Urban Unisex Hoodie

The other week I decided it was time to transition into sewing some clothes more suited to cold weather.  I had seen posts about the Urban Unisex Hoodie by Heidi and Finn a couple times and loved the look of it.  I finally decided to buy it, and man I am SO glad I did!  It is such a cute hoodie, and the pattern and directions are so easy to understand.  It goes from 6 months up to 5t, so you can get a lot of use out of the pattern, and then with all the different fabric combos out there, the possibilities are endless.  It took away my fear of sewing hoodies. I've wanted to sew them for awhile but never did because I was sure it would be too hard.  The pattern comes with detailed instructions and pictures of each step. It is definitely worth buying.

I altered the pattern a little bit to make it reversible, making it even more versatile than it already was.  To check out how to make it reversible, see HERE. I've already made my girl two hoodies so far, plus two for my niece and nephew.  For $6 (cost of pattern, all the fabric I've used has been from my stash) I have made 4 hoodies, all of which are reversible, so the equivalent of 8 hoodies.  Figuring the average cost of a toddler hoodie is about $20, that's a savings of $154. Pretty awesome.

To sum it all up, the Urban Unisex Hoodie by Heidi and Finn is fabulous and you should buy it.

 

 

TUTORIAL- Making the Urban Unisex Hoodie Reversible

This post has been moved over to my new blog Cautiously Crafty.  Come on over!

Faux Chenille Quilt TUTORIAL

As promised, here is the Faux Chenille Quilt tutorial!

 
I've actually been wanting to do this for awhile, but kept forgetting to take pictures of every step when I was making the big blankets. I got tired of waiting to make another big blanket, so I decided to make a Fat Quarter sized one for this tutorial.  I usually make my blankets using 1 yard in size.  This is a good size for a baby/toddler blanket, or a small lap blanket. As I stated in my previous Faux Chenille entry, the tutorials I found for this were all very intimidating!  They made it seem like a huge undertaking, and it scared me out of attempting one for a long time.  I didn't find the project nearly as tedious as it was made out to be, I actually really enjoyed it!  On top of that, it is a very forgiving blanket, it doesn't have to be perfect!  Mistakes are pretty much completely hidden by the chenille. So don't be intimidated!  It really isn't that bad at all.  It is a lot of fun, and the finished project is totally worth it.  Let's get started!

First, you need to select your fabric. For all of mine I've used either quilting cotton, or the Juvenille Apparel fabric from Joanns as the printed fabric, and flannel for the chenille part.  (Except for the Fat Quarter one I made for this tutorial, I used quilting cotton for the chenille part to because it is what I had on hand.  I like the way the flannel turns out much better though.) The fabrics for the chenille part need to be 100% cotton though, otherwise they won't fray and you won't get the chenille effect.

I use 5 fabrics for my blankets.  The printed fabric for the front, and then 4 layers of flannel for the back.  I only cut 3 layers of the flannel though, leaving the bottom one that is right next to the printed fabric to add sturdiness and keep the back of the print showing through.  Its also a good safeguard against cutting through the layer you don't want to cut.

Here are my fabrics....


















You'll notice that contrary to what I wrote above, I only have 4 fabrics.  That is because I made this one spur of the moment with what I had on hand.  If this had been an actual blanket, I would have picked another fabric to have on the chenille side.

Next you'll want to lay the fabrics out.  This is where I do things a little different than others.  I don't bother with pinning or using spray adhesive.  Originally I didn't do it because I was eager to get started and didn't want to have to run out to buy it and didn't want to bother with the extra step.  The blanket turned out fine.  Yes the fabrics shifted some, but it really didn't make any difference in the end product.

Your printed fabric goes on the very bottom, WRONG side up.  Then the bottom layer of the chenille side (if I had the 5th layer in this one, this would be the extra layer that I wouldn't cut.)  Then the rest of the chenille fabrics.  The chenille fabrics should all be RIGHT side up.



