Scripture Cases

For their 8th birthday,  we give the kiddie pies their own set of scriptures.  I promised Pumpkin Pie a case to carry them in, and about 2 months after her birthday, I finally made it using this fun scripture case tutorial with great step by step pictures from PolkaDotChair.

I made one for Cherry Pie, too.

I was making cases for a Bible and Triple Combination, soft paper bound, which together are larger than a mini-quad (what Melissa at PolkaDotChair was making a case for).  I like my cases to fit pretty closely so the books aren't wallowing around in there.  Also because my kids have a tendency to hoard bits of trash and I didn't want much room left for bits of paper.  If you want to make your own case for scriptures like ours and don't want to do the math, here are the dimensions I used.  (Also in case I decide to make more and want to remember the math.)

Denim:
1--  9 3/8 x 8 inch for the flap
2-- 6 1/4 x 8 inch for the front & back
1-- 4 3/8 x 20 inch strip for the gusset
2-- 2 1/2 x 16 inch strips for the handle

It took a little bit more than a fat quarter for the lining:

2- 6 1/4 x 8 inch for front & back lining
2- 5 1/4 x 8 inch for front pocket
1- 9 3/8 x 8 inch for the flap lining
1- 4 3/8 x 20 inch strip for the gusset lining

I included a seam allowance of 1/2" everywhere except the handle- do 1/4" seams on the handle.

The first case I made was too tight.  The gusset was 1/4 inch too narrow.  I ended up unpicking all the seams and resewing them smaller so that there would be more room in the case.

**This is one of the secrets I've learned that has made me happier with my sewing.  When it isn't right, I take the time to fix it.  It's totally worth it.  If you hate unpicking, check your seam ripper.  If it is so rusty, it looks like you stabbed someone with it and left the blood to dry, spend $4 on a new one.  Totally worth it.

**Secret #2 top stitch.  It makes everything look more professional.

I adjusted the measurements for the second case and it turned out perfectly.  (The measurements above are the adjusted ones.)

Here are the instructions from the tutorial because I found it confusing to go back and read her instructions with different measurements.  

1. Front Pocket:  Take your front pocket pieces of fabric and sew them right sides together across the 8″ side. Press the seam open and turn right side out. Press and top stitch along the top.

2.  Place your sewn piece over your front piece of denim.  Baste around the edges of the denim piece to hold in place.

3.  About 2″ up from the bottom  and in the center of the fabric pocket, attach a magnetic snap.  Make sure you only go through the fabric piece and not the denim also.

4.  Sew straight lines through one end of the pocket to create some pen/pencil slots. Make sure you backstitch at the top of the pocket.

5. Attatch gusset:  Take your denim gusset piece and pin it to the denim front piece that has the pocket attached.  Sew around 3 sides.

Trim any extra denim (of the 3″ wide piece) off the top.

Pin your denim back piece to your gusset piece. Sew.

6.  Repeat Step 5 with your lining fabric to form the bag lining.

7.  If you are going to add an appliqué to the flap of the bag, appliqué it to the denim flap now. 

8.  Take your denim flap piece and your fabric flap piece, place them right sides together and sew around 3 sides (leaving the top open). Clip corners and turn right side out.  Press.

9.  Top stitch using contrast thread around the flap.

10. Take the other part of your magnetic snap and attach it to the inside of the flap (the piece you just sewed). Place it in the center about 1″ up from the bottom.

11. Place the right side of your flap inside your bag facing the right side of the bag back. Stitch in place.

12. Sew the handle denim pieces, wrong sides together, using a ¼” seam.  Leave one end open for turning.  Turn, Press, and Top Stitch.

13.  Place the handle in the bag and center it in the bag.  Stitch it in place on both sides.  (the handle).

14. Place your bag lining inside your bag (right sides together). Pin. MAKE sure the bag lining and bag pieces line up perfectly, if not adjust the seams on your bag lining piece until they do.

Sew 1/2″ down from the top of the bag beginning at the left front corner and ending at the right front corner (you are leaving the front side open for turning.) 

