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!!

Tutorial: Sunburst Picnic Blanket

Posted on August 1, 2012 by Cherie

Hello! Thanks for “traveling” with me to Japan last week :P. I’m still officially on summer vacation, so although I have lots of things to show you, it’s going to take me awhile to get organized and back to blogging. So here’s another guest post I did for Delia and Kojo‘s FANTASTIC series, Color Your Summer. This is their 2nd year doing this series, I absolutely love it, and I hope they do it every summer from now until forever. I can’t even tell you how thrilled I was when Delia asked me to be a part of this series. Check out all the projects from this summer in this handy round up.

The project is a foldable picnic blanket, and if you get started now, yours can still get tons of use before summer is over and throughout the fall. And if you do make a picnic blanket inspired by this post or using this tutorial, I’d love it if you added it to the you & mie flickr pool!!

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When I think of summer, I think of picnics. When the sun is out, I guarantee that my family will be out at the beach or park with some food and drink to soak up the beautiful weather. It’s one of my absolute favorite activities. So this summer I wanted to create a new picnic blanket to celebrate the start of picnic season.

In the past we’ve had a few store bought picnic blankets that we loved for their portability, but they weren’t well made and would start to rip or fall apart after a year. I wanted to create something that was sturdy and easy to carry around, but had the look and feel of a homemade quilt. So I made, what I call, the Sunburst Picnic Blanket.

It is a quilted blanket with a duck cloth bottom. It folds up nicely and is secured with velcro and has a handle for easy carrying.

The design and colors just scream “summer” to me, but of course can be changed to any color(s) or quilt design. Or if you’re not into quilting at all, you can make the picnic blanket with one piece of fabric for the top.

Here’s what you’ll need:

(My finished blanket size is approximately 55 x 59 inches so these estimates are based on that)
– Duck cloth (2 yards)
– Lots of yellow fabric (I had 7 different fabrics, each about a yard)
– Batting (not too thick)
– Bias tape (about 7 yards)
– 1″ wide Velcro (about 12 inches)
– 1″ wide twill tape or other strap material (about 24 inches)
– Coordinating threads
– Denim needle (use any time you are sewing the duck cloth)

First be sure to wash, dry and iron all of your fabrics. One reader mentioned that duck cloth shrinks even with the slightest amount of wetness, so don’t skip this step!!

Cut your duck cloth slightly larger than your desired blanket. Then we need to make a pattern for the quilt top.

As I was deciding the best way to create the design I had in my head, I realized that it strongly resembled Kristin’s Sunshine Dress! I LOVE this dress, so I’m thinking I was subconsciously inspired by it and lucky for me, Kristin made a tutorial for piecing together the color blocked pieces. I basically followed her tutorial for creating the pattern pieces and cutting the fabric. I’ll show you the basics of what I did for the quilt, but you really should check out her tutorial and one of the most gorgeous little dresses ever.

I had a piece of butcher paper the exact width of my blanket, so I used that to make my pattern. I started by making the pattern for the top half of the quilt, but I wanted the epicenter of the rays to be off center, so I made the top ever so slightly longer than the bottom. I picked a spot off to one side where I wanted my rays to shoot out from and I started drawing lines to the outside edge of the paper. I made 7 rays since I had 7 different yellow fabrics. Then I labeled them so I could piece them back together after they were cut (awesome advice from Kristin).

Then I cut the pattern pieces out and traced them onto my fabric. Remember that if you want your finished quilt to look exactly like the pattern you drew, you’ll need to put the pattern right side up on the right side of your fabric OR flip your pattern over and trace onto the wrong side of the fabric. When you trace your pattern onto your fabric add 1/2 an inch for seam allowance along each of the long edges.

I found it easiest to only cut out the pieces as I was ready to sew them. So I cut out pieces 1 and 2, and sewed those together. Then I cut piece 3 and sewed that to piece 2 and so on. That way I didn’t mix up the pieces or get confused about which piece or which side to sew next.

When you sew the pieces together use a 1/2 inch seam allowance and always start from the point. Try to line up all the points as carefully as possible so it looks sharp.

After you sew each piece on, press and trim extra seam allowance off. There is going to be a lot of fabric gathering at the center point, so you’ll want to remove what you can.

When you sew all the pieces of the top half, it should look something like this.

Trim the extra fabric at the point, if you haven’t already.

For the bottom half, I simply flipped the pattern over. By laying the top part of your quilt and the pattern pieces on top of your cut duck cloth, you can see the finished length of the quilt and trim the pattern pieces since the top part of the quilt is longer than the bottom.

Repeat the same steps to create the bottom portion of your quilt top. When you’re done, lay the bottom part on the top part, right sides together, and making sure the all points come together exactly in one spot. Since your top and bottom are mirror images of each other, the rays should line up. Pin the pieces together and sew them together using a 1/2 inch seam allowance.

Press the seam open. There will be a lot of fabric coming together at the center point so it’ll be tough to press open, but just do your best and it’ll look fine. Your quilt top is done!!

