Must pre-shrink flannel

I finally got around to pre-shrinking the flannel for the easy quilt, so while I couldn’t work on that, I tried my hand at making a gnome.

My first few attempts were all wrong – using crochet cotton didn’t work out, it took several patterns before I got the hat the way I liked it. Here is a tutorial of how I did it, which may or may not help you make one of your own.

One thing I have a lot of is leftovers from many projects. As my sister said, she wasn’t the one with 50 years of fabric hoarding. Everything I used, I had already. The bead was a recent purchase for a wind chime repair.

I found a base I could wind the yarn around. I counted 100 rounds. I wanted to know in case I wanted to increase or decrease, but I like it so I’ll keep it at 100. The lid is 3 1/2 inches on each side.

I cut the yarn along the bottom of the tin lid and laid the yarn out straight. I used a crochet hook to feed a length of yarn through the 1 inch wooden bead. I placed it on top of the yarn at the center, then flipped it over, and tied a knot.

I could adjust the yarn so that it covered the bead completely, and I trimmed the ends.

I used a round lid to start the pattern for the hat. I drew about 1/3 of the lid but I made the peak to be quite a bit longer. I used scraps, tried it out, tried again, and tried again. You can make it the way you want it to look. I wonder if you can find Santa hats this size, wouldn’t that be fun? Use felt or fleece if you don’t want to sew. I used my serger to sew the seam up the back and hid the blue ribbon near the top so I had the hanger for the ornament already installed. Of course, turn it right side out. I trimmed the bottom edge so it wasn’t as low as it came out to be.

I glued the hat all around.

I had leftover (surprise!) sweatshirt pieces from this pumpkin project a year ago. It’s fuzzy on the wrong side, so I used that for the cuff of the hat. I cut a length of it but twice as wide as I wanted. I glued it together with the fuzzy side out, then glued it to the gnome hat.

I was looking through my buttons for a black nose, and just for a hoot I put the green one there that I found. I had to have it! I think this is the cutest thing I’ve done!

The glue I use is Aleene’s Tacky Glue. I keep it upside down in a small pickle jar so the glue is always at the tip. That alone saves me a lot of time. Of course, you can use E6000 or hot glue, or whatever you use in your crafting.

I happened to have some KC Chiefs fabric so I fussy-cut to have the arrowhead in the front of the hat. I’m sure someone needs to have these.

Merry Christmas!

Another homemade Christmas

I asked the mothers of my 7 grandchildren about Christmas, and got requests for doll clothes, pajama pants, and nightgowns. Of course!

First request was from the oldest granddaughter. She wanted Christmas pjs and a volleyball uniform for her 18″ doll. In searching online for what the uniform would look like, I noticed long sleeves and a tighter fit all around. Her school’s colors are red and black but I could not find a photo of the girls’ volleyball team online. I made the uniform out of 2 new-looking sports shirts I found at thrift stores.

I used my favorite boxer shorts pattern piece, but cut it a bit tighter all around, with tighter legs. Here is a comparison of the pattern pieces:

I sewed them as usual, it’s a very easy pattern. Sew the center back seam, center front seam, add half the elastic to the waistband of each piece. Sew the side seams, leg seam, and hem the bottom. Fold the waistband to the inside and topstitch in place.

It was difficult, but I finally found a sporty looking shirt pattern. I could have done a typical t-shirt but I wanted it to look different. I downloaded the raglan shirt pattern from http://www.beanbunny.com and with a little modification it was just right. I was able to use hemmed edges of the red so I didn’t have to hem the bottom of the shirt, and I used the ribbing at the neck edge for the neck edge of the doll shirt.

As per the detailed list from this granddaughter, I found shoes, cut the loop off a volleyball keychain for her ball, and added a sweatband.

Same granddaughter wanted a Christmas pajama outfit. I used a basic t-shirt pattern, but had it open in front so I switched the necklines on a back and front pattern. I sewed tiny buttons over the velcro closures. I had gold/white trim and there was exactly enough to trim the pjs. I made slippers from red flannel and white felt, and knitted a Santa hat.

The boys were easy, I used flannel for the two younger boys for their pj pants, and knits for the two older boys. I neglected to get photos before wrapping, but I found monster trucks, deer and bears, space ships and planets, glow-in-the-dark moons with stars, and tie-dye stripes.

