The Stitching Post

Free shipping on Pettiskirts and Crayon Rolls

2010-11-29T13:25:00.002-07:00

Just letting you know that everything in my Etsy shop will ship for free if purchased today 11/29/10.

I have newborn pettiskirts, big girl pettiskirts, crayon rolls, colored pencil rolls and more.
Newborn pettiskirts make WONDERFUL photography props

Mention my blog and I will ship your items for free all week long!

YEA!

Hop on over to Etsy

Happy Holidays!

Decorate Wooden letters EASY!

2010-10-31T19:49:00.000-06:00

I was sure I was going to be able to keep up the good work after my last post...10 months ago. YIKES!

Good intentions my friends. Good intentions.

But my last little project, while not a bit related to sewing, was easy, fun and I happened to take pictures of it so if you are still there.... here is a cute little project for you.

I like to have my kids names on their walls. I think it's cute, my kids think it's awesome and it helps them to recognize their names for school etc. It's a win win situation. :)

Anyway, my baby just turned two and I realized that I never put his name up in his room. In fact, I never really thought about it. I'm not exactly sure why, but I guess a few of the excuses I can think of are: he didn't sleep in "his room" until he was over 6 months old, then he was sharing a room with his brother so I never decorated or had any kind of "theme", and I made my daughters name out of wood letters I found at the fabric store and I'm not exactly thrilled about them so it didn't leave an exciting desire to do it again. And to pay someone to make you some is pretty pricey. But the fact is... It just never rose up to "important" status. Better late than never I guess.

In fact, I still wasn't planning on making letters for his wall any time soon until I was in the fabric store and the line to get fabric cut was a year long. I took a number (literally) and wandered around the store to keep the two little ones with me from getting grouchy about being in the store so long. I came across their wooden letters. They were on sale so I figured "why not?"

Luckily My little cuties name is short because I still feel like $2 a letter is a rip off! But it's not like I can go make them myself. That would be interesting seeing as my only saw is a pretty simple hand saw.

I brought them home and googled "decorate wooden letters" or something like that and I found some pretty cute ideas.

This is what I ended up doing.

Supplies:

Wooden letters
fine sand paper
double sided scrapbook paper (double sided just gives you more options and ideas, it's not "required")
coordinating decorations (optional)
coordinating acrylic paint
mod podge
paint brush
scissors
glue dots
poster tack

I started with my plain wooden letters and I sanded them with a fine sand paper to get rid of any rough edges, wipe them clean and paint with acrylic paint.

Let the paint dry and apply a second coat to the sides.

After the paint is completely dry, trace your letter, front side down, on the back of your desired scrapbook paper.

Cut out along the lines (since tracing makes the paper letter slightly bigger, you can cut just barely in the line)

Take your mod podge and apply liberally all over the front of your letter. Spread it out with your paint brush getting all the way to the edge. This will glue your paper to the wood, so you don't want to miss any spots. I love mod podge, it dries clear so you don't have to be super careful with it.

Then apply your paper letter to your wooden letter and rub all over making sure it's stuck down everywhere.

Then, apply more mod podge liberally over the top of that and spread it nicely over the entire letter.

Let dry completely.

Take your sand paper and sand down any edges of paper that are sticking over.

I added one more layer of mod podge at this point for good measure although I'm not sure it's necessary.

After it is totally dry and all the edges are sanded smooth, you can decorate as you please.

I'm pretty lame when it comes to decorating. So I found these pre-painted wooden figures that were cute and matched the color theme of my paper well.

I just used scrap booking glue dots to attach them to my letters. They are strong but I think I will be able to remove them without a trace if he decides he doesn't like them later or I want to change themes or something.

To attach them to the wall you can staple ribbon to the back and hang them.

I didn't want to put any holes in the wall so I just used poster tack. I place big globs at the corners of each letter and pressed with quite a bit of force. They've been up for four days without budging. Then I can move them whenever without it being a big deal.

To insure that I was getting them straight, I just used some poster tack and stuck a straight stick to my wall, leveling it with a level, Then I just rested the bottoms of my letters on that stick.(I would use a longer, and straighter, stick if I would have been patient enough to look for one.

