Technique Tuesdays: French Seams

August 31, 2010

Photo via: Fresh Lemons

Some of you may have heard of French Seams but didn't really know what they were or how they differed from regular seams.

Well, DON'T be intimidated JUST because they're called 'french'. They are really simple.

If you don't have a serger, they are just another way to make the seams of transparent fabrics where the seams can be seen from the outside or used for fabrics that fray easily.
I'll have to show you the Hong Kong seam next. It's a very refined look. And I know a couple of you have asked for a bias tape tutorial. I will try and work on that. For a professional look, it will take a couple things I don't have. I want to you show you how to do it with a bias tape foot, which I'm REALLY excited to try out. But I'll also show you how to do it with the bare essentials.

Stay tuned for Tuesday's Frock by Friday post later today.

If you liked this tutorial please Stumble It:

Frock by Friday: Tuesday


Step 1. Using the skirt pattern and chalk or disappearing ink, mark where the pleats on the front and back skirt pieces should be.



Frock by Friday: Tuesday con't....attaching the pockets


See beginning of Tuesday's post here.

1. So I didn't realize it but this skirt is contingent upon the side pockets. So you must also print out pages 7, 12, 17, 44, 45, 49, 50. Tape them together and cut it out. It will be patterns 12, 13.

If you don't have enough fabric to cut both out. Cut 13 with your skirt fabric. 12 can be another neutral color, like white, it won't be showing. It will be the inside of the pocket.

It happened again.

August 30, 2010


Okay, so y'all remember my last weirdness. Funny yeah. But I unplugged the machine and then Thursday evening Brian came home from work and said that early about 3am in the morning he heard the sewing....again.

"Oh, I must have left it plugged in. I'm sorry. Can you go unplug it. And unplug the serger too."

So he went up and when he came back down he said that the sewing machine was unplugged. I got goosebumps all over when he said that. BUT the serger was plugged in and so he had unplugged that.

Now I would have just assumed that it was the serger but for the fact that when it happened the first time it was the sewing machine that was all tangled up with an error code.

So now I'm really kinda freaked out. I keep lying in bed, sitting on the sofa worrying that I'll hear it in the middle of the night. How creepy would that be? I made Brian go up last night and unplug the peddles as well and bring them downstairs. So if I do hear it again. If that happens, you'll know my next post will be about how I'm looking at new houses.


photo: hopinskii

"Summer at the Country House" Frock Grosgrain Giveaway

Find a full tutorial and pattern for this frock on Burdastyle. It is the featured project of the week.

I saw this Modcloth dress a while back and fell in love. I very nearly bought it when I found this burdastyle pattern that was nearly identical to it. So I decided to try and recreate it myself.

Initially, I had planned on tea dying a large rose printed cotton fabric. However I couldn't find any large rose patterned prints anywhere. You'd think they'd be a dime a dozen. I should have checked out the thrift store. That seems like something you'd find there. But I did find this tea colored tiny rose print and I figured it was close enough. I even found dark royal blue lace trim.
The top photo was so hard to get. It was taken from underneath as I swung above. I think we took about 50 shots before I got just the right one. A lot of them were just close ups of my butt. Not so flattering. 

This is the rope swing my father and I hung right before Lily and Molly's birthday party. I had been wanting to put it up for YEARS. We had the perfect tree for it but the branch was so high that I never had a tall enough ladder to reach it. Finally I asked my father to come over with this ladder and we got it done. And I couldn't be happier with it.
If you would like to win this frock there are a couple ways to enter. Fits size 0-2.

Grosgrain Giveaways can be entered by any one of three ways

1) By linking about this giveaway (to your blog, facebook, or any other site) button is below.
2) By leaving a comment

3) By FOLLOWING Grosgrain

Just remember to please leave me a comment telling me what you did so that I can go back and look for your entry. Either give me the link that you posted for the giveaway to or tell me that you began to follow me.