The order of the chenille fabrics is personal preference. I didn't put much thought into the first one I did, and was not nearly as pleased with it as I was with the others.  The very top layer will be the most prominent color in the chenille.  I also figured out that if two colors were close in shade (two dark colors) or color, (like blue and purple) they would end up really blending together and look like just 1 color.  So now I make sure to have similar colors separated by a contrasting color. 

Next step is to draw a line diagonally across the top chenille fabric.  You need a long piece of string (ribbon, twine, yarn, whatever you have on hand.)  To help keep it taunt put two cans or jars of whatever you have in the pantry on each end.

 

 Then Trace the line.



Mine is far from perfect. Its okay though, nobody will be able to tell when its finished.

Now its time to start sewing! Make sure you have enough thread in the color you are using.  I use thread that is close in color to the main color on the blanket so that way mistakes aren't so obvious like they would be if I used a contrasting color. I use the longest stitch length my machine allows, which is a 4. I've read that some people don't backstitch to secure the stitching. I usually do.  I didn't on one blanket and it caused difficulties when it came time to cut.


Sew all the way down the line, corner to corner.  Then turn the fabric over.

 

The rest of your lines will be sewn with the printed side up. (If you remember to turn it over after the first one, which I didn't til after I was already finished with the 2nd line.  Oops!)
This will help hide any messy threads if you have a problem with the bobbin.  You want to sew the lines about 1/2 an inch apart.  If you're lucky, your foot is 1/2 inch and you can use it as a guide.  Mine is a bit smaller though, so I just have to kinda eyeball it.  Its caused me to have some wonky lines.

But guess what!  IT'S OKAY.  It doesn't have to be perfect.  Even on the first one I made with REALLY wonky lines, you can't really tell with the finished project.


^See?  This is the chenille side after I finished sewing it. Those are some really wavy lines. But it all turned out okay.

Once you turn your fabric over, keep sewing lines from the center 1/2 an inch apart all the way down to the corner.



This is where it can get a little monotonous. Sewing line after line.  The first blanket I did, it took me about four hours to do all this sewing, on a blanket that was 1 yard in size.  I would stop to check something online real quick, or a grab a snack or drink to give my hands a break and just break the sewing up a little. For the first one I made,  I stopped for the night with the sewing when I was halfway through and did the other half the next day.

 
This is what you should have when you're done sewing the first half.  You'll notice it isn't perfect.  There are some squiggly lines and the fabric got bunched in a couple places.  DON'T SWEAT IT!
Now its time to sew the other half.  Start from the center line again, and sew lines 1/2 an inch apart from the center out to the corner.



Woo!  The monotonous sewing is finished! Now its time to cut.  





You can do this with scissors, but I went out and bought the chenille cutter.  It made the cutting go by SO quickly and easily.  Turn the blanket over so the flannel sides are up.  You will be cutting down the center between the stitched lines.   You only want to cut the layers you want to fray, so DON'T cut the printed fabric, or the very bottom flannel layer if you wanted an extra layer for stability like I prefer. So out of five layers I cut the top 3.




All cut up!

Now you want to trim up the edges to make them even, and if you prefer, round the edges. A rotary cutter, cutting mat, and straight edge make this job super easy. You can round the edges using a plate as a guide for the first one if you want, I just do mine freehand though.  Then use that corner as a guide for the other three.


Now its time to bind it. For my bigger blankets I use the extra thick double fold bias tape/quilt binding.  You could use the satin blanket binding if you want to, but I have zero desire to work with satin. I need two packages for my 1 yard blankets. For this mini blanket, I just used regular old double fold bias tape.



If I were a good seamstress, I would have pinned the bias tape before I sewed it.  But I'm not.  So I didn't.  I do when making a big blanket though.

 

 

CONGRATULATIONS!  You just sewed a faux chenille quilt!  Now is the fun part of washing it to make it fray up.  Just throw it in the washer and then dryer.  No special washing needed!  The more times its washed, the softer and fluffier it will be.



