Tag Archives: tutorial

securedownload

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..

securedownload-1

 

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

securedownload-2

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.

securedownload-3

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.

securedownload-5

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.

securedownload-6

securedownload-7

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.

securedownload-8

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.

securedownload-10

securedownload-11

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!!

securedownload-12

 


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:

IMG_6934

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.

IMG_6935

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!

IMG_6936

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

IMG_6937

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

IMG_6938

Pin your front and back pieces with right sides together.

IMG_6939

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.

IMG_6941

Cut around your shape close to the stitch lines.

IMG_6942

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

IMG_6943

Stuffing time!

Untitled-1

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

IMG_6948

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

 


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!

IMG_6950

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.

IMG_6951

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.

IMG_6952

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.

IMG_6953

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.

IMG_6954

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

IMG_6955

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!

IMG_6956

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.

IMG_6958

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.

IMG_6963

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!

 


IMG_0489

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!

IMG_0460

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!

IMG_0463

IMG_0464

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

IMG_0468

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

IMG_0474IMG_0473

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!

IMG_0475

IMG_0478

IMG_0479

IMG_0480

 

Ok you are all done! That wasn’t too difficult, was it? Wear your new peplum with your favorite dress or as a cool costume accessory!!!

IMG_0486

 


Hey everyone! Thanks for joining us again for our last part of our Multitasker sewalong. We are in the homestretch and our bags are almost finished!

Last week we left off with Step 15, where we finished the “box corner” of our bags. We now have our interior and exteriors all prepared and sewn, and the next step is to sew them together. We will make sure our exterior is right side out, with our corners pushed out nicely, and we will insert it inside of the lining which is inside out. We will now make sure our edges are matched up and we can pin our pieces together. I found that if there were any parts that weren’t lined up perfectly, I’d just make sure my front center panels were lined up and that extra slack in my fabric would be made up on my pocket panels – because our pocket panels will be rouched when our bag is finished and the straps are in place!!


Floor Interfacing

In the picture above you can see our next step. We will take our two Floor Insert interfacing pieces and sew them together. I opted to get the single sided Pellon Peltex utlra firm instead of the double sided, so in this step I made sure I sewed the fusible sides out, so both sides are fusible and it acted like the double fusible!

This next step can feel like a little juggling act, we need to place our floor insert into the wrong side of our exterior piece. Make sure it is in nice and snug and if you need to, feel free to use any pins you need (just make sure you pin only to the exterior and not the lining!)

We will now maneuver the bag so the lining is inside, the exterior is out, and the floor insert is inbetween. We’ll do this by flipping our bag right side out through the opening of the lining. Once we’ve done this we will stitch up our hole in our lining, and set our floor lining in by ironing/fusing it to both our lining and exterior.

SAMSUNG

Above you’ll see how we fuse the floor insert first to the lining, and below fusing the floor insert by ironing the exterior.
SAMSUNG

Now that our lining is secured, we will topstitch the exterior and lining together from pocket to pocket, sewing only our center panels and not our pockets! :) Once we’ve done that we will fold down the tops of our pocket panels to create the pocketing for our straps. The diagram picture in Step 24, was a little funny to me, the V-shaped line of one of the creases didn’t really seem to make any sense, so I did what was written and what did make sense, and just fold down the tops, as you can see below. And then I pinned.

SAMSUNG

SAMSUNG

STRAP TIME, WE ARE AT THE FINISHING LINEEEEE!!

Okay folks, we are almost finished. :) We now will take our strap pieces and sew them together, wrong sides facing eachother. Once we’ve sewn up both straps, we will flip them inside out! If you have a Loop Turner then this part will be very easy – I did not have a loop turner, and this step took me a few minutes of struggle!! Once I flipped the straps right sides out, I then ironed and topstitched them.

SAMSUNG SAMSUNG

Now that our straps are finished we are going to secure them to our bag. We will be sewing the strap ends to the center of the underside of our pressed pocket panel tab.

SAMSUNG SAMSUNG

This part confused me!!! I didn’t read the directions right and I sewed both the ends of the same strap to the bag, instead of sewing one end from each strap down! This was a funny seamripper alert!!

Once we have sewn down the straps to the bag, we will now fold the pocket panel tab down over our straps and topstich this down. And we will do this to both sides, and our straps will be fixed into our bag.

SAMSUNG

In this step, I realized my straps seemed to bit just a tad bit wider than what I had given myself room to sew down. So as you can see in the picture above, I had to just fold the actual strap pieces down a little to give enough room to sew down the pocket panel tab nicely.

Now that we have done this….. WE ARE FINISHED OUR ANNA MARIA HORNER MULTITASKER TOTE!!!! YAYY!!!

SAMSUNG

We are so happy that we could do this Sew Along together, and we hope that it was helpful and everyone had a great time sewing this bag. We look foreward to seeing the images you submit to us! And stay tuned to see who the LUCKY WINNER will be. Don’t forget to tell your friends and family to vote for your tote!

If you have any questions, feel free to send us a comment, email, phone call, or drop by~