2013 - QA Creations

December 14, 2013May 29, 2014

How to sew a baby Santa Hat tutorial

I was searching for a tutorial on how to make a baby Santa hat, and found crochet and knitting tutorials and patterns galore but nothing for sewing with knits or fleece. I played around and made a couple cute versions for my daughter, so hopefully this very loose tutorial can help someone else.

If you choose to do the traditional santa hat, it is a bit easier. I used a serger for this project, but it was really just because I have a new serger that I was excited and wanted to use. A regular sewing machine would work just as well.

1. Measure your child’s head. My daughter’s head was a little over 18.25 inches in circumference.

2. Make hat width about half of the child’s head size. I made it 9 inches wide. Cut bottom 9 inches wide, and then go up about 2 inches on the left and right sides of the hat. For the band, cut white fleece rectangle 18 inches (double the red part’s width) by 6.5 inches. Make sure the direction of stretch is widthwise when cutting all pieces.

3. Cut the angle for the Santa Hat. I made mine 60 degree angles using the marking on my quilting ruler. I just cut up and let them intersect.

4. I cut the top part off because of how I was attaching the fleece pom pom. If you are hand sewing, I would just leave the angle and sew it on once completed. Don’t try to serge the fleece with the pom pom in it. Don’t ask me why I know that. Just trust me… it’s not worth trying to do no matter how clever it seems.

Example pom pom tutorials:

Fleece pom poms from “What does she do all day?”

Fleece pom poms from “Pretty Prudent”

Wool pom pom from “Parenting Fun Everyday”

Looped thread pom pom (blog not in english, but has self-explanatory pictures)

Purl Bee method using special pom pom maker

Cardboard circle method from “One Crafty Mumma”

5. Sew together the red top angled part of the hat. If you are using a regular sewing machine, a straight stitch would work for this part.

6. Sew the white rectangle band piece with right sides together on the short end. Fold the band in half with right sides together. Sew the white band and red hat together. If you are using a regular machine, I would use a zig zag stitch for this part so that it will have some stretch to fit on your child’s head.

7. Fold the band down and it is ready for wear!

The skull cap version is a little bit more complicated, but not if you have a hat pattern.

Step one: Get hat pattern. If you have a knit hat on hand that fits, you can trace it and then add seam allowances to get the proper size. If you want to make a size 0-3 months, you can use the pattern provided at Zaaberry. Her instructions on how to assemble the hat are very good and very well photographed, so I recommend using her tutorial for assembly.

Step two: Cut out two hat pieces and one band piece. The main hat pieces will be red and the band will be white. Take care to make sure the direction of the fabric stretch is horizontal so that it can stretch and stay on your little one’s head.

Step three: Make white pom pom or get pom pom for top of the hat. Or buy some pom poms from the store, whatever is easiest. Whatever method you use, make sure there is some thread or fleece or other method of attachment to sew into the hat. If not, you can hand sew it on at the end.

Step three: Prepare and Sew together the hat pieces. Fold the hat piece in half and sew the cut out portion first. Repeat for second piece. Then put the right sides together and sew the half moon shape leaving the opening for the head. Sew the rectangle band piece with right sides together on the short end. Fold the band in half with right sides together.

Step four: Sew the band and hat together.

I originally had planned to sew a pom pom on the top, but it really fits better under a hood without one. The colors still read Santa hat without the pom pom. Enjoy!

Linking up to: Make it, Wear it from The Train to Crazy, Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story, You Flew Tuesdays at Feather’s Flights, “We did it Wednesday” at Sew Much Ado, and Friday Favs Party at Nap Time Crafters.

December 8, 2013May 29, 2014

I love my new serger!

No seriously, I can’t believe I didn’t get one sooner. I love my serger. I have the super-basic Brother 1034D. It was supposed to be my birthday present back in May, but I wasted months trying to figure out why there is such a price jump in sergers and if the more expensive ones are worth it. I chose to get a basic serger and then I will get a cover stitcher at a later date. The combined cost will be less than many of the fancy sergers I was considering. Despite all my debating, I finally got my serger and I love it!

Why do I love it? It is amazingly fast, and the finish looks great. It is also easy to use.

