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TUTORIAL TUESDAY: Sewing Machine Pincushion

Posted on September 27, 2011

This weeks tutorial is for a pincushion that wraps around your sewing machine. That way you always have pins at your fingertips. I have several regular pincushions that I move around the sewing room while I’m working and it never fails when I need one at the machine my pincushion is not around. This solves that problem! I was browsing pincushions one day and seen this wrap around pincushion by Martha Stewart which gave me the idea for this one…I kind of think mine is a little more stylish.

These would make great Christmas gifts! You could even make one to wear on your wrist if you like. Quick and easy (and cheap! stocking stuffers!

Mine

Martha’s

I started with two 2″ pieces of fabric and a piece of stretch lace. Measure around your machine where the cushion will go to see how long to cut it. Be sure to figure in the length of the cushion which is about 6″. Don’t worry about it being too tight, your machine won’t feel it.

you will also need a tuft of cotton batting

now put the two pieces of fabric together with right sides facing each other and the elastic in the middle like this…

sew that end and the two long ends leaving one end open where the elastic is sticking out

snip the corners off be careful not to cut the thread

start turning it right side out by pulling the elastic

I like to iron everything real crisp but I don’t think it would matter with this

now start stuffing it with the cotton batting……I used a knitting needle to pack it in…

now poke the other end of the elastic into the open end, turn the edges down and pin it

sew it down (take the pin out first)

the finished product

to put it on your machine take the thread off first guide it under your needle and over the top and down the side

there are several ways you can “wear” your pincushion…it doesn’t bother me at all when I’m sewing…

Thanks for looking!

Presley is 2! {Southeast MO Children Photographer}

Posted on September 22, 2011

My sweet little nephew turned 2 earlier this month. He’s the one that finally made me an Auntie!

Posted on September 22, 2011

what is the deal with the angles these days? It makes my neck hurt….

Please fix it. Thank you.

Hayley & Betsy! {Southeast MO Senior Photographer}

Posted on September 21, 2011

I had the pleasure of photographing these two beauties! You can read how this shoot came about here. Special thanks to Mousse Salon and Spa for doing hair and makeup and Annie Laurie’s Antiques for letting me shoot at her shop!

Here are some of my favs!

If you’ve made it this far, thanks for looking!

Ruffled Posie Belt

Posted on September 21, 2011

*For Personal use ONLY!*

This tutorial Tuesday’s tutorial almost made it to Wednesday. lol! This is for the Ruffled Posie Belt. You can view it in cotton here. I recommend using cotton to make this. The fabric I used for this tutorial didn’t ruffle up on the elastic very well, it was too stiff.

Supplies needed:

12″ of 44″ fabric
2″ piece of velcro
Bottle opener belt buckle (I bought mine here)
felt
thread
elastic

Here we go…

First you will cut 3: 4″ strips of fabric. Two are for the belt and the other one is for the posie.

your 3 strips…

cut elastic to fit your child or your waist…I used 1″ elastic…

put the right sides of two of the strips of fabric together and sew the edges leaving the ends open…

iron the edges…

using this handy dandy little ruler with a slider, measure your elastic width…

then using the same ruler you figure out where you want your elastic in the middle, you will sew two seams to feed the elastic thru…

using a safety pin, feed the elastic thru the casing on the belt…

pin the end of the elastic so you don’t pull it out when you are feeding the elastic thru…

now it’s time to add the belt buckle…make sure you have the buckles turned to the right sides before you sew them on…

the back of each buckle has “left” and “right” on them…

pull one end thru the belt buckle…

and sew it down…

do the other end making sure to check that you have the buckle on the right side and you will have this…

now it’s time for the posie…you should have one 4″ piece of fabric left. Fold it in half, we’re going to ruffle it on the raw edge.

instead of doing a basting stitch and pulling the thread to ruffle (and risk the thread breaking and sending you into hysterics) I like to “manually” ruffle it. Pinch the fabric up as it goes under the needle…

here’s what it will look like when you get it ruffled..

next you will need a square piece of felt. Mine was around 6″ square…

now you will start sewing the ruffle down to the felt in a circle…

this is what the back will look like..

trim off the corners but don’t cut to close to the stitching because you need it to help stabilize the velcro when you sew it on…

now you’re going to sew the posie onto one side of the belt….

now hook the belt buckles together so you can see where you need to sew the other piece of velcro…

because I had to sew the velcro out on the edge of the flower, the thread is showing…

so I fixed it with a little hot glue.

