Freezer paper stenciling tutorial!

Freezer paper stenciling, YOU can do it too!

      Have you ever had those days where you look at a shirt in the store and go I wish I could do that? Well here's the thing, you can and 9 times out of 10 you can make it a lot better than that store bought shirt is made! All you need are a few simple things and you are on your way to an awesome shirt! Follow the instructions below to find out how!

Materials:
*printer
*freezer paper
*Xacto knife
*iron
*permanent fabric paint
*Permanent fabric marker
*sponge brush
*printed or original artwork
*20ish minutes of free time for a simple design

Step one:
grab your freezer paper and start thinking of things you'd like to put on your shirt. If you don't know where to purchase freezer paper, most walmarts carry it in the same aisle as tin foil but on the bottom shelf! 

                                      

Step two:
Print out your design or scan your hand drawn design onto your computer so you can print it out on your freezer paper. Remember to print your design so the non shiny side isn't the one being printed on. (I used a picture of one of our pumpkins from last year so the background was black and better for demonstrating, you can use just black and white images and I highly recommend you do)

Step three:

Cut out your design with your xacto knife. It should look similar to this when done, just your design and not mine. (Notice all of my orange pieces are now missing)

Step four:

Line your design up on your shirt where you want it to go and grab your iron! 

Step five:

Iron your design onto your shirt! It needs to be flat and have absolutely no bubbles, if you leave bubbles your final product will be extremely blotchy and you will have a ton of touch up to do or it won't be salvageable.

Step six:

grab your paint and your sponge brush! 

Step seven:
Let the painting commence! My younger son loves to join in on this part and it is definitely a fun bonding opportunity! You may even find out you have a little artist on your hands!

Step 8:
Once your paint has dried for the most part you will need to peel off your freezer paper. Once you have done that you should have something that looks like this! 

Step nine:
Touch up and outline around your design! 

Step ten:
Sew up your top and pants if you made a whole outfit and put it on, or give it to whoever you made it for :) & that's it! You did your first ever freezer paper stencil design! 

                                      

Easy Peasie Beanie tutorial!

Beanie Tutorial

Well today was one of those days, I got up thinking the sun was going to be shining (We are stationed in California so that is generally how it goes) just to look outside and see rain pouring down and massive winds. Well we don't own cold weather gear! So what did I do? I came up with a way to make a beanie in 10 minutes with literally 4 stitch lengths! That's right a ten minute hat! So here comes the directions on how to do this! 

Materials:
1/3 yard of knit or fleece, doesn't matter which or what size you are doing you will need the same yardage! 
sewing machine
rib knit or lyrca for the cuff
cutting mat
Measuring tape.
10 minutes of free time

Step 1: You will need to measure your head or the head of the person you are making your hat for and cut out a piece of fabric accordingly. Mine is 8 inches tall and 16 inches wide as the fabric is folded. This will be for my 16 month old who is in 2T clothing! (I figured it would be easier to see if I took the piece I cut out so you could see the measurements of my piece).

Step 2: Fold your fabric right sides together and sew from your folded edge down the right side of your fabric.

Step 3: Take your corners that you just created and curve them around so they meet

Step 4: Take your two corners now that they have met and tack them into place (I generally go forward about an inch, backstitch all the way back and then go forward one last time with a straight stitch)

If you flip your hat inside out you should have something that looks like this

Step 5: Measure the bottom of your hat and cut your rib knit one inch shorter than what you measured, sew your ends together and sew your cuff onto your hat with a zig zag stitch. (cutting the cuff shorter ensures a tighter fit and helps it not to fall down over your face).

Wear your hat with pride! You are done!!

Self draft your own t-shirt!

Self drafted T-shirt Tutorial

If you have kids you know how fast they grow and how expensive it can be to buy them new clothes almost every month! Well what if I told you, you could make your kids T-shirts based off of one they already have? Crazy right? Or you may be thinking yeah right? Well this is no joke! I am going to teach you how to draft a t-shirt pattern and how to sew the shirt in as little as a half hour! Are you ready to save some money and make your kids wardrobe or maybe even your own? Well ready or not here come the instructions! 

Materials:

Knit fabric

sewing machine

cutting mat

rotary or scissors

half hour of free time

Step 1: You will need to grab a t-shirt and lay it out on two pieces of paper. (you will notice my shirt is much bigger than the pattern I have created. This is because that shirt I didn't mind getting marker on and didn't plan on keeping it once my youngest had outgrown it anyways). You will need to trace around your shirt or past it if you are designing your pattern like I am. Notice I don't trace around the neck or the arms.

Step 2: Once you have finished tracing your pattern, you should have something that looks like this:

Step 3: You will need to draw in your neck and your arms, you will notice that I use a half circle for the neck and a 1/4 oval for the arms. You may also notice that I put the way the stretch needs to go as well as what kind of shirt it is that I am making on the pattern so I know what this pattern is once I put it away.

Step 4: You will need to make your arm pattern. You will need to lay your sleeve on the edge of a piece of paper and trace around it.

Step 5: Just like the shirt body pattern piece I write stretch and what it is this pattern piece goes to on the piece.

Step 6: You will now need to cut your pieces out of your fabric. If you are going to embroider on them now is the time to do so.

