Shirring Christmas Night gown

Ok Ladies and Gents I am going to try and teach you how to make a cute little night gown for your little honey! It is really really easy! I just don't know how well I can explain them! So let me know if you have any questions. I couldn't figure out how to hang these cute for the pic so you could get a good look but this was the best that I could do!



First pick your fabric. I wanted mine to be Crhsitmasy so I chose white and red polka dots. This fabric is a silky type so it's is soft a comfy. I am going to use the red and white polka dots for Jammie bottoms for my little man.


You are going to be cutting 6 rectangles.

So you need to decide the size. I made mine for a 5 year old and a 12 month old. Here are the measurements that I used.

5yr old: Bodice (the shirring top) I cut two rectangles that were 20 inches wide and 7 high
Sleeves: I cut two rectangles that were 4 1/2 inches wide and 10 inches high
Bottom skirt: I cut two rectangles that were 22 inches wide and 21 inches H

12-18 month: Bodice: two rectangles that were 16 inches wide and 4 inches high
Sleeves: 4 inches wide 6 1/2 H
Bottom Skirt: 18 1/2 inches wide and 14 inches high

Here are the other sizes that I am pulling from a pattern

6-12 month Bodice 15 inch W 4 inch High Sleeves: 4 inch w 6 1/2 in h Skirt: 18 inch W 13 in H
18-24 month 16 in wide 4 1/2 High 4 1/2 W 7 H 19 W 14 1/2H
2T 16 1/2 W 5 H 4 1/2 W 7 1/2 H 19 1/2 W 16 H
3T 17 W 5 H 4 1/2 W 8 H 20 W 17 H
4T 17 1/2 W 5 1/2 H 4 1/2 W 8 1/2 H 20 1/2 W 18 H

As you can see for the most part with each size increase the measurements increases up to a half size. After size 5 though they increase by an inch rather then a half inch so if you need a bigger size you can pretty much figure it out. (NOTE: I have made a couple of dresses using these measurements for my girls I have noticed that the baby sizes are pretty much right on but my 5 year old I always use the sizes for a seven year using this particular measuring chart. My five year old is pretty average maybe a little bit bigger she wears a size 6 in regular clothing)


Ok so now you have your 6 rectangles cut out. Now it's time to get to the fun stuff. Don't be overwhelmed figuring out your sizing was prob the hardest part!

So with right sides together sew both pieces of your bodice (this is your medium sized rectangle the part over the bust) together and then again with right sides together sew both pieces of your bottom skirt together.

Next sew a rolled hem with your machine around the top of your bodice and the bottom of your bottom skirt. If your machine doesn't do a rolled hem, don't freak out. Just pull out your trusty iron and fold the edge over about a 1/4 inch and iron and then another 1/4 inch and iron again. Then you are going to take your ironed pieces and sew a straight stitch right along the fold to hold that hem. Look at the picture so you can visualize that hem!

You are going to be doing a hem on the long sides of each sleeve rectangle too so if you wanted you could do all of your ironing at once.


Ok Next let's do the gather on your bottom skirt. I love the gather stitch! IF you are new to sewing once you have learned a gather stitch you will feel like you are an amazing sewer! It's just fun because there are so many things you can make with the gather stitch. SO... at the top of your bottom skirt you are going to simply sew a straight line all the way around your skirt. DON'T back stitch and set your machine's stitch size to the longest stitch setting possible. Then just sew!! At the end of your straight giant stitch you will cut the thread(again no back stitching) and then grab one thread and pull. Instantly your clothing will start to gather. OK set that aside once it's gathered and we will move on to the fun shirring part.
Pic above is a gathered hem.

Ok so shirring is SOOO easy! But so many people are afraid to try it! Here is all that you need to do. Buy some elastic thread. I bought mine at Hobby Lobby and that is the only place that I have seen it. But another blogger said that she bought hers at Walmart. So just check around. To use shirring you are going to thread normal thread on the top of your machine and a hand winded elastic thread bobbin. I was told to hand wind your bobbin and to keep it loose. Tight enough that it stays but does not stretch.

And then you just start sewing straight line all along your bodice. I spaced each row of mine by using the presser foot lined up with the previous thread. THERE is NO RIGHT OR WRONG WAY! it's your own preference. You don't have to do anything special you just sew straight lines all the way around and as you do your bodice will start to gather. And eventually look like this...

