Pillowcase nightgown tutorial

They are so easy it’s embarrassing so I thought I would just write out what I did with some of my super fantastic hand drawn pictures instead of making you wait until I feel like making another pair, which might be until the weather gets a lot warmer.  A little lame but hey… here goes!

They are basically a modified pillowcase dress made out of knit. Easy peasy. The two I made were about a girls size 10 so my directions are based on that. Tweak away for bigger or smaller sizes. I made mine with my serger and my machine but I have made them with just my machine before. Use a ball point needle and you’ll be fine since they don’t need to stretch.
First I cut out 2 pieces of fabric for the back and front. I used the width of my fabric for the width and measured from the chest to the knee for the length.   So each of my pieces were about 55” wide x 30” tall. I know that’s a ton of fabric width wise but that’s what makes it look good, especially for knit. For adult sizes I would keep the width the same just adjust the length.
Grab one piece for your front and measure from the top down, on the fold, 1 1/2”. Cut from that mark up to the outside edge corner like so. You only need to do this to the front piece. The back should be straight across the top.
Now you mark the armscye by measuring about 2 1/2” from the outside edge toward the center and 5” down from the top. You want to round the bottom corner so it’s more of a “J” shape than a rectangle and cut through all thicknesses for the front and back piece.
*If you want to make ruffling easier you can sew gathered strips of 4” wide fabric to the bottom of the front and back pieces here and sew them together when you sew the sides up. That’s what I did but forgot and had to edit that in here.*
Now put the front piece on top of the back piece with right sides together and sew down the straight sides.
Fold the armscye edges under toward the inside 1/4” and then another 1/4” and sew along the outside edge.

Fold the top neck edges down 1/4” and then another 1” and sew close to the edge for the front and back. Don’t sew the sides of that seam shut, this is the casing for the tie.

For the neck tie cut a strip of fabric the width of your fabric (55”-60” long) by 4” wide. Fold in half right sides together and sew along the open edges rounding the corners as you go. Leave a space open in the middle for turning. Turn right side out and sew the opening shut.

For the ruffle cut strips of fabric 4” wide and sew them together right sides together. The amount of strips you need will depend on how gathered you want it and how big you are making your jammies.

Sew the ruffle on the bottom right sides together then topstitch to keep it laying nice and flat.  Thread the tie through the casing in the neck and tie in a big fat adorable bow.

I’ll try to answer questions in the comments for all to see. Hope your Monday just got a bit better!

The trifecta of sweetness

Making baby gifts has to be one of my most favorite things ever. If I can’t make them for myself that is. There’s just something so gratifying in being able to play with baby stuff even if you don’t have a reason to have it around yourself. It’s almost like getting ready for a new baby again without the sleepless nights and stretch marks. Win win!

Since I’m not making anything for me baby related anytime in the near future I’m so glad I have a brand new niece to play with. Jake just doesn’t look good in pink and he’s already 30 lbs so it wouldn’t cover him anyway, sigh.

Bubble gum pink swiss dot, floral flannel, and coral lace. I loved it so much I cut out two. There’s another baby girl I was going to give it to but I can’t let it go just yet. For now baby Kyla has one and since she lives too far away and I don’t get to snuggle her I get one to stare at until I’m ready to move on and gift it.

I’m getting itchy to sew more baby stuff so I hope I get some more nieces and nephews soon. Hurry up family!!!

Have a fantastic Tuesday!

The Outies

 

A fancy camera does not a photographer make. Photography takes knowledge, talent, and the patience of a saint. I’m fresh out of all of those.

This is the best I have of our Easter dressy shots. All my pictures were out takes. All I asked for was to look at the camera and smile. I wasn’t naïve enough to think I could control their body movements or hand positions. If they stand close enough together and no one is pulling hair or rolling on the ground writhing in picture pain I call it a win.  All I care about are the faces. Please. Pretty pretty please.

 

I begged. Sneezes don’t care. Jake and Jeremy don’t either. After 5 shots they expired and turned into pumpkins. And then there were 4-

I bribed them.

I threatened to sell them to the circus.

I told them I would set them free with one smile, just one teeny weeny little smile.

One of them, bet you can’t guess who, kept sneezing. At least I got three of them to kind of smile right.

And I was left with this when I begged/pleaded/threatened/bribed head spinning in circles to get just one last good one.

I was going to take individual pictures to show off the dresses I made (the first, second, and fourth dress, mom made the third) but I didn’t have it in me.

Next year.

Next year I’m not letting them have their Easter baskets until I get one good picture! Might be weeks until they get to eat their peeps ;o).

Hope your pictures turned out better than mine!

A little snippet

 

Things are happening.

