Lace Christmas Tree T-shirt Tutorial

It is Day 1 of Creating Christmas!

I was planning to do a green lace tree on a white shirt with red beads but when hubby went out to the store to get me a shirt, they were all out of the white type I wanted.  So he came back with a light pink shirt and a striped pink/white shirt.  Oh well!  Thanks anyway, Baby!  So instead of classic Christmas red, white, and green, I give you vintage Christmas in pink, ivory, and tan!

Supplies:

t-shirt

lace, ribbon, tulle, or other

thread

needle

sequins, beads, pearls, flat gems, etc. (if desired)

 Directions:

1.  Lay out the shirt to figure out where you want to put the lace tree.

 

2. Cut the first length of lace.  This will be the base of your tree, so make sure it is the longest piece.

3. Sew the first piece on, slightly angling it like a smile.  Add more pieces of lace, overlapping each piece as you go.  Each length should be slightly shorter than the last.  I used four different types: three laces and one metallic tulle.

4. Add rosettes near the neckline to be the tree topper.  To make the rosettes:  Knot the thread then sew a loose stitch along one edge of the lace.  Pull the thread to make the lace gather into ruffles and sew off the end with a knot when you have enough gathered lace to make your rosette.

 (You could also use a vintage brooch {which I almost did!}, buttons, or cut a star out of felt.)  Also, you could add beads, sequins, etc., to be the ornaments.  I was going to do this, but once the tree was made, I liked the simplicity of it as it was.

 I just can't get over how cute this is! 

Purple Princess Bedroom

As I have mentioned previously, I am helping a friend decorate her new home. She has two lovely daughters, ages 7 and 9, and first up on the decorating list was their rooms. These two girls are super different in their tastes, so we knew that there would be no (a) paint color sharing, (b) style sharing, or (c) fabric sharing.

The younger girl wanted a princess feel and her mom wanted it to last several years (i.e. "big-girl-princess-turning-tween-princess"). So we didn't go crazy with Belle, Ariel, Cinderella, Jasmine, Snow White, and Aurora (all nice girls, I'm sure!). First thing was to choose a fabric for the curtains. Originally, the 7 year old wanted pink since her previous room had a purple satin "Southern Charm with ruffles" feel. However, we found a gorgeous, light embroidered white cotton with purple, teal, lime, and dolphin grey flowers. Super gorgeous! But no pink to be found. And she loved it! So pink was out and purple was in!

Another thing to consider: we were trying to keep this room makeover as budget-friendly as possible. That meant the purple satin bedding was staying as well as the hand-me-down (but in wonderful shape) bedroom suite in dark cherry wood.

We decided to go with a grey-lavender wall color. The crisp white embroidered fabric was sewn into curtains (way to go, ME!) and a duplicate set of purple satin sheets was also sewn into curtains (once again, way to go, ME!) - one white and one purple per window side.

The curtains don't have enough tabs at the top yet, but at least you get the idea...

Stay tuned for more!!

Coming Soon!

(drumroll please...)

I am finally getting my Etsy store up and running! I have had people asking me about this for far too long... Your wish is granted; it is on its way! Hope to reveal tomorrow! (That is, if my fingers can still type and aren't too burned from all my glue gunning. Is that a word?)

PS Have a happy Friday! It's my second fave day of the week! :D

DIY: Easy Peasy Toddler Glam

I was out earlier this week and found this cute little tiered ruffly t-shirt combo for my daughter. I brought them home and thought I would glam them up a bit. I am on a roll here - I blinged up her new denim jacket a couple days ago. I heart Swarovski crystals! And I have plans to be-ribbon my own toddler spring coat that my mother made me when I was her age! (It's pink and has duck buttons. The pink is staying but the ducks are going buh-bye!) Anyway, here is the before! I wanted something different than ribbon and crystals, so I decided to go with beads and accessories. I had some peachy-pink bicone beads that were a perfect tone match so I sewed them with a double thread around each wrist. It was easy to stay in a perfect line - I just followed the seam! Cheating? Maybe, but it worked! Then I made a cute lil bracelet with the same bicones, some oval pearls in a creamy ivory, and pink seed beads. (Made myself a matching one, too! Can't do the mother-daughter matching jewelry thing for too long so take advantage while you can! Ha!) I loved how the beads matched - so cute! - and the bracelet will easily go with other things in her closet. Plus, I made it a tiny bit too big so she can wear it for awhile before she outgrows it. And last but not least, a hairbow! Inch and a half white grosgrain with sheer peach, knotted centre, and finished with mini Swarovski crystals. (Had to get those in somewhere. Wonder if there is a 12-step program I can join?) The bow is about 4 inches in diameter. Note to self: need to increase bow storage space. Here is the entire ensemble! She looked so adorable in it! (But I forgot to get her pic when she was wearing it! :( Guess I am gonna have to start carrying the camera in the diaper bag again.)

