In the finishing stage of sewing up my second Halloween costume project.
My son loves all things racing-car related. Speed Racer is one of his favorite characters. So we decided to be re-do Halloween last year.
But Mama decided to take on a costume challenge and make a new Speed Racer Jacket. (Besides, the old one is a bit short.) The tricky part was drafting an original pattern. With a simple jacket pattern as a guide (Simplicity 5284) I guesstimated, and re-estimated each panel. All that seam ripping, re-tracing, and investing in extra fabric, really paid off. Think motorcycle-like contoured jacket. But out of white denim.
A tiny bit of red Mach 5 applique and a touch of red edge stitching finishes this baby. (We are only waiting on buttons now. But I think they are going to have to wait until after I pick out fabric for a few duvet projects! Or maybe that Beauty and the Beast Belle dress I want to make…slippery fabric again. Maybe not.)
I am not entirely sure that this outfit will last another 35 days until it makes a first runway trip up the steps of a ghoulish front porch.
But I think Prince Charming will not mind the early debut. And I don’t believe that I’ll be able to pry it offer her tiny body between now and then.
This year was a lot easier than last year’s outfit. Oh goodness, the slippery green, seven-skirt-extravaganza…And those wings with the invisible thread. Who sews with invisible thread? It should be called impossible-frustration-thread…in color: clear maddness.
This year, Cinderelli is ready to hit the trick-or-treat road. Or, just hang out with halmony and halaboji and pass out candy, and cavities, to other little neighborhood children. Now, off to work on that none-other-than-Speed-Racer costume. Denim. In white. With appliqué. I’ve never worked with denim before. This should be interesting.
Note: This is Simplicity pattern 2817; size HH in size 3. Little Miss is just that, little. I took off 3″ on either side of the rear zipper seam, evenly split between both sides. And we made a generous 4″ hem, clipping off 3″ additional inches because we are short. I added four tulle underskirts, basting them around all edges and attaching the bundle to the outer skirt before sewing the gathering stitches. And finally, I added a few pale blue plastic crystals (on ribbon tape) to the bodice above the crazy organza puffs.
P/S, Using sparkly fabric through-out delights those who are two years old and still want to wear light-catching gear.
This week I posted this tutorial for my honey-comb appliqué tote bag. Also be sure to visit the One Small Change blog for my other quilt-square appliqué tote bag tutorial (for the bag above) and more explicit photos about how to sew a lined tote bag.
 Have a great weekend!
We love, love, love tote bags. This organizing tool, in my opinion, is one you can never have too many of. Tote bags are some of the easiest and most economical green organizing solutions to create yourself. Really!
I purchased retail quilting-weight cotton fabrics for the applique motif, but the unbleached mid-weight cotton fabric I bought at a thrift store for $1.50. (In it’s former life it was a curtain. And with this kind of a yardage, I am able to cut 4 tote bags of varying sizes.) To save more money, thrift, or yard-sale find the applique fabric as well. Look for shirts, blouses, and light weight cottons to create your very own design.
There are a million and two uses for organizing with cloth. I use them for the obvious toting of belongings. A simple tote holds our birthday banner and keeps it neat, and free from dust until it’s next use. I store those silly glass pebbles for my flower arrangements in a tote bag. Puzzle pieces can be stored in a tote with a zippered top and a simple tag. Think of dice, card games, and dominoes organized in little draw-string totes hung on a peg board for all to reach. That is just the beginning of the list of uses for this very useful organizing solution.
The tote I designed above is an applique design. Wanna know how to make your own? Read on!
Honey-Comb Applique Tote
Materials
- light cardboard
- paper scissors
- scrap pieces of coordinating patterned fabrics
- thread and sharp needle
- paper-backed fusible webbing
- Embroidery thread and sharp embroidery needle
- (2) 23″ x 10″ pieces of unbleached cotton fabric – medium weight (I recycled the fabric from a curtain)
- (2) 14″ x 4″ pieces of unbleached cotton fabric – medium weight (these will be the handles)
- fabric scissors
- sewing machine
- iron and board
How To
1.Wash and tumble dry all fabric.
2. Make your form. On the computer, create, or just download, a hexagon. Print it out, transfer the shape to a piece of thin cardboard and cut it out.
