Chrstmas Tree Skirt to Kids Play Mat

Hello Readers. Today's project is a play mat for my little guy. He was 5 months old when I made this and he needed a soft place to play. It started with this mauve Christmas tree skirt. I was not a big fan of the mauve, and I already had a tree skirt we used every year. This circle shape was great and the material was in wonderful condition.

Christmas Tree Skirt to Play Mat

I was going to cover the mauve material with this cute blue and green flannel.  (Similar flannel fabric here.) It was super soft and would be nice for my Sweet Pea while he learned to roll over and crawl.

I wanted to use as much of the fabric and waste as little of the fabric as possible so I cut the fabric one half at a time. I started by folding the quilted tree skirt in half and spreading it out on the edge of the fabric for cutting. I used the tree skirt as a pattern for my cutting.

I did some cutting. Cut, cut, cut. I cut a half circle around the quilt with a 1" seam allowance all the way around. That would allow me room for the new seams when I sewed it all together.

 

 Here is my second half circle. The way I positioned the tree skirt on the flannel fabric was the best way to use the flannel with the least waste. I put them together with the right sides facing each other and sewed the straight sides together to make a full circle.

I put my new flannel circle on top of my tree skirt and sewed with a straight stitch around the circle close to the edge of the tree skirt. I wanted the new flannel fabric to cover the tree skirt design. I placed the flannel circle right side up, on top of the tree skirt. Once I sewed it onto mauve side the quilt, I had to cut off the excess hanging off all around the edges.

Cut, cut, cut. I trimmed the excess fabric off the edge of the tree skirt the way you trim excess pie dough off the edges of a pie pan.  I tried to sew on the very edge of the tree skirt but you can see how the edge shows just a tiny bit of the mauve tree skirt. That's OK. I have a plan for that.

Here is the extra bias tape my sweet daughter made for a past project. It is 1 inch double fold bias tape. I pinned it all the way around the circle. It covers all the fabric edges (On the top and the bottom.) that I don't want seen. You can use any bias tape you want, and you can find almost every color at your closest fabric store or online.

Here is the bias tape being sewn to the play mat. The bias tape  wraps around the edge of the mat on top and bottom.

Here is the coolest part of the mat. You can see where the ends of the bias tape meet. I folded the end of the bias tape under so it would look neat but it is not sewn closed. I pinned a safety pin to the end of the ribbon and threaded the satin ribbon through the inside of the bias tape. The ribbon went all around the mat and both ends of ribbon stuck out of the opening where the ends of the bias tape meet. When I pulled on the ends of the ribbon, it pulled the circle together and it turned into a bag to hold the toys. That means easy clean up and easy traveling with all those toys you MUST take to grandpa's house. Any cord or string you want to use would work. I had ribbon on hand so I used that.

( If you are worried the string could get caught on something, or be dangerous to your baby, you can skip the drawstring.)

 

 Here is the mat pulled tight like a bag. I could fit so many toys and stuffed animals in here. It was all washable too, which is important with kids, they are messy!

Here you can see the center seam where the 2 half circles of flannel were sewn together from the beginning of this project. There is a cute baby and dad on the mat so you can see how that works too. Thanks for reading. Now, go out there and make something fabulous! 

 

It has been 8 years since I put this mat together. That is the same baby but he grew quite a bit. We still use the mat but now we use it for Lego blocks. Thanks for reading, now go make something fun for yourself. Or your kid!
 

One Dress On Top of Another

 Hello Readers. Spring is here and I am so happy it is warm enough to wear dresses without freezing or wearing heavy tights. But some dresses are just too sheer. Or so light weight the blow around in the breeze and expose all your bits and pieces to the world. This happened to me once. #HauntedByTheMemories

 

Two is better than one? In this case yes!

 

These dresses fit well and I love navy. I also love stripes so both of these dresses were perfect for me. But I don't trust white clothes. They always feel see through to me. What if it rains? It's like an accidental wet t-shirt contest. No thank you! The navy dress was so cute but it was a very thin rayon that would blow in the spring breeze and I could flash everyone. Also, no thanks!

What if I wore them together layered on top of each other? The dark colored dress would keep the white dress from being see-through and the white dress would help keep the wind from blowing the skirt up. The only problem was that the white dress was just a little too long to go under the navy dress. It showed at the hem and it looked a little sloppy.

 

  I got my sharpest sewing scissors and cut  about an inch off and...

I gave it a new hem. I turned the edge under by 1/2 inch and stitched it down with a straight stitch on my sewing machine. I used the same color thread that the dress had originally so the new hem would look like it had always been there. The white dress was 1 1/2 inches shorter than before. That would keep it from peeking out at the hemline. If the navy dress had been a little longer, I wouldn't have done this. 

 

The 2 dresses together were not see through and would not be too light weight to stay down when the breeze picked up. I liked it better without the white dress peeking out of the bottom. It looks nice and neat now. 