Layer your duck cloth, batting and quilt top and trim the sides so they are straight.

Baste the 3 layers together so they don’t shift while quilting. I use the safety pin method.

Quilt the three layers however you’d like. I quilted each “ray” about 1 cm on the inside of the seam creating large V shapes, using a walking foot.

Since none of the V’s reached the center of the quilt and that was where it was the thickest, I decided to freehand quilt a little star in the center. You can’t see it from the top, but SURPRISE . . .

There it is on the bottom!

Now on to the closure flap (the piece of fabric with the handle and the velcro – I don’t know what else to call it). First measure the width of your quilt. Then divide that by 5. My quilt is 55″ wide, so my closure flap is 11 inches wide. You’ll need to cut a piece of duck cloth and coordinating fabric that is the width that you just calculated by about 11 inches. So I had a square.

Use something circular to round 2 of the corners. The edge with the rounded corners is going to be referred to as the bottom of the flap.

Baste or pin the two layers together so they don’t shift while completing the next few steps.

Take your twill tape and sew it onto the fabric side (not duck cloth side) along the width about 4 inches down from the top of the flap (the edge without the rounded edges).

Take another piece of twill tape and fold it under 1/2 an inch. About 1.5 inches from the edge, pin the twill tape down.

To make sure the handle is firmly secured, sew in a square and add an X between the corners. Go over each line several times.

Do the same thing on the other side except add an extra 1/2 inch of strap before you cut, so the handle stands up a bit.

On the duck cloth side of the flap, attach the soft side of the velcro 1/2 an inch above the edge with the rounded corners. Trim the velcro to match the rounded corners.

Finish the edges with bias tape.

Line up the center of the flap with the center of the top edge of the quilt. Pin them together with the handle side of the flap facing the duck cloth side of the quilt.

At this point I decided to round the 4 corners of my quilt as well (no dealing with mitered corners!!). Finish the quilt with bias tape.

We’re almost done! All we have to do is add the other side of the velcro to be able to close up the quilt.

First we have to fold up the quilt and here’s how:

1. Lay the quilt out flat, with the flap out at the top.

2. Fold the two sides in till the edges line up with the edges of the flap.

3. Fold the sides in again so they line up with the flap.

4. Fold it in half.

5. Fold it in half again.

6. Fold it in half one more time and pull the flap down.

Mark the placement of the velcro.

Then unfold the quilt and sew the scratchy side of the velcro according to your markings and you’re done!!

Grab some family and friends, some food, drinks, games or books and head out into the sun!

And in case you want to see how to fold up your new picnic blanket again, I made my first gif ever!

Hope you get some good picnicking in this summer and fall! Please let me know if you have any questions or need me to clarify anything. I love to hear from you!

By they way, what’s your favorite summer activity?

Tutorial: Braided Beach Maxi

Posted on July 10, 2012 by Cherie

Here’s another summer addition for your wardrobe and you can make one for your little one too! This was for Melly’s Sews’ 30 Days of Sundresses series.

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Children’s clothing is kinda my thing, so I naturally started brainstorming lots of cute summer frocks for little ones. But for some reason I landed on an idea for a women’s sundress and I couldn’t get it out of my mind! So, enter my beautiful little sister who is modeling for you the Braided Beach Maxi Dress!

The best thing about this is that it is super simple with very little sewing! It’s made of knit and has a few unfinished edges which makes it very casual and perfect for a bathing suit cover-up. I got this knit for $2.39 a yard, so it was very affordable too!

And just in case you were really hoping for something for your little one, don’t fret!

Yup, I couldn’t resist. After the first one, whipping up a mini version was a breeze! The tutorial is for the adult maxi version, but you can alter this to fit just about anyone!

So here’s what you’ll need:
– 2.5-3 yards of knit fabric
– 1/4 or 1/2 inch wide elastic for the waist
– Sewing essentials

I used a plain white knit to make the dresses and then dyed them afterwards. This tutorial will not include instructions for dyeing, but if you’re interested I’m sure there are tons of resources online. Otherwise, use any solid or patterned knit fabric and you’ll be done even faster 🙂

To make your front pattern piece, grab a knit (stretchy) camisole, fold it in half down the front and trace the neckline and armhole. From the armpit, draw the side of your pattern into an A-line shape. You want the dress to fit nicely around the chest and then widen from there. I only drew the top part of the pattern, but keep in mind that the dress will extend far past the bottom of this pattern.

To draw the back pattern piece, lay your front piece down on paper and trace it from the armpit (tiny yellow star) down the side and across the bottom. Trace along the other side (marked “fold”) stopping about 2 inches from the top of the pattern. Remove the top pattern piece and draw a curved line to connect the sides.

Now, if I were to make this dress over again, I’d want the braided straps to be thicker, so I’d make this next measurement bigger. But for the sake of this tutorial, I’ll just describe it the way I did it and you can make adjustments accordingly.

Measure 1.5 inches in from the “fold” line of your pattern and make a mark.