Now on to the nightgowns, I found a pink fabric that made me queasy was a small enough pattern for a doll-size nightgown as well as little girl nightgowns. These two sisters love to dress in matching outfits, and their Wellie Wishers dolls want to match too. The nightgown pattern I found was as ruffly as I wanted it to be, but not very simple. Stitch-N-Save 5355, which contained both sizes (6 & 8) that I needed.

The dolls were a bit harder. I finally decided I would have to make the pattern. I have books by Joan Hinds for 18 inch dolls with many patterns. I had read on someone’s blog that printing a pattern for AG doll at 65% yields a pattern for WW dolls. Well, sort of. I finally figured I had better sew a practice one (or two) to get what I wanted. I lengthened the sleeves and bodice pieces and redrew them.

Document – Wellie Wishers nightgown – Created Dec

The link gets you a pdf showing the 3 pattern pieces. I fiddled and fiddled with measurements on the skirt and ruffle. I ended up using 5 by 12 inches for the skirt, but I think it should be a bit more, like 16. I used 2.5 by 18 inches for the ruffle. If you increase the skirt, make the length of the ruffle 1.5 times the length of the skirt for a nice gather. The pattern (from Home Decor for 18-Inch Dolls) gives the directions, including making the bodice fully lined.

Here you can see some of the fabrics I made boys’ pjs from. I decided the bodice was too bulky with 2 layers of flannel, so in the end I lined it with a thin cotton. I also decided the skirt looked too full.

Close enough! My own dolls are not American Girl or Wellie Wishers. The 18-inch dolls are Madame Alexander and the others are Hearts4Hearts, which are similar enough for photography and for trying on the outfits I make.

Now I have to be a sewing machine mechanic, my wonderful Singer 306W needs a timing adjustment and I’m struggling a little bit.

 

Like a pajama factory

This year the mothers of my grandchildren had a great idea and I ran with it. They suggested grandma-made pajama pants for their children for Christmas, and I was happy to comply.

I collected data on the little ones, who range in size from 18 months to size 12. I found a pattern online for pajama bottoms and managed to draw the size 10 and size 12 based on measurements and lines for size 8. Whew, I felt lucky just finding a multi-sized pattern from infant to size 8! I have 7 grandchildren, and my idea was to make pj pants for each one from a Christmas-patterned flannel, and for 5 of them an additional pair in a pattern each would love. The other 2 were not left out, you’ll see their quick quilts in a future post.

I went to the fabric store armed with measurements. I hadn’t noticed when flannel widths decreased, so I had to also re-figure the length I would need. If it comes in only 42″ widths, I had to figure I would get less once it was prewashed, and that was true – only 38″ in one case! I could not get two large pieces cut for the sizes 10 and 12 from one width of flannel, so I had to match up some of the smallest pieces next to the largest pieces.

I made a couple of errors along the way, but purchased fabric is never wasted, just used for another project. My dining room table became my cutting table for two weekends, and it was an organized chaos for a while. I found that I purchased the exact length I needed for the Christmas pattern pants. Too little fabric would have panicked me! I don’t live near fabric stores, so it would have meant a long drive to purchase more of the same.

Some of the flannel designs were one-way designs, meaning there was a right-side-up direction to the pattern. I had to be sure to cut the waist part of the pattern with the design going up. In at least two instances there was a definite lateral pattern as well. I had to use my knowledge of matching plaids to match the patterns as well.

I lined up the pattern on the fabric so that the two pieces that were cut would be identical from the top to the bottom, and from the side to the side. In the case of the plaid that meant finding a center in the pattern to fold.

(seams showing good matching of fabric pattern)

I pinned small tags to the pieces so that I could see at a glance which pair I was working on. Once I had all the pieces cut out for 12 pairs of pj pants, I started sewing like an assembly line.

I serged all the top edges and leg cuffs. I matched inner leg seams and sewed them. I matched center front and back seams and sewed them. I made a casing for the elastic waist and inserted the elastic, then hemmed the pants according to inseam lengths given by the mothers. Yes, I made it easy on myself at this point and topstitched. I rarely sew blind hems any more. It really is easy to sew loose pants in this style.

We decided to add long-sleeve t-shirts for each.

