Tutorial: Girls Maxi Skirt with Walking Slits

Everyone loves a reliable, easy, and fast sewing project. That, my friends, would be the maxi skirt.

 
Maxi skirts are one of the best projects because they're a cinch to whip up and perfect for beginners. You can cut them straight down, literally two rectangles, or in a slight triangular shape for some flare at the hem. This skirt is cut with a faint flare and features modest walking slits, which requires the smallest bit of additional work, but I think it's worth it.

First, decide how long you'd like the walking slit to be. I prefer a very modest slit, one that makes the skirt comfortable to move in (climbing stairs, getting up into our van, etc.) but doesn't scream, "Hey hey hey! Look at my long legs!"  Once you've settled on that, simply backstitch when you've reached the right spot and leave the rest of the edges open. You can see how I angled the cut with the pinking shears above the open sides.

Next, you're going to press a narrow edge (toward the wrong side, just like a normal hem) on the open seam, and then fold it over itself and press again. Stitch the pressed edges. If stitching this in one continuous line seems daunting, just stitch up one side and backstitch above the slit, and then repeat on the other side. You can stitch on an angle to form a point if you like as well, but it isn't necessary.

Lastly, sew up your waistband like you would any other maxi skirt with an elastic waist. Then press whatever size hem you want in place and stitch. Voila! 

The back looks longer in the photo, but it isn't really. Must be all that hip-jutting and strutting and such.  =)

Note: If you prefer to fold the fabric in half from top to bottom, so that you have only one side seam to stitch and the other side is the fabric fold, that works too- just make one walking slit in the sewn side. Done and done. And even faster!

Easy Ruffled Apron Tutorial

Hello! This is a tutorial for a little girl's ruffled apron, perfect for a beginner wanting to try out some new skills and actually finish a project in an hour or so. The sky is the limit in terms of fabric combinations. These aprons were for a birthday party, so cupcakes and flowers worked beautifully. You could choose anything!

Oh, and sorry in advance for the pics - the sun kept going from blinding to hiding behind a cloud, and I couldn't keep up!

Here's a little tutorial for making the apron:

Basically, it's just squares and rectangles...super easy and fast to make! These are the measurements for a size 6 (I deduced by about 2 inches for a size 5) but you could use whatever sizes you want. I think fat quarters would work very well for smaller sizes.

Ruffle One: 24" x 6"
Ruffle Two: 24" x 9"
Body of Apron: 17" x 15"
Tie: 3 1/2" x 45"
   **I simply cut the strip along the edge of the 45" fabric, but it was barely long enough for this size- next time I'll cut longer strips**

Next turn up the edges on the sides and bottom to iron the hem
Stitch the sides first, opening out one fold on the bottom - this makes for a clean, neat finish

Now stitch along the bottom

Finish the sides and bottom of all three pieces

Next you'll gather the ruffles

If you do things properly, you'll baste the ruffles together and then neatly pull the thread to even everything out...I simply pinned the edges to the pink apron body along the top, and eyeballed it as I worked the layers through my machine.

At this point, the ruffle layers should be stitched to the top of the apron body, laid out like this, not Right Sides Together.

I thought about stitching right sides together to form a tube, but...I didn't want to have to pull them all back through! Also, I wanted them to have a little extra something to make them more stable.

Iron both sides so the edges meet in the middle

Open out ends and put right sides together - you'll stitch these ends like so

Trim the edge and turn out  (you may have to poke the inner corner a bit)

On the home stretch now...
Center the tie over the apron and ruffles, and create an apron-tie sandwich
Pin carefully for this part so it doesn't get shifty on you.

You'll stitch through all the layers
I placed the tie so it was about halfway down onto the apron - it might be easier to place the fold line directly over the top of the apron if you're worried about things moving around too much
Take your time - it's pretty bulky

And that's it! Tie it on an adorable chef and get lunch made for you!  =)

 

We I whipped up a few of these as party favors for Isabelle's birthday party guests (and then promptly forgot to post the tutorial...oops!). The girls decorated their own little pizzas, and while those were baking, they added frosting and sprinkles to some giant sugar cookies we'd made ahead of time.

Thanks for reading! I hope you're having a fantastic day today!

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Tip Junkie

Making Store-Bought Clothes...CUTER

Good Wednesday morning! I can hear the wind howling just on the other side of the wall to my right, and it sounds brutal and terrifying. I think it's safe to say that the majority of us are freakishly kind of anxious for Spring this year! Oh, and if you've popped over from the post on my family blog, so glad to have you...welcome!

So onto the heart of this post: clothes. Specifically, making your average, store-bought items cuter.

These ideas are certainly nothing original to me; in fact, I'm a better copy-cat than an actual thinker-upper of creative ideas. That said, I haven't actually ever seen the embellished glove before, so I'm pretty darn proud of that one.  =)

Oh the gloves.

They were literally pleading with me to pretty them up. I started out with all these complicated ideas and designs, and in the end, these simple little hearts won me over. Mittens and gloves never look cute for long around here because they get absolutely trashed, so I didn't want to invest a ton of time of effort. They've held up much better than I thought they would have, but I know Isabelle Kate takes extra special care of them because she likes them so much more now. Win win!

Just a plain fabric heart stitched in place with embroidery floss, and a sparkly button for kicks. This has also been a WONDERFUL way to keep track of her gloves because everyone knows who they belong too.

I don't have a before picture of the t-shirts, but I think you can tell- they were basic, plain tops, and now...
they're really cute!
Of course, because of this year's perpetual Arctic conditions, girly girl wasn't terribly willing to keep them on long enough for a photo shoot. I'll spare you the sad, sad drama.  ;)

The one with the double ruffle was ridiculously easy- I didn't even trim off the hem! I was going to add the bows to the shoulders, but then, obviously, didn't.  =)  The other shirt required a teensy bit more effort, mainly due to keeping the ruffle straight around the shirt. I made a chalk line and followed that. Then I stitched the ribbon in place to cover up the raw edges, as shown in this tutorial. There's also some ruching on each side down by the hem, and the ginormous flower because I thought just a little something more. It's super cute!

This works really well if you're looking to add a little length to a too-short sleeve when the rest of the shirt still fits fine.

I cut the rectangles for the ruffles, folded and ironed them in half, and gathered and stitched to the sleeve hem as I went- I didn't cut the hem off these either.

She kept holding her hands out like she was about to be arrested every time I tried to get a decent shot of the ruffles, ha!

I know that working with knits can be intimidating,, but you should try it! These are easy projects, and they don't have to be perfect to look pretty and cute. =)

ps- As for sewing needles, I used a stretch needle when I remembered, but then not when I didn't. That makes total sense, right? It all worked out just fine.

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Sew Can Do