Little Girl’s Corduroy Jumper with Embroidered Pockets

I used Simplicity Pattern Number 7056 to make these little girl’s corduroy jumpers. As I had stated in a previous post, I purchased this pattern many years ago, so I would bet it is out of print by now. I picked the sizes that I was going to make based on the amount of fabric I had left of each piece of corduroy. So I ended up tracing a size 3 for the red corduroy and a size 4 for the purple corduroy from the pattern and I was on my way.. 

When I cut out the dress from the red corduroy, I found a flaw in the fabric so I did not have enough fabric for the facings of the jumper. Because of that I decided to use the same black fabric from the lining of the pockets to do the facings. Because this was a thinner, lighter weight fabric than the corduroy, I decided to use  interfacing on the facings of the red jumper. I did not interface the corduroy facings of the purple jumper.

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With both dresses cut out and the pockets all made up, the first step was to sew the pockets to the front of the dresses. Since I was putting two pockets on each jumper rather than just one as the original pattern called for, I was now the designer and could put them where I wanted. Not being very original, I just placed the red Mickey and Minnie pockets side by side. This looked cute to me since they were facing each other so I went ahead and stitched them down.

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The purple pockets on the other jumper took some more thought though. I tried to place the Bambi and Flower pockets side by side like I did the pockets on the red jumper but it was not as cute. Why were they not as cute I asked myself? Well it was because I had made the purple pockets first, so they suffered from the designs not being quite centered and the pocket’s curves not being quite even, since I was still experimenting with making lined pockets. So, sitting there side by side, the flaws of the pockets stood out like a sore thumb. So just as I decided to make the pockets again, the husband walked by and pushed one pocket up. There, that solved the problem! With the pockets not sitting next to each other, you did not notice the slight flaws in two pockets. Thanks to the husband the day was saved again.

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Not willing to use fusible interfacing on the red jumper and ruin what was turning out to be an adorable outfit, I used sew in interfacing. To help make it easier to sew in the interfacing, I used some spray on adhesive on the interfacing first before sewing. This made it like fusible interfacing and held it in place as I sewed. Using sewn interfacing with a little bit of spray on adhesive worked out so well, I plan to use the technique on other future projects.

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From there the jumpers sewed up quickly and easily. I had to remember how to use the “clip the curves” technique to aid in turning the facings, and clip an inward curve and “v” an outward curve. It was a lot of fun to see the jumpers come together. I had a great time picking out special buttons for each jumper as well. I am so excited about the finished jumpers, that I can’t wait to sew more of them. I know I have some nice soft tan corduroy in the stash and I want to make a jumper from denim too. Now my creative eye is on overload!

The Husband Must Really Love Me

You will never believe what the husband did. It just proves that he really loves me. The husband bought me fabric! Yes, you heard correctly and I will repeat it. The husband BOUGHT me FABRIC!

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Remember my blog post about the online fabric sale that Joann’s was having? Remember the piece of Mickey Mouse fabric that sparked me to actually make a purchase? Remember that the next day, I received an email telling me that that fabric was out of stock and would not ship? Well, the husband received an email later stating that that particular piece of Mickey Mouse fabric was back in stock and could be purchased at the sale price. The husband knew that I wanted that piece of fabric very badly and that I was disappointed when it had not shipped with the original order, so he decided to buy me a couple of yards. Isn’t he so sweet?

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It arrived the other day and I am excited to get creative with this piece of fabric and see what I can design and make from the husband’s fabulous purchase for me.

Making Pockets or The Curvy Conundrum

Years ago, I use to watch a PBS sewing program called The Sewing Connection with Shirley Adams. I really enjoyed the program. One week, Shirley was making kid’s clothes and stated that kids love pockets. Since then I have tried to include pockets whenever possible on the kid’s clothes I make, even though it would make the sewing of the clothes much simpler if I left the pockets out of the project. While trying to decide what I wanted to sew after the slit plackets learning experience, I stumbled across a pattern that I purchased many years ago for a simple little girl’s jumper. After seeing it I decided to just sew it up, and of course, the jumper would have pockets.