I was a little intimidated at first, mostly because people talk about how hard sergers are to thread and to get the tension correct. I watched the video tutorial, and then set out to serge. I was a little upset at first because out of the box, the thread kept breaking and it was not working like the video. Then I discovered one of the spools had the edge with the cut in it up, so the thread kept getting caught and breaking. One of the bonuses of this almost tragic frustration is that I got really good at threading it almost immediately. In fact, I prefer rethreading it when I change thread color to doing the tie and pull thread through method that even the video recommended.

How did I get to love my serger so fast? I used it on real projects to learn. I know people advise you to practice on scraps first, but I get bored. So, after about 12 inches of sewing on scraps I jumped to real projects.

I had two knit projects cut out ready to go: the Bimaa Sweater (LouBee Clothing) and the Lily Blazer (Peek-a-boo Pattern Shop). It turns out I did not choose the easiest projects – not that the patterns are difficult in any way – I chose difficult fabrics.

For the Bimaa, I chose the lightest knit ever from JoAnn Fabrics. I made a 2T, because my daughter’s measurements put her in the 12 month size but I’ve read that it fits tight and I wanted it to fit over onesies. I should have done the 12 month length with the 2T width because the body and sleeves are about 2 inches too long. Oh well, room to grow right?

I followed the advice from the video tutorial to change the feed differential to 0.7 for light knits and had no issues putting the Bimaa together. The serger goes so fast I had to get over my quilter’s need to pin every two inches (and more often on curves). I felt very proud of my first knit garment when I finished it. There are a few seams that are not as attractive as they could be on the starts and stops, but it’s a learning process.

The only odd thing about this pattern is that the hood is huge! My daughter has a large head – like 96th percentile huge head – and she swims in it. It is also so big that it pulls the shirt too far back because of too much fabric weight, so it pulls at the neck. If I were to ever make this hoodie in the smaller sizes I would probably try to draft down the hood a little. Most likely, I just won’t make the hood option again until she is older. I will probably do the shawl option next.

For the Lily Blazer I chose a beautiful stripe that I am pretty sure I also got at JoAnn Fabrics. Knit stripes are probably not a good choice for a second garment ever made on the serger, but I went for it!

Most of the stripes ended up matching, so I’m pretty happy with it. I made the 12 month size. I love the ruffle on her butt when she is crawling around.

The only other change I made was to use snaps instead of buttons because they are easier to dress her with.

The way this is constructed it becomes fully lined when you are done which is very nice.

My only complaint is that the sleeves are too long with the cuff. I should have followed the baby example the pattern came with where the designer didn’t add the cuff and just hemmed the sleeves. Then, the length would have been perfect. As is, I fold the cuff up completely and the serged edge shows. The black thread against the dark fabric isn’t really noticeable so in reality, I’m probably the only person that will notice.

I can’t wait to keep using my new toy!

Linked to: Make it, Wear it from The Train to Crazy, Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story, You Flew Tuesdays at Feather’s Flights and Friday Favs Party at Nap Time Crafters.

November 16, 2013May 29, 2014

Oliver and S Fairy Tale Dress Christening Gown

A tale of two christening gowns: The heirloom and the Oliver & S Fairy Tale Dress

Situation: The first was my baptism dress from when I was baptised and my mother passed it on to me to use with my daughter. I was baptized at 6 months so I thought it would fit my 9 month old daughter. Unfortunately, it did not fit. That left my mother and I to start making a dress Thursday morning for church on Sunday morning at 9:00 am with the added detail that 6 additional family members were arriving Saturday afternoon, so it had to be finished before then.

Solution: We chose to flip the Oliver & S Fairy Tale Dress. I wanted a peter pan collar and sleeves with an empire waist to echo my original dress that my mother had made. The fairy tale dress gave me that bodice top and the adjustments gave the long traditional bottom.

To accomplish this I had to make a couple minor adjustments to the pattern. I cut off the fitted dress at an empire waist height, and adjusted the skirt length to go down to the floor. I also took a lot of the gathering out of the skirt because of the silk dupioni fabric I chose to use, and I also felt like it would be overwhelming for such a little girl.

