No Sew Child's Patriotic Shirt TUTORIAL

I really love to sew, but every once in a while it's nice to leave the machine in its box and do something on my own! This project is simple enough that, if your kids are old enough, they can definitely do it with supervision.

This project is inspired by projects I've seen others do, so this idea is definitely an original thought of mine. I'll share what I did anyway, though. I had a bit of a hard time finding a plain white t-shirt for Tiny One that was the right size, so necessity gave birth to invention, with the tied sides. I think it's fun! Here's what you need:

A t-shirt a couple sizes too big (white)
A t-shirt that fits (pink - just for a reference for size. This shirt won't be altered in any way)
Blue fabric paint (I used the Tulip brand Soft fabric paint)
Fabric glue (I used FabriTac - I think it's fabulous!)
Red Rick Rack

First, take your scissors and cut a straight line up each side of the shirt. Mine had side seams, so I cut along those and cut the serged part out. If you have a t-shirt without side seams, grab the shoulder seams and shake the shirt out and lay it as flat as you can, then cut along the folds.

Now take the shirt that fits and carefully lay it on top of the other one, matching up the neck and shoulders.

Cut off the sleeves to about the length of the shirt that fits, or however long you want them. It may seem weird, but you can cut it about even with the sides. When you tie it, the sleeve will come out further than the side of the shirt again.

Cut strips, stopping a little bit away from the edge of the shirt that fits. Cut through both layers of shirt at the same time, so that they're the same. I did about 3/4" inch cuts. It doesn't have to be perfect. I just eyeballed it.

Now tie the bottom pieces to the corresponding pieces. I tried to use all square knots, but it's really hard to keep track on these! A double knot of some kind will do fine. :)

Here's how it will look when you're done. I cut the bottom of the shirt off so that it wasn't so long, but I left it longer than the shirt that fits. When you tie this, it will pull it up a little bit.

Now for the paint! Make sure to put enough paint on that hand so that it doesn't dry before you get it onto the shirt. I learned the hard way... We had to do it twice.

Put the handprint in the upper left, where the stars on a blue field would be on the flag. I had to take some paint and a brush afterward and make the blue smudge look more like a hand. A 17 month-old doesn't exactly have a desire to hold still enough to put their painted hand onto a shirt multiple times. Hence the random smudges...

I cut pieces of Rick Rack and laid them on the shirt, trimming and arranging until I was happy.

Then, one at a time, I lifted each one off, drew a line with the glue, and replaced the Rick Rack. Once I was done gluing them on, I went back and made sure the ends were glued down, so that they don't get snagged on anything. This glue sets pretty quickly, while still being re-positionable.

I grabbed some star-shaped buttons and glued them on for good measure. Why not? Now I can't wait for Independence Day so that Tine One can wear it!

Painted "Chevron" Maxi Skirt TUTORIAL

Hello! I'm glad you stopped by! Today we're going to add some zigzag to a Baby Maxi Skirt! 


Doesn't it sound just thrilling? And it only took about a half hour to do! Look at it!

Adorable, right? Well, here's what you need:

Baby Maxi Skirt
Fabric Spray Paint
Masking Tape

Got your stuff? Let's go! First, you will take your tape and make the zigzag, trimming corners so that they line up,

I even had fun and made them irregular, and the space between varying. I admit, if I get caught up in a trend at all, I try to put my own spin on it. It's no fun to be the same as everyone else! Anyway, now that you have the masking tape on there to your satisfaction, it's time to paint!

I wasn't sure how far the paint would saturate, so I stuck newspaper between the layers, and I went outside with newspaper underneath my project. Obviously my newspaper needed to be a little bigger. Luckily it came off of the concrete without too much work! 

The best way to ensure that your paint is even across your project is to start spraying off of the project, go across evenly, and stop off of the project. I went back and forth across until it looked how I wanted it. I went inside and gave it a little while to dry. About 15 minutes later I came out, flipped it over, and repeated! After I was satisfied with how dry it was, I took it inside to survey my handiwork. (The paint on the tape takes longer to be dry to the touch than the fabric, so I waited until the tape was dry, just to be safe)

Peel off the masking tape. It should come off quite easily, and it shouldn't have been on there nearly long enough to leave any sticky. 

I let mine dry for a couple more hours, and then I put it on Tiny One! I couldn't wait any longer to see it modeled! She loved it, too!

 Here's the back:

And the front:

Love it!

NOTE: Make sure you follow the instructions on the fabric spray paint you purchase. Mine said to allow the paint to set 72 hours before I washed it. I'd rather not mess up anything, so I did what it said! You should, too!

This method can be applied to any article of clothing, or accessory. It just has to be fabric paint for fabric, or an appropriate paint for whatever else you want to do! And it's certainly not limited to zigzag! Be creative! If you have any questions, or if you want to special order one of these, send me a message!