And just like that, I like these letters best. I'm thinking of re-making my daughters the same way. Maybe with the fabric from her curtains. Maybe I will let her pick out some paper herself. Who knows. :)

Have fun with it! I sure did.

A playhouse made of Felt project

2009-12-30T11:19:00.000-07:00

Please excuse me. I did not die in labor, I did not fall off the face of the earth. I just got busy, and my sewing blog well..... got NO attention. Sorry.

To bring it back to life I wanted to share my now 1 year old's Christmas present.

I learned about this fun idea through a friend who found it on several other blogs and made one of her own. I fell in love instantly. Here are few of them:

http://homemadebyjill.blogspot.com/2009/10/felt-playhouse.html

http://makeitandloveit.blogspot.com/2009/02/fort-table-cover.html

And then there is this etsy shop that has just the cutest playhouses ever, and if you don't sew, I would totally recommend buying one from her. Not that I've seen one personally, but because hers seem to be the best you can buy, and trust me. For the time it takes, it's worth every penny.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/missprettypretty?section_id=5577944

Now, if you do sew. The two blogs give excellent instructions on dimensions etc. so I'm not going to go into that kind of detail. What I AM going to do, is give you my take on the project as well as some suggestions. Now that mine is finished, I will tell you what I would have done differently.

I loved this idea and just had to do it. However, I didn't know if my kids would like it. Sometimes they could care less and then I feel like I've wasted hours and hours for nothing. so I tried not to go overboard. Turns out, my one year old LOVES it as well as my two and half year old. The five year old is just too big and doesn't care much for it. Now I wish I had gone into more detail.

You might think that I could just go and add more to it, but you would be mostly wrong. Why? because of the #1 rule on this project: EMBELSIH FIRST, PUT TOGETHER LAST. Did you hear me? Make the absolute last thing you do be to put the thing together. It's already big enough as it is when it's in pieces. Once it's sewn together it's almost impossible to manuver in the tiny spaces of your sewing machine. I forgot to sew the owl on and ended up just using some stitch witchery to basically glue it on because there was no way I was going to be able to sew it on.

So.... what did I do different? I decorated a little on the inside. I was going to do more. But I was running out of time, and was really wondering if my efforts were going to go un-rewarded.

I made a fireplace. and a little table with a vase to put some flowers in. What I planned on doing and ended up forgoing was 1. I was going to print a picture of our family on some transfer paper, transfer it to fabric, then make a felt frame around it to go above the fireplace. I may still do it and just use stitch witchery to attach it. 2. I was also going to use the third unused interior wall for some games. The problem was that I was not really feeling it. I could just imagine all the game pieces all over my house and of course the child it was intended for is too small to understand any games and the child who could understand the games is too big to want to go in the playhouse. SO.... I scrapped that idea. Maybe a cute sofa or chair on that wall. If I could do it over again.
3. I also wanted to make a pouch under the mailbox that I completely forgot about to hold all the loose pieces.

Now for the outside:

That etsy shop that I mentioned before has more ideas than I could ever come up with on my own but since my child is pretty young I just went with a basic house theme. I just love the camping theme where the door is a tent, and the under water one, and the bake shop. OH! They are all just adorable!

I just took ideas from all of these playhouses and made it my own. I think my kids favorite part is the mail box.

One thing. If I could do it again, and maybe I can repair. I would totally reinforce the mail box hole. They have stretched it out BIG TIME.

You see. Felt is not woven so, if you pull or push on it hard enough, it will rip or at least warp eventually. So I would recommend hiding a good strong interfacing or woven material around the hole of your mailbox. Same goes with the door. I just made my door one layer and It should have been two layers or maybe one layer made from a woven cotton or something.

Another thing I would change is the location of my door. I put it too close to the corner and so that corner of the playhouse just sticks out funny. I did put a tie in the corner so I could tie it to the table's leg, but it still pokes out. My kids could care less, but it bugs me.

I made some mail with a double layer of white felt. Before sewing the layers together I used the ABC feature on my sewing machine and did the address. If you had a real embroidery machine you could go to town.