This is after two rounds through the washer and dryer.  It did not fray nearly as much as the ones with flannel did, which is why I recommend flannel over quilting cotton for the chenille side.

See?  Not nearly as bad as you anticipated I bet.  Go sew one RIGHT NOW. Then come back here and let me know how it went.   Happy Sewing!

Faux Chenille Quilts!

I've fallen in love with Faux Chenille Quilts. I'd seen pictures of them online, and thought they were beautiful. I looked up how to make them and it was SO intimidating.  It took me a long time to work up the nerve to attempt to make them, but I'm so glad I did!

This is the first one I made, for my niece.


One of the things I love about these blankets is that they are SO forgiving of mistakes.  I don't think any of my lines are straight, but you can't really tell with the finished project.

See? Looks like I was sewing while under the influence!

This is the one I made for my nephew


This is one I made for a lady at my church.
 
 

l

This one for my sister.  I love the neapolitan chenille part.

 





And all four in their faux chenille glory....





I also have another one planned, but have to wait to order the fabric though.  Now that I've gotten all the photo sharing out of my system (I really love taking pictures of them!), I can get to work on the tutorial for you guys!

Simplicity 2373 Pattern Review

During my blog hiatus last month I did something it took me a long time to work up the courage to do.  I made a dress for myself.  Using a REAL pattern even!  During one of Joann's big pattern sales several months back I picked up Simplicity 2373. 

 

I loved the dress so much.  I even went to the trouble of ordering the same fabric online.  Then the pattern and fabric sat in a box for awhile, because I was too scared to attempt it.  After a month or so I finally decided to attempt a muslin mock-up.  It turned out horrible. So I tried again using some quilters cotton I had an abundance of.  It came out even worse.  It was too big and looked horrible. This was probably a combination of a couple things, such as the sizing I went by on the back of the pattern, and that the pattern on the fabric was HORRENDOUS. Neon rainbow stripes horrendous.That was enough to scare me into putting the pattern away for a couple more months.

But then the warmer weather started making its appearance here in Oregon, and I wanted some cute dresses to wear.  So I decided to toss caution to the wind, try again, and even use my nice fabric for it.  The gamble paid off, the dress turned out and I love it!

The dress on Monica.  Yes, I named my mannequin.

 I made several changes to it though.  To fix the size issue, I looked towards the bottom on the back and looked at the Finished measurements, then went with that size, rather than looking at the top tables and going by what those measurements said.  This gave me a much better fit. With the practice dresses I made I felt like the bodice came too high up on me, so rather than adjusting the pattern to make it lower, I just omitted the top band.  To sew the bodice this way, I sewed the main fabric bodice pieces together, then the lining bodice pieces together, and basted them WRONG sides together.  Then I attached black single fold bias tape on the vertical seams, and used black double fold bias tape at the top.

One of the problems I encountered on my practice dresses was the gathering on the skirt part.  A search of the world wide web for reviews turned up that I wasn't the only one who had the problem.  It made the dress look very maternal (and the woman wearing it look very pregnant).  Not so much the look I was going for.  Several of the reviewers suggested trying pleats or darts instead, so that is what I did.

There might be a better way to figure out pleats, but I don't know it.  I laid my bodice out flat (the front and back were sewn together at one side at this point, but not the other) and then laid out my two skirt pieces (that I had sewn together on one side and already hemmed) right below it, matching up the side seams.  Then I just pinched the fabric and formed/ironed the pleats until the front skirt was the same width as the bodice front, then same for the back.  From there I pinned the pleats and sewed them down a couple inches. 

When it comes to attaching the zipper, I have an easier time doing the zipper first, then sewing the rest of the side together, so thats what I did. 

The straps seemed too wide to me, so I trimmed them down, and then just used double fold bias tape on the edges so I didn't have to turn and top-stitch them. After trying it on I decided it still didn't look quite finished, so I added the black band right under the bodice. 

 

I love it!

