Toddler Birthday Shirt

I decided this year I wanted to make Jack's birthday shirt. Since we have a friend's wedding on his actual birthday, we will be celebrating a few days late with just cake and ice cream. We will save a bigger party for when we have a big house to invite people to. Anyway, I see similar shirts on Etsy now and again so I thought I would give it a go. Please keep in mind this is a TESTER. I picked a random shirt I didn't care about, and a piece of fabric that I didn't really care about, so I could mess up all I needed to before doing the "real" thing.

Yellow t-shirt, green fabric for the front of the shirt, BIG number 2 for Jack's second birthday (Cambria font 572 size), and Heat n' Bond Lite (this was in the box of sewing stuff my mom sent along with my original machine). I ironed everything.
I cut out the number to make sure it was close to what I wanted.
Put the bonding paper face up on the wrong side of the fabric. I ironed it 2-3 seconds as per the instructions.
I then let it cool, and removed the paper backing. This was so much easier than I thought it would be!
I then pinned on the number, and cut the fabric/bonding. I can tell you that as usual, it is not cut perfectly, but it is not terrible. I went very slowly. The bonding helped keep the fabric a bit stiff so it was easier and more stable to cut.
I ironed the number onto the back of a t-shirt I don't really mind ruining. (TESTER, remember? This will be done with fabric I actually like and a blank new t-shirt very soon). 4-5 seconds and it seemed pretty well on there. I wouldn't have run it through the washer or anything, but I have a general distrust of all iron ons.
I then sewed around the number using a zig-zag stitch. You can see my biggest cutting mistake there on the left, and the uneven stitching. I used black so I could see the stitches clearly to fix any mistakes for next time. The stitches look the way they do because I hesitated A LOT. I also forgot to put the needle down before "turning" the fabric after lifting the presser foot a few times.

Too far onto the letter.

Slightly better down where there are straight lines.

Finished product! I am kind of excited about this one because it has many applications besides just birthday shirts. I don't think it turned out too badly, really the only issue is the uneven stitching but that will definitely be better next time.

Time for the whole tester project: About 10 minutes. I am not kidding. It will take me more time to pick out the perfect Fat Quarter of fabric and plain T-shirt than it will to make it next time.

Next project: Birthday shirt, the REAL thing!

Toddler apron

I don't know what has gotten into me this week, I just can't stop sewing!

Today I decided I wanted to make my son a cape. Well, I don't have all of the necessary items, and I don't think pleats are anywhere in my near future. So, I thought why not make him a little apron? I know Montessori kids all wear aprons, and I would eventually like him to help in the kitchen anyway, so I will make him one now.

I used this tutorial, in size 2T. First, I attempted to make a pattern and then cut but then quickly decided this was a waste of time. I just used my pink fabric chalk and drew the lines I needed right on the fabric. And again, my cutting skills are very lacking, so you will see a lot of bad cuts.

Here is my pattern pre-cutting, drawn out in pink chalk.
After the cut. Notice the crappy cutting job. Thank goodness that part is now on the inside.
Here are the straps. Basically, all this is is homemade bias tape. Not too hard, and on this fabric it was so easy.
Homemade bias tape.
Pinning the straps and neck to the apron. One of them (the neck ones) turned out to be too close to the edge so it kind of messed it up.
Apron sandwich. Pinned and ready to go.
The curves I do are getting much better but keeping the seam even all the way around turned out to be very hard. I came close, but there is still a lot of work to do in that area.
Pinning together the hole where I turned it out. I should have put this at the bottom, and if you look carefully, you can see that the strap end on the right is out too far. There really was no fix for this.
I then edged the whole thing and put it on my model. Please pardon the cheerios on the floor, the kid flung them all over this morning. As for the rest of the mess...well, we live here. Sorry.
Turned out the neck strap was way too long so I took it away to shorten it. This resulted in the biggest crying and screaming fit I have ever seen this kid have. Since it was my fault I let him sit on my lap while I fixed it. He decided he liked to play with the buttons on the front of the machine. Before I even noticed it, he had chosen a prettier edging for the strap ends. I don't know if you can see it very well, but it is very pretty. And uneven!

In all, this one didn't take any time at all, maybe 30 minutes total. I really like it! I think all aprons need pockets so I will add some at a later date.

My third kitchen wetbag...third time is certainly a charm!