The apples were easy and cute, but they just don't stay on very well. One good shake of the table and they all come tumbling down.

If you aren't very fluid at changing the thread on your sewing machine, you will be after this project. I changed my thread colors a million times. I recommend finding some invisible thread for your bobbin. One less thing to worry about. Although I wouldn't recommend it for the top thread. It tends to stretch a little, and breaks often. It can end up warping your project rather than laying nice and flat. And you will go crazy with re-threading a machine with thread you can barely see.

This project is a creative persons dream. Felt is super easy to create with. It doesn't fray, It's just like playing with constructions paper only instead of glue you sew. I only wish that I was creative as the people who came up with the idea.

A harvest-able garden

So, there you have it. Here are a list of my recomendations in short:

1. embelish first, construct last
2. Measure your table very accurately and add 1/2 inch to each side when cutting out your base color. Felt tends to stretch a little so don't add too much for a seam allowance or you will have a saggy playhouse.
3. If you are going to decorate the insides, do that first. Then decorate the outside. It gets a little tricky trying to not ruin the inside decorations with the outside stitching. But don't be discouraged. Find some invisible nylon thread at your local fabric store and use it on the bobbin thread. It will save your sanity. You won't notice it unless your look really close.
4. Reinforce openings with a fabric that doesn't stretch out. Or a strong craft interfacing. It will save the shape of your openings.
5. Don't place your door too close to the corner.
6. When sewing up the sides place two 6" ribbons in the seam facing towards the inside. You can tie down the corners if you prefer.
7. I used real screen for my windows. You can leave them open or use any kind of netting. I liked the screen because it's durable, totally sewable (as long as it's not the metal kind) and still see through. You can also find vinyl but I didn't want to go that route because I wanted the playhouse to be able to breath better. Maybe not get too hot. I had some extra screen already but it's easy to find at any hardware store in a variety of colors.
8. If you just can't seem to sew a certain part, try stitch witchery it sticks to felt wonderfully, just be careful because if your felt is not wool (wool felt is more expensive), it will melt if your iron is too hot.
9. Be creative! and Have fun!
10. Keep your eyes open for deals on Felt. I bought mine at the after Thanksgiving Day sale at JoAnns. Over 50% off. Made this a much less expensive project than it would have been. And I bought way too much. I could probably make a whole other house.

All in all, I think I spent around $17 on fabric. And had a TON leftover. Hours and hours. This is not a quick project. Probably a week of 2-3 hour nights. Of course if I were to do it again it would go faster. And if I were to turn off the T.V. It might save a little time (or a lot), but I like to watch T.V. when I sew. :) It makes me feel less like a sweat shop worker and more like I'm killing two birds with one stone. Or something like that.

Baby Blankets

2008-09-22T14:51:00.003-06:00

Baby blankets are one of my favorite things to make. I think the joy that is involved with making it for a new bundle of joy mixed with the satisfaction of a relatively quick project is what I like best. Don't get me wrong, you can make baby blankets that take FOREVER, but you don't have to spend hours, days and even months making a blanket to have it turn out absolutely adorable.

There are lots of tutorials on the web for making blankets, so I'm not even going to go there, But there are a few things I've learned I will share:

1. If the fabric stretches or is slippery, use a walking foot to keep your edges lined up and pin like crazy.

*I never pinned a thing before, but I realized just how much time I saved myself from fixing mistakes if I just took the time to pin things.

2. My favorite batting for baby blankets is natural cotton batting it's not as lofty as polyester batting and is so much easier to work with. It makes the blanket less stiff and better for wrapping. Besides, when you are bundling up a baby, they can really get lost in those thick and stiff blankets. The cotton is still super warm and even better, it's made out of natural fibers.

3. Find fabrics that are washable and durable but soft and cute. My absolute favorite baby blanket fabrics are minky or minkee (which is relatively new to the fabric market) and flannel backed satin which I like using better than just any satin because it's a little bit thicker, warmer, and doesn't slide quite so much when sewing. I love to bind my blankets with flannel backed satin.