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The process started with a trip to the stash. For years I have collected small yardage amounts of corduroy to make little girl’s jumpers with, so I knew I already had the fabric to make this pattern. I dug through the stash and found two pieces of corduroy. Since pockets were a must on the jumper and I wanted to embroider on the pockets, I started to dig through the stash again looking for some matching fabric to make the pockets from. After several hours of searching the stash, the husband decided to check on me and make sure that the boxes had not tumbled over on me and crushed me to death. I showed him the two pieces of corduroy that I had found, so he asked why I was still digging through the boxes. I told him that I was looking for fabric for the pockets. He said, “Why not just use the corduroy?” I responded, “Because I want to embroider on the pockets.” To which he responded,”So.” Silly boy, you can’t embroidery on corduroy. Everyone knows that. Its actually printed in books. But, as I stared at the corduroy, I thought why not. The corduroy I had picked was not a deep welled corduroy. In fact it had very light wells. So, I decided to go for it.

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I cut out the dresses first, but more on that later. Then I hooped the scraps and started to embroidery. I did use Solvy stabilizer on top because of the corduroy. The designs stitched out fabulously with no problems on the corduroy. I was very excited. But,  as I learned later, the pocket construction learning process was just beginning.

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The first thing I learned was that even though the scrap was big enough to hoop, it was not big enough to center the embroidery design on the pocket. Oops! The pockets would need to be smaller than the pattern called for. Luckily, I learned this lesson early on with the first two embroidery designs and so I used larger scraps for the second two designs. I thought I was going to have to embroidery the first two designs again but I decided to try and make them work instead.

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Because of the embroidery designs, I decided that I wanted to line the pockets, so I put a piece of fabric over the thread on the back of the design, so that it would not be rough on the child’s hands or the thread would not get caught on something put in the pocket. This should be simple, I thought to myself. I would place the pocket and the lining right sides together, sew around the curve and finish off the top of the pocket. This is were I learned that I can not sew curves worth a darn! I sewed down one side and around the first curve ok, but sewing the second curve and back up the other side was not as simple. I could not get the same curve the second time. It did not match the first curve at all. I unpicked my sewing and tried again. It was a little better, but still not exact and so I tried it again. The third try was ok, but still not great. I decided to try the next pocket and I had the same problem. Was this going to be like the slit plackets and just take tons and tons of practice to get it right I wondered? I finally had a brilliant idea on the third pocket. I sewed down the side and first half of the curve and stopped at the center bottom of the pocket. I then turned the pocket over and did the same thing on on the opposite side. The results were great. I kept the same curve both sides this time. Hurray! Success was mine!

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I then had to launder the pockets first before I could iron them to dissolve the Solvy. This would tell me how the embroidery design really faired being stitched on corduroy. The embroidery design went through the washer and dryer perfectly and it did not seem to make a difference that it had been stitched on corduroy.

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It was now time to attach the pockets to the front of the dress.

Oops, I Did It Again

Bought fabric. Yes, I bought more fabric. I admit it. I said it out loud. Even though the stash has worked its way out of the closet it’s stored in and is headed out the door of the room it lives in, I still felt the need to add more to it. I received an email from Joann’s Fabric stating that all fabric was on sale. Usually I can resist temptation and not even look, but not the other day. All fabric on sale. SALE?!? FABRIC?!? FABRIC SALE?!? Hmm… Let’s just see what I might think I need!

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Because I am not the biggest fan of buying fabric online, when I look on line at fabric, I limit it to licensed cottons, flannel and fleeces. That way I know what I will have when it arrives. So, I start by checking out the Mickey Mouse prints and I found one that I fell in love with. I quickly added it to my cart. I then went looking for a free shipping coupon.

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Yay!

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I found a free shipping coupon but with a minimum purchase.

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Darn!

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So, I returned to shopping to try and meet the minimum purchase. Of course it was no problem to meet and exceed the minimum purchase after checking out the rest of the Disney prints, the Snoopy prints, and the other licensed prints. Another Mickey Mouse print, a Snoopy print and a Marvel Comic print were added to the cart with hardly a second look. When I finally looked in my cart, I decided to click on check out before I found more. Pleased with my selection, I now had to forget about it and wait for it to be shipped.

