Fabric Christmas Trees

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I saw some really cute fabric Christmas tree decor at Walmart this year--I like them, and they are only about $5 each--BUT--they are all the same size.  I like having some variety/depth if I'm grouping things together.  This post is not sponsored at all by Walmart, but wow, they've had some pretty great decorations and craft supplies this year.

Walmart version

When I wandered past the crafting section at the same Walmart, I saw some fat quarter fabric for only $1.47 each and thought they'd make awesome craft projects. Fat quarters are pieces of fabric that are 18x22 inches.  You could use any fabric (or cut up an old piece of clothing).  The nice thing about fat quarters is you don't have to wait in line to get fabric cut.


Also down the craft aisle at Walmart are some pre-cut dowels, only $1.27 for a package of 16.


Once I had my supplies at home, I poked around in the garage for something to work as the base--a tree "cookie" would be great, but I didn't have any of those, but I did have a leftover bit of 1x2 lumber, so I cut it into about 1.5" lengths.  I used my drill to make a 3/16" hole to receive the dowel.

I used a simple tree outline (you could also just make a plain triangle with no branches) and enlarged and reduced it so that I had multiple sizes.  I printed them on cardstock and cut them out as patterns.  My biggest tree is 7 inches tall and 6 inches at the base.  I also did a 6 inch tall and 5 inch tall.  I have a pattern for a 4 inch, but it seemed too small for what I wanted.


With some careful planning, I was able to cut 4 Large, 4 Medium and 4 Small trees from each of my 3 fabrics.  That meant 36 pieces which equals 18 trees.  I had to really layout the pattern carefully to get this many.  I laid the fabric out flat and traced and cut each piece.  It would be way faster to fold the fabric and cut more than one at a time, but you won't get as many pieces.


I chose to sew mine.  I also chose a "rustic" look, so I sewed them with wrong sides together and left the edges a bit ragged (instead of sewing with the right sides together and then turning it out to hide the stitching).  I started my seam about 1/8 of the way in on the bottom edge of the tree and then went around every branch until I was back at the bottom of the tree--and went in about 1/8 inch.  That left me a wide opening to insert a bit of stuffing.  I used the dowels to poke the stuffing into all the branches (I went with a slightly stuffed look, but you could really pack it in there).  You could probably do this as a no-sew craft if you used fabric glue and let it dry for several hours before stuffing.  I just liked the look of the stitching around the edges.  The sewing was the longest part of the project.

Once the trees were stuffed, I closed up the bottom seam with my machine (skipping over about 1/4 inch in the center so I'd have space to insert the dowel).  Run the dowel all the way to the tip of the tree.  Place the dowel in the base and you are set.

Materials
fat quarters of different fabrics (or if you like them all the same, just the one kind)
3/16" wooden dowels
wood block or tree cookie for base
polyfill stuffing (or an old pillow you can cannibalize)
matching thread/sewing machine or glue


My total investment was under $6 for all 3 fat quarters and the package of dowels.  I already had the other supplies.  I was able to get 5 sets (actually 6, but the dowel package leaves you short two dowels, so I went into the yard and cut a couple sticks off a shrub...it will do--if you have some small, straight tree branches, you could skip the dowels altogether).

You could do the same tree pattern for ornaments, or decorations on a wreath instead of on dowels.  I thought I'd gift each set along with the story of the Three Trees. 

Dress Resizing

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There's a clothing store outlet near my office that I love. Its a bit of a hunt, and hit or miss on what is there, but dresses are usually $12 or less.  Often they have dresses in XS and XL, but I don't wear either of those sizes.  For a dress that is just a few dollars, I'm willing to tailor it to make it fit.  In this case, I bought the XL dress for $8.  I looked at the construction of the dress--no pockets, no side zippers, no darts etc..., which meant it wasn't too hard to fix. 

First, I put the dress on my dress form (a luxury for sure, but it makes sewing for  myself so much easier) inside out and pinned it where I needed to take it in.  If you don't have a dress form, just put it on and pin it and take it off. 


Once you know how many inches you will be taking off each side, cut off the sleeves.  Yup, you need to cut the sleeves off because you will be taking the same number of inches of the armhole opening that you do off the sides.  I had determined that I would be taking 2" off each side seam.  I measured 2" in from the seam and marked it, then ran it under my serger (you can also just use a sewing machine).  I sewed from the bottom hem all the way through the arm pit. 