15. Turn bag right side out and press.  Turn under the open edges of the bag along the front and press under.  Top stitch (to close the opening), starting at the bag flap on one side, around the front to the other side of the bag flap.

Scary Sewing

A friend of mine's daughter got married last week, and at the last minute, she needed the shoulders of her wedding dress altered. Apparently everyone she asked told her to come to me.



I was happy to help. It was good to find that drooling over all those sewing blogs has actually taught me a few things. 4 years ago I would not have had the courage or the ability to alter a wedding dress.

When I agreed, I knew there was a good possibility that I'd have to remove lace and then re-attach it as I worked.

What I didn't expect was that there would be beads and sequins which had been attached to the lace flowers after the lace flowers had been sewn to the tulle. So I had to unpick beads (carefully knotting the threads so the beads from the entire dress didn't come off) THEN unpick the lace.

Most of my time was spent unpicking the sleeves so that I could take 2 inches out of each shoulder. It is tricky to unpick tulle and not create big holes. I also shortened the sleeves, but the scariest part was altering the sleeves to fit the new, now smaller arm hole. For a little while I was thinking that if I don't repent good enough, I'll be sent to a place where I have to sew layers of tulle into sleeve holes all day for eternity.

Re-attaching the lace flowers and the beads was actually the fun part. Luckily, I've watched my Aunt Jeanie do bead work before, so I knew to use my sewing needle to pick up the beads I wanted instead of trying to pick up the beads with my fingers. That little trick makes the difference between torture & fun when it comes to beads.

I used a hemming trick my mom taught me to finish the sleeves, and they looked more professionally done by me than the original seamstress, if I do say so myself.

It all turned out okay: the shoulders of the dress stayed put and the neck line lay flat. I think I'd like to make a wedding dress from start to finish someday. I'll probably get the chance. I do have 5 daughters.

As always when I pull out my sewing machine, the girls want to start projects too. I can never get them excited about sewing until I'm working on something and under a drastic deadline. Then they want me to find them fabric and thread their needles and untangle their thread and show them the next thing to do. Arrgh!

However, Cherry Pie made this for her teacher, all by herself, and I'm super proud of her.

You can't see the words she stitched very well, but it says: "I <3 Mrs. Blessing" I think she did a great job choosing fabric, buttons, and ric-rac.

Tamale Pie also sewed some buttons.

Finished Projects this fall!

I finished 4 more pairs of slippers, for a total of 7 pairs of slippers this fall.

Made my own maternity Jeans.

I made a quilted tote bag for a friend (but forgot to take a picture-too bad, the fabric was BEAUTIFUL)

Helped 2 of my children sew little gifts for their teachers- one kitty-cat felt sunglasses case and one very fat Reindeer felt tree ornament. (also forgot to take pictures, doh!)



One large Totoro Pillow Buddy out of fleece. I watched this youtube video on how to draw Totoro and get the proportions right. My drawing was great (I think.)

my finished softie....well... My Totoro looks more like a bowling pin with bunny ears. Sigh.

Note to self. Remember last time I made a pattern for a stuffed object?

Same problem. I need to add more width to the pattern to account for the fatness of stuffing. Maybe I'll remember that next time since I've made this mistake twice now.

Oh well, Cutie Pie will still love him on Christmas morning.

And do I feel awesome for finishing all this--while being pregnant and Primary President?

Yes. Yes I do.

Recent Sewing Projects and happiness :)

**Note I actually typed this post in AUGUST. I've just been waiting to get pictures of the skirts I made. As is my usual on top of things and preparedness, I didn't have my camera with me during the wedding reception. sign. I'm a bad, bad blogger.**

I have found time to sew recently!

I made skirts for my girls to wear to my brother's wedding reception. I used the Insa skirt pattern from the book "Sewing Clothes Kids Love" by Nancy Langdon & Sabine Pollehn.

I've really been excited about this book, which I got for my birthday almost a year ago. I was finally brave enough to try one of the patterns and it worked up very easily--even though the coral brocade was a bit murderous to work with.

I measured my girls and chose their size based on the measurement chart. I recommend this highly, Cutie Pie wears a 3T from the store, but I made the 18month size skirt for her and it fit perfectly. The only caveat I would give is that if your child is close to the top end of the measurement range, go ahead and make the next size up. Tamale Pie's skirt just barely fit.

