Superhero girl!

Guess what?  Somebody just joined the superhero club in this family!

I started the tradition of making a super hero cape for each child in the family when they turn 3.

This little girl was no exception.

In fact, she's been wearing her brothers' capes for the past year. 

I did make a teeny upgrade and added some "super hero bracelets" which have been a big hit.  This girl loves to accessorize.  If you ask her to show you to moves she twirls her fists around as fast as can be and ends with one fist in the air.

Fierce, I know. 

One side of the cape is batman (with a pink background) and the other side is Super E.

 And now the Superhero Squad all together!!

(notice how she watches her brothers to get the good moves?)

And Somebody (I won't say who) couldn't find his Super J mask, so he decided to become Super Wolf.

Giraffe Backpack

Somebody had a birthday-- this always means it's sewing time. 

I knew exactly what my first project was going to be.  

This last Christmas I bought myself and told my husband to give to me my husband bought me the fun sewing book, Oliver + S Little Things to Sew.  I've had my eye on all the darling things in there-- but I was waiting for this little girl's birthday so I could sew up a backpack for her.

But I had to change it up a bit-- my girl loves many things-- and most of these things change all the time. But one constant has been the color orange and her love of giraffes.  

So I had to change that cute penguin into a giraffe.

MATERIALS:

1. Oliver + S Little Things to sew book

2. Fabric cut out as directed (except choosing orange/yellow/brown fabrics)

3. Print out of giraffe pieces

4. Cut out giraffe fabric as directed

5. Extra 12" zipper (plus the already required 18" one)

STEP ONE:  First we need to make the nose piece (formally the penguin's tummy piece) much bigger.  Place the Oliver + S pocket piece on the fold and add 1/2" to all sides, then cut out.  Cut out one piece of cotton lining to go in between the yellow layers.  With right sides together and the cotton lining piece on top, sewing around the nose piece leaving 1" open.  Cut the cotton lining back so it's just longer than the sewing.

STEP TWO:  Flip the nose piece right side out and press.  Top stitch around the entire piece making sure to close up the gap.

STEP THREE:  Place the 12" zipper on the front backpack piece and pin into place, using the nose piece as your guide for width of the loop and placement on the bag. (The nose piece's bottom should be flush with the backpack's bottom edge.)  Sew around just the side that is pressed against the bag.

STEP FOUR:  Unzip zipper and pin the nose piece onto the open zipper piece.  Once pinned, sew the nose piece onto the zipper.

STEP FIVE: Zip the nose piece back together.  Clip off the zipper's end hardware and tuck the zipper into the nose piece.  Then sew up both sides of the nose piece to make the pocket's sides.

STEP SIX:  Sew on two lines to make the nose.  I did this using a very tight stitch going back and forth and slowly moving down.

STEP SEVEN:  Using the Giraffe pieces pattern, cut out your fabric for the ears and horns.  

For the yellow ear pieces, turn each side in a teeny bit and iron down.  Then sew each yellow ear piece onto one orange ear piece using a tight zig zag stitch.  Then with right sides together sew around the ears and the horns, leaving the bottom open.  Turn right side out and press.

-- Something I didn't do, but wish I did was add interfacing to these pieces.  They're a little flippy, but with some stiff interfacing they would keep their shape a lot better.

STEP EIGHT:  Fold the ear pieces together at the sides on the bottom.  Pin the ears and horns onto the top backpack piece.  Baste stitch them in place.

STEP NINE:  The last (giraffe specific) step is to sew on the top backpack piece onto the bottom backpack piece, hand sew on the button eyes, then for added cuteness I added a teeny square of white paint onto the sides of the buttons to give them a bit more personality.

STEP TEN:  From here you follow the rest of the directions as indicated from Oliver + S.  

This was my second Oliver + S pattern I've followed, but I must say they live up to all the hype.  

They are so well written and easy to understand and produce really quality work.

Sewing up this backpack was lots of fun.

My daughter saw it on her birthday and pronounced, "Oh, I always wanted a orangie, giraffie backpack."  

Mission accomplished.

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How to make Super Hero Masks in under 10 Minutes

The kids were bored the other day and I needed a quick activity for them to do so they could entertain themselves.  My sweet little girl gave me the idea for the project as she informed me that she was Spider-man.

Suddenly I dropped everything I was doing and was drawing superhero masks for my little ones on our paper plates.  I just typed in the super hero + masks and looked at google images to sketch these out.

Then I let the kids color them.  This cute boy requested Wolverine.

All done coloring.

While contemplating the best way to attach these little masks I suddenly remembered my elastic thread and knew that would work great.