In fact I loved it so much that I made another one the next day, in this super cute cherry fabric.



Overall, I think it is a great pattern and I really love the style.  The instructions were hard for me to follow, which very well might have just been my inability to read a pattern, so after the two practice dresses were FAILS, I ditched the instructions and used my knowledge of garment construction to figure it out myself.  The sewing techniques required for this dress aren't very hard at all. I used my serger for some things, but a serger definitely isn't required.  The only stitch I used on my sewing machine was a straight stitch.  I think this dress would be fairly easy for someone who has basic knowledge of garment construction (or can read a pattern and follow directions better than me!) and knows how to use bias tape (if you do it my way instead of theirs and using ribbon). 

Good luck!  I hope my review and breakdown of adjustments I made was helpful to you!

Crayon Roll tutorial

This tutorial has been moved over to my craft blog- Cautiously Crafty. Come on over!

Hi Blog

Just wanted to let you know I haven't forgotten you.  I've just been busy with the last weeks of school and finals.  The next couple of weeks won't any better, but maybe I'll be able to get a post in here or there. 

Organization: Mini Fabric Bolts

Lately my fabric has gotten kinda outta control.  It used to be neatly stored in those Rubbermaid 3 drawer carts (and a huge cardboard box next to them).  Then it exploded and was taking over the entire downstairs.  While browsing the web and my crafting forums I happened across several references to "mini-bolts" of fabric. What are mini-bolts exactly?  They are ridiculously adorable baby bolts of fabric.  Someone somewhere at some point in time had the genius idea to take comic book boards and use them to wrap their fabric around, making a mini-bolt of fabric.  These ones are 6.75 by 10.5 inches, some out there are 8.5 by 11 inches, and there are other sizes as well.

I hate ordering things online though, because then I have to WAIT for them to arrive.  I'm an instant gratification kinda girl. In my internet perusing I saw several people say they used regular old foam-core board (the kind you get by the poster board).  I decided that's the method I would take because then I could run out and get them and get started on my reorganization RIGHT THEN. So I did.  I picked up four boards, they were 20x30 inches.  I cut each board into 8 pieces, measuring 7.5 by 10 inches.

To wrap my fabric around the mini-bolt I laid it out and folded it selvedge to selvedge (the way it comes on the bolt at the store). Then I fold it into thirds so it is just a little bit shorter than the mini-bolt.  Place the piece of foam-core at one end and roll the fabric around it.  Use a pin to secure the end when you're finished.  VOILA adorable baby bolt. I've spent the past week or so (on and off) doing this to all my fabric.  Then yesterday I went and picked up one of those 9 cube storage things. Unfortunately it wouldn't fit downstairs with the rest of my sewing stuff, so I did some rearranging and now it happily resides in my bedroom closet where I can admire it before bed. 



ugh.  Isn't that just beautiful?  Looking at it just fills me with happy.  My fabric is all nice and displayed, I can see what I have and can easily pick and pair combos.  and its just so gorgeous! I'm in love.  Seriously.  My impatience definitely paid off though.  If I had been willing to wait and ordered comic book boards, they wouldn't have fit on the shelves.  These however fit PERFECTLY.  I have wanted one of these 9 cube storage shelves for an eternity but was never sure what I would do with them.  Now I have one and the perfect use for it, and have I mentioned how wonderful it looks?  I just love the sight of all my fabric displayed in such a neat and organized fashion.

 Mini-bolts of fabric=WIN.

Now I just need to figure out what to do with my fat quarters and scraps.

Crunchy FAILS

I'm a little heartbroken about this post.  I love sharing and promoting "green", "crunchy" choices.  But I feel its only fair to share when those choices don't necessarily work out. 

My first crunchy fail is my garden.
 