My daughter measured 19.5 inches at the chest which put her as a perfect size 6-12 months, but due to the compressed time frame I didn’t have time for a muslin and couldn’t risk it not fitting. Therefore, I made the 6-12 month size with the 12-18 month width as you can see in the bodice pattern photo. After it was finished, she had enough room that I’m sure the 6-12 month width would have fit perfectly fine but I just couldn’t risk it turning out too small.

I also added ruffle fabric for the skirt. I made the ruffle fabric about 4-5 inches longer than the silk just to cut down on bulk and make it easier for my daughter to move and easier for me to hold her.

To add the ruffle fabric I used the silk as the lining, but not as the lining like the pattern calls for. Due to the thinness of the ruffle fabric, I could not use it as an outer layer to attach the zipper to. I treated the silk and the ruffle as one (outer) layer of fabric with no lining. This (combined with the empire waist) led to a couple minor differences from the pattern:

– The skirt seams had to be finished because they were not sandwiched within the lining. The ruffle fabric does not fray so it did not need to be finished – I just cut it at the length I wanted.

– I did not use a side seam for the ruffle layer. I used the entire width of fabric by the length I wanted for the skirt and only had the back seam.

– Shorter zipper: with the empire waist there is no need for such a long zipper. I ended the zipper about three inches below the empire waist and it was long enough to get my daughter in and out easily. The instructions for an invisible zipper were good, but I hadn’t done one in forever so the Coletterie tutorial helped fill in the blanks for me.

– Lining: My mom hand stitched the lining down on the inside of the dress. We also left the seam of the skirt and bodice upwards instead of ironing it down like the pattern calls for. That seam was then covered by the bodice lining.

– Hook at top of zipper: I left it off and it stayed closed just fine throughout the day.

This was the late night photo when we finished the dress Friday night – ahead of schedule!!

I added some silk flowers to both the bodice and the bonnet. I used this tutorial from Just Another Hang Up for the flowers.

The bonnet is a combination of several tutorials that I found online because I didn’t find a single one that was what I wanted. I got the shape from this one and the ruffle from this one.

I love how the combination turned out! The tulip sleeves, peter pan collar, and ruffle fabric made such a sweet dress. This may have taken more time to make than the time she wore it for, but I really love it and maybe someday this can be worn again. The wrinkles show she wore it most of the day.

Lastly, a vintage view of a beautiful girl in a dress made by her mom and grandma on a quilt made by me.

Linking up to Show and Tell, Made By Hand, Fabric Tuesday and You Flew Tuesdays.

October 30, 2013September 18, 2015

Blogger’s Quilt Festival: Daisy Chain Finished!

I am pleased to welcome you to my baby quilt entry for the Blogger’s Quilt Festival! This quilt is another oldie but goody… I started it in Afghanistan in March 2011 or so, and was pieced using my Featherweight (you can see it in the bottom right corner in the photo below). This design is “Daisy Chain” from “Jelly Roll Quilts” by Pam & Nicky Lintott. This is the throw size, sans border. I think the fabric was Lily and Will – the pink version.

I longarm quilted it this summer. You too can have me finish up long overdue WiPs as part of Quilts Actually.

The binding and backing is by now looking familiar if you see my work. When I started quilting I bought this brown fabric as backing formy first quilt. I bought way too much and it has been used in two quilt backs, and three bindings so far. I say so far because there is more fabric left. Luckily it works with a wide variety of my quilts! The back is mostly flannel – the pink houndstooth you see below.

This was once again finished during camper quilting. My featherweight and I can do great things together while my husband watches the baby. It is quilted with a light pink thread in a heart panto design.

The colors are most accurate in this rolled up shot – it is such a sweet baby quilt.

Linked to: Blogger’s Quilt Festival Fall 2013 and Finish it up Friday!

October 26, 2013May 29, 2014

Kids Clothes Week, Fall 2013

I was very excited to participate in Kids’s Clothes Week for the first time! This is pretty much what I got done for the week, but I was showing real time progress over on Instagram throughout the week.

First, the plan. There have been many versions of the plan.

