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Fabric Weekend 2013 & Girls Night Out {Los Angeles}

May 31, 2013

Tomorrow morning I am boarding a plane headed for Los Angeles, California. I will be meeting up with 20+ bloggers to spend the weekend shopping for fabric in the heart of the Fabric District in LA!

To say that I am excited is an understatement! Even as I write this post I am still in disbelief that I am headed to LA. I FINALLY get to meet some of my blogging “friends” who are simply the sweetest and most creative girls I have ever known! Of course I am a little (or a lot) nervous about leaving the kiddos behind and heading across country, but I know it is going to be worth it! A huge thanks to Andrea from The Train To Crazy and Go To Patterns for coordinating the weekend! If not for this trip I’m sure I would never dare navigate the LA Fabric District myself. As you all know I am far from being a city girl. Justine from Sew Country Chick also helped out a lot with the planning. I can’t even imagine the time and effort that was put into making such an event. I want to make sure they know how much we all appreciate all they have done to make this weekend a reality!

Of course I also have to tell you all about the amazing sponsors who are making this weekend possible. Seriously, they are going above and beyond to make this weekend one we will never forget!

Michael Levine is a staple in the Los Angeles Fabric District. Between their main store, the upholstery fabric store and the Loft where you can buy fabric by the pound, you will always walk away with bags of fabric you can’t wait to use. Thankfully they have a great online store as well. Their online brand is lowpricefabric.com and you’ll love it.

Thank you to Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Storesfor sponsoring Fabric Weekend 2013. Even in a fabric heaven like Los Angeles you still know you can find exactly what you need at Jo-Ann’s.

Mood Fabrics has a new and improved store in Los Angeles that is sure to excite anyone interested in apparel fabric. Their online store is also new and improved!

And as if Fabric Weekend wasn’t enough, I am also attending Girl’s Night Out on Saturday night. I finally get to meet Jessica from The Sewing Rabbit and attend one of her GNO events! Nope, this trip could not get any better!!

Make sure you follow me along on Instagram and facebook to see all of the fun we are having…and all of the fabric I am buying. With 2 empty suitcases I sure will be coming home with a lot of it!!

Fabric Cupcakes {fabric bakery part 3}

May 29, 2013

Today I am sharing the third and last tutorial for my little fabric bakery items. Today I am going to show you how I made these cute little cupcakes.Each cupcake consists of a rounded body with a removable cupcake top. You can mix and match these little cupcakes however you want. And to make them even cuter you could add some embellishments to the tops. How cute would some little fabric flowers look on top? And just like with the cakes these are machine washable. I would just recommend air drying them.
The fabric I was given to work with was Peggy Sue from Ro Gregg. Isn’t is simply beautiful?! I was given 1/2 yards of each fabric, which is pictured below. I recommend buying half yards to work with if you are going to make a few cakes (from my other tutorials) as well as some cupcakes. But if you are just going to make the cupcakes then fat quarters and large scraps will be just fine.

Materials Needed: (to make one cupcake)

* Fat quarters or large scrap pieces of fabric.

* 1 bag of batting (don’t worry, you will not use a whole bag)

* 8 1/2″ of 1/2″ wide or smaller anti-roll elastic

*Regular mouth canning jar lid to use as a template for the cupcake

*Templates for the cupcake top (see links below)

Start by printing off the template for the cupcake top. You will need to print off all three pages. Page 1, Page 2 and Page 3. They are labeled as nesting baskets at box, but just ignore that. They are the same templates that I used to make these. I did notice that when I printed the templates off that the margins on the circle templates were a tiny bit off. Don’t line up the circles right next to each other. Just line them up as close to a complete circle as you can. To make the cupcakes you will be using the smaller circle template only. Once you have printed off the circle templates, piece them together and then cut out the smallest circle. Now figure out which fabrics you want to work with. You are going to need one main fabric for the cupcake and then another fabric for the cupcake top. The kids love being able to mix and match the tops. So think of them while your making it.

Cut the following pieces out of fabric:

*Two circle pieces from your main fabric. Use a regular mouth canning jar for the template.