After cutting out the masks I punched a teeny hole using a pin.

Then I strung the elastic thread through the mask.

I wrapped it around twice, so it would be a little stronger for their heads.

And now I have some happy little Super Heroes who are happily playing and are no longer booooored.

Everybody trying on the Hulk mask cracked me up.

  

The Popover Sundress- Shirt

Season 7 of Project Run & Play is beginning today.  

I was excited to join in the sew along.  

Up first is the remix of the Popover Sundress by Oliver + S.  

I didn't go too crazy.  But I did sew up the top in knit (instead of cotton),  I sewed the straps in place (so they wouldn't come untied and slip off).  I added some big ruffles to the front and back of the top.  And, obviously, I made it into a shirt instead of a dress.

And, I tried 3 different attempts at sewing on sleeves.  I just couldn't make it work.  I wanted to make a shirt for my girl as we enter the fall season.  But it works pretty well over this shirt-- so I gave up my attempts at sleeves.

For her cute headband I followed this tutorial from girl. Inspired.  

It is a little short, since I didn't have long enough material to make the 13".  

But once I tried it on baby it fit so perfectly. 

  

She really rocks that look.

The Allie Skirt ~Tutorial~

About a week ago I received beautiful knit fabric from Girl Charlee.  Talk about SCORE!!  I was so excited to start sewing with it.  I had spied this cute skirt from Shabby Apple and knew I wanted to recreate something like it. 

Using my new Girl Charlee fabric in Koi Orange I got started on this pretty simple skirt -- which, yes, I named after myself because I thought it worked well.

Here's how to make your own:

MATERIALS

1. 1 1/2 yards of knit fabric (Cotton knit, or jersy knit)

2. Other sewing notions

STEP ONE: Fold your fabric in half and cut out two pieces your knit fabric 60" (w) by 25 " (h).  

I wanted my skirt to hit a couple inches below my knees, but I'm pretty tall -- almost 5' 10".  So for those of you shorter you might want to do 20" - 22" for height.  Measure to see what would work best for you.

STEP TWO:  Cut out one piece for your yoga style waistband.  You can choose the height to be either 12" or 14".  I choose 14", but now I'm thinking maybe I should have chosen 12".  

To get the correct width, measure your waist and subtract 1 inch.

STEP THREE:  With right sides together, pin the skirt pieces on top of each other and sew in place.  Use a straight stitch, on a very wide setting (3 1/2).

Then fold the waistband in half (14" or 12" sides together) with right sides together and sew in place with a wide straight stitch.

STEP FOUR:  Make gathers at the top of the skirt.  Set your machine to stitch at it's longest length, then stitch 1/4" from the top going around the entire top of the skirt.  I did just the front piece, stopped, then did just the back piece..  Then go around again at 1/2" from the top, front, then back.  This will leave you four long threads to pull to gather up your skirt.

STEP FIVE:  Gather your skirt by pulling on the strings, cinching up the whole skirt.

 STEP SIX:  Place the waistband inside skirt, lining up middle seam with the middle back of the dress.  The right side of the waistband should be facing the wrong side of the dress.  

Pin in place, zigzag stitch the waistband onto skirt below gathers.

STEP SEVEN:  If you want, trim off the extra threads that were originally holding the gathers in place.

STEP EIGHT:  Fold waist band over at the middle so it lines up with the skirt.  

Then fold under the waistband 1/2" and pin into place.

STEP NINE:  Sew waistband onto skirt using a zigzag stitch. 

STEP TEN:  Hem the skirt.  

You can actually hem your skirt however you want -- or do no hem at all.  I've seem people use a double stitch, a zig zag, or a straight stitch.  

This time I did something I never do ... consulted my sewing machine's user manual -- crazy, I know.  It recommended using a vari overlock seam for knit jersey materials, such as I was using.  So I switched out my normal foot for my # 2 sewing foot and tried out the vari overlock seam.

 I really liked the way it held everything so perfectly.  

All done!

I love this skirt -- firstly, I hardly ever sew for me so that made it really fun.  Second, it was a really fun, quick sew, which I did in a quick afternoon while my babies were napping.  Third, I Love Girl Charlee knits.  

And fourth, I found it very versatile. 

 This is my casual "Day" look.

And if it needs to be dressed up so I can party around at night, here's another look.

Okay, so I learned a little something once I got home to edit my photos.  I like my hand on my hip.  All my photos I was doing this.  Hmm, I guess I need some modeling tips. Ha, ha. 

If you make an Allie Skirt, please let me know, I'd love to see it!

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