PR&P Season 5 Challenges

The Project Run & Play Season 5 challenges were announced today...

Have you seen them yet? Check them out!
Week #1-- Pattern Remix--"It's okay to be Bias Skirt Tutorial"
Week #2-- Fashion Icon Challenge
Week #3-- White Sheet Challenge
Week #4-- Boy's Wear
Week #5-- Holiday Wear
Week #6-- Signature Look

I have so many ideas I cannot wait to share with you. I think I'm most excited about Boy's Wear, which will be Week #4, I have an awesome look that I hope you will like, too, but I have to get enough votes during the first 3 weeks to be able to make it to Week #4. Although I do have to say that I'm a little scared about drafting pants, any advice on drafting pants?? Please share :)

As far as photographing my creations, I'm hoping to have the modeling photo sessions at different locations in my area, to give you a tour of where I live (Twin Cities area of Minnesota).

So I'd love to hear what are your thoughts about the themes each week? Which one are you most looking forward to? Do you plan to sew along during Season 5? If so, do you have all the updated measurements for your child(ren)?

I guess I better get started cutting bias strips.

Alright everyone, now it's time to "make it work"...

Super Duper Exciting Announcement

I'm so happy to share this news with you today:

I was invited to compete in Season 5 of Project Run & Play !!!

And I said yes.

What perfect timing... just before I was invited a child sized dress form (in above photo) arrived in the mail, a brand new tool for me to use, so I am ready to dive right in.

Season 5 will start September 10th with voting starting September 14th.

Check out the other 7 designers in the competition, should be fun, huh?

This will be a wonderful opportunity to improve my designing/pattern drafting/sewing skills. I want to push myself and learn more. I also want to have fun, try new things, and to step it up a notch. We will see what time and my ability will allow.

Can you tell I am so looking forward to this? Many thanks to Elizabeth & liZ of Simple Simon & Co for the invitation !

OK, now I'm off to finish cleaning up my sewing room, shop for fabrics, and sew, sew, sew...

I sure hope my sewing machine doesn't break anytime soon.

I'll see you on the runway!

PS Tomorrow the Season 5 challenges will be announced :)

Yellow Submarine

This is a re-post of a tutorial I did a couple of weeks ago for Melly Sews, just in case you missed it...
*****
 Hello Melly Sews readers! I'm Rachel and I blog at nest full of eggs. I have 3 children, 2 of whom are boys. I enjoy sewing, but I have to admit that I mostly sew for my daughter, so I was thrilled to be asked to contribute to the Sew in Tune series because it pushed me to do more boy sewing and I enjoy a challenge. I picked "Yellow Submarine" by The Beatles because yellow is my 2nd son's favorite color and the submarine part inspired me to create something water themed and sailor/nautical styled.

Let's start off with the sailor pants... The pattern I used was the Oliver + S sailboat pants pattern. I found this gray chambray (or is it linen? it's a very lightweight fabric) as a large remnant at a menswear fabric clearance table at a big fabric warehouse, I decided gray would be the perfect neutral to go with the yellow ~ that it would make the yellow really pop. I really liked the idea of adding piping around the button front pant detail which I saw from Gail at Probably Actually. So yellow piping (made out of broadcloth) it was and this being the first time I'd ever made (or even sewn with) piping I followed this tutorial on how to make your own piping. 4 yellow buttons with anchors (etsy to the rescue) were the perfect touch. The buttonhole function isn't currently working on my sewing machine, so I used this tutorial for making a button hole using the zigzag stitch.

 For the lining I opted not to use the gray chambray (or linen?) and instead I used yellow fabric with white rain drops (helping with the water theme going on here), it is from the Hoodie's Collection "Raindrops" for Timeless Treasures Fabrics. I took extra care to make sure the thread color matched the fabric (gray thread on gray fabric and yellow thread on yellow fabric).

 Now let's move onto the yellow striped sailor shirt...

 For this I repurposed an old adult sized long sleeve white t-shirt from my closet.

 I reduced it to my son's size and by doing this I got rid of those ugly underarm stains! I simply turned the shirt inside out, on top placed a t-shirt that fits my son well, and traced it with a purple disappearing ink marker. This purple line became my sewing line. After sewing it, I trimmed off the excess fabric, and turned it right side out.

