Guest Tutorial: Upcycling Knit Tees for Woven Patterns

Upcycling is a pretty popular skill in sewing groups right now. We can take a used (or new!) t-shirt and use it to make something even more fabulous!  Generally we upcycle t-shirts only for knit patterns since the tees are made of knit, but today we have a special technique to share with you!  Tosha Smith from Sew Chic Children's Boutique is going to show us how she upcycles knit tees even on woven patterns! To demonstrate, she will use a store-bought character tee to make Poppy's Peekaboo Dress, one of our absolute favorite patterns.  Here is Tosha to show us how it's done: 

Materials Needed:

•  Wonder Under or a similar double sided fusible interfacing. I buy mine at Walmart for $1.66 per yard. 
• A T-shirt (I buy 2 sizes bigger if it’s a girls' shirt because they are usually fitted.)
• The CKC Poppy's Peekaboo Dress pattern. 

Step 1: To start off, I use two paper towels, folded on the perforated edge. Lay the bodice pattern piece on the fold and cut out the paper towel. Now we have a full bodice pattern piece that can be opened up. It is slightly see-through and we can line up the image on our t-shirt exactly where we want it!  (For my boutique, I cut one of each size on paper towels and label them with a pen as shown. That way I have them when I need them!)  

Step 2: Now we’re going to cut the bodice pieces out of our selected t-shirt. Keep the shirt whole so that once we cut our bodice out we will have two pieces (the bodice front and the bodice lining). Then we will cut one bodice piece out of our Wonder Under.

Step 3: Iron the rough side of the Wonder Under to the wrong side of the front bodice piece.  To do this, we will follow the instructions on the Wonder Under. 

Once it has cooled, peel off the Wonder Under backing. 

 Now the wrong side of our bodice front piece should have a shine to it!

 Step 4: Assemble the entire bodice following the Poppy's pattern instructions! To do this, I use my standard machine needle and settings. I don't do anything special for the knit. 

Step 5: When the bodice is complete, iron the layers together as shown in the picture above.  This will fuse the front bodice to the bodice lining, which is what gives our knit bodice the stability it needs! Note: A lot of these t-shirt images are vinyl and we do NOT want to iron directly on them!! Flip the bodice over and iron from the lining side!

  Step 6: Now we can assemble the rest of our dress following the Poppy's instructions as written. 

And we're done! I can't wait to see what you all create!  ~ Tosha

Thank you, Tosha, for the fabulous guest tutorial!  I love the results and it is seriously so easy to do once we know the tricks!  Here are some more upcycled Poppy dresses that Tosha has made for her boutique:

I love every one of them!  

Of course Poppy's isn't the only woven pattern that we can upcycle with. Tosha has made several others for her boutique that she wants to share with us today. Many of these can even be upcycled without needing the Wonder Under!  Dresses like Poppy's need the extra stability because of the heavy skirts. But below are some examples of upcycles that Tosha made that did not need added stability: 

As you can see, many woven patterns such as peasant dresses, pants, ruffles, and other light clothing should be just fine using upcycled knit tees.  But if you are ever concerned that a certain pattern will be too heavy and need extra stability, now you know how! And it only takes a few more steps to make something completely memorable. 

Thanks again to Tosha!  Please show her some love on her page Sew Chic Children's Boutique.  We would also love to see your new creations in the CKC Patterns Group. Please tag Tosha and I so we can see what you made. 

Let's Create! ~ Kristen 

Winners of the Matching Card Contest

Last week we announced our mini contest for March and challenged you to make something cute using a CKC pattern and then a handmade card to match, with the help our tutorial for stitching on handmade cards.  Thank you for all the great entries! Are we ready to see the winners?!  

Our First Place prize goes to Amanda Gomez! I love the ruffle and buttons she added - I have never thought to do that before! 

She made her card to match this adorable Reese's Paper Bag Skirt. Congratulations, Amanda!

Second Place goes to Linda Harris!  How cute is this card?! 

Linda made the card to match her granddaughter's birthday outfit, this adorable Suzie's Twirly Halter Top.  What a sweet birthday gift for a special little girl! Great job, Linda! 

Our Third Place winner is Kirsten Welch with this cute birthday card. I love the bright colors, the whimsical style of the shapes, and of course the sweet ruffle. 

