Quick shorts, a tutorial:)

Hi all.  Well my little man is turning 3 soon so I have been working at making him a few things for his birthday.  One thing I have been working on is a bunch of shorts for summer.  These are really for pajama's during those hot summer months.  I was blessed with this lightweight flannel material from my Aunt Mary.  At the time I didn't have a boy, so it's been sitting... but I DO now!! YEAH!  SO, here goes, so quick and easy shorts!  (IMPORTANT NOTE:  originally I made this with a used t-shirt, which is even FAST , maybe takes like 20 minutes, because you can use the bottom hem of the shirt as the leg hems!  LOVE THAT!  Just lay the shirt flat and put the shorts up against the right side fold and then flip them over for the left side fold of the shirt, easy!)

Ok, so fold your fabric and your nicely fitting shorts.  Put both folded sides together.  Cut about an inch extra on the bottom and top for the hems and I cut around 1/4 inch around the side for when you sew the two pieces together.

Hard to see, but my first cut piece is now flipped over to the left and laying on the next folded piece of fabric.  You can use the original shorts here, but this pattern has horizontal lines so I wanted to line it up.  once I lined it up, I cut the excess off the bottom and then just cut out the exact shape of the first piece ( cause it already has it's extra for hem etc..)

Pic to show you that the first cut out piece is now on the top of the next folded over piece to cut.  make sure your folds are together.

now you should halfs two identical folded pieces



unfold these pieces and put right sides together.  Now your gonna pin and sew from the top hem of the waist to the point of the crotch.  Don't sew  the rest of the strait way down yet! ( folded over part is the part you DON'T sew)
IMPORTANT NOTE:  If you are gonna make alot of these shorts, like I did, take one of these pieces and use it as a template for however many more shorts you want to make, it's much easier this way!

Sew front the top corner to the little tip before it goes strait again.

Now put those sewn seams in the middle and lay the shorts out flat, they are starten to look like shorts now!

Pin crotch area like this and then sew from the bottom of one leg to the bottom of the other.

Now fold a hem for your short bottoms.  I did 1/4 inch fold then maybe 1/2 to 3/4 inch fold and then sew all around.

Now fold the waist hem.  I did 1/4 first fold then fold that over about 3/4 inches, depending on the size elastic you have.

Now sew the hem close to the edge of the fold ALMOST all the way around.  I leave a inch or so opening to thread the elastic.

There is the opening in the back.

Grab some elastic, stick one of those thingys through it and feed it through the hem till you come out the other side.  Make sure you keep the other end from slipping into the hem line:)

Now once you got it through, check it on your kiddo, I believe a rule of thumb is 1 inch less then the measurement of your waist.  Then sew the two ends of elastic together and push them into the hem.

there in there now:)



Sew up the whole all the way across. I also ad a vertical line of sewing on the front or side or both of the waist line to keep the elastic from rolling.

walla, there you have it, instant shorts.  This took me about 30 minutes.

happy boy!

bootie shot

If you make these, let me know how it goes!!  Enjoy!

Bandanna dress for a little girl:)

I have been wanting to do this for a long while... finally I was able to get it done.  I had made this for my adorable 1 year old niece, but after trying it on my sweet friends cute little 6 month old.... I'm pretty sure it would be to small!! lol SO, Alison ( the cute baby in the pics) gets to keep this one and I will make another one soon with two bandanna's instead of one!  I LOVE the colors of this bandanna!!  For this all I did was use some elastic thread for the bobbin, hand winding it tight and then sewed a bunch of lines... I think 6 or eight.  I cut some of the top off so I could use that later for some quick halter type straps.  EASY as PIE!!  I know, I should make bloomers... but they took alittle more time then I had at the time, so, next time!  Anywho, give it a try!!

Ya, I just LOVE this bandana!

