Lately I have been bitten by the crafting bug. I have a ton of project ideas in my head that I want to get done. Also my late night web searching of craft blogs have given me a crap load of bookmarked projects that are going to be perfect for Virginia. St. Patrick's Day was the perfect reason for me to do a few sewing projects.
Like always I waited til the last minute to find a cute St. Patrick's Day shirt for Virginia. I guess Target doesn't believe in selling St. Patrick's Day shirts a week before the holiday. The shirts I saw at Walmart were just not what I wanted my little girl wearing. So I got a wild hair and decided to make my own. I knew I wanted work with felt and wanted a design of a pot of gold with a rainbow.
So I searched the web for a picture to reference and made a trip to AC Moore for supplies. Once I had everything I got home and started to make my game plan. Of course I waited about two days before the St. Patrick's Day party to make the shirt. I used a pink shirt from AC Moore. I wanted a green shirt, but they were out. In the end the pink worked out better. I had never worked with felt or sewed with it either so I called my good sewing buddy Susan Roberts for advice. She told me the right way of doing things, but of course I went about things a little different. I didn't have any fabric glue so I knew I had to come up with a different solution.
First I blew up my image to the size I needed. Next I cut out each shape from the felt. Once I had all my shapes cut out I laid them out on the shirt. This way I could see what I needed to sew first. I started with the rainbow. Since the rainbow was made up of different colored strips. I hand sewed the bottom part of each strip. That way they would stay still once I started to sew on the machine. At least I had hoped they would stay still. I found out quickly that felt moves alot. So next step was to hand sew the top part of the rainbow.
A problem arose when I started to sew on the machine that the rainbow was starting to arch up. A quick fix come to mind and I grabbed the scotch tape from the kitchen and just taped down the strips after I ripped the top seams open. So I sewed on the machine and slowly took off the tape as I went up the rainbow. I decided to sew lines horizontal all the way up. It gave the shirt a quilted look.
Next I did the pot and then the gold. Last I decided to hand sew on a four leaf clover. It looked more like a small green ink spot. I just had no luck in cutting out a nice four leaf clover. The whole shirt came out great and Virginia was in love with it.
St. Patrick's Day came and I realized I didn't have anything green for Virginia to wear. She had a strip of green in her shirt, but I really wanted green pants for her. I searched the web and ended up on my favorite craft blog MADE. First I thought I would make a skirt for Virginia, but I just didn't like the fabric I had on hand. But I saw a tutorial on how to make pants and I thought this would be perfect since it was a little windy outside. Again I wasn't sure about the fabrics I had laying around.
Then the light bulb went off in my head. I could use one of Reiggin's old shirts. I looked though his closet and found the perfect long sleeves cotton shirt. It was a little thick, but not to thick that it would make her hot. Crossing my fingers that it wasn't one of his favorite shirts. I am pretty sure it wasn't since I have not seen him wear it in like three years. Slowly I will get rid of the 300 shirts he has in our closet.
I was nervous about sewing pants at first. This was my first attempt at pants and my past attempts at making Virginia clothes have not been the best. Luckily MADE had a pattern that was just Virginia's size. So I printed out the pattern and taped it together. I laid the pattern out on Reiggin's shirt and used my fabric pen and cut the front and back pieces out. Since I was using a shirt, when I cut I already had both the front two pieces and back two pieces cut at at once.
The tutorial was simple and clear cut. I love tutorials that are like that and that have great photos to follow along with. I am a visual person and photos help me out alot. Also sense I am still learning my sewing terms. I was thrilled with the end product, the pants fit perfect. I did a little happy dance around the apartment and we were off to Chick Fil A to celebrate. This gives me hope that I will get better at making more clothes for Virginia this spring and summer. Who knows maybe I will even make something for myself.
Side note I did make a sweet bowling shirt this week as well. My bowling team decided to all wear green. Well knowing me you all know I could just wear a simple green shirt. I had to do things the hard way and I knitted a design on the back of a green shirt of a strike scene. It was time consuming and I knocked it out in one day just in time to wear to bowling. It gave me good luck and we won 2 of the 3 games. And I was above average on all three games, I had a 140, 143, and a 148.
Next on my crafting agenda is a easter skirt for Virginia and a fishing hole for her to play with. On the back burner is a super hero cape. I believe I will be keeping busy for a bit. But I love to see what I can create.