Next I shirred my sleeves. Remember to finish your long edges on your sleeve rectangles by either doing a rolled hem with your machine or iron and sewing a straight stitch hem. The you will shirr that away too. I only did 3 rows of shirring on each long side of the sleeve. So the edges of the sleeve gather and leaves the middle open. Does that make sense?? Look at the picture below if not.

Ok so now we are ready to pin this baby all together. This part is hard for me to explain so let me know if you have questions and really look at the picture it hopefully will help. Ok so What I did was kept the bottom skirt right side out and then I tucked the skirt up into the upside down inside out bodice. GET IT??? then I evened out the gathered top of the bottom skirt and pinned the right sides together of both the bodice and bottom skirt. Here I try to match all of the seams together so that the side seams of the bodice line up with the side seams of the skirt and then you sew around it.

Last you attach the sleeves. For the sleeves you pin the bottom of the sleeves 1/4 inch from the top of the bodice and 2 1/2 inches away from the side seams. Then just sew those babies on right to the bodice. Then trim all of your extra long threads and wala you have just made your baby a night gown. Ok I do realize that you could prob find jammies all over town from anywhere between 3-10 dollars and yes they prob would be well worth the money or the time. But there is just something about making things for my girls that I love. I LOVE LOVE LOVE that these are coming from mama and that they were sewn with my love (as cheesy as that sounds!!:) Good luck! Don't let it overwhelm you! I promise it really is easy it's just a matter of jumping into it! Please don't be afraid to ask questions!

Congratulations!

Congratulations Andrea Warner, from TX your scarf is in the mail! See you all next month on JAN 20th for our next give away. We need to get crafty and come up with something really good!

Giveaway of the month!

Ok I know it's a repeat from last month!! LAME!! We had a ton of people interested in our scarf through email last month so I thought heck why not! It's simple for us to make and ship and it would be cute for your self or a present for a friend! I had to switch it up a bit though. Last month we gave only the scarf away this month you get the scarf and cute flower pin. So because we want you to have it before Christmas we are moving the Follower of the month up to Dec. 15th. All that you have to do to win this scarf is become a follower of our blog. Once you are a follower then every month you are entered to win our giveaway and be featured on our blog. So follow today!! We will use random.org to pick the winner of this on Dec. 15th so that we can ship it out that same afternoon. So you can have it for sure before Christmas! Thanks!! and Happy Blogging!

A little modge podge please!

I just found this picture as I was organizing my picture files and I remembered how much fun it was to make and how it would be a perfect gift idea. So this music is to Let it Be Me. My husband and I's first dance as a married couple. I found the music in an old piano book at a thrift shop and then I just tore pieces. Then I took scrap book paper and tore pieces to make the flowers. I have done several of these and I love them! This is one that I still want to frame to put in my bedroom. Other ideas I have done are Twinkle Twinkle with a big star in the middle for a nursery, or There is Beauty all around with more flowers. And one that I have wanted to do was Somewhere over the Rainbow with a pair of red shiny shoes. Anyways kind of fun. All you need are scraps,modge podge, and a piece of card board.

Tis the Reason for the Season!

I really want my kids to think about the reason for the season. I love the gifts, the snow, the lights, and the hustle and bustle, but what I love most is feeling that special spirit and remembering Jesus Christ. I have tons of handmade ornaments with meaning and memories hanging on garlands spread throughout my house. So I like our Christmas tree to be a little bit more fancy dancy! (well as fancy as I get!) Our tree is definitely not spectacular, but it is the symbol just the same. This year to help remind my kids I went to a local store here in Utah called Seagull book and tape. I am not sure if they are located anywhere else. But I purchased a whole bunch of little 3X5 pictures of the Savior on them. The cards were .50 each and I LOVE what they represent. We took hot glue and glued ribbon onto the back of each picture and hung them as ornaments on the tree. My original plan was to purchase a bunch of frames and spray paint them gold but I ran out of time and I just wanted them up! I love this small simple gesture. It helps us to remember why we are celebrating and to be thankful for our Savior.

My kids loved these two pics the best. When my two year old Max saw this one with the little boy he said oohhh Jesus is holding Max!

Not sure of all of the artists names but the ones I love best are by Simon Dewey. Check out his work he is amazing!

