Orange Week Part 4

 Hello Readers. If you like the color orange, this past weeks posts are for you! I love orange and it showed in the past week. 

New orange dress!

I found this fabric at the thrift store. It was covered with oranges. I like orange and it was only a few dollars. I was sold.

I wanted to make a loose comfortable summer dress. I had this pattern McCall's pattern that actually said "EASY" across the front. It is Stitch 'n Save by McCall's #8026. I wanted to make the sleeveless version of the dress.

 

 There were 2 bodice pieces and 2 skirt pieces. I cut them out and clipped them together. It was very easy to figure out how to put the pieces together. These clips helped keep the bodice and the skirt together for sewing. 

I used my serger to join all the pieces. It makes really neat seams inside the clothes. 

The basics were put together. The only deviation from the pattern is in the back. I made the waist ties much wider than the pattern called for. I just thought it would be fun. I needed to finish the arm holes, the neck hole, and the hem. 

I used bias tape to finish the armholes and neckline. I sewed the bias tape to the right side of the fabric.

Then I turned the edge in and stitched it down. The bias tape is hidden and the edges look nicely finished. 

This seemed a little too long. I used a pencil to mark where my new hem should be. 

The shorter length was going to be perfect for a hot summer day. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself. 

***Year End Update***- This dress is loose and shapeless and I LOVE it. It's fun to wear and great in the heat.

Orange Week Part 3

 Hello Readers. I was in the mood for bright colors. This combo seemed like a great combo. I just had to get the pink shirt to fit a little better. 

 

Before and after.

 

I found this pink top at the thrift store way back when I had just seen the "Barbie" movie. The pink color and the puffy statement sleeves really caught my eye. The shirt was a little loose and too low in the V-neck. If I leaned forward it was like a free show. I wanted to fix that and a more fitted top would look better with the loose pants. 

 

 I saw this color combo on Pinterest and was inspired to put the pink top and orange pants together. 

I wanted the shirt more fitted and the V-needed to be higher. I decided to sew a new seam down the front. That would fix both problems. 

I turned the shirt inside out and folded the front in half. That way I could sew straight down the front of the shirt. I cut off the excess fabric from the inside of the shirt. 

I also sewed new side seams just to take a little more from the body of the shirt. 

I made the waist area just a bit smaller.

 

 The new fit of the top looks better with the loose wide leg pants and the V-neck isn't as low anymore. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself. 

*** FOOTNOTE ***

My older son just asked my why I was dressed as Dora the explorer. Use caution with this color combination. 

***Year End Update***- My son still makes fun of this outfit.

 

 

Orange Week Part 2

 Hello Readers. I really went wild for the color orange and made a top to go with my orange pants. I found this orange fabric at a thrift store months ago and it looked so fun and summery. Let's make a orange top. 

You can't have too much orange, right? I hope not because I had a good amount of this fabric.

I wanted a simple shirt and this pattern was perfect. The orange fabric is the star of the show here. I chose the pink top on the front of the pattern. This is Very Easy, Very Vogue 8062. (Spoiler- It was very easy.)

I cut out all my pieces and adjusted the length of the top by folding the paper pattern piece. 

I put the neck facings in place with clips. 

I used my serger to put all the pieces together. This was a fast sewing project. 

I turned the ends of the sleeves under and sewed a basic hem and I did the same with the hemline. 

This orange shirt was perfect for my orange pants, and it is so fun. And I still have some orange fabric left to make something else. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself. 

***Year End Update***- i can't be down with these fun clothes!

Orange Week Part 1:Dresses to T-shirts

 Hello Readers. I went all in on the color orange this week. I really like this color and I realized I had several orange pieces on my refashion rack and it was time to get them finished. Nothing was wearable so, I needed to get cutting and sewing.

I think if you are going to wear brights, you have to commit 100 % to it. I tried to go all in.

 

I found these wide leg orange slacks at a thrift store. They were new with tags, so were the matching sandals. I loved the wide leg style but the length was no good. 

 

I gave them a big cut in length and a new hem. 

 

This was much better. Now let's make sure I have some tops that match. 

 

I had this t-shirt dress with orange stripes that I did not wear often or ever. Lets make a t-shirt. I don't need to dress up for work anymore so I could really used a few casual t-shirts.

 

I cut the length I wanted. The best thing about t-shirts is that they don't fray. Even after washing and wearing repeatedly. I did not need to hem this if I did not want to. (Guess what? I didn't want to.) I knew I was going to tuck this in so no one would ever see the hem anyway. (Shh, don't tell.)

This mini-dress was wild and wonderful. I found it at the thrift store when I found the orange pants. I loved the bold fruit print on it. Let's make a t-shirt. 

This dress was an A-line shape so when I cut it shorter, I also had to cut the sides straight.

I put the right sides together and sewed down the sides to put them together. 

 

I loved these shirts and these orange dressy pants.

 

But my orange binge wasn't over yet. I will be back with more tomorrow. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself. 

***Year End Update***- I love bright colors and these are favorites.

 

 

 

 

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!

***Year End Update***- We use this everyday. It holds a million Legos.
 

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.

***Year End Update***- This is a fabulous summer dress. I have worn it 1001 times.