 

I was told the pajamas were a hit. In fact, one grandson defended me to a classmate on pajama day at school. The classmate swore there was no way a grandma could make pajamas. Michael said it was hard work, but his grandma did it.

More Quick and Simple Quilts

I have decided, since two of our grandchildren are a bit older, that they will receive the drag-around, kid-friendly quick quilts that I made a few years ago for the oldest ones.  I showed the quilts and the steps here  when I made the frog and the monkey quilts, and here when I made the pink and rainbows quilt. Time to brush up on my fleece quilting, and I have to admit that I referred back to my original postings to see details of what I did.

topstitching

Hearts for Lilly

Monsters for Aidan

I didn’t get a photo, but with some of the leftover fabrics I made a doll quilt for Lilly’s doll that matches her quilt.

A finish and some gadgets

My husband loves to support my sewing obsession. He saw these cool gadgets when we were out shopping, and surprised me with them for Christmas. Once I got used to how they work, I love them!

I used the rotary cutting machine to cut the strips and the bias tape maker to fold and press them. Once I got a rhythm, it was much faster than even rotary cutting on the mat, and pressing with my iron.

I used them to make binding for this star quilt, which is my first finish of the year for quilting. Baby shower today, so it’s done just in time. I finished the hand-stitching on the binding on Friday.

Here is a close-up look at the pieced binding. The tape maker machine didn’t much like the seams, but if I helped pull it through it worked okay.

The second time I used the gadgets was to cut and press the binding for this doll quilt. It all went much more quickly, and with very few seams in the binding I had it pressed in a jiffy.

Making do with what it is

I love thrift store shopping, and crafting. The two go hand in hand, quite often.

I am an elementary reading teacher, and right now I have 50 students. I always put up a small Christmas tree in my classroom, and usually have ornaments on the tree that students can choose to keep.

I found a bag full of small round “gold” rings, and my thought was that they were snap-together frames for a craft project. Knowing there were plenty in the bag for one per student, I bought it. Little did I know, they were actually curtain rings. No snap together parts.

No worries. I got them home, fiddled around a little, and decided there was plenty of gluing surface to cut paper in a circle and glue to the back. I got out my new crafty circle cutter and found 1 5/8″ is the right measurement.

I plan to print a photo of each student to put in the center of 50 of the rings.

I counted out 50, and found at least that many remaining in the bag, so I found some scraps and this is what I did. Simple, cute, and I may revise it at some point.

I had a small scrap of pine tree fabric and it covered the backs of three of the rings. A little bit of ribbon, and it’s a simple ornament. I will probably work up a small tribute on the back saying it’s a gift from Mrs. M.

Where has the month gone?

I’m finally feeling better, but this post isn’t about my health issues. I’ve found a few minutes here and there in which to sew, and I finally have something to show (you) for it.

crescent Santa tree skirt

Since the beard was the last thing I did, besides stitching down the various parts, and it was freehand and spontaneous, it took me a while to plan out the spontaneous part. Yes, I’m that much of a planner. The final part was to place the stars. The book suggested painting small wooden stars with gold paint, drilling two holes, and stitching them on like buttons. I chose to use 3 different colors of yellow and embroider them. I did few, so they didn’t overpower Santa, and none on the back side because it wouldn’t show.

doll quilt

I also worked on another doll quilt. This one used scraps from this wall quilt I made for signatures at a 50th wedding anniversary party.  I found 4 matching half-square triangles and arranged them as a pinwheel, then sewed the pinwheels together. This will go into the Etsy store for sale, and I plan to make more. I found a doll that could model the quilts for me, but still am lacking a bed for more polished-looking pictures. Of course, since the doll needed a nightgown, I made that for her, too.

I worked a bit on the circle quilt, but I’ve found that I’ve done too much unnecessary work. I will have a future tutorial to explain the shortcuts I’ve found. Since I have at least 3 more to complete, I don’t feel like I’ve learned these things too late.

3 projects going at once

I have several projects going right now, and three that I’m trying to work on through this long weekend.

First, I had copied the pattern pieces for this Christmas tree skirt from a book, Deck the Halls. I currently can’t find the book, so I’m winging it when I have to. The background is blue felt, with Santa’s face curving around the circular edge. The directions say to use small wooden stars, paint them gold, drill a couple of holes and attach them as buttons for the stars in the night sky. I plan to use my home embroidery machine to embroider gold stars in the sky. This is an overdue wedding gift for a nephew who was recently married. I figure the gift isn’t late until Thanksgiving, and I plan to have it completed and sent well before then.

