The Reversible Kathleen Cape

After my Little Red Riding Hood post last Halloween, one of my best friends requested that I make a cape for her daughter's birthday.  She asked if I could make it reversible too. She gave me carte blanche on color and fabric.  So here is the "Reversible Kathleen Cape".

First start by cutting out your cape circles.  You will need one of each color.  (For more details on this process, see my Little Red Riding Hood post)  The main difference from the original was that it's more of a semi circle rather then a half circle because of trying to make the height taller.

Find a hood that fits your child and trace around it, taking in account seam allowances.  Sew together two hoods. (more on this too in Little Red Riding Hood post)

Attach your two hoods to your two cape circles.

For your ties, cut out two strips of each color the width and length that you want with enough for seam allowance..  Sew the solid strip to the patterned strip right sides together, leaving one end open. Turn inside out and topstitch.  Repeat for the second set.

Pin your two capes right sides together.

Pin your ties in between your two capes at the point underneath your hood line.  See picture below.

Sew the two capes together, leaving a space at the bottom unsewn for you to to turn inside out.  Hand stitch the hole closed, and then top stitch.   And Viola! you are done!   I actually found the reversible cape to be easier then the original Little Red Riding Hood cape because I didn't have to hem or worry about covering any exposed seams.

What I loved about this project was that I was able to use thread I had inherited from my friend's mother to sew it together.  Her mother passed away from Leukemia several years ago.  This is exactly the sort of thing she would have loved to make for her granddaughter.  I am glad that through me she was still able to be a part of her granddaughter's birthday present.

Post dedicated to Kathy Bowman.  You will live on in our hearts and memories forever.
Please help beat Leukemia by donating blood or   platelets  to your local donation center.

Pattern Review: Boy Jumpsuit - Jungle

So I know it's been absolutely forever since I've posted anything.  I hope to be back to posting soon, but I have had a lot of personal things going on all at once.  So much to do, so little time, and so little energy, so of course blogging falls by the wayside since for now it's not making me any money and it really is just a hobby.
 
Since I haven't had a lot of time, I thought I'd do just a short post and review a pattern I did recently.   Well, maybe not so so recently now, since the baby is already 2 months old.

When my friend told me she was having a boy, I had a pattern all ready to go, and went shopping for some boy fabric.   I picked this blue jungle fabric out but had a hard time finding the right color for the pockets.  I eventually settled on this green.

The pattern was McCalls M6494. As far as the pattern went, it was a fairly easy pattern overall.  Though when I had the pieces cut out, I was somewhat baffled how they were going to fit together.  They just didn't seem to go.   But I followed the directions, and magically it turned out to be a cute little jumpsuit.

I had never used snaps before (the previous pattern I had done called for snap tape) and didn't know what would be best for a baby outfit - the kind you sew on, or the kind you hammer on.  I finally settled on the kind you hammer.... anyone have any opinions on which is the safer option?

The other issue I had was sizing. The last McCalls pattern I did was extra big so instead of doing medium, I did small.  Still the outfit looked like it won't fit the kid until next year, but oh well.  I guess it's better too big than too small.

McCalls Pattern M6494: from  McCalls

This pattern was not my favorite.  I imagined it to be way cuter then it turned out to be.  I think that might be my choice of fabric though.  Had I picked stripes or plaid like the picture, I think I would have liked it better.    I have discovered that for small children's outfits, large patterns just don't look right.  Since the outfit is so small, when you have a large pattern it gets lost... so from now on I have to choose a smaller pattern.  I still think the fabric is cute, just better for a blanket, curtains, or a crib skirt.

In the end I really liked the pockets in the green and the bibs that went with it.   I still think the outfit is cute, just not what I was hoping for.  

Ever have a project come out well, but different then you pictured?

Boy Romper: Elephants and Giraffes

So last year, I did Boy Romper: Cars and Trucks from the McCalls Pattern M6309.  I loved it so much that I did a second one for another one of my friends.

My favorite part about this version was the Dungaree buttons. I found them in my stash and I have no idea where they came from, but I thought they were perfect for the little outfit.

And as usual, I made some bibs to go with it.  No matter what I make, I always make coordinating bibs... it's kind of my thing.

The one trick to this was that they didn't know the sex of the baby and so I had to make an outfit that was unisex.  I tried to find some neutral fabric, which I thought I did a good job at but afterward doubted myself. No matter how hard I try, I always see either boy or girl  when I look at a fabric not both.  Technically also, the pattern was a boy pattern but I thought overalls where fairly gender neutral.  

As cute as it turned out, in the end, all I could see was "boy", which is kind of lucky because they had a boy!

Anyone else have trouble finding gender neutral baby gifts?  What colors do you think are unisex?

