KCWC Day 4 + 5 – Greenpoint Cardigan

Posted on October 12, 2012 by Cherie

So my latest KCWC project is the Greenpoint Cardigan, a pattern by Adrianna of Crafterhours. She recently started a new pattern shop, hey june, and this is her first pattern for sale (wow, that’s a lot of links). Adrianna was kind enough to send this pattern to me as a gift, but all opinions are my own.

The fabric that I used was a knit from Joann’s with a gray plus sign pattern all over it. I rarely see knits with cool prints on it, and I thought this was pretty neat. For the wristband/waistband/neck binding, I used a tissue thin soft knit (same one I used for the FBST I made earlier this week). This turned out to be a total mistake because it’s so thin that it doesn’t hold its shape well and sags around the chest (you can see it folded in the picture below). Looking back at the pattern, I notice that Adrianna TOTALLY warns against using this super thin stretchy stuff, but of course I didn’t realize that earlier – I just thought it was a pretty color. I still have a lot to learn about knits . . .

I went with the colorful buttons with my sister’s advice. I think it adds fun and youth to an otherwise more serious print.

The pattern is great. It is well written and the diagrams are clear. Overall the cardigan is pretty simple to construct and sews up super quick. The size is worked out well for Yuki – I made hers in size 2 and I can tell it’ll fit her for awhile. The only adjustment that I made was to shorten the sleeves. I love that it is a basic pattern with lots of room for remixing. And I LOVE a good unisex pattern too 🙂 I highly recommend this pattern for your library. It’s a great go-to pattern and I will definitely be making up a few more of these. You can find it here.

I’ve been seeing a bunch of Greenpoint Cardigans popping up this KCWC. You can check out Adrianna’s here and here, plus these ones on Zaaberry, Running with Scissors, and
Boy, Oh Boy, Oh Boy!

This is how Yuki smiles when I ask her to smile. Awesome, huh?

So how are you feeling? The week is winding down, but technically, there are still two days left of KCWC. Are you still sewing or finishing up? I have one more project that I want to tackle before the week is done. We’ll see if I have it in me.

KCWC Day Three – Orange Skinnies

Posted on October 11, 2012 by Cherie

So I’ve gotten a little behind on blogging. Today is day 4 of KCWC, but I’m blogging what I made yesterday on day 3. Yesterday’s project was a pair of pumpkin orange knit pants. They are meant to be skinny in the legs, but they turned out pretty baggy everywhere else. I guess it’s good that they are loose enough for her to move around in.

It’s a pretty basic pant from a self-drafted pattern. I was going to go full faux fly with a button closure, but I got lazy and switched to a flat front/elastic back waistband. The last knit waistband I made got a little slouchy, so this time I used a couple extra layers of knit and reinforced it with a few lines of stitching.

I added some striped knit fabric in the pockets and a couple of subtle stars – just for fun. Stars have kind of become my lil trademark. I’ve loved stars for a long time and I think I transferred that borderline obsession to Yuki 🙂

Yuki’s also wearing her Crossed Shoulder Vest (I re-did the shoulders to bring them in a bit) and those shoes were TOTALLY her pick. Guess she likes color 🙂

For just another pop of color (cuz this outfit didn’t have enough already), I added a bit of blue on the inside hem of the bottom of the pants that show when you fold the pants cuff up.

I realize that this is a very boy-ish outfit, but I like it. I think it suits Yuki’s personality pretty well and is perfect for school. It can, of course, be paired with other things if I wanted to “girly” it up a little bit. But she approved of it – so I’m happy 🙂

I have 2 more things left on my list that I’m hoping to finish. How’s your list coming along? Do you sew all the way through Sunday to complete the full week? Feeling tired or still pumped?

KCWC Day Two – Flashback Tee and Basic Pants

Posted on October 9, 2012 by Cherie

Day Two, people! Today I have a Flashback Skinny Tee that I made on day one, and a pair of super comfy simple pants (based off of Dana’s Basic Pants) that I finished this morning.

