T-Shirt: Storm Finished (X-Men)

Ok, so I had already posted my sketch and Storm sewn together, but I haven't posted the final thing.

I played around with painting lightning bolts on the shirt, but decided to go ahead and finish the whole thing in felt.  To be honest, the idea of painting on the shirt kind of scared me.  A fact which a friend of mine found quite humorous, apparently.  But, as I told her, stitches can be ripped out.  Paint is permanent.

I'm glad I went ahead with felt, because I love how she turned out!!

What do you think?

T-Shirt: Storm (X-Men)

Yes, folks.  It's another t-shirt!  I hope you like these, because I'm enjoying making them.

One of my nieces will be turning 8 next month.  She asked me to make her a shirt with Storm, from The X-Men.

As usual, I started with a sketch.  This one was harder for me, I think because she's a rather voluptuous woman.  As my friend, Jenine, said, I want to keep her "kid-friendly."  However, I still wanted her to have some feminine curves.  I think I accomplished both.  Here's my sketch:

Here's the result.  I haven't sewn her down to a shirt yet.  Once I do, I think I'll do lightning bolts from her hands with a yellow, shimmery fabric paint.

I love how she turned out!  Feminine, yet kid-friendly, right?

T-Shirt: Luigi (Mario Brothers)

Ok, so it has been a way-crazy week.  However, I've still managed to squeeze in enough time to make my 13-year-old niece's t-shirt!  

She loves Luigi from Super Mario Brothers.  However, it's rare to find a shirt with just Luigi on it, as Mario seems to be the most popular character of the two.  So when I asked her what or whom she wanted on her shirt, she immediately answered Luigi on a purple shirt.

Most of my characters on my shirts are kind of cartooned-down-versions of the real characters (see some of my other t-shirt creations here).  Since Luigi is already cartoonish, I pretty much simply copied exactly what he looks like and made him in felt.

Here's my sketch:

Here's the final result!

I love layering for the 3-D detail.

I think this is one of my favorite ones I've made!!

T-Shirt: Link (The Legend of Zelda)

I love making character t-shirts.  One of my 14-year-old nephews asked me the other day if I would make him one.  He decided that he'd like me to make Link, from The Legend of Zelda.

I started, as always, with a sketch of Link, his sword, and his shield.  His shield was kind of difficult to decide which details I wanted to leave in and which would come out good in felt.  

Once my nephew approved the sketch, I went ahead and made him out of felt.

I'll sew him down to the t-shirt tonight (my nephew wanted him on black).  Meanwhile, my other 14-year-old nephew told me that he'd also like Link on a black t-shirt.  So I went ahead and made another.

I'm getting ready to do Luigi for my niece.  That one should be a lot of fun!

I've been thinking about making my sketches available on PDF, in case any body else wanted to use them.  Would anybody be interested?

Vintage Treasures

I've spoken a couple of times about my grandma, who has Alzheimer's.  Several of us grandchildren have gotten some of her belongings.  My sister had gotten some of her sewing goodies and recently passed a bunch of them on to me!!

One of the first things I saw were these old tins.

I opened one to find it full of old wooden spools of thread.  

Most were marked 15 cents!!  And almost all were marked "fast to boiling" or "boilfast."  How glad I am that I don't live back in the days when they used washboards and boiled their clothes!

Some were super shiny, and I realized they were silk.  Look at those gorgeous colors!

Some of the spools still had needles attached.  I couldn't help but wonder what projects Grandma was working on.

These threads are too old to use, so I'm thinking of asking my hubby to make me something like this tree from Home Design Property to display them.

The bag my sister gave me was also full of TONS of vintage lace and trims.

It took me a while to get it all untangled and separated.  Grandma had some of it wound onto old hangers.  I separated it all out into storage bags.  Anybody have better storage ideas?

These trims were wound around an old thank-you card from my uncle to my great-grandparents, when my uncle was a kid.  So I'm not sure if Grandma never gave them the card or if these once belonged to my great-grandma.

There were also some old fabrics, buttons, snaps, etc.  But one of my absolute favorite items was this tape.

It doesn't look too exciting until you start reading the suggested uses for it.

Too bad it's probably not latex-free.  You never know when you might need a "stick" figure.

What vintage treasures have you come across lately?

Amazing Fabric Deal!!