Stay tuned for Monday's Frock by Friday post later today.
If you are leaving a link just use the 'create a link' at the bottom of this post or simply creating a post on your blog and including this link.If you use blogger just use the "create a link" link at the bottom of this post. If you don't use blogger, that's fine too. Just create a link on your page as you normally would.
Create a Link
If you liked this frock please Stumble Me: 

Frock by Friday: Monday


1. Download and print the McCalls free pattern here. Sign up for a new account and they will email a link to direct you to where you can print it out. If you are having problems printing from their site go here to install an Adobe Acrobat plugin update. And then restart your computer and try to open the print screen again.





2. Download the burdastyle blouse here. The burdastyle pattern is $4.

 3. Print sheets. AT 100%, NO PAGE SCALING! Size charts here. For the McCalls Dress Pattern, only print pages 34-36; 39-41; 44-46; 49-51; and 54-56 so as not to waste paper.
4. Cut the left and bottom extra white space of all the pages. (see left image). To make this go faster, stack one row together and cut all at once. If you have a paper cutter it can go even faster.









5. Tape sheets together and cut out.











6. Lay blouse pattern onto your fabric as shown in picture to left and cut out of fabric (fold on the bottom)

7. Take your two skirt pieces from the MaCalls pattern and lay on your fabric. Lay piece 11 on the fold and piece 14 above piece 11.

DONE for today! Gee, that was easy:) If you have any questions just leave me a comment and I will try to answer them. 

And the new FBF button is below. Feel free to link to the Frock by Friday to get more fun people involved! To grab the button just highlight it, copy and paste into a new post or sidebar.


Flickr Favs

August 28, 2010

Ooo la la. I love the look of Katikando's bathing suit. Red is so right. Rich and summery. Not to mention where she's at! So bucolic. Now, why isn't that in my backyard?

And laurwyn's plaid frock look so cute on her. Love her styling.
And I saw this blue frock on Adventures in Dressmaking a couple days ago and I'm so glad she posted it on Grosgrain flickr. I really love it. I would totally wear it. Looks like something you'd buy in Modcloth. And I'm really loving these skirts with the sweetheart front. Must try that for me.

See more flickr favs TOMORROW!

Project Runway Rundown: 6 Down 11 to Go

August 27, 2010

Three words. Tim Gunn's Speech. Wow. There are few times when I see Tim Gunn make a speech. Especially one that focuses on one individual. I was a little surprised that he really came down on Gretchen. I thought he was going to say something about how he disagreed with the judges but he just came down on her.

And I have to admit, even I felt a little bad for her in the end. NOT, that she didn't deserve it. NOT that she didn't need some humble pie. But I thought she was sincerely "hurt" when they showed her in the end, all disheveled.

How satisfying was it to see her back pedal and break down? Well, not really. I usually don't like to see anyone break down. And honestly, Gretchen isn't a mean person, just a egotistical one who's clueless about her own arrogance.

That being said, I think this episode could be good for Gretchen in the long run. Her biggest downfall was her ego. Now that that has been significantly knocked down a few notches perhaps we can come to like her designs again.

And why did she think it was a good idea to tell the judges that they should choose who goes home based on 'past work'. That didn't sound self serving. But I liked when Michael Kors said "That's not how it works. It's not about past history. That's not what we're looking at today." I thought, yeah, who are you to tell the judges they shouldn't base their opinion about who goes home on tonight's performance. Isn't that what each challenge is all about?

But I had to agree with Gretchen when she said, "I feel like your asking for a martyr." That sucks. I hate when the judges make the contestants do that. It's all for drama sake, you know.

And who felt kinda bad for Michael C? The funny thing is, this time around, I thought his pieces were the most flattering of the collection. In fact I really liked Michael's open back blouse and Christopher's pants. And NO, I don't think they chose Michael because he had immunity. I think they definitely would have chosen him regardless, judging from their irritation about last challenge and his difficulty with the cowl neck.