I love the contrasting stripes showing at the neckline too. Stripes on stripes! Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.

Two Too Sheer

 Hello Readers. I am loving the warmer weather and the lighter weight clothes of spring. It is so nice to wear less layers. But some of the spring/summer clothes I have in my sewing room are a little too light weight. This skirt was a hand-me-down (Thanks M.D.!) and I wanted to make it work.

 

A skirt on top of a dress? Why not?!?!

 

The white dress was a little too sheer by itself. The animal print skirt also seemed too sheer. I don't trust white clothes. A surprise spring rain and your clothes are see-through. This happened to my white shirt at a church picnic a long time ago.  #neveragain 

The pink skirt was a little big. I decided to take it in and shorten it so it would fit better.

There was a back seam in this skirt so I just took a little out from the back. I cut straight down the back of the skirt. 

I used my serger for the new back seam because it is much better with knits. 

I cut some length from the skirt. It felt a little too long on me and I waned it to be just a little longer than the white dress. 

I gave it a new hem and I was finished with the skirt. I think this will be a really comfortable outfit this spring.

 

  Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.

House Dress to Pajamas

 Hello Readers. It is spring and that means it is getting warmer and we don't need to bundle up like we live in the arctic. This blue plaid fabric just says spring. Let's make some light weight spring pajamas.

Grandmom's house dress to fun pajamas. (This is not really my Grandmom's dress. I wish it was.)

I used a pattern for boxer style pajama shorts. I cut the shorts out from the bottom of the dress. The hem of the dress will be the hem of the shorts. That will save me a lot of time. 

I sewed the 2 pieces of the shorts together. 

I folded the waist down and made a casing for elastic, put in the elastic and sewed the casing shut. 

I used the top of the dress for the pajama top. I cut most of the skirt off the top. I kept some of the skirt so the pajama top would be long enough. I hemmed the bottom of the new shirt and used my hair straightener to iron the hem. It works so well. 

My new pajamas were ready. I love them! I might wear these out and about. If you see me out there, don't say anything, just pretend that these are really clothes. Thanks for reading along, Now go make something fun for yourself.

Making a Yoga Bag

 Hello Readers. Someone asked me to make them a bag for their yoga mat, to make it easy to carry it to exercise class. They asked for a few pockets for water and their phone. I was inspired and I got to work. 

This project was guided by what I saw on Sewspire. You can find them on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram. The videos on YouTube are very informative.

I found this fabric in my sewing stash. It seemed sturdy enough for a bag. It was cute too. These 2 pieces would be the outer and inner layers of the bag. 

I would need straps, this ribbon seemed like a good choice and it was in my sewing stash already.

I used the rest of the fabric to cut some smaller rectangles for the pockets. I used my serger around the edges so they would not fray. I thought it would make the pockets strong over time. I didn't want messy fraying inside the bag, inside the pockets. 

This was how I planned to put the pieces together. The piece on the left is the inner layer. It will have one large pocket sewn to it. The piece on the right will have 2 small pockets and the straps sewn to it. When I sew the 2 layers together, it will hide all the stitching. 

 

I folded over the tops of the pockets so they would look nice and neat. I sewed the folded top twice to make it strong. This is when I started to have trouble with this project. I knew, but forgot, that my sewing machine does not do well with loosely woven fabric. You can see here that the weave is very open. If you do this project use a tighter woven fabric. It will be so much easier.

 

I ironed it to make it look crisp and clean.

 

I sewed the straps on the outer layer of the bag. I sewed the ribbon handles and the pockets to the bag at the same time. 

Then I sewed the 2 layers of the bag together. I didn't get a picture because I was too busy yelling at my sewing machine for skipping stitches and being difficult. I got it together and I was glad it was done. 

 

The bag is open on the sides, the mat gets placed n the middle and it rests there. 

 

When the straps are on your shoulder, the bag wraps around the mat and holds it in. The pockets hold water and other essentials securely. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Resize a Buttondown Shirt

 Hello Readers. I like thrifting but sometimes the clothes I like don't fit. I started sewing about 30 years ago so I could alter my own clothes and make them fit. This post is an example of an easy alteration that anyone could do.

Before and after.

I found this sweater and this shirt at different thrift stores but they went together so well. Pink is perfect for spring, and the sweater is perfect for a chilly spring day. The problem is that the shirt was so big, it made lumps under the sweater. I wanted to wear the shirt under the sweater so I would need to alter the shirt. 

I used the sweater as a guide for sizing the sweater. 

I also measured to make sure I cut off the same amount of fabric from each side. 

The shirt was very oversized but the sleeves were smaller. I cut off the excess fabric from each side but I didn't change the sleeves. 

I put the new side seams together. 

This shirt is now more my size. I could wear it alone or ...

I can wear it under my matching sweater like I wanted in the first place. New side seams were fast and easy to sew. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.