The tee is made with Rae’s pattern and it’s my first time sewing it up as a regular tee. The only other time I’ve used this pattern is for this cardigan. It’s a great pattern to have in your collection because it’s such a classic style. I can imagine making a good solid handful (in long and short sleeve) in every size – it’s a wardrobe staple.

The brown and blue knit that I used is suuuuuper thin and soft, so it was a bit tricky to work with (the machine tried to eat it several times, just like Meg’s!), but it worked out OK in the end. And the finished shirt is really comfy – Yuki didn’t want to take it off and she wore it to bed!

The pink pocket was added for a fun splash of color. I decided to just cut a rectangle and sew it to the shirt without folding or finishing any of the edges. A very raw look. I like how the top of the pocket rolls out.

The back pants pocket was originally made for the shirt, but I didn’t like it, so I used it on the pants instead. This pocket is finished on three sides, but has two unfinished edges on the top. Double roll.

The knit that I used for the pants is a super thick, comfy, cozy, warm, delicious white-with-gray-pinstripes knit that I got for super cheap. It reminds me of a new sweatshirt. I bought a lot and I’m hoping that there is enough leftover to make something for me! So these pants are basically sweatpants, but I wanted them to look like a regular pair of pants and I think the stripes and pockets help make them look more trouser-ish.

They were made based off of Dana’s Basic Pants tutorial and pattern. I used her pattern for the shape and then resized it to fit my tiny 2 year old. I also added a separate waistband (on top of the original pattern, which is meant to be folded over), which was great because it added to the rise of the pant. I feel like most of the pants/shorts I’ve made for Yuki have not fit well because there is not enough room for her enormous diaper booty, but this pant has great coverage!

The one thing that I could have changed is maybe adding another layer of fabric (or interfacing) to the front of the waistband, because it slouches a bit. But it’s probably comfy this way and the pants stay up just fine, so it’s all good.

Maternity pants!! She looks a few months along. JK! Don’t they look comfy though? I wish I could get away with wearing elastic waisted sweat pants all day.

So I feel like I got off to a great start, but I’m already exhausted and I think I’m getting sick!! Time to slow down a bit. How was your day two? Are you just getting rolling or are you already burning out like me?

Time for sleep.

KCWC Day One – Crossed Shoulder Vest

Posted on October 8, 2012 by Cherie

Happy Indigenous People’s Day! And Day 1 of KCWC Fall 2012! What a fun day it has been! Did you get to sew?

For this KCWC, I thought for a long time about what I wanted to make. While you can spend the time making whatever you want or need, I decided to make it a little extra fun for myself and try to pick a theme or tie all the pieces into a collection (I think I’ve been watching too much Project Runway). I started thinking about what kind of clothing Yuki might need and I remembered her preschool mentioning that as she’s potty training, she’ll need to wear elastic waistband pants that are easy to pull off and on. And in general, she needs some simple clothes for school that is comfortable and practical, but with some style (of course ;)).

So I developed this idea into a list of fall separates that Yuki can mix and match with each other and other things in her wardrobe. And they will all be KNIT. Though it’s been almost a year since my first successful knit project and I’ve definitely tried using it here and there since then, I am still pretty intimidated by it and it is certainly not my first choice in fabrics. But it seems so practical for children’s clothing that I figured I should just tackle it head on. Plus it’s the perfect opportunity to force myself to learn how to use the lovely serger that has been sitting around oh so long without being touched because I was too scared!

So to describe my KCWC Fall collection (which only exists in my mind at this point), I’d say – fall separates, knit, unisex, simple/classic, bold colors, solids and stripes. I’m not going to be making anything breathtaking here, just a couple of pants and tops. Though hopefully cute ones 🙂

Here’s the pile of fabrics I was considering before I started cutting yesterday.

Today I was able to get TWO pieces done! I’m feeling super pumped. I only photographed one though, so the other I’ll show you tomorrow.

So the first is a Crossed Shoulder Vest. I want to make it very clear that I take no credit for this idea – I totally stole it from a Japanese pattern book called 男の子と女の子の服 (Clothes for Boys and Girls). I actually have the book but I’m saving it for a giveaway, so instead of using the pattern, I drafted my own. But the concept and construction were definitely taken from this book.