Finally, Casanova. I was glad he won too. When Tim Gunn came in and criticized him....again....I felt bad for him, despite his annoying accent. I actually liked his design the best as well. The back looked pretty cool. This episode was really about breaking everyone down, right?

Ultimately, I think it's for the best. I'll be very interested to see how Gretchen handles herself post Team challenge. 

IF YOU DON'T GET LIFETIME, GO HERE FOR LAST NIGHT'S EPISODE.

Frock by Friday: Alexander Dress

August 26, 2010


Here is the new button. Feel free to link to the Frock by Friday to get more fun people involved! To grab the button just highlight it, copy and paste into a new post.

Also, when you are printing the McCalls Dress Pattern, only print pages 34-36; 39-41; 44-46; 49-51; and 54-56 so as not to waste paper.

Thrift Store Thursday: The Twiggy Frock

I bought this dress last year right before I found out I was pregnant with Eloise. It was from Anthropologie but I bought it at Gabriel Brothers in Mechanicsburg, PA at their going out of business sale for $8. It is 100% silk and feels delicious.
I was in such a hurry and it was so cheap that I bought it without even trying it on. BIG MISTAKE. It was a size 0. But usually dresses are more forgiving in size than pants, especially empire waisted ones. But when I tried it on no matter how hard to squeezed and flattened I could NOT fit my bust into it. Not even close (see below).
So it sat in my closet for months and months....until this week. I didn't quite know how to make it work because the dress as you can see has a very specific pattern. I definitely didn't want to buy a solid colored material and sew it to the side in some sort of Frankenstein fashion, screaming to everyone that I bought the dress too small. So what to do? I know how to fix a dress that's too big, but too small is a completely different dilemma.

Then it came to me. If you have a dress that's too tight perhaps this might work for you too. I took a littttle bit from the bottom sides of the skirt (see below) and used that material to match up to the side of my dress. I ripped out the zipper on the left side and sewed on my new piece.  VOILA, new dress. It zips up but it is still quite tight. If I wanted to make it even looser I would have had to sew a new piece under the sleeve and I didn't have enough to do that. But it's wearable and that's what matters the most.

I also sewed up the front so that my clevage wasn't hanging out. If I was more flat chested I could have worn it no problem. Please don't roll your eyes, but I'll never understand why some people want a larger sized chest. It's brought me nothing but work and disappointment. I can't tell you all the delicate J.Crew cami's I've missed out on because of it. My sister who could probably have fit into this dress before I fixed it, has argued with me about this. It's funny how we envy each other for the opposite reasons.

Obviously I named this the Twiggy Frock because you'd have to be her size to wear it in its original state. Either that or a tweenager.

Shabby Apple Garden Party!

 For those of you living in the Salt Lake City area Shabby Apple is having a Garden Party this Saturday! It's their semi-annual damaged dress sale.....and some new dresses, too!
Some dresses will even be as low as $5  !!!!!!! No way, I'm so jealous.

Saturday August 28, 8am-12pm
2485 Haven Lane
Salt Lake City, UT
COME IN YOUR BEST 20s STYLE: PRIZES FOR BEST DRESSED!!!!

Use the button below to link to them.
Wish I could join you:( 

Wednesday Winner: The Streamer Frock

August 25, 2010


If you would like to receive regular updates on winner's every other Wednesday please follow this blog. Please email mytumtumtree@gmail.com so that I can get your contact information.

Thank you to everyone who entered and left wonderful comments about this dress. It was definitely one of my favorites.

The winner of the Streamer Frock is Jo from To A Pretty Life. Congratulations!

Technique Tuesday (well....wednesday): Buttons

Do you have a funky little foot that looks all stubby like the front is missing? If so, you might have a button foot which will definitely help you when sewing many buttons all at once. Don't sew buttons on by hand, try the button hole foot. If you'd like to purchase one here's an inexpensive one on Amazon.
My video cuts off at the end before I get to finish my sentence (my battery died) but all I did was cut the threads off the button.

top photo: ahisgett

Download the Free McCalls Pattern

To download the free McCalls pattern go here. Sign up for a new account and they will email a link to direct you to where you can print it out.