I also have circles. Lots of them.

I had cut these circles about a week ago for my friend’s quilts for her daughters. Instead of using her late husband’s jeans for these, since he didn’t have the numbers that 4 quilts would require, she had bought blue cotton fabric. I need to mark the squares, purchase and cut the batting, and start cutting the shirt fabric squares.

The other project I sewed on today was a doll quilt. I haven’t made one before, but I have the occasion to do so now. My stepson is marrying soon and will acquire a stepdaughter of his own. She’s only 4 and I look forward to meeting her. They are expecting a baby, and because the big sister will likely feel a little left out of things, I planned to make her some doll accessories.

I had bought some “quilter’s grid on point” and I couldn’t wait to use it. The amount I bought was the perfect size to cut into four pieces and each can be used for a doll quilt.

I used pink fabric and some of the floral bedsheet fabric I still have, and made 16-patch blocks. I broke up the blocks with solid blocks from the sheet fabric. I fused the blocks to the grid.

After I took this photo I realized the one-way direction of the white blocks would be going the wrong way. I found that I could peel each off, reposition, and press again. Good to know, I often have to adjust something as I go.

This is the back view of the grid. It is “grid on point” and would be very handy for stitching on a line, but I didn’t use it that way. I folded it between the blocks and sewed each direction. Incredibly fast and easy! I think I may love using this stuff.

I backed the quilt with white flannel, used low-loft batting scraps inside, and bound it with plain pink fabric.  I think Lamb Chop got very comfortable and I think my new step-step-granddaughter will enjoy it as well.

Something vintage and fun

I was reorganizing papers in my sewing room and came across this pocket folio. This shows my old way of getting and keeping patterns! Most of what I found was in one of two women’s magazines that I read at the time.

This was in Family Circle magazine, dated 12/3/85. The pattern pieces were drawn on a grid, and it was up to the seamstress to  transfer the lines to a grid drawn according to the instructions. I used a couple of different types of papers, even a spare legal pad.

It took a bit of time, but we had no desktop computer, printer, or access to a copy machine with a zoom feature. I drew the grid lines, and added the pattern lines. It was like an old art class exercise, and having had that experience came in handy.

That year, for Christmas, I made a dolly for each of my 6 nieces. Each doll had hair similar to the recipient. Cabbage Patch Dolls had made an entrance on the toy store shelves, and this was a handmade answer to that craze. The clothing patterns were sized to fit either this doll or Cabbage Patch Dolls.

It’s funny that I’ve kept the pattern and instructions all these years. A few years ago I made a doll for myself with this pattern, to carry as a prop for a Halloween costume.

Busy otherwise, not busy quilting

I have been really busy lately, but not with quilting as much as I would like to be. We have decided to move, and we’ll be selling our house and many belongings at an auction scheduled for March. This means I am very busy with packing boxes, moving items to a sale staging area, and getting the house ready for an open house.

The good news is, in the course of cleaning and organizing the sewing room, I put all my unfinished projects in one box. Now that most of the intense work is done, I can spare some time for sewing and quilting. I don’t really want to start a new project, and seeing my old unfinished ones gave me a little incentive to clear out the box soon. It’ll be easy to pull out a project, work a bit, and it can go right back in the box if I don’t have time to work on it.

I pulled out two Christmas table runners last weekend, and finished them. One is for my niece and one for myself. I rarely make two items the same but I loved this design. I saw a project, but I never purchase kits so I made one that was similar. I had most of the squares together, the large white blocks cut out, and was stuck with deciding what to fill that large white space with. I noticed I had two different holly patterned fabrics so I appliqued holly leaves and berries. I’m very happy with the result, and in two days was able to complete these two table runners.

This weekend I noticed a tutorial by Noodlehead, which came at exactly the right time. I have three co-workers having babies, and I needed a fast project I could finish within a week, when the shower is scheduled. I made some diaper pouches using scraps from my closet. The color portions are flannel, leftover from previously made baby quilts.

What makes me happy? Two great weekends of sewing!