 I painted on yellow stripes by using yellow Tulip soft fabric paint, this was a technique that I learned from Justine from Sew Country Chick that she shared at Project Run&Play.  The stripes are spaced about 1 inch apart from each other and I used rulers to help with the spacing and also for aiding in painting straight lines.

 It took about an hour to paint the stripes on one side of the shirt, then it takes 4 hours for the paint to dry. Flip it over and repeat.

 Lastly I sewed on 4 yellow buttons with anchors to the shoulders (2 on each shoulder).

Thanks Melissa and Stacey for having me!

Cheery Cherry Skirt

 The last skirt is done for donation to Skirting the Issue... just in time before the August 10th deadline.

This time it's the Change Your Mind Skirt (a reversible skirt) from 1, 2, 3, Sew: Build Your Skills with 33 Simple Sewing Projects by Ellen Luckett Baker.

But instead of using rickrack, I used red pompom trim to match the red cherries on the 2 cherry fabrics (which were both bought at JoAnn Fabrics). Something a little different from me as I usually don't work with the red & black color combination.

Happy Thursday everyone !

Sew in Tune guest post

 The Sew in Tune series is currently going on, check out my post over at Melly Sews today :)

The challenge was to sew for boys & something that was inspired by a song. I picked "Yellow Submarine" by the Beatles. I sewed with piping for the first time & made the piping too!

Happy Monday everyone !

5 Lazy Days Skirts

 More skirts for Skirting the Issue... this time around it's 5 Lazy Days Skirts, a free tutorial (no pattern required) by Oliver+S. The Lazy Days Skirt & it's tutorial are great, but then again everything by Oliver+S is great ! 

So here's the scoop about each skirt...

The above skirt: Raspberry pink floral with white trim
the fabric: Heidi Grace Designs from JoAnn Fabrics (I had 14.5" left of this fabric after sewing the aprons)
the ribbon: 1 inch wide white grosgrain
size: girls 4-6

 Christmas tree skirt (to me it looks like multi-colored Christmas lights on trees & also the green & red colors remind me of Christmas)
the fabric: I had 14" of this one, I believe it is Heidi Grace Designs, it came from JoAnn Fabrics
the ribbon: 5/8 inch wide red grosgrain ribbon
size: girls 4-6

 Lemon skirt (I sewed my daughter one over 2 years ago)
the fabric: "juicy" by The Alexander Henry Fabrics Collection, from JoAnn Fabrics
the ribbon: 5/8 inch wide yellow & orange floral vintage ribbon (I have a ton of it)
size: girls 4-6

 Blue skirt with trees
the fabric: Heidi Grace Designs from JoAnn Fabrics (having 17.5" of this one I was able to make a larger size which I was happy about because they are in need of larger sizes)
the ribbon: 3/8 inch wide blue grosgrain
size: girls 7-8 ~ sorry no one around here that size to model it :)

 Brown with white polka dots
the fabric: Dumb Dot by Michael Miller (NOT bought at JoAnn Fabrics), 5/8 yard & I was thrilled to have so much of this one so I could make a teen size because they are really in need of teen skirts
the ribbon: 5/8 inch wide turquoise & brown striped grosgrain
size: girls 16
many thanks to my 4 year old daughter who used my camera (on a tripod) to take this photo of me modeling the skirt :)

So I came to the conclusion after looking at these photos that I think I prefer the wider ribbon trim... minimum 5/8", but I think 1" is even better... OK, I'm off to sew more (different) skirts...

Altered Couture Fall 2012

Many thanks to Altered Couture magazine for publishing the octopus hoodie I sewed for my octopus-loving son in their Aug/Sept/Oct 2012 issue. In the 5 page spread (pages 119-123) there are 16 of my photos that show step-by-step how I created it, including all the tools & materials needed, complete instructions, as well as some helpful tips. I'm thrilled to be included among many wonderful artists with fabulous projects !

Take care, everyone !!  :o)

PS Altered Couture magazine is available for purchase at JoAnn, Michaels, Barnes & Nobles stores... it's also available through subscription.