Double Bandanna Skirt for Infant/Toddler TUTORIAL

I have a pile of bandannas sitting around, being in the way. I have an adorable little girl who MUST be cute and well-dressed all the time! Hmmm. Sounds like a match made in heaven! So I came up with this cute little skirt, made from two bandannas, a bit of elastic, and some elbow grease. Ok, maybe no grease. Ew. Want to make one, too? Let's go!

Materials:
2 Bandannas (the ones I used were around 22"x22")
Elastic
Pins
Thread

I measured my little one's waist, and it was 16" (ish). I added an inch, and I cut a 17" piece of elastic, and set it aside. Go ahead and do the same. You won't need it for a few minutes. (If you don't have the little one nearby, or you're making it for someone else's, I admit I've cheated and gone to a nearby clothing store and measured the appropriate size of clothing and just matched that measurement).

Now for the bandannas. I want this little skirt to last a bit longer, so I decided on making the waist be maximum 22", so we need to cut a 7" circle. Lemme 'splain. I grabbed my 22" measurement out of the air. I thought an extra 6" would be good. Then I grabbed my calculator and divided it by pi (3.1415....dadada). It came to 7.0030. I rounded to 7. No matter what your ending measurement, it's easier to go with a simple number. Round to the nearest whole or half number (e.g. 6.5,7, 8.5). That way it's simple to measure in inches. If you need help, send me a message and we'll figure it out together!

I got on the computer and made a document with a 7" circle, printed, cut it out. Then you need to fold it in half, then half again. Looks like this when you're done:

Go iron your bandannas next. Believe me, it'll make it easier! They don't have to be completely pressed, just soften those intense fold lines they get in the store. Now take them and fold them the same as your circle. Half and half again. Don't unfold it yet!

 
Take a pin and poke it through the very center of your circle. Now use the same pin, with the paper on it, and poke it through the very tip of the folds in the bandanna.

This way you have that circle exactly in the middle of the bandanna. Very carefully lay this down, making sure the circle stays in the middle. Pull out the pin, and carefully trace around the paper. I admit, I just used a fine point Sharpie, but you can use a fabric pen or pencil. The marked parts will disappear under the elastic anyway. Repeat this process with your second bandanna.

You can barely see them, but they're there! Now carefully cut them out. Easiest way to start it is to fold the bandanna in half, then snip just a tiny bit on the fold where the marking is. Open it up, and cut around on just one layer. Do both of them!

Now for a kinda difficult part. Don't worry! You can totally do this hard thing. Now you're going to make one cut from the circle to the edge of the bandanna. They will look like this:

For one, you'll just fold it in half, cut in the fold to the center. The other one, you'll fold it diagonally, and carefully cut in the fold to the center. It doesn't have to be perfect! Imperfections can be hidden easily when you sew!

Next step. You want to lay them on top of each other. Make sure that the tiny hems on the edges are facing the same way, so that the outside is the outside on both of them. I put mine with the rolled part facing up. I wanted the red one worn on top, so I put it underneath the blue one. If your rolled hems are facing down, then put the one you want showing more on the top! Get it? I hope so! Match up those cut edges and pin around the circles.

You want both straight cuts lined up. This makes the points of the underneath one showing outside the straight edges of the top one. Baste around the circle. If you want, you can pin and baste up the straight edges, too.




Once it's basted, fold it all in half, with the cut edge as one edge of the fold. Mark halfway around the circle (fold) with a pin. If you want, you can fold in half again and mark the quarters as well. I did, and I found it helps a lot when you're adding the elastic. Now grab that elastic that's been waiting! Fold it in half, mark with a pin. Quarters if you did quarters on the bandannas.

Now match up pins and pin together. The bandannas will bulk in between the pins. That's excellent if yours does that! Also pin the ends of the circle and the elastic. Head to your machine and start. You'll want a zigzag stitch for working with the elastic, so that it stretches with movement and doesn't break. Start sewing, do your backstitch, and then you'll stretch the elastic out to be the same length as the bandanna and sew along the edges, lining them up as you go. You may have to reach behind and stretch from behind your machine foot so that you're not pulling your work backwards. Make sure to backstitch at the end, too!

The bandannas will bunch up a little when you stop stretching the elastic. That's what you want!

Now you'll flip it over and turn the elastic up, with the sewn part down, and you'll do a straight top stitch really close to the elastic (on the front - the seam will go through the bottom of the elastic on the back). THIS PART IS OPTIONAL! I think it hangs better when this is done, but if you don't like it, don't do it! I'll never know!

Last step! Are you ready? I know I am! Now all you have left to do is sew up that raw edge down the side/back of the skirt. I matched up the elastic, and pinned, then I matched up the opposite ends, the pointed ones and straight ones, and pinned. Then I pinned up the middle. I sewed about a 3/8" to 1/2" allowance. I hadn't cut mine very straight! I just made the seam as straight as I could and it was good enough! If you want to, you can do a zigzag stitch inside of that to prevent fraying, but I haven't seen the previous ones I've made fray much at all, so I never worry about it.

Flip it right side out, and find someone cute and tiny to model it!

Enjoy!