How to Add Ruching to a T-Shirt Hem

Recently, I sewed Ella a new casual, summer outfit using the Vintage V-Neck pattern by Blank Slate Patterns (affiliate links) and the free Sycamore Shorts pattern by Sew Like My Mom. Both patterns were quick to sew and the end results made Ella (and me) very happy!

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. I am a Contributor to the blog, Melly Sews, and was provided the shirt pattern and compensated for writing a post about the pattern. I was also provided some fabrics for use in a project of my choosing. All opinions stated in this post are honest and my own.

Since summer is upon us, Ella really needed some new t-shirts. Personally, I'm not always a fan of a basic, boxy tee on girls, so I was excited to discover the Vintage V-Neck pattern.

Tips for Recycling Knit Shirts

For some time now, I've been holding on to a stack of long-sleeved knit turtleneck tees, mockneck tees, and fing guage sweaters that belonged to either me, my mom, or my husband--all with the intentions of someday recycling these shirts into refashioned tops for Ella. Why buy new, expensive knit fabrics when each of these old, gently worn shirts has all the fabric I need to sew my daughter a new top?

Today I'm here to give you some tips for how to recycle a gently used adult knit shirt into a new child's shirt using the Tee x 3 Pattern from Blank Slate Patterns (affiliate link).

The first Tee x 3 I sewed Ella used only the front, back, and sleeve pieces of the pattern. I saved myself time sewing by reusing elements of the existing adult sized turtleneck shirt I recycled. Here's how!

This post contains affiliate links. Although I was provided the pattern at no cost in exchange for my review, all opinions given are my own.

Blank Slate Patterns Prepster Pullover

Cold weather is finally upon us, so I put my latest Blank Slate Pattern to good use and sewed Ella a lovely Prepster Pullover (affiliate links). With the sleeve versatility of this pattern, she'll be able to wear it pretty much year round!

This post contains affiliate links. Although I was provided the pattern at no cost in exchange for my review, all opinions given are my own.

It's rare these days that my pretty little girl can wear a piece of clothing that isn't standard school attire. While the Prepster Pullover can easily be made to fit the bill for school in a solid fabric, I chose to make this particular blouse using beautiful London Calling lawn from Robert Kaufman. The blue floral print and drape of this fabric are both ideal for this design and a pleasure to sew.

Blank Slate Patterns Perfect Polo Shirt

I had such a great time trying out and sharing my thoughts on the fashionable and functional patterns from Blank Slate Patterns last year, and I'm proud to announce that I am continuing on as member of the Blank Slate Patterns Sewing Team! My most recent project is the ever popular Blank Slate Patterns Perfect Polo Shirt Pattern. (affiliate link)

Ella recently started back to school, and as I have mentioned before in this post on her Blank Slate Patterns Schoolday Skirt, her clothing has to meet standard school attire requirements. Polo style shirts are definitely on the list, and since her store-bought polos from last year no longer fit, it was time for me to try my hand at sewing one! Thanks to the Blank Slate Patterns Perfect Polo, I've got another great staple pattern to add to my collection. (affiliate link)

All Day Fun in the Sun Dress Tutorial

For the third year in a row, I'm participating in one of my favorite all-time sewing series: 30 Days of Sundresses at Melly Sews with my All Day Fun in the Sun Dress Tutorial! This year, I made a super simple dress that is just perfect for my active 6 year old, and I've put together a step-by-step tutorial so you can make one, too! The All Day Fun in the Sun Dress is a great project for the beginner sewer and takes less than a yard of fabric to make!

Marigold Peplum Blouse

Several months ago, I made my daughter this beautiful blouse--the Figgy's Ayashe Blouse--that has a mandarin collar and a back yoke that wraps over the shoulders and ties in to the front with subtle gathers. When I finished hers, I said, "I want one!" Low and behold, a few days later, Blank Slate Patterns released the Marigold Pattern  (affiliate links) that includes all those same details as my daughter's blouse! I was ecstatic! I couldn't wait to make my own Marigold Peplum Blouse!

Blank Slate Patterns Schoolday Skirt

Ella is growing so fast lately, so you know what that means! She's outgrowing her clothes and needs some new pieces for school. Since she prefers to wear skirts, I decided to sew her a new Schoolday Skirt by Blank Slate Patterns (affiliate links).

