Sewing a jacket

This is my latest project in the making. I made a coat half a year ago so this time it'll be much easier. Again, I'm using burda style pattern for petits. It's the front page design of 1/2011 issue. Did anyone make this one already?

Machine applique tutorial

I was making bibs lately and thinking of ways to embellish them. I decided to go with machine applique an also made a tutorial for you.

1. Draw your design (letters, objects, animals, ...) on a piece of paper and cut it.

 2. Pin the paper pieces onto the fabric that you are going to use for applique.

3. Cut.

4. Place the design onto the finished project. Hand-baste it with a contrasting rayon thread.

5. Stitch the design close to the edges with a straight stitch to secure it. Topstitch with a satin stitch - a very short and wide zig-zag stich - covering the straight stitch and edges of the design. I used 3 mm width.

6. Remove the basting thread.

Sewing for tiny humans

I have sewn a lot for babies/children lately. For this suit I used patterns from burda style 3/2011, however I made a shirt instead of a jacket. Very easy and quick made. I just had to add the elephant buttons, they're so cute!

 

Do you know of any good patterns for babies?

Inspiration: Marie Antoinette movie

Even though the story is interesting and fun, the movie is worth watching merely for it's mise en scene and gorgeous costumography. I love pastel shades and overall style.

 

 

Tips for sewing Lycra

There are more types of Lycra available. Most common are cotton Lycra and nylon Lycra. While cotton Lycra is matte, nylon Lycra is shiny and usually used for bathing suits. Although Lycra is very stretchy, it's easy to sew. I wrote some tips that might help you.

Use

• 70/10 (lightweight) or 75/11 (mediumweight Lycra) ball point or stretch needles
• quality polyester thread
• standard presser foot
• fine and sharp pins to avoid damaging the fabric; pin carefully

Cutting

• preshrinking isn't necessary for nylon Lycra
• lay out the pattern so that the greatest stretch goes around the body, regardless the straight grain indicated on the pattern
• you can either pin your pattern to the fabric and cut it with sharp scissors
• or place the pattern on the fabric and cut it with a rotary cutter

Sewing

• first, try some stitches on a test piece of fabric and also try stitching the elastic
• joining the fabric: use 4 mm wide and 1.5 mm long zig-zag stitich, machine "overlock stitch", or 4-thread overlock on the overlock machine
• if stitches tear when the seam is stretched, loosen the top thread tension until it's fine
• don't stretch the fabric while sewing, except when necessary (when you must stretch the elastic; then stretch it equally both in front and in the back of the sewing foot)
• attaching the raw rubber elastic: use 4 mm wide and 4 mm long zig-zag stitch or 4-thread coverlock - left side of the stitch should pierce the elastic and the right should just encase it
• if elastic sticks to the presser foot, powder it with a bit of talc or baby powder, or sew it with the elastic against the feed dogs
• topstitching the elastic: use 3-4 mm wide and 1.5-3 mm long (whatever you like the most), a triple zig-zag stitch, 3 mm long twin needle stitch with woolly nylon hand-wrapped on bobbin, or a coverlock stitch

! Pattern instructions correction

A really kind fellow blogger Zanda pointed out a typing mistake in the pdf file. I'm really sorry!

This is correct:

In the spotlight!

In BlogHer's spotlight, actually! I was amazed, when they contacted me with a request for featuring my ring pincushion tutorial!

Also, my bathing suit tutorial is:

This week is really full of surprises! Incredible! I'm so happy. :) Thank you for all your support!

Summer Sewing project

I can't thank Sew,Mama,Sew! enough for making this happen.

Their Summer Sewing month - featuring lots of new summer tutorials - just started and my pattern and tutorial for the bathing suit pictured below are now available as a part of it! :)

I'm already looking forward to seeing the creations you make out of it. And if you have any questions regarding the pattern or instructions, feel free to contact me.

Update, 9. June 2011: 

There was a typing mistake in the original pdf file. I'm really sorry! Anyway, you can download the updated file by clicking here, or make this correction: