Simple dress up, bridal veil, no sew tutorial

This is a quick no sew 2-5 minute project (10 if you really take your time).
What you need.
Ribbons- You can use tulle, ribbons, or fabric strips (depending on the look you want). you can even mix and match them.

Scissors

Rubber bands

Fray check- is only needed if you use ribbons. If you use layers of tulle no fray check is needed. (clear nail polish, a lighter, or a wood burner will work in the place of Fray check)


For this veil I only used the big roll of white tulle and big roll of blue tulle laying on the table. The only thing I used from inside the basket is the tiny pink flat pack of ribbon in the very back. BUT any of the ribbons in the basket would have looked nice.


Cut a length about, 4 yards long, of tulle. Fold it in half and then in half again (making it a 1 yard piece on table 4 layers thick).Cut another 2 yard piece. I used the blue tulle this time. Fold it in half and place on top of the white tulle.

To add a bit of sparkle I added a top layer of ribbon about a yard long with beads attached (bought it for 50 cents on clearance at Walmart).


Carefully fold it in half one last time and slip on a rubber band over the fold.Reach inside loop grab loose ends and gently pull in.




It will look like this.



Slowly pull the loop close. You can fiddle with it as you pull in so the smaller layers lay exactly the way you want as you form the knot.

It'll look like this.
To add a piece to cover bride's face take 1 more yard of tulle and loop it around the rubber band in the same way as you did with the first loop and then slide it down in the first knot.
Lay the ribbons flat (rubber band on left and ribbons hanging down on your right. Cut the 2 yard layer loop at the bottom (for me this was the blue tulle) making 2 even pieces to hang down freely.

For this veil I cut the white tulle loops up a bit higher (up closer to rubber band) to make longer and shorter layers adding a bit more poof. You can cut it exactly in half if you want.


Use some Fray Check (clear nail polish works), or you can use a lighter or wood burner to heat set any ribbons. Tulle will not fray but normal ribbons will. I don't think any of the materials I used in this one will fray but I put a dab on the beaded ribbon just to make sure. I did use the Fray check on a much smaller one I made my youngest daughter because I used pink ribbons on hers.

Your done!
Twist it on like a normal rubber band.


This is another one made the same way but with different ribbons. I used about 1 yard for the wide layer and about 1/2 yard of the pink ribbon.
Now grab some rubber bands and ribbons or strips of other materials (yarn, strips of clothes, feathers, ribbons, lace, and such) to see what fun things you can create for dress up play time.
Close up of the one the baby is wearing.


Another version using blue tulle, pink, and white ribbons.

You can make tiny ones. This one is just a few inches long. I did NOT make this one it came from a store.


NOTE! Be very careful if you choose to heat set ribbons. You can easily start a fire when using a lighter to set the edges.

Please keep watch of young children at play if you choose to make this project. It could become a choking hazard. The long ribbons could wrap around a child's neck. You should take them out before nap or bedtime. You know your child best so do what you feel is right.

Any questions feel free to write me. It is 1:oo am so this might not be clear enough to follow.

Tutorial Sewing Pants From a Sweater Part 2

Happy Earth Day! I think this is a good project for Earth Day. You can reuse all your old sweaters and make new baby clothes. After your child grows out of them pass them on to another child.


Part 2

Yesterday I went over how to make leggings (sweater pants) out of sleeves but we still have the body of the sweater and it would be a shame to toss out all that soft stretchy fabric! Lets make another pair of pants. I have 2 girls so this method works perfect for me.

After making yesterdays pants this is what I have left.

First cut off the neck if it is a turtle neck. The turtleneck is very handy to use if the sweater isn't long enough. When I don't need the turtleneck for extra room at the top of pants I cut it off to save because it makes a nice easy waist for a twirl skirt, a headband, or cuffs for pants or sleeves. This one will become a drop waist twirl skirt soon.This is the part that a ruler or a straight edge will come in handy. I want to use the arm cut out to form the crotch. With this pair I cut off the neck dip. I used a ruler to draw a line to cut off the neck and extra material. This is how I make the pattern for all my snug leggings and PJ's for my girls.


This is what the line looks like.
Cut along the line.
The chunk of fabric on the right can be used if you run short on fabric (have children a different size than my children). When I use a XL or an XXL men's sweater the center pices are large enough to make a 3rd pair of leggings for my girls.

When we open them up it should look like this.


Put one on top of the other with right sides TOUCHING each other and sew. Picture below shows the place to sew in a black line.

When open to show right sides out and sides open it should look like this.

Below is a picture to show that I still have plenty of room for my girls. This fabric is VERY stretchy and without stretching it I have about 10 inches of fabric for front and back. My skinny 3 1/2 year old is under 20 inches around her tummy. To make snug leggings just turn them inside out and sew the sides together then add elastic at the waist like I showed in part one.