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links to Blank Slate Patterns; however, all opinions regarding this pattern are my own. 

My New Oceanside Pants

A couple of months ago, my family and I took a beach vacation, but before we left, I needed some new pants to take with me. Since I was busy packing for everyone and taking care of last minute details, I didn't have much time to sew. No worries though! I tried out the very popular Oceanside Pants Pattern from Blank Slate Patterns (affiliate links) and had my new pair of pants in under an hour!

Clean Slate Shorts for School

School has been in full swing here now for almost two months, and this year, Ella started kindergarten while Connor moved on to middle school. Our public school system requires children to wear standard school attire which amounts to any solid color shirt with a collar plus black, navy, or khaki pants, shorts, skirts, or rompers. While Connor's wardrobe was fully stocked of acceptable items, Ella's closet was really lacking! As you know, I sew most of her clothes, and very few are solid colors!

Well, rather than go out and buy all her school clothes, I decided I would sew as many as I could. We purchased a few knit polo style shirts, and then I made her a khaki and black pair of shorts using the Blank Slate Clean Slate Pants Pattern (affiliate link). These shorts fit the bill perfectly!

Sew-a-bration of Womanhood

Today I'm participating in a the Sew-a-bration of Womanhood blog series hosted by the Shaffer Sisters and Call Ajaire.  All month long, these lovely ladies will be featuring a variety of women bloggers and showcasing their projects created for themselves or for a special woman in their lives.

For me, I decided to sew myself a little something.  Specifically, I made myself a new t-shirt using the Shoreline Boatneck pattern from Blank Slate Patterns.

I was provided with a copy of the Shoreline Boatneck pattern by the designer, but all opinions about this pattern are my own. Also, I am an affiliate of Blank Slate Patterns, so if you click any link associated with the pattern or Blank Slate Patterns and make a purchase, I will receive a small commission.  

Turn a Shirt Facing into a Faux Collar

Today I am sharing with you my sewVery simple tutorial for turning a shirt facing into a faux collar.

Last month, I participated in the Fall pattern tour for Blank Slate Patterns.  Some of you may remember the Schoolday Skirt and Beachy Boatneck Shirt I made (affiliate links).  Read all about it HERE.  Well, as you can see, I changed things up a bit on the Beachy Boatneck Shirt to make it more girly and feminine.  I modified the facing pattern pieces and then sewed them on in reverse so that they are on the outside of the shirt instead of the inside.  Here's how I did it.

Print out the Beachy Boatneck front and back facing pattern pieces.  Then do the following to each facing piece:

1. Measure the length of the shoulder seam on the facing piece for the size you are making.  I sewed a size 6 which measured 2 5/16".

2. Measure this same distance along the Fold line of the pattern piece and make a mark.

3. Then measure this distance perpendicular from the neck line for the size you are sewing and mark.  Do this every inch or so.

4. Connect the marks you made in step 3 to form a smooth curve.

5. Cut out the modified facing pattern pieces and your fabric.

Next,

 To make the center tab,

You've just created a Faux Collar by sewing the shirt facings to the outside of the shirt, and all raw seams are still encased!

The fun thing about this is that you can modify the facing pieces into different shapes to create some pretty amazing and unique looks.  You could use my tutorial to come up with your own version for the Flip this Pattern sew along over at Frances & Suzanne in March (I'll be judging that month, btw).  In the mean time, I might just test out a few of my ideas myself!

Thanks for stopping by today!  Hope you've been inspired, and have fun sewing!

Pattern Anthology Winter Wonderland Tour

I find it extremely difficult to define my daughter's style (and my own for that matter).  She's not boxed into one look but definitely likes variety--one day it's a fancy dress with ruffles, the next day it's an old pair of sweats paired with a t-shirt, purse, and jewelry!  But no matter what it is, Ella always makes sure the outfit has a feminine touch.

Her outfit for the Pattern Anthology Winter Wonderland Pattern Collection blog tour is no exception!

