Guest Tutorial: Spring Gardening Apron

I am so excited to be sharing this guest tutorial with you today! Since I still am not ready to have sponsors I asked Tara if she would be willing to share with us how to make one of the fabulous creations from her store Birdy Boots where she sells adorable clothes, shoes and toys! She agreed and I am thrilled at what she created for us.


Hi everyone!  I’m so excited to be guest posting on Kelly’s blog today!  I’ve been reading her blog for quite a while now and am constantly amazed at her tutorials.  I run a little boutique on Etsy called Birdy Boots. We carry eco-conscious kids clothing, shoes and wooden toys.  I would love it if you’d stop by some time!

Onto the tutorial…we live in Iowa and it’s still pretty cold here.  I’m (patiently) waiting for the weather to warm up so my girls and I can get outside in our garden…And today, I am going to show you how to whip up a cute and durable Child’s Garden Apron!  

(I call it a gardening apron, but your little one can use it for lots of reasons – they work great for cooking and cleaning, too! ) 

It doesn’t take much fabric so it is a great scrap buster project!  The size I’ll show you today works great for 2-5 year olds but you can easily modify it for an older child

What you need:

-Sewing machine

-Coordinating thread

-Iron

-2 coordinating fabrics *see tip for choosing fabric below

-Coordinating ½ inch double fold bias tape (pre-packaged or make your own!)

-Ruler or tape measure

-Sharp scissors or rotary blade/cutting mat

-Straight Pins

*Choosing Fabric:

Medium to Heavy-weight Cotton

Home decorator weight fabric

Outdoor upholstery fabric

Denim

Let’s get started!

1. Cutting your fabric and ties:

Cut two (2) lengths of bias tape:  one (1) piece 56 inches long and one (1) piece 29 inches long

Cut your ‘main’ fabric piece (my zebra print): 11.5 inches by 9.5 inches

Cut your ‘pocket’ fabric piece (my polka dot): 11.5 inches by 7.5 inches

2. Rounding corners

Lay your pieces of fabric with the bottom corners aligned and round the bottom corners slightly.    I like to use a bowl or plate to do this but you can also just eyeball it.

3. Finish pocket.

Using your iron, fold down the top (straight edge) of your pocket piece by ¼ of an inch and then by another ¼ of an inch to enclose the raw edges.  Carefully sew a finishing stitch along the length of the fabric.

4. Attach bias tape.

Line up fabric pieces as before and using your shorter length of bias tape, carefully sandwich both fabrics between the bias tape.  Pin generously around 3 sides of the apron as shown below.

Using a straight stitch, sew bias tape on all around the apron. 

 Clip any excess bias tape.

Now take your longer length of bias tape and find the center.  Align it with the center of the top of the apron and pin the bias tape down, sandwiching the fabric as before.

Starting at one end of the bias tape, sew a finishing straight stitch the entire length of the bias tape at the top of the apron.  This closes the bias tape and finishes the apron.  I like to fold in the ends of the bias tape by a ¼ of an inch so the ends of the tape look more finished and there is no chance they will unravel.

Depending on the number of pockets you are going to make, you can stop here if I you like!  I usually add a straight stitch or two to create two or three pockets.  To do this, measure out how you want your pockets and mark the lines with a fabric marker or pins.  Carefully stitch along the lines, taking care to backstitch at each end for durability. 

Add a cute set of gardening tools*, put it on your little one and get to work! J

*I found these gardening tools at a dollar store last year but I bet you can pick up a pair about anywhere this time of year.


How cute is that! And totally easy! Thank you so much for sharing with us! Make sure to hop over to Birdy Boots and check out all the adorable items Tara has made! 

Oh I can't wait to garden with the cuties! Armed with these aprons and their rubber boots we are unstoppable :) 

The Swinter Dress

Today I am a guest blogger over at If Life was Like a Cupcake. Amanda, who writes the blog has been a follower since VERY early on and sends the sweetest emails so when she asked I of course said yes! I wanted to do a project that she could make for her two little girls and at the same time reflect my wishing for snow but enjoying going swimming everyday ha! Now a little background, I am a big Phineas and Ferb fan... yeah I know, its a kids show. But it is one of those kids shows that knows adults are often watching and puts in hilarious jokes for us! An episode lately had the kids creating a mash up of summer and winter and calling it {Swinter}. I thought this was such a fun idea and went to work making a dress that could be worn in both summer and winter, the Swinter Dress:

The pattern (a very tiny one) can be found HERE and a full tutorial can be found on Amanda's Blog. It is SOOOOOO easy and I think it is just gorgeous on. If you are wearing it during the summer you can wear it sans a t-shirt and sweater:

Evie was soooooooooo grumpy because Finn came out of his room and started yelling "Helloooooooo?" at the top of his lungs way to early and waking everyone up in the process. She was uncharacteristically serious during the shoot

I thought when a doggy walked past she might crack a smile

It wasn't until I begged Daddy to come help that she cracked a smile:

Then it was off to bed for a very early morning nap ha! I hope you will hop over to If Life Was Like A Cupcake and check out the full tutorial. It really is so simple to whip up. Thanks Amanda for inviting me!

