Sew AudreyLayne: March 2011

I ran across this tutorial from Aesthetic Nest for a Chenille Baby Blanket. I am not a quilter by any means and have never really been interested in making one either, this is until I ran across this tutorial. I love the way the blanket turned out.

I would say it took about 4-6 hours to sew these lines half inch apart across the entire blanket. Once I got the hang of it then it went faster. My friend Celeste and I did them together so it wasnt so tedious and boring.

The flannel on the bottom after one wash is so soft and fluffy. I imagine it will only get better after more washes.

I just love all the colors together. This definitely wasnt a quick easy project but the end result is worth it and I think I will make another one.

My sister brought me a ton of shirts (per my request) that she cant wear anymore. So I have been thinking of what I want to do with them. I decided to make a bubble skirt for Taylor. It was one of the fastest projects. It took me about 30 mins and it was all free!! There are a lot of tutorials out there for bubble skirt but I decided to make my own with my twist on it. Sorry for the terrible pictures. I took most of them on my phone.

I started with this XL knit shirt:

Then I cut off the sleeves.

Then I cut straight across under the armpits.

Turn shirt inside out. With wrong side out, loop bottom of entire shirt up to top keeping wrong sides together with right side facing out. I hope that makes sense. It should look like this. You will have a nice tub. I can place my hand all the way through the center of the skirt. Pin top together all the way around.

Sew a gathering stitch all the way around the top of the skirt. Dont back stitch you will want to be able to pull the thread. I acheive this stitch by setting my stitch length to its longest setting and my tension to the highest setting. The machine will naturally ruffle the fabric. Pull your loose threads until your fabric is nicely ruffled.

For this project I used 2 inch wide black elastic purchased at Joann's. I probably shouldnt have used elastic this wide for Taylor but she will grow into it. I probably wouldnt use elastic smaller than 1 inch.

Measure your child's waist and cut elastic to size. Place like sides together and sew about an inch seam.

Once you have done this try the elastic on your little girl and see if the elastic is the right size if not seam rip the stitch and adjust the stitch bigger or smaller.

Fold excess elastic over on each side and sew down so it is completely smooth.

Take skirt and elastic and match up side seams and pin and then middle of the front and back of the skirt and pin to elastic. Make sure the smooth part of your elastic is facing outside and the folded over part is on the inside.

I decided to pin the top of the skirt to the top of the elastic so I could shorten the skirt a bit. If you wanted it longer then pin to the bottom of elastic with about a 1/4 inch overlap.

This is what the inside will look like. You should have a lot of excess fabric.

Continue pinning excess fabric to elastic, pleating it as you go.

Now its time to start sewing. Sew along the bottom of the elastic with about an 1/8 in seam. I used a heavier duty needle sewing this because I was sewing through 2 layers of knit and elastic. I didnt want to break a needle. Which by the way is so frustrating. :)

I decided to sew a second line just for reinforcement. Also I trimmed the excess fabric on the inside of the elastic down to my stitch since I pinned the elastic down so far.

Now admire your work and try it on your little one. Now wasnt that easy!!!

This was made for a 10 month old and she still needs to grow into it a little bit. So if you are making for an older child you would probably need more fabric. This can also be made with almost any kind of fabric. I am just partial to sewing with knits.

I think I will make one for Lexi since it was so easy to make.