Kirsten made her card to match this Kylie's Cross-Body Bag for a birthday party this Friday. I'm sure the birthday girl is going to love it! 

Congratulations to our three winners!  Please claim your free pattern by emailing kristen@createkidscouture.com. We hope the rest of you have been inspired by these card ideas too.  It's the finishing touches like these that make a gift or boutique item truly special. 

Let's Create! ~ Kristen

Boutique Basics: Using Instagram for Your Boutique

  There's been a lot of talk lately about how Facebook and Etsy are making changes that are hard on small boutiques. I completely agree and we don't have to let it drag us down!  When I first started my boutique I was having a hard time getting the facebook crowd that I wanted, so I asked my long-time friend how she was doing so well with her bow-making business online. Jackpot!  She gave me a bunch of great tips for selling on Instagram  (if you aren't familiar with it, you will be soon) -- and within a month I was getting more sales on Instagram than on my website and Facebook put together! 

How To Tuesday: Bunny Goodie Bag

There's a lot of excitement over Spring and I have to say that I love Easter too! It is a celebration of new life and that's where all the bunnies and eggs and chicks come into play. So when it's time for all the goodies to come out too, I always want something to share with family and friends. If you're looking for the perfect handmade gift for teachers, friends, or co-workers, this one is sure to please! (And it looks like the perfect size to hide some of those Mini Cadbury Eggs. Mmm, the best candy ever...)  

Isn't it so cute?!  Today we're going to show you how to make this adorable Bunny Goodie Bag.  Here's Morgan with the tutorial: 

To start you will need a total of six 5" x 5" squares. Two for the ears, two for the body, and two for the lining.

We are going to make the ears first. Take the "ear" pieces and fold them in half with right sides together. We will then place a pin at the top center point as shown below. We will sew up the long side and as we near the top we will curve our sewing so we end up at the pin. Repeat on the other side so it looks like the picture below. Repeat with the second ear.  

Next we will trim close to the stitching and flip the ears right side out. Top stitch 1/8" from the outer edges as shown below.

Now we take our body pieces and lay them right sides together and sew along 3 sides as shown below. Flip right side out and press.

Moving on to the lining, we will again place them right sides together. This time we will sew down both sides and about 2" in on the bottom edge of each side, leaving a 1" gap in the center of the bottom as shown below.

Now we will baste stitch our ears to one top edge of the body, on the right side, as shown below.

Next we will slide the lining bag up over the ears and body, right sides together. Line up the raw edges and sew around the edge. Now we will flip the whole bag right side out through the one inch gap we left in the lining.

 Once right side out, find the opening on the lining and sew it closed.

Turn the bag so the lining is on the inside.  Top stitch 1/8" from the top edge all around the bag opening.  

 Now you are ready to stuff your goodie bag with whatever goodies you please and tie it closed with a few inches of ribbon!

Happy sewing y'all,

Morgan

March's Fan of the Month

I love posting about our Fan of the Month!  For March we are featuring Shannon Johnston with the beautiful mash-up dress she posted in our patterns group just this morning! 

Shannon's photos caught my eye because of the gorgeous spring colors and the little details she put on it. We'll get to that in a minute but first I want to introduce Shannon a little bit more!  Shannon has been sewing for almost 30 years and started back into it before the birth of her twin boys eight years ago. Shannon started her business, Creative Bug Embroidery, two years ago in April and she specializes in children's boutique clothing and embroidery. Shannon tells us: "Fabric is what inspires me. It makes me giddy, as I'm sure all sewists can relate to. Fabric is my happy place. One of my favorite CKC patterns is Blair's Bustled Knot Dress/Top. I love ruffles!"  

Shannon has definitely come to the right place for ruffles!  Let's take a closer look at the dress she posted: 

For Shannon's Easter/Spring mashup she chose to use Sabrina's Ruffled Top/Dress combined with Amber's Halter Top/Dress.  She put her favorite parts of each pattern together and then added a few changes to make it even more unique. 

First of all, she made the shoulder strap ruffles larger.  So frilly and sweet! 

Then instead of doing the shirred style top panel of the skirt, she took it out and did a full gathered skirt, using the measurement from the halter pattern.  I love how the back looks here and it looks like it will be as comfy as it is pretty! 