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All was good until the next day when I received an email informing me that the first piece of Mickey Mouse fabric, the one I fell in love with, the one that prompted the purchase of the other pieces in the first place, was out of stock and would not be shipped with the other pieces. Argh!

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Oh well, the other pieces have arrived and they are awesome. I decided not to just pack them into the stash but to let them set in my line of site and see if they can become something more than just stash. Hopefully you will see some great new posts soon of what I decided to create with these new pieces.

I put a Curse on You, You evil Fabric Sale you!

Joann’s last sale featured some basic sewing supplies I was running low on, so I decided to take a journey to the sale. Before we left, the husband handed me an emailed coupon for 20% off my purchase including all regular and sales prices. Excited at the thought of saving even more on the supplies I needed, we headed for the store.

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When we got to the store, my list of needed supplies was quickly put in my pocket as the first rack of fabric was all leftover holiday prints 60% off. 60% off was a great price but then add my 20% off on top of that and I was in sale heaven! I quickly filled the cart with bolts and bolts of wonderful fabric which included holiday Snoopy and Mickey Mouse in both cottons and fleeces. After the cart was too heavy to push, I made my way to the cutting tables to have it cut.

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On the way to the cutting tables, I passed the licensed prints, at 40% off for the sale. You can do the math, 40% sale plus 20% coupon. How much more can I fit in the cart? How much more can I fit in the trunk of the car? How much more can I fit in the stash? Without answering these important questions, several more bolts of precious fabric made its way to the cutting table with me.

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After spending a fair amount of time at the cutting table, the husband, who is a real trooper, reminded me of the list of supplies that we really came for. It did not take long to pick those up and then we were off to the registers.

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After ringing up my piles of fabric and needed supplies, the young man behind the register handed me a coupon for 30% my total purchases for next week. The husband about burst into tears and I started to plan my trip to Joann’s next week to shop the sales again.

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And yes I do have to keep reminding the husband that if the apocalypse happens in the near future that I will always be able to trade fabric for food. If it wasn’t for that, I’m unsure he would let me continue to purchase more and more fabric for the stash.

Stealing From Goodwill

I didn’t mean to do it, but the fabric kept calling to me. This piece of grey fabric with black rose buds was found in the mystery boxes I was sorting through earlier and it had made it’s way to the Goodwill box. This fabric was originally purchased and put in the stash to be a shirt for me long ago. When I pulled it from the box it had spent so many years in, I could no longer see me wearing a shirt made from it. Although it is the right color for me, the little flowers just did not appeal to me any longer, so into the Goodwill box it went.

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While the fabric was in the Goodwill box, it kept catching my attention until my creative mind just took off with it. Just because I did not want to wear tiny flowers did not mean that some little girl would not just love to wear them. I began to see a little girl’s dress with an embroidered design on the front made from it in my mind’s eye, so I pulled it out of the box and got to work on it..

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I decided to make a size 5 (small) dress. Since the fabric was originally purchased for me a shirt there was plenty for any size I wanted to make. I went to my pattern box and picked out a basic dress pattern, a bodice with a gathered skirt. Because the fabric was a woven cotton instead of a knit, I knew I had to make some way for the little girl to get it on because it wouldn’t stretch. Since I was not in the mood to play with a zipper, I decided to do a slit in the back with a button. And I wanted to keep the front left open for an embroidery design. Because of the grey fabric, I knew the embroidery design would need to be bright and full. But when I saw the black Mickey and Minnie Mouse red work outline design, I knew that was the design I wanted to use. This design absolutely would not work on the grey fabric so I decided to make the front and back of the bodice in white.

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With the basic design in mind, I cut out the dress and got started. I embroidered the design first with the black bobbin thread which you know worked great. I decided to double the bodice instead of making a facing. The white fabric I picked for the bodice is thin so I figured it would work as a lining as well. For the slit in the back, I drew a line in the center back about 2 & 1/2 inches long. I then sewed down each side of the line, tapering at the end. It worked great. I got the results I wanted and only had to stitch it once. I about fell off my chair at this point, since I figured I would be unpicking and restitching the slit at least 3 times to get it right. I also added some corded elastic to one side for a button hole. As always, sewing is a learning experience and I made the loop too big. So, when it came time to pick a button, I had to pick a larger button and place it to the side to accommodate my large loop.  Next time I will make the loop smaller and I will pick the button first so I know what size to make the loop beforehand.