Next, you have to reduce the size of the sleeve.  Since I took 2" off the armhole, you need to take 2" off the sleeve, except that to do that, you just measure the bottom seam in 1" (because you are taking in 1" off of each side of the seam--which will add up to 2"). 

Now that the sides and sleeves are all sewn, you have to reset the sleeves of the dress.  Flip the dress inside out and leave the sleeves right side out and slide them inside and pin all the way around and sew back on. 

The neck opening is a bit wider than I might prefer, but not enough to warrant messing with it. 

An hour later, I've got a dress that fits me!  This is not a procedure that works if there are complicated seams, pockets or zippers along the side seams. 

Placemat Pillows

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Do you like to hit the after Christmas clearance sales? I do! I don't mind storing things for a year if it means I got it for 90% off.  I grabbed these place mats at Target last year-and it was no problem that there were only one of a kind since I wasn't thinking of using them for the table.  Instead, I saw that these place mats were made with a front and back fabric-so they were basically pillowcases that had been sewn shut. Also in the Christmas clearance section, I saw lots of bags of "snow batting"--the kind you unroll and put under villages or trees-but it's the same polyfill material used for stuffing pillows. It was super cheap, so I bought a couple packages for each pillow.


Materials
1 fabric place mat (make sure that it has a front and back fabric)
Stuffing material
Thread to match

Use a sharp pair of scissors or a seam ripper to open up the seam along the bottom of the place mat. Start and end about 1 inch from the edges.



If using flat snow batting, unroll it and then accordion fold it into a rectangle that will fit inside the pillow.


To make it easier to insert into the pillow, roll up the batting and stick one end into the pillow and then the other. Use your hands to smooth it flat.

Sew up the seam either on your sewing machine or by hand (or for a no-sew version, add stick-on Velcro or fabric glue).

This project took about 5 minutes per pillow. I chose to just make a quick pillow, but you could do pillow covers if you wanted to take the time to add buttons or snaps or sew-in Velcro.

Travel Pant Refashion-Tapering and Waistband adjustment

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I am traveling to Europe this summer--and even though I was there last summer, I find that once again, I'm shopping for just the right clothes.  This trip is a short time frame and the weather will probably be warm, but I get cold on planes, so pants make sense.   So, I started looking for some great travel pants.  I found great ones from Athleta--they are called the Trekkie Jogger, but they are $89.  I do love Athleta, and have many of their clothes--but $89 just wasn't in the budget (car repairs last week, upcoming dental expenses...not to mention the cost of the upcoming trip).  I tried to love something already in my wardrobe, but couldn't.  I wanted something lightweight, non-wrinkly, easy to dry and ankle length--plus I wanted secure pockets with zippers to hold things.  Tall order--but the Athleta pants did all that, for a price.

So I decided I'd hit my favorite thrift store and cross my fingers that I'd find the perfect pants (I actually have a lot of Athleta from thrift stores).  No luck--no one had purchased the Trekkie Jogger and donated it for me to find.  But I did find a pair of Eddie Bauer hiking pants that had potential.  The fabric was right, the size was close, they had some zippered pockets and they were long--and they were $4.  But they were also really boxy.

I've been using my sewing machine a lot this summer.  Mostly small mending projects--but I've done lots of alterations.  T-shirts that were just a little wide--a quick seam down each side and now its a fitted shirt! A clearance find shirt that the store only had in size 1X (great length for leggings though)--or how about tacking the top of a swimsuit in about an inch (more hips than chest for me).  These are not complicated alterations--but it makes my clothes fit right, which makes me feel more confident in them and more likely to wear them.   I can't tell you how grateful I am that my mom and grandma taught me to sew.  I bet I've fixed/changed about 7 items just this summer.  I usually avoid sewing pants, but tapering the legs seemed do-able; and it was.  It took about 1 hour to complete.

What you'll need:
Pants to taper
sewing machine
pins
thread
straight edge and chalk pencil (or washable marker)
elastic

Difficulty:  Beginner (if you can sew a straight line, you can do this)

Put the pants on inside out.  If you have a friend to help with the pinning, it would be easier, but I did it on myself--just be careful!  Figure out how narrow you want the pants to be at the ankle (test pin it and put your foot in and out to make sure it fits).  Then pin from ankle to crotch in a diagonal line that makes your taper evenly go down the pant leg. 

