utorak, 29. srpnja 2014.

Free Hat Pattern Maker



I just had to pop in for a minute to share with the you what I have found. I was looking for a pattern for a sun hat for my daughter and found this programme Wild Ginger Pattern Maker. It is a great programme (and it is FREE) for making different patterns (differrent hat styles, bags and such) where you enter the head circumference you need, the depth of the hat and the width of the rim that you want and the programme creates a pattern for you to print out. I can't wait to try it out. I’ll come back to show you the result as soon as I sew the sun hat.I hope you will like it too. Bye!

P.S. There are written instructions on how to put it all together as well. Isn’t it great?!


ponedjeljak, 21. srpnja 2014.

Bibs in a row - my bib tutorial with the PDF pattern





My lovely baby girl is at that stage when her little hand is constantly in her mouth and she sucks at it with such gusto (I don't blame her - those little fingers are so sweet, but I hope she is not teething already) so she drools a lot and she also burps a lot, so we need lots of bibs. And we have plenty of them, it is just that I don’t like those that have to be tied at the back. I prefer the ones with the Velcro. So I decided to sew a few of our own. I searched the web and some books and I found several great tutorials, I tried one out, but I didn’t like the size of the bib, so I made a pattern of my own, because we need a bib to be a bit bigger and wider on the shoulders to get enough coverage. I made one trial bib from my very own pattern (that's the one with the owls) and I was satisfied. So I decided I need to make more of them at once in as little time as possible, and this is how I did it.

  1. You choose your three fabrics: one for the front, one for the middle and one for the back of your bibs.
  2. You cut enough fabric to make three bibs (or more) at a time, with enough space around them for 1.5cm seam allowance around the pattern for each of them.
  3. You then iron the fabrics: first the front one facing the right side up; then put the back fabric on it facing the right side down and then iron the middle fabric on the top. They will stick to each other a bit and make next steps easier.
  4. Tack your fabric sandwich.
  5. Draw the pattern on the fabric.
  6. Sew the bibs together along the chalk line leaving 3-4cm opening at the bottom for turning.
  7. Now cut around the bibs leaving the 1.5cm seam allowance.
  8. Clip the front bib fabric around the neck.
  9. Pull out the tacking and iron the front fabric away from the back fabric to open the seam. It will make it a lot easier to make a nice edge once you turn the bib inside out.
  10. Now cut the seam allowance down to only 2-3mm (if you cut it like that immediately, you won’t be able to iron the seam nicely), but leave it wider where you left the opening, so that you can easily tuck it in once you turn the bib inside out.
  11. Turn the bib inside out.
  12. Use something pointy but not sharp to push the seams out as much as you can along the whole bib to make the topstitched edge look nice and neat.Tuck in that extra bit of fabric where your openning is.
  13. Iron it.
  14. Topstitch all around the edge.
  15. Now sew a piece of hooky Velcro on the back of the one bib wings or flaps or whatever they are called (I think it won’t scratch your child’s neck or get entangled into his hair if it is at the back) and the other part on the front of the other wing.
  16. There you are. Try it on.
And here is my PDF bib pattern for you to print out and try.

P.S. If you have fabric with a sort of directional pattern, don’t make my mistake and turn it upside down. Sorry, I did it because I was so excited about tutorial writing and all the photo taking. Such a silly rookie mistake.


srijeda, 9. srpnja 2014.

Another key ring



Just popping in to show you the second key ring. It is chubbier than the first one and in happy colours. I like it and so does my little big girl. She definitely needs a key ring for her very own house key because she starts school in September. I still can’t believe it. Anyway, here it is!


ponedjeljak, 7. srpnja 2014.

Key ring



I have realized that I need a key-ring for my car key and it has to be quite a big one, because I always have to fish for the key in my bag, which is terrible when you are in a hurry to take the big girl to the kindergarten, while the little one is already tired and screaming blue murder. So I decided to make one myself. And I actually got the idea from a piece of fabric that I have been playing with lately. It is this owlishly lovely fabric.



So, yes. I decided to make an owl key ring out of felt. But I also realized that while I do that I can play with my latest toy, my new Pfaff sewing machine. Although I have a 25-year-old trustworthy Bernina, it only has the very basic stitches, so I bought this one because it has 80 different stitches and I tried some of them on my felt owl. And here it is.


 If you look at the eyes and the belly you will notice those stitches I have been trying out. But I am not really happy with the end result. It is not chubby enough, because I used my sewing machine to put it together, so I couldn’t put enough stuffing in. But since my big girl likes it I promised to make one for her, and this time I will sew it together by hand and stuff it a bit better, and of course I will use girly colours.
And here is another picture so you can see the stitches a bit better :)