Easy Elastic Waistband Darts

I have tall, skinny boys.  They’re built just like The Hubsters.  I can’t tell you how many busy Church/School mornings I have run downstairs to the sewing machine to hurry and take in a pair of pants.

Let me show you how fast and easy it can be. 

Keep in mind that this method can also be used on a regular waistband.

Crocky brought me these pants one morning and the waist was WAY too wide.  I was going to take them in using the method I used here, but I had pink thread on my serger.  That wasn’t going to work.

I made two darts in the waistband instead.  Find the center seam in the back of the pants.  Find the sides of the waistband.  You’re going to put your darts right in between the center seam and the side seam.  Like this:

See where the waistband puckers?  That’s where I sewed the darts.  Now do this to the other side, too.  You want them to match!  What is a dart?  Oh, silly me!  This is a dart:

See how I gradually sewed from the waistband to where the pockets would be?  Except these pants don’t have back pockets…

One dart…

…two darts!

…and this is what it should look like on the outside:

You can barely see those darts, and now your kid can keep his pants up!  That alteration took less than five minutes.  Awesome!

Shirring Shortcut

Hey!  Go enter the link party and get ready for another one on Saturday!  We’ll do the What I Wore Sunday link party every Saturday, so go spend some quality time with your sewing machine and show us your creations!

*****

I like to shirr.  So does Ash.  Do you?

Look at all of these fun shirred things we’ve made:

Ombre Tee Shirt Ruffle Dress

Ruched Sleeve Cardigan

Tiered Skirt from a Tee Shirt

Shirred Sundress from a Tee Shirt

Ruched Maternity Shirt

Shirred Cotton Skirt

Shirred Maxi Skirt

Babydoll Top Refashion

So, yeah.  Shirring is fun.  You know how you have to wind the bobbin by hand?  That can be kinda time consuming.  Well, I found a shortcut.

Get your elastic thread and put it onto your sewing machine like you’re going to wind your bobbin.  Only don’t thread it.  Wrap the elastic thread around your thumb, then wrap it around the bobbin winder.  S-L-O-W-L-Y wind your bobbin so that you’re not stretching the elastic.

See how fast and easy?  If you have a big shirring project, wind several bobbins before you start.  It saves time later.

I had a big shirring project, and I wound about 10 bobbins for it.  I’ll show you that project later. 

Are you dying to know what it is?

I’ll give you a hint:

It has something to do with this silk flower bouquet I made:

 

(Which was super easy, btw.  All I did was get a little bouquet holder from Hobby Lobby, some silk roses and stephanotises, trim the ends, and poke them into the foam thing in at the top, wrapped the handle in white ribbon, tied a bow…)

Back to the hint:

It also has something to do with this wedding veil I made:

Check back on Thursday to find out what it was!

Oh, and guess what I’m doing tonight?  I’m teaching a class on refashioning to a bunch of ladies at my Church.  We’re having a “Refashion Show.”  I bought as much as I could for $20.00 at the thrift store and gave an article of clothing to several different people to refashion.  I can’t wait to see what they came up with.

I’ll post about that soon, too!  :)

Shirred Sundress from a Tee Shirt

A while back, I got a boat load of little boys tee shirts off of the clearance rack at Wal-Mart.  Having all boys, I kept a ton of them.  They make fabulous play shirts.  Who cares if they ruin a shirt that cost $1.00?!  Not me!

A few of them, I refashioned into other things--skirts, pajama pants for my dudes, etc…  I’ve got tutorials for them coming soon. 

This one, however, I refashioned into a shirred sundress for my six year old niece.  Oh goodness.  It looks so yummy on her!  :)

So, start with a cheapola tee shirt.  This one was a boys XXL.  Turn it inside out, and mark where you’re going to chop it and sew it.

See the line I drew up by the collar?  That’s where I am cutting it off.  The lines by the sleeves and armpits are where I am going to sew them, then cut them off.

Make your necessary cuts, and sew the seams you need.  Save the sleeves.  We’ll need them later. 

The shirt should now look like this:

I serged around the top and sides, but that isn’t necessary.  Knit won’t fray.  Remember, when you’re sewing with knits to lengthen your stitch so that the fabric will still stretch.

Let’s shirr the shirt, shall we?

Wind the bobbin with elastic thread by hand.  Thread it into your sewing machine, and thread the top of the machine with whatever color of thread you want.

Start sewing.  Don’t stretch the fabric as you sew, but don’t let it bunch up, either.  Sew in one long downward spiral using the last sewn line as a guide, so everything stays even.  If you mess up?  Don’t worry about it.  Shirring is very forgiving.