Version 1 – make 3-4 bonnets to last through winter into spring, 2 O+S seashore dresses, and a fall themed pinafore. Now, why did it seem like a good idea to make two O+S summer dresses in October? I wanted one as her Army vs. Navy outfit, and figured while I was at it I should also make the next size up for next summer. I wanted the upper portion embroidered with the Army logo, but after many hours of searching I realized West Point has its copyrights locked up so tight you can’t even find a legitimate way to do what I wanted to do. Also, realistically we are going to be sitting on our couch watching the game so it doesn’t matter what she wears. Seashore dresses out.

Version 2 – I bought a serger (yay!), so what better time than the present to learn how to use it? I saw Bimaas and leggings in my future. Turns out the serger doesn’t come with thread and the instructions I need to watch on a windows computer. My windows laptop died over a year ago. Moving on…

Version 3 – Get ready for a Southern Winter Kids Clothes Week. This still includes a bonnet and pinafore. Now, I added flannel lined Quick Change Trousers, baby mittens, lumberjack hat, scarf, and O+S hood. Neither winter hat was completed.

Pinafore: The pinafore needs two buttonholes. In my defense, my regular machine decided it doesn’t want to sew without leaving huge thread nests from the bobbin so this was/is on hold while I bought a vintage buttonholer off eBay for my Featherweight, which is what I’m sewing on this week.

The pinafore is using the free pattern from Smashed Peas and Carrots. I added the pockets on one side, and fall appliqué on the other side. It is made of linen, and once I get buttons put on will be super cute. These in-progess pictures show the idea.

Side 1:

Side 2:

Baby mittens- version one and two complete. The concept is good, but my daughter has really long fingers so they just barely fit. This was my priority because it was 40 degrees several mornings this week and she doesn’t like to keep her hands under the blanket. I used the tutorial from Speckled Owl Studio. The only challenge was that tutorial was really meant for newborn mittens to keep babies from scratching themselves as opposed to winter gloves, so I had to do some adjusting. I used corduroy and fleece to warm them up. I am still working on sizing because my second version was too large and she just pulled them off her hands in two seconds.

Bonnet- this bonnet makes my heart heavy. I absolutely love how it turned out! The problem is that it is huge! Her old ones were getting small so I decided to go up two sizes, and it will not fit this winter. Maybe next week I can face making another smaller one. This matches the pinafore perfectly, so it would be a shame to not have her wear them together.

Winter Quick Change Trousers: I used the pattern from Handmade Beginnings by Anna Maria Horner. The last pair I made was huge, so I reduced the front piece by an inch on each side. This was probably a little too aggressive, about 1/2 inch would have probably been perfect. I also added the tuxedo strip for some fun. The butt is also the gray elephant fabric, and I love the elephant butt on these! The inside shown is flannel. The large size is nice in winter because they do fit over her knit pants. I used the width reduced 9 month size with 12 month length.

Fleece Booties: Also a must in the cold. I used the tutorial from Dorothy Was Here. I used the size exactly as is, and they fit my 8.5 month old perfectly. I will probably have to size them up for another pair before the winter is over. I would also like to try using the non-stick fabric on the bottom like she suggested, but I couldn’t find any at my fabric store during Kids Clothes Week.

The combined result of this efforts is my little warm girl below 🙂 Although, we did add two more blankets because it was freezing this morning. Not too bad for a week’s effort! Kids Clothes Week has been a blast and I can’t wait for the spring version!

Edited to add:
Linking up to Show and Tell, Made By Hand, and Make It, Wear It.

October 16, 2013May 29, 2014

Chambray shorts

I often feel like an impostor when I sew clothing. I am self-taught and learn a lot of things the hard way. Then, when I was watching Project Runway several weeks ago the winning designer (Alexandria) used chambray and the judges loved how she used the fabric! It made me feel a little better about myself. I am not an impostor when I used the same fabric in these shorts, and used it before Project Runway did.

That is not to say I am by any means anything other than a beginning seamstress when it comes to clothing, but I think I make nice quality garments for my daughter. If they weren’t, I would not let her wear them and I wouldn’t waste my own time to make them. There are already too many cheap, ready to wear options to waste time and fabric on substandard homemade substitutes. I aspire to fully support high quality and ethically produced clothing, but time and financial constraints exist. That was slightly deeper than I originally meant to go.