*One piece of your main fabric cut 17″ x 3″

*Cut two circle pieces from the smaller circle template (use a different fabric then what you used above)

Gather the 17″ x 3″ piece of fabric. On the right side of fabric measure and iron at 1″ increments. You want the ironed points to be on the right side of fabric. You are doing this to make little pin-tucks. They will give the “cupcake wrapper” more detail. Pictured below is the wrong side of fabric. It shows you what the wrong side of the fabric will look like once ironed.Using the folded edge as your guide sew on each folded edge. I used a sew seam slightly smaller then a 1/2″ but if you do use a 1/2″ sew seam that is fine too. I made sure the piece of fabric is large enough for you to do so. Iron flat again. Make sure all of the edges are going in the same direction.
Now sew the seams down so that they do not “flap”.Now gather the two smaller circles and the long strip you just made. Start pinning the strip around one of the circles. Right sides together.
Now find the spot where you started pinning the long strip of fabric around the circle. Measure in about 1″ from the end on the strip piece. This is where you want to start sewing around the circle. Stop stitching around the circle about 2″ from where the strip piece will meet. Now pin the remaining fabric around the circle until the strip piece meets. From the middle of where they meet measure your 1/2″ sew seam and then trim away any excess fabric. Now sew the two ends of the strip piece together. Now that the ends are sewn together you can finish sewing the strip piece onto the circle piece. Trust me, it is way harder to explain then to do! Now repeat the steps above with the other small circle piece. This time just remember to leave a 1″ opening for turning right side out.Turn right side out and iron. Working in small batches fill the cupcake with batting. Hand stitch the cupcake closed.Now to make the cupcake top. Cut out two pieces of fabric using the small template that you printed off. Sew right sides together. Leaving a 1″ opening for turning right side out.

Turn right side out and iron flat. Top stitch all around circle.Take your 8 1/2″ piece of elastic and pin it about 1/2″ in from the edge. Now you want to start sewing (with a zig-zag stitch) while you are pulling on the elastic and much as you can. This is a little tricky. Just take your time and work in small sections. I usually sew a few stitches and then pull the elastic tight again. Make sure your needle is down and in the fabric when you go to pull the elastic tight, if not it will pull your stitches and fabric out of place.
Trim off the excess elastic on the end.Now place on top of your cupcake.Aren’t they cute? The girls love being able to mix and match with all the different tops and bottoms.Don’t forget to check out these other tutorials for the handmade fabric bakery.Ruffled Cake Tutorial Tiered Cake Tutorial
I hope you have enjoyed our little handmade bakery as much as we have! If you have any questions or comments please contact me at tw****************@ya***.com .

Ruffled Cake Tutorial {fabric bakery part 2}

May 28, 2013

Yesterday I shared my Tiered Cake Tutorial and today and today I am going to be sharing the tutorial for this cute little Ruffled Cake.
The fabric I was given to use was Peggy Sue from Ro Gregg. Isn’t it simply beautiful? I was given 1/2 yards of each and I would recommend buying half yards to work with as well especially if you are going to make more then one cake or cupcake. Of course you could use something smaller you are just going to have to piece them together to get the correct measurements.

Materials Needed:

* Eight 1/2 yard pieces of fabric (Or scrap pieces that will need to be pieced together.)

* 1 bag of batting or more depending on how many cakes you make and how firm you make them.

Start off by printing the templates for the circle pieces. You will need to print off all three. Page 1, Page 2 and Page 3. They are labeled as nesting baskets but just ignore that. They are the same templates that I used to make these. I did notice that when I printed the templates off that the margins on the circle templates were a tiny bit off. Don’t line up the circles right next to each other. Just line them up as close to a complete circle as you can. When I made my cakes I used the two smallest templates. The larger circle just seemed a little too big for the kiddos to play with. Once you have printed off the circle templates, piece them together and then cut out the middle sized circle out. Now figure out which fabrics you want to work with for your first cake. You are going to need a main fabric for the cake and then another fabric for the ruffles. You are also going to need another fabric for the cake insert or you can use the same fabric as the cover of the cake. The choice is yours. You will start out by making a cover for the insert and then the insert later. I did it this way so that once the cover got dirty you could simply take it off the insert and throw it in the washer. Let’s face it fabric will get dirty when paired with kids play.

