Baby sewing - again

With a visit to Oregon coming up soon, there's been some serious sewing going on lately: bibs, a cape and another one of the fleece bears my granddaughter seems to be collecting:

 

 

My favorite project were the bandana bibs, quick and easy to sew and great to use up fabric left over from sewing little baby pants.
After making a couple of other "superkid" capes recently and realizing that the unlined fleece was not going to stand up to a lot of taking off and putting back on, I lined this one, ladybugs according to the "superkid's" mom's request. The bear goes with the cape. And one of these days I'll make them in matching pairs, so the little brother will get his own. Right now, his sister owns them all and, according to her, she does not share.
Details: bears are a Rebecca Danger pattern.
Cape pattern can be found here, applique here
The bandana bib pattern is here, the other bib is a pattern by Jennifer Casa  that doesn't seem to be available right now.
The little crinkly squares are leftovers from my doll club sewing days, I just winged it on those, leftover flannel and ribbon with crinkly, washable plastic in the center.

Give me an "A" ...........

................ and a whole bunch of other letters.

This particular project has been on my pinterest board for a long, long time. I am hoping the 3-year-old granddaughter is old enough for this by now.

 

 

I had fun trying to find fabrics to match the letters - H for house, L for ladybug, M for monkey, C for cat and S for socks.
And even more fun spelling out names and words.

 Art it isn't, but it sure is fun.

I found the tutorial with a link to the letters here. I did not completely follow the directions, but sewed inside the drawn line after trying it the other way. All the fabrics came out of my scrap basket with one or two from my obscenely large stash. The only thing that got a little smaller was the piece of batting I used; the stash - really not at all.
I am almost reluctant to part with these letters, too much fun to play with them and I can imagine these used in banners or applique, not just as a tool for a child to learn his or her letters.

Baby and child sewing

These were made just recently for my brand new little grandson (who was born yesterday, exactly on his due date. How often does that happen?), his big sister and a few other babies that are due in the very near future. All boys, the babies.
And these are for the little granddaughter, "super kid" capes:

Minimal sewing involved, just an applique for the decoration in the back and a bit of velcro for the closure. And they look better on the child than on Emma, my mannequin.
In hindsight, I think it might have been better if I had lined the cape, I have doubts about the fleece holding up to the constant tugging of the cape being put on and taken off. Maybe the next batch.

Details:
Bears: made from a Rebecca Danger pattern.
Capes: pattern found here, appliques here.

Toddler skirts and tops

There's been quite a bit of fun sewing going on here lately, several skirts for the little granddaughter and a couple of tops.
Few words, more pictures:
This was the first one:

Next came this one:

Then, because I had fabric left over from last year, these two:

After that, I decided to write a couple of tutorials, one for a two-layer skirt. 
Obviously, I had to make another skirt for that:

And another one for a 3-layer skirt.

A few days later, I found this tutorial. After getting measurements for my granddaughter (who lives almost 2,000 miles away), I whipped up these two:

And I really mean "whipped up." This top is incredibly fast and easy to make.
I hope all the little skirts and tops fit, always a bit risky when you're doing "long-distance" sewing. But I sure had fun. I think I need a few more granddaughters or honorary granddaughters because the one I have couldn't possible wear all I could whip up.

A tutorial for a 3-layer skirt for little girls

Another tutorial for a skirt for a little girl.

The construction of this one is very similar to the previous skirt. The tutorial for it can be found here. 

I used a different method for the side seam (a French seam) and that changes the order in which the skirt is constructed.

I actually prefer this method but it would not have worked so well for the previous skirt because I used lace last time and that makes for a bulky seam.

Again, please measure the child you are sewing for, because my measurements are for my granddaughter (who is not quite 15 months old at this time). You need to measure the waist (and multiply this measurement by 2 if you want lots of width and by 1.5 if you want less width. Anywhere in between is just fine, too.) Length is personal, anywhere from the waist down to the knee or above is fine. Make sure to add at least 1/2" to that measurement, I added 3/4" (1/4" for the seam allowance at the top, 1/2" for the folded over hem).