With cooler weather fast approaching, I decided to swap out the summer clothes in Ella's closet and replace them with winter clothes.  The problem is that she had outgrown almost all her pants and jeans from last year.  Lucky for me (and for Ella, too, I guess), I had just signed up to make a pair of Tree Climber Trousers and a Sweet Bonnie Top for the Pattern Anthology tour.  She'd have at least one new outfit for fall and winter soon.

Sometimes the most difficult part of a sewing project is choosing the fabrics, but not this one!  I immediately knew I wanted to use the hot pink, white, and silver striped knit that had been lying around waiting for that perfect project.  Every time I open my box of knits, Ella begs me to make her something with it, and this time I got to say yes!  She was thrilled.  

This led me to remember some teal stretch corduroy with silver specs in it that I bought a couple of months ago.  When I finally found it, it looked great paired with the pink fabric for the Sweet Bonnie Top, but I wanted to tie the two pieces together more using the silver accent.  Since I had no silver fabric in my stash, this meant it was time to go shopping!

We headed to Joann's and combed the aisles in search of the perfect shade and texture of silver fabric. Finally, I came across this silver pleather.  I was a little concerned that it might not hold up well in the wash or to the rigorous play of an active little girl, but my choices for silver fabric were pretty slim, so I took a chance with it.  I tested a piece of it in the wash and it seemed to hold up just fine.

For the Sweet Bonnie Top, I used the silver fabric with no added interfacing on the collar, and I lined the back of the pocket using the knit fabric.  Check out my mad stripe matching skills at those sleeve shoulder seams! My mom taught me well!

The most challenging part of making this blouse was using the metallic thread to topstitch the collar and pocket!  I learned much later that there are specialty needles for sewing with metallic thread (still need to buy one), but I did manage to finish the entire project using a regular needle.  If you decide to give this a try with a regular needle, I'll just warn you that you might get frequent thread breaks that can be a little frustrating at times!

I love the raglan style of the Sweet Bonnie Top and the fact that it can be made using wovens or knits. Besides the peter pan style collar, the little pocket and the pleats at the sleeve cuffs, the back includes a zippered closure to help make slipping the top on and off a lot easier.  

I'm fairly new to sewing zippers into clothing (this was my second one and done the same week as my first one which I blogged about here).  It was very easy to do using the instructions and pictures in the pattern.

Next, I planned how to embellish the Tree Climber Trousers to make them perfect for Ella's style. I started by quilting the knees using the metallic thread and two layers of regular quilting cotton for backing.  In addition to working with the finicky metallic thread, I was also now working with stretch corduroy!  What was I thinking?!  

This fabric definitely required the use of my walking foot.  It was stretching and sliding/slipping all over the place until I stuck that on my machine.  Quilting the knees took a while, but the look it gives the pants was all worth it!  

I then constructed the front pockets by lining them with a coordinating quilting cotton fabric for a little peek of color.  I used the same fabric to make the inner waistband and to line the back pocket flaps.

For the back pockets, I used some double sided Wonder Tape to hold the folds until I could edgestitch since pins would have left permanent holes in the pleather.  Double sided Wonder Tape is a great product! You should definitely get some along with that sewing machine needle for metallic thread!

You might just notice that the back pockets on these pants are rather large.  In fact, I used the smaller pocket for the size 5 pants that I made Ella, and they are still that big!  Of course, you can always scale the back pocket pattern pieces down to suit your personal taste.

And since I wasn't feeling challenged enough, I decided to try my hand at inserting a zip fly for the first time EVER!  The Tree Climber Trousers pattern comes with pattern pieces and instructions for sewing a faux fly and a completely elastic waistband, but for some reason, I felt I had to do a real zippered fly!  The pattern instructions include a link to a couple of great tutorials (one by Melissa and the other by Shauna) on how to sew a zip fly and modify the waistband, so once I was completely free of any and all distractions, I was able to figure it out.  I'm so glad I did because I love, love, love the end result!

It may not be perfect--obviously it isn't since I sewed the fly shield so that the serged edge shows--but it functions and looks pretty darn good from the outside!

Now that all being said about how happy I am with the results of the zip fly, I didn't really consider that this modification would mean that all the elastic would now end up in the back waistband only and not be distributed across the front as well.  Because of this, the rear end looks a little more cinched than I think it normally would had I followed the exact details of the pattern instructions.