Isn't that heartbreaking?  Those sad wilted lettuce leaves.  The dried up and droopy tomato and cucumber sprouts.  And where is the strawberry plant you may ask?  It disappeared.  The plants were sitting on the deck getting some sun, and when I went to get them the strawberry plant was just gone.  I couldn't find it. Disappeared.  So we thought.  A few days after this picture my mom found it.  It had fallen off the deck and was hiding under something.  But its in pretty sorry shape too. 

I didn't manage to get them transplanted into bigger containers fast enough.  Their roots were stunted and died.  I'd think about doing it, but whenever I thought about doing it the weather would be all cloudy and rainy.  And then on sunshiny days I'd be too distracted playing with my kiddo until it was either too late to do it or it was time for me to go to class.  So they died. The lettuce actually has some new baby leafs so it might be salvageable.  I'm not so confident with the others.  Next Saturday Market though I'm going to pick up some new plants and they will be transplanted right away.  Maybe they'll actually live longer than a couple weeks.

My second crunchy fail would be the Oil Cleansing Method.  It is essentially No Poo, for your face.  Using oil to clean your face instead of commercial face washes that over-dry your skin and have all sorts of nasty chemicals in em.  Sounds great and I was excited to try it.  Read a bunch online about it, tons of rave reviews, some troubleshooting. So I started and it was great at first. I broke out at first but that was part of the expected detox.  Then the breakouts didn't go away, and more sprung up.  The worse part was I got tons of little bumps all over my forehead.  I figured I was doing something wrong so I read more online, thought I found the solutions and gave it another couple weeks for the previous breakouts to clear up.  Except that didn't happen.  Instead I started getting the little bumps on the sides of my face.  So I threw in the towel. I hope to try again in the future, maybe try different oils or be more consistent with it.  We'll see. 

This is a two level fail though.  When I went to buy some face wash to use I happened across this natural face wash at Safeway called In-Kind.  No parabens, sulfates, pesticides, or other gross stuff in it.  And it smells FANTASTIC.  So I grabbed that and the In-Kind moisturizer.  I only used it twice though, because my skin still felt greasy after I used it.  Its probably not really fair to label it a fail, seeing as I only used it twice though.  But, I don't really feel like dealing with a greasy feeling face, so we're putting it on a shelf until my skin has a chance to level out. 

Instead, I'm going to try doing just a baking soda wash.  I figured if the baking soda is good for taking care of the oils in my hair, it should take care of the oils on my face as well.  I looked some stuff up online and found that a bunch of other people use baking soda as a face wash and get great results.  So thats what I'm trying, here's hoping it works out better than OCM did!

Neglected.

I've got a confession to make. 

With all the sewing I do, my poor niece and nephew have been terribly neglected and suffered from a terrible lack of handmade auntie goods. 

Until recently that is.  I've been sewing little things here and there for them for months, and then finally at the end of April I got my butt in gear and had a week-long sew-a-thon. 

 
The products of that sewing.

I've been wanting to post this for awhile, but I had to wait til they got it, and then I just kept forgetting.  They got it the other week, and here are a couple action pics, just because I've got the cutest niece and nephew in the whole wide world.

 

Oh, and does this look familiar to anyone?
 
Let me refresh your memory.....

(from the post Cousins.)

Gardening

Yesterday in my Earth Day post, I posted that I was wanting to start a garden.  Silly me though, I forgot that we already did kinda start.

 
(Left to right- lettuce, strawberries, cucumber/tomato, basil)

For Christmas this past year I got my mom a little basil kit that you grow in side on a window sill. We finally got around to planting it and have got a nice little basil plant going.  Mercy loves helping to water it, so when I was out shopping the other week, I picked up another little kit.  This one was specifially aimed towards kids (Disney's Cars themed) and came with cucumber and tomato seeds, along with a little plastic lid to make a little green house.  Those things have been growing like their on steroids!  Then today at our local farmers market my sister and picked up some veggie starters from a local organic farm.  We got some strawberries and green leaf lettuce.  Now we just need to get some planters so I can transplant them and move them out onto our deck.  I'm also hoping to get green peppers, broccoli, onions, and maybe a few other things to grow to.   I'm excited!

