Pinafore dress

My sister in law Charlee made Carla a really cute pinafore dress & bloomers.

With Easter approaching, I was excited for her to wear it....but after trying it on her, I realized it won't be fitting her until summertime. Bummer.

I started browsing pinterest and found a tutorial on making the pinafore dresses. This style is a favorite for me, because it can be worn as a tunic after she outgrows it as a dress, and I love how breezy it is for our hot Wuxi summers. The tutorial seeme easy and included a PDF pattern. The only problem was that I have no way of printing it. I pulled out the pinafore that Charlee made and used it as my guide, scaling the pattern down by 1/4" all the way around. 

Next I dug into my fabric stash (it is a pitiful stash compared to what I had back in the USA), and found two coordinating prints. I cut, sewed & pressed the dress in less than twenty minutes. I was undecided on whether to use snaps or buttons and ultimately chose to sew buttons on both sides of the dress and cut button holes--which were then sewed by hand, since my cheap machine doesn't do button holes--on the straps. 

This afternoon, she modeled it for me. I'm super happy with how it turned out since this was my first time scaling a pattern down. 

                                        [pinafore dress: front view]

                                          [pinafore dress: rear view]

I forsee many of these dresses in her summer wardrobe. 

Dyeing fabric

Dana over at MADE 's recent post on dyeing onesies inspired me to try it myself. I have a bunch of white onesies just waiting to be made unique. If you recall this post, I made iron on appliqués for a few of them.

To dye the onesies, I first washed them to rid them of the packaging starch. Once finished, I left the onesies damp. While the wash cycle was going, I dissolved a package of "Bahama Blue" DYLON dye in 4 cups warm water as directed by the package. I also filled a home depot bucket with a few gallons of warm water from our bathtub.

I'm fairly accident prone so I decided this needed to be an outdoor project. Next to a hose. On the grass. The last thing we need is a turquoise patio.

I added 4TBSP of salt to the bucket of water and then poured the dissolved dye into the bucket and mixed it with some tongs to assure it was mixed well.

In went four onesies and some muslin fabric ( I let half the muslin hang out of the bucket...trying for an ombré swaddle blanket). I stirred constantly for 15 minutes and removed my first onesie. I rinsed it in cold water and threw it in the washing machine to sit while the rest marinated in the dye bath a while longer. I removed the second one at a half hour and also pulled about 6 inches of my submerged muslin end  out of the dye bath to try for the gradient effect.

L: 15 minute dye bath
R: 30 minute dye bath

The remaining two onesies sand muslin stayed in an hour thanks to an 11 week old who refuses to sleep anywhere but on me in the afternoons. With daytime naps being a constant struggle, I often give in just to ensure he gets at least one good stretch of zzzzz's. He's a real cat napper, napping no longer than 45 min at a time. This is why quick projects like this tend to be my cup of tea these days.

My favorite thing about the dye bath is that each onesie came out a unique shade of the same color. Some vibrant ( the ones that basked in the bath an hour) , and others very light ( the one that dipped in for just 15 min).

Ombre effect dyeing technique= success!

 Similar to Aden and Anais swaddle blankets
 for a fraction of the cost

Once all your fabric is dyed, rinse in cold water and then throw it in a warm wash cycle. I like to throw in old towels to absorb any dye that may escape. To be extra careful not to have my next load tinted a special color (er-- turquoise in this case), I run my washer on its cleaning cycle afterwards.

I took it one step further and added some swag that I had printed onto iron-on adhesive paper.

Aviator glasses

The sun never sets on cool

Showin some Big Wheel love

It's an easy one afternoon project, perfect for baby shower gifts or your own little one.

Pint Sized Fabric Bolts

{Drool worthy fabric storage solution}

I found myself an organizing project to do today ( as if i did't have enough already)..thanks to my sister-in-law finding this way to organize fabric over at the Little Green Bean blog.