I traced the patterns with a sharpie marker onto that clear vinyl stuff you get to put over tablecloths. It was easy to trace and worked great. I loved being able to see through my pattern as I placed it on the fabric. The only issue I had was that when I stacked my pattern pieces up, some of the sharpie transferred onto other plastic pieces. I layered tissue paper between the pieces before rolling them up to store until next time.

**You have to keep in mind when using the patterns from this book that seam allowances are not included. I didn't think I would like it, but it makes it so much easier to tell what size the pattern will fit and for matching directional prints **PERFECT** So I'm loving that now. Plus, I could make the seam allowance whatever width I wanted. Also, I could totally see myself using a quilting pencil to trace the edge of the pattern right onto the fabric so that I had a sewing line and my garment turned out perfectly. I found the directions in the book clear and the patterns easy to follow.

Modifications I made: I did trim the underskirt shorter by about 2 inches so that it wouldn't be longer than the tulle (which was my brilliant idea to add.)


Didn't they turn out great!!??

I'm excited to make more skirts with cotton. The Train to Crazy made this pattern with cotton and look how cute!!

I love her fabric choices. Definitely must follow this blog! She has a tutorial on making odd-sized sheets. I'm sew happy :) Also she obviously has a serger that works. **jealous**


I also helped my mom and sister-in-law, Cegan, assembly-line these vests for the boys. (this picture shows about half of the vests we made.)

Jimmy is exactly 10 years and 1 day younger than me, and he is probably my favorite brother. (shhh, don't tell Matt, he'll never work on my house again) I got to drive up with Jimmy to St. Louis on the morning of his wedding. We talked the whole way and it was so fun. I'm not telling on myself the brainless thing I did later that day. But it didn't matter because the whole day was glorious and peaceful and happy. I'm so glad for Jimmy and my new sister-in-law, Tahnee--who seems amazing and is obviously beautiful and smart and has a good sense of humor (or she couldn't like Jimmy.) They've started out right *smiley*

I also made a pointy-kitty for Tamalie Pie's friend for her birthday.

You can download the directions and pattern free at WeeWonderfuls.Com. It is a fun quick sew, although I add about a quarter inch seam allowance all around the pattern because the seams are so close! It is a little tricky, but still just a 4-hour sewing project.

Happy Birthday, Cutie Pie

Cutie Pie is 3! She loves anything about animals, especially horses and kitty cats. Often, she comes down the stairs on her hands and knees saying "Meow, meow." But if I say, "Hello little kitty cat." She will say, "I'm not a kitty cat, I'm a Julia." She also likes "Dora the Explorer" and Donald Duck. We were watching "The Three Caballeros" and she said, "That's Uncle Donald." I said, "You mean, Donald Duck?" "Yes," she said,"Maybe I love him."

All her siblings are in school, so she often asks me to take her to her school. She still has 2 1/2 years until she gets to go to Kindergarten. Sometimes I agree to take her to her school and we go to the park.

For her birthday she wanted Chocolate "Dapunzel" cake. (chocolate Rapunzel Cake) I couldn't find any Rapunzel cake decorations, so I just made Texas Fudge cake and said, "Here you go, chocolate Rapunzel cake."

She was completely satisfied.

Then, only a week (or 3) late, I finished her Kitty-cat slippers.
Didn't they turn out so cute?!!

I used this amazing tutorial by "Made by Rae" for Dragon Slippers.

I felt kind of guilty for turning such an awesome boy gift into a girly version--it is so hard to find things to make for boys. But I will be making the Dragon version for Bubba. They only took about 3 hours to make--including embroidering the kitty faces. The only bad part is I still have 4 more children who are expecting slippers. They all needed slippers this year, and I was just going to buy them. But slippers cost $10 a pair--for the ugly ones-- and that's $50 for just the kids. I got enough fleece (I think) to make everyone slippers for $15.

20 minute Maternity Jeans

These are things I'm really wanting to buy right now.

