I'm a Project Toddler Runway Drop Out

Last week was happy and exciting with my first Project Toddler Runway win and making the top 15 on American Crafter.  I was excited and ready to go with my crafty competitions even if my husband was completely annoyed with me .

On PTR the theme was denim and I had been planning on making a James Dean style jacket and giving it a leather finish.  I found a tutorial on how to do this it and looked pretty simple!  So I got to work cutting my pattern pieces and painting them.  When it came time to put my little jacket together I realized it was way to stiff!  So I tried again with a much lighter denim.  Hmmmm... same result.  The fabric looked like leather and felt like leather but it just didn't move like leather.  I started thinking up a plan B but wasn't ready to give up on my James Dean Jacket just yet.  I tried washing it and it looked like it would work but when it dried it was just as stiff.


I had 2 ideas floating in my head... use my faux leather differently (think slouchy leather boots or a hat or belt) or scrap it make a cute little denim jumpsuit or romper. 

I decided to go with a denim jumpsuit.  The looked super cute and seemed simple enough.  I decided to take an early night so I could tackle it first thing in the morning.

I woke up a handful of hours later in my bed, freezing my tush off!  We had lost power at some point during the night and had no heat thanks to Snowpocalypse!

I spent the rest of my day trying to keep my 5 kids warm and entertained (no school for my 2 big kids).  The power would come back on for 15 minutes and I would run to check emails, send emails and microwave a bunch of hot dogs.

Thursday morning I woke up and had power and kids had school for part of the day and I told myself I would work as hard as I could to get something, anything turned in for both of my competitions.  I scrapped my earlier plans to make appliqued Valentine shirts for the American Crafter competition and I'm so glad I did!  I'm still not sure how exactly the idea came to me but I made my boys the cutest Valentine shirts using binary code and freezer paper stencils.  I was a little worried it would be too simple but was still in love with these shirts!  I submitted my pictures with less than an hour to spare!

With American Crafter behind me I could focus on PTR that was due by midnight.  I started on my little jumpsuit.  I gathered pictures online for inspiration and hunted for some tutorials or patterns but couldn't find anything!  I was just going to have to wing it.

The first jumpsuit I made... that's right... I made more than one.... looked dreadful. 

I made the legs to full and the top part fit all crazy.  I tried bringing the pants in and remaking the top but eventually I just decided to start over.  The second jumpsuit was off to a much better start.  The pants looked great and fit perfectly but the top was a different story.  I was almost all out of fabric and time and energy.  It was 10pm and I was in tears but told myself I couldn't quit until midnight.  And so I worked and worked and worked until about 12:15 and finally gave in and sent my email admitting defeat, giving up and dropping out.

I know I should be proud of myself for all of my designs and projects I created for PTR and proud that I worked so hard but I can't help but feel like a big fat quiter! 

So I'll still be working to make that James Dean jacket because I don't think I'll be able to sleep at night until I do.  AND did everyone see that Kelly from Sewing in No Man's Land posted a pattern and tutorial for a romper TODAY!  Ahhh just a few days to late for me but you'd better believe Miss Livi Lu will be getting one of those very soon!

The Letterman Sweater Tutorial

I'm so excited about sharing this tutorial because it was just so simple and took less than 2 hours!  So go gather your supplies and make one for your little man!

First things first, you need a cardigan.  I suppose you could just use fabric but at my local Goodwill they had the most rediculous stash of men's cardigans available.  Racks of them!  And they were all $3.99.  I'm pretty sure you'd spend that much on fabric if you decided to go that route.  PLUS... now you can call it refashioned, green and upcycled!  It's a winning sweater all ready!

So anyhow... just go get a sweater.

I picked an XL Tall one, mostly because I liked the buttons and the color.

 Now lay your sweater out nice and flat and place one of your kids form fitting shirts on top of it.  If your boy doesn't have a form fitting shirt (I had to dig in the dirty clothes to find an american apparel thermal shirt) use younger brothers shirt or a shirt he's out grown.

Match the shirts armpits up with the cardigans armpits.

You are going to cut right around this shirt.

When you get to the arms, fold them back or tuck them in so you can see the shape of the arm hole.