Once I had them pinned, I removed them, laid them flat on the table and fidgeted with the pinning so that the fabric was flat and I could see the general line that I would follow for sewing.  I got out my quilting ruler and used a chalk pencil to draw the line I would sew.  Then I unpinned and repinned the pants so  that everything was flat and smooth.

I used the longest stitch on my machine and did not backstitch and sewed along the chalk line.  I created an angle seam from the crotch all the way to the ankle.  Repeat for the other pant leg.  Take out the pins, turn the pants right side out and try them on.  If they are tapered to your liking, great!  If not, redraw the line to make them wider/narrower and sew again (if you accidentally made them too narrow the first time, you will have to unpick the seam and try again.  If they were too wide the first time, no big deal--just sew another line).  Once you are satisfied with the fit you can go back over the seam, backstitch the beginning and end, or be like me and use a serger to cut off the extra fabric and make the raw edges neat and tidy.  Just don't cut off the extra fabric of the pants until you are SURE that they are just the way you want them. 

Don't they look better?  More feminine?  Yeah, I thought so too.  But I did a bit more tweaking.  The pants were 1 size too big to begin with--so the waistband gapped in the back.  No one wants to see underwear hanging out the back of someone's pants.  Here's an easy trick.  Put in a bit of elastic in the back of the waistband.  Nothing that would scream "senior citizen" pants, but just enough stretch to keep the back of the pants from gapping.  I flipped the pants inside out again, and made two small cuts into the inside of the waist.  I decided I wanted the elastic to go from the outer edge of each pocket, which was about 10 inches total.





Note:  The zig zag line on the waistband was part of the original pants, I didn't do that.






I took a piece of 1/4" elastic that was about 14 inches long and put a safety pin on one end and threaded it through the two holes I'd made. I stretched it about 1 1/2 inches past the hole and pinned it in place--and did the same on the opposite end.  It looked really gathered laying on my sewing table, but when I tried the pants on, the gathers nearly disappeared.  Once I was pleased with the amount of stretch, I sewed over the end of the elastic a few times with the machine and then trimmed off the ends.  I used a tight zig-zag stitch to cover/close up the holes I had cut.  No one will notice as long as you use matching thread.

The Athleta version have elastic around the ankles, but I decided to add a gathered detail along the outside ankle instead.   The hardest part about this was getting the fabric of the ankle out of the way so that you are only sewing through the one side of fabric + the elastic. Measure up 5 inches from the hem on the wrong side of the fabric and pin the elastic on top. Place under the needle with the fabric on the bottom and elastic on the top. Sew a couple stitches to make sure the elastic won't come flying at you, then pull the elastic so its fully stretched and continue sewing along the outside seam until just before the hem.  Backstitch to hold it in place and then trim off the elastic.




Not too bad right? These altered pants now meet my needs.  They have the soft stretchy fabric that wicks moisture and dries quickly.  They have 3 pockets with zippers (and two without), they look a bit more dressy than the boxy hiking pants that they started out as.


As a last alteration, I wanted to add a temporary hidden pocket to hold my passport/money.  I sewed a rectangle pocket with a zipper at the top and then sewed it into the inside front waistband of the pants.  I will un-attach it after the trip, but it will make me feel more secure about traveling on crowded trains/subways.


 

There you go, my $4 version of expensive travel pants.  I'm pretty excited.  They are fitted without being uncomfortable and the fabric has plenty of stretch to make them perfect for long airplane rides.

Magnetic Pin Cushion

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I've been down in my sewing room quite a bit lately, and one thing you'll notice is that my straight pins are in a tomato pin cushion.  I think my mom gave it to me when she gave me my first sewing machine 20+ years ago.  It does the job of holding the pins, but I've eyed the magnetic ones at the sewing store--but never got around to replacing the perfectly functional tomato with a $20 magnetic one.

Inspiration struck one day when I was looking at the grocery ads.  Harbor Freight Tools always has a coupon ad that comes with my grocery fliers.  One of the items that you could get for free with any purchase was a magnetic screw/nut/bolt holder.  I went to Harbor Freight and the magnetic tray was already on sale for $2--so I bought one and used the coupon to get another one for free.


