Ombre Quilt

I had to make a manly quilt.  My husband was looking a little longingly at the quilts I made my parents for Christmas.  His birthday is in the beginning of January and so I surprised him with a quilt of his own.
It took me a long time to lay out all of the squares and get it to to the point where I felt it looked like an ombre. 

When I quilted it, I sewed straight lines horizontally across the quilt. It was very simple.  I made the stripes different sizes to give it some personality.

I used grey fleece for the back of the quilt.

It was a success.  I love it.   

The best picture I could get with the two of them.

Piecing Batting

I set out to begin my next quilting project which is a twin size quilt for my Husband's birthday this next week.  I looked at my stash of batting that I already had and found scraps from previous quilts.  But, I had a pretty big pile of scraps.  I started going through it and realized I had some pretty big pieces of batting.  Crossing my fingers, I measured the pieces and found that I had enough to piece four equal parts together to make a twin size blanket.  Happy day!  This not only helped me use up my scraps, but it saved me from having to purchase more batting.

From my scraps I cut four rectangles a little bigger than 45"x 36".  I then used my rotary cutter and gave the four pieces a straight edge.  Having a straight edge is important because when it is sewn together, there can't be any overlapping of the batting. 

I used stitch number 05

Once I had four equal pieces with straight edges, I used a 3-step zig-zag stitch on my machine to sew the two pieces of batting together (this makes three stitches before it switches directions and then stitches it three times the opposite way).

  I had to hold the batting pretty tight on both sides of the presser foot as it was stitching to keep the batting from gathering.  It was pretty simple and no pins were needed to hold it in place. Once all four pieces were sewn together the size of the batting was 90"x 72".  Perfect for quilting.

I had to roll it up to fit it through my machine.

 

Close up of the stitches

If you look closely you can see the seams.

Nap Time Creation

My Model was a little high maintenance today.  I got the dress on her, but brushing her hair was out of the question.  I think she is still lovely.

This dress has scalloped lace around the neck and sleeves, pleats, and an adorable bow in the back. I love this fabric.  So dainty, yet classic.

Taking in Elastic Pants

My sweet little three-year-old Princess is tiny.  It is hard to find pants that fit her.  When normal three-year-old are girls are breaking out the 3T clothes, my baby is constantly holding up her 2T pants just to keep them from falling to her ankles.  Problem is, if we buy a size smaller than 2T the pants wont be long enough for her.  Therefore, Mama has another reason to use her sewing machine.

This is a short tutorial on how to tighten the elastic on the inside waistband.  Even if you don't have this issue in your home, I have found it is good to take something apart and put it back together just to be able to understand how it was sewn together in the first place.  Not to mention, this is is one step closer to being able to take in, or let out pants - which is a big money saver.

First, take a seam ripper to those stitches where the tag has been sewn to the pants.

   

 Pull that elastic out of the hole that you made.  You can see the teal thread where the elastic was sewn together. 

 Use that trusty seam ripper and undo the stitches holding that elastic together.

Pull the elastic so that it is overlapping quite a bit.  I overlapped the elastic a good inch and a half or more.   (This will vary depending on how much you need taken in.)  Hold the elastic away from the rest of the pants and sew it together on your machine.  Take care not to sew the elastic to the pants.  The only thing you want to sew in this step is the elastic.  I didn't feel the need to use pins to hold it together because my presser foot held the elastic in place once I dropped the foot down.

Tuck the elastic back inside the waistband tube. 

This is a good picture showing how much I overlapped the elastic.

 Change your thread to a coordinating color.  Flip the pants inside out and sew the pants back together as close to the original seam as possible.  This should be easy because you have the stitches on either side of your hole to guide you. 

I had to stretch the elastic to sew the hole back together again.

 My seam wasn't perfect, but from the outside, you can't even tell.  I consider that a success.

Taking in these elastic pants took me less than 5 minutes.