Ok, let’s start by making the cake cover.

To make one small ruffled cake cover you will need to cut out:

*From the main fabric cut out one small sized circle and one piece of fabric that measures 22″ x 7 1/2″ for the side. Now cut the 22″ x 7 1/2″ piece of fabric into 1 1/2″ wide strips. You should get 5 of them now measuring 22″ x 1 1/2″.

*From 6 different fabrics cut one piece from each that measures 42″ x 3″ long for the ruffles. If you want your ruffles rufflier, just cut your length longer then 42″ long.

Start by pinning the two short ends of the 42″ x 3″ fabric pieces together. Sew ends.

Iron the seam flat and then fold the whole tube in half. Iron flat. Now ruffle the tube with your sewing machine. On the raw edge just sew with your machine on the largest stitch length. Then gently pull one of the threads to make the fabric ruffle. Use the circle piece of the main fabric as a guide to see how much you should ruffle your piece of fabric. Now pin the ruffled piece around the circle as well as pin one of the 22″ x 1 1/2″ pieces of fabric right side down.

Find the spot where you started pinning the 22″ x 1 1/2″ piece of fabric around the circle. Measure in about 1″ from the end of that side piece. This is where you want to start sewing around the circle. Then stop stitching about 2″ from where the two side pieces will meet. Now pin the remaining fabric around the circle until the two ends meet. From the middle where they meet measure in your 1/2″ sew seam and then trim away any excess fabric. Now sew the two ends of the 22″ x 1 1/2″ piece together. Now that the ends are sewn together you can finish sewing the side onto the circle piece.

Now repeat with the remaining ruffled pieces (42″ x 3″ pieces) as well as the side pieces (22″ x 1 1/2″ pieces). Use a zig-zag stitch or serge raw edges.Use your seam ripper or scissors to clean up all those loose threads. You don’t want any loose threads showing. Turn right side out and iron all the layers.Now you have just made your cake cover. Super easy right?! Now we are going to make the insert for your cake. It is sorta done the same way we made the cake cover but easier with no ruffles.

You will need to cut the following pieces to make one small sized insert:

*Cut out two small circle pieces.

*One piece of fabric that is 22″ x 5″.You are going to assemble the insert just like we did above. Pin the 22″ x 5″ piece of fabric around the circle piece.Find the spot where you started pinning the 22″ x 5″ piece of fabric around the circle. Measure in about 1″ from the end of that side piece. This is where you want to start sewing around the circle. Then stop stitching about 2″ from where the two side pieces will meet. Now pin the remaining fabric around the circle until the two ends meet. From the middle where they meet measure in your 1/2″ sew seam and then trim away any excess fabric. Now sew the two ends of the 22″ x 5″ piece together sew. Now that the ends are sewn together you can finish sewing the side onto the circle piece.Pin the other circle piece to the side piece. Sew all around leaving a 1″ opening for turning right sides out. Turn right sides out. Iron seams. Start stuffing. Work in small bunches. It will give you a more even look. Keep stuffing until you get the firmness you want. I made mine fairly firm.
Stitch opening closed.
Now place the insert inside of the cake cover piece. Pretty darn cute?To make the cake toppers I just made a bunch of ruffled and scrappy flowers. There are a ton of fabric flower tutorials on the web. A quick search will bring you to hundreds of them if you are in need on of. All I did was sew the flowers onto a smaller circle piece so that they could swap them from cake to cake. I made this scrappy bow from a bunch of scrap pieces of fabric tied into little bows.
The next tutorial will be for these cute little cupcakes. They are my little girls favorite pieces in the bakery!