Extend both the “fold” line and the mark that is 1.5 inches in a few inches. This is going to become the braided racerback and straps.

Your pattern pieces should look like this when cut out. Keep in mind that when you cut your fabric, it will extend past the bottom edges of the pattern and for the back piece, the strip coming off the top will also be much longer (see the red arrows). I made my patterns like this to save paper, but don’t cut your fabric like this or you’ll have something very very different!

To cut the front piece of the dress, fold your fabric in half lengthwise. Measure the desired length of the dress from just below your armpit and add a few inches. Place your pattern on your fabric accordingly. From the bottom of the pattern to the bottom of the fabric I just cut in a subtle curve getting wider and wider towards the bottom (I tend to “just wing it” A LOT. Thank goodness knit is so forgiving!).

To cut your back piece, fold your fabric in half lengthwise and place your front piece on top. Now you can’t see it in this picture, but my fabric extends for another yard above. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT! You’ll need all that extra fabric above the pattern piece to cut your strap material.

Now trace the entire side of the dress from the bottom up to the armpit (red line).

Remove the front dress piece and place your back pattern piece lining up
with the armpit. (You like how many times I’ve had to use the word
armpit in the tutorial?? I probably should have said “bottom of the
armhole” or something. Ooops, oh well).

Trace the pattern along the curved edge and up the straight line, then use a ruler to extend the line all the way to the edge of your fabric, keeping it 1.5 inches from the folded edge the whole way. I had a little less than a yard, but I wish I had had more. The longer you have, the more you can do with the straps later.

The hard part is over! Now it’s the fun part 🙂

Open up your front and back pieces and place them right sides together lined up at the armpits. Pin along the side of the dresses and sew.

Now find where the smallest part of your waist it (you may need to hold the dress up to your body or try it on) and mark a line 2 inches below that on both sides of the dress (wrong side is still out).

Cut your elastic to your waist measurement. Overlap the ends of the elastic by 1/2 an inch and sew them together to create a loop.

Slide the dress through the elastic loop and pin the elastic to the dress on the sides. The dress will be wider than the dress, so you’ll have the pull the elastic as you so. Go slowly and make sure the elastic right on top of the line that you drew.

Right side out:

Now take the long strip of fabric coming out of the back of the dress and cut it into three even strips. Mine was originally 3 inches wide, so I cut it into three 1″ wide strips. Braid the strips for about 2.5 inches.

Then, cut those strips in half, so you now have 6 strips. Take three strips and braid them all the way to the end, then tie a knot to secure the braid. Make another braid with the other three strips and you should have a nice braided Y like below.

Flip the dress over to the front and making sure the straps are not twisted, pin them to the front of the dress. Sew the strap to the front of the dress. Go back and forth a few times to make sure they are secured firmly to the dress.

This is optional, but since my knit was so stretchy, I decided to bring the neckline in a bit with some gathers. Using your longest straight stitch, sew along the edge of the neckline without back stitching at either end. Pull one of the threads to gather the fabric for a few inches in the middle.

Pin your excess braids along the neckline of the dress and do a quick whipstitch to attach it. Make sure to catch only the back of the braid so the stitching does not show in the front. For the adult version, I brought the braids to the center and overlapped them.

For the kid version, I had more braid to work with so I brought one side all the way to the other and tied a bow. I’m sure there are many options for what you can do with the neckline here!

Now just trim the bottom to the desired length. I left the bottom unfinished, but you can hem it if you want. The armhole/back of the dress is also an unfinished raw edge. I like the casual look (and the fact that it requires less work). But if you want a more finished look, you can attach bias tape from the front along the armhole and then work the extra fabric into the braid.

You’re done!!! Now throw this baby on and go frolic in the waves!

I really hope you guys give this a try! Doesn’t it look fun? If you do make a Braided Beach Maxi Dress, please add it to the you & mie flickr pool so I can see your awesome creations!

Before I go, I just wanted to say a big thank you to my sister for being my lovely model!

Take it easy, everyone! Happy summer and happy sewing!

Tutorial: Summer Breezes Top

Posted on July 5, 2012 by Cherie

I thought I’d bring some guest posts back to the blog, in case you didn’t catch them earlier. This one was for Project Run & Play’s Flickr Friends series and it’s a great addition to any summer wardrobe. I recently was sent a photo via my FB page by Tina who made one for herself!

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Summer weather is upon us and my daughter needs lots of warm weather tops for outdoor play this season. I’m going to share a tutorial for my latest top, the Summer Breezes Top.

I saw a tank top in a store about a year ago that used this type of “wavy pleats” (as I like to call them). I knew I wanted to copy the style, but wasn’t sure how I wanted to do it. Recently, this technique started popping up around blogland and I decided it was time to share my take on it as well. The waves created by the changing directions of the pleats reminded me of a summer’s breeze, hence the name of the top.

The top is made of white linen, which at the time seemed like the perfect simple breezy summer top. But now I’m kicking myself wondering what I was thinking! A white top for a messy, dirt-loving toddler made of linen, the most wrinkly fabric ever? Awesome job, Cherie. Nice. So I’ll let you choose whatever is appropriate for your kiddo.