It was very simple to sew up and I love how it looks with different fabrics on the front and back. The only problem with the pattern that I drafted was the shoulders came out a bit too wide. I MIGHT go back and adjust it, but that’s pretty low on my priority list – it still fits her fine.

Oooh, check out my serger work. Actually don’t look too close cuz it’s totally wonky (I’m still getting the hang of it), but how fancy is that!? I’m psyched. I have a feeling I’m going to use a serger on everything I sew from now on!

Oh and you may notice no live model in these pictures. I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned this already, but the last two years of constantly putting my daughter in front of the camera has totally backfired and now she really dislikes having her picture taken. She yells out “No pictures!” whenever we pull out even just our phones and flails her arms in front of her face and/or charges the camera. Sooooo – to limit the torture, I’ll wait till I have a few pieces of clothing I can throw on her and photograph at the same time instead of doing one piece every day.

Woohoo – Day One went well for me. How about you?

Little Hawaiian Dress

Posted on October 3, 2012 by Cherie

So here’s one from July when we went to Kauai. Oh wait, did I tell you we went to Kauai back in July?? Well we did! For a week. And it was the best vacation EVER. We hung out at the beach and ate fresh fruit ALL. DAY. LONG. I mean, I don’t think it can get any better than that. It was our first time going to Kauai and it was soooooo beautiful. Truly truly gorgeous.

Anyways, my mom had brought me some fabric from Hawaii from one of her previous trips (her family is partially from Hawaii so she goes every year) and I decided it would be the perfect opportunity to use some of it. I wanted to make her a little dress to wear on the beach so we could pretend she was a little Hawaiian girl (like a little Hawaiian girl would be wearing a dress like this, while her weirdo mom snapped a bunch of photos of her on the beach – yeah . . . not a tourist at all).

I liked this simple yellow fabric with leis on it – not too gaudy or over the top.

The construction of this dress is a little funky. I made it right after I made my Washi in Blue and I was super pumped about my mad shirring skills, so I was determined to use them here for the bodice. But then I decided I wanted to add a ruffle around the top too and that’s where it all got crazy. If I had planned on doing the ruffle from the beginning, I probably would have just done a simple elastic casing, but since I didn’t really think it through, I tried to shir a bunch of ruffled layers together and let me tell you, it doesn’t work. So that’s why the top of the dress is a bit wavy, but overall I got the little sundress I imagined.

Besides the shirred ruffled top of the dress, the body is a simple rectangle, with ties for straps.

This girl was in paradise. I swear she could live on the beach and never leave.

And you know, I wasn’t complaining much either . . . 🙂

In more current news, I’m starting to nail down my to do list for KCWC. I’m pretty excited about it, but I haven’t even gotten my fabric or done any prepping or cutting yet. I am psyched to hit the thrift store and fabric store today for some material. You getting ready?

Striped High Low Wiksten

Posted on October 2, 2012 by Cherie

So I mentioned awhile back that I had a bunch of old projects to share and I keep meaning to get them blogged, but I get distracted by new projects every day and keep falling further and further behind. I start to wonder if some things were never meant to be blogged.

Buuuut then Rae made a personal challenge to post pictures of past creations that she never blogged about to “clean out the virtual closet” before she dives into KCWC. It’s inspired me to just get this stuff off my “to blog” list too, instead of letting . So my goal is to get a few things on the blog and off that list this week. I can’t promise I’ll get it all up, but if I can cross at least a couple off this week, I’ll be pretty happy.

So the first is a project that I made for me and not too long ago. I had this idea to use the Wiksten Tank pattern but adjust the hemline so it was higher in the front and lower in the back. This style is pretty popular, I think, especially on skirts and dresses. I didn’t want it to be too high in the front or low in the back, so I went pretty subtle. Maybe it’s more of a medium-low than a high-low?

The fabric is a lacey striped knit from Joann’s that is a bit see through. I actually thought it was going to be a lot more see through, but when I wear it, it’s pretty much not see through at all.