All I know is that I learned a few new tricks while sewing this outfit, tried out some new materials, and most importantly, made one little girl very, VERY happy!  

To learn more about Pattern Anthology and to purchase the 8 pdf pattern Winter Wonderland Collection which includes both the Sweet Bonnie Top and the Tree Climber Trousers, click HERE!

I was provided copies of these two patterns free of charge in exchange for my participation in the pattern tour, and all opinions expressed in this post are my own.

Be sure to check in with Andrea at The Train to Crazy, Kate of See Kate Sew, Melissa of Melly Sews, and Shauna of Shwin & Shwin each weekday through November 18th for links to all the bloggers participating in the Winter Wonderland Tour!  Or click HERE to see all the outfits already revealed.  You won't want to miss it!

I'd love to hear what you think of my Winter Wonderland outfit.  Please let me know by leaving a comment!

Beachy Boatneck Shirt & Schoolday Skirt

Today I'm blogging about the Beachy Boatneck Shirt and Schoolday Skirt patterns from Blank Slate Patterns.  My friend, Melissa, from Melly Sews is the pattern designer, and when she invited me on her pattern shop tour, I couldn't say yes fast enough!

This post contains affiliate links, but all opinions provided in this post are 100% my own!   When you purchase a Blank Slate Pattern through one of these links, I earn a percentage of the sale. Thanks for your support! 

Let's start with the Beachy Boatneck Shirt.  I've seen so many of these on the internet for both boys and girls, so I knew I had to give it a try.  I chose the size 6 after comparing the sizing chart to Ella's chest measurement, and I think it's a perfect fit.

Since I am pairing the shirt with the pleated Schoolday Skirt, I wanted the top to look a little more feminine.  To accomplish that, I modified the facing pattern pieces so that the bottom edge followed the curve of the neck opening, and then I chose to sew the facing on so it would be on the exterior of the shirt.

I had really wanted to use a solid color for the facing, but I didn't have any knit fabric that matched on hand! I was anxious to move forward with the sewing (no time to run to the store), so I opted to just use the same heart fabric for the facing.  I found an old baby onesie in my repurpose pile and used a piece of it to make the center cinched area on the facing.

I really like the faux collar effect the exterior facing gives this shirt.

I think you could have so much fun playing with different facing shapes.  For a boy, you could just use the facing pattern pieces as is but sew them on to flip to the exterior.  I might just have to try that sometime!

The Beachy Boatneck is a pretty straight cut top, and it's fairly long.  I think if I had added just three or four more inches to the length, Ella could have worn it as a dress!  The extra length does make it idea for tucking into pants or skirts which most kids rarely do these days.

Overall, this is a great pattern because of the simplicity of the design, the pattern pieces, and the terrific sewing instructions.  Oh, and I think the fit is spot on, too!

I paired the Beachy Boatneck Shirt with another great pattern from Blank Slate Patterns:  the Schoolday Skirt.

I purchased this pattern right after it was released a few months back, but I somehow never got around to making one!  This blog tour was the perfect opportunity for me to try it out.  I now regret waiting so long!

The Schoolday Skirt may appear intimidating with all the pleats, but it is actually quite simple to make. Melissa's instructions make sewing it together so easy!

For Ella's Schoolday Skirt, I used a lightweight denim fabric I picked up at Joann's.  This fabric is so soft and easy to work with.  I'll definitely be buying more of it for future projects.

Again, I referenced the measurement chart in the pattern and decided to go with a size 5.  Although not specified in the pattern instructions, I chose to use buttonhole elastic to make the back waistband adjustable.  Because of the way the skirt waistband is sewn together, I didn't have to make any modifications in order to do this!

Well, there you have it!  My Blank Slate Patterns outfit!  I think this definitely going to be a Fall favorite at our house, and I look forward to sewing more of both pieces!

Are you thinking about making your little one their own Beachy Boatneck Shirt or Schoolday Skirt?

Then head over to Blank Slate Patterns to purchase your copy of each pattern today!  But be prepared, you just might end up picking up two or three more patterns while you're there!  As a bonus, 50% of the profits from this week's (Oct. 6 - 12) sales at Blank Slate Patterns will be donated to the Komen Foundation for breast cancer research and services.