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I decided to use the bodice fabric to line the skirt too. Since I have never really lined a garment, I was not sure which technique would be best. Should I attach it to the gray fabric? Or should I have it separate like a slip under the skirt? Because of the colors and design, this dress was turning out very tomboyish so I decided to attach the lining to the skirt. This seemed to work out fine. I hemmed the skirt with the lining before I gathered the skirt and attached it to the bodice.

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I used the floss method to gather the skirt. I zigzagged embroidery floss to the skirt and then pulled it to make the gathers. It worked great and was much easier than pulling threads and stitches. I would have liked more gathers in the skirt but I gathered it so that it fit the bodice. I will cut the skirt bigger for more gathers if I make this pattern again.

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Even though the dress did not turn out quite as I had envisioned it, it is very cute none the less. I like the colors and of course the embroidery design. I still have plenty of the grey fabric left, but I can’t decide if it should go back into the Goodwill box or back into the stash now. I am leaning towards the Goodwill box, since I have so much other fabric to work with. I’m sure my creative mind can pick a different piece to play with next.

Black Bobbin Thread

It’s always the little things, isn’t it? The simple act of changing the color of bobbin thread used on an embroidery project made all the difference in the world and gave a perfect end result. I am so excited about this little change that made such a huge difference in my last project.

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I wanted to put a simple black outlined design on my latest sewing project. I have used my machine to embroider red work a couple of times in the past. It has usually been a fight to get the tension just right so that the white bobbin thread is not pulled up into the design. I have even gone as far as to dab the white thread with a black sharpie pen to hide the white thread in the design before. For this design, I finally wised up and used black thread in the bobbin instead of white. This time when the bobbin thread pulled up into the design you could not see it. It blended in perfectly. The design came out rich and full and all in sharp black.

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Excited about these results, I had to try it again so I grabbed a bib towel from the closet and stitched another outline design and the results were once again rich and full.

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Now, why I did not think of using black bobbin thread years ago, I will never know. I have known since day one of embroidering that they make colored bobbin thread and that if your stitching a monogram on towels you can even use your top embroidery thread in the bobbin so the design looks stitched on both sides. But, it just never dawned on me until now to give it a try. I am so excited about the results that I plan to use a lot more black bobbin thread in the future. I am planning on using black bobbin thread on more than just outlined designs too. I plan to use it on all my dark designs and to even switch out bobbins on lighter colored projects when it is time to stitch the outline of the design.

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Stay tuned for the results.

Thanks for the Memories

My niece recently posted some pictures on her blog of her kids in clothes I made for them many years ago. It is always great thrill for me to see new pictures of the kids. But to see them in the clothes I made is extra special, and it sent me on a trip down memory lane.

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The first picture was of her two youngest boys. She has 4 now, by the way. The older of the two boys in the picture is wearing a jacket I made for her oldest boy’s 3rd birthday, 7 years ago. Both boys looked so cute wearing the jacket. With a little reminiscing, I remembered the construction of this jacket. It was the first time I had made welt pockets. I did not want just patch pockets on this jacket and I remember reading about welt pockets in one of my sewing reference books.

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I remember sitting at the sewing machine hurrying to complete the pockets because they were coming to see us, and we were going to a local craft show at the high school. I remember hoping that the little guy would like the airplanes on the fabric and that he would be able to zip up the jacket by himself. I remember being concerned about the zipper because it was a smaller tooth zipper than I wanted to use but the color was right.

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The second picture that my niece posted was of her youngest boy in a shirt I made for the oldest boy back when he was just one year old. All 4 of her boys have wore this shirt now. I am amazed it lasted this long. I made this shirt just after I got my very first embroidery machine. I used the scraps from a shirt I had just made for my husband.

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In fact, there ended up being enough scraps for two shirts in size 1. One shirt was embroidered with Mickey Mouse and the other shirt with Donald Duck. Donald Duck is my niece’s favorite Disney character so you can see which one the little guy is wearing in the picture. On these shirts, I put ribbing around the sleeves. Each time I see I picture of one of the boys in these shirts, I regret adding the ribbing. To me, the ribbing gives the shirt a feminine look and I have not added ribbing to the sleeve of a boy’s shirt since.

