KCW Day One: Jack Frost Hoodie Progress

The kids and I got a chance to watch the new movie Rise of the Guardians a while back, and I have been obsessed with Jack Frost's Hoodie ever since. You can see here where I first sketched out a plan for it. 

I've made a few changes to the plan since then. Mainly, I am drafting a pattern rather than buying one, in an attempt to save both time and money. We'll see if that works out.

I traced a long sleeve t-shirt for the body and arm pieces, and the hood off a zip up hoodie. I just kind of winged the pouch pocket. Its basically a rectangle with a curve thrown in. Not to hard to draft. 

I also added the "prince seams" that make the hoodie so special. I just think it's so amazing that cartoon art has come so far that you can actually see the seams in the clothing!

I finished cutting out the pattern and fabric, except the wrist bands, which I will add at the end.

And finally I got around to sewing. This is where I am at. I still need to make some changes to the neckline, and I am sure that sewing that pocket on is going to be interesting, now that I already sewed up the side seams. I told myself, at least a dozen times, not to forget that, and what do I do? I forget!

Can't wait to pick up again tomorrow.

Lots of Layers Garden Party Dress

It's Thursday evening and I finally finished my entry for the Project Run and Play Spring formal week. Talk about cutting it close!

This was the most labor intensive children's dress I have ever made. Each of those layers have a narrow hem, individually pressed and sewn without a narrow hem foot. One of these days I am going to invest in some attachments for my machine.

Each ruffle is calculated to be exactly 30% smaller than the original strip of fabric (which by the way are either 4 or 5 in width depending on where they are placed) to create a more fluttery than ruffly look. 

I also fitted this dress on a very squirmy 6 year old a total of 3 times before I got it just right.

At least I managed to get the photos taken before it started to rain. 

I plan to share a step by step tutorial sometime this week, with lots of pictures, but for now I am going to take a nap!

Update: The tutorial is finished. You can see it here!

Kid Made Look Books!

I have been overjoyed the with the last few projects that I have made for my children. More so with their reaction to them, than the projects themselves!

It's amazing how children start to form their own opinions when your not looking. One day they love anything you give them to wear, the next they only want to wear clothes that suit their style.

I am determined to keep sewing clothes that they will love, and to help me do that I taught them how to pin.

I give them very little direction on their own Look Books. The most I will say is "Summer is coming.  Why don't you pin some shorts?" 

Of course, I keep an eye on them to make sure they aren't veering off onto inappropriate websites. My youngest daughter also needs a little help with navigation, but she is starting to get the hang of it.

As my kids get older, they are less interested in talking with their mom about their favorite things (or anything else for that matter). I am so grateful to Pinterest for giving me one more avenue to keep that connection open, just a little bit longer.

Lego Star Wars Tee and Other Fun

My refashion bin is still overflowing, and despite being busy sewing along with Project Run and Play I am determined to get it under control. I pulled another perfectly good item out of the bin today; another victim of me buying clothes that nobody truly loved.

It was a plain blue Hanes T-shirt that sat in my son's drawer with tags still on it for a year. I was determined to turn it into something he loved, and was excited to wear. Plus I saw a chance to check a project off my 14 Pins List. 

                  Supplies 

                  Solid Color T shirt

                  Printable Stencil

                  Freezer Paper

                  exacto knife

                  DecoArt SoSoft Fabric Paint 2oz Glitter Silver Bling(affiliate link)

You could use any color fabric paint you want as long as it goes well with your shirt color, but I strongly recommend using deco art fabric paint because it holds up best over time, especially when washed and dried.

1. Print the stencil, and trace onto freezer Paper.

2. Cut out your stencil with an exacto knife and carefully arrange on t-shirt with the shiny side down.

3. Iron it in place and then paint.

It was a fairly easy project and my son is now excited to wear his new shirt to school.

I did get one other Pinterest project done this week. However it was not nearly as successful. My gummy bear Ice Pops Were supposed to look like this.

Instead they ended up looking like this. And the gummy bears were soggy. Oh well the kids were still happy to eat them. 

I completed 2 of the items on my 14 pins list, and found one more to fill in the blank spots, so my list now looks like this:

 1. Sprite and Gummy Bear Popsicles

2.Pinwheel Wreath  

3. Plastic Toy To Toothbrush Holder

4. No Sew Blanket

5.Princess and Panda Dolls

6. Felt Paper Dolls

7. Bleach Batik Shirt

8. Lego Star Wars T shirt

9. Doll Hamster Cage

10. Decoupage Shoes

11. To Be Announced 

12. To Be Announced 

13. To Be Announced 

14. To Be Announced

I've found a  linky part at Craft-O-Maniac with tons of inspiring crafting ideas. I linked up. I hope you do to.

Dolly and Me Yoga Pants Refashion

This refashion project was seriously one of the quickest and easiest I have ever accomplished.  I finished both pairs of pants in 1 hour. This is the perfect project for nap time crafting moms, or maybe for a aunt needs a last minute birthday gift for their lucky niece. 

It all started with me cleaning the winter clothes out of my dresser and closet. We have very little space (5 people share 1 closet and 2 dressers) so this season I am trying something new.

At the beginning of the winter I put a safety pin in the tag of every piece of winter clothing I owned. Whenever I wore something I took the pin out. This week I took all of the winter clothes out to get them ready for storage and anything with a safety pin still in it went into the refashion bin, or if it was in really bad shape, the recycling bin.

I was surprised to find that almost a quarter of my clothes still had safety pins in them. I can't believe I have been letting them take up such valuable real estate for so long.

The only problem was that my refashion bin was overflowing, so I got started on a project right away.

Making The Doll Pants

Karen Mom of Three's Craft Blog hosts a monthly doll clothes sew along that is usually very refashion friendly. This month's sew along was for yoga pants from the sleeve of a woman's shirt. I used a sweater knit three quarter sleeve black shirt with an interesting trim. It ended up in the bin because it was just a little to tight on me. (I had pictures of the original shirt and pants that I used but they accidentally got deleted.)

To make the doll pants, just follow the link on Karen's blog post for the tutorial.

This part of the project used up one sleeve and only 15 minutes of time. One sleeve didn't make much of a dent in my overflowing bin.

Next I grabbed a pair of my own black yoga pants out of the bin. There was absolutely nothing wrong with the pants. I just happen to own 5 pairs of plain black yoga pants so they never had a chance to make it into the rotation. I figured my daughter would love a pair of pants to match her doll.

I've never met a 6 year old girl doesn't love to dress like her doll!

Making the Girl Pants

This project used a little bit more time; about 45 minutes. I also used this printable pattern. (affiliate link) to get the size right.  

The first step is turning the pants into fabric. The waistband has to be cut off and saved for another project. Then, cut up the center of the pants as shown below.

This is my very high tech artistic drawing done in Windows Paint!

What is left is two legs. If you cut the inseam of the leg you now have two pieces of fabric with the outer seam still in tact.

Layer the two pieces of fabric on top of one another with right sides together, and the seams lined up. Then lay the leg pattern piece on top centered over the seam, and cut.

By the time I got to the waist band I didn't have a big enough piece of fabric left, so I grabbed the sweater knit top. The sweater had a lot more stretch than the pants so I cut this pattern piece two sizes smaller, and still had to take it in a little bit.

The rest is just a matter of following the instructions on the pattern. It goes together really easy.

You can see more pictures of my daughter playing with her doll on my Facebook page. It's a public page, but feel free to send me a friend request.

Great News! I have been accepted as a contributor to Refashion Co-Op. Look for more of my refashions there.

I am adding this post to Look What I made Wednesday