Make a Garment a Month: My Garment for December

This month I found a lovely knit, and this fun easy pattern by McCall's. Should be fun to wear on those cold winter days with leggings and boots.

I'm going to use my new BabyLock Ovation serger to make the whole thing.

 

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Unicorns, Rainbows and Sparkles part three: The Package

If you're going to have a Unicorn, Rainbow and Sparkle party,(click here to order you child's invite) you need fancy packages.

....and inside.

I brought out the good old Elmer's glue and glitter. I wrote her name on the ribbon, I also put a heart on another ribbon. I took a plain brown bag, horse stencil, glue and more glitter. Poured some glue in the stencil and spread it around with my finger.

Sprinkled the glue with glitter.

Wrote her name with the glue and sprinkled glitter, after about an hour I removed the stencil, added a fine line of glue to the head of the horse to make it a unicorn and added more glitter. After another hour I shook off the excess glitter...and there you have it, sparkles and unicorns.

The party is next!

 

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Make a Garment a Month: My Garment for November

This turned out real good.

At the beginning of the month I posted the material, patteren and the leggings I will be wearing with this. What a fun top. I love it.

 

I used my new BabyLock Ovation serger for the entire project.

I used the Cover Stitch-Wide stitch to do the double stitching. It turned out real well. It's really easy to thread this machine.

The Vogue pattern 8691 that I used called for lightweight jersey, double knit or cotton knit. The dark brown is a lightweight knit which worked great for this pattern, but the other light brown lose knit didn't do as well. As you can see from the pattern picture below, the flounce doesn't have a hem.

 

Had I used the light brown knit on the bottom it would have raveled. I didn't realize that it was a raw edge pattern when I bought the knit. However I did buy some matching trim which worked very well.

The funny thing is using the trim left me with left over pieces. The flounce that I didn't use. That might happen when putting together a bookcase or fixing your car, but I've never had left over cut pattern pieces. Lol. I need to read my pattern enevelopes better before buying fabric.

This pattern also had self lining sleeves, which I've never done before. They were very easy and turned out great! Look at the pattern piece.

My serger made everything look so professional and store bought. As I said above I used the cover stitch wide on my new Babylock Ovation. It made the top stitching so very easy. Love it, love it love it!

 

It even looks good on the hanger.

Fun pattern. Would recommend to go with leggings and boots.

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Unicorns, Rainbows and Sparkles part two: T-Shirt

You saw the pillow case last week, now a cute little shirt I made my granddaughter. I used the same design that I did for the pillow case. Oh and remember you can get custom invitations at SassyDBass.

I used different thread. Some with more sparkle.

I always try out technics on a sample before doing anything on the real thing.

I added about three inches to the bottom using some ribbing I had in my stash.

I used a roll hem with fuzzy nylon in the upper looper to make a lettuce edge. Then I did the rolled edge on the neck and the sleeves. I also added a cute stitching design to the sleeves

She loved it!

Next week the packaging.......with sparkles!

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Unicorns, Rainbows and Sparkles part one: Pillow Case

It's my granddaughters 5th birthday, and it's everything Unicorns, Rainbows and Sparkles. Check out the invite my daughter designed, which by the way, she custom designs and sells on Etsy plus many more designs. Sew time to make some gifts. I looked on Embroidery Designs.com and found a beautiful design.

Isn't it cute!

I popped the design in my embroidery machine, and away we go. At the embroidery class I attended a few weeks ago they emphasized doing a test run. Sew I used a piece of white flannel that I had left over from a previous project. Looked at it a bit and thought if this turns out good I can make a pillow case with it. The design is 3.49" x 3.83" I measured down about 7 1/2" from the top of the fabric, then folded the fabric in half width wise and then one more time to find the middle of half the fabric. Marked it with a pin and hooped the fabric with a stabilizer behind it. Started stitching. Watching where each new stitching area started even if there wasn't a color change. And marked down the stitch number of each change. Example (The outline of the hair and body of the unicorn are all one color, but I didn't want the outlines the same color.)

The stitching turned out great! I'll use it for the pillow case.

On a sewing show way back when, I watched how to make a pillow case without any raw edges. Here is how I did it.

For Christmas last year I made my granddaughter pajamas from a beautiful brown and pink flannel. I used that and a cordnating solid pink flannel. Sew I cut the brown flannel 27" (3/4 yd) and the pink 2", the white was 10". I placed the brown down salvage edges together, took the pink, folded it in half length wise, put that on top of the brown raw edges together and placed the white on top to that. Pinned them all together. Note the directions of the pins.

Then flip the top fabric (white) up and roll the bottom fabric (brown) up, flip over and bring what was the top fabric (white) to the raw edges.

The top fabric will now be around the other two fabrics.

Move your pins so that all edges are pinned together to sew. Note: white edge, two pink edges, one brown, and one more white edge.

 

 

Sew edges together, then take the brown and pull the larger piece out. Turn everything insideout.

Sorry the picture is so blurry, I was done with the project before I realize it.

Once you have pulled it through you will see that all the seams are inside!

Now for side and bottom seams. Line up the two side edges, trim so the everything is even.

The French seams. Pin wrong sides together, stitch a 1/4" seam allowance along the side and bottom of pillow case.

Trim about 1/8 off and turn wrong side out and stitch a 3/8" seam allowance on both the side and the bottom.

 

Turn right side out and your done!

 

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Sew-Along: LFJ Part 2

 

Cut the fashion fabric and lining

Well I went to the fabric store in the city and didnt find any Boucles that I wanted to invest $45.00 a yard in. Sew I'm going with what I have. It will be a good leaning experience and maybe even cute.

I cut my Muslim apart including cutting off the seam allowance off. The pieces look really small.

I laid my fabric out on the table and oh darn it, there were spots on it. I went out side and laid it all out in the sun and marked the spots with yellow marker.

Sew I had to place my pattern pieces around the spots. Not a real good way to save material. Oh well, just part of the challenge. It will all work out.

Next step is thread baste.

" why thread baste?.... once your standard seam lines are removed from a muslin, you have to find a new way of transfering the sewing lines to your fashion fabric, as you will remove your pattern before you start joining it all together, thread tracing is a perfect semi-permanant solution." - A Challenging Sew

Thread tracing the pattern really didn't take that long. I hope I did it right. I haven't cut out the sleeves yet. Waiting for instruction on that, for matching up the lines of the fabric.

After thread tracing the pattern pieces on to the fabric, it's time to cut out the lining.

Sew far this has been a real learning experience. I'm loving every minute of it. In my area we have a Palmer/Pletsch School of Sewing, maybe I'll take a class soon.

Next is quilting!

 

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