4. When choosing a size, you might want to consider what age the blanket is for. Crib size is 45" X 65", however this will totally drown a newborn so 45" X 45" or 35" X 45" might be better suited. I like to make bigger blankets because I personally love blankets and love my own kids to have blankets that they can claim as their own and acutally use as todlers and young children.

5. If you are afraid of binding ( I know... it can get scary) don't bind it at all. How? Cut your front fabric, back fabric the same size. Cut your batting just slightly bigger (1/4" or so) so it doesn't pull your blanket in funny dirrections. Then with the fabrics right side facing each other and the batting against the wrong side of the back fabric. Sew them all together, leaving a 8 inch opening along one side for turning. Once it's all sewn, just turn it right side out and hand sew your opening closed. Then, you can just sew 1/2"-1" from the edge on the right side and voila!

Anyway, I just finished a blanket for our newest addition out of minky fabric and satin binding. It's heavenly and although rather expensive to make (minky can be more than $15 a yard), I LOVE IT! He will have no choice but to have sweet dreams when wrapped in this blanket.

Happy blanket making!

Cloth Diapers

2008-08-18T15:19:00.003-06:00

I've been cloth diapering my baby part time since last fall and I have to say that I really like it. The reasons? Well, I would like to do my part to cut back on garbage, especially the kind that takes so long to decompose. Plus, they really are quite cost affective. So when fuzzi bunz went on clearance last fall before they changed their design I bought 9 of them. Just enough to get me through almost two day times. I've really liked them, but they are rather expensive.

Now that we are about to have another baby I'm thinking more seriously of getting some more diapers. The problem.... I don't want to spend as much. A much cheaper option is prefold diapers. However, I'm not really wanting to go the prefold diaper route or even the fitted diaper route with covers. I like the convenience of having the diaper come on and off pretty much like a disposable diaper. I don't mind the laundry but my kids hate having to slow down for their diaper changes so I want the changing process to go as quickly as possible.

Anyway, to my original point. I wanted something similar to the fuzzi bunz but with a smaller price tag. I thought.... I can sew these things if I just have the right materials. But I was nervous because I've never tried to sew a diaper before. So I did a little research and there are a lot of places on the web to buy everything you need to sew your own cloth diapers.

I found this website for diapers that are all cut out called diaperkit.com and all you have to do is sew them together. I thought I would give it a shot and just get my feet wet and WOW I was so surprised at how easy it was. I sewed this one diaper from start to finish in under an hour.
So a quick review... the diaperkit diaper was awesome to make and I recommend them to anyone who can sew even just a little (it really wasn't hard) .

There are some design features that I want to change to fit my own personal likes/dislikes and then I hope to buy the materials and make at least 10 more diapers so that I can have two little ones in cloth diapers saving us even more money. Now who doesn't like that?!
What I will change in my own personal design:

1. I bought an All in one kit (the whole diaper from the absorbent inside to the waterproof outside is all sewn together and never comes apart). I think I would prefer a pocket diaper. They dry in at least half the time of the AIO.

2. I would prefer a fleece lining instead of the flannel lining that came with my kit. It seems like it wicks moisture away a little better.

3. I'm going to use an s-hook design similar to TK cuddler diapers for the closure instead of velcro. I don't like velcro much anyway, but it seems to make a stiff "belt" around my baby's belly it looked uncomfortable although she didn't seem to mind all that much. I would really like snaps, but I do not have a snap press and would really need one for this big of project. And to pay someone to insert my snaps just brings up the price tag even more.

Sewing this diaper was really fun and so exciting to have a project finished in a day!

Sewing for me

2008-06-30T13:57:00.005-06:00

So, I finally did a little sewing for me. The pile of things that needed repair was starting to get quite big and the pile of half finished projects for ME have been sitting there for months!
I used to only sew for me and I was starting to forget why I liked sewing so much. This was a great reminder.

I wanted some new pajama pants for quite a while because the few pair that I have are either cold weather pants or are starting to get holes in them. Just buying them at the store is not an option because of my freakishly long legs, and they are always made of the cheapest fabric that seems to fall apart after the first washing.