Dansco Clogs

Sofft Black Heels

Simply Vera, Vera Wang earings

However, what I NEED is Maternity Jeans. I have lots of maternity capri pants but
#1 it isn't sandal/flip flop weather any more and I look dorky in sneakers & capris

#2 I am preggo enough that I don't care to shave my legs any more.

But Bubba needs new jeans too--more than I do. So it's the old sewing machine and helpful online tutorials for me. Yay.

This tutorial on Craftster is the best maternity jean tutorial I've seen. It took me 20 minutes from start to finish and that included the time I took to find the jeans, dig out an old t-shirt and thread, and get my sewing machine out of storage--where it has been banished while I'm in DIQ!!

Here is my result! I'm so proud!! Retail therapy is great, but the self-fulfillment that comes from making something useful out of stuff you already had is much more lasting.

1 Tutorial from Craftster. I *heart* Craftster!!

1 pair $7 clearance jeans from Lane Bryant that I was only skinny enough to wear for about a month. Perhaps they shrunk in the wash?

1 old t-shirt generously, albeit unknowingly, donated by my DH.

ha ha just kidding. I used my own shirt. I had one that was really too small that had a good lycra content for stretchy but firm.

1 bit of thread, scissors and my handy dandy Bernina 1008.

I did 2 things differently from the tutorial.
#1 I didn't have to sew the zipper shut because I couldn't zip it even 1/4". I just cut the whole zipper out. I also didn't cut off any of the jeans waist band in the back. They were low rise jeans and I wanted the belt loops. Just because.

**note scissors do not cut through rivets--even if they are gingers. The sewing machine needle will not penetrate rivets either.

#2 I made sure to cut the strip from the bottom of the t-shirt so I didn't have to roll the edge and hem it. Duh! I also cut it wider than 6" because I like the full belly coverage better.

Then after I finished sewing, I went to my friend's house this morning and she loaned me more maternity pants, including a dressy black pair. It's all I ever wished for. Life is good.

Serendipity

Sometimes If I just click on tabs on the side of blogs, I end up somewhere cool.

This lady did a blog last year-12 crafts til Christmas and shared what she did.

and she made a PDF file of how to make a Pillow Buddy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I love her forever.

and my children will love her forever once I've purchased fabric and created these for all of them.

They'll love me forever also.

Now, do I make them for Easter, Birthdays or Christmas??? (listed in order of nearness in time. Probably Christmas is the only realistic choice--but not the fun choice.)

Tutorial: how to shorten the rise in your 6 year old's pants

Recently I pulled out all the rubber maid tubs with winter/school clothing in them. This is almost as good as Christmas for the kids (and me.) I went through and pulled out all the jeans. Everyone was well supplied except Pumpkin Pie. There were 6 pair of long pants that fit her in the waist and the legs were more or less the correct length. However, the rise each pair was so long that the crotch was hanging down near her knees. Obviously this wouldn't do.

After thinking about it, I decided to try and shorten the rise myself--since if I ruined the pants, nothing was lost--she couldn't wear them anyway.

If these were homemade pants, I could just cut off the waist. But these pants had little pockets and fake flies sewn in, so cutting inches off the top wouldn't work. I googled around and couldn't find anyone who had done this (and blogged about it).

So here is what I did. My first try, I cut too much and sewed more than would have been necessary and then took out too much fabric and created leggings. Pumpkin Pie refused to wear them. You get the benefit of version 2.0. Yay for you :)

#1 Start with a pair of pants/jeans that do fit properly. Lucky for me we had one. They were GAP jeans in a size 6 regular.

Here is a comparison of the khaki's I'm modifying and the GAP jeans. You can see the difference in rise length.



#2 Turn the good fitting jeans inside out and fold them in half so you can see the curve of the back crotch/rise seam. Fold them as close as you can on the seam lines. Lay the pants on a piece of heavy paper and trace around them. I had brown paper this time. My favorite paper to use is wrapping paper that has the grid lines on the wrong side. I used an orange crayon to trace around them. You want to get as accurately as possible the waistline, crotch curve, and hip line of the pants, as well as the taper from the curve to the legs.