This top is finished off with bias tape, so feel free to make your own or use store-bought in either a matching or contrasting color/pattern. Feel free to brighten it up with some colors!

Ok, let’s make one together! Here’s what you’ll need:
– 3/4-1 yard of lightweight fabric
– A few yards of bias tape (store bought or homemade)
– Sewing essentials

First you have to make your pattern. I have to admit, I don’t have an exact science for this, so I hope you can experiment with drafting your own. To keep it simple, I made one pattern to use for both the front and back of the top.

I started with a straight vertical line which is the center fold of the pattern piece. Then I used a top that fit my daughter and traced the neckline. Mark the bottom of the arm hole and draw a curved line up to meet the neckline. From the bottom of the armhole, draw a line (I flared mine out slightly for an A-line shape) that is the desired length of the top. From there, draw a slight curve back to the vertical center line. You will not need to add seam allowance to the neckline, armhole or bottom since we’ll be finishing these off with bias tape. You will want to add seam allowance along the side seam. And there’s your pattern!

Now we’ll make the pleated placket (I’m not really sure what else to call it). Cut a rectangle out of your main fabric that is at least 8 inches wide and a couple inches longer than the length of your pattern.

Find the center of your rectangle by folding it in half lengthwise and marking it. I wanted my pleats to be 1 cm each, so I made 7 marks on either side of the center, each 1 cm apart. Do the same on the bottom of the rectangle.

Starting from the left, make your pleats. Folding your fabric with wrong sides together, the first and third marking should match up and the 2nd mark is where the fold is.

Press your fold and sew along the length of the fabric 1 cm from the folded edge.

Press your pleat and fold it down toward the right. Make your next pleat using the next three markings and continue until you have five pleats.

When they are all pressed down toward the right, they should look like this.

Sew a line across the top of the pleats about 1 inch down from the top. Change the direction of your pleats by folding them towards the left. Mark a line 2 inches down from your first line with chalk and sew.

Continue changing the direction and sewing down the pleats every 2 inches until you get to the bottom.

Cut out two pieces of fabric that are each larger than your pattern piece. We’re going to attach the pleated placket before cutting out the pattern piece (less math).

Trim the edges of your placket piece to about 1/2 an inch on either side. With right sides together, sew the placket to the edge of one piece of fabric, and then repeat with the other side.

On the wrong side, trim the seam allowance to 1/4 inch and finish by serging or zig zag stitching. Press away from the placket, then on the right side, top stitch along the edge of the placket.

Fold your fabric in half, making sure to fold right down the center of your pleated placket and trace your pattern piece. Cut it out. Cut out the back piece from a piece of fabric as well.

Pin the sides of the top, right sides together, sew, press and finish edge. Repeat on other side.

Baste the pleats along the neckline of the top to keep them folded in the correct direction.

Open up your bias tape and pin it along the edge of the neckline, right sides together. Sew along the fold closest to the edge.

Fold the bias tape over the edge of the neckline, press and pin. Make sure the edge of the bias tape is covering the stitching on the wrong side.

Top stitch just above the edge of the bias tape making sure to catch the edge on the wrong side. Trim off the extra bias tape and repeat for the back.

For the armholes and straps, we’ll do the same thing. Leave about 12 inches of bias tape for the strap then start pinning the open tape to the edge of the armhole. Measure another 12 inches of bias tape when you get to the other end of the armhole and cut. Sew the bias tape along the armhole, fold the bias tape back up and when you get to end of the straps, fold it in about a 1/4 inch before folding it up.

Sew the ends of the straps closed, then top stitch along the edge of the bias tape closing up the straps and finishing the armhole.

For the bottom of the shirt, normally I’d just hem it by folding it up twice, but with all the extra pleated fabric, I thought it’d get too thick, so I finished it with bias tape as well.

Done!

I hope you enjoy some nice summer weather!

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!

Sleeveless Jump Rope Remix

Posted on May 25, 2012 by Cherie

I recently posted about this refashion/remix of the Jump Rope Dress (a pattern by Oliver + S). Well I loved it so much that I made another one!

Yuki wore this shirt in my post for Vintage May yesterday too.

I made a few changes since the last one and I like it even better! Except I’m still quite attached to the fabric from the first one. But the fabric for this one was inspired by the Vintage May series going on over at Skirt as Top and Craftiness is not Optional. It was originally from my mom’s stash and she’s not even sure where she got it from – she said it might be from my grandmother’s stash! Vintage for sure, either way.

So you’ll need to start out with the Oliver + S pattern for the Jump Rope Dress. The pattern comes with two views, both super cute dresses. I made View A recently and it was my first Oliver + S pattern. Their patterns are great because you learn some really solid basics like in this case, how to make a button placket and a collar. When I was putting the dress together, I noticed how cute it was without any sleeves. So here’s an easy way to remix the pattern to make the perfect summer top.

