disclaimer: all of the following applies mainly to smocking done on pleated fabric. Not smocking done in which you pleat the fabric by hand using dots. Personally, I haven’t done that type of smocking. Ahhhh smocking. One of my favorite forms of sewing, smocking can add beautiful detail to an outfit. The act of smocking can also provide a sewist an outlet through which to pour love into a garment. Are you interested in adding smocking into your sewing repertoire? There are TONS of helpful books, patterns, magazines, YouTube videos, and people. I hope to provide a list of the sources that have been most helpful to me. These are…
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Appliquéd Buntings, Easy Embroidered Party Decor.
The majority of what I sew is clothes. I dabble in the occasional home decor item but in general, I sew clothes. Three of the five outfits seen below are my creations. However, for my daughter’s recent birthday party, I stepped out of my comfort zone and made something else. Party decor. I recently ran across this adorable idea in my Instagram scrolling. Appliquéd buntings! They took me a minute to figure out but were not tricky to make at all. Often, when sewing clothing, I cut out the pattern and there is an awkward piece of fabric left over. It is typically one long rectangle that isn’t even big…
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Trouble Shooting While Shirring. What to Try, When.
As I’ve gone down this shirring road, it has become obvious that each machine has a happy place. No one machine’s perfect settings seem to apply to all. In fact, it seems quite the opposite, one machine’s perfect settings will not even come close to working for another. The stitch length and bobbin tension seem to be the most important variables. Below I will include a chart of the most common issues I’ve seen and how to use these variables to overcome them. In general, the thinner the fabric, the more it “gathers up.” This is normal! To accommodate, you may want to shorten stitch length, place shirring lines further…
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PDF Tutorial Now Available! The Shirred Bishop is live.
I have been FLOORED by the number of you all who want a tutorial for a shirred bishop. FLOORED. I am so excited to let you know that the tutorial is complete and it is now available for download. You can purchase it over on this post. Not convinced that you love this dress? Let me list a few of its attributes: Placket and button free (hello independent kiddos, they can put this one on by themselves!) Most sizes (up to size 5) can be made with only 1 yard of fabric. Use almost any weight of fabric-batiste, broadcloth, poly/cotton blends, knits, pique, etc. If that doesn’t convince you, check…
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Banded Pants Tutorial
How to redraft pant’s patterns to add a banded bottom Every fall, these adorable banded pants fill my inbox and Instagram feed. They’re often paired with appliquéd knit shirts, Peter Pan collared shirts, turtle necks, or sweatshirts. Made for both boys and girls they seem like the perfect cold-weather staple. I love the look of them, comfortable, versatile and classic. This year I decided to make them myself. I used Spechler Vogel corduroy from Farmhouse Fabrics. I found that I was able to make two pair of pants for the price of one of these pair. After watching the Children’s Corner Sew Along on banded Parker Shorts it occurred to…
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French Seamed Sleeves
This post demonstrates the technique used to set in boy's sleeves using a French seam.
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Shirring-big take aways.
Shirring Tutorial and links to other blogs/videos on shirring.
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The Nap Dress Hack
This post describes the processes used to create an angel sleeve for an adult garment using shirring.
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Children’s Corner Bishop-Sleeveless
In this blog post I explain how to use a Bishop Pattern to create a sleeveless bishop. This dress ties at the shoulders and would be considered expert to intermediate level sewing. Knowledge of smocking and pleating it required to understand this post.
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Children’s Corner Taylor and Katina Bubble Mash-Up
Recently, one of my favorite facebook groups issued a “mash-up challenge.” The challenge was to take two Children’s Corner Patterns and mash them together to create a new one. I love a good mash-up and was quite excited to do this one. I absolutely love the Children’s Corner Katina and the Children’s Corner Taylor so these two patterns seemed like a great pair for a mash-up. To create clean lines and corners (for some reason they’re more “boy-ish” to me) I redrafted the Katina bodice to look more like the one seen below. The pattern pieces I used are in the image below. The front and back of the Taylor,…