New head covering I made, a SNOOD :)

     So I continue to experiment with head coverings:)  This one I made out of some teal fabric someone gave me awhile back.  This is a proto type.  Things I like about it.  I like the fit, it's comfy and not to snug but stays put easy.  It's pretty, I like the way it hangs in the back.  I like the idea of adding a little something to it, this one has some rickrack along the seam where I sewed the band.  Things I would do different.  I will make the seam go down the underside of the back next time before I cut it! OOPS, but still looks good.  I will also not add a band, I'll just extend the length of the body of the snood itself. All in all, I like this and plan on trying A LOT of different fabrics, also, some with ties. Different head bands/body fabrics, mix and match....  I will be trying to make jeans into a skirt tomorrow and Tuesday, so I may use the same fabric from that, to make another matching SNOOD:)  Ok, I just love that word!  What do you think?

This is very Renaissance:)  Ok, this is getting fun, oh the possibilities:)

Messenger Bag made out of Old Jeans!!

Ok, so for a very long time, I have been wanting to have a go at a messenger bag. Finally a few days ago I had my chance. Now for some reason I just can't seem to pull out all my nice fabric.... I mean, it's so pretty in tubs all folded and stuff.......SO, I had this pair of old cut off jeans that a sweet friend of mine had given me. PERFECT for a dry run at making one of these things. SO, I gave it a shot. I took some pictures of it, and then my camera died, so not everything one would like for a tutorial, but you'll get the gist:)
SO, cute the bootie off your pants for the large flap that goes over the bag.

Now cut out on both sides the inner seem of the jeans.

Now flip the pants over, cut off the back side of the legs left after cuttin out the bootie.  Then, on the left side of the little bit of seem that is left from the crotch, cut up alittle ways, right before the fly.  Then fold that part over the other leg and pin to where it looks nice and flat.

Pin all the way down the middle of the two legs so that it looks like it lays nice and flat.

This is a shot of the back side.  I would cut off the excess AFTER you sew down the front of the pants to connect the legs.

Now, these pants were already cut short, so I leaved them the length they were.  Now is a great time to cut off the length till you have it where you like it.  Actually, could have done that before you sewed the legs together, but either way works.  Now, flip the pants right sides together so the bottom of the legs is even with the top waist of the jeans.  Should be inside out.  Now, decide how wide you want the bottom of your bag to be.  I cut my corners 1 1/2 inches x 1 1/2 inches.

Corners cut the same on both sides

Now I cut off some of the messiness of the bottom of these jeans so there more even with the waist line.  Not perfect, but close enough.

Now, with right sides together, put your "pattern" piece over your folded choice of liner fabric.

cut to a pretty close shape, alittle bigger is MUCH better then to small:)

Back to the flap.  I had to cut off these belt loops so that sewing the lining on would work out.

Fix the inner seam just like you did the front crotch seam.  YES, this is not symmetrical...oh well, still cool!

Now, lay out your "pattern" piece of your lining fabric.  I did this WRONG, do NOT lay it on the wrong side of your fabric!  Make sure you fabric is and your pattern piece are RIGHT SIDES TOGETHER!!  Especially when your pattern is not symmetrical!  Cut this out, pin, and sew all the sides but the top opening.  Flip out, press if you like, but, you know me:)

Here is where we lost camera battery.  I went ahead and sewed the corners and sides on both the jean and the liner.  I promise to have pics of this for my next one.  This can be kinda confusing so it's nice to have really good pics or video.  It IS really easy, but still better to have good pics to go off of.  Then I put the flipped right side out flap in the inside of the jean pattern ( the jean pattern was turned inside out).  I pinned it to the back side of the inside out jean purse and sewed it in place ( jean parts facing each other).  Then I put the liner in the purse so the right sides would be together.  I sewed around almost the entire purse leaving a hole to pull everything right side out of.  and then, wallah!

Finished bag!

I just love that Burgundy red paisley fabric with jean!  Works for me!

I will be adding some stick on fabric Velcro to the flap pockets as well as the inside jean pockets, to help from things falling out just in case.  This works so great for my phone in one pockets, camera in the other!  LOVE IT!

One bootie bag done!  Big enough to hold all of my crazy mommy stuff that makes my husband nuts! YEAH!

Now this didn't turn out perfect, but close enough to work for me.  Give it a shot, what's the worse that could happen??....try it!