Wayward Girls' Crafts: sewing

Showing posts with label sewing. Show all posts

Oversized T-Shirt Upcycling

Today is my baby girl's birthday!! What a sweet blessing this little girl has been to us! Happiest of birthdays KZ!!

Remember how I've taken a couple of my husbands shirts and made them into shirts for me? See here and here.

Well I did it again! My husband needed a pack of black tshirts for work and he had a few left over from the package he bought so I used one to make into a shirt for me!

So the first thing I did was find an existing shirt that I liked to mimic the shape of. I wanted this new shirt to have dolman sleeves so I didn't need to change the shoulder or sleeve length. Here is the before:

Here is a list of the things I did to the shirt. I'm sorry I don't have more photos of the process this shirt has been a work in progress for many months (like since February!!).

Remove the pocket. You can't see it in the picture but this was done with a seam ripper.
Trace around shape of existing shirt onto new shirt+seam and stretch allowance (which I never do enough of)
Cut off collar and made new shape.
Sew up new sides.
Take existing black fabric and make collar. I didn't have quite enough from the cut edges so I had to use some from a different project. I cut the fabric about an inch wide to the shape of the collar. I sewed right sides together and flipped the fabric inside the shirt. I then sewed around the edge of the whole collar.
I used the scraps from the tshirt to make flowers next to the collar.
I added two box pleats to the collar to make it lay flat.
I tried it on and it was too tight! I told you I never allowed enough seam and stretch allowance!
I cut up the middle of the whole back of the shirt. I got 4" wide black lace and sewed it inside the cut. I tapered it at the top and sewed a hem on the bottom.

Step 9 is then I put on some dark lipstick and went to take pictures. I got all set up and then noticed my neighbor was also in his backyard. Hey there new neighbor! Don't mind me posing in my backyard!

Have you done any upcycling lately? Do you have any great plans for the weekend?

Tomorrow morning my husband is repelling down a HUGE building for the Special Olympics and in the afternoon (and on Sunday) we'll be watching General Conference!

Hope you have a great weekend!

p.s. I'll give you a dollar if you can spot the birthday girl in one of these pictures...j/k I won't be giving any dollars out but look back and see if you can spot her little blonde head in there :)

Helping with Days For Girls Inc

Have you heard of Days for Girls? It's a nonprofit with a really great mission:

Days for Girls International is a grassroots 501(c)3 non-profit creating a more dignified, humane and sustainable world for girls through advocacy, reproductive health awareness, education and sustainable feminine hygiene - because no girl should go without. Women and girls discover their potential and self-value, are equal participants and agents of social change and are given opportunities to thrive, grow and contribute to their community's betterment while ensuring quality sustainable feminine hygiene.

Yearly, my church has a large meeting for our women's organization, the Relief Society. This year we have a service project for Days for Girls. We put together reusable feminine hygiene kits for women around the world. In preparation for the day, I cut out 40 panty liners out of flannel (a sheet actually!). Here's what it looked like after I traced the pattern

and here are 40 cut liners (two pieces of flannel thick) ready to be sewed. I'm not the best seamstress, so I only volunteered for the cutting.

This last Saturday we got together to finish and assemble the kits.

Kits ready to assemble

This is what I worked on: adding snaps to the shields.

Some young women sewing liners.

All in all, we assembled kits for 210 young women throughout the world. This changes lives!! I encourage you to look into Days for Girls, Inc and see what you can do to help!

Easy Pacifier Clip

Hi my name is Brave Brooke and I hate searching for pacifiers. The other day I went and bought a bunch because I detest looking for them and yet I was still searching for the 7 we own. Months ago I made KZ a pacifier clip that is sadly sitting somewhere along our route home from our long road trip so it was time to make another one and a couple to spare.

This is one of the first sewing projects I've done in quite a few weeks. It was so rewarding to finish and it was so simple. This is a great project to use scraps for

All you need is:

A piece of fabric that is 10"x 4" (one of the ones I made was more like 10" x 3.75" and it still worked out just fine)
A clip (this is the kind that I ordered)
Ribbon (about 4")
Velcro/a snap
Optional: button pacifier (MAM or NUK) adapter

First fold the short ends down 1/4" and press.

Next fold it in half lengthwise and in half again (see picture) and press.

Before sewing the fabric closed unfold and sew any embellishments and the fastener (Velcro or snap) for the clip on. For a button pacifier you will need the adapter for the top and the clip for the bottom. The first one of these I made I put Velcro on either end. For this one I used a piece of ribbon on the adapter side. This tutorial can be used for any type of pacifier.

Refold the fabric and sew around all sides. As you come around the end opposite of the clip side sew in the ribbon folded in half with the ends inserted into the top.

Make sure any embellishments are secure. For the bow I back stitched before I sewed it closed and then once it was sewed up I tied it and with coordinating thread hand stitched it through the knot to make sure it wouldn't come untied.

Notice the clip on the left has a snap.

These are the best pictures I could get of her using her pacifier clip. She is on the go with no time for pictures!

What embellishments would you put on a pacifier clip?

Independence Day crafts from WGC!

We're always very excited to celebrate Independence Day. Here are some of the Americana-themed crafts we've shared!

Stars & Stripes 3D Stars

I think we'll be doing this for Make it Monday!

Patriotic Wire Shaping

Fourth of July Patriotic Word Art Printable

Patriotic Pinwheels

Festive Fourth of July Nails

Red, White and Spangled Candles

Red, White and Blue Baby Clothes Upcycle

More ideas

What will you make for Independence Day?

Threading a Bobbin Right

Ok so have you ever sewn something then when you finished you see a big heaping mess of thread on the underside where you started? Well this is because the bobbin hadn't been threaded all the way correctly. In order to do so first you're going to need to put it in the machine the correct way leaving it with a couple of inches of extra. This is important. Not all machines are alike so I don't really know how yours needs to be threaded!

Next with the needle threaded, turn the knobby thing until the needle goes all the way down into the machine.

Now pull it back up . You should see that the top thread has gone down into the bottom part of the feeder. Now pull the top thread's thread until the bobbin thread comes up.

Using a seam ripper or whatever's small enough to fit under the foot, pull one side of the bobbin thread.

And pull that thread to the side. Now you won't start a sewing project with a ball of thread around your bobbin!

Easy Decorative Accent Pillows

We got a new couch when we moved last fall. This meant I could also get new pillows (in my mind, no one actually gave me permission.) I had made an embroidered pillow with our last name on it a few months before and had plenty of fabric left over. I also made a table cloth (I took a home linens sewing class my last year in school!) and used left over fabric from that, too. I cut out 16" x 16" squares. Then I cut them along both diagonals to get 4 triangles. Since I was only making 2 pillows I only cut out 2 squares of both colors which resulted in 16 triangles. Next I laid out the triangles in the desired pattern.

Then I sewed 2 triangles in alternating colors together along the short side. Make sure you are sewing on the right sides of the fabric! The tan fabric is a jacquard fabric and definitely has a right and a wrong side.

I had to check and recheck that I was sewing the right short edges together to get the right matching pattern for one side of the pillow.

Then it was time to sew the two larger triangles together. This was tricky so I started a the middle in order to get crisp lines. I pinned the seams down and sewed from the middle out. Then repeated in the opposite direction.

Then I sewed both sides together, matching where the red triangles were in the front and back to have a symmetrical pillow (forgot a picture of this step, sorry!) And then came the stuffing part. I left half of the bottom section un-sewn when I was sewing the two sides together. I stuffed to my hearts content. In order to get good corners I stuffed stuffing down there with scissors and made sure it went into the point of the corner. After stuffing, I sewed up the hole by hand. This could've been done by machine as well which would've been much faster but oh well!

Hawaiin Shirt to A-Line Skirt

I love how my title sounded like a line from a poem. Good morning! Does anyone have some fun plans for the weekend? We're travelling some next week because it's spring break and I.am.so.excited. This is the first "kid vacation" we're taking and I can't wait to see PB's face when we get there! By kid vacation I mean one where we go to a certain place because we have kids. We're staying at a resort that has a mini water park. I'm ready to get some shopping in and some good eats!

I am completely ready for spring to get here! We have had some great weather but these dang cold fronts keep coming in from the north! To help encourage some warm weather I decided to make this skirt.

My husband was recently gifted this Hawaiian shirt. I took one look at it and decided he would most likely never wear it. He already has a couple and he hasn't worn them one time in the 7+ years I have known him BUT I liked the pattern and I thought it had great potential. I had visions of a great high-waisted a-line skirt. I conceptualized and browsed through a few tutorials and this is what I came up with and it has POCKETS! This craft is somewhat wayward. I was making it up as I go so things aren't necessarily in their proper order but this is how I did it:

Need:
One Hawaiian shirt
1.5(ish) yards of lining fabric in coordinating color
A skirt that fits to see basic shape

The first thing I did was take the pocket off the front. I then cut across the top to take away the collar and shoulders. I wanted the buttons in the back so I buttoned up the shirt and sewed along the left and right seams on either sides of the buttons. I flipped the sleeves in and sewed along the rim to make them face inside. I then flipped the skirt inside out and sewed the sleeves closed to make the pockets. I took the lining fabric and folded it in half top to bottom and side to side. I laid it under the existing skirt and traced along each side adding about half an inch on either side to make a waist band. I cut along the lines and sewed up each side.

I then flipped it inside out and make sure it fit comparing it to the other skirt. I trimmed the extra fabric on the waist band depth and compared the top of the skirt to the width of the waist band. I added pleats in the front and back to match the sizes. I basted the pleats and then flipped the waist band inside out.

I put the waist band and matched the corners. I pinned it and sewed along the top.

I wanted the skirt to be a-line to I noticed the bottom needed to flare more. I used more of the lining fabric I folded it over and traced the line I wanted to skirt to follow. After trying on the skirt I adjusted these. I cut them and sewed the outer edge and then sewed the edge onto the skirt.

I then folded the piece of lining fabric in half and marked the edges of the skirt from the waistband down to make a lining for the skirt. I sewed the lining along the edge where the waistband and the skirt meet. I then decided to make it a tie closure in the back. I cut two 4"x15" (approximate) lengths of the lining fabric and sewed them into tubes and turned them right side out. I cut a 6" seam down the back and flipped them under and sewed them. I sewed the ties onto the waistband and tried it on. I made a couple of adjustments and trimmed off any extra fabric and strings.