You’ll need the pattern pieces for the collar, placket (2 pieces), and View B dress pieces, front and back. Before your cut your fabric, we’re going to make some changes to the pattern. We’re first going to adjust the armhole. I took off about an inch from the shoulder.

Then we’re going to shorten it from a dress to a shirt (though this would make a mighty fine sleeveless dress too). Make a new line about 1/2 an inch below your desired shirt length. I used the bottom of the pattern to make a similar curve to the original.

Now you’re ready to cut out your pieces. 1 dress front, 1 dress back, the 2 placket pieces, and 2 collars. You’re also going to need a rectangle for a pocket (mine was about 3.5 x 6 inches for a size 2T top) and 2 strips cut on the bias for finishing the armholes.

To prepare your pocket, fold the two sides and bottom in and press.

Fold the top down twice, press and top stitch.

Follow the Oliver + S directions for creating the placket. Then attach the pocket to the shirt front by top stitching along the sides and bottom. It’s always a good idea to do some extra stitching at the top corners for extra reinforcement.

Follow the pattern directions to sew the shirt front and back together at the shoulder and make and attach the collar. With the shirt inside out (right sides together), sew up the sides of the shirt.

Prepare your bias tape by folding it in half lengthwise and ironing it. Fold the two edges in to meet the center fold and press, creating fourths.

So I totally forgot to take pictures of the of the armhole finishing steps, but there are a ton of great tutorials out there, like this one.

Now just hem the button of the shirt, make some buttonholes and sew on your buttons and you’re done!!

It’s the perfect summer top! I really like the A line shape of this top compared to the first one. The only thing that I regret is that in an attempt to make the process faster I skipped the interfacing in the collar and placket. I would NOT recommend it. The collar is all limp and wimpy and the placket would look sharper with interfacing. I learned my lesson.

I love having this basic pattern that I can remix in countless different ways. Maybe a sleeveless dress? Or a short sleeve shirt. Or I can mix and match lots of different kinds of sleeves. Or I can make it for a boy. Ooh, or add a knit waistband!?

Oh dear. I’m getting carried away, aren’t I? Anyways, I hope you have fun remixing your Jump Rope Dress pattern! And have a great loooooooooong weekend!

Tutorial: Reversible Circle Skirt

Posted on May 8, 2012 by Cherie

Since I’m busy with a bunch of different projects this week, I thought I’d repost a tutorial I did for Amy‘s Spring Fling series last month. Most of you have probably seen this, in case you haven’t, it’s a super easy and versatile skirt that I’m sure you and your little one will love! Hope you are all having a good start to your week!

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Spring is something that I am very excited about. I live in San Francisco, so I’m pretty spoiled by mild weather, but the gray and the rain get me down just as much as anyone else. I’m ready for some warm sunny days spent playing outside and going on picnics! So that is what has inspired the project I’m sharing with you today.

I call this The April Showers Skirt (because, you know, April showers bring May flowers!) and it is a reversible circle skirt. Of course, you can use whatever material you want for yours, but I chose to make one side gray and cloudy and used a bright floral print for the other to represent the changing of the seasons and the sometimes erratic weather patterns of spring. The best thing about this project is, not only is it SUPER simple but, you get 2 skirts in one!

So let’s begin! Here’s what you’ll need:
About 3/4-1 yard of lightweight cotton fabric in 2 coordinating fabrics
Elastic
Bias tape
Safety pin
Sewing essentials

For optional applique:
Scrap(s) of fabric
Fusible web

A couple of notes about choosing fabric:
1. Since you are layering two pieces of fabric and adding bias tape for the hem, you want to keep the fabrics lightweight so you don’t weigh it down and it’ll still have that bouncy, twirly effect that circle skirts are famous for.

2. Also, you’ll want a print that looks good from all angles since that’s how the fabric is going to lay. If you pick something that has a clear up and down, your print will appear upside down on one side of the skirt (and sideways in other parts of the skirt).

3. Lastly, when choosing fabrics, hold them up against each other to see if one will show through. Since I picked a light gray and a bold print, you can see a little bit of the print from the gray side, but I was ok with it.

To begin, you’re going to need to know how to make a circle skirt. I used this awesome circle skirt tutorial from made to help me figure out how to make my circle skirt pattern. You’re going to need the waist measurement and the desired length of skirt and a little bit of math to make this pattern, but Dana did a fabulous job of breaking it down, so go over there and make your pattern and then come back here!

(Note: In Dana’s tutorial she attaches the elastic to the outside of the fabric and leaves extra fabric in the length for hemming. Here, we’re not going to hem the bottom, but we’re going to make an elastic casing from the material, so I figured it kind of balances out. I cut my fabric exactly the way Dana described, and it worked fine. If you plan on using a wide elastic or just want to be cautious, add an extra inch to the skirt length and you can always trim it at the end.)

Ok, so now that you have your custom circle skirt pattern, fold both of your fabrics into fourths and cut out your circle.

This is what it should look like when they are still folded. If you unfold them, they should look like donuts.