So, after you’ve shirred as much as you want, backstitch and take the dress off of your  machine.  It should now look like this:

Super cute.  Remember the sleeves you didn’t throw away?  Cut the hem off of them and sew them to the dress as straps.  Like so:

I also took a strip of the sleeve and gave it a good stretch.  I tied it into a bow and sewed it to the front center of the dress to add a little more cuteness to this already super cute dress.  You could decorate this so many fun ways.  Rosettes.  Buttons.  Yo yo flowers with buttons.  Pretty much, anything you do with this cute dress would be adorable!

Sorry you don’t get a picture of someone actually wearing the dress.  My boys would kill me if I even asked them to try it on!  :)

Well, there you have a fun, easy, and cheap way to make a cute new sundress for your little gal! 

Ruffle Apron

Finally! 

Here it is!

The long awaited ruffle apron tutorial!

Now those of you who didn’t win it…  :(  …can make your own!

Hooray!

…but before I get to the tute, I’ve just got to let you in on a little secret of mine.

I{heart}aprons.

I mean more than that.

I just might be obsessed. 

I have NINE of my own, and have made and sold almost THREE HUNDRED at craft fairs and online.  I just love sewing them that much! 

They are by far my most favorite sewing project ever.  So, naturally, I need to share my obsession with you and teach you how to make one. 

It’s super easy.

Are you ready?!

This sweet little apron is so fun and easy to make.  You could even scale it down and make a child sized apron for a Mom and Me set! 

For this project, you’ll need:

• Three or four different coordinating fabrics
• Thread
• Sewing machine, serger, scissors, etc…

To start off, you need to cut the back piece.

This piece is 18 inches wide by 22 inches long.  This size will fit an adult or older child.

Serge around the side and bottom raw edges of this piece.  If you don’t have a serger, just zig zag stitch around it, then hem it--or you can double up the hem so that you don’t have any raw edges exposed. 

Next, cut the side ties.  These are 24 inches long by 3 inches high.  There are two ways to sew these ties.  You can do what I did--which was fold each tie in half so that they are 1 1/2 inches high.  Serge the raw edges together, and when you get to the end, taper them off.  That’s it.

If you don’t have a serger, you can fold them in half with the right sides together, sew down the long side where the raw edges meet.  Now you have a tube, and you need to turn it right side out with a safety pin.  Just like I did here with the strap on the nursing cover.  Just be sure to hem one of the ends of each tie so that the ends of the ties don’t have raw edges.

Now for the ruffles.

You’ll need four strips of coordinating fabrics, and they need to measure 6 inches high by 48 inches long.  Serge or hem the sides and bottoms of each ruffle.  I used the rolled hem option on my serger.  All I had to do for that was slide this finger down into the rolled hem position.

Let’s gather the ruffles now, m’kay?

If you have a ruffler foot, you can use that.  You could also use this method for ruffling the strips.  Or, you can tweak the settings on your serger and ruffle that way.  This is the way I did it. 

To gather or ruffle on the serger, you need to set your stitch length adjusting knob at max. (usually 4)

Then set your differential feed adjusting knob at 1.5-2.

Now you can start ruffelin’ on your serger!!

This is what it looks like (in a different fabric) when you’re finished:

See how nice and gathered it is up at the top?  You may need to practice on fabric scraps until you get it right.  Every serger is different, and this is what worked with mine.

JUKI MO644D Portable Serger   (in case you’re interested…)

Okay.  Now let’s attach the ruffles to the back piece of the apron.  Using a fabric marker, mark where on your back piece you want to sew your ruffles.  No worries.  It will wash out.  Be sure to measure your ruffles, and leave room for overlapping so that the tops of your ruffles aren’t showing.

Now sew the ruffles onto the back piece in whichever order you want the fabric it, but start at the top.  Once that ruffle is sewn on, flip it up and sew on the next one.

Almost done!  Now let’s make a waistband, shall we?  Oh, do lets!

Cut a 19”x4” piece of fabric.  Use whichever fabric goes next in your pattern.  Or not.  I won’t tell!

 

Fold that piece of fabric in half with the right sides together.  Pin the raw edges of the ties to the ends of the waistband, on the inside of the waistband.  Like so:

The ties are on the inside of the waistband.  Sew them into place and turn the waistband right side out.  (disregard that serged edge…I got ahead of myself!)

 

Press it flat with your iron.  Top stitch around the sides and top of the waistband.

Take the bottom of the waistband and line it up with the top of the apron.  Pin it into place.  I didn’t get a picture of the pinned waistband, so enjoy this picture of me lining up the pieces.

Sew the waistband to the apron, then serge or zig zag the raw edges…AFTER you’ve reset the serger settings!  ;)

Flip the waistband up…and…

Hooray!  You’re finished!

Just think how cute you’re going to look making dinner!  Even if you don’t know what you’re doing in the kitchen, at least you’ll look hot doing it!  :)

And?! If you don’t want to make your own, I still make them and sell them. Just email me and let me know if you want one.  I can hook you up! :)