Little Red Riding Hood - The Cape

My favorite part of my little girl's costume this year was the cape.  I loved the color on her and the fun contrasting color peaking out from under the hood.  Here's a short little how-to on making the cape. 


I'm sorry if this is confusing.  I try to take pictures of each step but when I go to post, I realize that I should've taken even more photos.  There are all sorts of little steps that you don't notice until you go to write it up.  Ah well.   You live and learn.

It started by measuring how long I wanted it to be on her.  I folded the fabric in half so that I could get the max amount possible from my fabric.  I needed the total width to be 40 inches, while the height needed to be at least 20. 

I marked the midpoint of my fabric width (20 inches).  From there, I held my measuring tape at this point and slowly moved it around the circle marking litlte dots every quarter inch or so.  I then connected the dots and cut out my half circle.  The circle has a radius of 20 and a diameter of 40. 

Next I marked a line 5 inches from my midpoint.  I then marked the midpoint of that diameter and measured out a half circle with a 2.5 inch radius.  I cut that out creating a neckhole. 

If you look at the picture the right side is smaller than the left side.  While it's still folded, cut down the fold on the right side. This will be your front opening. Having the right side smaller makes it so the length is longest in the back but gradually becomes shorter in front. 

I then took a jacket of my daughters that fit her well and  on paper traced around the hood portion adding in seam allowances. I used this as my pattern and cut out two pieces of each fabric as shown below.

I then sewed each color set together creating two hoods. 

Next I sewed the front of the hoods right sides together.  When turned inside out, the hood piece will like the picture below.  Lastly, I put the lining inside the red fabric. My result is one red hood with a patterned lining. 

Next I matched the middle of the hood with the middle of the cape piece.  I sewed the red sides together so that when you put the hood up the back has a nice finished seam.  At this point, the inside has the raw edges.

 I then created two very long tubes with one end sewed closed.  It took forever to turn those stupid things inside out.

Before attatching the ties, I hemmed the two front sides of the cape. After ironing the ties,  I lined up the two open ends of the tube with the middle of the cape and hood. I turned under the ends so that they would not have any raw edges.   I placed them over where the hood and cape come together, covering the raw edges of the seam.  I pinned them on, and when I reached the end of the hood, I had to turn the raw edges of the cape under.  I then topstitched the tie onto the cape and then continued my topstitch all the way around the tie attatching it also to the hood. 

I then handstitched the openings of the tubes closed. 

I finished it off by hemming the bottom. 

And tada!  I now have a cute little cape for the Little Riding Hood Costume.

If you missed it, check out my post of us in our costumes.

Little Red Riding Hood, Grandma and the Woodsman

Sorry for the long absence from blogging.  My computer was in the shop. It was a bad electronics week for me. I killed my phone and my GPS by spilling water in my purse and on top of that our laptop cracked open.  So for a week and a half I was disconnected from the world with only a little I-touch that I could check my email on.

I did get my computer back right before Thanksgiving, but I've been caught up in a few good books that I couldn't put down, so I decided to relax over the holiday and finish them before returning to the blogging world.

I know it's almost the end of November which is a little late for a Halloween post, but I still wanted to share the costume that I made for my little girl.  I had so much fun making it and it was fun dressing up as a family.

It rained and poured on Halloween  so we went trick or treating at a couple different churches that had set up inside.   Our church had a carnival with games and food while my in-laws church did an inside trunk or treat....or more like table or treat.  It was nice that we got to enjoy the evening even with it raining down buckets.

I spent most of my energy making the Little Red Riding Hood costume.  My favorite part was making the cape.  I especially loved seeing my little girl in it, maybe I'm just biased, but I thought she looked pretty darn cute.  I also made her a little skirt to match.  I looked everywhere for just a plain white shirt to go with it, but all I found was a boys shirt, so I made do and sewed some lace around the collar to make it look a little more girly.

As for my husbands and my costumes, I tried to use what I had around the house. I wanted to spend as little effort as possible on our costumes partly because I was running out of time, and partly because I didn't want to waste a lot of time making something that we'd never wear again.

 I did sew my nightcap though.   I searched around looking for the easiest way to go about it using what I had and ended up making it from a tutorial on making a picnic bowl cover.  A little weird I know, but it it worked well, and it ended up looking just as I had imagined.  Here's the tutorial: Salad Bowl Cover by Make it Do.  I made the ruffle longer and gathered it before attaching it so that it would be more ruffly then the tutorial but otherwise I did everything else the same.

So for my grandma costume I wore the nightcap I sewed, used a white baby blanket as a shawl and actually used a dress that my mother had sewed for herself when I was a child.  Somehow the flower print felt a little grandmotherly to me.  I  also bought a white long sleeved shirt which I wore under the dress.

