I just added a tutorial on how to make a custom car seat cover in my Flickr set.
Click here to view the instructions.
Enjoy!
Category Archives: tutorial
Reversible Drink Cozy Tutorial
Make a hot drink sleeve that you can use over and over again! (Of course it’s better if you could actually use a reusable mug, but sometimes you just cannot carry a spare mug around in your purse.)
Here is my 10 step tutorial below…
How to Make a Reversible Drink Cozy
Step 1 – Find an exisiting hot drink sleeve to use as to make your pattern.
Step 2 – Open and disassemble the cardboard sleeve, so that it looks like the picture above.
Step 3 – Trim off any excess cardboard that you may not want as part of your pattern.
Step 4 – Lay out the “modified” pattern. This modified cardboard sleeve will be used as your template.
Step 5 – Place your choice of fabric for the drink sleeve and lay them right sides up together. Trace your template on the wrong side of one of your fabric pieces.
Step 6 – Place a piece of felt at the back of your fabric pieces as additional insulation. (This extra piece of felt will really help to insulate your drink and keep your fingers safe from burns.)
Pin everything together and sew on the line that you drew with your template in the previous step. Don’t sew all the way around though, leave one of the side edges open for flipping!
Step 7 - Trim off the excess fabric edges with pinking shears.
Step 8 - Flip the drink cozy inside out. You may have to use something sharp (like a crochet needle) to get the tight corners flipped out properly.
Fold and tuck in the unsewn edges. Pin them down, and then topstitch around the edges.
Step 9 – Sew some velcro along the edges of the drink cozy. I used some special velcro made for doll dresses which worked really well because it is not as bulky as the regular velcro. Make sure you align one strip on one side, and place the other strip on the other side or you won’t be able to seal your cozy together!
Step 10 – Assemble the drink cozy together and you’re done!
You can reverse the look by using the other side of the fabric as the exterior. How versatile!
Don’t forget to enjoy your hot beverage carefully.
Mary Jane Slippers Tutorial
I found these patterns in a Japanese craft book on how to make some house slippers. I sort of modified them and did my own thing (I added my own straps) since I cannot read Japanese. I have not had the chance to scan in my version of the patterns, but hopefully I will have the chance to do that eventually.
Anyhow, below are my 10 steps tutorial on how I did this (it is more like 9 steps, but 10 just seems better).
How to Make Mary Jane Slippers
Step 1 – Cut out patterns from the fabric of your choice for the outside of the slippers. You will need 2 x bottom, 2 x side panels in the outer fabric.
Step 2 – Pin side panels to the bottom of the slipper.
Step 3 – Sew around the outside of the bottom of the slipper (what you pinned in step 2).
Step 4 – Where the back of the side panels meet, sew the back of the heel together. Trim excess.
If you flip the unfinished slipper inside out, you should have the results of the picture on the right.
Step 5 – Repeat steps 1-4 for the lining fabric.
Step 6 – Create the straps by placing one piece of the outer fabric and one piece of the lining fabric together. Sew around the sides, but make sure to leave an opening so that you can flip the strap inside out. Trim edges with pinking shears if you like.
You may want to use a chopstick of knitting needle to help “flip” the strap. (This was actually one of the hardest part of this project for me!)
Step 7 – Flip your outer fabric slipper with the right sides out and then pin the strap in place. Make sure the outside fabric of the strap is facing the outside fabric of the slipper when you pin.
Step 8 – Pin the lining of the slipper with the outside slipper. Make sure you have the right sides facing together when you pin. Then sew around the pin edges and leave an opening about 2 inches wide (don’t forget this or you won’t be able to flip your slipper inside out).
Flip your slipper inside out. Then tuck the unfinished edges and sew around edge to finish.
Step 9 – Add some buttons and decorate your slippers if you like. If you want to make then “non-slip” you can put some puffy paint on the bottom or hand sew some leather patches. Don’t forget to try them on!
Step 10 – Enjoy!
If any of you try this tutorial I would love to see some pictures. Thanks for reading!