I had to do a few adjustments to the pattern to make this work with a knit. I wanted the top to be fitted in the shoulder/chest area, so I went down a size for the top (to a medium). But I still wanted the bottom to be nice and loose to skim over my tummy, so I cut the size large pattern for the bottom and just used a ruler to connect the lines from the medium armpit to the large hemline. When I sewed the top together and tried it on, it was still waaaay too big in the chest, so I took it in about 4 more inches! It’s amazing how much stretch you get with knit.

For the hemline, I kept the shape of the back, just lengthened it by about 2 inches and then cut the front in a subtle arc.

The other difference in construction is that instead of finishing the neck and arm holes with bias, I just folded the fabric over and sewed it down with a double needle. It was fast and easy.

So there it is! One project off my “to do” list, and now off my “to blog” list (and yes, I actually keep lists in my journal under each of those headings). Hmmm . . . let’s see what else I can clear out of my “virtual closet” this week (sorry Rae, I’m seriously stealing your line).

Sora and the Cloud (and more painted fabric)

Posted on September 19, 2012 by Cherie

So speaking of old projects, here’s one that is loooooooooong overdue. Do you remember Katy’s Once Upon a Thread Chapter 3? Back in May? Like 4 months ago? So this project is from then. And I’m not quite sure why I haven’t blogged about it yet – because I like it a lot. I made this hat and backpack in May, photographed them in July and now I’m blogging about them in September. Yikes. I was tempted to just save them for the next chapter of OUT, but I probably would have completely forgotten about them by then.

Anyways! If you don’t know what Once Upon a Thread is, it’s this amazing series that is hosted by Katy of No Big Dill, where she and her awesome guests take their favorite children’s books and make literature inspired sewn creations. Well she has an OUT flickr pool where anyone can sew along and add their creations, so I thought I’d join in. Of course, the last “chapter” of the series has long come and gone, but I’m going to post my submission anyways.

The book I chose was Sora and the Cloud by Felicia Hoshino. The book is written in both Japanese and English and it has the most AMAZING illustrations. It immediately drew me in, with the warm, soft, dreamy pictures that looks like a combination of drawing and watercolor.

The story is about a curious boy named Sora, who loves to climb. “Sora” means sky in Japanese.

“Little Sora loves to climb. As he grows, he climbs over everything in his path.”

“He even climbs people!” (Hmmm . . . sounds like someone I know . . .)

“みてみてー！”
“きをつけてー！”

“Then one day Sora climbs a tree. Up he climbs, higher and higher, as if there is no end. Peeking through the branches at the top, what does he find?”

Sora finds a napping cloud and cannot resist climbing aboard and they embark on an amazing adventure together.

They travel above the city discovering new and old things together from a magical perspective. I won’t give away all of their adventures, but I’ll tell you, it’s like this story is straight from my dreams!

The character Sora, reminds me of my daughter, Yuki, because she LOVES to climb just like him. As Yuki grows up and her personality starts to really show, I definitely see her as a curious, adventure seeking girl.

When I first saw the book, I wanted to recreate Sora’s entire outfit from the cover – I think it’s adorable. But at the time that I was working on this, it was spring, and the outfit was too “fall.” So I opted for just the bucket hat and a little drawstring bag that Yuki could tote around as she set off on her adventures.

I am really into the Setacolor Transparent Fabric Paint that I used for the Painted Purple Cardigan and the idea of painting my own fabric. I wanted to try to recreate the soft and warm, watercolory look of the book illustrations. I was particularly drawn to this page and all the colorful dots that were part of the amusement park.

So I decided to paint dots in similar colors on muslin.

It took me quite a bit of experimenting to get the right colors and the right amount of water (you can see a lot of bleeding with some of the dots, but I decided to just go with it).

I used the Oliver + S Bucket Hat pattern to make a reversible bucket hat with the colorful dots on one side and a tan home decor fabric on the other.

I used A Little Gray’s tutorial for making the hat without hand stitching.