The {Free} Tulip Pants Tutorial from Heather

Heather from Featherty Sews , found HERE. Was kind enough to work super hard on the following tutorial, complete with a pattern whoot whoot! (Even when her desktop was working against her) Totally brief aside, when I get home I am planning on offering a tutorial on how to make your own digital patterns using only Photoshop, no expensive programs. Good idea or lame idea is my query? You just have to promise to still think I am at least a little cool after you see how easy it actually is and promise to still read my blog every now and then when everyone else catches on to the easiness ha! Thank you Heather for overcoming the death of your desktop to bring us these A-dor-able pants!

Welcome to the official tutorial for the Tulip Pants pattern that you can download for free HERE. This post includes the details on materials needed and the step-by-step instructions, but I wanted to show pictures for those of you who learn better that way.

Planner and Procrastinator Guest Post

Jess from the Planner and the Procrastinator (a great blog you should absolutely check out!) made THE cutest dress to share with us. I LOVE the back. Make sure to scroll down and look at that part it is the cutest detail. I am definitely making Evie one when I get home. Jess even provides the pattern pieces which you can find HERE. Enjoy! And remember to post your pics to the filkr group if you get a chance! Also read to the bottom for a brief aside from me. Now Jess:

I am SO excited to be guest posting for Kelly this week! And I am kinda secretly jealous..shh! that she gets to go to Rome and Egypt. I mean WOW! What a fun and amazing trip!

Hailey insisted that Bailey our dog be in the pic!

Lets jump right in! Let me start by saying this tutorial is LONG but by no means is it difficult or even really time consuming...I had it done in about a day (which for me equates to about an 1 hour of cutting, 3 hours of sewing time - 2 hours at nap time and 1 hour after bedtime finishing it up).

The Uptown Dress: A Guest Tutorial

Amanda from If Life Was Like A Cupcake (found HERE) and Patricia Rea Designs has been so sweet and offered to share this fabulous tutorial with us for her Uptown dress. I love the ruffle on the shoulder, so chic, and I know Evie will want a clutch when she gets a little bigger (to cart around all her prized polly pockets I am sure). I am so excited for her getting a DSLR your picture world has just entered a whole new world Amanda! I was thinking about doing a post about the camera/ lenses/ actions I use and give a few examples of editing. Would that be interesting or not so much? For now enjoy this feast for the eye and thank you bunches Amanda!
Okay it's here, the tutorial I can't wait to show everyone, I'm so excited to be a guest host on Sewing in no mans land. So I would like to for worn everyone there are a couple of things to this outfit so lots of pictures are ahead.. I call it:

The Up-Town Look...

Pillow from a Pillow case! Guest Tutorial

Michelle from DohDums was kind enough to create this adorable tutorial while I am away. She did such a stellar job! So organized and wonderful. It really inspired me to do a better job on my post instructions, love the idea of the troubleshooting section (sorry guys that I am sloppy sometimes). I think you are going to love it! Make sure you check out her adorable blog at Doh Dums. Thank you thank you Michelle you are so talented!
Cheers!
Kelly

Hi everyone! My name is Michelle and I blog over at DohDums, a fairly new blog where I like to talk about all my favourite things – sewing, food and the “little dude” who will be joining my husband and I in November. Kelly was kind enough to let me put together a little tutorial for you while she is away on vacation with her family. Hope you are having a blast, Kelly!

Sewing is a huge passion of mine and one of my favourite things to sew are pillows – they are so quick and easy and they can totally transform a room.

Plain White T's Continued: Petal Shirt Tutorial Guest Post

When Nina emailed offering kindly to do a guest tutorial I mentioned the Plain White T's week and she sent me to THIS post. I LOVE this idea (I am very bad and actually have 3 different colors of this shirt from JCrew... all purchased on final sale though in XL then sized down, that makes it better right?) I know you will love it as much as I do. Please head over to her blog at Momma Go 'Round HERE. You will NOT be disappointed. Thank you Nina for sharing your talents! I am off to make my own in a Rust Orange color! Now for Nina:

I am OBSESSED with this shirt. I saw

one like this in JCrew last year and it was a small fortune for a
t-shirt...let's get real. So now, you can make your own JCrew
knock-off Flutter Flower Shirt.

It's super simple and requires hardly
an materials!
Time to get fluttering!