D.I.Y. Adjustable Summer Dress

Hi friends. So this morning I was playing around with some leftover quilting squares and I made up a dress pattern. It's ideal for a one-two year old child, but can be used by a three year old, maybe even four as a summer shirt, due to the adjustable nature of the straps.

Above is the dress I made up almost by accident. Below is the step by step.

Make two 3x4 quilts out of six inch squares. If you're making this dress for a child over the age of two and you want it to be a dress, not a top,  use larger squares.

From now on, do the same action to both pieces until I tell you otherwise. Ok, so fold the quilt over, pretty side in, and pin the square in the center like so. Stitch it from the top down to halfway through the top square. We're making a box pleat.

Open it back up, face side down. Either stitch it in place, or pin it, if you don't, the fabric could move out of a box pleat. 

Fold one side under until the edge of the fabric is aligned with the edge of the far edge of the box pleat. 

Do that to both sides. We're making pleats that open facing the box pleat. Pleats are cool. Clearly I went to private school. Who else would love pleats this much?

This is what it'll look like. Being careful not to sew the edges into the center, sew a stitch halfway down the square on each side following the line of the pin. Ugh, that sentence. Ok, sew where the two side pins are. Go halfway down the top square of the quilt. Does that make any sense?

After sewing, when you open it up and face it down again, this is what it should look like. The folds from the two side pleats should be facing out towards the edge, by the way. Do a top stitch over the top to hold all the pleats in place. 

Hem the first one and a half squares along the side. This is where the arm holes will be. It's basically to make it look all clean and to prevent fraying.

This is about what each piece should look like so far. 

Find a soft, stretchy, thin piece of fabric. Cutting across the bottom of a tshirt (creating a ring, and then cutting it once to make a long, thin strand) or using a scrap is an easy way to go. I think it's the best material to use because it ties easy and it's soft on skin. A nice ribbon or an extra long shoelace would work, too. Pretty much whatever you want.

Lay it across the top insides of the two pieces. You'll notice one of my sides is a little wider than the other on top. That's perfectly ok. The smaller side will just be the back. This is a pretty flexible pattern.

Flip the top over your string and pin, being extra careful not to pin the string. You want the string to be able to move freely in the tunnel you're creating for it. You can sew the tunnel thing now and loop the string in later, but I find that unbearably putsy, so I just sew carefully with the string already in.

Now just turn it inside out, sew up the sides and hem the bottom. That's it. 

End result. This one isn't ironed, but you get the idea. Still pretty adorable. Ok, that's all I have for today. Bye.

Super Easy & Cute Baby Clothes

Hi friends. My Aunt informed me last weekend that I haven't updated my blog since early March. Sorry about that! We were house hunting, then we were buying a house, and then I went to Medugorje. I'll try to do a blog on the house-buying process and another on the awesomeness that is Medugorje, but for right now, I just want to tell you about making baby clothes. Cool? 

For those of you who are not cool with me moving on to baby clothes, stop reading this. That'll show me. For those of you who are cool with the transition, here we go.

Ok, so as some of you (but certainly not all of you) may know, I really enjoy sewing. As you may or may not also know, I watch two of my girlfriends' kids (2 friends, each with their own child, not twins, that seems to be a confusing point to some people) from time to time or sometimes all week. So, both babes recently turned 1, so I made summer play clothes. I didn't have any patterns, I just traced their own pants for the shorts/ pants patterns and for the girl tops, I honestly just looked at pics on Pinterest. They're nothing too special, but everything is cute when it's little, so I wanted to show the end results.

Here's the little girl's clothes:

Kind of a nautical theme in this outfit. All knitted fabric for stretch. 

The tank top looks tiny, but that's just the angle, and the fact that all the shorts had extra room built in for cloth diapers. 

These don't have a top, but I feel like the blue and white top would go really nicely with them. 

This looks weird laid out flat, but it should look adorable on, and it goes well with the pink shorts.

I also made this dress, but I held it up to her, and I could already tell it was too small. Huge bummer.

Here's the little boy's clothes. They specifically needed shorts:

This is the backside, and those are working pockets, although I can't think of a single reason for a one-year-old to need pockets.

These are supposed to be like those quilted shorts that have been popular in the last 10 or so years. They don't look quite right in this pic, but hopefully they'll look good on. 

Kid of a casual sporty short. Basically the same design as the first shorts for him, except no back pockets.

Another casual pair, thicker t-shirt material, I feel like the drawstring really makes them cute. I was going to add back pockets, but decided one simpler pair might be nice.

My version of baby golf shorts. Woven fabric, workable back pockets, and honestly I'd buy these for James if they sold them in the men's section. Elastic waist makes them baby-friendly.

Ok, so that's it, that's my newest thing. Well, I guess it was my newest thing. Now my new thing is packing for the move. 

I'll update again soon! Bye!