For the drawstring backpack fabric, I was inspired by the inside cover of the book. It is based on a traditional Japanese sashiko embroidery pattern, but with a touch of soft color.

(The author is local and was at a fair selling these books, so my sister bought the book and had the author/illustrator sign it for Yuki! Cute huh?)

I was considering trying my hand at actual sashiko embroidery, but I thought sticking with stamping and painting fabric was more up my alley. It was so much fun and turned out looking exactly how I wanted it to! So here is how I created my faux sashiko.

First I saturated my fabric with water (I used two pieces of muslin – one for the front of the bag and one for the back). Then I used some watered down blue and green and painted all over so the colors blended together.

When it was dry, I heat set it by ironing it. I set one piece aside for the back and only did the sashiko print on the front.

I created the “embroidery” print with a handcarved stamp. You’ll need a carving block and a carving tool.

1. Draw a circle on your carving block (trace something circular if you’ve got it).
2. Carve away everything except for a thin outline of the circle.
3. Create a dotted line look by carving away small, evenly spaced pieces of the circle. Trim the block as close to the edge of the circle as possible.
4. Using a ruler, stamp a row across the bottom of your fabric using fabric paint with the edges of the circles touching each other. Place the ruler along the center of the first row of circles and add your second row of circles staggered from the first row.

Your first three rows should look like this.

Repeat until the entire fabric is filled. (Oooh, the difference between natural and artificial light!!)

The last touch that I added was some color to try and resemble the page in the book. I watered down the paint quite a bit so that the color would be subtle.

Here, the paint is still wet.

And dry!

Then I used this Drawstring Backpack tutorial from Prudent Baby to make the small backpack.

And there’s my little climber – ready for adventures!!

Phew! Feels good to finally have that posted! These pieces were super fun to create and I love that they are completely original because I created my own fabric prints. I really can’t recommend these watercolor fabric paints enough. The possibilities are absolutely endless!

Thanks for letting me share this out-of-date project. I’ve got lots of old and new ones to share over the coming weeks, so please bear with the back-and-forth time jumps, season switching and hair style changes you may be seeing a lot of 🙂

Happy Hump Day!

(Hey! You know what tomorrow is?)

Crayon Booklet Party Favors

Posted on September 7, 2012 by Cherie

So before I go back in time to share some of my summer (and pre-summer – eek!) projects, here’s one that I just finished last week. My daughter recently turned two and we threw a casual little park get-together for some of her kiddo friends and their parents. Around the same time that I was planning her party, I stumbled upon small + friendly’s new-sew crayon wrap tutorial. I thought it was genius! What a simple project to make and perfect for parents of toddlers to whip out at restaurants or whenever they need to distract their little one. I decided I wanted to make them as part of the party favor for Yuki’s birthday party!

But could I keep it simple? Could I keep it no-sew? Nooooooooo . . . obviously not. I had to go and make it all difficult for myself. Hah! Well actually, though did make a few changes and add a few steps, it was still a super simple project and I was able to whip up 17 of these crayon booklets pretty quickly. AND I had all the materials I needed already in my stash (except for the crayons), so that was a big plus!

So here’s how I used Carla’s tutorial and made my own lil version. You’ll need:

Felt (I used a wool felt for the outside and acrylic for the inside because that is what I had on hand)
Velcro
Exacto knife
Crayons & paper
Sewing essentials

First, Carla mentions in her tutorial that if you want to thicken your felt to wash it in hot water, put it in the dryer until almost dry and then iron. My yellow felt was wool, so I decided to give it a try. But something went terribly wrong! After washing it, I noticed that the felt was totally coming off in clumps. It was pilling and crazy-uneven-fuzzy all over and definitely not any thicker. I threw it in the dryer anyways, but it looked the same when it came out. I didn’t really take a picture of what it looked like right out of the dryer and after ironing, but here’s what it looked like after I picked off a lot of the loose felt (that ball of fuzz is all the stuff I picked off by hand).

Wool felt isn’t cheap, so I wasn’t about to abandon it. I just picked off as much as I could and smoothed the rest down with my hands and in the end, I don’t think you can tell at all on the finished product. It definitely wasn’t any thicker though and I have no clue what I did wrong. Any ideas? Has this happened to you?