Supplies:

3 fabrics, 1/2 yard each is plenty

elastic, I used 3/4" wide

thread

lace

1" masking tape 

Equipment:

sewing machine

(serger, if you have one to finish off raw edges. I don't own one, so it's zig-zags for me)

cutting mat

rotary cutter

ruler, scissors, pins, large safety pin (for inserting elastic)

Cut out your fabrics to the desired length. The lengths I used are:

layer 1: 20" x 6.25"

layer 2: 20" x 7.75"

layer 3: 20" x 9.25

Side seam:

Pin together the short ends of the fabric, wrong sides together (yes, wrong sides) and sew with a narrow seam (1/8" or just a bit more).

A little tip here: if your machine is like mine and sucks the fabric into the big void underneath when sewing with anything less than 1/4" seam, use a scrap piece of fabric, sew to its edge and butt the skirt fabric up against it. Much less trouble.

 

Press the fabric to one side,

fold it over the seam so that now the right sides are facing and the seam allowance is caught in between. Sew with a 1/4" seam allowance (or just a bit more, you don't want any threads showing).

Press to one side again and topstitch about 1/8" away from the seam (this saves on ironing later on, after washing). 

The finished and topstitched side seam.

Hems:

If using directional fabric, make sure you have the hem on the correct end. Would be a shame to have dogs upside down etc.

Zig-zag the bottom edge (or finish with your preferred method).

Turn under 1/4" - 1/2" for the seam (I eyeball, you could, of course, measure and mark) and sew.

Casing:

This is my new, absolute favorite method for doing the casing. Unfortunately, it does not work for a single layer skirt. It uses less length of fabric and there are no raw edges showing.

It requires a bit of attention, but it's not difficult.

When I sew the top edge together, I don't have the side seams all in the same place, too much bulk. I'll have two of the seams on one side, off-set just a little and the third on the opposite side.

Layer the three tubes of fabric in the following order:

on the inside will be the shortest layer, followed by the longest layer, with the middle layer on the outside.

If you don't quite believe that this will work (I didn't the first time I tried it), just pin the layers together horizontally for a short length and flip the inside layer to the outside.

Sew along the top edge with a 1/4" seam allowance.

Take your project to the ironing board, flip the inside layer (the shortest one) up and press all seam allowances towards the top.

Pin along the top edge, topstitch a 1/8" away from the top edge.

Next add the masking tape, apply it just below the stitched line. Sew along the bottom edge, making sure to a) leave an opening large enough to insert the elastic and b) backstitch at the beginning and end of that seam.

Casing is done with an opening for inserting elastic.

Insert the elastic, sew the two ends together, stitch closed the opening you left, distribute the gathers evenly. (No pictures for that, I figure they aren't necessary.)

 And that's it. Another little skirt finished.

Obviously, this skirt can be made quite a bit larger to fit older girls as well. You'd need to piece the fabric to get the required width. It would still be quick and easy to sew.

A tutorial for a two-layer toddler skirt

I have a little granddaughter who, unfortunately, lives almost 2,000 miles away. So, while I love to sew for her, it's almost impossible to make anything more complicated than skirts (or little pants when she was still a baby), anything that has to fit well. Skirts are easy, they only have to fit in the waist and be the right length.

I have been making several little skirts for her lately, since it's getting warmer and, remembering mow much my daughter liked skirts when she was small, I thought her daughter might like them, too.

This is my first tutorial, so be gentle. There probably is room for improvement, since I am so new at this. I tried to find a decent balance between enough and not too many pictures of the process as I went along, and I am not sure I found it. So, if you have questions, please ask and I'll see what I can do.

This will be a tutorial for a two-layer skirt for a little girl (it can obviously be adjusted to fit a bigger girl, as well). The measurements depend completely on the child who will be wearing this skirt, so there is measuring to be done.

I will be using the measurements I used to make skirts for my little granddaughter who is 14 months old at this time. But, please, please, measure your own child or grandchild to get the proper measurements for your skirt.

Conventional wisdom says to make the width twice the waist size and that's a good way to go. I tend to go just a little narrower, that's just personal preference.

The waist size I am using is about 20" and the length is 8" or slightly longer. These are finished measurements.