3. Trace the form, leaving 1/4″ seam allowance. Cut out the fabric hexagon.
4. Center the fabric under the form and fold two sides to the wrong side of the fabric,
 
finger press, and hand baste stitch in place. Continue counter clockwise until all corners are basted in place.
5. Remove form from fabric hexagon and press. Repeat 13 times with varying patterned fabrics, or create enough for your desired design.
6. Arrange your hexagon pattern.
7. Whip stitch the hexagon pattern together.
 
8. Lay hexagon pattern on paper-backed fusible webbing and trace. Cut webbing. Follow manufacturer’s instructions and fuse webbing to the wrong side of the hexagon applique pattern.
9. Fold the outside tote bag fabric in half, matching raw edges with wrong sides together. (The bottom of the tote should be where the fabric fold is.)
10. Arrange outside tote bag fabric with the fold closest to you. Peel off paper from webbing and align applique motif on the front of the tote in manner desired. Follow manufacturer’s instructions and fuse the applique motif to the front of the tote bag.
11. Edge stitch around applique motif in thread color of your choice. Stitch along all edges of each hexagon. (Stitch-in-the-ditch, to use a quilting term.)
12. Add any embroidery, like a simple running stitch design, to the front of the tote bag.
13. Fold outside tote bag fabric in half right sides together, matching raw edges. Pin and stitch the side seams using a 1/2″ seaming allowance (sew the 11 1/2″ sides.) Repeat with the inside tote fabric. Clip corners and turn outside tote fabric right-side out.
14. Fold handle fabric pieces in half lengthwise, wrong sides together, and press. Open and fold raw edges toward creased center and press. Fold in half lengthwise again and press.
15. Edge stitch pressed edges together along the length of the bag handle (the 14″ side)
16. Align tote bag handle raw edges (the 1″ side) spaced evenly along the right side of the 10″ top of the bag outside fabric and pin. (Make sure the handle fabric isn’t twisted and handles should lay toward the fold of the bottom of the tote on the outside of the bag. Baste raw edges.
17. Place outside tote bag fabric with handles, inside the tote bag lining fabric so that right sides are together. Align side seams, make sure the handles are in between the tote bag layers, and pin.
18. Seam raw edges (use a 1/2″ seam allowance) around the top of the bag, leaving a 3″ unseamed opening through which to turn the bag, back stitching at the beginning and end. (Reinforce the seam over the bag handles by back stitching.)
19. Turn the bag through the opening, smooth bag liner to the inside, and press.
20. Edge stitch the top of the tote bag 1/8″ from the edge to close the 3″ opening.
21. Fill your new tote with something gorgeous!
This month of September for our One Small Change, we are incorporating more green organizing solutions into our home to help our environment. Visit the One Small Change blog to declare and share your change, and be inspired by what others are doing to help heal our earth!
UPDATE: For more pictures about how to construct a lined tote bag, visit my other tote bag tutorial at the One Small Change Blog.
It is almost September on the calendar. In my mind, and according to the thermometer outside, there are many days of summer left this year. Even so, some of my most recent projects are in preparation for autumn and the coming holiday season. A little embroidery creating oh, so cute, Advent motifs doesn’t feel as wintry in my lap as I sip iced tea, as does knitting a woolen sweater.
So, as we are enjoying the last days of summer, in 97 degree heat, we are also looking toward the next season to turn itself in. Autumn is my favorite season of the year. The rich colors, the cool crisp days, and smells of caramel, apples, and cinnamon lift my spirit. As much as I plan for the months to come, I am sincerely grateful this doesn’t make the days on the calendar turn more swiftly. Here is to taking pause this morning in late summer.
I am a planner. I love planning ahead. And I know that the best laid plans don’t always go as planned. But I can still try.
Last year I spent Christmas sick on the sofa. Dog sick. And I didn’t finish any of the handmade gifts I’d plan to give. This year I thought I’d start in August, so at least I’d have a chance, with sick-days built, in to finish everything.
So periodically, I am not promising when, here on the blog, I hope to give a few updates about what I am stitching, knitting, and concocting. (Mostly because those who would want a surprise can’t read and the others who can read and will be future recipients, don’t read here.)
So far, I’ve nearly finished this embroidered pouch…and I’ve just started on this linen stitch knitted scarf.
The embroidery pattern is from the book A Rainbow of Stitches by Agnes Delage-Calvet, et. al.
