Applique Shirts

Last Fall, a friend gave us a big box of hand-me-downs for Dorothy.  Inside were some darling shorts, but no shirts that matched (or maybe I was just looking for an excuse to make matching shirts).  The shorts actually fit around her waist, which is pretty rare, so I came up with three shirts for her to wear with the shorts.

 

 These are the very cute watermelon shorts that I wanted to match.  I looked through the shirts I had on hand and found a plain red shirt that matched color-wise.

I already had the watermelon applique design for my machine.  The red fabric is a scrap from a dress I am currently making her (I cut it out a long time ago, and have just now started sewing it).  I also already had the green fabric for the rind, leftover from doing a few Kermit the Frog shirts.

 Close-up of the watermelon.  I need to practice with some different camera settings to get sharper pictures.

It looks great, and is perfect for her to wear to her baton twirling class.  She practicing the routine so she can march in the Forth of July parade next week.

 I love this little hedgehog!  She's so cute and happy.  My pink fabric isn't a perfect match, but it is close enough.

 I did have to buy this shirt but it is such a good match that it looks like it was made to go with these shorts.  I think the stripes and the pink binding give it some much needed interest.

The shorts are pink, but have a little yellow trim on them.  I was happy to find that the pinks and yellows were so close that they went together even though the shirt and shorts are different brands.

 I have been wanting a manatee design for a very long time, but most of the ones that I could find didn't look much like manatees.  I loved this one, but it didn't come in my machine's format, and it was huge.  It also cost more than I usually like to spend on designs, but there was simply nothing else out there, so I decided to give it a try and I would modify it.  I'm so glad I did!  It stitched out great even after all my tinkering.

I wasn't sure if I was really liking the green outline on the manatee that Dorothy picked out, but it matches the stripes in her shorts really well and we have gotten a few positive comments on her shirt already.  Malcolm likes it so much that he has asked for one, and I hope to finish his this weekend.  Manatee shirts might become a summer tradition for my kids.

I have one more pair of shorts to make a matching shirt for, but I haven't gotten out to get a shirt to match.  Malcolm has two shirt requests in and I have Dorothy's dress that needs to eventually be sewn to also finish, so we'll see if I get to another shirt for her or not.

Project Linus Quilts

Earlier in the year, I made quilts with each of my children's classes that were donated to Project Linus.  I have been meaning to make more blankets for them, and I finally have a batch ready to go!

 All stacked up and ready to go.  I'm going to try to drop them off in person at one of the many get-togethers the local chapter holds.

 They look so pretty all nicely folded.

 This quilt is being donated in honor of a friend's baby that was born with a heart condition and survived for 23 days.  His favorite thing was his duck blanket/comforter, and he happened to have a fair amount of blue striped blankets and clothing.  His name will be attached to this special blanket when I turn it in.

 There are three different backgrounds for the ducks and all were fabrics I had that were leftover from other projects.  This one says, "I love mommy" and, "I love daddy on it."

 I had a surprisingly hard time time finding blue striped fabric, so I had to improvise a bit.  This one is very pale, but is a white and light blue stripe.  

The other background is just a solid medium to light blue.  The ducks themselves are all different, and I learned that I do not use much in the way yellow fabric and was bailed out by a friend who delivered some yellow scraps to my house so I could finish my last yellow duck.

 The backing is a bright yellow ultra cuddle that is super soft and snuggly.  I used the ultra cuddle for most of the blankets and my only complaint about it is how much it fuzzes all over when cut.  After trimming the backs to size, I look like I have tangled with a Muppet.

 I'm not a big fan of the current chevron craze, but I think it is really striking as the binding.  I was hoping it would look sort of stripe-ish.  It doesn't, but I still really like how it turned out.

 This one was too large to get in one photograph, but hopefully you get the idea.  It is a single piece of dinosaur flannel with a blue ultra cuddle back.  It is a yard and a half of fabric, and the largest of the blankets in this batch.  I made this one right after purchasing a new walking foot for my machine.  I wanted to practice on a single piece of fabric instead of a pieced top, in case I really messed it up. 

 Instead of binding the blanket, I folded the ultra cuddle over.  I like it, but had some trouble with the corners.  Some went pretty well, while others would not lay right no matter what I did.  I will probably try this method again, but I need to work out the kinks.

 Since this one was so simple, I appliqued a dinosaur on the back to make it a little more custom made.

 With the exception of the binding, this one was all scraps left over from other projects.

 It is a little hard to see, but there are tiny stars on the blue fabric and on the bear fabric.

 A closer look at the stars.