I didn't do that with this because I figured that would be easy for everyone to figure out. I also think pink leggings are only useful for little girls and I wanted something that I could share for boys or girls to wear. I think if you took a blue sweater you could use the arms for PJ's then take the body of the sweater and this set of directions to make little jogging pants perfect for boys.

I had some thermal gray fabric (got a few years ago from Walmart $1 bin). Any stretchy fabric will work. You can use an old T-shirt, pieces from another sweater, or you can cut up your husbands old long johns. I used 2 strips about 4 inches wide. You can go wider or thinner depending on how loose or tight you want your pants. I did cut my strips a bit longer than my pink pants because this fabric is fabric without a hem and my pink pants used the finished waist of the sweater as the bottom so I don't need to mess with a hem on that part.


Finishing up the bottom is easy. Just fold up a tiny bit at the bottom bringing up the raw edge then fold again hiding the raw edge down inside the fold. Pin the bottom to hold in place.
sew to tack down the folds
With wrong side facing out (notice the seam is showing) pin the side fabric to the pants along one edge.

Make sure to line up the bottom even so your pants look nice at the bottom. The buldge from the fold should be facing up (nicer side of side fabric will be facing down.
Then pin the unpinned edge to the other side like this.


Do the same for the other side. Double check your ends because you really want a tidy even bottom to the pants. The waist folds down and doesn't show but the bottom will show and look silly if it isn't lined up. When you sew start at the bottom and check the ends are still together neatly under the presser foot.
Sew up both sides and you will have something like this. I did this several months ago and I have no idea why I turned the pants to take this picture! If I would have left them inside out they would have been all ready to sew down the top to make the waist.
Fold down the top around the waist about an inch and sew around leaving an inch or two open to insert elastic. You can sew around the elastic like I showed in part 1. This time I sewed around and used a safetypin to push elastic inside the pants.

Picture below shows how I measure my elastic. I lay my pants down on or near a ruler and slide the pants up (scrunching them) until the elastic is about 9 inches (my girls are about the same measurement around the tummy). I need a bit over 9 so I have a little room on the ends to sew together (I guess you can see my sewing is very forgiving so estamates work no need to be exact).Form a loop with the open ends of elastic.

Sew ends together.
Tuck ends inside fold.Sew opening closed.

Done!
If you have any questions just drop me a note. I hope I wrote this clear enough that a person new to sewing can understand. Some people are afraid to sew knits. If you followed this I hope you found that sewing on knits is simple and fun. You can go dig in your husbands T-shirt bin and make some pants using the same directions and have warmer weather pants.

Have fun making your jogging pants.

Tutorial Sewing Pants From a Sweater Part 1

Have I ever told you how much I love sweater pants for my girls? You know the soft, ribbed, stretchy, comfy kind?

I LOVE LOVE LOVE (really love) ribbed sweater pants for my girls!!! Here are some of the reasons...
1. They make warm pants (great to wear in our old drafty farmhouse)
2. My girls think they are comfy and I think they look cute.
3. They make wonderful PJ bottoms. They fit snug so no worry about loose clothing in flames if a fire started in the middle of the night AND they keep my children warm on cold nights. My girls often kick off covers and make me worry about them during the night. Sweater pants has taken my worry of cold children at night away. I can sleep better knowing they are warm.
4. They are wonderful play pants.
5. They are so SOFT (I love the feel of old GAP and Old Navy sweaters).
6. They work great for dancing, exercising, and other very active play (easy to move in).
7. They are very easy to make (can make a stack in a few hours).
8. They are CHEAP (often free) to make. I know I found a stack of old sweaters in my closet when I went looking. Ask around I am sure family members would be thrilled to clear out over stuffed closets so you can sew cute things for your little ones (I bet most grandparents have a large amount of sweaters they are not wearing hiding in closets).
9. It is good for the Earth. Recycle (upcycle old clothing instead of tossing it a landfill).
10.THIS IS MY FAVORITE REASON!! They are perfect for leggings! They keep my girls legs nice and warm when they wear dresses and skirts. They also keep my girls bums covered. Demi loves to wear twirl skirts and dresses and does a lot of flips, rolls, headstands, and such. Because of that I love leggings. She is not exposed at all so I don't have to say keep your dress down or don't play like that with a dress on.A friend of mine had a pair of stretchy ribbed pants on her girl last fall. They looked so warm and comfy I quickly became obsessed with them. I couldn't afford to go out and buy them so I had to find a way to sew them. All I did was take the directions I found online on on how to make wool leggings (diaper covers) out of arms of wool sweaters. I use cloth diapers but don't use wool diaper covers so I switched the wool sweaters to soft cotton GAP sweaters and fell in love with sweater pants. At first I was afraid that this wouldn't work because the directions I followed 3 years ago (I think original directions I followed might have been this one to make my first wool pants but that was years ago so I am not positive) said to felt a wool sweater first so they wouldn't fray. I was worried that a knitted sweater might fall apart before I got it sewn together. I am so glad I gave it a try because my girls now have 30+ pairs of leggings and have been wearing some of them for over 6 months (I started making them in Sept). The only problem I had with any of them is Zee grew out of a few smaller ones and Demi got grass stains all over one of her's. I know that stuff happens with everything my children wear so I must say they are the perfect pants for us.

