Maxi Skirt with Ruffle ~ tutorial

When summer is in full swing I love wearing long breezy skirts.  Enter Maxi with Ruffle.
This idea came to me last night.  It isn't a complicate design and it goes together quickly.

1. First I took my waist x 1.5 (I like my skirts lower on my waist so I used my "pants" waist measurement of 36; therefore ending up with 54 total *I chose not to add seam allowance because my fabric was a nice 54" wide.  
2. Then I measured from my "pants waist to the floor, or where I wanted the whole skirt to end up. For me this happened to be 36" also!  
3. Next, the bottom ruffle is 12 inches + 1/2 inch for the top hem to lay on top of the other panel; so 12.5 inches.  Take the bottom ruffle of 12 inches and subtract it from your total length (for me of 36" = 24 and add 2 inches *1.5 for top elastic hem and 0.5 for bottom hem to lay under bottom panel; for me = 26")
4. Ok now I have all my measurements ready.  For the top panel I need two rectangles 27" wide x 26" long, after cutting them I serged all 4 edges of both.  
5. For the bottom panel I need two rectangles 37" wide x 12.5" long, after cutting them I placed right sides together and sewed, then serged each end.  Then I sewed rolled hems on the top and bottom of the now round bottom ruffle. 
6. Place right sides together for top panels and sew each side.  Place gathering stitches in bottom panel on the topmost part.  Attach to skirt by laying top 1/2" of bottom panel with rolled hem over the top of the bottom serged "top panel".  Make sure when sewing that the 1/2" stays overlapped and you are sewing through the middle.  Remove gathering stitches.
7. Add elastic to the top.  

I used 1.5 yards of 54" wide Rayon Challis.  $6.35 total.  "Garden Rayon Challis Tropical Floral Coral/Blue"

~ Happy Sewing! ~ Kristin ~

Easy and Fast Perfect Hems!

Hemming: not hard, but definitely time consuming. It's during the final stretch of a wonderful piece that you are met with this beast.  I don't enjoy hemming because I just want to get to the finished garment already! :-)

Well I'm throwing out my hem measuring tool and going an easier and faster route.  (This is for a double fold hem - but also would work for single fold with serged edge)

Want to know my secret?

Step 1: Mark of 1/2 inch seam on your sewing machine (or use what I love: a nifty -cheap- Magnetic Seam Guide ). Then sew with a stitch length of 4 all around the bottom of your garment.

Step 2: Have your iron hot and press that up so just the bottom of that thread line is folded.

This is super easy to do all the way around the garment because of the thread line - it flips up so nice and fast - plus there is no stopping to measure.

Step 3: Press up again with the hot iron and pin.

Step 4: stitch all around hem 1/2 inch, just catching in the double fold on the backside.

Enjoy nice, even, fast, and easy hems every time!

~ Happy Sewing! ~ Kristin ~

New Living Room Pillows! ~ Link to Tutorial

Something about new pillows makes a room feel fresh.  Back in September of 2012 I made these awesomely easy zippered throw pillows and provided you with a tutorial.

The pillows were cute but a little on the small side.  P.S. I still have all four, they will just be moved to the "banana couch" for now.  ("banana couch" is an amazing 70's tan couch that I think they called kidney shaped? I don't know for sure but I've always loved it so when we bought my grandma's house 3 years ago I made sure the couch came with it!)

This time around I used 18x18 inch pillow forms - bought on sale at Hancock's.  I followed the same steps as the tutorial and these really are so super easy to make.

I love the outcome and the pillows are huge! I can't wait for everyone to get home and find them.

The fabric I purchased on Feb. 8th this year - yikes it took me this long to sew them up!
The green is a wonderful print from Valori Wells - Wrenly Bloom Citrus 1.5 yards (had leftovers)
The brown is a great print from Ty Pennington Home Decor Impressions - Lace Espresso 1.5 yards (had leftovers)

Breakdown:
18x18inch pillow forms (4): $31.00
1.5 yards Wrenly Bloom Citrus: $11.45
1.5 yards Lace Espresso: $9.55
Total for all four pillows: $52 or $13 each

The best things about these are the fact that: I can remove the cover to wash them, and now that I have the forms I can also remove the covers and change them up to new fabrics with ease.

~ Happy Sewing! ~ Kristin ~

Pattern Tracing Paper ~ What works best?