 The backing on this one is a thin, almost furry, blue and white stripe fabric, and I embroidered, "Twinkle, twinkle little star," on the back.  The backing fabric was left from my diaper making days.  It made a great lining and I stocked up when it went on clearance.  I had used a fair amount, but still had quite a bit left.

 This is another blanket made of pieces of leftover scraps.  The big red squares are a minky dot fabric that is very soft and nice to pet.  I was nervous about using red and white next to each other, but since everything was pre-washed, I went for it.  It came out of the wash fine, but now there is some bleeding on the left side.  This one has been done for a while and was sitting a plastic bag.  I wonder if some condensation got in and it bled then?  I would have noticed when I inspected it after washing and drying, and it wasn't there then.  I'm going to see if I can get it out before dropping it off.

 You can see the raised bumps on the minky here.  The pale green squares have little farm themed pictures on them.

 The backing is another ultra cuddle, but this time I went with the bolder dots pattern instead of a solid color.

 It makes a very vibrant backing.

 This was a pre-quilted panel that a friend gave me.  Her boys had long since outgrown Thomas the Tank, and she asked if I could find a use for it.  All I had to do was bind the edges and I had plenty of the blue fabric left over from my son's class quilt to do this one too.

 The back was already on since it was pre-quilted.

 It's very bright and colorful.

 This was another piece of Thomas material my friend gave me.  My kids aren't really into Thomas, but it's perfect for making a blanket to donate.  I left the piece she gave me full size, then added a border using more of the fabric from my son's class quilt. 

 The green, blue, and yellow matched perfectly and are a great finishing touch for this blanket.

 The back is ultra cuddle scraps I had leftover from other blankets.  I pieced them together and used them for the backing.

My husband saw me folding this one and all he could see was the back.  He said it was very German.  I hadn't thought about that when I was putting it together, but he's right, and now all I can see is the German flag.


If time and money allowed, I would love to make more blankets for Project Linus.  I have a few more in various stages of progress that I will keep working on.  In the meantime, I'll get these turned in, and hopefully they will find their way to some kids who really need them.

Bathing Suits

Dorothy is very petite and I could not find a bathing suit for her anywhere that fit properly.  If they were long enough, they were not small enough around in the leg openings to keep her covered.  I tried some two piece ones, and the rise wasn't long enough and the waists were too big, so the bottoms fell off.  After buying and returning several (I still have one waiting to go back to the store), I broke down and made her a couple the mostly fit.  They are a touch big in places on top, but at her age, that doesn't matter too much.

 Here they both are.  The one on the left I actually made last summer, just to see how it would go.  I didn't have a pattern and just sort of winged it with a tank leotard pattern as a base for the very bottom.  The bottom fit pretty well, but the top was huge.  I did some tweaking to it and it is good enough to be worn in public.  I'm probably the only person who even notices where it is a bit funky.

I bought the blue gingham fabric last summer on deep clearance.  When I saw it, I thought it would be cute for her to have a bathing suit loosely based on Dorothy, from The Wizard of Oz's, dress.  I broke down and bought a basic swim suit pattern, but added the ruffle, trim, and skirt.

 The backs.  It is hard to tell on the hangers, but the one on the left comes to a V in the back and the gingham one is an X.

 I didn't have time to take a picture before class started, so here she is afterward; cold.

 It looks like it did just fine in the water.  I was a little afraid it would stretch and get too big, but it still looks pretty good.

You can see under her left arm that it is still a touch too big, but it is much better than it was.  I cut about an inch out of the binding in the center back, then butted the ends together and sewed them.  I took a small tuck pleat in the fabric to make it lay flat, then covered the entire mess with a little bow.  It tightened it up nicely and looks much better now.  Not bad for just eyeballing how the top should have been cut.

 

 The bow gets a little saggy in the water, but I tacked it so that it mostly stays up.

I'm so pleased with how this one came out, and it went together relatively quickly.  I bought the pattern and trim on a Saturday afternoon, and when I had it finished on Sunday before the kids went to bed, my husband was shocked.

The white stripes are ruffled elastic.  I wanted something that would stretch with the material, and this was pretty cute.  The red ric rac does not stretch, but since it is on the skirt, it doesn't have to.  I debated if I wanted the red on there, and I love it so much.  It's a little nod to Dorothy's ruby slippers, and it adds a nice bit of color to the suit.

 The sun was too bright, so she covered her eyes.  It is just darling on her, and I saw/heard some of the teachers saying how cute she was on her first day of swimming lessons.

 The top is just a bit looser than I would like, but everything else fits wonderfully.  I cut this a size 3, but the length of a 4.

It lays very nicely across her back.


It cost me less to make these than what I was spending on ones that didn't fit.  I think next year, I'll just skip trying to buy her a suit and make her a couple.