Monkey Pants
One of my son’s current favourite toys is his stuffed monkey which he calls “Munga”. I bought Munga a $0.99 knitted sweater from the discount sewing store today and after I placed the sweater on the monkey my son says, “Munga wear pants.” I said, “But we do not have any pants for Munga. Do you want mommy to make Munga some pants?” And of course he says, “Yah.” At first he asked for pink pants, but I eventually convinced him for brown ones.
Anyhow, it turns out that I don’t have any plain brown fabric so I ended up using this funky print (yes, I realize that it does not match the sweater). So tonight I ended up sewing a pair of pants for the monkey and I will quickly share with you how this was accomplished.
How To Make Pants
Gather the materials that you will need:
- fabric
- elastic for the band
- thread
- safety pin
- some paper, a marker (or pencil), and some scissors for creating a quick pattern
- First of all, create a pattern by placing the subject on a piece of paper and then tracing around a leg. Then extend the tracing by adding about 1 to 2 inches more. You should end up with one side of a pant leg that you will use to place on your folded fabric. Cut pant leg pattern.
- Place pattern on fold of the fabric and cut so that you end up with what looks like 2D flat pants. Repeat on another piece of fabric so that you have 2 matching pieces.
- Place the 2 pieces you have cut right sides together and sew along the inside of the pant leg and then on the sides of the pant leg. You can then serge the edges if you like or use a zigzag stitch to make sure the ends do not fray. I was lazy and just used pinking shears to trim the edges.
- Roll up the bottom of the pants and sew edges.
- Measure your subject with the elastic band and trim to desired length.
- Roll down the waist of the pants and make sure there is enough room to fit the width of the elastic. Sew edges down, but leave an opening of about 1 inch so that you can later run the elastic inside the waistline.
- Place the measured elastic band on a safety pin. Run the safety pin inside the waistline of the pants and gather until you reach all the way around.
- Sew the ends of the elastic band with a zigzag stitch to keep it in place.
- Finish sewing the edge of the waistline.
- Flip the pants inside out and you are done!
I also created a hole in the back of the pants for the tail of the monkey. If you would also like to do this, just create a “button hole” large enough to fit the tail in the back of the pants between steps 2 and 3. Make sure you place the button hole low enough to leave space for the waistline to be folded down.
Here are the pictures of the process. Sorry, I am too lazy right now and I just put the pictures together into this mini gallery. Hopefully it makes sense when you look at it and read the instructions above.
Have fun!
Easy Softie Tutorial
Recycle an old sweater and make something cute!
An easy 10 step tutorial for making a softie.
1. Find an old sweater to recycle (or you can use any other fabrics you wish). I used a nice wool sweater that got shrunk too many times in the dryer.
2. Place your the template of your softie on top of sweater (make sure you flip the sweater inside out so that the good side is on the inside) and outline the template with a fabric pen or marker.
3. After the outline has been traced, pin the top and bottom parts of the sweater together.
4. With a sewing machine, sew around the marked outline, but leave about 1 or 2 inches of the outline unsewn (this is important or you won’t be able to flip your softie to stuff it!). Remove pins as you sew as they are there to keep the top and bottom layers together.
*** Remember to leave an opening so that you can flip the softie inside out! ***
You can also sew by hand but the sewing machine is much faster!
5. After sewing the outline (and leaving an opening unsewn), cut around the outline leaving about a 1/2 inch seam allowance.
6. Flip your softie inside out.
7. Add any details you want before stuffing. I added some eyes, a felt nose, and hand sewn a mouth with some pink thread.
8. Stuff the softie with some polyfil. You can use a chopstick or a pen (with cap on) to stuff the hard to reach spots like the arms, legs, and ears.
9. Neatly tuck in the opening raw edges and hand sew the opening to close it off.
10. TA-DA! Now you have a cute softie!
You may also wish to make clothing for your softie which will be covered in another tutorial later…
Enjoy!
P.S. OK, so maybe I missed a step in how to create a template for the outline tracing. FYI, I hand drew the template and then folded a piece of paper in half (vertically) and then cut it out so that it is symmetrical. You can easily make any softie shape and size that you want using this method.
P.P.S. If you tried this tutorial, I would to love to see/hear about your results. I love feedback! 