Unless you are a rebel when it comes to sewing, most likely you have used some sort of material to trace your sewing patterns.  If you are like me, you want to find one that works well and is economical to boot.  So which pattern tracing paper works best? Continue reading for a list of pros and cons of the top 3 tracing paper types most sewers use.

From Left to Right: Freezer Paper, Swedish Tracing Paper, Medical Exam Table Paper

Let's weigh out the pros and cons. Here is a lineup of all three in a completed traced and cut pattern.

From Left to Right: Freezer Paper, Medical Exam Table Paper, Swedish Tracing Paper

First up: Freezer Paper

Pros:

• Not very expensive $5.76 for the box which is 33 yards x 18 inches wide or about $0.17 a yard
• Can write on it easily
• Pencil erases on it
• Thicker paper - not likely to tear easy
• Can iron it on to slippery fabric to cut it out easier as it sticks right on; once cut you can just peel it off the fabric or even sew with it still attached and remove after. 

Cons:

• Can not iron out the fold lines from storage - ironing will melt it to whatever it touches
• It's thicker fabric so it may dull scissors
• It is harder to see through to trace patterns as shown below.

Next up: Swedish Tracing Paper
Birch Street Clothing Swedish Tracing Paper - 29"x 30' White

Pros:

• Can write on it fairly easy with a dull # 2 pencil.  A sharp one tears at the paper
• Can iron out the creases from storage
• Doesn't wrinkle easy
• Very quiet as it is more like fabric than paper
• Thin like interfacing - not likely to tear easy
• Holds nicely to fabrics when you are trying to cut them out
• Easy to see through to trace patterns (see below)

Cons:

• Expensive $16.94 including shipping for the roll which is 30 yards x 29 inches wide or about $0.56 a yard
• Pencil does NOT erase on it

Lastly: Medical Exam Paper
Medline Exam Table Paper - Standard - Smooth, 21" x 225 ft - Qty of 12 - Model NON23326

Pros:

• Very Inexpensive - Box of 12 rolls totals 900 yards of 21" wide for $35.98 or less than $0.04 yard!
• Can write on easily
• Pencil erases easy
• Can iron out the creases from storage (low setting)
• Easy to pin to fabric when cutting out
• Easy to see through to trace patterns (see below)

Cons:

• Wrinkles very easy
• Very noisy (it is just like the stuff you sit on at the doctor's office)
• Very thin - possible to tear easier however I have not had issue with this yet

And there you have it!  For me the winner is The
Medline Exam Table Paper - Standard - Smooth, 21" x 225 ft - Qty of 12 - Model NON23326

Why? Because you CANNOT beat that price!  Plus it is see through and works well for my needs.  I have a box of 12 rolls/900 yards that will probably last me a lifetime!  I can deal with the noise - it is just the same with the pattern tissue paper noise.  I can deal with the wrinkles because I can iron them out on low setting.
I just cannot justify the cost of Swedish Tracing Paper anymore.  Plus, I won't run out now in the middle of a project! The medical paper is slightly more thick than the pattern tissue paper to give you an idea of what it is like.

*note: it is easy to trace Ottobre patterns onto the medical paper too.  It is nice and easy to see the colored pattern lines through the paper.

So what are your thoughts?  What do you use to trace your patterns?


 ~ Happy Sewing! ~ Kristin ~

How to Sew a Zipper Fly

I thought I would show my steps on how I sew a zippered fly. This is for Girl's pants; For boys you simply flip it the opposite way.

1. Constructing the fly shield.  It should look like this:

 Fold it in half, right sides together. Sew only bottom edge. Trim seam and flip so right sides are out. Press. 

 Serge unfinished side. 

 Apply WonderTape to the right edge

Remove WonderTape backing and place Zipper on that edge (You may need to shorten zipper first as I have below). 

 Using zipper foot, sew close to zipper teeth dow the right side.  Keep Zipper pull in teh middle and stop when you reach it. Keep needle in fabric, lift presser foot and pull zipper past foot to the top. Then put  presser foot back down and continue sewing down the right side to the bottom. 

Serge raw edges of both sides of pants. 

 2. Fold seam allowance on narrow edge of zipper placket to wrong side (shown on right, below). Place WonderTape on fly shield over the zipper tape on the right side where you just sewed one side of the zipper in above steps. 

 Put fly shield under folded over zipper placket as seen below.  Align, remove WonderTape backing and stick them together as shown below. Sew on the right side zipper placket from the top down to the bottom of the zipper. 