Now, on to the shorts. These are the ever popular Elegance and Elephants Bubble Shorts in size 6 months. The fabric is a blue chambray that is a nice weight for baby shorts. It was a little more challenging to sew with than regular quilting cotton because of the edges fraying more than I am used to. However, the fraying issue was not bad enough to deter me from sewing with this fabric again. It is enough of an issue that the seams need to be finished though. I used french seams to finish mine.

My daughter’s favorite part of these shorts are the tie. What’s better than a string to play with that you can’t drop or lose?

One final parting shot of her adorableness and the irony of childhood – every toy she could ever want and one of her favorites is an old remote.

Linked to:

September 4, 2013September 18, 2015

Pandora’s Box is finally finished!

Sometimes my WiPs get out of hand… as in taking years to finish a simple baby quilt.

I began this quilt top in Afghanistan in December of 2010. It’s been awhile! The design is “Pandora’s Box” from “Jelly Roll Quilts” by Pam & Nicky Lintott. My version is half size and I left off the border.

I quilted this in mid-July 2013.

I put the binding on this weekend. As in late August 2013. Thank goodness for camper quilting. My featherweight and I are going to put an end to my stack of unfinished quilts. Or at least that’s the plan.

The quilting is an allover square design to keep the quilt boyish.

The backing is a brown flannel with blue and white polkadots. The resulting quilt has a nice weight to it, but still moves easily and isn’t too stiff.

Linking up to Craft Buds Craft Book Month 2013 and Finish it up Friday.

August 28, 2013May 29, 2014

Bloom Bloom Pow, in progress

The Bloom Bloom Pow Quilt Along from Freshly Pieced looked like so much fun, but there was no way I could keep up with the schedule. I tried to resist the lure, but the versions popping up in her flickr group kept calling to me. I decided I could justify it if I used fabric I already had. Below is what my home shopping trip yielded. I debated the white background, and decided to go with grey. I just pulled this piece until I could order a solid grey, but over time that design grew on me and I decided to just use that as my background for the quilt.

Next came the cutting. I will admit that cutting a 25 inch strip of fabric 2.75 inches wide is annoying and slow. Luckily, I order my fabrics in half yard increments for the most part because if I was a fat quarter collector, this quilt would not have happened. It was also while I was cutting that I realized if I make just a couple more rows, I could expand this to a twin size quilt. That could help justify this quilt as a future bed quilt for the little girl, as opposed to yet another throw sized quilt that I already have enough of. Some of my ideas are better in my head than in reality (work wise, not common sense wise) 🙂 This is also when I realized that for as many blocks as I needed, I was going to have to add some more fabric to the pull.

As stated before, the 25 inch strips take a lot of cutting and patience. The stack of strips for 29 blocks is shown below. Only 4 more to go!

Next step is the half block assembly. I can only do about 9 at a time because of the number of pins I have free to use. It is slow going, partially due to my time available and partially because I am doing other projects in-between.

I now have 33 halves complete. This is slow-going (even with strip piecing), but I think I am going to really like the finished product.

Linking up to WiP Wednesdays!

July 10, 2013May 29, 2014

Em’s Out to Sea Quilt

From the moment I found out I was pregnant, I knew I wanted to create a quilt for my baby. I suppose it’s the sickness all quilters have – any excuse to make a quilt is justifiable. Once I knew I was having a girl, the desire only increased. My only problem was that I was actually creatively stifled by the multitude of options and all the different designs I wanted to create.

Once I found the “Out to Sea” fabric by Sarah Jane, I knew that was going to be the basis for the quilt and future nursery. The pirate girls at the center of each block are from that series. Some of the inspiration fabrics I pulled are shown below:

Still, I debated on what design to use. I finally decided on a blue and grey log cabin based quilt inspired by this quilt and this quilt and this quilt. The colors I used for the grey were too dark for the low contrast that is very popular right now, but follows the feel of what low contrast is trying to achieve. I chose the blue and grey because I want this quilt to be something she can enjoy for a long time, even when she is past the phase every girl goes through of loving pink. This is feminine and pink without screaming 6-year old girl (or at least the pink-obsessed 6 year old girl that I was).