If you’re going to add applique, which is optional, now is the time to do it. Cut your scrap of fabric to the approximate size you’ll need and then cut your fusible web slightly smaller than that. Follow the directions that are specific to the fusible web you have.

The one I use most often is Pellon Wonder Under and I love it. It has a rough side and a paper backed side. Place the rough side down on the wrong side of the fabric and iron it on.

Now draw your design on the paper side and remember to flip your image since you are drawing on the wrong side of your fabric.

Cut it out, place it on the skirt where you want it to go (at this point, there is no front or back to the circle skirt, so you can put it wherever you want). Cover it with a damp cloth and iron it on.

It should be nice and adhered, but I always zig zag stitch around my entire applique to make sure it stays put!

Repeat with any other appliques you want to add to either side of the skirt (I decided to add the second cloud later, but I should have done it all at once).

Now to sew the two sides together, place them on top of each other right sides together. Pin the inner circle together and sew all the way around.

Take one layer of the skirt and push it through the center of the circle turning it right side out. Press.

Now we’re going to make the elastic casing by top stitching another circle around the waist leaving an opening to insert the elastic through. Make sure your casing is slightly larger than the width of the elastic you’ll be using.

To insert the elastic, separate the two layers and find the opening that you left. Attach a safety pin to one end of your elastic, and push it all the way around the circle back to the opening. Sorry, I didn’t photograph this part, but take both ends of the elastic and sew them together, trim the extra off and sew the opening shut. We’re almost done!

(At this point, you can measure the length and trim off extra fabric if necessary). Pin your bias tape around the outside of the circle.

Leave a few inches of bias tape at the beginning unsewn, then top stitch all the way around. When you get back to the beginning, you should be able to measure out where the bias tape needs to be sewn together. Sew the two ends of the bias tape with the right sides together. Press open and then finish top stitching the bias tape on.

And you’re done!!

Now your little one has two skirts to skip around in during the upcoming spring months!

I love both sides, but I think it’s extra fun to catch a peek of the colorful flowers on the underside of the gray. So fun!

I feel like the possibilities are endless with this reversible skirt. I might just have to make one for every season! 🙂

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Oh and don’t forget, if you make a skirt using this tutorial (or any tutorial or project on this site), I’d love to see it! Just add it to the you & mie flickr pool!!

Tutorial: Asymmetrical Circle Top

Posted on April 14, 2012 by Cherie

It’s here! My first top tutorial! I’m so glad that I asked if anyone was interested in this tutorial because so many times I fully intend on doing a tutorial, but I get caught up in other things and let it pass. You motivated me to follow through on this, so thank you guys!

I’m sure this is a bit premature, but since I’m working on adding more tutorials to my lil library (and I’m hoping people actually use them), I thought I’d create a you & mie flickr group so you can share your creations if you use a tutorial or are inspired by a project you see here. I really would love to see your projects and I know I’d be inspired by you guys too! I added some icons on the right and the flickr button will to take you over to the group (it’s the middle icon with the two little circles).

Oh, you like my new buttons?? I downloaded them for free HERE.

Ok ok, on with the tutorial!

So this, like most of my projects sort of evolved as I was creating it. It wasn’t originally going to be asymmetrical and I intended it to be a shorter top, which is why I keep calling it a top, even though it’s more like a dress or a tunic. The idea is pretty simple, so I hope I can explain it clearly. If not, please feel free to ask me for help!!

Here’s what you’ll need:
Fabric (about 1-1.5 yards)
Buttons (I used 5 total , one large and four small – but you can use whatever you’d like)
Sewing essentials (thread, ruler, pins, scissors, etc.)

I used Dana’s Circle Skirt Tutorial to make the body of the top, but before you head over there, we’ll need to make a few adjustments. Instead of using your kid’s waist measurement, you’ll need to use their chest measurement. In Dana’s formula, she takes the waist measurement and adds 2 inches before dividing it by 6.28. I suggest taking the chest measurement and adding 3 inches to give you a little extra fabric. As for the length, you can make it as long or short as you want. Just remember that you’ll need an extra inch for hemming and it’s always safer to cut it longer than you think you’ll need and trim it before hemming if it’s too long. If you’ve never made a circle skirt, all these numbers may be a little confusing, but head on over to Dana’s tutorial because she explains it all quite nicely!

So now you should have your fabric cut and it should look like this when it’s still folded in fourths.

Go ahead and open it up and cut a straight line from the outside to the inside of the circle.

Besides the circle, you’ll need to cut 2 rectangles for straps and one for the bodice. I cut my straps 12 x 2.5 inches in order to make 1 inch straps. 12 inches was plenty long enough for my 19 month old, but if you’re making your top for a older/larger kid, you’ll probably want to add a couple of inches.

For the bodice, take the chest measurement and add 3 inches for the length. The width of this strip should be about 5 inches.

(ooh, try to ignore how wrinkled my fabric is!!)