DIY: Adult Dress to Toddler Sundress

So I haven't blogged in a week or so and I have a very good reason. Once I made the orange pettiskirt, I got slightly hooked on the sewing machine. I have all these great ideas for little girls and toddlers - I want to make them all! This is my first (well, actually second) project.

I have a halter dress that I never wear. It is a beautiful peach and white seersucker stripe and so perfect for spring and summer! I could just see it as an adorable sundress on my daughter. So out came the scissors and bye-bye went the halter dress. Here's what I did...


I found another sundress that I used as the basic shape. All I did was lay it out on my table and lay the other dress on top to get the width. I was able to use the front panel of the dress doubled over so I only needed to sew one seam. One thing I really liked about this dress was the elastic shirred panel (was that redundant?) in the back, eliminating the need for buttons, zippers, or any other scary things that I haven't learned yet.


This is the back of the sundress (bottom half) after I seamed the middle. Because I used the bottom of the halter dress, I didn't have to do a new seam which saved me precious t-i-m-e!

This is my pattern for the top of the sundress - impressive, isn't it? It was my daughter's colouring page in a former life. Anyway, I cut out my "pattern" and folded it in half to make sure all the edges would line up properly.


This is the fabric after I cut out the pattern and did a french hem (or is it a rolled hem? not sure on my sewing terms...) on one of the arm holes. I just folded the edge of the fabric over, ironed it, and sewed it. And then I did it again! I didn't want the raw edges showing because I can be anal like that it looks prettier and cleaner with the finished edges.


This the front panel with one of the back panels attached. I was going to attach the stretchy part in the middle of the back, so I ended up with 4 panels total: Panel #1 for the entire front, Panel #2 for the left back, Panel #3 for the middle back, and Panel #4 for the right back. Hope that makes sense. I really have absolutely no idea what I am talking about.


Here is what it looked like after I sewed all the panels together. I actually sewed a little flap on the outside of the fabric which used up a little bit of this overhang, and it was great because it hid the seam where I attached the top of the dress to the skirt part.


I had already ruffled and sewn some creamy antique-inspired lace to the inside of the bottom hem and I wanted to repeat that theme at the top of the dress. I played with a few ideas, but ended up with a bib-type of idea with several layers of lace and ruffly things.


I started out by pinning the different laces, etc., to the top of the dress, but it was getting to be too much and too think. Plus, I didn't want the inside of the dress to have several bib seams. I grabbed a piece of the scrap fabric, did a single hem, and just started sewing lace around the perimeter. And more lace, and more frilly things, and more lace. It went like this from outside to middle: wide lace in dark cream, medium lace in ivory, ruffled scraps of dress fabric, small ivory lace (same as on the bottom dress hem), ruffled stretch organza in cream, and in the middle I squashed two rough-edged sheer roses that were already on a tulle base.


To finish it up, I sewed the bib on using 1 seam on the bottom layer, and I added some straps made out of skinny ribbon bows. Presto! Insta-dress! Well, sort of! Here is a close up of the top of the dress. You can see the flap right across the bodice.


Close up of the bottom with ruffled lace peeking out.

And the whole kit and kaboodle:

Yay for me! I am so excited right now, you don't even understand!!

Orange Ambition

Hopefully this fabric will soon be a pettiskirt as seen here. This should be interesting, particularly since I don't know how to sew. Finally figured out how to thread my bobbin, thanks to youtube and the super junky instruction manual. Is it just me, or do you judge companies by their manuals? This company gets two thumbs and eight fingers down from me. The manual is sooo hard to follow simply because I can't interpret their version of the English language.

So far I have sewn a few of the largest strips together, but my machine went wonky and just about earned itself a boot out the window. Since I was feeling generous, I decided to give it another chance. Not that it has earned it. AT ALL.

However, I feel like I should name my sewing machine. Maybe I would like it more then. Hmm, maybe then it would work for me. Kinda doubtful on this one. The working for me part, not the naming part.