Here are a few pictures from the St. Patrick's Day Party.
Like always I waited til the last minute to find a cute St. Patrick's Day shirt for Virginia. I guess Target doesn't believe in selling St. Patrick's Day shirts a week before the holiday. The shirts I saw at Walmart were just not what I wanted my little girl wearing. So I got a wild hair and decided to make my own. I knew I wanted work with felt and wanted a design of a pot of gold with a rainbow.
So I searched the web for a picture to reference and made a trip to AC Moore for supplies. Once I had everything I got home and started to make my game plan. Of course I waited about two days before the St. Patrick's Day party to make the shirt. I used a pink shirt from AC Moore. I wanted a green shirt, but they were out. In the end the pink worked out better. I had never worked with felt or sewed with it either so I called my good sewing buddy Susan Roberts for advice. She told me the right way of doing things, but of course I went about things a little different. I didn't have any fabric glue so I knew I had to come up with a different solution.
First I blew up my image to the size I needed. Next I cut out each shape from the felt. Once I had all my shapes cut out I laid them out on the shirt. This way I could see what I needed to sew first. I started with the rainbow. Since the rainbow was made up of different colored strips. I hand sewed the bottom part of each strip. That way they would stay still once I started to sew on the machine. At least I had hoped they would stay still. I found out quickly that felt moves alot. So next step was to hand sew the top part of the rainbow.
A problem arose when I started to sew on the machine that the rainbow was starting to arch up. A quick fix come to mind and I grabbed the scotch tape from the kitchen and just taped down the strips after I ripped the top seams open. So I sewed on the machine and slowly took off the tape as I went up the rainbow. I decided to sew lines horizontal all the way up. It gave the shirt a quilted look.
Next I did the pot and then the gold. Last I decided to hand sew on a four leaf clover. It looked more like a small green ink spot. I just had no luck in cutting out a nice four leaf clover. The whole shirt came out great and Virginia was in love with it.
St. Patrick's Day came and I realized I didn't have anything green for Virginia to wear. She had a strip of green in her shirt, but I really wanted green pants for her. I searched the web and ended up on my favorite craft blog MADE. First I thought I would make a skirt for Virginia, but I just didn't like the fabric I had on hand. But I saw a tutorial on how to make pants and I thought this would be perfect since it was a little windy outside. Again I wasn't sure about the fabrics I had laying around.
Then the light bulb went off in my head. I could use one of Reiggin's old shirts. I looked though his closet and found the perfect long sleeves cotton shirt. It was a little thick, but not to thick that it would make her hot. Crossing my fingers that it wasn't one of his favorite shirts. I am pretty sure it wasn't since I have not seen him wear it in like three years. Slowly I will get rid of the 300 shirts he has in our closet.
I was nervous about sewing pants at first. This was my first attempt at pants and my past attempts at making Virginia clothes have not been the best. Luckily MADE had a pattern that was just Virginia's size. So I printed out the pattern and taped it together. I laid the pattern out on Reiggin's shirt and used my fabric pen and cut the front and back pieces out. Since I was using a shirt, when I cut I already had both the front two pieces and back two pieces cut at at once.
The tutorial was simple and clear cut. I love tutorials that are like that and that have great photos to follow along with. I am a visual person and photos help me out alot. Also sense I am still learning my sewing terms. I was thrilled with the end product, the pants fit perfect. I did a little happy dance around the apartment and we were off to Chick Fil A to celebrate. This gives me hope that I will get better at making more clothes for Virginia this spring and summer. Who knows maybe I will even make something for myself.
Side note I did make a sweet bowling shirt this week as well. My bowling team decided to all wear green. Well knowing me you all know I could just wear a simple green shirt. I had to do things the hard way and I knitted a design on the back of a green shirt of a strike scene. It was time consuming and I knocked it out in one day just in time to wear to bowling. It gave me good luck and we won 2 of the 3 games. And I was above average on all three games, I had a 140, 143, and a 148.
Next on my crafting agenda is a easter skirt for Virginia and a fishing hole for her to play with. On the back burner is a super hero cape. I believe I will be keeping busy for a bit. But I love to see what I can create.
Here are a few pictures from the St. Patrick's Day Party.