When you get to the neck, cut the back of the shirt straight to the other shoulder.

Your finished with the bodice.

Now you can cut your sleeves.  Place your shirt sleeve right on top of the cardigan's sleeve and cut around it.  Use sleeve you just cut to cut your second sleeve.

Now you've got 2 sleeves and a bodice!

Rummage through your scraps and cut 2 squares for your pockets.

Now with your 2nd sweater... your contrasting color you'll want to cut your letter and your arm band.  You can cut one large or 2 or 3 thinner ones.  It's up to you!

Next you're going to iron on your heat n' bond to your letter.

Make sure you use the heat n' bond lite because the other stuff gums up your needle when sewing and then your machine will start skipping stitches and then you'll get mad and curse it and then it'll just quit on you because it's mad at you and you never apologized.  Seriously, sewing machines are crazy fickle machines and they work best if we treat them like your fragile overly sensitive best friend.

Aaaany way!  Iron on your heat n' bond to the back of your letter.  If you want to double up your letter like mine you should go ahead and iron your letters together before ironing on to your sweater.  To do this just iron on the heat n' bond to both letters but only peal the back off of the top letter.  Now iron it onto the bottom letter, peal the back off of it and then iron it on to the sweater.

I suggest doing it like this because sometimes the stuff doesn't attach as good to the thicker fabrics like wool.  So you'll have to flip it over and iron from both sides (which would be impossible if you pealed off the paper!)

Now you should have a bodice, 2 sleeves, 2 pockets, a letter and an arm band!

Let's assemble them!

Sew your 2 bodice pieces together at the shoulders.  Right sides to right sides.


Sew your contrasting arm band onto the sleeve.  You'll want to do this higher than you'd think... mine came out way too low.  Do it right under the armpit line.

Now you can attach your 2 sleeves to the 2 bodice pieces.

Then match up your seams at the armpit, pin and sew from the bottom of the sweater, up to the arm pit and through to the wrist of your sleeve.

Repeat for the other side.


Now you should have a cardigan!  The rest is just finishing details!!

Fold, press and hem your sleeves, the bottom of the cardigan and the back of the neck.

And last but not least, sew your pockets and letter on!

I love the way this looks with just a plain t-shirt and jeans and converse but there are tons of ways to wear it!

Try it:

With a tie

Or go bold with a bow tie!

Oh and don't forget about your girls

Week #4- Time to vote!!

It's Week #4 on Project Toddler Runway!

And this is the challenge I've been waiting for!  As a mom of 4 boys... yes you read that right and yes my bathroom is disgusting... I was so excited to hear about this challenge and have been waiting for weeks to see what the other mommas come up with!

So get over there to Shwin and Shwin and vote for your favorite "inspired by BOY" entry!

The Hey Miley! Cardi

Well I made it through another week on Project Toddler Runway with my Hey Miley! Sequin Cardigan.

I was floored when I saw what the other girls had made.  Everything from fur coats to full feathered gowns!

In the end this cute little outfit took the prize.

But this amazing dress was out!

Isn't it gorgeous?  I'm so sad that this was in the bottom and sort of dumbstruck as to what could have happened.  The pictures were a bit hard to see what was going on and if you didn't read the description of the dress it was a bit confusing.  In one picture it looked like a very simple black dress and then in another you could see the amazing feather details.  You had to read the description to know that the full feather skirt was detachable for versatility and easier care.  But oh I'd love to see that dress in person and I'm so looking forward to April's tutorial!  Go check out her blog and become a follower so you don't miss out on it!

My sequin cardigan fell somewhere in between.

When I first read the details of this challenge I wasn't too happy.  See... I'm not a sequin or fur or feathers kinda girl.  It's all just a bit much for me really.  But then I remembered seeing these sequin cardigans around that looked so super chic with jeans.

That's my kinda style.

Simple and classy but still fun and fashion forward.  I knew right away that Miss Livi Lu needed one.

***

On with the tutorial... actually, I feel really silly calling it that.  This thing was so easy to make it's just rediculous!  Aaaand I don't have any pics of the work... doh.



But if you need help or a pic just ask and I'll get it!