Let’s start with the circle. On one side of the straight edge you cut open, fold and press your fabric about a 1/4 inch. If your fabric has a right and wrong side, you’ll want to fold it in towards the wrong side. My fabric didn’t, so I actually folded my button placket towards the right side of the fabric.

Fold it in another inch, press and pin.

Top stitch as close to the pinned edge as possible and as an optional step, top stitch on the outside edge as well for symmetry.

Alright, now that you have one side of your top finished, we’ll do the other side and this is where the asymmetricality or asymmetricalness comes in. 🙂

Like I mentioned at the beginning, I never intended for this top to be asymmetrical. It was just going to have the buttons go straight down the front. But when I looked at the top, it had a bit too much fabric for a top (in my opinion). I wanted to cut some of the fabric out, but not lose any fabric at the inner circle because then it wouldn’t fit around my daughter’s chest.

I held the fabric together where the fabric met on the top and then pulled the bottom of the fabric over until the plaid lines matched up. Of course, if you’re not using plaid (or even if you are), you can decide how much of an angle you want the front opening to be. Just remember not to overlap any of the fabric at the top, just the bottom (oh man, I hope this is making sense).

Once you’ve decided on the angle, mark it by adding pins along the finished placket. Measure about 1 and 1/4 from your pins and cut from the bottom to the center. Be sure not to cut the other side of the circle, just the one on top!

Finish this edge the same way you did the first one. These two one inch hems will overlap and are the button plackets for the front of the shirt.

Now we’re going to prepare the straps. Take the two rectangles for your straps, fold them in half lengthwise right sides together and press.

Sew down the side with a 1/4 inch seam allowance. Turn the straps right side out and move the seam to the center. Press and top stitch down each side. Top stitching is optional, but trust me, it’ll look much better. Set the straps aside.

Take your bodice piece and fold it in half lengthwise wrong sides together. Along each long side of the rectangle, fold and press it in about a 1/4 inch.

On one end, fold the fabric about a 1/2 inch and press.

Alright, so now we’re going to put it all together! Measure the width of your top with the button plackets overlapping and it should be slightly larger than your final chest measurement. Gather the top until it measures the same as the final chest measurement. To gather, set your machine to the longest stitch possible (usually a 5) and sew a basting line along the edge. Do not backstitch at the beginning of the end. Gently pull on one of the threads to gather fabric. Mine was oh so barely gathered.

With your body piece opened up, lay it in front of you right side up. The top of the fabric (slightly gathered) will lay straight, but the finished edge will lay diagonal. Unfold your bodice piece and place it on top (right side down) lining up the edge with the top of the skirt piece. The corner that you created when folding should be lined up with the edge of your skirt piece. Sew along that fold all the way around to the other edge.

Flip the bodice piece up and iron the seam open. It should look like this.

With wrong side facing up, your top should look like this. Fold the ends in half an inch (trim if necessary).

Fold the bodice piece in half. The folded edge should just cover the seam. Pin in place. Keep in mind that while the body piece edges are angled, your bodice piece edges should be vertical.

Top stitch on the right side just slightly above the seam. Go slow and make sure to catch the fabric on the wrong side. Since you’re sewing above the seam, it should be fine.

Now it’s time to add the straps. Measure out your placement by trying it on your kid, if possible.

You can attach your straps however you like, but this is how I do it. The straps should be long enough to hang past the bottom edge of your bodice piece. I trim them so they hang past the bottom of the bodice by about a 1/4 inch then zig zag stitch along the edge.

Fold the end under a 1/4 inch and sew right along the top stitching you did earlier. This will secure the end of the strap nicely and the stitching will blend in and be barely noticeable. Repeat with the other 3 ends of the straps.

With your straps still pinned in place, top stitch around the rest of your bodice piece. I like to do extra stitching over the straps to make sure they are very securely attached.

Almost done! Hem up the bottom by folding it in a 1/4 inch and then another 1/4 and sewing all the way around.

Then make button holes on one button placket and attach buttons to the other.

All done!! Step back and admire your handy work!

I really hope that this process made sense, but if you need me to clarify any part, don’t hesitate to ask! It really was supposed to be a simple tutorial, but sometimes I tend to over explain things and make them seem more complicated.

If you use this tutorial to make a top, please load it into the you & mie flickr group so I can see your awesome work! It’d mean so much to me!

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Tutorial: Lucky Chevron Skirt

Posted on March 24, 2012 by Cherie

I made this skirt for St. Patrick’s Day and though I realize it’s a bit late for you to make one, it’s really a great skirt for any time of the year. This has been a pretty popular idea recently and my original inspiration was a skirt I saw a little girl wearing. Hers had bunch of different colors (maybe 10?) in skinny stripes, pieced together to make a chevron pattern. I wanted to recreate that skirt exactly (and maybe I still will), but for this holiday, I had these three lovely shades of green and greenish-yellow so I made some adjustments. I decided to make my stripes different widths to make it more interesting, but you can make yours as skinny or wide, and all the same or all different, as you want. And use as many colors as you want too!