Because I have such a love for handmade leggings (sweater pants) I think I should share how I figured out how to make 2 pair of leggings from one adult sweater.


PART 1
Part 1 making toddler pants using an adult sweater. Part 1 will be of me using the arms of a sweater to make a leggings for my youngest girl (about size 18 months). Part 2 I will be showing how to use the rest of the sweater and how to add extra if your sweater isn't large enough to make leggings for my 3 1/2 year old (about size 3T).

This is the 18months size leggings.

Here is the size 3T made into jogging pants.Both made from this sweater.




All you need to make this is an adult sweater, elastic, sewing machine (or needle and thread), a pair of scissors and a few minutes of free time (free time is the hardest part for me). I dig into my old clothes, my husbands old sweaters, and check the thrift shop for pretty colored sweaters in nice shape (and soft to the touch). I buy 100% cotton so it is soft and washes nice (you can use any kind of adult sweater you like).

I like to use old ribbed sweaters (GAP ones are my favorite) to make my girls leggings but any sweater, long sleeve top, or a long sleeve T-shirt will work. I can get 2 pants out of one ladies sweater and 3 pants out of men's XL or XXL sweaters. Ribbed sweaters have a lot of stretch so you don't need as much in the width as you need to sew children's jeans.

First take your sweater and cut off the arms along the seam.


Take a pair of jeans, PJ's, dress pants, or any type of bottoms that fit your child, turn them inside out then stuff one leg inside the other. lay the pants on the top of the sweater arms. Line up the bottom of pants with the wrist of the sleeve. Then snip down the center seam of the sweater to match the crotch in the pants. It is OK to have a lot of extra fabric that is longer than the jeans at the waist! If you don't have a pair of pants and you want to make a size 18 months you can try using my daughter's measurements. She is an average height chunky 15 month old. Her legs in sweater pants are about 9 inches long. I used about 6 inches for the crotch and another inch to fold down and hold the elastic. So I needed 9 inches uncut at the bottom for the legs and 7 inches cut to give me 6 inches to go over the bum and tummy with an extra inch to fold down over elastic.

Below you can see the pants lined up at ankle with the sweater wrist and how I cut right down the seam to match the jeans.

Another view.Put one sweater arm (soon to be a leg) inside the other with right sides touching. Make sure they are lined up at the bottom end (wrists). Double check your seams before you sew to make sure right sides are together.

Sew the V shape to connect both layers. A straight stitch will work but a zigzag will work a bit better. I used my serger but that is NOT needed. It isn't much sewing so even hand sewing will work.
Cut off the top to even it all out.


This is a good time to open them up and try them on to make sure they fit and you have an extra inch to fold over to hold the elastic. If you don't have enough room you can sew a few inches of a stretchy material at the top to give you the room you need. If I didn't have enough room in this case I would have used the turtleneck for the extra length. I had plenty of room using this size medium sweater arms to make pants size 18 months so I didn't add any extra at the top.

Fold the top down about 1 inch. Raw edge lays on the wrong side of fabric as shown in photo below. I stuck my elastic right in the fold (I used a very long piece of elastic). I sewed right along the elastic. My presser foot layed right along the elastic and I use my finger to check that my elastic stays along the presserfoot (make sure not to sew on the elastic). I used a zigzag stich. Again this is not much sewing and would be easy to do by hand if you don't have a machine. Leave an inch or two from starting/finishing points to sew elastic ends together.




Now all we need is to sew elastic ends together at the right length and sew the hole shut. For my chunky gal I use about 18 inches of elastic. That is about 9 inches across the front. I hold the short end of elastic and pull the long end until the waist across the top measures 9 inches. In the past when she was little and growing fast I would put the pants on her and mark the elastic or measure her around the tummy if I had a measuring tape handy. She has been the same size for a long time now so I don't bother to double check her size anymore.

Sew the ends together by laying the one end on top of the other forming a non twisted loop. Snip the loose elastic ends and threads. Last step is to sew the opening closed to hide all the elastic.
Here is the first of two leggings. I will post part two in the next couple days.