Friday, February 19, 2010

Carseat Canopy

I love making these! I've done a bunch for shower gifts. They don't take long and they're very easy. I think everyone should have one - I love mine and always have people ask about it when I'm out. I made this one for a shower and loved the fabric so much, I decided to make another to sell. Buzz About Baby has the tutorial that I use. This is the first item I've listed for sale in my new Etsy Shop! I make mine reversible by pinning two straps to each side and sewing them on together. Cute huh!?

~Star

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Storage Bin

Yay! I've had this project on my to-do list forEVER and I finally did it!


I used to judge people with cars full of crap all over the floor and seats but now that I have kids I understand. Hopefully this will keep it all somewhat contained.


Urban Nest has the tutorial. It was a pretty forgiving project and easier than I expected. Let me know if you do one - I'm pretty sure I'll be making more in the future.

~Star

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Tutorial: How To Make A Headband Holder


If your baby girl is bald like mine is, you probably have a ton of headbands (especially if you made skinny nylon headbands). This will hold and display quite a few and you can put a bunch inside of it too.
You need:
Large Clorox container (mine held 78 wipes)
Fabric (14"x17" & two 4" diameter circles)
Sewing Machine
Rotary Mat & Cutter or Scissors
Trace your container twice
It's kinda hard to see but I made a dotted cirlce 1/4" outside my traced circle for the seam allowance

Cut your fabric to be 14"x17" and cut your circles on the dotted line
Take your 14"x17" fabric and sew the 17" sides together with a 1/4" seam allowance
Now take a circle and pin it to the tube you just made so the right sides are together and the whole thing is inside-out.
Sew together with a 1/4" seam allowance. This part is tricky so just go slow.
Now turn fabric tube right side out and take the Clorox paper off the container so it won't show through your fabric. Put the container inside the tube of fabric with both openings on top.Without pinning, sew the remaining circle to the unfinished edge. Use a 1/4" seam allowance and sew right sides together. It won't let you sew all the way around so go as far as you can then take it out. You should only have a little opening left afterwards. This needs to be hand-sewn shut.
Um. I'm not hand-sewing anything because it looks just fine to me! But don't follow my bad example and leave it unfinished.

Tada! You could use whatever container you have lying around you just have to measure it and add 1/4" seam allowances to EVERY edge that will be sewn.
I'd love to see yours!
~Star

Sunday, February 14, 2010

My New Sewing & Craft Table

How cool is this!? I just ordered it online and can't wait to get it. I can finally clear my machine and supplies off my kitchen table!

~Star

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

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

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