Pants really are super easy and are one of the things that they teach you to make in 7th grade home economics class. If you are not a big sewer I wouldn't be intimidated by them one bit. The hardest part is cutting them out. If you take your time and measure and mark your pieces accurately and follow the pattern instructions, you will have no problems.

For my pants, I picked some fabric by Free spirit (one of my favorite fabric brands on the market) called swimming fish by Heather Ross It is such a cute fabric and just perfect for something relaxing like pajama pants. I liked this fabric because it's a light cotton but it's not flimsy or weak like something you would find in the clearance section at walmart or JoAnns. I've worn them every night so far this summer and they don't make me hot one bit.

To add a little cute touch to them I added a coordinating dot fabric to the bottoms. I thought about even adding a small stripe of a solid in between the two prints but I didn't want to spend the extra time that would involve.

If you are a little more familiar with sewing clothes, another nice addition is a pair of pockets. Sometimes I really like to have pockets in my pajama pants, especially if they are cute enough to wear to the grocery store or gas station, but again, I was in too much of a hurry to have these finished and on my legs so these particular pants don't have any pockets. I guess I could always add a back pocket if I find that I really wish I had one.

So... sick of those pj pants that are just too cute that you HAVE to buy them at the store only to find that they don't fit well or they don't last very long? Try making them yourself, they may end up being your favorite.

Fun with Dye

2008-05-28T08:16:00.002-06:00

I've only dyed fabric a handful of times But I nearly doubled my fabric dying experience yesterday when I dyed a whole bunch of nylon chiffon for some pettiskirts. My biggest challenge was the peach because RIT does not make a peach dye nor does it recommend any mixture of colors to achieve peach so I was on my own. First, I bought an antique peach RIT dye pack which turned out quite orange (this is the fabric on the left). Too orange for what I wanted so I first did a search on the internet to see what colors would make peach. I found answers ranging from peach mixed with tan, Pink mixed with yellow, red mixed with orange, red mixed with yellow and so forth but since I wanted a really light peach I decided to go with pink mixed with yellow. I went to JoAnns where Dye's were on sale (lucky me) and got 4 different colors to experiment with. As well as a small piece of fabric that was the color I was going for.
I started with yellow and gradually added pink until I achieved my desired color. I'm VERY happy with how it turned out. You can see in my picture how the colors gradually turn from yellow to peach in my little swatches. My final peach is on the right with my "control" color along the top. What fun! My next adventure might be trying some acid dyes since they are supposedly better for nylon fabrics. I'm not too worried about the RIT since the problem it posses is fading, but since the pettiskirts don't get washed much it works and is easily accessible.
I also dyed some fabric yellow, pink and orange however they were not as difficult as the peach. It's nice to know that I can just dye my own fabrics when I'm in a bind and can't wait a week for a fabric order to come in.

Pettiskirt Sale

2008-05-15T08:21:00.002-06:00

I'm starting to finish up a batch of pettskirts in a a variety of sizes and colors. Come take a look as I have them listed in etsy for now. (see sidebar add) As time passes they may end up in my webstore or on ebay. They are beautiful and full so take advantage as I have them listed below my regular price right now. They are ready to ship and ready to love!

Fabric for Sale

2008-04-18T10:31:00.002-06:00

I've got a TON of fabric for sale on Ebay this week. Excellent deals! Come take a look :)

http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZlittlecreekboutique

Summer in Spain

2008-04-09T10:08:00.003-06:00

Here is another design from my summer line up on ebay right now. Absolutely adorable and comfortable. My baby wore it for a few hours and received compliment after compliment at the store and doctors office.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=180231529691&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT&ih=008

I feel a "summer Breeze"

2008-04-04T20:02:00.002-06:00

I just listed this new set for my summer line. This is one of at least three summer set's I will be doing in the next little while. I just love the oranges all together and doesn't it look sweet on the model?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=180230008480&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT&ih=008

Welcome to My new blog

2008-04-02T08:32:00.000-06:00

I've been wanting to start a blog just for my sewing/crafting and now I've done it. I want to share my latest creations, ideas and listings here. Please come back often. I'm excited to get this started :)