So, many Wal-Marts have destroyed their fabric section by no longer carrying fabric on the bolt (though I was told by a Wal-Mart worker that they'll be bringing the bolts of cloth back, though she didn't know when).  The other day, our local Wal-Mart was getting rid of some bolts of fabric they still had--at $1 a yard!!  Yes, you read that right, ONE DOLLAR A YARD!!!!

It wasn't paycheck week, so I couldn't go as crazy as I would have liked.  So I took a deep breath and grabbed a few of my favorites:

You can't really tell the color right of this one.  It's a nice, tan polyester--darker than it looks here.  I practically saw the Jedi robes for Halloween jumping out of this one at me!  I can't wait to get started on those!  I emptied this bolt, about 4.5 yards.

I got two yards of this silky sheer.  I'm thinking scarves for Christmas?

I have no idea what I'm going to do with the rest of the fabric.  These are all cottons.  I got 4 yards each of these:

And these:

And I emptied the bolt of the final yard of this one.  Again, you can't exactly tell the color.  It's on kind of a subtle lime green background (if lime green can be subtle):

Any project ideas jumping out at you for these cottons?  My sewing machine is just itching to get it's...um...foot on these!  =)

Lengthening Dresses

A dear lady at church recently bought matching dresses for my older two girls.  These dresses are GORGEOUS!

The embroidery is beautiful.

Unfortunately, my 9-year-old's dress was just a bit too short.  It would have been ok for her to wear a couple of times, but that's it.  So I needed to lengthen it.  Not wanting them to be different, I decided to lengthen them both.

I was frantically getting ready for church camp at the time, so I ran to our local quilt shop for fabric, not wanting to spend the gas money and time to run all the way up to the large city.  Unfortunately, the only all-white fabric the local shop had was a muslin that was much too heavy for these light, airy dresses.  So I decided instead to match the embroidery.  I found this light and subtle printed fabric that I knew would work great!

I measured it out and ruffled it.  I didn't want to attach it to the bottom hem of the dress.  I wanted both the white and printed ruffles to be free-hanging.  So I attached it at the seam where the white ruffle was attached.  Here's the final result.  I'm thrilled with it!  And I'm kind of glad the shop didn't have any plain white cotton.  I really like the look of the bottom ruffle matching the embroidery instead.  It gives it more character.

Now this dress will fit my daughter for a while.  Yay!!

What projects are you working on?

Long Denim Skirt

Ok, it's about time I do a sewing project other than Star Wars characters on t-shirts, right?  =)

I've been wanting a jean skirt for my 9-year-old for a while now.  The problem is, she's skinny.  Really, really skinny.  As in 45-lbs of hollow bones and rubber bands skinny (latex-free rubber bands, of course!).  I mean, check out these knobby little ankles.

Yes, my 9-year-old daughter only weighs 45 lbs.  But she's healthy.  I was scrawny as a kid, and I eventually got some meat on my bones.  I assume that she will, too.  =)

Anyway, the only jean skirts I could find in stores were made to fall right above the knee.  However, even though she can wear a size 7 in height, she only has a size 4-5 waist.  If I buy a skirt made for a 4-5-year-old, it's shorter than a mini skirt on her.  So I finally decided to make my own.

I didn't want to go out and buy a bunch of denim, when we already have lots around the house in the form of old jeans.  I found this tutorial from Stand by Faith, for how to make a long jean skirt from two pairs of jeans.  I started out with a pair of my daughter's jeans and an old pair of my hubby's jeans.

I ended up changing my mind, however.  In the end, I kind of got started off with the tutorial, but I used my daughter's jeans and an old jean skirt of mine.  That way, there are no seams down the center portions on the front and back.  You can't really tell it much in the pictures, but there's a lot of contrast between the lighter sides and the dark center triangle parts I LOVE it!!

The back looks just like the front.

She's been begging to wear it around the house today, but I told her to save it for church tomorrow.  This is one project that I'm really, really pleased with!  She's lucky her waist is smaller than mine.  Otherwise, I truly might have kept this skirt for myself!  Maybe I need to make another one in my size...

Star Wars T-Shirt: Jawa

So, this past week my Little Love #5 was sick.  I got virtually nothing done, other than the Great Cloth Diaper Hunt (which is totally fun and going on all month)!

