Build a Bear Dress Pattern - Printable PDF

This past week I got to looking around for teddy bear dress patterns for my daughter's bear. We have cute scrap fabric and I thought it can't take that much fabric to make a dress, right? I was right! A half yard is more than enough. I found a great tutorial on pinterest by Jaci Hayden over here:

http://cutetutes.blogspot.com/2013/03/build-bear-dress-tutorial.html

The only tough thing about the pattern is that it's an image, not a PDF, so I had to resize it every time. I figured I'd do a good deed for the internet and PDF it! So now it's downloadable in the right size, with some extra marks on the dress to fit the skirt ruffles on nicely.

Bear Dress Pattern PDF

And here's Bella in one of her dress. Thanks for the tutorial, Jaci!

Monster pencil case tutorial

Kids are back in school, Halloween is coming up, so I figured it was about time to post up some instructions to the Monster Pencil Case fabric I recently added to my spoonflower shop. One fat quarter gives you supplies to make three different designs, all you need is a zipper and some simple lining fabric!

This is a simple easy project that takes almost no time, I love making zipper pouches. Here's what the fabric looks like:

First cut out all the pieces. Cut a matching piece of lining fabric for each part. Cut the face straight across where the mouth will be.

I used a 7" zipper for this that needed a bit of extension, luckily there's extra fabric for that. Layer the fabric, right sides together, with the zipper in between like a sandwich, and sew across where the zipper teeth end.

Lay the head, zipper and lining together. Make sure the zipper teeth are against your cool outside fabric, not the lining.

Sew across the head.

Open the head up and iron flat.

Do the same for the mouth layers.

Open the mouth layers and now you've got a whole face that unzips!

Now lay the backing down, set the face on top of it, and set the back of the head right-side down on the face.

Pin together.

Sew around, but leave 3-4" open at the bottom to turn inside-out.

Turn, and topstitch or hand stitch the opening. Ta-da! Scary! Yet functional, don't you love it!

Simple knit toddler dress

I've really gotten over my fear of working with knits lately. Last weekend I found this soft pink poly/cotton blend in the remnant bin at the fabric store, and made this dress for my 3-year-old:

Sorry the picture doesn't show the dress on my child, she is cute but moves too fast to be an ideal model. So far!

Really simple, the remnant was 54" wide and a little over .6 yards, I figured out that with 3/4 yard I could make dresses for all kinds of kids. Here's all I did:

1) Cut 3" off one end for the dress straps - in the direction so they wouldn't stretch too much. Made tubes out of them that turned inside-out and there ya go, straps.

2) Made the top section, 7" wide (I would fold it in half lengthwise to make the top) and long enough to wrap around my kid's top - about 22" is good for a size 3-4T.

3) Used my skirt pattern calculator to figure out the bottom part. For the "waist", I put in the kiddo's hip measurement. 16" length would hit about knee-level. For the width I just played with it until the "full pattern width" was as wide as the fabric I had, when I folded it in half (that calculator makes you a skirt that you have to cut two pieces of).

4) I sewed the top part in a tube and folded it lengthwise. Sewed the straps to the top. Sewed the two sides of the skirt together.

5) Then when I attached the skirt to the top I just stretched the top to fit around the skirt so the thread would have enough stretch to go on and off.

If I were to do it again I'd put the straps a little closer together, when laid down they're about 1.5" from the sides, need to be 2 or 2.5". But the skirt/top combo worked out awesome. And this whole getup was like $3, so that's a win for me!

Distressed Damask - GIMP Tutorial

This week I added a new free damask pattern to my gallery at openclipart - it's a remix of a cool botanical stamp, public domain, pure black & white. That gives it lots of possibilities so I figured I'd post up this quick GIMP tutorial to show how to make a really cool background out of it!

You can use this for any boring pattern that you want to make distressed and earthy looking.