Before I begin, I must add that I was just making this up as I went along and it may not be the best or the “proper” way to do things. In hindsight, I definitely would have started out with more fabric, because I ended up with BARELY enough. You need a lot more fabric than you’d normally need for a skirt because you cut away a lot (bummer)! Anyways, here we go:

What you’ll need:
About 1.5-2 yards total in different colors
1 inch wide elastic
Safety pin
Sewing essentials

First cut your fabric into strips. Like I said, you can make them as wide or narrow as you want. I didn’t know how much fabric I’d need when I started, but as an estimate, I’d make sure you have enough strips to form 2 rectangles that are 1.5 times your desired length, by 2 times the waist measurement. For example. Yuki’s waist is 19 inches and I wanted the skirt to be about 9 inches long. So I’d need two rectangles that are 38 inches (19×2) by 13.5 inches (9×1.5). Again, this is just an ESTIMATE, so please go bigger if you can and don’t blame me if it’s not enough! 🙂

Here are the strips I cut. The first one was about 1.75 inches wide, the second was 2.75 and the third was 2.25 inches.

The bottom strip in the picture is the waistband. You’ll need a rectangle that is 3 inches wide and twice the waist measurement in length.

Start sewing your strips together by pinning them together along the long side of the strips, right sides together.

Continue adding strips to form one rectangle. Then start again in the same pattern to make your second rectangle. Because you want all your rows to line up perfectly when you piece them together later, try to sew your strips together keeping your seam allowance straight and consistent for all your strips.

I zig zag stitched each seam as I went along to prevent fraying.

When you’re done sewing all your strips together, your rectangles should look something like this.

Press all the seams in the same direction. To keep those seams laying nice and flat, I top stitched along each strip in coordinating thread. This step is optional.

Now we’re going to make an angled cut on each end of your rectangles. The larger the angle, the sharper the chevron V is going to be. I could already sense I wasn’t going to have enough fabric, so I made my cut at an angle smaller than 45 degrees. This made my chevron V wide.

Whatever you decide, make sure you cut it exact on each end of your rectangles to form two isosceles trapezoids that look something like this.

Place them on top of each other, right sides together, make sure that the seams match up as closely as possible. Pin and sew.

The line you just sewed is now the front center and back center of your skirt. Press the seam open and it should look like this.

Chop off the top and bottom (along the white lines) to make them straight.

Next, you’d want to cut off the sides to make a rectangle. My skirt was getting tiny at this point and since I didn’t want it to be a mini skirt, I cut mine at a slight angle to leave more room at the bottom. Ideally though, if you have enough fabric, cutting it straight will give you a nice angle for your chevron pattern on the sides of the skirt.

Place your two rectangles right sides together and sew up the side seams.

Now to create your waistband, fold your strip in half, and sew the ends together to make a loop that is the same as the width of the skirt.

Move seam to the center and press open.

With right sides together, slip the waistband over the top of the skirt, lining up the seam with the center of the skirt in the back. Pin all the way around and sew.

When you flip the waist band up, it should look like this.

Fold the top of the waistband in about 1/4 inch and press.

Now fold it down again to create a casing wide enough to fit your elastic. The folded edge should come down just past the bottom of the waistband, covering the seam ever so slightly.

Pin the waistband in place. Starting in the back, about 1 inch right of the center, start top stitching around the waistband, making sure the casing is wide enough for the elastic. Sew all the way around and stop about 1 inch from the center, leaving a 2 inch opening.

Attach a safety pin to one end of your elastic and push it through the casing.

Sew the ends of the elastic together and finish top stitching the waistband to close the casing.

You’re practically done! Just hem up the bottom of the skirt by folding and pressing it 1/4 inch and then another 1/4 inch to hide the unfinished edge and sew all the way around.

Done!

Unfortunately, I didn’t get very many good pictures of Yuki wearing the skirt since we were running out the door to go somewhere. But she was definitely all decked out in green for St. Patrick’s Day! And now she has a new bright skirt to wear through spring and summer.

There are so many variations of this skirt that would be fun to make. What combo of colors and strip widths will you use?

Now I gotta come up with a project where I can use all the poor pieces I had to cut away from this skirt so they don’t go to waste . . .

Tutorial: Easy Sticker Pins and Hair Clip

Posted on March 16, 2012 by Cherie

Oh, I just had to slide one more super fast and easy project for St. Patty’s Day. Green is not a very common color in my wardrobe, so I like to have something really easy on hand to wear to avoid being pinched and still be festive in a very low commitment kinda way.

So when I saw these cute foam stickers in the $1 bin at Joann’s (love/hate those dollar bins right by the register that you’re forced to rummage through when you’re waiting in line!), I decided to just glue them onto some pin backs and be done with it! Then I happened to see this post on A Couple of Craft Addicts and decided I should make a hair clip for Yuki too! This is definitely a nap time craft. It’ll take you 5 minutes or less!

For the pins, I wanted a stiffer straight back, so I put the stickers on a sheet of cardstock. I used two stickers for each pin and pressed them on really hard to make sure they wouldn’t fall off.