Crossover pinafore on baby

So my niece is finally big enough to wear the cute little dress made her. She is over 6 months now.  She is just cute in this thing.  I posted a blog a while back with shrink to the tutorial for this.  I made two of these so far and am doing a third one soon for a friend.

Pinafore tutorial 

Adventures of a Denim Trench: Done!

I took a day off to relax then got back to the finishing touches today.  It took just shy of 3 hours to finish everything! It's beautiful and me! I put the sleeves on, and the buttons.  I washed it and its hanging to dry.  NOTE TO SELF: this is a hand wash only item! washing it in the machine made it fray pretty bad.  I definately need a surger!!! Im very pleased with the outcome and I have enough material left over to make another one.  I think I just might and try to sell it.  Well, here's the finished trench!

 The buttons.....to keep with the mismatch theme I used 5 buttons, 3 of a dark color and 2 of a silver!

This is what happened after I washed it.  It took almost two hours to cut all the fray off but I got it done!  If anyone out there has tips for how to keep this from happening without a surger or burning all the edges I would love to hear them!!!

Adventures of a Denim Jacket part 2

This is the second part of my denim trench! It's almost done.  I put together the top piece and sewed it to the skirt.  I also put together the sleeves at this point, but didn't take pics of them.  during this process I had a needle snap.  Part of it went in my eye.  When that happen I closed my eyes and not paying attention the rest of the needle went through my finger.  I ripped the finger out which of course caused it to bleed. :(  However, I got the piece out of my eye and super-glued my finger shut and got back to sewing.  I got lucky it didn't go through to the point that an er visit was necessary.  Just a little rip.  well, enjoy. 

 The injury, after I super-glued it.  NOTE TO SELF: if machine starts to jam....don't force it! Just stop and figure out the problem...might save a finger (or eye).

 Front of jacket

 Back of jacket

Side view

pinup girl dress!

This is my pinup dress! It took 6-8 hours to make.  I made it for an event at a local bar. It was actually super easy to make.  The only issue I had was the pattern I was using was a little to small for me.  So I had to resize it! That too ended up being super easy!  I'm loving these new tricks I'm learning.  The pattern I ended up using came from here.  However I didn't follow it exactly.  I used this tutorial to resize the pattern.  This slashing and cutting method was amazing.  However, it made the top a little big still.  So as a result there was a lot of taking in on this dress.  To get the full instructions of how I made this dress go to my burdastyle page.  I have decided that I will post most of my instructions and tutorials there.  I hope you enjoy the rest of my pics and try to make one yourself!

easter basket

this is my little easter basket! It was super quick and easy to make.  I made it in less than an hour! the most difficult part was getting the bottom on but I made it work.  I used this pattern to make the basket.  I did make a few adjustments.  I made the bottom 7.5" instead of 7.25".  I also only did interfacing and I think it calls for a layer of batting or something.  I plan on adding little buttons onto the sides where the handles meet the basket.  I think I'm going to make little fabric eggs and buy some plastic ones to go inside this.  I also plan on making one that is a little bit larger, maybe a 10" diameter.  use the small one as a table display in the family room and the larger one on the kitchen table.  I was so worried this would be hard to make but I was so surprised at how easy it was!

These are my little gnomes!  sorry, I don't have pictures of their cute little faces.  I made them for several people this year.  They were quick and super easy to make.  There is a tutorial out there somewhere but I don't remember where and I made some slight adjustments. 




1) cut a 5x5" square.  fold in half and sew the two sides together.  grab the middle of both sides and fold in half again to sew the two sides together.  make sure to leave the top open.  It should resemble a bag.
2)  Stuff your little bag.  You can also put rice or beans in the bottom so it sits right.  I didn't.
3) get a good sized bead.  I had to grab a dremel and make the wholes bigger, well, my husband did. grab the top of the stuffed ball thing and twist it til you can shove it through the bead.  Shove it. i used needle nose pliers to pull the fabric through once enough came out the top.
4) I trimmed the top of the fabric and hot glued it in place on the bead.
5) using felt, cut a triangle big enough to go around the bead.  sew it into a hat shape, turn so the seam is inside.  Hot glue the hat onto the bead. 
6) draw some cute little faces using a fine point sharpie.

There you have it.  I made around 10 or 15 of these in just a short time.  they make great little gifts.  and did you know that gnomes are a symbol of luck.  so when you give them out make sure that people know that they are to watch over them and bring them years of luck! happy sewing!

purses

Over the last couple months I made a couple purses.  They were both christmas gifts for family members.  I had bought the handles a few months ago and decided it was about time I used them.  I decided to make these two cute little bags.  Both bags have pockets inside the purse.  Each one has a larger pocket for storing small notebooks, possibly a kindle, or other things.  The other side of the purses has a multipocket that has a few slots.  One big enough for a droid phone or iphone, three for pens and pencils and one that can hold a couple markers or checkbook.  It was fun learning how to make pockets and line purses.  The main reason I made these was to learn how to line items and how to use those dang handles.  They are both the same style.  One is flowery and the other is Star Wars themed.

both have a strip of denim at the top and have pleats to add style.  they aren't large pleats so you can't see them in the photos.