Here's what we're starting with:

First I'm going to recolor it. I kinda like purple and gray this week, so with purple as my main color I use the bucket fill tool. I set the mode to "lighten only" so it only gets the black parts, and hold down shift so it fills the whole layer purple:

Next I change my color to light gray and go to Layer: New Layer and set the color to "foreground color".

Then Layer > Stack > to bottom moves it underneath the damask:

I go to Image > Flatten to get them on the same layer.

Now I want to tile it so I'll have a little variation in the distress pattern. I go to filters > map > tile, set the mode to "percent", click the "chain" to break it, and tile height 200% and width 300% - it gets a little more width since it's not as wide to start out with. Whatever you pick though make sure it's a multiple of 100% so the image will tile nicely.

Time to add some texture to it. I create a brand new layer.

On the new layer, I pick Filter > Render > Clouds > Plasma. Set turbulence to 7 and hit "new seed" a few times until you just like what you see, no big zones of darkness.

Go to filters > Map > Make seamless. Now I'm at this fine mess:

I set the layer mode to "darken only" so it brings out the damask pattern underneath
Colors > Desaturate so the layer is only gray tones
Colors > Brightness & contrast > Brightness minus 100 so it's darker
I adjust the transparency until I like what I see.

And now I have this, which is much darker in a cool vampire-y kinda way:

What do you think? A nice old wallpaper sort of background for any occasion. Playing with layer modes and brightness settings here can bring lots of interesting results, so have fun and let me know what works best for you!

Box-shaped zipper pencil case tutorial

Next month spoonflower is having a zipper pencil case contest and I am SOOO excited, I usually don't do too well at their contests but with this one my mind has just been buzzing. Because hey, let's face it, I got into etsy only after I learned I could buy zippers at bulk prices for 1/10th of the cost they are in stores, crank out adorable bags for all my loved ones, and then everyone else's loved ones too!

But I've never posted a whole lot about my methods, and I need to for this contest, so here are the instructions for how to make a zipper pouch that's got some 3-D-ness to it.

It was also a fun chance for me to try scrawling on my photos with an ipad stylus... my handwriting is not the most beautiful but this method certainly gets to the point.

Here we go: the box-shaped pencil case in only a few EASY steps!

First, the pattern: I've got two here, one that's 3" and requires a 12.5x12.5" square of fabric, and one that gives you 2.5" sides and requires a 10.5"x12" square. Both require 8 inch zippers, but you can use a smaller zipper and add fabric to the ends before sewing it to make up for that, or you can use a longer zipper and just add inches of fabric.

To start: lay your lining and outside fabric on top of each other, right sides together. Sandwich the zipper in there, teeth up. Sew along the top edge. I don't get out my zipper foot for this, I just hit that lever on my sewing machine that moves the needle over a smidge.

Then sew the other side of the zipper.

Now this is important... open your zipper, at least halfway!

Then sew the side edges.

Then the corners - leaving the lining corners open.

Check to make sure each side's top and bottom are the same length, so your box will have square ends, not trapezoid ones. Then turn the whole thing inside-out through the open lining corners. This will be really easy as long as you remembered to leave your zipper open.

And topstitch the lining corners closed.

And you're done! Here's about what it should look like:

Tutorial: Making a chevron pattern with GIMP

Chevrons are totally in right now and it's easy to make a tile-able background, but I gotta warn you this takes a crazy math skill (multiplication) so I've used my brains to step in and tell you how to do it! And as you all know my favorite graphics program is GIMP, but these basic guidelines will work anywhere.

Step 1: Make a striped background

Start a new image, whatever size you'd like, then give it some horizontal stripes. It works best if it's as wide or wider than it is tall.

My favorite method is to just set your background color as something pretty, select a stripe across your image with the rectangle select tool, and hit delete. Any stripe pattern will work!

I went to my favorite website for color palettes to find this fun combo, titled Cafe 1950 by áfrica*.

Tile & rotate

First, pay attention to the height of your image in pixels because you'll need to know that later. My image was 100 pixels high.