Tada!

Ladies (or girls) Lion Collared Shirt Tutorial

Posted on September 16, 2011

Ok, first let me say that you can easily make this for girls. Here is a picture of one I made for my daughter this summer. It’s made from a denim looking linen type fabric (not sure what it was b/c it was given to me). Its best if you make this from knit especially if you are making it for yourself b/c we have parts that need more room than a little girl.

Disclaimer: I’m sure there is a “correct” way to make this but since I made up my own pattern you’ll have to put up with my way of doing it. Please feel free to let me know if you have a better way of doing something.

Girls:

Ladies:

(the rose colored shirt I’m wearing…)

Ok, lets get started! For the pattern I used a fitted long sleeved tshirt that I like. Please note: the tshirt stretches easily and the fabric I used for this tutorial doesn’t so I wished I would have cut it bigger. Before you start cutting, determine wether or not the fabric will stretch much. (another disclaimer: if you are big busted you might want to try this on junk fabric because I’m not sure how this type of shirt will fit you since I don’t have that problem.

Lay the tshirt (that I will call the pattern from here on out) on top of your fabric. You will be cutting out 2 pieces, front and back so make sure your fabric is doubled. Make sure you cut it with the stretch going from side to side. I cut about 2″ from the edges of the pattern and I cut it about 4″ longer than the pattern.

for the neckline you can cut it pretty close since we need the neckline big. It won’t stretch at all so it needs to be able to fit over your head…

when you get one side cut out I fold it over and use it as a pattern to cut the other side out so they are both the same. It’s a little confusing, I hope the picture explains it.

next is the sleeve. lay the fold of the sleeve on the fold of the fabric. We only cut one sleeve out at a time. I should have pinned it down but I was too lazy.

now you are going to sew the sides of the shirt, the top of the shirt and the sleeves together (where the yellow lines are)

next your going to sew the sleeve into the shirt. You will need to sew a basting stitch at the top of the sleeve, the curved part at the shoulder. The reason for doing this is so it will turn over your shoulder nicely. You can google “basting stitches for sleeves” since I forgot to photograph that step. This is what it will look like when you get the sleeve sewed in…

and here is what the sleeve looks like. See the little bit of gathering at the top of the sleeve? You don’t want too much though or you will look like someone from the 80′s.

ok, you’ve got both sleeves sewed in, this is what it should look like…

now we’re going to make the ruffles for the neck. I think I cut out two 8″ strips of fabric

now here is the important part. If you want the ruffles to stand up and hold their shape nicely you need to put interfacing on the back of the ruffle strips. I like to use iron on interfacing because it’s easier to sew with

with the right sides together sew the ends of each ruffle. Don’t sew the 2 strips together, just sew the ends of each strip to itself.

you should now have 2 pieces of fabric that are sewn into a circle. Now we’re going to sew the edges of each one together, wrong sides together (I use a basting stitch to do this, the longest stitch)…

the 2 ruffles for the collar…you can see that they are not perfect but since they will be ruffled you won’t be able to see that anyway.

If you are familiar with ruffling you know that you sew a basting stitch and pull one of the threads to ruffle it. With thicker fabric or layers of fabric that doesn’t work. This is how I ruffle thick fabric. I use a long stitch just because it doesn’t take as long to sew. Be careful it’s easy to break a needle at this point. You might want to break out the safety glasses here. I bunch the fabric up as it gets close to the needle.

this is what your ruffle should look like after you get done ruffling it

put the ruffle up to your neck line (make sure the hole is big enough to go over your head first) make sure the ruffle is approximately the same size as your neckline. You can adjust as you sew it on.

now sew the ruffle onto the neckline

it should look like this when you get the first ruffle sewn on…pretty rough

now you’re going to sew the other ruffle on the opposite way….the raw edge is facing down

to cover the raw edges between the ruffles I ruffled a small strip of brown knit and sewed it between the ruffles on the raw edges

here’s what it looks like

hem the sleeves and the bottom of the shirt using a stretch stitch or pull the fabric just a little while you’re sewing so it will still stretch a little when you put it on. Otherwise your thread will snap when your shirt stretches

TaDa!! You’re done!!

If you have any questions feel free to email me. Have fun!