Smocked Girls Dress
FOIST: Pick out some cute, very light weight material. In my case i used some pin stripe seer sucker. Cut the material, chest width times about 3, and start byt making a tiny rolled hem at the top of the dress. If you have a serger, serg the edge and then fold over about a quarter of an inch, and stitch in place.
THEN:You need some elastic thread... found at joanns. The color of the thread is not so detrimental because it will not be seen.
Now you must tighten the bobbin tension. This is really the tricky part, if you have an older Singer machine you will have to use a penny to turn a dial at the back of you machine, but the newer singer machines have a teensy little screw on the bobbin case itself: the green screw
This is the back side of your fabric:
AFTER you have sewn 4-5 inches of shirring, you can sew the seam up the back, and hem up the bottom. Remember to readjust your bobbin tension. I used a wide hem.
SLEEVES: you can now add ribbon, for a quick strap or you can make gathered sleeves. I cut four inch strips, and made a small rolled hem along both long sides(again if you have a serger you can do it the easy way) Then loosened my top tension to 0 and sewed about a quarter inch from the edge each short side of the sleeve. Then you pull the top thread so that the fabric bunches. Put the dress on your little model or guestimate and pin straps to the inside on your dress and sew on the top seam so as to hide you line.
Finally: let you little lady of society wear her new dress proudly!! Couple it with a stately hat to polish off her tea party look :)
Owl 'Thank You' bookmarks
After Rivers owl birthday we made some thank you book marks, i thought they were way to cute to not do a tutorial!!
THEN:You need some elastic thread... found at joanns. The color of the thread is not so detrimental because it will not be seen.
You can wind it with you regular machine bobbin winder. Then insert it as per you machines directions into the bobbin.
Use your little screwdriver, put it in the provided notch and turn it till the spring is tightened almost completely.
You must also increase the top thread tension to between 7-9, and thread it with coordinating all purpose thread(or whatever thread you have that matches)
NOW: Sew your first smock or shirred line just under the rolled hem, then each subsequent line 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch under the previous. You will need to stretch you material as you sew to get the desired effect.
AFTER you have sewn 4-5 inches of shirring, you can sew the seam up the back, and hem up the bottom. Remember to readjust your bobbin tension. I used a wide hem.
SLEEVES: you can now add ribbon, for a quick strap or you can make gathered sleeves. I cut four inch strips, and made a small rolled hem along both long sides(again if you have a serger you can do it the easy way) Then loosened my top tension to 0 and sewed about a quarter inch from the edge each short side of the sleeve. Then you pull the top thread so that the fabric bunches. Put the dress on your little model or guestimate and pin straps to the inside on your dress and sew on the top seam so as to hide you line. Finally: let you little lady of society wear her new dress proudly!! Couple it with a stately hat to polish off her tea party look :)
Owl 'Thank You' bookmarks
After Rivers owl birthday we made some thank you book marks, i thought they were way to cute to not do a tutorial!!
 |
| Cut out the bookmark size you want, minus a half inch both width wise and hight wise (so the back color will show on the front a quarter inch all the way around) and stamp your first saying I used "your a hoot" from a set of stamps from jo anns |
 |
| stamp a branch and pencil color it in |
 |
| stamp some little owls and color them in |
 |
| exacto knife them out |
 |
| add a stack of two hole punches on the back of your owls |
 |
| and glue it on top of the branch |
 |
| stamp your 'thank you' in black |
 |
| Glue your book mark to the backing , and then punch out some large circles of the same color, and glue them to the top of your book marks |
 | |
|
 |
| stamp the 'thank you' with a glue pad over the black (unless you thought ahead and used a black glue pad) sprinkle with a couple colors of glitter then heat set it with a blow dryer or embossing gun |
 |
| then tie your ribbon though |
Yay bookmarks!! thanks for reading!