My husband used a hat that he got in New Zealand, it's a little more farmerish then woodsman but it worked well enough.  He wore a flannel shirt with some work pants and actually carried a knife strapped to his belt.  I think the woodsman actually carries an ax but the knife has a cool wolf on the handle which fit in with the theme.  I thought that it might be a little weird that he was carrying a real weapon around little kids, but no one seemed to care.

At first my little girl didn't quite understand what we were doing, but once she ate a piece or two of candy she realized what was going on, and really got into going to each table collecting candy in her little basket.  Overall, it was quite a fun evening.

A few days later I took her outside for a little photo shoot since I didn't get very many good pictures on the actual night.  I tried to take a bunch of pictures in our back patio, but that didn't go very well.  She had just gotten up from a nap and usually she's pretty happy but not this day.  You can't tell but just minutes before these pictures she had been crying.

I was able to get a few okay shots without tears when I started bribing her with chocolate. But it wasn't until we left the backyard to wander the complex did she start to smile.  She loves to walk and be outside.

I think my little girl's favorite part about the costume was the fact that she got to carry a basket.

She had fun carrying it around and putting things in it.

I think she made the cutest Little Red Riding Hood.  It turned out just as I pictured.

My husband thought the skirt would be cute with straps to make it look like more of a real dress.  I didn't know if I was going to have time so I did them at the last minute.  They do look cute, but if you look up close you can tell that I didn't do a very good job.  I either will have to redo them, or I may just take them off so that it can be just a skirt.

As we were walking around the complex we ran into some of the kids that live in the neighborhood.  Two of the girls decided that it was their job to look after my girl.  They had fun walking hand in hand and helping her out even though they are only 5 and 6.   My little girl loves hanging out with older kids so she was more then happy go along with it.

I'm not big into Halloween but it was still a lot of fun making the costume and seeing how cute my little girl was.  It was also nice to do something as a family... and collecting a little chocolate was an added bonus.  :)

In the next week I hope to get up posts on the cape and the skirt, so look out for those!

Christmas Stockings

So I wanted to make Christmas stockings for our family last year. I unfortunately decided to take on the project way to close to Christmas, so chose to wait until after Christmas to start my project. I figured that way all the Christmas fabric would be on sale too.

Because this was a project from last year, the photos are really old before I started learning how to take better photos so excuse the rug in the background and the dark light. I thought that this was a perfect time to put this post up though because it's already November, and so that you can avoid my mistake of starting to late.

It was a pretty easy project to do and I had a lot of fun picking out fun different Christmas fabrics. It was my first time doing applique so that was a little challenging at first, but there's lots of information out there on the internet that helped me.

I love how they came out and am so excited that we now have personalized stockings for our family. Before, we had some random stockings that each of us had picked up somewhere over the years. Now that we are a family I think it's nice to have ones that go together. I also picked out coordinating fabrics instead of matching fabrics that way if there is ever any little additions to our family it will be easy to make more.

If you want to make your own stockings, I used the Christmas Stocking Tutorial from Sew Like My Mom.

Baby Drawstring Pants

Finally getting up the tutorial for these baby drawstring pants. There are two options of these pants - with or without a different colored waistband. To see a version without the different colored waistband check out my Baby Boy Gift Set: Cars and Trucks.

First step is to make your pattern. Take a pair of pants that you already own and that are the size you want to use as your guide. Fold in half toward the front and trace around. This will be your back piece. Be sure to stretch out the elastic waistband to make sure to take in account for the extra material. Also don't forget to add seam allowances. Also add a bit extra on top so you have enough to fold under the waistband. (Better to have too much and trim it later then to have to little) Then fold in half toward the back and repeat. This will be your front pattern piece. Notice in the below picture how the back piece is slightly sloped out more then the front piece... this helps the pants have room for the baby's little booty. :)

Cut out your pattern pieces.

If you don't want a separate waistband piece skip the next couple of steps and just do the following:
Take your fabric and fold it in half. Pin and cut out so that you get 2 of each piece.

Sorry that I don't have any pictures of this step.
If you want a separate waistband then do this step:
Make your waistband pattern pieces by using the pattern you have just made as a guide and trace around the top. Draw down the sides about 2 to 3 inches (depending on how big you want your waistband. Keep in mind that you will be folding this piece in half so your waistband will be half as big as you make it minus seam allowances.
After you have traced around the pattern pieces, remove the outside seam allowance. You aren't going to need the extra seam allowance because this piece will be cut on the fold.