Finally, Shannon used ric rack along the bottom edge of the dress in place of the trim band. 

All put together, it is just darling and perfect for spring!  And of course I have to mention the gorgeous fabric she used. The skirt is Kumari Garden's Teja Pink and the aqua fabric on the bodice is Kumari Garden's Tarika Blue. The pink dots on the ruffles is Robert Kaufman's Spot on Mini Dots in Pink. 

Thanks to Shannon Johnston for sharing this with us! We hope you'll go show her some love at her Creative Bug Embroidery shop on Facebook and Etsy.  

Isn't it wonderful that Spring is in the air? This is always my favorite time of the year to sew for my kiddos. 

Let's Create!  ~ Kristen 

March's Mini Contest: Create a Matching Card

It's time for a mini contest on the blog and the top three winners will receive a free CKC pattern of your choice!  If you didn't see Wednesday's blog post on how to Machine Stitch on Handmade Cards, you might want to go back and read it because that's the theme of today's contest!  It's okay if you've never sewn on cards before - we know you can handle it. Today is a great day to branch out and try something new! I promise that this little guy was way easier to sew than a dress: 

Here are the rules for our contest. Let's get excited! 

1) Sew any CKC pattern that you want to, whether it is a purchased pattern or one of our free patterns. It's okay if you have already started on your project, as long as you can still take a photo of the finished piece and have scraps to use for your card.

2) Make a matching card using at least one small piece of leftover fabric. You can make your card look however you want it and you may use any other art supplies, paper, or embellishments you want to.  Keep it simple or go totally crazy -- whichever you choose. Just be sure that it has your matching fabric and some kind of machine stitching. Please use our related blog post as a reference before you begin.

3) Take two photos:  One will be a photo of the outfit/project and the card together; for example you can have your child wearing the dress and holding the card. Then the second photo needs to be a close-up of the card so that we can see it straight on and in good light. We want to show your cards off on the blog!

4) Email your two photos to kristen@createkidscouture.com by next Wednesday, March 26 at midnight EST.  This is less than a week but we know you can do it! Please include your name so we know how to label the winners.

(Note: Your cards do not need to be Easter themed!  They can be anything you want as long as they match the outfit/project that you sewed.)

The top three winners will be announced here on the blog next Thursday, March 27. Remember that the winners will each receive a free pattern of your choice!  Who wouldn't love a free pattern?!  I can't wait to see the cards that you create and I hope we have a good crowd of fans that are willing to try something new for this contest! I think you'll be pleasantly surprise with how easy and rewarding it is to add this personal touch. Handmade is always better. 

Let's Create! ~ Kristen 

Stitching on Handmade Cards

Today we're going to do something a little bit different at CKC and boy am I excited about it!  In my early crafting/sewing days my first love was card-making. Scrapbooking was just getting to be popular at the time and I found that cards were much smaller and more manageable pieces for me (a major perfectionist here) - plus I liked being able to pop one in the mail to share with friends or family. One of my favorite techniques that I learned over the years in making cards is machine stitching. And since we're all about sewing here at CKC, I thought this would be the perfect activity for all of us!  Let's sew up a little love for a friend. 

The pink card in the picture above took me about five minutes to make. No joke! If you have never machine stitched a card before, there are some basic guidelines you will need to know before you get started and then it will be a breeze!

1 -  Use one machine needle specifically for card-making. It can be any kind of needle and you can go ahead and use one that is already dull from using awhile on fabric. But after using a needle on cardstock, it will not be good for fabric. 

2- Sew on cardstock, not paper. If you have a cute paper you want to use, give it a cardstock backing first. 

3 - Don't sew through glue or tape.  It gums up the needle and the machine. I do use glue and tape to attach paper layers before sewing, but I am careful to put them in places that won't be sewn. 

4 - Make sure your bobbin is plenty full of thread. It's really annoying when you run out because it leaves a trail of paper holes with no thread. 

5 - Just in case tiny pieces of cardstock get punched into your machine, be sure to vacuum it out occasionally. (I've never actually seen tiny pieces in there and maybe they don't exist. But we should clean our machines often anyway, right?) 