I could have just opened them up and started using them as is, but I have a love for all things rose gold these days, and I had a can of spray paint in the garage.  I washed them with dish soap to remove the residue of oil that was on them, used tape to cover up the rubber base (I probably could have just left it) and then put 3 light coats of paint on it.  I let it cure/dry for a couple days and voila, magnetic pin cushion.  I like it.  It doesn't seem as strong as others I've seen, but I can turn the dish upside down and the pins stay put.  I might take a neodymium magnet (aka rare earth, super strong mini magnet) and stick it to the side just to see what happens.  


All in all a quick, cheap and easy project that has a useful function.

20 Min Girl's Skirt-Easy!

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I like sewing.  I'd say my skill level is generally "advanced intermediate"--although I've done projects that are advanced (rebuilding a bridesmaid's dress where the bride handed me a strapless dress and a yard of $100/yd matching fabric confident that my skills were adequate to add sleeves (I rebuilt the entire bodice, but had to practice on cheap fabric first).  I rarely do complicated sewing patterns, not because I can't--but because I lack the patience required to get to the finished project.  My style is  to start a project at 8:00 at night with the intention of wearing it the next day--so it really needs to be a simple project.

 I like knit fabric projects.  Knit is pretty forgiving as a fabric, it doesn't unravel or slide around on you and comes in lots of fun prints.  I purchased some adorable "fox-y" knit from GirlCharlee fabrics and made a cute dress for work.  I knew I'd gotten the dress right when I wore it at a conference where I was a presenter --but I think I got more compliments on my dress than my presentation (and I totally rocked my session).  I had originally made my dress as a maxi dress, but once I got it on, it was way too much fox, so I cut it off to knee length--leaving me with a bit of fabric that I wasn't sure what to do with.  It came to me last night--simple skirts for my nieces. 

I cut 2 pieces, 14 inches wide and 16 inches long (you could make it longer if you have more fabric, but I didn't--I'm guessing my nieces will wear the skirts with leggings when at school--they are tall, so the skirt is shorter than they would like for wearing alone).   I actually had enough fabric to do 2 skirts, so I just did everything twice.  Since you are doing an elastic waistband, you can use any fabric, even non-stretchy woven fabrics-just make sure you cut it wide enough to go over any hips and that it has enough room to sit down.

First I placed the rectangles right sides together and sewed up the sides with my serger (you can use a sewing machine with a straight stitch since the side seams don't need to have any "give")

Next, (this is optional) I used my serger to finish the top and bottom edges.  Knit does not ravel, so you can leave the raw edge, but I like the clean look that the serger provides.

I used 1/2" wide elastic, so I folded the top of the skirt down 3/4" and ironed the crease.   Then starting at the back of the skirt, sew around to create a tube or sleeve for the elastic to slide through.  When you get around the skirt, stop sewing about 1 inch before you get back to the spot you started.  This will be where the elastic will go...but not yet.

Next, fold up the hem of the skirt between 1/2-1 inch, press the crease and then sew it with a straight stitch on your machine all the way around.

Last, take your elastic (I cut mine at about 26 inches, which is more than I needed, but I won't know for sure how long until I put the skirt on the kiddo).  Use a safety pin and attach to one end of the elastic, then push/pull the elastic into the casing you sewed earlier.  When you get it back to the beginning, distribute the fabric evenly and put the skirt on your model and decide how long the elastic really needs to be.  Mark the spot (don't cut it yet) and then sew across the elastic a few times.  Try the skirt on your model and when you are sure the elastic is right, cut the ends off and then sew up the gap in the casing.


Ta-da!  This skirt took me a total of about 20 minutes and I know my nieces will love it! 

Pom Pom Dish Towels

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I got to spend 3 weeks in Europe this summer.  I highly recommend it!  I enjoyed all the places I visited, but I was surprised at how much I loved Amsterdam!  Oh the canals, and the cheese shops!  I'm not a big souvenir person, but I walked past a fabric shop and I do love fabric.  I bought two small fat quarters and took them home.  I decided that hand towels in the kitchen would be the perfect way to use the fabric.  I picked up flour sack dish towels and some red pom pom trim.  

I cut the fabric down to 4 inches and finished the edges with my serger. Then I sewed the fabric to the bottom of the towel.  (I had to trim the width of the towel because it was wider than my Amsterdam fabric).  Once the fabric was sewn on I started with the pom pom trim.  Its a bit tricky--it has some stretch to it, so I found that using the zig zag stitch on top of the trim worked the best. 

 

Now when I walk into my kitchen, I see the cute tulip and bike towels and remember my fun canal boat ride, the Rijksmuseum or stopping at every cheese shop!