Tutorial: How To Make A Button-Up Cuff

Add some adorable button-up cuffs to your favorite long sleeved tee. I love Shade shirts (thanks Costco for selling them CHEAP!) and I have a ton of them so I used one for this tutorial and it worked great. As always let me know if you have any questions.

You will need:
Less than 1/8 yard fabric (my shirt was white and I choose a print fabric that shows through so I also used two 6"x2" strips of white ribbon to fix that problem)
Long Sleeved Shirt (with no cuffs)
Buttons
Sewing Machine
Rotary Mat & Cutter or Scissors

I will use my measurements for this tutorial but you can adjust to your liking. I used ¼” seam allowance unless otherwise stated.

Cut out eight 2x6 rectangles from your fabric. I only cut out six rectangles from my fabric and then used two more rectangles that were all white (my ribbon) to make eight.

Take two rectangles and sew them right sides together along 3 edges leaving one long edge un-sewn. Repeat with remaining rectangles. If you have 2 rectangles of a different color like I did, sew each of them to one rectangle of printed fabric, right sides together.
Now you have four STRIPS. Phew, now I can stop saying “rectangle”! Turn all 4 strips right side out and press. Set aside.

Press the ends of your shirt sleeves to make cutting easier. Mark shirt cuffs with “Left” and “Right” as if you are wearing the shirt (with your right arm being the right sleeve and so on). Cut off 5” from each sleeve to make your cuffs.

Turn each cuff inside out and carefully rip the side seams open with your seam ripper.

Press open un-stitched seams so they are completely flat and pull off all the loose threads. Lay down cuffs with wrong sides facing down, right side facing up and finished edges farthest away from you. Place a strip on both sides of each cuff with all the unfinished edges together. If the strip isn’t exactly the same length as the cuff, just make sure the finished edge of cuff is lined up together with the strips as these will show on the finished product. If you have two strips that have two different colors, place those two with the non-printed side facing up on the right side of right cuff and left side of left cuff. Starting at the top corners, pin & sew along all 4 unfinished, long edges. The top corners need to be pretty because they will show in the end. Lay cuffs back down just like before with wrong sides facing down, right side facing up and finished edges farthest away from you.

RIGHT CUFF:
Open up strip on the right side and fold over all the way to the opposite side of the cuff. Press with the seam facing out to the side, not up like the the fabric will want to do. Top-stitch strip 1/8” from edge directly onto your cuff all the way around the strip then sew buttonholes to each of these strips. Refer to your machine’s user manual if you need help doing the buttonholes.

Open up remaining strip and press so that the unfinished edges on the inside of seam are directly under the strip. Top-stitch on the right side of the strip 1/8” from edge. Make sure to catch the bulky overlap (the unfinished edges that you just pressed under) as you sew. Go all the way around the strip, but make sure you don’t sew it onto your cuff like you did with the first strip.

Bring your two strips together right sides out with the buttonhole strip on top and mark the other strip where you need to sew your buttons. Hand or machine-sew buttons to each blank strip and button up each of your cuffs.

Now check for your mark of “Left” or “Right”, turn your cuff inside out and put it around your sleeve (sleeve should be right side out) with all unfinished edges together. VERY IMPORTANT: When lining them up, make sure the right (as in *wrong and right*) side of your cuff’s opening slit is 180 degrees from your sleeve’s side seam and pin.

Sew the cuff to the sleeve along the unfinished edges (use as small of a seam allowance as possible - ¼” at most as to avoid shortening your sleeves any more than you need to.

LEFT CUFF:
Repeat instructions for right cuff except start out opening up strip on the left side. It should be a mirror image of your right cuff.

I hope you love it as much as me! Please link me if you post about this, thanks!

~Star

Onesie Dress

Here's a cute cheap project for your baby girl that cost under $5 if you already have a onesie. Barefoot In The Kitchen has the tutorial and here is a picture of the one I made:

~Star

Baby Legs Part 2

The baby legs I blogged about here were made from a scarf I found at the dollar store. These baby legs are made from women's knee high socks that I found at Walmart for $3. For these ones you make a cuff at the bottom which I love. If I did the dollar store ones over I would add a cuff to them too.

The first time I did these I made a short cuff as you can see in the picture at the top. After deciding the leg part wasn't long enough I made a long cuff as pictured here:

See the difference? I'm not sure which I like best but I think they're both cute!

Here's the tutorial by Nannygoat. It's very helpful and full of pictures. The only thing I will add is to make sure (when you get to this step) that you put both your cuffs into the legs the same way before sewing. I realized this just in time to do it right but I could have easily spaced it. She doesn't mention it in her tutorial probably because her cuffs were the same no matter which way she put them but mine had different colored stripes and I almost ended up with one grey and one pink cuff and I'm a freak so that would have bugged me.

~Star

Tutorial: How To Make An INTERCHANGEABLE Binkie Leash/Clip

After making my first Binkie Leash here I found I needed a bunch more colors but instead of buying a bunch more clips I decided to make the leashes interchangable.
You need:
Snap Fasteners or Velcro
Lighter
Ribbon
Fashion Fit Clip or Suspender Clip (see this post)
Hammer
Hot Glue Gun

Cut about 11" of ribbon

Put a flame to the edges for a second so they don't fray
If you want to hem the edges do it now. I didn't on these but they're kind of rough so I probably should have. If you don't want to sew, just use a hot glue gun and fold the edge over a tiny bit like a hem.

Read the instructions on the snap fasteners or see this post for velcro instructions if you'd rather do it that way. Attach snaps at the edge of each side of the ribbon and also at about 2" from each edge Here's what the back looks like Speaking of the back, I didn't realize until after I bought and opened my ribbon that usually only one side has a pattern so I was pretty bummed. I had a cute pink camo and a zebra stripe but the backs of each were plain white so I didn't use them. I'm pretty sure everyone else in the world already knew that's how ribbon came except me. But just in case I thought I'd warn you!

~Star

Edited to add: For a fabric version, go here.

Tutorial: How To Make A Moby Style Wrap

***Please always use extra caution when wearing baby (especially newborns and sleeping babies) to make sure their mouth and nose are not covered and they can breath well.

Edited to add: Check out my updated version here!

I'd never heard of Moby Wraps before but then again I don't get out much. Apparently they're pretty popular. This is what my imitation looks like:

You need:

Rotary Mat & Cutter or Scissors

5&1/2 yards of cotton/poly or cotton/jersey fabric (t-shirt material)
*This amount is for an average size woman

All you have to do is cut the fabric in half the long way so that you have TWO pieces of fabric that are 5&1/2 yards long.

The end.

That's really how simple it is! There's even that crease down the middle already from being folded on the bolt. Just follow that crease all the way across as you cut. You end up with two wraps so give one to a friend or keep them both. It's the easiest thing to make. You almost can't even say you *made* it.

If you really want to save money you could buy half the fabric, cut it and sew it together in the middle so that you only end up with one wrap but then you have to sew! Plus the middle is right where your baby sits so if you do this you need to make sure it's super secure. You could even sew a foot of cute fabric right in the middle to spice it up but again make sure you double or even triple sew those seams so they're really stable. Another cute idea, if you have labels, is to sew your label right at the very top of the center of the fabric. It will show right in the front. This will also help you as you put your wrap on to know where the center is.

If you need instructions on how to wear the wrap just go to Moby's website at http://www.mobywrap.com/ and click on instructions.

PS I hear you can occasionally find this fabric at Walmart on clearance for $1.50/yd!!! Good luck! Mine was $6/yd (on sale) at Joann's.

~Star

Edited to add: Check out my updated version here!