Supplies:

2 fabrics, 1/2 yard is plenty

elastic, I used 3/4" wide

thread

lace, at least 3 feet

1" masking tape

 

Equipment:

sewing machine

serger, if you have one to finish off raw edges. I don't own one, so it's zig-zags for me.

cutting mat

rotary cutter

ruler, pins, large safety pin (for inserting elastic)

Cut out your fabrics to the desired length. The lengths I used are:

9.5" for the longer layer, 7.5" for the shorter layer.

The width of the skirt in this case is completely dependent on the length of the lace I am using, I believe it is 3 feet. I cut across the entire width of the fabric and cut down to size after sewing on the lace.

Hems:

Zig-zag along the bottom edges of both fabrics. If using a directional fabric, make sure the fabric is going in the right direction.

Pin the lace to the bottom edge of the shorter of the two fabrics, right sides together (my lace happens to have a right and a wrong side, very subtle, but it's there). Sew with a 1/4" seam. 

Carefully press the seam allowance to the inside (sometimes, the lace does not hold up to the same temperature as the fabric, don't want to scorch it at this point), pin or just hold in place and top stitch 1/8" from the fabric edge.

On the longer layer of the skirt turn the zig-zagged edge under a 1/4" (either measure or eyeball) and stitch.

Side seam:

As I said before, the width of the skirt depends very much on the amount of lace, so eyeball until the lace is actually attached to the fabric before trimming it to size.

Try to match up the lace - if necessary. Mine has scallops, so it's fairly easy. Trim fabric to match the length of lace, stitch the side seam with a 1/2" seam allowance. Zig-zag the edges, press the seam open and top stitch the seam allowances down.

The sideseam on the inside, stitched down.

The sideseam on the outside.

The above picture is in the interest of full disclosure, to show that my lace almost matched up perfectly. 

Sew the side seam for the layer without lace the same way - 1/2" seam allowance, zig-zags along the raw edges etc. etc.

Note here: if I wasn't using lace, I'd not only use a different method for the side seam (that will come in the next tutorial), but I'd also sew up the side seam first, and then hem the skirt. You can, of course, do that for the layer without lace. The reason I did is this way is because I had to measure my lace and use the appropriate amounts of fabric for the skirt. And I find that lace slips a bit until it is completely stitched down, so that's why I did it this way.

 

Casing:

This is where it gets interesting and it's also where one needs to pay a little attention. I still hold my breath every time I do this step, but, really, it's not difficult.

You are now dealing with two tubes of fabric: the longer/lower/inside layer and the shorter/upper/outside layer with the lace along the bottom.

Slip the shorter layer tube inside the longer layer tube with the right side of the shorter layer facing the wrong side of the longer layer (or, in other words, the right sides of both fabrics facing up).

I folded the longer layer onto itself, so you could see the shorter layer inside.

 Pin the top edges together and sew with a 1/4" seam (you could, of course, zig-zag the raw edge or serge it, but it's not necessary because it'll end up on the inside where nobody will ever see it).

At this point, I take everything to the ironing board, flip the shorter layer up, and press the entire seam allowance towards it.

I then fold the shorter, outer layer down over the longer layer, pin along the upper edge and topstitch 1/8" from the upper edge.

Since I don't like to measure and mark, I have started using masking tape to determine where the second stitching line will be. One inch masking tape is perfect for 3/4" elastic, if you are using elastic of a different width, you'll have to experiment a bit to find the correct one (or just measure and mark).

Apply the tape right along the topstitching line and sew along the bottom line of the tape, making sure to a) leave an opening large enough to insert your elastic and b) topstitch at both ends.

Tape applied to top stitching line.

Sew along the bottom edge of the tape.

Both lines stitched, tape being peeled away.

Now insert your elastic, sew the ends together, sew up the opening you left for inserting your elastic and you're done.
 

And this is what the finished casing looks like with the elastic inserted.

 Voilà, a little skirt for a toddler girl.

As I said above, this is my first tutorial, so if anything is unclear, please let me know. 

If you make a skirt from this tutorial, I'd love to see it. 

You are welcome to use this tutorial to sew skirts and sell them in small quantities (no sweatshop production, please). But, please, give me credit and link back to me.

Please, please, do not print out this tutorial, claim it as your own and sell it. I am a firm believer in karma.

I am linking up with Randi from i have to say for Show 'n Tell Tuesday.