6 - This is the last rule and probably the most important. When we get to the end of our stitching, we do not want to backstitch (it won't blend in) or clip the threads close to the paper (they will fall through).  Instead, we will stop stitching and pull the card away, leaving several inches of thread that we can pull through to the back and fasten.  Here are some pictures to explain:  

First I sewed across the paper and turned around and came back. I left the threads long at the beginning and the end. If I were to clip them close to the paper, the stitches would go through and unravel.  But we are not going to let that happen!  

All we need to do is take one of our ends and thread it into a needle and poke it back through the previous hole so it is on the back side of the paper.  Repeat with the second thread. 

The back of the cardstock will now look like this.  At this point we can either tie the two ends together in a double knot or we can simply tape them in place. It depends on whether the back will be visible when we're done or if we will be gluing it onto a separate blank card. The tied knots look a little nicer but both are secure enough. Remember these stitches will not be going through the washing machine! 

Once the threads are secure on back, the front of the card will look like this. This process is all really quick. Remember I made that first card in five minutes! 

Now that we have the rules out of the way, let's talk about the fun stuff!  There are so many options we have when sewing cards with a machine.  Even a straight stitch can be decorative to outline pictures. But we don't need to limit ourselves to that. Even if we only have a few stitches available on our machines, just changing the stitch length creates a totally new look.  I did a few on my machine to demonstrate: 

The first line on the left is a straight stitch at 2. The next is a straight stitch at 4. Then I did a zigzag at 2 and then a zigzag at 4.  After that I went a little crazy having fun with all of my stitches. Most of them aren't even intended as decorative stitches. One of my favorites is actually the blind hem stitch - it just looks so cool. I have a fairly basic model of a machine and I was able to do these without getting too creative.  I suggest that you make a cardstock stitch sample like this using your  machine and label the rows with your settings so that when the cardmaking bug hits you'll be ready! 

As far as the sewing itself, cardstock is a lot like sewing on fabric. We need to hold the threads when we start, we lift the presser foot when we want to turn a corner, and we can sew just as fast on cardstock as we do on fabric. One of the only differences is that on paper what you see is what you get - meaning that every time we let the needle pierce the paper, the hole is going to be there. When I make a mistake, I generally leave the mistake there and call it a creative oopsie, because if I remove the stitches (as I would with fabric) I will be left with a row of holes that obviously were not meant to be there. I have lots of mistakes in the following cards but nobody has to know!  

I thought this would be a fun design for Easter. I like to zigzag around unique shapes like the bunny head. Then if I had just glued the strip on the left, it would look boring and out of place.  But by giving it that really cool smocking stitch along the edges, it looks really fancy and ties the card together. (Your friends will be so impressed!) 

The zigzag stitch is my best friend! It works around almost every border. It's especially fun when creating patchwork style cards like this. I made this one using paper on cardstock but I have done quite a few where I used fabric scraps from a fabric gift I made.  Why not make a matching gift card to go with that new baby shower dress?  (See?!? This is good stuff!)  

I enjoy stamping cards and sometimes it takes me a long time to design a layout I want that ties the stamped images together. But honestly, when I know I'm going to be sewing on a card I just throw the pieces on there because I know I can blend the borders and make it look like it belongs.  (You probably thought this one was all planned out and balanced until I just admitted that, right?)  

And while I'm keeping it real, let's go ahead and take a look at the back of my cards: 

You can see I decided to tape these ends instead of tying them. The entire card front will be glued onto a blank card though so it won't matter. 

On this card I tied the ends nicely and then taped them in place. I would maybe leave the back of this card to be seen because it's pretty cool. 

And here's the third one. A little out of control, right?  Oops. And it doesn't matter at all because I will be gluing it to a blank card. 

This is my favorite card I made today. The eggs are each individually cut out, stamped, and stitched. And did you notice the grass?  I was having too much fun! 

These are just a few ideas for Easter/Springtime and I know you'll be able to think of so many more!  One of the first cards I ever made was a big white circle with red stitching that made it look like a baseball. I have used a decorative stitch as lights on a Christmas tree and also elaborate zigzag designs across Easter egg cards.  It's also really cute to do several flower cut-outs with different stitching on each of them. There's no limit to what we can sew on our handmade cards. Let's share some of our sewing talent with our friends through mail the old fashioned way! Who doesn't love to get happy mail? 

Let's Create! ~ Kristen