Step 7: Put the two shirt bodies right side together and sew the shoulders

Step 8: You should have something that looks like this after you have sewn the shoulders

Step 9: Sew your sleeves onto your shirt body, make sure that the ends match up and the center of the sleeve matches up with the seam on the shoulder. Do this to both sides! 

Step 10: Hem your sleeves! Do this to both sides! 

Step 11: Sew down one side of your shirt. From sleeve end to body end

Step 12: Hem the bottom of your shirt

Step 13: Sew down the other side of your shirt from sleeve end to body end! 

Step 14: cut out and sew the ends of your neckline, then connect it to your shirt! 

Finally grab that kid and put on their shirt! Mine are sleeping or I would :) 

Tote Bag tutorial

TOTE BAG TUTORIAL

If you are a mom you know how hard it is to find a bag that fits YOUR needs! I have two in cloth diapers and one of my boys has special needs while the other is asthmatic. Trying to find a bag that is big enough to take everything with me when we leave is just crazy ridiculous so what did I do, I came up with a way to make a bag so that I COULD make a bag that WORKS for US! 

Supplies:

• 1/2 yard of outer base fabric (I used home decor fabrics)
• 1 yard of upper and lining fabric
• 1 – 2 yards of ribbon for ribbon and/or bow
• scrap fabric for flower/other embellishments

Before you get started on sewing your bag you will need to cut your pieces out, I have posted what I use below:

Now you are going to take one of your upper fabrics and place right sides together with your lower fabric and stitch across the top. once you have sewn the two pieces together you will then pin your ribbon in place where you want it over the seam you just made.

Sew your ribbon to your bag piece. You will need to repeat the above steps for your other pieces as well! 

Place both of your bag fronts right sides together. Make sure to line up your ribbon and then sew around the edges leaving the top open. Repeat this step with your lining fabric as well! 

Pull your fabric from the corners that you just created and sew about 3" down from the point, do this on both sides of the front of your bag as well as the liner

You will need to sew your straps now. Sew down both sides of your strap pieces leaving the ends open, be sure to pull them rightside out when you are done

Iron all of your pieces to get rid of the creases and create the boxy bottom of your bag

Once you have ironed your pieces you will need to sew your straps onto the front of the bag. Make sure you do this on rightside of the bag.

Now that both of your handles are attached you will put the outside of your bag inside the liner pieces with right sides together and sew around the top leaving about and inch by one of the handles open.

Where you left that hole you will pull your bag rightside out from it. You should get something that looks like this when you are done:

Push your liner inside your bag and sew around the top edge about 1/8" from the top. Be sure to fold the fabric inward where you left the hole

If you are going to embellish your bag you will need to make a bow and sew it onto your bag now. (I will be seam ripping my bow off this bag in the morning and redoing it but for now it works so I can get this up for you all)

simple childrens' pant tutorial!

Simple Pant Tutorial!

If you are like me and have kids it seems like they grow every day! I am sure I am not the only mom that has a hard time keeping up with the demand of new clothes every 2-4 months! Well I finally got tired of buying clothes that will only be worn for a couple months and decided to draft some pants for my two boys using pants that fit and adding a few inches width and length wise. They may be a bit big when they first start wearing them but give it a few weeks and they will fit perfectly!

Materials needed:

1/2 yard of material (you will need more if going above a 5T)

sewing machine

all purpose thread

elastic

safety pin

cutting mat

rotary/scissors

yard stick

pair of pants

Cute model (Not necessary but makes for adorable pictures)

Step 1: You will need to lay your fabric on your cutting mat with your fabric folded in half with the stretch going width wise. As you can see by the picture below I lay the pants on the fabric with the crotch going to the right, I then cut around the pants leaving about 2 inches and cutting all the way to the top of the waistband, I also leave some excess on the end so the pants don't end up being too short once you hem them. Once you reach the top of the waistband you just make a straight cut to the fold of the fabric to make of your pants.

Step 2: Take the pant leg you just made and lay it on top of the fabric to cut around to make your second leg. You don't have to do it this way but it makes it much easier to get almost identical legs,

Step 3: Sew down the sides of your legs!

Step 4: Take one of the legs you just created and flip it rightside out. You will put this rightside out leg inside your inside out leg so that right sides of the fabric are facing each other. You should get something that looks like this (my fabric is fleece so you can see there is pattern on both sides but there is a definite difference between the right and wrong sides):

Step 5: Sew along the crotch, once you have sewn all the way around it with a straight stitch go back through and reinforce it with a zig zag stitch, I do this on the edges.

Step 6: You will now need to hem the bottom of the pants. You will need to pull your pant leg out from inside your other one to do this. I just used a straight stitch, that's my personal preference, but you can use a zig zag or decorative stitch as well!

Step 7: Measure the waist of your pants. Keep in mind the measurement that you get will be doubled as you have to go all the way around the top of your pants. Take that measurement and cut a piece that long, you can make the width anything that you want, I personally use 4"

Step 8: sew the ends of your waistband together and sew your waistband to your pants leaving a small gap to add your elastic. Remember to fold your waistband in half before sewing it to your pants to create your casing

Step 9: Thread your elastic through your waistband by using a safety pin and the small gap you left when sewing your waistband on. Remember to close your waistband off with a straight stich. when you are done you should get something that looks like this:

Finally! Put your little one in their new pants!