So, Happy (belated) Star Wars Day last Friday, and "May the Fourth" be with you!!!  (Yes, my husband calls me a Super Nerd.  Coming from him, I think that's a compliment.)  =)

In honor of Star Wars day, let me share with you my latest Star Wars t-shirt.  This one I made for myself.  I got my hubby to model it for me, which is way hilarious since it's too small for him.  You can totally see his muscles under it, which makes me really like it on him.  hee hee

Anyway, here's my little jawa!

Isn't he so cute?  Of course, I made him using the same method as all of my other Star Wars shirts.

I hope you all had a wonderful Star Wars Day and a great weekend!!

Superhero T-Shirt: Captain America

Lately, I've been making lots of T-Shirts with Star Wars characters.  My kids have been wanting me to branch off into superheroes.  One of my nephews has his ninth birthday coming up, so I thought there's no time like the present, right?

One of his favorites is Captain America.  As usual, I started with the sketch.

I then cut out all the individual pieces.  This one had a LOT of pieces, making this the most time-consuming design I've done yet.

Then I sewed everything together by hand.

He's not sewn down to the shirt yet--I'll do that today.  But I love how he turned out--especially his shield!!!!!

Who would you like to see on a t-shirt?

Star Wars T-Shirt: Princess Leia

Ok, here's the latest in the Star Wars t-shirt series.  I love this shirt, except that I got a small bubble in the felt, rather than it laying flat.  I blame part of it on the fact that I used a pleated t-shirt, which makes things more of a pain, and the fact that I was doing this while running a low-grade fever and feeling quite cruddy.  I know I should probably just rip the seams and redo it...

Like all the others, she's made out of felt.  I really love her hair buns.  So cute!!

I'm still working on my hubby's storm trooper (I have it sketched already, so maybe I'll get it finished today).  I've already made a jawa for myself.  I still need to get a t-shirt for it and get it sewn on.

So now I'm looking at super heroes:  Batman, Superman, Green Lantern, Captain America, X-Men...the possibilities are endless.  Who would you like to see on a shirt?

Star Wars T-Shirts: Yoda

Here's the latest in my Star Wars shirt series.  I got Yoda all finished, and I must say, he looks pretty cute!!

Like all the others, I started with a simple sketch. 

 I then cut all the pieces out of felt, glued them in place, and hand-sewed them down.  Then I top-stitched the entire thing to the t-shirt.  Very cute, he is.  =)

Star Wars T-Shirts: R2-D2

I've recently been working on Star Wars t-shirts for my family.  Today I finished R2-D2 for my 9-year-old daughter.  She picked a dark blue shirt to put it on.  I love how it turned out!

I made it the same way I did the Boba Fett shirt.   I started by free-handing a sketch of R2-D2.  I then traced and cut out the individual pieces that were on my sketch (sorry for the lousy picture quality below).

I then cut the individual pieces out of felt, glued them together, then hand-stitched around each one.  Finally, I top-stitched it to the shirt.  My daughter loves it!

I have a Princess Leia one in the works for my 5-year-old daughter.  Here's a sneak peak at the Yoda one I'm working on for my 4-year-old son.

These are so simple and so much fun!  I'm really, REALLY loving making them.  I can see me doing other characters, too.  One of my daughters is asking for Hello Kitty...

Nine-Year-Old's Craft

My oldest daughter turned NINE the other day!!  *gasp*  Time goes by soooooo quickly!!

For her birthday we gave her a sewing machine...

...and a small sewing kit...

...and a Star Wars Ahsoka figure and a lightsaber--because every girl NEEDS a lightsaber!!

Anyway, she's really been wanting to learn how to sew.  I told her she'd need to learn how to sew by hand first, then we'd move on to the sewing machine.  So yesterday I got some fabric squares left over from another project and started with the basic project for her:  a small pillow for her dolls.  She chose a different fabric for each side, and we got started.

I really wish I would've gotten pictures of the stitches she did!  I did the first two stitches to show her what to do, what size to make them, and how far apart they should be.  She did all the rest.  She was quick and did AWESOME!!!!  I was sooooooo impressed.  And she didn't even draw any blood.  =)

She stuffed it with some jersey fabric scraps.  I showed her how to do a hidden stitch and she closed it up like a pro.  Now Josephine can sleep comfortably with a little pillow of her very own:

I'm so excited to be getting started on the next generation of sewers.  And now my 7-year-old son wants to get started learning, too!  WOO HOO!!!