embroidery floss, and thread. For my tea bags I’m using white organic cotton voile. You will want to choose a fabric that is light weight and almost sheer, the lighter the fabric the better your tea will steep. Also, an important note – be sure to pre-wash your fabric! Since you will be using it to make a tea bag, you want to make sure the fabric is nice and clean before you drink your tasty beverage.

Cut two small rectangles of fabric, this will become the front of your tea bag. The size you choose to make the tea bag is up to you.

Next, finish the edge on one side of each rectangle. I am using a tight zigzag stitch, but you can finish your edge however you like.

Overlap the two rectangles at the finished edges – mine overlap about an inch – then pin in place. This will be the opening on your tea bag, you want there to be enough overlap so that your tea leaves don’t come out while you are steeping your tea.

Take another rectangle of fabric to use as the back of the tea bag, and pin it to your front piece.

Now, finish the edge all the way around your bag! As you are sewing up the sides of your bag, be sure to insert a length of embroidery floss (or ribbon) into the seam at one corner, this will be the string on your tea bag. I decided to get fancy and used a cute decorative scallop stitch to finish the edge on mine, you can get really creative with your tea bags – make it fun!

Almost done! The string on your tea bag needs a tab at the end, I used a small rectangle of black felt to create mine.

Just fold the felt tab in half, sandwiching the end of the string, then sew it closed. I used a cute flower stitch on mine.

There you have it, all finished! Now all you have to do is fill it with your favorite loose leaf tea and enjoy! These tea bags are easy to make and easy to clean. Once your tea has steeped, remove your used leaves and rinse out the bag! Enjoy!

Posted by hartsblog in Tutorials Tags: DIY, Easy, organic, re-useable, tea bag, tutorial

Easy Peasy Kimono Sleeve Top (you don’t even need a pattern!)

April 15, 2013

My favorite place to sew is at the intersection of easy and wearable. This easy tee shirt is perfect for beginning sewers since it doesn’t require any complicated techniques, and more advanced sewers will love whipping out these tops in no time at all (it took me about an hour). I love kimono sleeves not only because they are fast, but they’re comfortable too since you don’t have a bunch of seams meeting in your armpit. The best part, is that you make your own pattern on the spot using a t-shirt that you already own!

Materials:

~ 3/4yd knit fabric (I used a navy blue polka dot bamboo jersey)

~ T-shirt

~ Twin Needle

~ Two spools of coordinating thread

~ Marking tools

~Scissors

Important preparation: Before you begin, try on your t-shirt and make some decisions based on how it fits. Do you want your new shirt to fit looser? Tighter? Longer? Lower cut? Higher cut? Is it fine the way it is? Make a mental note of possible alterations.

Step one: Fold your yardage in half selvage-selvage and cut on the fold. You will have two pieces roughly 27″ x 30″ on top of each other, right-sides together. Lay your t-shirt on top of your fabric making sure that it’s centered.

Step two: Keeping in mind the fit of the tee, trace out the side seams up to the armpit of the shirt. The shirt I chose is actually pretty small on me so I decided to add 2″ on either side of the t-shirt. Once you hit where your armpit begins, make a little mark perpendicular to your side seam.

Next make a mark for your sleeve opening. The distance from your mark to the top of your fabric should measure the sleeve opening on your t-shirt (i.e. the two yellow lines in the picture should be equal).

In the picture, the top arrow is where your armpit will begin, and the bottom arrow is where your sleeve will end.

Step Three: Using a bowl or tailor’s rulers add in the shirt’s curves. M ark where you want your neck hole to go using your t-shirt as a guide, then mark the front and back neckline. You can mark both necklines on one piece of fabric, just remember to cut only one piece lower for the front. Then connect your armpit mark to your sleeve opening mark with a nice curve.

I decided to make my neck hole a little bit wider and lower than the original tee, so I marked accordingly.

Step four: Cut out your t-shirt adding your preferred seam allowance (I added 1/2″). You are just making two cuts: One from one sleeve opening to the bottom of your tee, and one from the other sleeve opening to the bottom. Look how simple these pieces are!

Step five: Sew up the side seams and the shoulder seams of your t-shirt. A straight stitch is just fine.

Step six: Turn your shirt right-side out. You have a mostly finished t-shirt! Pat yourself on the back! At this point all you need to do is hem your shirt.

My favorite way to hem knit fabrics is with a twin needle because it’s easy, fast, stretchy, and looks professional. The twin needle mimics a cover stitch which is seen on most commercially available garments and requires an expensive specialty machine. All you need however, is the needle and an extra spool of thread.

To use a twin needle: set up an extra spool holder on your machine and use two spools of thread. Thread them both through your machine as if you were using a single thread, and then split the threads at the needle to put one through each needle.

Fold your fabric under about 1/2″. Make long thread tails when you begin sewing and hold the tails taught for the first 1″-2″ of sewing and then just sew normally. You can back-stitch to secure your stitching and everything. Just make sure you hang onto those thread tails at the beginning.

Hem your neckline, armholes and bottom and your done! Easy huh? Whip out a bunch of these for summer and be comfortable all season.

Posted by hartsblog in Made by Hart's Staff, Tutorials Tags: bamboo, clothign, Easy, jersey, kints, shirts, tops, tutorials

Easy No-sew Peplum Tutorial!!!

April 9, 2013

Supplies:

- 1/2 yard of flexible vinyl, or real leather!

- 1/2 yard of 36″ wide pattern paper

- 2.25 yards of bias tape, the wider, the easier to fold over!

-1.5 yards of ribbon to cover back of bias ties!

- 4 yards of lace trim, that takes curves well, or a eyelet ruffle trim!

- Fabric-tac glue

This is a easy No-sew peplum that anyone can make! No sewing machine, no problem! All you need is a bottle of Fabric-Tac glue or E-6000! First you need to make your pattern! Get your 1/2 yard of pattern paper and fold in half to make a 18″ by 18″ square. Now measure your high waist and divide by 2 and minus 2″ ( to make room for peplum)! Now take your folded piece of pattern paper and draw a curve in the top left corner based on that measurement! Now measure the length you want it to be, I made mine about 12″ long! Cut out and take your circular pattern piece and lay on top of vinyl to cut out!

Ok now that you have your peplum piece cut out, you need to add a bias tape to the top edge to create ties! Fold your bias-tape around edge and secure with Fabric-tac glue or E-6000!

Alright, now you need to glue the bias tape folded edges down on ties! Secure with Fabric-Tac glue!

Then add your ribbon (1.5 yards) to the back of bias tape to cover folded edges!

Next you need to add your lace trim to the top edge just under the bias-tape and to the bottom edge! Be careful to space evenly! Add third length of lace trim after the top and bottom is glued down! Now add the third a few inches from bottom trim!