Sleep Sacks Round 2 (& 3)

My youngest daughter is growing like a weed and her little sleep sacks are no longer fitting.  As the weather changes, it's becoming more and more important that she stays warm while she's sleeping.  I decided to make her two new sleep sacks that were longer and wider.  Once again, I adapted the tutorial from Make It and Love It.  To create the pattern for these sleep sacks, I took a larger t-shirt of hers and traced the neckline and shoulders.  I then extended 30 " below the neckline (along the fold) and made the bottom wider slightly.

I cut the pattern out, after tracing it onto freezer paper and ironing it onto the fabric.  I cut the back piece on the fold and the two front pieces, lowering the neckline.  I sewed the separable zipper onto the two front pieces, zipping down from the neckline towards the feet.  I started the zipper at the top of the neckline and then sewed downwards.  There was a small bit of fabric that was longer then the zipper.

I sewed the bottom of the two front pieces together so that her little feet wouldn't get drafty with the opening.

I then sewed the front and back pieces together at the shoulders and along the side and the bottom.

This is the sleep sack flipped right side out.

I cut strips of bias to finish off the edges of the armholes and the neckline.  I didn't bother doing anything fancy with these as the edges won't fray.  I think it did a nice job of finishing off the sleep sack, though.  One my daughter wears this to sleep she looks so comfy and cozy.  I love the way it stretches and she has tons of room to move around in it, she can even crawl.

I duplicated this pattern in a minke/cotton mix.  The interior of the sack is a pink soft minke while the exterior is this cute ladybug quilting cotton.  I sewed the zipper in, between the two fabrics.  I then followed the pattern exactly but with two fabrics.

I used a store bought bias tape around the armholes and neckline.

Of course, I've added one of my new fancy labels!  

I think that this sleep sack is super cute.  I love the fabric and the minke is so soft and cozy.  My only complaint is that the sleep sack seems a bit tight.  The fabrics were all cut from the same pattern and I used the same seam allowances for both.  Perhaps the lack of stretch to the fabric made the difference in the two?  I'm now considering ripping the zipper out of this cute ladybug one and using it to make another fleece sack.  I will definitely think again before making another sleep sack like this!

Princess Cloak

The weather in Vancouver for Halloween 2012 was 13 degrees Celsius and very wet.  In order to protect our little "princess" from the elements, I decided that she required a cloak to keep her dry and warm.  I decided to adapt the cloak from the Red Riding Hood Cloak from Make It and Love It.
I used a kitchen bowl to form the neckline of the cape.  I then measured 24" from the edge of the bowl and using a string and compass method I cut 1/3 of circle from both the satin and the purple fleece.  I stitched these two pieces together (not including the neckline of the cape).  I left the neckline of the cape open.  I flipped the cape right sides out and basted the neckline.

I cut the hood out, in both the fleece and the satin.  The height of the hood was 12" tall and 11" wide at the widest part.  I sewed the two pieces together down the back, right sides together in both the satin and the fleece.  I then joined the two hoods together and flipped them right sides out.  I serged the hood neckline to the capes basted neckline.  

I cut some of the crushed velvet material on the bias and used it to cover the serged joining seam.  I added the two ties to each end of the neckline.  I had bought some silver decorative trim, that I used to line the back seam and then decorate the two ties.  I wanted to add some velcro to the ties but opted to just tie them for the sake of time.

This cloak was so cute on Isabella and really gave the princess costume the final touches that it needed. It also helped to keep her dry and warm.  The outside of her cloak was wet, but her dress was dry and her hood kept her head dry.

Halloween Princess

This year for Halloween, my four year old decided that she wanted to dress up as a princess.  I was actually really looking forward to making this costume and embellishing it with all sorts of rich looking details.  To begin with I found a tutorial of something similar to what I was going to make.  I chose the Cinderella dress from Make It and Love It.  This dress had enough princess flair to make my little "princess" happy.  I would need to make some alterations, to account for our colder climate.
My daughter and I began with a trip to the fabric store.  She had mentioned she wanted her dress to be purple, so we chose some crushed velvet for the bodice, a bright pink lycra for the centre of the bodice and some blue satin for the skirt.  Once again, I was doubtful that the colours would all work together, but it ended up coming together quite nicely.

I began with the bodice and chose a shirt from her closet that fits her well, traced this onto freezer paper and cut out the fabric for the front piece on the fold.  For the back pieces I added an inch to account for the overlap of the velcro closure.  For the sleeves, I chose to do a puffed cap sleeve out of the satin and then a longer sleeve out of the crushed velvet.  This would keep her warm when she went out trick or treating.  I measured the diameter of her bicep, wrist, the length of her arm as well as the opening for the sleeve.  The crushed velvet sleeve looked like this.  I cut out 2.