Ok anyways, I wanted the booklets to fit into these little metal buckets I had bought from the dollar bin at Target, so I had to size mine down. The size of my unfolded booklet was 5.25 x 7.5 inches. I added a little tab to my template for the velcro closure. The original tutorial/pattern has more info about the size and spacing of the slits. Mine had four pairs of slits for the crayons on the left side and two 2.75 inch slits for the paper on the right. So here’s what my template looked like:

Using your blade, cut through the lines on your paper template. Cut a 5.25 x 7.5 inch rectangle from your inner felt. Lay the template on top and mark the lines using chalk or a disappearing ink pen. Cut those with your blade. Using your template as a guide, cut another rectangle WITH the closure tab from your outer felt.

On your outer felt, feel free to add an applique or any other decorations. Sew one side of the velcro to the tab and the other to the opposite side of the cover about a 1/4 inch away from the edge.

Pin the two layers of felt together with wrong sides together. Make sure that when you open up the booklet the crayons slits are on the left and the paper slits are on the upper right.

Sew around the edge in a rectangle.

Your booklet is done! Now to add the goodies . . .

Cut your paper into fourths along the long edge of the paper. Each strip should be 2.75 inches wide. Stack the 4 strips and fold them in half.

Slide your crayons in on the left and your paper through the top slit and back out the bottom slit on the right. The most fun I had was picking out the color combos for the 4 crayons 🙂

And you’re done! Pretty simple, right?

Now go make 16 more 😉

Thanks to Carla for the fabulous inspiration and tutorial! I’ve stashed one of these in our diaper bag and I imagine I’ll be whipping it out quite often.

What kinds of “distractions” do you keep on hand to keep your child entertained? My sister-in-law was the one who taught me to ALWAYS have paper and writing utensils on hand (for any age kid). And you know what she carries in her purse and has entertained children for loooong periods of time? A balloon! Deflated, of course. Serious (long lasting) fun can be had with a simple balloon. Genius.

Happy sewing and have a great weekend!!

Itty Bitty Doll Quilt

Posted on May 31, 2012 by Cherie

So while things seem to be pretty quiet here on the blog, I assure you, I’ve been very very busy. I have 4 guest posts coming up in the month of June (FOUR!), and I’m feeling a bit stretched thin. The good news is I’m SUPER EXCITED about all of the fun series coming up and I’m truly honored to be included in them (you can check out the buttons on the right – I’ll be adding another one soon :)). But I do worry that I’m neglecting my own blog and personal projects too. I hope you don’t feel neglected! 😉

So for the next few weeks, you’ll probably be getting a mix of some old projects that I never was able to share, a few new ones and guests posts here and there. Then in July we’re off to JAPAN!!! That’s right – Japan. It’ll be a really short trip (one week) and with Hideko’s whole family (6 adults and 3 kids) and I’m both really excited and totally nervous (traveling with an almost 2 year old – eek!). Anyways, I could go on and on about this, so I’ll dedicate a whole post to it some other time.

Ok, on to today’s project. Sooooo . . . one evening at work, a co-worker leaves the building and then 2 minutes later comes back telling me that there is a doll crib out on the street that someone is dumping and that my daughter NEEDS it. Really? My daughter NEEDS it? I’m quite sure my daughter NEEDS nothing – our tiny apartment is filled to the brim with toys and books and other things that no one actually needs. And a doll crib? Yeeeeah, I dunno about that (we tend to shy away from a lot of girly-girl things over here). But I went to check it out anyways.

It was BIG. But it was wooden, vintage-looking and kinda cute. It had a drop side and came with a vinyl covered “mattress” and pillow. I decided I would take it home and see what Yuki and Hideko thought. I could always put it back on the street if we didn’t want to keep it. But of course, Yuki loved it and after a good scrub down it joined all the rest of the stuff in her room.

