Pioneer Skirt Tutorial

So this week our Church is doing a Family Pioneer Trek.

Where we all dress up like Pioneers and reenact the Pioneers crossing the plains from Nauvoo, Illinois to the Salt Lake Valley,  over 165 years ago.

(To learn more about the Mormon Pioneers, click HERE)

We won't be trekking 1300 miles as they did, but 7 miles a day, for 3 days, pulling a handcart by day, and camping by night, with my wee little ones whining about being hot and hungry is sure to be an adventure. 

It's going to be awesome. 

So for this upcoming adventure, we needed clothing. Good thing I have a fabulous fabric shop in my basement and all the cute fabric I could dream of at my fingertips.

So I whipped up a few items for me and my little gal to wear on the trek. 

Here is a little tutorial for the size 4T skirt!

You will need:

1 yard Cotton Fabric

Enough Elastic to go around the waste of your little pioneer

(Please excuse these awful phone pics, my camera was in the shop)

1. I opened up my 1 yard of fabric and cut it in half right down the fold.

 2. Then I laid the pieces right sides together and sewed down the right side, making one really long strip of fabric. 2yardsx22".

3. I like to hem the bottom at this point before it becomes a circle. So I folded over the edge about 1/4", and then fold it over again 1/4" and press down.

4.  Then sew a straight stitch all the way along the bottom of the skirt to make a clean hem.

5. Next, put your skirt right sides together again, and sew down the left side of the skirt, connecting the other end and making a circle, tube, skirt thing.  Sorry, no picture.

6. Once you have your circle, it's time to the make the casing for the elastic.  Fold over the top just a little bit wider that your elastic width, then fold it over again and press.

7. Next you are going to sew a straight stitch all the way around the top of the skirt, but make sure to leave a little opening to feed your elastic through!

8. Now, measure your little lady's waste and cut your elastic about 1" shorter than that measure. Connect a big safety pin to the elastic and feed it through the skirt.

Once it is fed through, you will have the ends of the elastic sticking out the opening you left.

This is the point where I try it on the my little lady and make double check the how the elastic fits, and make any adjustments to the elastic length as needed.

9.  Next, connect your two elastic ends.

10.  And sew your opening shut.

 Hello cute little skirt!

 And cute little pioneer girl!

I will be back tomorrow with the tutorial for that sweet yellow apron!

New Fabric Friday

                                                  Can you believe it is already Friday again?

                                                    TGIF baby!

We have added some fun and exciting prints to the shop this week, check them out!

Cherry Christmas by Aneela Hoey for Moda

That Santa sweater on the clothesline....cute as a button!

And after much anticipation.....

Ombre Dots by Riley Blake Designs

 The fade is just gradual enough to make you do a double take!

At the top of this photo is the fold, and the bottom is the selvage. The fade runs down both sides of the width of this print.  See where I have it folded over?

 Dark at the fold, light at the selvages. LOVE IT!

What a delightful Ombre rainbow!

I am loving the skirts I have seen make with the Ombre fade.

 Collect all 8 captivating colors!

Restocks this week:

 Seaside Main in Cream

 

As well as more yardage of each of the Seaside Stripes! They are delicious!

    

And we have in more of these two awesome Chevrons. Other colors are still on order.

  

And that's a wrap ladies and gentlemen.

Be sure to tune in next week for an awesome Pioneer Tutorial.

Have a superb weekend!

Ruffled Minky Blanket Tutorial

My baby girl is turning 1 tomorrow.

Can you believe it has already been a year? 

Sniff sniff.  I can't believe it. 

She loves ANYTHING minky.

So I decided to make her another minky blanket to add to her collection of soft and fluffy snugglers

.

I will say, I think this one is the cutest ;)

I love the ruffle trim and binding. It made it that much fluffier, and I am all about the fluff!

So here is how I did it.

I started out with a 

32"x40" Piece of Minky

32"x40" Piece of cotton fabric

and (7) 5"x44" strips of cotton fabric for the ruffle

 1.  Sew the (7) strips for the ruffle together end to end, to make one really long strip. Finish the edges with either pinking shears, a serger, or a zig zag stitch.

 Oooh, one really long strip!

 2.  Fold the strip in half, longways, wrong sides together, and press.

 Now you will have one really long stripe, with right sides showing on both sides.

Next we are going to the ruffle the strip. If you have a ruffle foot, do your thing.

If you are like me and your ruffle foot gives you grief, you can ruffle the strip the old fashion way.

 3. Set your stitch length to the longest stitch and sew all the way along the raw edges of your strip. Do not sew along the folded edge of the strip. Do not backstitch.

 *I actually stitched this in sections, so it would be easier to ruffle each section separately, than to try and feed the ruffle down the entire strip.

4. Next you take one end of the threads that are hanging and pull just one of the threads while holding onto your strip with the other hand.

 It will start to ruffle.  Then feed that ruffle down the strip, until the entire thing is ruffly. This can take a while. Don't fret.  This is why I did mine in sections.

 Ruffles galore! You may need to adjust the length of your ruffles so they are long enough to go around your entire blanket.

 Next....

5. Lay your minky piece and your cotton square right sides together.  Make sure they are the same size and match up perfectly.

 6.  Now take your extremely long ruffly strip and lay it in between the two squares, all around the quilt, all 4 sides. It will be sandwiched between as we sew.

 See the sandwich?

 Now PIN PIN PIN!  Anyone will tell you that the  trick to sewing with minky is to PIN PIN PIN!!!
Pin around the entire quilt, every inch or so. Your ruffle will be inside.

 7.  Next we are going to sew around the entire quilt.  I use a zig zag stitch for minky because it helps with stretching, but you can use whatever stitch you prefer.

 8. Sew all the way around, but be sure to leave a little opening to turn the quilt ride sides out again.

 9. Turn the quilt right sides out and it should look like this!  So perty!

 Now close up that opening, and make sure your ruffle is securely placed between the outside two layers as your sew up the hole.  And then continue that straight stitch all the way around the blanket.

Here is the back of the finished product!

 and the front!

 Love me those fluffy ruffles.

Fluffles!

Yup, I just made up a word!

Good luck on your next project, whatever it may be!

And Happy Birthday to my sweet little Ivy Jane.