Sewing Business Blog

Tutorial – DIY Fabric Wreath

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Materials needed:

Plastic wrapped straw wreath and a couple yards solid color fabric, or two or three colors of co-ordinating solids and a print fabric of your choosing

Step 1:  Purchase a plastic wrapped straw wreath – ours is a 14″ diameter wreath.  DO NOT take the plastic wrap off the wreath – the plastic helps secure the fabric in place.

Step 2:  With pinking shears, cut the fabric into 4″ squares.  Ours has a green print with green and white solid fabrics.  You can choose colors for Valentine’s day, St. Patrick’s Day, 4th of July, Fall colors or Christmas colors — this will be so much fun to make, why not make one for every season and Holiday and keep your front door beautiful all year long.  NOTE:  You will need a couple hundred squares, depending on the size of your wreath.

Step 3:  To assemble – wrap one square around the tip of a small screwdriver, keeping the right side to the outside.  Put a drop of school glue on the tip of the square before inserting the fabric into the straw wreath.

Step 4:  Poke the fabric into the wreath, using the screwdriver, making sure the fabric is secure in the straw wreath (reason for the glue is to hold the fabric in place so it can’t be pulled out easily).

Step 5: Keep poking the fabric squares into the wreath, putting them approximately 1″ apart.  Fill the outside and inside of the wreath, alternating colors – if using co-ordinating colors – leaving only about a 2″ empty area on the back, as the following picture shows. (OR you can completely fill the straw wreath if you prefer).

Step 6:  Place a wreath hanger on the back or do a string tie on the back to hang the wreath.  Now you’re ready to decorate your front door!

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Altering Store Bought Patterns For Overweight Children – Chest

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Overweight children, plus size children and obese children will usually have much larger chests than average size children.  In addition, they will usually have large upper arms that make altering store bought patterns very difficult.  This tutorial will address both areas needing to be altered.

FULL CHEST

AlterPSC1

With a large full chest, wrinkles will show on the center part of the bodice, as shown.  To correct, cut across the center pattern front, open as much as necessary and redraw the pattern.

HEAVY ARMS

AlterPSC2

For heavy arms cut the sleeve pattern and spread the two sleeve pieces as shown in the illustration.   Redraw the sleeve cap.  By making this correction you will be enlarging the sleeve cap, so it will be necessary to enlarge the armholes.  Lower the front and back armhole line each 1/2 of the total amount required.

For more in depth information about altering patterns for overweight children, plus size children and obese children, check out our book  “Altering Store Bought Patterns For Hard To Fit Children”.   This book contains 70 pages and covers the alteration process for every garment you’d want to make for boys and girls, including large abdomens, large hips and derriere, larger than normal chest, adjusting the crotch length and much more.  Each alteration process has step by step instructions and diagrams.

If you’d like to try your hand at making your own patterns for overweight children, plus size children and obese children, we have classes available for boys and girls!  Simply take their measurements and follow our step by step instructions to make dozens and dozens of styles.

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How To Make A Marshmallow Pillow – Tutorial

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Marshmallow pillows are easy for kids to make and you can be sure they won’t get lost because they won’t leave the childs’ side!

This marshmallow pillow is another pattern designed by one of my granddaughters (remember her first pattern, the Narwhal Stuffed toy pattern).  She is on a roll making patterns for an item, then sewing the item – I can’t wait to see what she comes up with next!  We’re going to give you all the instructions on how to make this marshmallow pillow project, so feel free to print the page and plan some “crafting” time with a child you know.

SewingSiennaPillow

 

Materials needed:

White fleece – 1/3 yard

Polyester fiberfill

Thread to match

1 Dessert plate (to make the top and bottom circle pieces)

**Draw around the dessert plate on the fleece – you will need two of these circles (top and bottom of the marshmallow)

**Measure the distance around the plate (or measure the circle after it’s drawn).  Ours is 23″.

**Next, cut the “body” of the pillow – the measurement will be 23 1/2″ by 11″ long (you need ONE of these).

**With right sides together, pin the length portion (11″) and sew a 1/2″ seam along the 11″ length.  You now have a cylinder shaped piece of fabric (marshmallow body).

**With RIGHT sides together, pin the top circle of the marshmallow to the cylinder body.  Sew a 1/2″ seam to attach the top to the body.

**Again, with RIGHT sides together, pin the bottom of the marshmallow to the cylinder body, leaving approximately 3″ open.  Sew a 1/2″ seam all around, leaving the 3″ open area unsewn.

**Turn the marshmallow right side out.  Stuff marshmallow with polyester fiberfill, then pin the open area closed and hand stitch.

**You can draw the face features with permanent markers, or just leave the marshmallow pillow looking like a marshmallow.

Check out the other patterns at SewWithSarah – there are many to choose from!

 

 

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How To Decorate A Hoodie Jacket

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Sewing and crafting at our house takes many different avenues!  One of my grandsons (11 years old) told me that his first project was going to be decorating his school hoodie/jacket.  At first I was a little apprehensive, but he assured me that he’d already been planning it “in his head”, and he knew exactly what he wanted to do.  So I figured why not??    He has a solid color gray hoodie, so whatever he had in mind would “add” decorations to it.  Here’s the jacket that he made, and I’ll follow that with instructions on exactly what he did.

SewingBrandonJacket

We had some black fleece left over from making the Orca Whale Tail pattern, so he cut 12 –  1″ x 4″ strips (6 for each side) and very carefully measured and pinned them in place.  Then they were topstitched in place.  And, because he is left handed, he also wanted to decorate the left sleeve.  The top “shoulder” decoration is a 4″ x 6″ rectangle placed at the center of the sleeve at the shoulder.  The last decoration was a 1″  wide strip that goes all the way around the sleeve next to the cuff.

I’m very proud of his work, and I think he will have friends asking where he got it because they want one just like it!  Sorry!  It’s a “one of a kind”.  The good thing about sewing and crafting, is that, just like my grandson, you can make lots of “one of a kind” items, OR just simply make something according to the pattern – your choice.

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