Happy Earth Day!

Its Earth Day today!  This is probably the first year that I've actually really given any thought to Earth Day at all.  Largely in part because switching to cloth diapers made me much more aware of the impact my choices have on the earth.

So aside from cloth diapers, how else am I trying to be Green?  I'm using reusable water bottles instead of disposable ones.  The ones I use are still made of plastic, but I figure a reusable plastic one is still better than a throw-away one.  I try to reach for our actual dishes instead of paper plates.  I recycle. Use reusable bags (when I can remember to bring them...) and am working on switching over to cloth napkins and UnPaper towels.  I'm also wanting to start a small vegetable garden. I No' Poo, use Oil Cleansing Method, and mama cloth.  We lean towards wooden toys instead of plastic ones for Mercy.

There are more changes I'd really like to make, but figure going slowly is better.

I'm excited for everything that Earth Day represents, and with this as my first one of really "getting" it, I'm really looking forward to all the ones to come.

 
^^My girl in her special Earth Day dress that I made her!

No Poo update!

Here is a brief glimpse inside my head almost every night after my girl has gone to bed....
"blog or sew? blog or sew? sew or blog? blogorsew blogorsew blogorsew?"
Then I usually end up sitting on Facebook or Babycenter. 
*sigh*

But tonight I am actually going to update! 

I've been doing No Poo for about four weeks now and I absolutely LOVE it!  It is so easy, and my hair feels sooo clean and soft.  The detox period wasn't bad at all, I think mainly because I opted for the more drawn out detox.  For the most part I washed every two days, I think once or twice I went 3.  Tomorrow is a wash day and my hair right now feels barely greasy. 

I am still sticking with the standard 1 tbsp per 1 cup of water for both the vinegar and baking soda.  I did try to lessen the amount of baking soda once, but after my hair dried I found greasy patches.  Less baking soda just doesn't work well for my hair I guess.  For the vinegar rinse, I mix up 1 cup and put it in the squirt bottle, but only use about half each time, so 1 bottle lasts me two washes. 

I am so glad I made the switch.  If things keep going this well, maybe I'll never have to 'Poo again!

Overalls/Shortalls Tutorial

UPDATED at the bottom to include pics of some boyish ones I made!

 Let me preface this by saying that I don't really write tutorials, so I'm sorry if I things are as clear as they could be, or if do it "wrong".  Hopefully this will at least help you in some way while making overalls for your kiddo and not just confuse you more. I also apologize for the quality of the pictures.  It was night, and I was working on the living room floor.

I wanted to make my girl some overalls and was having a hard time finding a tutorial that fit what I wanted.  I certainly didn't want to buy a pattern, so I figured I would just wing it (couldn't be too complicated, right? HA!)  This is the product of several pairs of overalls with adjustments each time.  I don't know exactly how much fabric it takes, but 1 yard was more than enough for me to make a pair for my 2 year old.  As for sewing time, also can't really give a good estimate because my sewing takes place in between my child rearing. Start to finish, (including stopping to feed/wrangle/play with/putting a kiddo to bed) is about 4 hours. 

First, you need a pair of pants that fits your kiddo.  Fold em in half.  Fold your fabric over, and place the pants on the fabric like so.  Trace them adding your preferred seam allowance and cut.  (Decide how long you want the legs to be, plus a little for hemming.)


Thank your "helper" for her assistance.


Now take the piece you just cut out, and use it as a template to cut a 2nd piece so you have 2 identical pieces. These will be the shorts part of the overalls.


Now for the bodice.


This is also on the fold of the fabric.  It is about 6.5 inches tall, and 6.5 inches wide.  The top line is 2.75 inches, and that bottom one off to the side is 1.5. These measurements fit my smallish 2 year old with room to grow. Here is what it should look like all cut out.