Stripe, swiss, floral, and gingham things! Haven’t flexed the ol’ sewing muscle in too long. Not that my sewing break was intentional but that happens to the best of us.

Back to the machine I go!

Shabby Apple Winner!

Today is the day my friends to see who gets to wear their very own Shabby Apple Boogie Woogie dress!  Mr. random number generator picked #42.

Erika W.Jan 30, 2012 07:18 PM

I like them on facebook and love this dress! Thanks for the chance to win!

For the rest of us who didn’t cross our fingers tight enough there’s still a 10% off coupon code everydaychaos10off to help ease the pain of defeat. Congrats Erika and thanks Shabby Apple for the awesome giveaway!

Travel accommodations.

Don’t forget the Shabby Apple dress giveaway ends tomorrow! Enter here if you haven’t.

A little something I whipped up for my favorite 5 year old this week. A quick wallet using up some scraps and pant zippers during nap time. Quick=wonky but I think it turned out pretty cute.

I asked her what she wanted to carry in it since she’s not packing Benjamins most of the time. Toys of course, duh! So this trifold has a cash pocket, a coin pocket, a card pocket (just for fun since she doesn’t pack those either), and a pillow and blanket pocket.

I want someone to pack me to the store in bed. If only all princesses were this lucky!

The zipper is my favorite part.

Have a fantastic Wednesday!

Shabby Apple dress giveaway!

***Giveaway is now closed***

While I’m plugging away at a few projects I thought now would be the perfect time for a giveaway! With Valentines day right around the corner who doesn’t need a great new dress?

Shabby Apple has a great site filled with amazing women’s dresses, little girls dresses, even maternity dresses and swimwear.  I love the vintage inspired styles, especially this navy blue Champs Elysees dress and the super cute scalloped Red Fox dress. I would go into the woods more often if I had a dress like that.


The one thing I’m always on the look out for though is a really cute little black dress. I found this black Boogie Woogie dress and loved it.

Today I get to give away this dress to one of you lucky ducks! Here's what you have to do to get your hands on your very own Shabby Apple Boogie Woogie dress.
To Enter- Go now to Shabby Apple on Facebook and "like" them, then come back and leave a comment on this post letting me know you did.  If you don’t want to do the Facebook thing, no prob. Just head over to Shabby Apple and tell me what dress is your favorite. That's it!  One entry comment per person please.
The Nitty Gritty- The giveaway will go until Thursday Feb. 2nd and the winner will be announced on Friday the 3rd.  You must have a US shipping address and there will be no exchanges for the winning dress.

Shabby Apple is also graciously giving my readers a 10% off coupon code! Just use code everydaychaos10off at checkout. Just in time to find a new dress for your hot valentines date ;o). I’m a sucker for a sale, but hurry this code is good for 30 days only.

Have a fantastic weekend and good luck!

Must.Keep.Folding

Like so many people I started out the new year with a couple of goals. Not really resolutions because I looked it up and it’s a firm decision to do or not to do something. I don’t like deciding anything, especially firmly. I want to focus my efforts on a few things. Slowly. I want each day to be better than the day before. I won’t accomplish anything if I bite off an entire year at a time firmly. One little thing at a time one day at a time. I can do that!

There’s just one hang up. I’m     s   l   o   w    .  It takes me forever to do anything.

I thought to start I should clean up my sewing space and organize my fabrics. Fabrics are happy and it’s something I like to do so I thought it would be a great place to start. Get a little organized so it doesn’t look like an chimp sews in my room you know. 

I love the way fabric shelves look when they are stacked like mini bolts and you can see everything. I thought I would give it a go.

NO ONE told me how painful it is. It’s brutal. They look nice, especially when they are tipped the right way in my shelves but holy guacamole. This took me a week of folding while Jakey was napping. This is one tote of fabric- I have more taking over my living room.

I won’t fold it all. I can’t fold it all. I will die. If I wasn’t such a control freak I would pay my kids to fold it for me. The only thing that makes this somewhat bearable is that it beats the heck out of folding laundry. I think I need to make some dresses this weekend before I pull out another tote just so I won’t have to fold any more than I have to. If you see a rash of dresses cropping up around here you’ll know why ;o).

I’m going to wrap up in a blanket tonight, sip some hot chocolate, and fold until I hate me some fabric designers and super duper sales and vow to never buy a single yard again. Have a great Thursday!

Merry Belated Christmas!

