Rag Doll

I made a rag doll, she looks a little goofy, and I haven't painted her face yet, but it was really simple, and the girls love it.

What I used:

• Skin toned fabric
• Colourful cotton for dress
• colourful cotton for leggings
• felt for hair
• fiber fill
• Lots of Pins
• Thread that matches the hair
• Sewing machine

I got the idea for this off of the Martha Stewart Website There is an awesome tutorial and pattern, unfortunately for some buggy reason my computer won't let me open the files, so I just made it up as I went, it's not quite as cute so if you want to make one I suggest following the pattern.

I started off by cutting my Head pieces, 1 skin coloured circle for the face, 1 felt circle for the back of the head, and  hair to frame the face. I also lined the back of my head with fabric because I used cheap thin felt.

I sewed the hair to the face using a matching thread, and also cut 4 tear drop shapes out of the hair felt, added a small bit of fiber fill and stitched around the edge to make piggy tails. And sewed the dress rectangles onto the heads, Right sides facing.

I sewed long tubes for arms out of the beige, and long hockey stick shaped tubes out of my legging material. Turned them right side out, stuffed with fiber fill

I pinned the Arms, legs, and piggy tails to the right side of the doll

And then sandwiched them with the top piece of the dolls body

Pin all the way around making sure that the ends of the arms, legs and tails are in the seam, and the tips of the fingers and toes aren't going to get sewn in.

Start sewing above one piggy tail, back stitching at the beginning, and finish just past the second piggy tail, back stitching at the end as well. This will leave an opening of 2-3".

Ensure that all the edges are sealed, double check the neck, it took me a second shot to seal the head to the dress. Reach through the opening at the head, grab Dolly's feet and pull her right side out.

Stuff her full of fiber fill, or add some rice to her bum to weight her down, Pin the top of her head shut and whip stitch closed.

I haven't made a trip to Michaels yet to get some Fabric Paint medium, but I plan on painting her face on. I also have a doll I made before this one, she's even goofier looking, but once I paint their faces I promise to put some pictures up.

Bubble Dress

I measured out a jumper that fit Annalilia perfectly

Two Pieces in the lining fabric

And two pieces in your main fabric

I added a bell shape and added 2 1/2". The more length the bigger your bubble will be.

I sewed the lining and outside fabric for the front and back together at the neck line and top of the straps

You'll have two pieces each having the lining and outside fabric right sides together attached by the neck

Sew the side seams of the outside and lining fabrics together

It should look something like this

determine which side will be the back, cut down the middle, 3"

Sew a small strip, right sides facing than flip right side out

Slip between the lining and outside fabric than sew around the back slit

Sew the arm holes

Iron a piece of interfacing into the front to add some structure (photo courtesy of Sophia ;-D)

Sew a bias, or large stitch, leaving long strings, pull to gather the fabric

fold in the edge and pin making sure the gathering is spread out evenly, and the side seams line up

Hand Stitch the hem.

Add a button

And take a picture of your teething beauty!

This Website has a pattern for a bubble dress if you'd rather print one off. I'm a "Wing it" kind of gal so I just made my own. Enjoy!

Table cloth to princess gown

Sneak peak; Well I have to save something for a Halloween post!

What does Sophia want to be for Halloween? Why a princess of course! So We looked at several stores, I really didn't want to spend $30 or $40 on a Disney princess dress. Oh brother, Disney princesses. You'll see 100 Belles, and Cinderellas, and Auroras, and... well I could keep going and name them all since I have a 3 year old girlie girl. I'll be nice and spare you ;-).I had made Sophia this Tutu a little while ago and put it away for Halloween, But a tutu? For a princess it just didn't seem right, I need a gown, a big twirly dress. Sophia said she wanted a white dress (weird right? I 100% expected Pink!)

 So instead of buying fabric I ran down into my dungeon and found this.... Ahhh My clearance table cloth. I had snagged the last three of these at Extra Foods before my wedding thinking I'd use them. But I didn't. Did you see the price? How could I resist. And believe it or not, I paid 50% of the clearance price, You got it I paid $1.42 for this beaut. Two of them made their way home with my Mom since I don't have a 90" long table. The other one has sat around for 2 1/2 years waiting to be used for something. The game plan, to make a dress and use the tutu as a crinolin. Completed with some cheap princess accesories and voila!

I used a dress of Sophia's to roughly estimate the top. Remember to leave room for seams, and for growth. Plus there's a good posibility that Sophia will have to wear a winter jacket under this dress.

I cut them out and for the front piece I added an interesting neckline, and the back I cut down the middle, so I can add velcro and have an adjustable opening

Then I folded in the neckline and sewed it in. I should have used bias tape, but I didn't want to go to the store, and Hey, it's just a halloween costume!

I sewed the straps together, and the two back pieces (Remeber I cut it in half) to the armpit of the front piece

For the skirt I wanted a good 'twirl' so I decided to make a circle skirt. I cut a large circle by folding the table cloth into triangles and rounding the edges. I made the waist opening about 2x bigger than needed so I could gather it and make it poufy.

Then I folded in the edges and sewed, I found it easiest to just fold as I went. Since this is just a costume I didn't worry too much about the finish of it. If I were making a 'real' dress I would iron and pin. But I prefer to wing it.

I sewed a bast stitch (largest stitch on the machine) and pulled the back thread carefully to gather it up and make the waist on the skirt the same size as the waist on the top.

Pin and sew the top to the gathered skirt










try it on for size. Not too bad, It's big enough to layer underneath!

I cut two strips that were about 4" wide and long enough to attach to the armhole plus 2"








Pin the arm to the armhole (make sure right sides are facing!) I did two pleats on the top of the arm (hence the extra 2" that I added)







try on model to check out fit. Looks great!

I sewed some velcro to the back, If this was a 'for real' dress It would be great to have snaps or buttons back here.







Check it out. It's cute but still a bit plain looking, Time for some toule accents on the arms to match the crinolin/ tutu, and accessories















There, Long white gloves, pearl necklace, also a tiara and Wand. Stay tuned for the Halloween pictures.

Thanks for checking it out. I adore comments and if you try a dress like this please send me pictures!

Saving a stained shirt

Stains are a natural fact of Parenthood, I'm pretty sure that every article of clothing that's in my girls' drawer at one time or another was stained. I've gotten good at taking them out, Damn good infact. The issue is, Every once in a while one slips by and goes through the washer and dryer without me noticing it. Set in Stains Suck! 

Over the past few days Dan and I have been doing a seasonal closet clean out for the girls, Packing away the too small, tossing away the ruined. I found two white shirts with stains and remembered this tutorial I had read a long time ago.

The worse of the two shirts I used as my ruffles, I cut the back of the shirt into 1"(approx)  thick strips. I ran them through my Machine on the widest stitch (bast) setting I have, You Can do this entire project by hand!

Then I grabbed one of the threads and started bunching

Here they are all layed out ready to sew onto the shirt

 I  arranged them how I liked and sewed them on with my machine, again, this Can be done by hand!

For the flower on the collar I cut a 1/2" piece of jersey and pulled it, which caused the ends to curl, than used the same technique to ruffle a strip and rolled it up into the flower shape and stitched it onto the shirt!

This is what Annalilia looks like when she's really PO'd

C'est Fini

As always if you do this project PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE send me Pictures and let me know how it went!