 Next is the back bodice piece.  This is very similar to the front bodice piece, just a little skinnier.  The measurement at the top is 4 inches (so it would be two inches cut on the fold of the fabric) I thought I had a picture of it traced on the fabric, but I guess my kiddo deleted it while playing with my camera.


Heres a comparison of the front and back bodice pieces.


Now for the straps.  There might be an easier way of doing this, but this is how I do it.  I want my straps to be about 10 inches long, with a width of 2 inches tapering off to 1 inch.  So I cut out a rectangle that measured 4x10.5 inches, then folded it in half lengthwise. At the top I use the ruler and mark at the .5 point and the 1.5 point.  Then draw a diagonal from each point to the corner.

Then cut on those lines, leaving this.  Repeat, so you have a total of 4 of these pieces.


Now we're gonna cut out the lining for the bodice.  Take the front bodice piece and place it on your coordinating fabric.


Oblige the toddler saying "Take a picture of me mom, CHEESE!"
 

Then do the same thing with the back bodice piece, so you have 4 pieces.  Two front, and two back.

 

For the waistband, put your two bodice pieces together at one end, and measure to give you the length you need.  Mine was 26 inches.  The width depends on how think you want the waistband.  I like a skinnier one, so I made mine 3.5 inches.


This is what you should have so far....
 
4 bodice pieces, 4 strap pieces, 1 waistband piece, 2 short pieces. (ignore those two pink squares, they were going to be pockets, but then I went and forgot to add them.)

Now to start sewing.  Take your two front bodice pieces and put them wrong sides together.  Now we are going to sew around the top of it.  Start at the black pin on the left, go up the curve, across the top, then down that curve, stopping at the other black pin.


Put two of the strap pieces right sides together, and sew them together, leaving the wide bottom open for turning.  Repeat for the other two.

Turn the straps and the bodice right side out, and iron down.

Then take the waist strap and fold it in half width wise, so you have a long skinny strip.  Iron.

Here is what we've got so far. ( I decided it needed an applique.)
 

Now take the two back bodice pieces and put them right sides together.  Take the two straps, and put them between the two layers like this.
 

Make sure a little bit of the ends of the straps are sticking out to make sure they get caught in the stitching.


Now sew it like we did the front bodice, starting at the bottom of one curve, up the curve, across the top, and down the other curve.  Turn right side out and iron.


Now we have our two bodice pieces and our waist band.


Put the two bodice pieces right sides together.  Sew at one end. (I serged, you could zig zag, or whatever your preferred method is.)


Open it up, and put the waist strap (right sides together if your coordinating fabric is patterned) on top of the bottom of the bodice pieces, lining up the edges and sew them together. (Sorry, I apparently forgot to get a picture of this step.)  Open them up and iron the seam.  This is what you have so far. (Like my pretty Little Mermaid sheet? Its what I do my ironing on, because I detest ironing boards.)
 

Now for the pants part. Hem the bottom however you prefer.  Then fold it in half like it was when you cut it.  Now we are going to sew the seam that goes from the cuff of the leg up to the crotch.
 

Do the same to both leg pieces.



Now turn one leg right side out, and place it inside the other leg, lining up the seams.


Sew along that U shaped edge.


Turn them right side out and admire your handiwork.We're almost finished!
 

Back to the bodice, put them right sides together again, and sew up the other short edge, so its all connected.


Put the bodice over the shorts.  The shorts should be right side out, the bodice wrong side out.  You want the shorts inside the bodice. The shorts are sandwiched in the bodice. (So sorry if I'm not explaining this clearly, I'm trying!)  Line up the edges, and sew all the way around.


Flip the bodice up. Iron.  Topstitch if you so desire.  Add your preferred closure (I like plastic snaps).  Congrats, you're finished!  Put em on your kiddo, and bask in the cute!


I would love to know if you sew any overalls with these, and would love to see pictures!  If there are any questions I will try my best to answer them.  Please link back and credit me if you blog about these at all, and please only use this tutorial for personal use.  Have fun!


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Some boyish ones I sewed up!