  Here is where I sew crotch seam from back waistline to bottom of zipper placket.  I double stitch the seams on the crotch to reinforce. 

 3. Now we will WonderTape the left side of the zipper tape on the placket and attach it to the other zipper placket.  We have already serged the raw end of this larger placket and folded it under.  Align it so the crotch lays smooth and use the WonderTape to stick the loose side zipper tape to the other placket.

 Below I have WonderTape on left side of zipper tape and the curved placket is at the way bottom waiting to be laid on top

 Unzip zipper so that the loose tape is stuck to the large placket as seen below.

 Now fold open the placket and sew on the loose zipper tape. 

 4. Top stitching.  I always look to the inside (wrong side) of the zipper shield and plackets and stick a pin in the bottom of the shield.  

 Then I go to the right side and pin my placket down so it stays smooth.  I make a mark where the underneath pin pokes through.  This is where you want to catch the fly shield in your stitching on the top.  You only want to catch the bottom of the fly shield in your stitching. 

 Now I mark out my top-stitching with a quilter's pencil.  Make sure you know where the fly shield will be brought in to the bottom. 

 Unzip zipper (See my sloppy lines on the bottom slope?  I had to reconfigure to make sure I caught all of the placket bottoms into my top-stitching so there would be no holes in the crotch. The top two straighter lines wouldn't cover it so I slopped them down more). 

Pin fly shield out of the way for now. You don't want to stitch it yet. 

Top-stitch the lines you drew. Stop at the bottom where you had the pin come through and are now sewing the fly shield to the bottom.  Unpin the fly shield and lay it nicely into place.  Sew over the bottom of the fly shield when you continue your top-stitching. (See second pic for more detail)

   This is a view at the wrong side.  See the green arrows?  This is where I caught just the bottom of the fly shield in my top-stitching. 

 You now bar-tack the two lines at the bottom.  (I was experimenting with this here, they should not be curved but straight   My bar-tack stitch I haven't quite got right yet.  Next time I will use a short zig-zag stitch back and forth on the two spots).

Here is a view of the completed Zipper Fly!

~ Happy Sewing! ~ Kristin ~

How I Sew Hems on Knits with a Twin Needle

A week or so ago I was asked about sewing the hems on my recent knit projects so I thought I would take some pictures and share my process with you.

I love this method of finishing hems on knits because it looks just like RTW clothing and it finishes the back and front at the same time.  Plus, it is super easy to do so I love that too!

First I must say, I took these pictures at night in my sewing room so the lighting isn’t the best.

Hint: Use WonderTape.  It will become your best friend.  I was hesitant at first because I didn't see the point in it but now I see the results and find it a necessity.  This stuff is cheap to buy and lasts awhile too. It is like a two sided tape that holds things together but then washes out when you are done.  This is what the Dritz brand looks like:

So here is my unfinished shirt bottom and the WonderTape.

Step 1: Press up hem bottom 1 inch with the iron.

Step 2: Add the WonderTape to the underneath of the hem.  Put it just below the one inch mark so that it covers the top of the fabric line but doesn’t show above it. 

Step 3: Pull off the WonderTape backing and press down hem with your fingers.  It is not a good idea to iron the WonderTape because it can melt and well, you just don’t want that.

Also needed is the twin needle.  I use a Schmetz Stretch Twin Needle as seen below.  I love it on knits.

Also, you need to prepare your machine.  I have one thread in the normal spot and then I have this rod attachment that came with my machine, which I put on the bobbin winder spot. 

Here it is with the thread.  Then I wind both of them down and around the normal way and thread each one into an eye of the twin needle.  (You also have a normal bobbin in the bobbin spot).

Step 4: Sew the hem with the twin needle.  Sew from the top or right side.  I use a moderate speed, not slow, not fast.  Also, it is very important that you don’t stretch or pull on the knit.  Let the feed dogs do their job here and just guide the fabric.

Here is a picture of the final hem. See how nice it looks? Here is from the front:

Here is what the back looks like.

That is all there is to it.  However, I did want to show you the difference in how the WonderTape helps.

Here is a picture of how it turns out without the WonderTape.  See how the hem is all wonky?

And here is how nice and even it is with the WonderTape

And one more of the wonky wobble without the WonderTape.

I hope the pictures help you out.  Thanks!

~ Happy Sewing! ~ Kristin ~