Learning to Sew

I was quite successful with the Halloween costume I made for my nephew. I found some remnant cow print fabric at a thrift store for about $4. With it, I was able to make a head piece, as well as a bunting/cover for him to put his legs in. He already, conveniently, had a cow-print onesie. He was a big hit.

I recently made a nearly identical dress to the one I wrote about earlier. I had a lot of the fabric left and decided to make a dress for another friend’s daughter. This little girl is only seven months old, so the dress is obviously much smaller than the toddler dress, but the same design.

I found it to be much easier this time around because I had learned from my mistakes the previous time. Her mom said that she would likely be wearing a shirt under the dress, since it is fall now, so I made the top bigger. This will both allow room for the shirt underneath, as well as make it easier to get the dress on, a problem encountered with the previous dress.

This is what the new dress looks like. It is finished, although I may add an iron-on patch to the front.

Sewing a pillowcase for my husband’s birthday present was the easiest project that I have done yet. My husband is a big fan of the monkey Julius from Paul Frank. I got a yard of fabric featuring the character from EBay (a good place to look for hard-to-find fabric).

I then laid out and measured a pillowcase that I already had in order to see how long and wide to cut the fabric, as well as examine the stitching to get an idea of how to put the pillowcase together.

Then I measured and cut my fabric, leaving enough seam allowance on each side, as well as making it longer so there was room to fold it over to make a finished top. I then stitched the sides and then folded the top over two inches and stitched to make a finished top.

I was very happy with the finished product and my husband loved his present!

I had my first try at freehand sewing and was very pleased with the outcome. I bought the dust ruffle seen below for one dollar at a thrift store. When I first saw it I thought it would be possible to make it into a toddler dress. I just sort of imagined the dress in my head and began cutting fabric.

Although I had a bit of difficulty with the sizing, having no toddlers readily available to measure, I am pretty happy with the outcome. I want to do more projects without a pattern because it make me feel more creative. I also don’t have the frustrated feeling I get when I cannot do something that the pattern describes.

Do you always follow patterns when you sew or do you like to do things freehand?

One of my first projects with my new sewing machine was to make shorts for my two nephews, aged 6 and 3. They are big fans of the movie Cars, so I bought some fabric with various Cars characters on it.

I used Butterick pattern 3475. That pattern has a few different items in it, but these shorts are letter “D.” My nephews are not nearby, so I had to have their mom measure their waists for me so I would know what size to make. They ended up being sizes 4 and 7, which meant I had to buy two patterns. Eventually I hope that I will get to the point where I will be able to just adjust a pattern to a different size, but I am not there yet.

The pattern was pretty simple and it was not the first time I had made shorts (I made a pair 16 years ago in junior high home economics), so I did not have too many problems. The difficulty with making clothing for someone you don’t see often is getting the fit right. Luckily the nephews came to town and I was able to measure for an exact waist/elastic measurement and they were able to tell me how long they wanted the shorts.

I think they came out pretty well. I re-learned how to hem and how to put in elastic, which are two big skills that I will continue to improve on.