Sadly, mine has been living in an under-bed storage container in our shoulda'-been-nursery turned guest room that rarely gets used as such, and is probably better suited as a craft room since I typically have to drag my projects out to the dining room table which doubles as my cutting/sewing/creating space.

I'd love to ditch the bed in the guest room and swap it for a pull out sofa ( so we can still have overnighters, and could be left for nursing babies if we ever get there) and get a nice L shaped desk with file cabinets on one end and an open book shelf with cubicles on the other end that could store cute buckets and boxes of goodies. In other words, if anyone is wondering what to buy me for my Birthday, the desk below from Pottery Barn would really put a smile on my face.

And, while I'm at it...one of these mid-century style Sleeper Sofas would look really swell in my dream craft room...So, while I should have been out enjoying our 90 degree weather, I found myself at the dollar tree purchasing 5 foam core boards ( Now that I think about it, I should have bought more)..for a grand total of $5. Michael's, Hobby Lobby and JoAnn's all sell foam core board as well, but a buck a board? AWESOME.

Each full size board was cut into 10 pint sized boards. I cut them with my ol man's pocket knife and my carpenter's square ( love that tool). Each board is 6" x10".

Here's the finished project.. It's all within eye sight and reach without having to move blankets and other random things from under the bed to see what I have to work with. I also re-purposed some photo boxes that I bought a while back into "Notions" and "Patterns" and "Ribbon", and stacked those at the end of my bolts as book ends of sorts.

This totally satisfied my OCD desires to organize my fabric better. Mission accomplished!

Afternoon Project: Christmas Tree Skirt

The weather man warned us that we would see triple digits this weekend, but I was skeptical. He was right, I was wrong. Our truck read 101 degrees at noon today. What better reason to stay inside, pull out the sewing machine, turn on some football ( GOOOO Steelers 3 and 0 now!) and do an afternoon project. And, while we're at it, why not make it a Christmas project?



So, that's exactly what I did. I found a super duper cute pattern over at Sew4home.


I love the Heather Bailey prints that she used, however, I am on a budget, and can't afford to fork out $10/yd for those prints. Instead, I used JoAnn's Christmas fabric which was on sale for 30% off today. Although you can go to Sew4Home's website and follow their step-by-step instructions, I made some simplfications to my pattern ( omitted using bias tape-this saving $$$ and time).

You will need:

• 5/8 yd. of 4 coordinating fabrics or 3/4 yd of 8 coordinating fabrics


• 1 1/2 yd. of 46"wide muslin ( I pieced scraps of 1 1/2 yd of 36"wide muslin together)


• scissors


• sewing machine with a straight stitch


• thread


• measuring stick


• 26x26 paper to make a pattern


• pins


• marking pencil


• string

INSTRUCTIONS ( sort of...go to Sew4home for really good directions)

1. Pick out fabric. I used 5/8yd of 4 coordinating fabrics to keep cost down. 2. To make pattern piece. Follow diagram below. Photo credit: Sew4home.

3. Fold 5/8yd fabric in half. Lay pattern piece and pin. Cut. Repeat for remaining 4 fabrics.

4. Arrange your wedges into an appealing pattern.
5. Sew each wedge to the one next to it. Leave the last wedge unsewn. Press seams open.

6. Lay the completed 8 wedges right side down over your 46" square of right side up muslin ( again, I had to piece muslin together to make a square). Smooth out both upper and lower fabric pieces and pin. Cut muslin using the skirt as a guide. Sew around perimeter, remove pins and turn right side out.

7. Press perimeter of skirt and pin so that muslin does not peek out under the print fabric. Sew a strightstitch around perimeter of the skirt. There will be raw edges left open on two of your wedges. Turn them under, pin and press. Sew with a strightstitch.

8. Using a 6" circle ( I used a pot lid), center it over skirt, trace and cut around guide. Turn each raw edge under and pin. Sew with a straightstitch.

9. Remove all remaining pins and press. There you go. A Christmas Tree skirt for under $20.

Do you think September is too early to get a tree? I can't wait to see it wrapped around ours this year!