Brrr... ruff!

Jack, my wimpy (14ish lb.) Pugalier is already getting cold, in and out of the house. I bought him a sweater (size M) at Walmart yesterday, but it has a pumpkin on it. Although witty... a jack-o-lantern sweater on Jack, it is extremely seasonal. I ventured into my sweatshirts and found a $5 plain sweatshirt of my own (size M probably). I looked at the sweater of Jack's and tried to replicate it. This works for a medium size dog. Not sure if this will work for larger dogs since I use sleeve cuffs for the neck opening. This will definitely work for smaller dogs though. So here is how it went.



First I measured the underbelly section and made a template with seam allowances.



My next step was to seam rip the cuff of one sleeve (to use later for the neck). Cut the sleeve up the seam and use your template to trace and cut the underbelly piece.



Next take measurements for your top panel and cut your sweatshirt from the front (including the pocket). Remember seam allowances on all sides, including the neck.



Next, lay your underbelly piece over your new top panel and trace the arm holes onto the top panel. Then trim the top panel.



Next, sew the top panel and underbelly panel together (only one side). You will have two seams, one on either side of the arm holes. You may choose to finish the arm holes with a clean edge, I did not.



Next, cut the other sleeve cuff off, with an inch allowance on other side of seam. Sew the 2 cuffs together. This will be the head opening.


Next, take your pieced panels and give them a clean seam around the neck hole. When finished, pin and sew your cuffs under the new seamed edge.



Next, close up the final side of the panels. When finished, give your top panels extended edges clean edges by flipping over and sewing the rough edge.



And vwalla! You have yourself a doggy sweatshirt, for free. This would work great with old sweaters too.

A Crafty Scrapy Apron

Yet another additional to my sewing room! This time I used a tutorial, but got lazy. I took the idea, and the measurements of the apron and went on instinct. I'm sure it would have turned out much better if I read the directions, but I was challenging myself. Or was I lazy? hmmm... anyway, I changed things up a bit. I didn't do patchwork, although I LOVE the one in the tutorial. Mostly because I didn't have a selection of scraps that I liked.



If you look closely, there is a small detail that I experimented with. I used the star stitch to create a simple pattern. In hindsight I'd use a contrasting color, but I wasn't as brave when I started. This is a good alternative to creating detail if you aren't patchworking your apron. If you click on the image you can get a closer look.




Now I'm sewing in style.

The Jelly Skirt

In an attempt to beautiful my not so beautiful sewing room, I wanted to add in more of the butterfly fabric from the sewing machine cover.

My first project I created myself, not too hard, but I am willing to make a tutorial with measurements if there is interest. Please comment if you'd like me to create a picture tutorial for what I'm calling the "Jelly Skirt." I wanted to dress up a Smuckers Jelly jar to hold my craft supplies. I used elastic around the top. Here's how it turned out.




I'm using an old workbench that was left by the previous home owner for my cutting table. It is truly beat up and ugly. I painted it brown, but I wanted to create a curtain for the back to add color. I also wanted it to be a visual barrier to create definition between the sewing room and laundry room. It's nothing fancy, just an idea if you need to do the same!

I've got ya' covered

Sew this one is from an actual tutorial from a book, the Sew Everything Workshop. I recently set up my sewing room in our unfinished basement, so I wanted to brighten the area as well as keep my machine from getting dusty. It was fun, and it's the first time I used bias tape. There are all sorts of tutorials out there, I just happened to use the one in the book. I did add a handle to the top, which wasn't in the pattern.

I drew my own pattern for the butterfly, actually I just drew half of a butterfly, turned it over and traced it again so I got an even image. This was an easy project and is a huge improvement over the lame plastic one that came with my machine.

Tote-ally Cool

Ok, that title was tote-ally lame. Oh man, I did it again.

This tote project was intimidating, but I am so happy with how it turned out! My thanks go out to Mama's Pocketbook where I got the free pattern & tutorial.

I amended the tutorial a bit and added a zipper pocket on the inside as well as a cell phone/PDA holder. The outside of my tote as 2 lined pockets. I used a thicker fabric, it will wear better over time.

I used a great zipper tutorial to do the hidden zippered pockets.

Good luck! I'm sure I'll be making more of these in different fabrics!

Bear is cold!

My son Wubby loves to "baby" his bear. This is the stuffed animal he sleeps with, we creatively named him "Bear". Wubby is always covering him with blankets and putting him to bed. So with some scraps, I threw this together. I didn't make a tutorial, the concepts are pretty basic. I used 2 colors of fleece and essentially made a sleeping bag with attached pillow. The bear pattern on the front is a reverse applique (see monsters post). I found the image by just searching on the web.

Bear is a little warmer now.

Wall-e to Wall-et

This one was an undertaking for me. My first zipper, first snap and first patchwork really. This tutorial is great, but I made some amendments to it. I added a zippered coin pocket with a bill pocket behind instead of the extra credit card slots.

A few notes if you're following the tutorial: I cut 10 strips 1.75" wide (but this depends on your seam allowance). Fabric Ax3, Bx2, Cx2, Dx3.

I used this zipper demo to learn, but there are lots of them out there.