Best $2.00 I ever spent

About two years ago I hit Old Navy's 50% clearance sale and scored this black sweater for $2.00. I wore the sweater for the past two years and then decided last night to give it a new life. SO FUN!!! I made a little sweater dress for my Mia and two headbands for Mia, Madi or myself! Whoever gets to them first I guess. I always have intentions of doing step by step tutorials for these things but then I get sewing and forget to take pictures. I tried to use as many finish edges on the sweater as possible so it would not unravel. The bottom of the dress is the actual bottom of the sweater and the length was perfect to the arm holes so I just based the width off one of her old dress and cut a straight line up. Turned it inside out sewed right sides together. I also used the same sleeves that were on my sweater so the edges were done for me I just had to cut them down to fit her arms. Last I used strips and twisted and rolled to make some kind of cuteness on the front. I LOVE the way this turned out.

The whole reason I started cutting up my sweater was for these headbands, the dress was an after thought but I like the dress much more then the headbands. So have you ever seen these? They are all over boutiques and craft fairs here in Utah. And like I have mentioned before I am VERY VERY cheap. don't get me wrong I like to shop but I HATE actually paying for the things that I shop for. Especially when I know it will only get worn maybe 4 times in the season. But I really actually love these and think they are prob worth the money! Dang you amazing women who know how to knit and crochet. So these are worn as headbands or neck warmers. They have buttons in the back to adjust size and well I just think they are super cute!

And no, I am not a grease ball!! I had an oil lotion thing in my hair! So my hair looks really dirty! But it's not! For this I just cut strips off of the sweater and then rolled the edge under and sewed a stitch across the edges so it would not unravel. The I did the same as in the dress I rolled strips to form a flower and hand stitched it on. I think they are adorable! and hey you can't beat free fifty free right???

A gift for that sewer that you love!

I was at the fabric store yesterday and I ran across this book. It looked fun and sew cute. Yes, a lot of the projects are pretty basic projects that I could and have figured out by myself. But I still want the book! :) I love new ideas and having them all right there together with different color schemes and new ways of doing things, ways that I woud prob have not thought of. And then I got thinking about all of my amazing friends who want to learn to sew or who are just starting out and what an awesome Christmas gift this would be! So At the fabric store it is $22.00 and on amazon it is $11.36 Anyways I just thought it was a great idea and had to share! If you like it to0 send your cute hubby or mama over here have them click on the pics and they can purchase right from Amazon!

Also, who doesn't love Amy Butler! I love her!! Love her stuff! Both of these books look so fun!!

A 30+ year tradition...

One of my first memories of crafting is connected to this awesome tradition! Every year sense I was a little girl all of the girl's on my mom's side of the family have made each other a Christmas ornament and have exchanged them on Thanksgiving. This was always the highlight of my Thanksgiving dinner! I could not wait to exchange ornaments and see what everyone had made. As we got older our collections become very large! So we stopped making them for everyone as far as the extended family and we picked up a new tradition of meeting downtown and bringing just one ornament to exchange. The only rule is that the ornament has to have some kind of meaning. I absolutely LOVE this tradition. Every year as I pull out my old ornaments I can't help but laugh or smile as I remember all of the old memories and stories that are attached to each one. This year especially as my sweet Aunt Rea had passed away I couldn't help but think of all of the good memories of her and all of the fun that we had! This year at our dinner she was truly missed but happily remembered. I am so glad to have such amazing women in my family and even more glad that my sweet Madi enjoys this tradition as well.

For my ornament this year I put buttons, needles, pins, and ric rac in a glass ornament. (the pic is not very good!)The younger girls were amazed at my talent!:) And my good old sis said,"It's not that hard you just pop the top off and shove some buttons in!!" SO true so true! Because our ornaments needed some kind of meaning I chose this to show my new found love of sewing. 2009 was the year I learned to love to sew! If you are looking for a simple sentimental ornament to make this is really the way to go, seriously just buy a glass ornament pop the top off and shove whatever you want inside!

Just be careful not to drop it on your tile before you get it wrapped and ready to go!!! Yes some of my cute sis's still have not received theirs! RE DO!!!

Life is Short so Be Nutty! I think the tear jerker of the night goes to this ornament right here. My Sweet Aunt Rea brought this as her last contribution last year and my mom brought it this year in remembrance of her.

An ornament from Rea's tree was passed along and luckily it will belong at our house! I will treasure this ornament forever.

Not really feeling it right now! :(

With Thanksgiving just here and Christmas around the corner we have been busy hanging lights decorating the tree etc etc etc so as soon as we get caught up maybe we will start feeling a little crafty again! I have several tutorial ideas I am sure you will all love I just need to find the time for them so stay tuned...