I started this quilt over Christmas when we took a weekend holiday to the mountains of North Carolina. We had rented a house on an old mill pond that overlooked a waterfall and I started cutting and sewing on my travel machine – my old faithful featherweight. Unfortunately, in my pregnancy muddled state I mis-cut and mis-sewed and ended up with 1 log cabin and 11 courthouse step blocks. At least all 12 blocks had the colors based on the log cabin design so only a quilter who looks closely can probably notice the mistake. The design was purposely done to have each round get larger as I worked toward the outside of the block as you can see below. The shade of grey and blue also got darker as I worked outward.

I managed to finish the quilt top days before my due date. Due to my odd assortment of blocks, I couldn’t arrange it in the way I had originally planned, so I changed it to a more random arrangement seen below. It then sat for months as I realized how little sewing time I had once a baby was in my life. Her short naps are used for things like eating lunch and hygiene, rarely to craft for me.

After I emerged from the first few months of motherhood, I realized that I needed to do something for me sometimes to maintain my sanity and connections to the outside adult world. Quilting has been that thing for me before, and is that that thing again. I started on the quilt back. I seriously considered just buying some fabric to fill the back, but decided to shop in my stash. I started with the thought to use slightly wonky stars on one side of the map print, with the boat print below. That sketch can actually be seen in the first photo of the inspirational fabrics.

Once I had the star parts, I realized that I would have to trim them down more than expected to 2.5 inches. Then, I had my moment of inspiration – I would fill in the remainder of the back with patchwork. I cut out 2.5 inch squares from the leftover fabric from the front. I cut out 5 inch squares from other fabric in my stash that matched or was already in the quilt for the rest. The pink border was done to separate the 2.5 inch and 5 inch sections because the seams would not intersect properly due to the map in the middle that was not a variable of 2.5 inches.

Next came the decision on the quilting to finish this off. I’ve already chosen the bright pink solid as the binding. For quilting I didn’t want to do anything to emphasize the log cabins because then it would look funny on the back. I think an all-over design is called for due to the busy nature of both the front and back. I was considering clouds, sailboats, anchors, whales, etc to maintain the basic nautical theme. I finally decided on a panto with anchors and sailboats, and on the longarm it went to be finished. The finished product will be coming soon!

July 1, 2013June 25, 2014

Summer Sewing = Baby Clothes

I have a four month old that likes to sleep for only 20 minutes at a time. That makes creating challenging to say the least. I’ve been mostly trying to finish up old projects which means working on quilt back which are not as exciting, which is why I generally lose steam at the end of a project and don’t finish them right away.

Instead, I’m falling in love with the quick satisfaction of sewing baby clothes! Dresses, shorts, bonnets… every type of clothing is fair game!

First up dresses… I am in love with the Geranium Dress Pattern from Made by Rae. First, I tried the free sample version in the 0-3 month size. It sewed up so quickly and looked so cute!

Next came the 3-6 month for summer… I can’t wait to have her wear this up in Rhode Island on vacation. She will be very dapper at the beach.

Then I just couldn’t stop! I made the 6-9 month in a pretty floral pattern – Lisette from JoAnn’s Fabric. I figure we live in North Carolina, so it stays warm longer. She will still be able to wear this in the fall.

Then my poor little girl’s head was bare in the hot sun this summer. That required bonnets to keep the sun out of her face as well meaning bystanders wanted to hold her and didn’t pay as much attention to the shade as I do. I used the design from Little Betty Designs to make a reversible bonnet for my baby girl. This is the 0-6 month size on a 3.5 month old. It fit her well, but now a month later it was getting small, so I made it again with a smaller seam allowance and this larger version will fit probably through the summer.

Then on to shorts, because it is too hot here to put pants on those cute little chubby legs! These are made from the pattern by Elegance and Elephants. The smallest size in the pattern was 6-12 months, so these were downsized to fit my 4 month old. The main challenge of this pattern was that it assumes you have a serger. I wish I had known that before purchasing the pattern as I do not own a serger. Therefore, I had to finish every seam. I think it turned out even nicer this way, but it did take quite a bit longer to finish.

This summarizes my summer sewing so far… I’m loving the adorable clothes to make for kids. It will be even more fun as she gets into walking so these creations can be seen better. Maybe next on the schedule will be some quilty goodness!