Step 1:  Cut your bodice.

• Lay out your sequin fabric and lay it out... folded in half just like you bought it off the bolt.

• Find a shirt that fits your little girl.  My fabric had a bit of stretch to it but not as much as her knit shirts so I used a shirt with very little stretch to it.

• Take note of the direction of your fabric's stretch.  Chances are it stretches a bit both ways but mine stretched more one way than another.  You want to lay the shirt you are tracing on top of the fabric so that the stretch runs from side to side and not up and down. 

• Tuck in your sleeves so you can see the shape of the arm holes and shoulders and cut.  You'll want 2 of these.

• Now take one of your bodice pieces and cut it in half so you've got the 2 front pieces of your cardigan.

Step 2:  Cut your arms

• Pull your arms back out of your tracing shirt.  

• Fold the arms on the seam and make sure that your are cutting your fabric with the stretch going the width of the arms and not the length (just like you did with the bodice).  

• You'll want to cut this on a fold and cut 2 of these too.

I didn't think of this until later but wouldn't it be cute to have some puff in the sleeves like Anne Hathaways Golden Globes dress!!

 So cute!

Step 3: Cut your lining

• Repeat all those steps with your inner lining fabric. 

• The sequin stuff is super itchy and Livi ran from me every time I tried it on her!  So make sure you line it with something.  

• The stuff I used was a bit to stiff and I wasn't crazy about how the edges turned out, so I'd recommend something soft and thin.

Step 4:  Put it together

• Now that all your pieces are cut you can start putting it together.

• First match up your shoulder pieces and sew together.

• Then sew up the sides and arm seam.

• Repeat those steps for your lining.

Step 5:  Attach your cardigan to the lining

• Put your lining and sequins right sides together and sew the neck line and fronts of the cardigan.

• Now flip it so it's right side out and fold in your edges on the bottom of the cardigan and stitch shut.

• Repeat for each of the sleeves.

And that's it.  You're done!

Now your little fashionista has a Hey Miley! Cardi too!

I paired it with some skinny jeans that were oh so easy to make thanks to this tutorial from Freshly Picked and a white tissue tee with military style shoulder cuffs.

She apparently felt the ensemble was missing something and grabbed some oversized shades, my iphone and wallet to complete the look. 

 

I'm gonna be in big trouble with this one huh?

Project Toddler Runway- Week 3

It's that time again!!

Time to go vote for your favorite Project Toddler Runway entry!

This week's theme was Sequins, Feathers and Fur, Oh My!  We were to design something for our tots that used either or all 3!  Sounds like a hot mess right?

I struggled a bit with this.  I wouldn't say I'm a fan of any of the 3... they're all a bit much for me.  But it was fun to be pushed out of my comfort zone and I couldn't be more excited about how my look turned out!!

So get over there to Shwin & Shwin and vote for your favorite!  Then stay tuned to find out which was mine and a quick tutorial!

And if you're still waiting on the Victorian Bustle Coat pattern, be patient with me!  It's coming... I think the pattern has been more work than the jacket!!

The Victorian Bustle Coat

Well, I had a blast with last weeks "A Flower in Your Hair" challenge on Project Toddler Runway.  I had this beautiful flower accessory as my inspiration piece.

Isn't it gorgeous?  You can find it and
lots of other pretty hair accessories at Addison Renee

But to tell you the truth I was pretty bummed when I first saw it.

All I could think was wedding and I didn't really want to design anything inspired by a wedding for a toddler.  It just seemed a bit predictable and boring.

So I started thinking outside the box.

I realized the flower was elegant and classy and sophisticated but then there was this handful of rhinestones that were poured inside screaming diva and super glam!

I went shopping with my little girl for some inspiration and right before I left the house I reached into the back of my closet to pull out my old coat.  It was a bit heavier and it was so cold that day!  This coat was a Christmas present from my husband.  A pretty winter white trench coat.  Over the course of a couple of years, I wore that poor coat out.  It was starting to look dingy and I lost a button and wore it thin in a couple of places but somehow while running around that day I still felt so classy and even a bit glamorous.

Nothing like a white coat... every woman should have one.