Remember we will only be using the skirt portion of this pattern so don't print out more than you need to.

If you are having problems printing from their site go here to install an Adobe Acrobat plugin update. And then restart your computer and try to open the print screen again.

Frock by Friday: August

As discussed last month we will be doing a combination of the Burdastyle's Alexander Blouse which is $4.00 and the skirt piece from this free McCalls Pattern. Our finished frock would be connected as a dress, sort of like a faux top and skirt. The color and fabric combinations for this idea are simply endless.

The blouse paired with the pencil skirt reminded me of a modern take on a 1940s classic design.

And it's just in time for school. You can have a savvy fall frock to wear while walking down that autumnal campus sidewalk. I think this dress will be GREAT for this time of year as summer dresses tend to be more flowy and romantic.

So go get your notions together! It looks like this one will need 6-8 buttons, a long zipper for the back, somewhere around 18" (it doesn't have to be exactly 18" but close to), and if you are making a stiff belt like the one in the middle I recommend buying heavy iron on interfacing, about a half yard of it. 

I haven't looked at the yardage yet for the patterns but I will give you that information tomorrow. I'll be posting it to my followers so it doesn't clutter up the front page. Please follow this blog for those updates.

And since the giveaway was scheduled for yesterday, look for a Tuesday Technique later today. 

Photo credits: Bottom left to right: Burdastyle; theslapdashsewist; Burdastyle

Ghost in the Machine

August 24, 2010

On Sunday night after the girls had gone to bed I was sitting on the sofa and Brian was shaving in the bathroom. He came out and said, "Did you bring the sewing machine down here?" 

"No," I said. 

"I just heard the sewing machine running."

"No you didn't."

"Yes, I did. It sounded just like it does when you're up there sewing."

So I made him go upstairs to check things out because, yeah, I'm still afraid of the dark. Sure enough, the thread in the needleplate was all tangled up and there was an error code on the machine as if someone had been sewing.

Eeeeriee.....

Not Your Average Bridal Bouquet


This is just beautiful and sentimental. It is a bridal bouquet made of vintage and new floral broaches. If you had a bunch of these handed down to you by a loved relative and were having an upcoming wedding, this might be a nice alternative to a live floral bouquet.

Designed by LionsGateDesigns. You should see the other designs she has. Lovely
And you could pass this down to your children which you couldn't do with a live bouquet.

SILHOUETTE MACHINE GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

Okay, the day is here. Drumroll please......

VALUED AT $299!

I know my readers are crafty folk and that they will appreciate this giveaway as much as I did when I was asked to review it. I think I was on cloud nine for days.

The winner of this giveaway will receive one silhouette machine with cuttings mediums as well as a $10 gift card to the Silhouette Online Store.

I definitely recommend visiting the site and especially the blog which has a ton of great ideas and mediums including magnet paper, tattoo paper and metallic sketch pens!

First off I want to differentiate this from the Cricut which IMHO has nothing on the Silhouette. The major difference being you DON'T have to buy EXPENSIVE cartridges which (to me) makes the Cricut cost prohibitive. You have the freedom to create whatever you want. Whatever font you have installed on your computer, you can cut out with the Silhouette machine and your computer.

You can cut images that are 39" long! That's long enough for a life sized birch tree vinyl cutout. Speaking of cutouts you can make your own images! Want to make a silhouette of your family's profiles to frame over the mantlepiece? YOU CAN with the Silhouette (I'm SOOO gonna try that).

And here's another great part. If you want to purchase something from the Silhouette library (which has some GREAT boxes BTW) you can purchase them individually online for only 75 cents a piece. Compare that to Cricut which charges you $60 per cartridge with about 50 images you may or may not want and one font AND you'd have to drive out to the store to buy it.

Silhouette also has monthly design plans. For $19.99 a month you can download up to 200 designs of your OWN choosing. That's crazy.