#3 Fold the jeans in half the other way to get the front crotch curve. Trace as in step 2.

#4 cut out the two pattern pieces you just created. label them front and back, although the back is the one with the larger curve--if you forgot to label. :)



#5 Take the pants to be altered and turn them wrong side out. Trim off the inseam from about the knees up. Trust me, you do not want to be trying to match the bottom hem and fixing the crotch. (version 1.0, remember) If the pants you are altering already have fairly narrow legs, you may want to unpick the seam instead of trimming it off. Your call.



#6 Fold the pants in half so that the front rise is on one side. I took a pin and placed it in the side seam to keep the pants from shifting because of the elastic waistband. Match your homemade pattern to the side seam and trace a new crotch seam onto the pants with your orange crayon. ***Do not be tempted to match up the crotch and trace a new side seam.*** (version 1.o, remember?)

Plus at the super cool Fashion Incubator Blog you can see a great explanation of why that won't work. Don't blame me if you loose a couple hours there reading all about why jeans don't fit anymore. Loved that blog!!

****note: I found that this resulted in taking about an inch out of the waistband as well. Just follow the line up to the top and don't worry about it. I didn't cut the waistband until after I had re-sewn the line.



Back to Pumpkin Pie's Pants

#7 LEAVING A SEAM ALLOWANCE OF 1/4-1/2 inch, trim off the excess crotch fabric--don't cut through the waistband yet, either. Put the pants in your sewing machine and sew the new crotch seam on the crayon line you traced. Sew it again for reinforcement. Now you can trim off the extra waistband material.



#8 Fold the pants so that the front crotch is out. Line your front pattern up with the side seams and draw your new crotch. I found on the pants I was doing, all I needed to do was take off the end and taper the legs in. So I didn't have to resew the front rise. That was good because the fake fly probably would have gotten in the way.



#9 Open up the pants and line up the opening in the inseam. Pin this carefully. If one side is longer than the other, check your crotch lines and trim a bit.



#10 Sew up the inseam and reinforce--I used a serger-like stitch on my machine.



Rejoice in your thriftyness and have your child try on her new and improved pants. :)



Okay, they could have been taken up even a little more. Next time I be more careful in the pattern tracing stage. Let it be a lesson to you.



Here is a comparison of the two pants after Altering the khaki pair.

Happy 6th Birthday, Pumpkin Pie

Pumpkin Pie is 6. She loves to take care of babies. She loves pretty things like painted nails and fake sparkly tatoos. She writes little love notes to me often. Her favorite games are animal charades and "Guess Who."

For her birthday, I made her a little Jolly Postman set. I was inspired by this post and this one.



I used heavyweight pellon and random fabric scraps. The pellon was easy to write on with a ball-point pen. The "stamps" are all attached with velcro and can be swapped around. I used adhesive velcro, not sew-on. I skipped the mail bag because there are already enough bags in the dress-up box, but I might take one of them and add a "Mail" label to it. I really love these envelopes. I need to make some of them.


For some time I have wanted to make a family mailbox. My mother made a family mailbox when I was about 13. It was one long banner of double-knit polyester. Each of us had a pocket on the banner with our initial appliqued in the middle. My sisters and brothers wrote each other all kinds of notes. I even published a family newspaper, "Hansen Happenings" using an old manual typewriter. I have a copy of the first edition, including installment one of the "Storie Special: The Magic Rope" a fairy tale written by my sister, Amanda, and me. It featured a strong young woman and her adventures on the way to rescue her true love. We were girl-power feminists and we never knew it. The newspaper also inclues a "Lost & Found" column, a "Dear Jane" column and several announcements of summer camp plans and new clubs various family members were forming. There were 7 kids then and we lived way out in the country. We had to entertain ourselves!

The DH has also been busy. Here he proudly displays the fruits of his faith and labor.



I was the nay-sayer who thought carrots were too hard to grow. He has also been to South Dakota with his guard unit, for Operation Golden Coyote, to help the National Forest Service.







There he is driving a dozer. (Usually, he just supervises the work since he is the officer. This is me bragging. My DH is a sexy lieutenant. brag. brag.)