reshape

April 26, 2014November 30, 2014

how to: my third (and final?) waistband tutorial

It’s that time of year again. Spring. When leggings from last Fall are too short, but it’s not warm enough to pair them with sandals and call them capris.

My daughter is a size 7/8 waist and a 9/10 inseam. It’s so annoying.

To the casual observer, it might seem I’m obsessed with waistbands. I’ve already written two tutorials on the subject: taking in the waist on jeans and adding adjustable elastic. But what about comfy pants and leggings? That, my friends, is super easy.

Materials
elastic
small, sharp pair of scissors
pin, needle and thread

Step 1
If you can find a seam, grab a seam ripper to open up the waist. So far I haven’t been able to do this. A lot of times the elastic is actually sewn to the fabric. Find an inconspicuous spot and snip a hole.

Step 2
Measure your/your child’s waist size and cut an elastic the same length. Thread it through the casing right along with the original elastic.

Step 3
Overlap the ends about an inch and stitch together—by machine if you’re too lazy to sew by hand, by hand if you’re too lazy to get out your machine.

Now would be a good time to try on and make sure all is good.

Step 4
Stitch up the little hole you made in Step 1. I used to just add a few drops of Fray Check on the raw ends, but my daughter says it’s too itchy.

I’ll be assembly lining a bunch of these tonight. Happy Spring!

January 19, 2013January 20, 2013

time to take in more jeans

Using this tutorial because my daughter says the buttonhole elastic is uncomfortable. I can understand. It won’t be too hard to move a few stitches later on if I need to adjust.

October 3, 2012

could cutoff jeans be more brilliant?

cutoff shorts

On the way to school: “Mom, my legs are cold.”
On the way home from school: “Mom, my legs are hot.”

I have a theory. Sometime, way back when, a child uttered those phrases over and over in a whiny voice, until her mother couldn’t take it anymore. The mother grabbed a pair of scissors and jeans with holes in the knees and BAM. Cutoff shorts were invented.

I’d like to thank her for that moment. You see, shorts and skirts are too cold for 50 degree mornings. Jeans and leggings are too hot for 80 degree afternoons. Cutoff shorts are just right. (This is starting to sound like a fairytale.)

My daughter just might wear these everyday until the first frost. Thank goodness I made two pairs.

December 1, 2011

recycle: how to make felted beads from yarn scraps

I’m going to say something silly, but I’m sure there are others out there feel the same. I have a hard time throwing out wool scraps. I don’t feel the same about cotton or acrylic yarn and I’m not sure why. There’s just something about the wooly ends. It pains me to toss them.

One night after amassing a large pile of granny square ends, I had an idea. I pulled the plies apart, walked over to the sink where my husband was doing dishes, and doused them with hot water. I added a tiny drop of soap and started rolling them in my hands. Within seconds I had the most adorable little felted bead! Just recently, I made some while the camera was out, and decided to take a few pics for the blog.

How to Make Felted Beads

1. Collect your wool ends. Here are a few from recent projects.

how to make felted beads from leftover wool yarn

2. Separate the plies. Skip this step with single ply yarn.

how to make felted beads from leftover wool yarn

3. Pull apart the individual plies until you’ve got a fluffy ball of wool. The fluffier the ball, the more even it will felt.

how to make felted beads from leftover wool yarn

4. Felt them by hand. Sometimes I use hot water from the tap. Other times I heat a small mug of water in the microwave. Get the wool wet and then squeeze out the excess water. Roll the wool between your palms until it starts to felt. Sometimes a little bit of soap helps get the process going.

Rinse out the soap and you’re left with these little cuties:

how to make felted beads from leftover wool yarn

I have great ideas for these, but I must admit that they are currently in a jar with a rainbow of other colors. I’d like to make a bracelet or necklace with them. I’d also like to use one as a center for a crochet flower hair tie. In the meantime, I just keep felting and collecting, happy that I’ve found a use for my wooly ends.

What do you do with your yarn scraps?

September 14, 2011September 30, 2011

easy kids bike shorts pattern

wardrobe refashion

The bike shorts pattern is finished and ready for download! It’s been over two years since my original Easy Kids Shorts pattern and I do a few things differently now.

These days I sew the inseams first, then the rise.
I almost always use a 1/4 inch seam allowance instead of 1/2 or 5/8 inch, usually because I’m trying to squeeze as much as I can out of a piece of fabric or t-shirt.
3/4 inch elastic seems to be more comfortable around the waist than the smaller widths.
Now that I have a serger, I finish my raw edges and just fold the waist over once. You can finish your edges with a zig zag/overlock edge or adjust the pattern to accommodate the double fold waist.

I recommend you pay attention to the type of knit fabric you use. The original piece I traced for this pattern was a tightly-knit jersey. The t-shirt I used was a loosely-knit jersey and the shorts turned out a little big. Not big enough to re-sew, but definitely roomier.

Finally, my daughter is long and lean: 20 inch waist and 14 inches from waist to knee. Adjust seam allowances and elastic size to get a better fit for your child. Want them shorter? Trim off the bottom of the pattern an inch or two.

Please leave any questions in the comments. Download the pattern here. Enjoy!

August 26, 2011September 30, 2011

after: hello kitty lunch bag + some helpful tips

lunch bag refashion

So, I survived this crazy project. Actually, the only thing that was really difficult was the bias trim, especially around the corners. But I’m not very good at bias trim to begin with, so there’s that.

I was surprised how easy this insulated-plastic-foil material is to sew. I picked out the original trim stitches and all of the pieces fell apart. I cut everything down to size and serged around all of the edges, then I serged the pieces back together. I know that sounds like overkill, but the material was made up of three layers and I didn’t want manipulate six layers of slippery stuff when I did the trim.

Some very important things to keep in mind for a project like this:

Remind yourself how much you love your child. I found this especially helpful sewing around those corners with the trim.
Have a friend close by via text for encouragement. Send her pictures of your bent sewing machine needle just for fun.
Keep chanting the mantra: It doesn’t have to be perfect, it just needs to make my child happy.
Embrace your organic style as breaking the rules and your wonky stitches as a design element.
Remind yourself that some kid in China probably put this together the first time. If she could do it, so can you.
Let go of the little things, like matching the black and pink trim in the handle. It’s just another design element.

That’s about all I’ve got to say about this lunch bag. My daughter loves the pink and she stuffed it in her backpack this morning with no problem.

stash: Finally digging into my thrifted stash of bias trim. It’s about time!

June 13, 2011September 30, 2011