Now use Filters > Map > Tile and tile your image by at least 300%.

Rotate the image 45 degrees, using the rotate tool or hit ctrl+r

Crop

Now it's time to get your diagonal pattern to the right size, so it tiles seamlessly.

Remember your original image height? I hope so!

Go to Image > Canvas Size.

Get out your calculator! Multiply your original image height by the square root of 2... about 1.41. My original image was 100 pixels high so now I'm cropping it to 141x141.

Under "offset", just hit the center button.

And for "layers", use the "resize all layers" option.

Now you have a diagonal pattern that will tile seamlessly - you can go to Filters > Map > Tile to test it out!

Turn diagonal stripes into chevrons

But we were going for chevrons weren't we!

1) Layer > Duplicate layer
2) Filters > Map > Tile - now set the width only to tile to 200%
3) Layers > Stack > Layer to bottom

Now select your top layer in the list and flip it horizontally using the flip tool, or ctrl+h

Combine the layers using Image > Flatten Image.

And now you have one tiny part of your tile-able chevron pattern... use filters > map > tile to see how pretty it looks as a background!

Baby onesie pattern and tutorial

Here I am, 33 weeks pregnant and finally the sewing bug has gotten to me! Actually what happened was I went through my daughter's baby clothes and egads, why did I keep some of that stuff. I know we handed down a few less-loved items but there were still some nasty stained up onesies at the bottom of that bin.

So I sacrificed them. A variety of brands lended themselves to measurements and I arrived at my own personal onesie pattern, which I have decided to share with you all. Why, you ask, would a new mom opt to sew her own baby bodysuits when they come in six packs at Target? The same reason we sew anything, brain.

FABRIC.

Or maybe you want to use up an old t-shirt. Or maybe you just want to dive into a project for fun... after all, a bodysuit is a freaking front, back, and two sleeves. Does not take long. And it's baby clothes so if you screw up who cares, it's not like the kid's heading to a job interview.

One of my favorite spoonflower designers, robyriker, has a whole pink girly robot collection that my daughter just has to spend her first days in. I ordered a yard of the organic cotton knit thinking I'd make a quicky receiving blanket, but spoonflower's knits are 56" wide... I could make a whole onesie and still have a 36x40" square left for the blanket. For that matter, I could have just ordered a fat quarter of the stuff! But who can stop at a quarter?



So the pattern is simple, and like my other tutorials I'm not going to post a million steps.

Here's the PDF download: Free printable onesie pattern by spacefem

It's three pages. The front and back are split into pages but there's a dotted line across each half... make sure those dotted lines are seven inches apart. The front will overlap a bit, but the back pieces have a gap because the whole back is about 17-18" high.

This pattern is meant for a sort of 0-3 months size, but can obviously be scaled, lengthened, widened, etc. I just picked that size because let's face it, after the newborn gifty stage nobody has time to sew.

First, I cut 1.5" strips, 36" long each, for the trim. One strip will go for the neckline, the other for the bottom.

Then I cut out the other pieces.

Folded the trim strips in half, then one side in half again. Pinned it to the neckline of the front and just zig-zag stitched it because that's how a hack like me works with knits. But honesty, I think zigzag stitching gives it a homey cute handmade look, so I'm sticking with it.



I did the same to the back piece.

Next I hemmed each sleeve up 3/4" - just folded it in once and sewed.

Now time for the shoulder. You lay the front piece down, facing you. The back piece down on top of it, shoulders matching up. Then the sleeve goes in. If you opted to make the sleeve wider for the cute girly shirred looking option, you'll want to sew a loose thread into it first to ease it in. Match the armpit sections of the sleeve first, then pin the middle... which I admit is not what this picture shows but keep in mind the exact center of the sleeve will NOT match the exact center of where the front and back meet, because we humans need more sleeve behind us, if that makes sense.



Once both sleeves are in, match the side seams of the front and back up, right sides facing each other of course, and sew the whole length of the side, armpit and tiny sleeve length.

Then hammer some snaps in the bottom, that's always fun.

And you're done!

Well, I'm not DONE done because I haven't HAD THE BABY YET but my time will come. Tune in around May 8th to see how that goes, so far everything's been just lovely even if I don't walk quite as fast, I can still sew! And then I'll really be able to do a fit check and maybe update this with a photo of an actual child modeling my craft. Wish me luck :)

---

Update: I had my baby and she's perfect!

The onesie pattern is pretty darn awesome too... but of course, like most baby items, I don't have a picture of it fitting perfectly. We put it on her when she was a six pound newborn and it was pretty big. Then we put it on her when she was a 12 pound two-month old and it's a little snug (dang, that was fast!) But I think the 12-pound picture is cuter, so here she is. Oh, and her name is Olive, she's our second daughter and her hobbies are eating, staring at things, and apparently modeling my sewing projects:

Crutch covers pattern + tutorial

In February my normally totally healthy and very active sister slipped on some ice and completely destroyed her ankle, broke like four bones and needed surgery and the works. I live out of town so there wasn't much I could do, until she sent me a link to some crutch covers she'd found online because I guess her crutches were really uncomfortable, and I thought "I could make those!" But I could not find a pattern anywhere easy online, everyone was like "What, just get some crutches and fit fabric around them." I had to measure some crutches that a coworker had, what a pain for something so standard! So here's what I ended up with, complete with measurements so you can make your own!

Here's the finished image sis grabbed for me, they fit! Yay!



I made three parts, shown below from left to right:
1) Handle covers that velcro around the grippy part
2) A bag that hangs off the grippy part, nicely sized for holding stuff like remotes or a water bottle, since when you're on crutches you CAN'T USE YOUR HANDS bummer!
3) Covers for the top part, big enough so if you wanted to add more padding or towels you can cover those too and everything will just look so pretty!



You will need:
1) 18" of sew-on velcro, unless you'd rather use snaps
2) Fleece. Either 5/8 yard of your favorite pattern ever, or 1/2 yard each of two of your favorite patterns if you have fabric selection trauma
3) 5/8 yard of webbing for the bag hangers

Pieces to cut:
1) Handle covers - 4.5x7.5" rectangles, each one uses two squares so you'll cut four total
2) Bag - 5" x 16", cut two, then cut two 4.5"x7" pieces for a front flap if you'd like
3) Top covers - 18"x12", cut four

Vague instructions:
I'm not going to go into a ton of detail here, I'll just say that I used 1/2" seam allowance for everything, and all velcro strips were 3".

The handle covers are basically sew one 3" velcro onto the right side of each bit of fleece, sew two pieces right sides together leaving an opening, turn inside out and topstitch.

The bag - fold each piece in half and sew the sides to make two bags. Turn one of them inside out. Stuff it in the the other one, right sides together. Make the flap, cut the webbing in half and sew the velcro onto the webbing so it'll wrap around the handles, put your two "bags" together right sides together, have the flap and webbing in there so it'll just all magically work out... you'll be fine.

The covers - The inside fleece gets 3" velcro bits. Again, you basically make each one into a little bag, turn one inside out, stuff it into the other one so their right sides are together, sew most of the top leaving an opening, turn them all and topstitch.

Hopefully those are good enough instructions, my goal here was mostly to provide the measurements I used so anyone whose sewn a decent amount can run from there and do your own thing. It's just big squares so you can't screw them up too much.

If anyone has suggestions for perfect types of padding, that might be nice info to add! I did not venture into that world because with the girl on crutches for only like six weeks, I needed to get these done in a weekend! This project took 2, maybe 3 hours tops and that's with my two-year-old tearing apart my sewing room like she does so yours might be faster.

Good luck and stay safe, people, nobody likes crutches! But if you have to be on them, at least this way they'll be cute!