Today I was searching out tutorials for Unpaper Towels. These are just homemade towels you can roll or snap together, basically reusable paper towels. They are pretty neat, and since I have my mom's snap setter handy, I thought it might be a fun project. Well, I didn't find what I was looking for, but I did stumble across this tutorial for a kitchen wetbag. Yes, another one! However, first I had to fix my old one. I had one loop on it and it was a major pain, so I snappified it. I also added a second loop.

Lets just say, this was done in my early sewing days with my old machine.
As you can see from the stitches, there is still a lot of improvement to be had.
You will see the finished product at the end.


So here is the start of the new one. The author of this tutorial did a great job really describing the steps for novices like me, and I really appreciate it! I made a few missteps but in all, this only took me about 1:15...an episode of Next Food Network Star and half of a Judge Judy. Yay!

I chose Alexander Henry's Mocca print for this one. No, Mocca is not misspelled. It bugs me, trust me. I decided to cut with the rotary cutter, since I am truly awful with it and need practice. Obviously, I need more of it. Look at that nice long scoop on one side. Yay.

All of my cut and measured material. The PUL was a pain as usual, but at least I could see through it for use with the rotary cutter. If I were to do this again, I would cut the fabric for the strap 4" by 8" instead of 3 1/2" by 8" and sew in a bit deeper. I needed the folded in fabric to be more generous, and this really skirted the edge of the fabric. It did not catch with the needle in several places.

Pinning the PUL to the zipper.
Sewing the PUL and outer fabric to the zipper. This part was impossible to understand while reading the tutorial but made perfect sense while in the moment. Please excuse the poor lighting.
One side, done.
Putting the straps through to attach between the zipper and the PUL.
I did it wrong. I attached it to the wrong side so they hung inside the bag. Yuck! I am glad I caught it and could fix it right away, though. Let me tell you, using a seam ripper on PUL is a daunting task!
Fixing my mistake! No chunks taken out of the PUL thankfully. I just resewed the whole side.
Sorry about the angle. I used the fibery paper stuff to keep the PUL from slipping while I sewed. I had to sew the perimeter of the thing like a pillowcase. I will admit, I had no idea how this was going to work but it did...mostly.

All the way around except a small hole on the PUL side. But, here is my mistake. I was to sew through zipper for the pillowcase...but I didn't make sure to pull the zipper in a little bit so I sewed the zipper pull inside the bag. Brilliant, eh?
I ripped a few seams, pulled it out, and sewed it back in properly.
Adding snaps. I was very careful with this one to make them really even, but measuring didn't help much, I was in a tight space on my desk so I kind of winged it. You can't really tell, but this is a snap snafu. I pressed the male end in backward. I removed it and fixed it, using the same hole so no harm, no foul.
Pretty even if you ask me! Sorry about the messy desk.
My new kitchen wetbag...next to the one I fixed today. Yea. I like the new one a lot better. We use the old one a whole lot (we don't put our cleaning rags in there, I have a mesh bag hanging in the closet, but we do put in soiled bibs, flatfold diapers that we used as bibs, and dishtowels in there). I didn't realize just how big the old one was before this. We will just use that as a backup from now on.
All alone. Yay!

Happy Hiney's Snap Conversion (A lesson in failure)

Let us just say...massive failure. This one took forever and the results were less than stellar. I got so frustrated I barely took pictures.

I thought this one would be easy. I have 2 velco HH's and one snap HH. I would use the snap one as my template, and voila! Snappy diaper. The diapers are exactly the same except the snap/velcro thing. So I started doing measurements. Not a single measurement on the snap diaper was uniform. Not one. The first snap was 1" away from the first one, the next one was 1 1/4" away, next was 1 5/8 away...etc. On one side the first snap was 1.5" from the end, on the other, it was 1 3/4" from the end. What the heck. I really truly think these must be done freehand. So, no template here. I even tried making a template by marking right on the snap through the paper. Nope. So I decided to start from the center, go 4 out from there, 1" apiece. Yea, it looks like crap, and nothing like the original. I also did this on a dark colored diaper. My fabric pen barely showed up, and the chalk was a joke.