I knew immediately that I wanted to make some bedding for it, but I didn’t want to buy any new fabric, so I put together a primary color based bedding set out of some flannel and cotton scraps. I’m not IN LOVE with it, but it’s pretty cute and matches some of Yuki’s favorite dolls. And since it’s so small and simple, I can always switch it up every so often if I want 🙂

I started with this flannel that I had, which is blue, red, yellow and green. Then I went through my scraps and pulled out some coordinating cottons for the quilt. I realized that I don’t have a ton of primary color fabrics! My choices were limited. But here’s what I came up with.

(I just realized that we had the pillow at the foot of the bed! Oops!)

I made a regular ol’ pillow case and the “mattress” is covered in an envelope style cover. I wanted to make a quilt for a blanket, so this took a bit longer that the other pieces, but it was fun. And it came together WAY faster than a real sized quilt – yay for instant gratification!

Now, I should just say that I am NOT a quilter. I don’t know much about real quilting. But I made this and so I thought I’d show you how I did it, though there may be better, more accurate or easier ways to do it.

The finished size is based on the size of the crib and is about 14×20 inches. Based on this long and narrow shape, I decided on rows of squares – 5 x 7 (35 squares total) and each finished square is 2×2 inches. You can decide how many rows/columns of squares you need based on the desired size and shape of your quilt.

First, I cut 35 3×3 inch squares. I had 2 fabrics in each of the 4 colors, but you can have as many or as few different colors and fabrics as you want. Lay them out in your desired grid.

Now I wanted the finished quilt to have a grid of colorful squares with a cream strip running between each row and column. But I didn’t want to have to cut up a bunch of small cream strips and sew them in between each square. So I came up with a “short cut” method that probably took just as much time. 😛

So I sewed together the columns first. This was eventually going to be cut, so just basting them quickly with a 1/4 inch seam allowance was sufficient. Press the seams open.

Then I cut 4 strips of cream cotton that were 1.5″ wide and as long as my columns. I sewed the columns together with a 1/2 inch seam allowance inserting a cream strip in between each colored column.

Trim seams and press open.

Then I cut the rows apart.

And sewed them back together with a 1/4 seam allowance inserting a 1″ wide cream strip between each row. Press.

Then I added a flannel cream colored border to each side.

I didn’t want to have to mess with quilt binding, so I just placed the quilt top and the flannel backing right sides together, added a layer of batting on top, sewed all the way around leaving an opening, trimmed the corners, turned it inside out and top stitched the entire edge.

For quilting, I just picked a few squares and sewed around the inside edge and then for some other squares I sewed around the outside of the square. Random, I know.

But Yuki approves, so that’s all that matters!

Sleep tight!

Vintage Inspired Plaid Summer Tank

Posted on May 18, 2012 by Cherie

I barely had any time to work on a signature look for Project Run & Play this week, but I wanted to submit something. So I made this top that was inspired by the Vintage May series that Skirt as Top and Craftiness is not Optional is hosting. I’m not sure what decade this is from, but it reminds me of something my mom wore, so my guess is 60s or 70s? Maybe even 50s? What do you think? (I don’t know my fashion eras at all!)

It is a refashion from this pretty hideous blazer thing I picked up at the thrift store. I’m not sure what was going on with the blazer (it had three huge pockets on the front and shoulder pads too!), but I loved the purple plaid fabric.

Do you recognize the pattern? It’s a remix of the Oliver + S Jump Rope Dress pattern! When I was making Yuki’s Jump Rope Dress, I noticed after the first few steps that without sleeves or a skirt, it made a pretty cute top! So that’s pretty much what I did.

First I had to pick the pockets off the jacket and then cut out the front pieces, back piece and sleeves. I didn’t have two pieces large enough for the front and back of the shirt, so the back of the tank top is actually pieced together (you can see the seam running down the middle in the next picture).

I cut the 2T size pattern, lengthening the shirt and followed the directions exactly for the placket and collar. I shortened the shoulder length (though I could have gone even shorter) and cut the arm hole a little larger. I used homemade bias tape to finish the arm holes and hemmed the shirt so it’s curved up on the sides. I added a little pocket on the chest made from one of the original pockets that I had picked off.