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I would like to thank my niece for posting the pictures and for taking care of the clothes, I made so that each boy could enjoy them and I could see them wearing them.  Now that she has 4 boys and the oldest is a tween and is becoming very particular about what he wears, I have not done any sewing for them recently. But, with as much as I love sewing for kids, it might be time to get back to the sewing machine and get some new clothes made.

The Crocheting of The Mouse

Remember a while back, I told you I was crocheting an amigurumi that required my full attention as I crocheted the parts? Well here it is! I present to you, Mickey Mouse! He has taken me about 4 months to crochet and sew together, working on him on and off between other projects. Thinking back, I remember crocheting his feet while watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade.

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I bought the pattern for him from an Etsy store. I was very excited to start the project but right away, I could tell that I was going to have to count and mark each row as I completed it. So, instead of being a fun project to work on during car trips or in front of the tv, it became a project that had to be worked on at the sewing table with my full concentration.

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This amigurumi is not crocheted in the round like most are. Each row starts with a chain and ends with a slip stitch. At first this was odd to me and caused me some confusion and took extra thought and counting. It was especially difficult to switch from this project to a project crocheted in the round, but I finally got the hang of it.

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Knowing there was going to be a lot of work to sewing the parts together and this being my least favorite part of the making of any amigurumi, I sewed the parts together as I went along. So after crocheting the gloves and arms, I went ahead and stitched them together even though I had not even started to crochet the body yet. I did this with the feet and legs as well. It sure made it nicer at the final construction time to already have these parts ready to go.

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The muzzle and cheeks were the most difficult part to crochet on the project. It took a couple of attempts before I got the count and design correct. Sewing the body to the head and the muzzle to the head was the most difficult part of the assembling process. I was quite disappointed with the results when I got the head, body and muzzle put together. If fact, it almost had to spend some time in the garbage can before I continued. Instead of spending time in the garbage can, I decided to put the ears and nose on first. I am glad I did. This greatly helped the appearance and my opinion of the head and muzzle, so no time was spent in the garbage can.

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Not far from this in difficulty was the designing and cutting of the felt eyes. I spent about an hour cutting and triming the felt to get the size and look I wanted. The pattern included a template for cutting the felt but I did not like the resulting look. Another thing I would change on the pattern is that I would add more rows to the body making it longer and add a few more rows to the head so the muzzle fit a little better.

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Now that he is crocheted and stitched together,  I just love him. He is not a perfect recreation of Mickey, but he is so cute in his own right. Previously, I have said that I will not keep my amigurumi’s, not even the Snoopy’s I made. They all had to find homes somewhere else. This Mickey Mouse may be the exception to that rule. I may just be able to find him a place in my sewing room.

BS

BS – Bibs and Sleepers.

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I ended up being able to do some creative stitching at the side seam and foot to save the original sleeper I mentioned in my previous post.

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Thank heavens for the small piece of fabric that you sew to the bottom of zipper. It became the extension that I needed for the crotch piece. As I sewed the other foot together, it was messed up too. So, the feet on this sleeper ended up being smaller than on some of the other sleepers I have made. I don’t think that anyone will notice though and it should not affect the wearing of the sleeper. I am pleased with the end results of this sleepers although it was a challenge to get there. The other sleeper sewed up great and was fun to make.

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They say it takes less time per sleeper to sew two sleepers at once. I don’t know if that is true. Yes, at first as you stitch the sleeves, you can sew and serge from one sleeper to the other without cutting off, but after that part comes the details. Zippers, ribbing, feet, seem to take the same amount of time whether you’re making one or two or more sleepers. So, in my opinion sewing two sleepers at once might end up saving 5 minutes or so. Oh well, I guess that is 5 minutes that can be used somewhere else.

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Of course, with all the embroidery supplies already out for the sleepers, I figured I might as well make some bibs for the babies too. I love to make bibs because it gives me the chance to stitch a usable sample of a design. The Mickey and Minnie design that I picked out ended up being so cute on the bib that I can’t wait to put it on a shirt for me.

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If you want to see my original baby bib post you can find it HERE.