Then I get to the wings. This part was probably my fault. I took the snap setter and equipment out to the living room to watch season 3 Big Bang Theory episodes with my husband. I had the setter on a TV table. None of the male end snaps worked on their first try. I had to cut out at least 5 of them. Notice I was using my desk for the BG diapers, but not for this one. I think the fact that it was at a different height/stability made it so I just couldn't get the force needed to properly snap stuff together. Oh well. I am not crazy about our snap HH diaper anyway (it is always the one daycare just leaves stuffed at the bottom of the bag). I am disappointed to have butchered the velcro one, though. I do like those a lot. The velcro on them is very good. At least I still have my cow print HH left, I won't be trying to alter that at all.

The final product, front of diaper. All over the place and uneven. Boo.
Sorry about the lighting, with the flash you couldn't see the snaps on the white one (the original) at all. See how uniform it looks? Well, my ruler and 78 times checking the measurements tells me otherwise.
The wings. Ugh.

Not sewing, but crafty-ish, right?

Yesterday, I decided I wanted to convert all of our Bum Genius 3.o diapers from velcro to snaps. The Aplix velcro that is on them is kaput. Basically this was the last straw...

That is in no way doctored. Without even taking his clothes off, he was able to get his diaper off. All he did was swipe at one side. I fixed it 3 times before this, and he obviously got both sides this time. Thankfully it was dry and clean.

Anyway.

I searched the internet and found a wonderful Youtube tutorial on converting BGs from velcro to snaps. Part 1 and Part 2. I borrowed a snap setter, a zillion snaps, a few tools to fix mistakes, a ruler, and some fabric markers and pencils to do this project, all from my mom. She was going to do this for me but we only have one day worth of diapers if we give up all our BG's so I figured I could do it faster (it takes some shoulder strength and it would bother hers too much to go quickly).

I didn't do it the way she did exactly to a "T" but I came pretty close, and got the same results.


First, I started out making my template.
I did all my velcro removal yesterday, and didn't take any pictures. I just used a seam ripper. This was the most time consuming part. Here is the raw diaper, no velcro.
I put on my template, taped it down, and marked it up with the purple marker there.
This part was different than the tutorial. According to my mom, snaps can come right through fabric over time, so the more layers they have to bite through, the better. So, she gave me some fabric glue and flannel. I cut a panel of flannel to glue into the backside of where the diaper would go. I really think it gave it a lot more stability than it would have otherwise.
I started out doing all of the female ends, across the front of the diaper. I had 5 diapers to do. This is 80 snaps total, 16 per diaper. By the way, I did not pre-poke any holes in the diaper. As you can see, the snap setter I am using is much more "industrial" than the snap pliers the woman uses in the tutorial. The snap caps are pointy, so it was not necessary. It just liked the pokey part up behind the marker dot and snapped. No problem.
The finished front. Yes, the velcro left an unsightly dingy ring around where it used to be. Hopefully this will wash away.
Here is the snap setter at work on a different diaper. By this time, I had it down to a science and it took just a few minutes per diaper.
Here is the one and only diaper I screwed up. It happened to be the last one. If you look carefully on the right hand side, there are 4 holes there. The template was far too low, so the snap I put in was practically on top of a snap that was already there. I had to use the tools my mom sent with it (think a big industrial tweezer and big industrial toenail clippers) to take them off. Basically I had to clip at it until it was disintegrated. You can also see the marker marks and the pencil marks if you look carefully. The pencil marks were at the correct spot, the markers were the original. WAY OFF.
You can see the holes where the bad ones went, this is the finished item.
Another mistake I made, again on the last diaper (I went back and had to change to the male-end snap attachment, so I did all female then all male). Very last tab on the very last diaper...I put the second from last snap in upside down. This one didn't cause much damage because it was placed correctly, just the wrong way, so I used the old hole to set the right one.
Here is everything I used.
Here is the finished product, minus one diaper which was on my kid at the time.
Here is what the first one I did looked like all snapped up. I improvised the tabs just a little bit on the end. I didn't use the template at all for them, I just went right outside the corners of where the velcro used to be.
On the kid. Not 100% childproof, but much improved!!!!

Tonight I am doing one more snap conversion. I searched the internet and could not find any tutorials on converting a Happy Hiney's diaper from velcro to snaps. I have 3 of their velcro diapers, and one snap diapers, so I am using the snap diaper as my template. The velcro on those is actually pretty good but there is so much of it SO MUCH NASTY STUFF gets stuck in there and I have to use a toothbrush to get it out. Ick.