Tiered Cake Tutorial {fabric bakery part 1}

May 27, 2013

Over the next few days I am reposting all of my little fabric bakery items that I made as part of the Blogging Design Ring over at Fabri-Quilt’s blog Inspired by Fabric. Right now my little girls are obsessed with tea parties and play food. And while I have seen a ton of play food made out of felt I have not seen any make out of fabric. So I thought I would attempt to make some cakes and cupcakes out of fabric. Every little girl needs a bakery of her own right? I am so happy with this little bakery of ours! And my little girls…well they couldn’t get their hands on it fast enough.I decided to break up our little bakery items into three different posts. Hopefully this way it will be easier to explain and easier for all of you to follow along. Today I will be sharing the tutorial for the tiered cake. Let me start off by saying how much I love this fabric! It has a vintage look to it, but still has bright colors…something I happen to love! The fabric is Peggy Sue from Ro Gregg. I was given 1/2 yards of each and I would recommend buying half yards to work with as well. I used 4 half yards to make this one tiered cake and still had a lot of fabric left over to make ruffles for another cake as well as some cupcakes.

Materials Needed:

*1/2 yard pieces of fabric (again, how many 1/2 yards you buy depends on how many cakes you want to make and how you want to embellish them.)

* 1 bag of batting or more depending on how many cakes you make and how firm you make them.

Ok, let’s start by making the cake cover.

To make one medium sized cake cover you will need to cut out:

*From the main fabric cut out one medium sized circle and one piece of fabric that measures 27″ x 6″ for the sides.

*In the contrasting fabric cut two pieces that are 52″ x 3″ long for the ruffles. Since you cannot get a piece of fabric 52″ long from one half yard you will need to piece two pieces of fabric together to get that length. And if you want your ruffles rufflier, just cut your length longer then 52″ long.

Start by pinning the two short ends of the 52″ x 3″ fabric pieces together. Sew ends.

Now line up your ruffled piece all around the circle piece. Also pin your 27″ x 6″ piece of fabric on top of your ruffled piece right side down.

Now this part is a little tricky to explain but it is really easy to do. Find the spot where you started pinning the 27″ x 6″ piece of fabric around the circle. Measure in about 1″ from the end of that side piece. This is where you want to start sewing around the circle. Then stop stitching about 2″ from where the two side pieces will meet. Now pin the remaining fabric around the circle until the two ends meet. From the middle where they meet measure in your 1/2″ sew seam and then trim away any excess fabric. Now sew the two ends of the 27″ x 6″ piece together sew. Now that the ends are sewn together you can finish sewing the side onto the circle piece. I explain it this way because no matter how many times I measure it out and sew the sides together before I attach them to the circle they never seem to line up perfectly around the circle, except when I do it this way.Now take the other ruffled piece of fabric and pin it onto the side piece of fabric with raw edges lining up.Sew in place. Zig-zag or serge all the unfinished edges. Fold out and iron seams.
Now you have just made your cake cover. Super easy right?! Now we are going to make the insert for your cake. It is done the same way we made the cake cover but instead we are going to add one more circle to give it a bottom as well as be filling it with batting to give it shape.You will need to cut the following pieces to make one medium sized insert:

*Cut out two medium sized circle pieces.

*One piece of fabric that is 27″ x 6″.You are going to assemble the insert just like we did above. Pin the 27″ x 6″ piece of fabric around the circle piece.Find the spot where you started pinning the 27″ x 6″ piece of fabric around the circle. Measure in about 1″ from the end of that side piece. This is where you want to start sewing around the circle. Then stop stitching about 2″ from where the two side pieces will meet. Now pin the remaining fabric around the circle until the two ends meet. From the middle where they meet measure in your 1/2″ sew seam and then trim away any excess fabric. Now sew the two ends of the 27″ x 6″ piece together sew. Now that the ends are sewn together you can finish sewing the side onto the circle piece.Pin the other circle piece to the side piece. Sew all around leaving a 1″ opening for turning right sides out. Turn right sides out. Iron seams. Start stuffing. Work in small bunches. It will give you a more even look. Keep stuffing until you get the firmness you want. I made mine fairly firm.
Stitch opening closed.
Now place the insert inside of the cake cover piece. Pretty darn cute? To make the smaller cake you will follow the same steps as above but with different dimensions. In order to make the smaller cake you will want to use the smaller circle template. Then cut out the side pieces at 22″ x 6″. And cut the ruffled pieces out at 40″ x 3″. The cakes are cute all by themselves but I think they are even cuter stacked.The next tutorial will show you how to make the ruffled cake and the scrappy flowers. If you have any questions please email me at: twolittlehooligans@yahoo.com.