The puffed sleeves were made to be 12" wide at the widest part and about and 4" tall.  I then tried to match the curve to the opening of the sleeve.  I cut the band for around her bicep to be 10" and allowed for a bit of gathering on both sides of the puffed sleeve.  I basted both the top of the sleeve and the long end, that would be attached to the band.  

I began by joining the front and back pieces together at the shoulder.  I then pieced in the sleeves, sandwiching the puffed sleeve in between the long sleeve and the bodice.  I cut out the centre pink piece for the bodice and sewed that onto the bodice and used some purple sparkly rick rack to crisscross across the chest.  I hemmed the sleeves at the appropriate length.  After attaching the sleeves, I stitched down the sides of the bodice and sleeves, closing the top part of the costume.

I closed up the back of the costume by folding over the hem and then adding velcro to both the front and back pieces.  

To finish off the collar, I cut some of the crushed velvet on the bias (about 1.5" wide and the length of the neckline.  I then sewed this strip around the neckline, folding in the rough edges.  

For the skirt, I cut two rectangular pieces from the satin, (24" by 45").  I serged the short edges together and basted the top edge of the skirt.  

Turn the skirt right sides together and slip the bodice inside right sides out.  Pin the skirt to the bodice and sew around and then serge the edges.  

Flip the skirt down and hem the bottom according to the length needed for your little princess.  

                   

                   

My little princess was thrilled with her costume.  We were able to put warm pants underneath as well as two long-sleeved shirts to help keep her warm on our rainy Halloween night.  We topped the costume off with a little tiara. 

Roman Blinds

Let me begin by saying that I REALLY don't like horizontal blinds.  They are just great big dust collectors.  Of course, our house came equipped with nothing but venetian blinds.  My husband (the taskmaster) declared one day that I should learn how to make roman blinds.  He even bought me a serger for my birthday, which I later learned he figured I could use to make us some blinds.  The window that he really wanted us to work on is our 7 foot wide bedroom window.  Me being the practical one in our relationship, thought that it would be better to begin with one of our smaller windows.

To be honest, I wasn't super thrilled about the idea of making roman blinds.  For one thing, choosing fabric to match the walls and decor is really difficult.  It typically involves me going back and forth to the fabric store with swatches of fabric until we find one that fits.  The second thing that I absolutely dread is having to cut yards and yards of fabric in straight lines!  Luckily, my husband volunteered to do the cutting.  

We chose a lighter fabric for the front, and a thermal blocker for the back, which blocks out about 50-70% of the light and also helps to insulate.  We bought enough fabric to furnish two smaller windows (one in the kitchen and one in the bathroom).  The saleslady at the fabric store was nice enough to map it all out for me, detailing the number of rings, the length of strings and the distance between the dowels.  Combining this knowledge with what I had found on various websites (Terrell Designs, and Brown Paper Packages), I figured I was ready to get started.
We measured our window and had to make a blind that was 33.5" wide and 33.5" tall.  We cut the exterior fabric to be 35.5" wide by 43" tall and the interior fabric to be 34.5" wide by 48" tall.  We also cut out strips of the thermal blocker that were 3" by 33".  These would be the pockets for the dowels.    I began by hemming both the exterior and interior fabrics separately at the bottom of the curtain.  I then measured the placement of the dowels.  I was told to leave 8" without a dowel at the top of the curtain, I then measured 3.7" according to the calculations of the saleslady for the placement of each dowel.  I marked each placement with my aqua-trickmaster pen.  I then sewed the pockets onto the front of the thermal blocker.
From here, I sewed the front and back pieces together with the right sides together.  According to the Terrell Design website, I sewed the one side of the fabrics together and then realigned to sew the other side together.  This allows the exterior fabric to wrap around, keeping the seam hidden from the sides of the blind.  When sewing the sides, I was careful to not close the pockets for the dowels.  After sewing the two sides, I flipped the curtain and ironed the edges.  I inserted a dowel into the bottom hem of the thermal blocker and into each of the pockets.

My husband covered the headrail with the blind fabric, attached the screw eyes for the strings as well as the pulley along the right side.  We stapled the blind top to the headrail.  I then marked the placement of the screw eyes and pulley and attached the rings to the alternating dowels in the corresponding places.  I proceeded to string the blind by tying a knot after the bottom ring and then pulling the string through each ring, up through the corresponding eye screw and then into the pulley.

After making the blind, I realized that roman blinds are not as complicated as I had originally thought.  They came together nicely and are definitely a HUGE improvement over the horizontal blinds that they replaced.

Upon hanging the blind, we realized that by deciding to put the pockets onto the back of the thermal blocker my measurements were off.  Therefore the blind doesn't pull up as high as I wanted it to and there is a bit extra hanging down below the blind.  These are definitely things that I will need to take into account for the next set of blinds that I make.