Cut out your pattern pieces and then cut out 1 of each waistband piece on the fold.
For your pants pieces..fold down your pattern to a bit above where you drew your waistband line. ( remember the seam allowance). Fold your fabric in half then pin and cut so you get 2 of each piece.
Hopefully that didn't completely confuse you. That was the hardest part.

Put the sloped edges of the front leg pieces right sides together. Sew and then finish your edge how you like - zig zag, overcast, or surge.
Repeat with the back leg pieces. (use a fabric pencil to mark which one is the front and which is the back because they start to look the same.)
You will now have two pieces that are starting to look like pants.
Take the waistband pieces and put together right sides together with the top edges of the pants. See the picture below.

Find a button that is about the width of your bias tape to use as your guide. Before sewing your button holes, do a practice button hole to make sure the hole is big enough for your drawstring to go through.
Now you want to mark with a fabric pencil two button holes equally spaced from the middle. ( I did them each about 3/4 inch from the center). You want them close to your waistband seam, but with enough room for topstitching the waistband down later.
Sew your button holes.

Take your two pants pieces and put right sides together. Make sure the waistband pieces are lined up ( I forgot to check and so they aren't the same front and back).
Sew down the sides and finish your edges how you like.

Pin together and sew inside legs. Finish edges.

Measure your elastic to be the width of the pants you used to make your pattern off of. Or in my case, I measured it to the width of the onesie I was pairing it with. Add an extra inch to your measurement and cut your elastic. Take two pieces of double fold bias tape, each approximately the same length and sew one piece to each end. See picture for example. I edge stitched the bias tape to keep the sides together and to give it a cleaner look, but you don't have to do that if you don't want to.

Fold down your waistband 1/4 inch and then fold in half. Pin and topstitch the waistband down. Make sure that you pin it so that when you topstitch it that you'll catch the edge that you folded under. Don't worry about leaving a hole to get the elastic through because you can just feed it through the drawstring holes.

Next you want to feel where the edge of the elastic is and pin it to the edge of one side seam. Find the other end and pull to pin to the other edge of the other side seam. Sew the elastic in place on each side. The picture below shows what it will end up looking like. You will have the back gathered and the front straight.This gives you more flexibility in fit because you can pull your strings as loose or as tight as you want it.

Hem the bottom of your pants and you're done!

Applique on a design on a onesie to make it an outfit.

If you make your own baby drawstring pants, I would love to see them. Post to the   Creations from Alisha Rose and Friends flickr group.

Baby Boy Gift Set: Trains

So I took a week off from blogging, but I'm back. We were taking a little family time. It's good to make sure the busyness of the days don't crowd out what's really important. I've also been having some computer/Internet issues. Hopefully they will be resolved soon.

Anyways, on to other things.

Here is another boy set I made. Since the shower was for two moms, I wanted to give them each something similar but still unique.
 
I decided to cut out each of the different colored trains and appliqued them onto a larger rectangle. It was a bit of a challenge to get them exactly measured and centered just right, but I think it was so worth it.

For the matching drawstring pants, I added a colored waistband which I ended up loving. I used bias tape as the drawstring.

Look out for a tutorial for these pants in the very near future. :)

Here is the matching onesie and pants together

Add a coordinating bib and the set is complete. :)

Thanks for checking out all the baby gifts, hopefully I'll get some more variety up soon.  Though bear with me,  I do have a few more to share with you in the next month or so.   I'm excited to show you the tutorial on the drawstring pants, so watch out for that soon.  :) 

Baby Boy Gift Set: Cars and Trucks

So it kind of seems like all the sewing I've been doing lately has been for baby gifts.   If you are sick of it, I'm sorry  but you'll have to bear with me a little longer because there are a few more in the works.  If you are like me and have lots of friends having babies, then I hope you are able to get some good ideas.

Sewing for babies is also a little less intimidating then sewing for an adult because you don't have to worry as much about fit... no curves and such.   Also I think babies and kids just look so darn cute in handmade clothes.

Recently we had a mini shower for two friends of mine who were both having boys, so I had to come up with something that was cute but not too difficult since I was going to have to do it times two.  I had bought extra of the cars and trucks fabric that I had used for the boy romper.  I was very excited to use it again, and thought it would be so cute to use one of the cars as a center piece on a onesie.

I also made some matching pants to go with it.  I used a pair of pants from my baby girl as a guide for size.  I wanted to do something a little more creative so I made them into drawstring pants. I liked the fact that this made the pants size a little more adjustable.

I used the leftover vintage bias tape from my Orange Sherbet Tee as the drawstring, and I think it coordinates just perfectly.

I sewed up a coordinating bib to go with it, and I had a cute little outfit.

Stay tuned for the second boy gift set, and a tutorial to follow. :)