Bloglovin

May 24, 2013

While I am updating my blog I am finally adding a link over to Bloglovin for those of you who want to follow me that way. There is so much to lean for this non-techie girl!

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

The Seafarer Top

May 24, 2013

Abby from Sew Much Ado just released her Seafarer Top Pattern and I couldn’t pass it by. I love me a good knit tee!

The Seafarer Top pattern is super easy to follow and has pictures with each step. It would be a great beginner project for those of you who have never sewn with knits before. Abby just makes making a cute tee easy. Now I am off to make a few more. The only thing I plan on doing differently this time is making them in a size medium instead of a large. This tee is a little too big for my liking, but it is so comfy I am leaving it as is!

Toddler Dress Refashioned to Toddler Apron {tutorial}

May 23, 2013

After I made my Garden Apron the other day the girls started requesting new aprons for their play kitchen. Instead of making a new apron I decided to refashion one of their old dresses that no longer fit them into an apron. This is such a quick and easy project. It turns a much beloved outgrown dress into a much beloved apron that can be used for years. I love these kinds of projects. I am still wearing my apron that I refashioned from a toddler dress. It is one of my favorites!

Toddler Dress Refashioned to Toddler Apron {tutorial}

Start by finding a dress that is too small, but a favorite. I chose to use one that had lots of ruffles, layers and is a bit twirly. This particular dress was a long sleeved dress but you can choose one that is short sleeved as well. Really any dress will work, you just might have to tackle each one differently.
1.Start by cutting off the arms. Cut near the seams but make sure you cut a good 3/4″ away from where the sleeves attach to the dress. Now cut down the front or back of the dress. I ended up cutting all the way down the front of the dress instead of the back because of a stain, but you can cut down either side. Just keep in mind the type of closure that was used for the dress that also may help you decide which side to use. If there is a zipper or lots of buttons you may want to cut those out or use them as an embellishment. Just think about the ending apron before you get cutting!

2. Cut off the front (or back) bodices pieces. Those were the top pieces that I cut in half when cutting down the length of the dress. Again, leave 3/4″ near the shoulder and skirt part for turning edges over. Below is what the apron looks like right now.

3. Fold over all of the edges twice and iron flat. You want to make sure that you do this so that you don’t have any exposed raw edges. I started where the arm holes would have been then folded the sides where the bodice pieces were. Then I folded the shoulder part and lastly folded over the skirt parts near the waist and continued all the way down the length of the skirt.

4. Sew around all the folded edges.

5. Make three ties. You can use ribbon, lace or fabric to make the ties. As you can see I used some wide lace that I had on hand. Just simply cut the ties to the length you desire. I prefer to make them a little longer so that i can make pretty little bows when tying them. The choice is yours here. You will need to make three ties. Two shorter ties for around the neck and one long piece for around the waist.

6. Attach ties to the apron. Sew the 2 shorter ties onto the apron at the shoulders and the one longer piece around the front of the dress and onto the skirt part of the apron. I just sewed them right onto the back of the dress. No super fancy sewing there.

And that is it! Tie it on and let your little girls enjoy!

Lilacs in bloom

May 21, 2013

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An apron for the garden.

May 21, 2013

We started planting the gardens this past weekend. While we were planting I was really wishing I had that garden apron that has been on my to-do list for years. All I wanted was a simple apron with big pockets in the front for holding the seed packets. With the kiddos helping out more and more each year it would be nice to have both hands free to help them while we are planting. Sunday night I quickly made this apron. It is nothing too fancy, but just exactly what I needed.

I used some turquoise linen fabric that I picked up from the thrift store for $1 and paired it with some leftover fabric I had on hand. I believe I purchased the flowered fabric from JoAnn’s.

I ended up cutting out a circle skirt instead of a regular rectangle piece of fabric for the main part of the apron. Then I slightly ruffled the waist line to give it a full twirly look. I love how the circle skirt puffs the pockets out slightly. Now if it would only stop raining I could finish planting!

Any of you wear an apron when gardening? What is your favorite style?