And the scarf is the Cerus Scarf by Hillary Smith Callis. I am knitting in Huacaya Sport Alpaca by Furnace Mountain in Chocolate Heather.
When I asked my mother the other morning over the phone what she wanted me to give her for Christmas, she just laughed at me. Are you as crazy as I am and planning holiday gifts in August?
 
Sometimes I don’t have the inspiration. I don’t feel it. That fabric, all pre-washed, ironed, and folded neatly in my stash just doesn’t speak to me. It doesn’t say, “make me into that box-pleated dress”, or a “button-down shirt.” It isn’t begging to be transformed from a flat, lucid piece of fabric into a dynamic, living, and loved garment.
But a few days ago, I had found one of those forgotten pieces of breezy summer blue cotton in the bottom of my fabric bin, and it spoke to me. I am gauzy. I am soft. I am floaty. I am summer breezy blue. Use me. Form me. Now. And so I did.
Of course, for Mini Mister it was a new shirt that was necessary. I’d been saving these cute blue and red car buttons for a while, waiting for just the right project. He simply adores them, and fell asleep holding his new shirt to his cheek.
And for Little Miss. Well, I thought I’d try a new smock dress pattern in the same matching blue. Because who doesn’t love matching her “Oppa”? Super duper easy to sew up. And we were matching in our summer breezy blues in no time.
I saw this wonderful craft on the blog Magic Onions the other day. With the many stormy nights of no-sleep as of late, I knew that a rendezvous with my sewing machine was in order. And quick.
It is simply a piece of felted cashmere sweater, purchased for only $1 at the thrift store, a wee bit of thread, and the luxurious scent of lavender buds and dried rosemary. I took the liberty to alter the blog pattern and needle felted wool roving figures onto the front of each pillow. A red car for Mini Mister and a pink piggy for Little Miss. Inside each supremely soft cashmere pouch is a muslin bag filled with rice, buds, and herbs. When the buds and herbs have given all their scent we can replace them. The side of the pouch fastens with Velcro.
Just before bedtime stories we warm the soft sweet scented pillows gently in the microwave and hug them as we drift off into a lavender dream land.
It has been a while since my crafty itch has really itched. Feeling under-the-weather usually has me sitting around knitting, stitching, or drawing. Hot and humid weather with a heat index of 107 degrees also usually has me indoors doing something cool, with a glass of iced tea. But this summer, it hasn’t been so. We’ve been doing a lot of book reading. Jig-saw puzzling. Cooking yummy gluten free recipes. And drinking a ton of water while waiting for the cool-weather Gods to come a bless our abode.
But I digress. I was so delighted when this book came in the mail. I am in the midst of researching educational opportunities for my children and wanted to learn a bit more about the Waldorf philosophy of teaching. This book is a wonderfully delightful read with a lot of information about Waldorf schooling and interesting activities and crafts aimed toward children 2 – 4 years of age.
Though I am not totally sold that such an unstructured education like Waldorf is right for my oldest, this book completely plays to my crafty, saw-it-in-a-book-wanna-make-it side. So, I set to work pulling out my yarn left overs to make a very petite and exceptionally cute knit bunny.
And thus followed, a small heap of c0lorful remnants made the journey to my sewing machine to be stitched into an adorable orange dress for my daughter’s dolly, Kaylee.
What are you crafting? And what comes along that inspires you?
 This is the latest sewing project. My fingers get a bit itchy when they haven’t been fussing with the sewing machine in a while. And they were itchy this weekend. I decided to reverse engineer one of Little miss’ dresses I love. Easy, light, and comfy. I have never done back buttons before but I think my un-orthodox approach is working. Finished product to be shared soon!
What are your fingers itching to do this summer?
|
thank you for stopping by my blog  I am a 35 year old mom to a 4 year old son, a 3 year old daughter, a son born in May, and a wife to my life wonderful. I write in this space when my crafty inspiration strikes or when I get to pondering about how we can live more simply and better connect with the earth around us. We are a family surviving the suburbs, contending with commercialism, and getting to a greener lifestyle. Welcome! ~Abbie a few blogs I like in no particular order Permission © Organizing-Life 2009
All images and designs are property of Organizing-Life. Please do not copy any original designs or photography without written permission. Thank you!
|