I hope your Christmas was as awesome as mine turned out to be. There were plagues running rampant through my relatives house so we had to change plans very last minute, which just about killed me. I thought I was going to lose it when I didn’t know where we were going and it was the 23rd. Then 2 of my kiddos started throwing up the 24th. By Christmas all the kids were down and out with the flu.
As sick as everyone was I barely noticed. We had fun, Santa still brings toys to kids who are out of town and sick, and I had a ton of helping hands to make it that much easier for me. Not how I planned it to go but considering all that was going on it couldn’t have gone any better. I love it when things just work out anyway! Sorry to everyone that got sick or will. Not the gift I meant to leave!
I did manage to have a little fun before we left. Ashlyn and I made these for her school party earlier in the week-

North Pole cupcakes found here.

I eeked out a little sewing time to make a gift for my little sister. She’s a chocoholic cupcake baking maniac. She told me she liked purple and lime green, which I don’t have a ton of but found a cute stripe that worked. I cut the cupcake out with my super fantastic cutter and sewed it on. Fast, cute, and easy.

Denim apron tutorial found here.

Then I heard that my sister wasn’t going to do Christmas jammies for her kids- blasphemy!- and I’m a freak and wanted them to have a pair to open like everyone else so I spent 2 hours whipping these up the day before we left. I know, not the warm fuzzy winter jammies I would have liked to make them but my mom reminded me they wear shorts and flip flops in the snow so I wasn’t worried. Time wise these were the fastest to make. I’m making a bunch more for my girls for summer!

Tutorial can be found here.

So by now my house was a total disaster so I thought, what the heck- why not really have some fun so I made all my sisters kids some pillowcases to go with their jammies.

The pictures are cruddy, trying to pack and wait for the right lighting conditions don’t really go together but they really did turn out just as I hoped. They definitely look better in person though.

And then… yes, I had more projects, but this is the sad ending to my super long post. The projects I wanted to love the most, the ones I devoted the most time to, the two I was sure were going to be a hit and my sister in law and mom were going to love- didn’t turn out! I spent weeks spray painting and sanding but they just got uglier and uglier until I ran out of time and had to cop out with a gift certificate and a promise to get it done before next year.  It’s the thought that counts though right? Not to mention I’m going to have an entire year to gussy them up. I didn’t even start 3 projects. So much for a project free Christmas ;o).
The flu has left the building and so will all the old toys, outgrown clothes, the tree, and anything else I can get my hands on today. It felt great to sew stuff again so now all I want to do is clean clean clean to have room to make more sewing messes! Spring dresses are calling my name.
Have a great Wednesday!

Present.

I don’t know about you guys but I am loving the end of this year. I’ve been cozied up in our little house, rearranging things and getting ready for the holidays. I love happy endings and I am 100% optimistic that this year is going to end just like that.

I’m making it my goal not to stress out and freak out about much. I still do no matter how hard I try but I’ve cut the freak show to a minimum. I’ve finished my Christmas shopping except a few small things and have a little list of things I need to (because I want to) make and the rest of the time I get to enjoy my family. I decided early on this fall that I wanted to be there this year. I wanted to be a part of our family, not the crazy sleep deprived woman slaving away in the kitchen with threads hanging all over her freaking out that she forgot to buy marshmallows for the hot chocolate on Christmas Eve and all is lost.

Not this year. I’ve made nothing crafty so far and I have gone to bed before 10:30 most nights but I feel good about it. We have marshmallows and my kids have a mom. A mostly well rested one. It’s taking all I have not to cut into Christmas dress fabric and make 4 dresses right now though. Do you ever feel guilty for not making a homemade-ish Christmas? Then guilty if you do for staying up until the wee hours and not being much of a human for the holiday? I know there are those wonder women out there that can do both and are really awesome but that’s not where I’m at.  I feel really guilty… must. stay. strong! I just have to keep telling myself it’s better for me to be present than to make all the presents this year.

 

This helps. My little buddy had his first birthday last month. Jake went from this tiny perfect 7 pound lump to this chubby frosting eating one man demolition crew, still perfect. I don’t want to miss a minute of it.

He’s grown so much. They do that. I hate that part. He’s so fun and such a boy.

A little about Jake at 1 year old- He loves balls and cars. He gives the best around the neck squeezes and open mouth kisses (on the cheek) and makes me melt. He growls and has the Musgrove baby scream. He has the cutest laugh and pudgiest hands. He won’t eat breakfast foods or bread but loves casseroles. He loves to see what’s inside things and takes things apart, usually our remotes and the computer speakers. His biggest obsession right now is our Christmas tree. Taking the ornaments off (don’t worry, they’re plastic on the bottom half), shaking it, crawling under it and up inside it, and basically making me thankful to have a reason to set one up in the first place :). Our tree is really pretty from about 3 feet from the bottom and up.

Here’s to a stress free mom filled holiday season!  I’ll let you know if I make it or fall off the wagon.