And so I started dreaming of a coat I could make for Olivia.

I had never made a coat before and I was feeling very intimidated.  They seemed so structured and it made sense to leave the pattern making to the professionals on this one.  So I started pattern shopping.  I found some that I almost liked on Etsy but the cheapskate in me wouldn't allow me to spend even $5 on a pattern that I knew I was only going to use as a starting point for my own design.

So I grabbed a coat of hers and my winter white coat and got to work.


I used some crummy old fabric that I've been hanging onto just for pattern making and cut pieces that matched the size of Olivia's coat and the general shapes in my coat.

I sewed my pattern pieces together and adjusted where needed and then cut the entire coat apart again.  Now I had a perfect pattern!

I traced my pattern onto a simple winter white fleece I found at Hancocks for only $2.99 a yard!  I doubled it all up so it would look a bit stiff and look more like wool then fleece.

And when I finished it I was happy.

Until I looked my inspiration flower again.

It looked like that beautiful simple white flower 

but it was missing the handful of rhinestones dumped in the center.

And so I cut the back of my dress apart and decided to do something drastic.  Something I have never seen done before.  I decided to bustle the back of that little coat!

I searched high and low for a bustle tutorial I understood and finally found something I thought I could work with here.

I basically ended up cutting out a long rectangle from the back of my coat.  Then I cut a new rectangle to replace it... but the new rectangle was 2x as big.  It was double the width and double the height of the old rectangle!  Then I pleated the rectangle and sewed it back in.

 

 Really it was that simple!!

I had so much fun making this coat and figuring it all out on my own.  That would have been enough for me even if it didn't turn out looking as good as it did.

So when I showed it to my 18 month old, Olivia and she dropped every one of her princess dolls and the sippy cup so she could run to me and back herself into the coat, it was the icing on the cake.  She seriously loves this coat and it just makes me grin.

Every girl should have a white coat... with a bustle of course.

 

NOTE:  Want to make your own Victorian Bustle Coat?  I'm in the process of writing a pattern and tutorial (FOR FREE!!) for this but the process looks super lengthy so it could be a while.  But if you've got your heart set on making one for your little girl let me know and as soon as I finish it I can shoot you an email and let you know I've finished it... or I guess you could just become a follower!  Or better yet do both!

Project Toddler Runway- Week 2!

Week 2 voting is up and going until Sunday and I couldn't be more excited about my entry!!

Of course it's still anonymous so you won't know until Monday which one is mine when I post a free pattern and tutorial!!!

I've got to figure out how to share a pattern with you all before then so I'm off to research.  If you know how to do it leave a comment and let me know!!

Palazzo Pants Tutorial

Well I just barely made the cut on Project Toddler Runway... I told you this competition was going to be tough!

I am in love with Jenn's winning Yellow and Grey Dress!  So cute! 

And that Military Ensemble from Creative Mommas was adorable too!

My creation was the palazzo pants.

I called them that after seeing a million of these on Project Runway Season 8... seriously, they were everywhere!  So I had to make a pair for Miss Livi Lu.

I was actually amazed at how easy they were to make.  I searched the blogging world for high waisted wide leg trousers and figured I could find out how they were constructed and size them down for my tot.  I was a bit worried about the competition because I had waited until the last minute to get started because I still felt crummy from the lingering flu and pants aren't always the easiest thing to make.  Throw in the fact that I have to draft my pattern myself and you've got a guaranteed failure.  Right?

But then I stumbled upon The Charlotte Letters's Sailor Pants tutorial and this girl saved my day!  Let me just brag on her for a sec.  First off, she's got an etsy shop where she sells her items.  You can tell by looking at them that they are quality made but they are still very reasonably priced!!  But what amazes me is that she offers patterns and tutorials to these very same items for FREE on her blog!  That's crazy!  So definitely go check out her blog and shop!!

The tutorial for the sailor pants is really quite simple.  You're basically just going to trace a pair of pants that fit the child and add 2 inches to the top and outside seam. Sew a pleat on each side and put them together like any other pair of pants!  No really... it's that simple.

Check it out...

