Random Blogging: Tag tutorial

Reconstructing an Infant Costume

krista@randomblogging.com (krista) — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 08:48:00 -0800

Here is something i have been wanting to do and finally got a chance. There are some finishing touches i need ideas for but i think my son loves it so far.

He had one of those pre made costume from the store and loved it but wll not get to wear it again so not to part with it i am turning it into a cuddle pillow. It is kinda half stuffed animal but pillow. I started by taking apart the legs and elastic removal. then i stuffed the hands, sewed shut, stuffed the arms and sewed them shut. i stitched up the bottom where the legs were to make them square, stuffed the body, sewed it shut And now i have stitched some of the head and stuffed it. I have left the mouth open to possible add a felt mouth or tongue or something. not sure yet. i also have to mold the head better so any ideas ar welcome. !!!

Recon cache letter/bill organizer.

krista@randomblogging.com (krista) — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 04:19:00 -0700

I have been wanting to organize all of the cllection of mail that lies on our half wall. It seems that no matter how many times i clean it it get messy again, but here is a solution i want to try.

Photo from : Ann at all things handmade

Ideas for adjustments would be

-make the sides more rigid so it does not fold and hang oddly.

-make straps or pockets for cell phones and other items with chargers,

-make a way to have the charger attatched.

-decorate to match interior..

-possible place to have live plant :)

Recon clothing Preggy pants into headband

krista@randomblogging.com (krista) — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 07:26:00 -0700

Months worth of recon begins!

I start by pulling my hair back. I do have headbands in my bathroom but i am not satisfied with their legnth, the tightness, the color, durability and so on. I like cloth headbands but they do not stay put. So.. i made my own from some maternity pants.

Here are the maternity pants. they are a little bit more lightweight tand denim and they are stretchy so this is nice for a headband

Keep in mind to press the fabric with an iron after almost every step to keep it nice and even. so we atart by pressing the bottom of a leg, sever the bottom hem, measure your head from middle of ear to middle of ear, cut a rectangle leaving the inseam (one less thing to sew) but make sure to cut it 1/4 " larger around the edges to have enough room for your seam allowance.

fold inside out and sew your seam then turn right side in pressing with iron after this step (do not mind the nasty carpet)

Using the material from the bottom hem feed elastic through it. fold in the edge to the headband and press, insert one part of the elastic to the headband and sew in place and sew the side closed. (pic shows the wrong placement .. should be in the middle of the edge.

Then place on your head and determine the pull of the elastic and then stitch in place like you did with the previous side.

Here is an add on that i thought of.

I hate headbands slipping so i had some old puffy paint that i applied and following the directions i used an iron to heat it in place .. now i have a no slip grip on the underside. I know it does not look pretty but i have been wearing it all dat and i have not had to readjust it. :)

Reconstructed clothing : Vest from pants

krista@randomblogging.com (krista) — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 02:24:00 -0700

Trying once again to dress my younger one.

So many resources for fabric in our storage. I found lots of sleep pants, almost too many for my son to wear one a day for a month!

So now to make something else that he might need. I know he needs a little bit better looking clothing than the p.j.'s and cutsie baby stuff. I thought i need to start manking him something that is a little more grown up and kid looking., not baby.

I thought to myself that a vest could be the best thing because he has a lot of shirts that have that food stain that i cannon get rid of and a vest can cover that very well and extend the life of those shirts.

Now i start the easy vest from fleece sleep pants

You start this out by stripping the pants of the elastic and taking out the inseam.

Then fold the pants in half to even up the cut of the fabric. you can see in the picture where there is a part that is longer. I cut a straight line across here to make the bottom of the vest.

Then lay the pants flat with the seams that we left to the sides. Cut a rounded collar to the back of the neck and then cut a v for the front. But if you do not have a nicely cut pair of pants you can lay a pattern or a premade vest over this to get a better cut.

Then in the next picture it shows how i folded it and pinned it for sewing but then i decided to put an edge stitch on the fabric first, but this is optional to whatever kind of fabric you are using. you do not see the edge stiitching in the pic but you get the idea. so fold, pin, and stitch. (order of stitching in next picture)

When you do the fold and stitch (areas for the first stitches are in red) you want to do the arms front to back or back to front. and then the v, and then for the rounded collar you might need to make some triangle cuts in the edge to make it easier to sew without pucker or bumps (this is one of the reasons we do pinning. It helps us figure out how the stitch will go before we stitch it)

Then when it is all nice and edged you want to stitch the join seam at the shoulder (pointed out with blue arrows)

And that should be it!! if the vest is too wide then just sew a seam up both of the seams on the side to get the right fit for your child. i took mine in about a inch in total for a slightly tighter fit. If you are real patient you can try a more tailored fit for a girl's vest. Or another idea is adding buttons, but that is too complicated for me right now. :)

but it looked like my boy liked his vest.

Reconstructed clothing: P.J. makeover

krista@randomblogging.com (krista) — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 10:06:00 -0700

I did promise to have the tutorial up yesterday but the fates were against me again. But through a lot of work i got it all ready for everyone.

But please do not laugh at the crappy drawings and the lack of terminology. :)

But here is the tutorial to remake frumpy p.j.'s

Pants into tote tutorial

krista@randomblogging.com (krista) — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 07:15:00 -0700

Turn your husband's old pants (or new if you have some spite in your heart) into a tote for yourself!

MAKE THIS....

FROM THESE!

The tutorial will slowly be appearing when i get the pictures around and loaded so keep on checking back.

First you Need to think that you will be working with two rectangles that are sewn on three sides. That is a bag. Simple.

SO here is goes..

I took the scissors and the seam ripper and took the pants apart on the inseam. all the way up the crothch stopping at the bottom of the zipper.

Then I cut (horizontal in the photo) across the pants above the pockets that the arrow is pointing at, then I made the same cut below the pocket to give me a piece of fabric to work with from each leg.

The sides are not quite straight so when I sew up the seam I have to draw what would be the straight line up the side and sew along the line drawn.

I start that by placing the two piece of fabric face together and then pin the edges together to get the fabric to stay straight when drawing the line. (make sure to start pinning along any seams in the fabric that you want to match)

Then you figure out where a straight line is and draw it with a fabric pen or pencil (I just used a sharpie because that is what I had on hand already but I do not reccomend it because it might bleed through the fabric and not come out) After drawing the line, sew along it. repeating for the other side.

Cut off the excess from the sides and then continue to to do the line and seam for the bottom, cut off the excess from that too.

This is what the bag looks like so far. Now it is time to cover the ugly edge at the top. I thought it would be best to use the waist band from the pants. I cut the wait band out and cut off the belt loops. I stitched along the stitching that was already in the waist band connecting it to the top of the bag.

And then the final step was to sew in the handles to the bag (easy) the handles were just the hem lines cut out of the legs of the pants and then sew a line back and forth to attatched them to the top of the bag.

And here you go!

Side note

-you can do a lining, actually should but That will be for a different tutorial. I am leaving my bag with out a lining so i can sew decoration onto the bag then put on a lining.