More Birthday Twirls

In my last post I mentioned that the non-birthday girl always gets a skirt from the leftovers of the birthday girl's dress.  Mooper wanted to play around while I made help make her skirt this year, so I needed something quick and simple.  I went to my go-to circle skirt tutorial from Dana Made It.  This skirt is fast to make because there's no casing for the elastic - you simply sew the elastic straight onto the skirt.

The only time consuming part of this tutorial is the hem.  Even with a teeny-tiny skirt for a 3-year-old, the hem on a circle skirt can take some time, and I knew Moops wouldn't have the patience to wait.

So I decided to line the skirt, attaching the lining at the hem first.

I cut the lining out just as I did the main fabric and then laid them right sides together and pinned at the hem:

I sewed around the hem  with a 3/8" seam allowance and then trimmed that back to about 1/8" while Moopser did some of her own work.

Next you need to turn the skirt right side out and press:

Then baste the layers together at the waistband:

And finish the skirt as per Dana's instructions in her tutorial.

See the nice crisp hem with no measuring, handstitching, double turns or rolled hems??

The skirt was ready in less than an hour and then Moopsy got her turn in front of the camera!

Circle Skirt & Ruffle Top: Do you believe in magic?

UPDATE 2/7/2012: I entered this in a competition at Craftsy.com, so if you have an account there, feel free to "heart" this project over there.

I sent my husband and four-year-old daughter out tonight for their first ever Valentine’s daddy-daughter dance.  Did you do this as a child??  I remember going to at least one daddy-daughter dance with my dad at The Barn, a converted barn that was owned by our Park District.  I remember dancing with my dad, standing on his feet so that he could help me keep time.  My mom made me a twirl skirt from a pink and white heart fabric.  I loved that skirt.  I wore it to a every ice-skating party I went to that year, too.

Well, for such a momentous event I thought I really needed to make Cora an outfit.  I love sewing clothes but I don’t really sew that much for my daughters.  This is partly because I’m really busy sewing things for clients, but also because I don’t have that much interest in sewing kids’ clothes.  I like sewing for adults and for myself because I know the garment will be worn for years.  But with kids?  I’m lucky if it still fits a year later.

Here it is:

I started with the skirt, following Gretchen Hirsch’s circle skirt tutorial from Quick Stuff to Sew magazine, Winter 2011.  (If you don't know her, you MUST check out her blog).  The only change I made was to put in an elastic waistband instead of a zipper and waistband – hopefully this will allow Cora to wear it a bit longer!

The top was a bit of a hodge-podge.  I used the Peasant Shirt bodice from my Little Girls, Big Style book by Mary Abreu.  I wanted something with short sleeves that Cora could put on herself (no zippers or buttons to worry about) and this fit the bill.  For the bottom half of the top I generally followed the Shwin & Shwin Sand & Sea Top tutorial (another great sewing blog).

For the flowers, I followed a tutorial from Andie Johnson's blog.  I love making these flowers because they are super easy and resemble dahlias, which are my favorite flowers (Devon plants them in the garden for me every summer).

The main fabric is a purple velveteen that I found at the Economy Shop (great local thrift store).  I bought the hot pink fabric there as well – it feels like some kind of jersey but it doesn’t have much stretch.  The fuchsia skirt lining was leftover from a skirt I made for a client – I left it a bit long so that it could peek out.  The thread, buttons, and elastic were already in my stash, so all told this skirt and top probably cost less than $5.  It did take a long time to make, mostly because I decided to do a blind hem on the skirt and circle skirt hems seem to go on forever!  Apart from the hem I probably spent about 5 hours on this.

I’m waiting for Cora and Devon to come home now so that I can hear all about it.  I hope it was magical!

Free Sewing Tutorial: Ultrasuede or Felt Flower Tutorial

I love making fabric flowers and I am always hunting for new ideas in the online tutorial community.  Since I have learned so much from other's tutorials, I thought it was time to share one of my own.  I was looking for a way to make polished-looking flower pins for coats and bags that didn't require a lot of time, and this is what I created.

What you'll need:
*Scraps of ultrasuede or felt for the petals
*Matching thread
*Two 3x3 squares of felt or ultrasude for the backing
*Brooch pin
*Hot glue gun
*Button or scrap (or both!) for center of flower

I found my first piece of ultrasuede by chance at the Economy Shop, a local thrift store.  I didn't know what it was at first but I knew that I had found something wonderful: soft texture, lovely color, thick enough to hold it's shape, and - best of all! - no fraying when cut!  I thought it was regular faux suede and I was disappointed when I ordered faux suede online only to find that it frayed just as much as any other fabric.  I did some research and came up with Ultrasuede, but it is very expensive by the yard.  So I was very pleased to find the Etsy shop 3crafties, which sells packs of ultrasuede packs in a lovely range of colors.  I'd stay away from the 1 inch strips, but anything larger should give you enough to make a range of petal sizes.  I also have a local resale and re-upholstery shop which saves me scraps when they have them (and they give them to me for free!), so that's another good place to look.

Step 1: Make your petal templates
Fold a piece of paper or medium-weight interfacing in half and draw on half of your petal shape.  You want the bottom of the petal to be flat across.  I use a rounded petal and a pointed petal, and I have them in a range of sizes (after I got a shape I liked, I just added or subtracted 1/4 inch around the petal).  Here's what they will look like once you cut it out and open it up:

Step 2: Cut out petals
I usually use 6-7 petals per layer and I like the look that 3 or more layers give to the finished flower.  I often use a larger size petal for the two outside layers and a smaller size petal for the inside layer, but you should play around with this to see what you like best.

Once you have your petals cut out, cut a small slit from the bottom of the petal to about 1/3 of the way up the petal.

Step 3: Shape petals

To create the petal shape, close the petal together at the slit, like this:

Hold the petal shape in place and stitch it shut.  You could probably use a dab of hot glue to hold it closed if you don't want to do the stitching. 

I've found that sometimes the different sides of ultrasuede have slightly different textures, so make sure that you have all the petals curved with the same side up.

Step 4: Sew petals to backing

Take out the 3 x 3 square of felt or ultrasuede and lay out the bottom layer of petals in a circle.  I usually pin and repin the first round of petals until I get a shape I like.

Now you need to sew the petals to the backing with a running hand stitch.  After you have the first layer of petals sewn, pin and then sew the second layer.

Finally, pin and sew the last layer.

Step 5: Add center of flower

Now you can get creative with the center of the flower.  I use a scrap of felt or ultrasuede cut into a circle, a strip of pinked felt rolled in to a circle, and/or a button to finish off the center of the flower.  You can thread or hot glue to attach the center to the flower. 

Step 6: Add brooch pin and finish back

Turn the flower over so that the backing faces up.  Trim off the felt or ultrasuede, being careful not to cut through your stitches, so that the backing is now a circle. 

Don't worry if this isn't pretty - it will be covered up in a moment.

Cut the second square of felt or ultrasuede into a circle the same size or slightly larger.  If you want to add a label, sew in on the circle now.  Heat up your hot glue gun and glue the second circle on top of the flower backing.  Use hot glue to attach the brooch pin to the backing.

And you are done!  Here are some examples of flowers I have made this way.  If you have questions, please leave a comment.  If you want a flower pin but don't want to make it, check out my Etsy store to see what I have in stock or contact me for a custom order.  Enjoy!