First trace your pants:

 First I did this on regular computer paper and then realized I barely had enough to add the 2 inches to the top and side so I took the pattern and traced it onto some left over tissue paper I found laying around...  in other words... use whatcha got!



Then draw your pleat lines:

Draw a line at 3", 4" and 5" from the middle of the pants.  She didn't say how long to make these pleat lines so I just eyeballed hers and figured it was a little more than halfway to the crotch.  Also my pattern looks like shorts right?  I just planned on cutting the legs extra long and then hemming them to where I needed so I didn't bother making the pattern the proper length of pants... yeah I was being lazy still feeling really crummy.


Now that you finished your pattern you can make your pants!

Put your pattern on your material and place the outside seam of your pattern on the fold of your fabric.  Cut 2 of these and transfer the pleat lines to the wrong side of your fabric and you're ready to sew!

NOTE:  The first time I did this I didn't realize I should cut on the fold and only cut 2... instead I cut 4 total.  This will still work but you'll have a seam going down each leg.  This isn't a big deal but palazzo pants are suppose to be kind of drapey and a seam would make the legs a bit stiff.  Plus... you can cut out 2 seams by cutting it this way!!  Shortcut!!


Before you sew your pants together you want to sew your pleats.  Fold your pant leg (right side to right side) on the middle line and match up the first and third line.  Pin in place (or don't if you're lazy like me) and sew from top to the bottom of your pleat line. Then repeat for the other leg!

Now if you know how to sew together a pair of pants, go ahead girl and do your thing!

If not, it's cool, I'll walk you through it.  It's super simple but it's easy to get lost in the words and get confused about what the heck your doing!  My first pair of pants were absolutely hilarious... seriously I think I sewed the legs shut or something like that.  But hey... that's what seam rippers are for!!

Okay so take 1 of your pant legs and fold it so the right sides are in and your looking at the inside of the fabric.  You are going to sew the leg from the crotch all the way to the bottom of the leg.  Now... do NOT sew past the crotch or you'll end up with 2 really long leg warmers... in fact they'll look just like chaps... don't do it!

I wrote on this picture to point out exactly where the crotch seam is and where you should stop sewing but I realized after I uploaded it that the arrow and text are really small... but if you squint you can see it!

Repeat for the other leg.

Now you should have 2 funny looking pant legs.  Take one of them and turn it right side out and wiggle it inside of the other pant leg.  You'll want to make sure you've got both of the pleats touching right side to right side.

Another note:  I took this picture after I finished the pants and realized this shot would be good for explaining how to get from here to there!

If this totally confuses you don't fret.  Try taking a look at a pair of pants that are already made... the ones you used to trace your pattern maybe!  Turn the pants right side in and then stuff one of the legs inside the other... make sense now?

Now you are going to sew the legs together.  Match up the 2 crotch seams (and pin if you aren't too lazy) and sew from the front waist to the crotch to the back waist.

Again this pic was taken after the pants were finished.

Now you can pull your pants right side out and you should be able to see a basic pair of pants!!  Woohoo!  You did it!

Try them on her and see how they fit if you'd like but fair warning... they're gonna be HUGE!

You still need to sew in your elastic!

So fold down the top of your pants about 1 and sew in place. Cut your elastic to the right size... The Charlotte Letters has a simple solution for figuring this measurement out but sometimes even simple math makes my head hurt so I opted instead to chase the little girl around and stretch the elastic across her back side.  Either way get your elastic and sew it into place!

Pin your little pants to mark the sides of the pants.  Sew one end of your elastic to one side of your pants.  Then stretch your elastic and meet the other end of your elastic to the other side of your pants.  It's going to look crazy... don't worry!

Now fold the top of your pants down again to cover your elastic.  Now sew it in place while stretching out your elastic.

Now all you've got left is the bottom hem and embellishments!

If my denim fabric would have been darker I would have put the faux sailor flap and buttons on them and paired it with a nautical striped shirt and Livi's red shoes.

Something like this...

But the denim was lighter and it inspired me to go a little more Gretchen, so I opted instead for a paperbag trouser look and made a tie for the waist... like these from Anthropologie.

Cute huh?

So how will your little fashionista wear hers?