Here were a few things I made with my machine. OOOooo you know what would be neat? Paper dolls!

See how I did it here, here, here and here. I'll have a full tutorial later in the week with another silhouette project that you can do. Making the candy boxes were beyond easy. All I had to do was print, punch out and fold. If you had some pretty heavy weight scrapbooking paper this little project would take less than five minutes.

And here are a few things other people have made with their machines from flickr's: Silhouette Machine: theCREATIVEplace.
If you would like to win this AMAZING machine there are a couple ways to enter.

Grosgrain Giveaways can be entered by one of three ways

1) By linking about this giveaway (to your blog, facebook, or any other site) button is below.
2) By going to Silhouette's site and leave a comment
on Grosgrain about why you like Silhouette
3) By FOLLOWING Grosgrain and leaving a comment on the silhouette secret posts

Just remember to please leave me a comment telling me what you did so that I can go back and look for your entry. Either give me the link that you posted for the giveaway to or tell me that you began to follow me.

GIVEAWAY ENDS AUGUST 31st

If you'd like to get ahead of the game and purchase a silhouette for yourself (which I highly recommend) use
PROMO CODE: GGF 

Use the code and buy a machine between August 23rd through September 1st at midnight and receive the following:


-fuzzy white vinyl (Valued at $7.99)
-light blue smooth heat transfer (Valued at 14.99)
yellow flocked heat transfer (Valued at $14.99)
- Home Décor CD (Valued at $50)
- $10 Gift Card to the Silhouette Download Store (Comes in the box)
- Cutting Blade (Comes in the box)
- 2 Cutting Mats (Comes in the box)


All for $249.99
A Savings of $137.97
Just think of how much you’ll save on gift giving this year! 
  Use the code and buy a machine between September 2nd through September 4th at midnight and receive the following:


$50 off (receive for $249.99)
2 rolls of Heat transfer ($29.89 value)
$10 Gift Card to the Silhouette Download Store(Comes in the Box)
Cutting Blade (Comes in the Box)
2 Cutting Mats(Comes in the Box)


All for $249.99
A savings of $79.98


If you are leaving a link just use the 'create a link' at the bottom of this post or simply creating a post on your blog and including this link.If you use blogger just use the "create a link" link at the bottom of this post. If you don't use blogger, that's fine too. Just create a link on your page as you normally would.

Sugar or Splenda?

August 23, 2010

 Brian's family only uses Splenda. And I can't stand the stuff. 
But kindly, Brian's mother, Ann, always has a little real sugar for me when we visit.
I thought I'd make her two personalized glass containers to differentiate between the two.
The letters "Ann's Splenda" and "Ann's Sugar" were made with etching cream and my new nifty machine:)

Homework Space

Lily's new desk that she will be using for her first grade homework.
 Yeah, first graders have homework.

Party Favors in 10 Minutes or Less



These sweet pillow candy boxes are great for quick party favors. I made them in less than 10 minutes. You could also make custom labels to affix to the fronts. 
 All I did was print out stripes on cardstock but I bet this would work just fine with striped scrapbook paper, and used my machine to do the rest.
The custom lunch bags are the PERFECT first day of school treat. I bet you could easily find heavy weight brown package paper.

Smelloise

I think many of you might already know what tomorrow's giveaway is but here's a little something I've made with it.

My baby Eloise is at times....smelly.
So Brian and I nicknamed her Smelloise. I know. It's cruel. But it's done out of love.


The onsie is a little distorted by her HUGE belly but it says sm-elloise with a picture of  a smelly diaper on the front. Brian said I should have added little flies and stink lines.


I made this with heat transfer paper and my newest handy little machine.


Later today I'll be posting other neat things I've made with my machine to my followers.


Come one she knows what she's doing. Look at that meek sad little baby face. She's quite the charmer. You know we went out for breast milk and banana purees after the shoot. Cuz that what my baby likes.
 
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