Back with a dress, a trip to Pocono Mountains and time to get back to Halloween costumes

I am so excited to getting back to sewing. My arm is feeling much better even though I still have 7 stitches to be removed. I sewed this beautiful dress in 2 hours on Friday. I only had 1/4 yard of this corduroy print left from another project, so I decided to use it wisely with that pink solid I had. I was able to pull it off and the result was this dress. 

I have never done a tie-back dress before, but figured it out and realized, its no-brainer at all. He is a close-up of the bodice.  

Why did I make this dress? For a trip to the Pocono mountains. Ironically I didn't get any good shot of BN in this dress while we were there. 

Beautiful Pocono Mountains is a 2 hour trip from our place. My family was going through some high tides and we needed some time away from home, and it was a long weekend here in the U.S. So off we went. We loved the fall colors and now AN wants us to move to the Poconos! Look at these pictures, who wouldn't want to move there...If only they had more technology jobs up there, but hey, wait, if technology comes in natural beauty would say bye-bye. So I guess you can never have technology and nature together in harmony. AN, sorry! Unless we win mega millions, there is no moving to Poconos in the near future. 

Look at it. It spells HEAVEN

Bumper Boat Ride

Horse back riding

How often you get to be in woods, up on your car's roof rack! Ha. 

Now that everybody is back on their schedules at home, I want to get back to finishing the Halloween costumes, superman & super girl. I can't wait to see AN & BN wearing those and having a blast this Halloween. 


Thanks for stopping by. Have a great week ahead!

Waiting to get better

Still can't use my right arm. My son is losing his confident on me. He doesn't think I will feel better and finish his Halloween costumes on time. Yesterday we were at the Gymboree Outlet and he kept pointing at the doctor and skeleton costumes. I assured him I will be fine soon, he nods his head.


Meanwhile, I have some beautiful pictures of SN & BN we took over the weekend. It was BN's Hindu lunar Calendar birthday. 

He loves to play fire fighter! Loves the thought of emergencies, ambulances, fire etc.

Trust me. she is nothing like that in real. 

Oh, I can't wait to get back to using my right arm. Its so much easier and faster. 

Thanks for stopping by.

A cut! Bummer :-(

Guess what? I got a cut. Pretty good cut on my wrist. From a cup! Yes, a cup. I walked back to my kitchen with a ceramic cup, slipped & fell, the cup broke into pieces, pierced into my wrist. 


Next steps? Freaked out, called 911, called the baby sitter, EMT came over, off to the hospital, 10 stitches, back home, tired myself to sleep, woke up, called in sick at work, Now updating blog with left arm fingers.


Ha.See that? Most precisive blog post ever! Lesson learned? Don't run with a ceramic cup on a tiled (and possibly wet) kitchen floor. 


No sewing for at least a week, Bummer, since I had lot of projects partially done :-(


May be I can get my ideas together meanwhile. Will figure out something.

Weekend Adventures and Karate Uniform

The weekend turned out to be hectic, busy and fun!  AN started his Karate Semester with mommy-made uniform. I used a pattern, because I don't do good when it comes to drafting sleeves and tops of boys clothes. AN was so happy, and started pulling Karate moves right away…

 And after Karate, off we went to community day and Farm festival, SN and I were so happy to see AN & BN enjoying it all. For the past few days BN is singing a lot, having a lot of fun. She just turned 2 last Wednesday, she must be liking the toddler-hood!

Thanks for stopping by!

Tutorial - 20 Minute Knit Leggings for little girls (with regular sewing machine)

Remember here, I explained my trouble with sewing knits? Right – It just wasn't coming out OK with my Brother CS6000i. I tried all the different methods and tips and tricks out there in the blog land. Then one day, I decided to get another kind of knit and try the whole thing all over again. It worked! Not just worked, worked. Worked like a charm! I made a few pairs of Cotton Lycra® knit leggings for BN. 

I am loving the whole sewing with knits thing! I thought I could never do it, and I needed the right gear, and by right gear I mean a Serger. So when I could do it successfully not just one time, multiple times, I thought I owe it to the world to share my experience with this, so here it is. Here is the best part. Its super easy, won't take you more than 20 minutes and you will never buy leggings again, why would you, while you can make them yourself with fun prints and colors! 

How to make Cotton Lycra ® leggings in 20 minutes or less with/without a Serger
All fabric measurements here are what I used for BN, my 2 year old little girl. Please adjust measurements as per your sweetie's body type. FYI, BN is too tall and too thin for her age. 

Pre-requisites
There really isn't a need for a prerequisites section, everybody knows the tell tale stories of buying/getting appropriate fabric prior to sewing etc. But I figured, maybe there are some starters out there looking to conquer the fear of sewing with knits, and so here it is.

1. Cotton Lycra® fabric, ¼ yard or less– (I got mine at Spandex World in NYC, $3 per yard, they sell in 1 yard increments only)
2. 1/4 inch elastic (you will need approximately ¾ of your little girl's waist size)
3. 75/11 Stretch Needle (or the stretch needle that your machine requires)
4. Leggings pattern or (a pair of well fitting pants/leggings/tights and Paper to draft your own pattern)
5. Polyester coated on Polyester Thread (Polyester has more stretch than cotton thread, very important, when sewing with knits)
6. Sewing machine, pins, scissors, and any other fancy tools you can't sew without

The pattern
I used my daughter's Capri leggings she used this summer and drafted my own pattern. I know it fits well so I traced around it and added some length to it. As soon as I finish writing this, I am going to go and see if I can scan my traced pattern and upload for you. Can't guarantee, but will try my best. Here is a quick overview of what you need to do.

Lay out your choice of drafting paper. I used the back of last year's picture calendar from work Flip the legs of a well fitting pair of tights/pants/leggings to the right and trace around it Now keeping the mid line as a guide, flip the legs to the left and trace around the left legs Adjust length based on your sweetie's body measurements and your preferences for this Fall/Winter

The Cutting
Now you need to lay out your home made or commercial pattern on the fabric folded to get two pieces and cut. Allow for seam allowances of ¼ inch if it's not already in the pattern piece. Cut with confidence, knits seem to have trouble cutting well in the bottom layer, especially if you show any hesitation to cut!

See that? I got 2 symmetric pieces

To the machine – Trip 1 

Now is the fun part! Flip your fabric right sides together. Now, you have to sew around the upper section of the leg, see picture below and you'll know what I am taking about. Please use the triple stretch stitch on a regular sewing machine (if you have a Serger, you know what to do). 

See that? Both sides are finished now. 

To the machine – Trip 2
OK, now we have to take the fabric and spread the legs apart (remember, it's still right sides together) so it looks more like leggings. See below. Now you have to sew around the legs, remember to use triple stretch stitch if you have a regular sewing machine. After that, I finished the edges with a stretch zig-zag stitch. You really don't have to finish the raw edges, but I liked the look. I am sure you'll too. 

See that? The edges look really nice! I didn't know I could do that with a combination of stretch zip zag and triple stretch stitch! A row of triple stretch stitch and finished the raw edges with stretch zip-zag (not the regular zig zag)

To the machine – Trip 3
Turn the leggings right side out. Slip ¼ of the leg openings inside and sew around it. I did not do this step as I know the fabric wasn't going to ravel, but if you like perfectly finished wearable's go ahead and finish the leg openings. 

To the machine – Trip 4
You are almost done. Now is the time to make elastic casing. Fold the waist raw end and sew a 5/8 narrow hem. Then fold it once again with a ¼ inch or more seam allowance and sew around the waist edge using the triple stretch, *do not* sew it closed, leave a little opening for us to insert the elastic. You really don't have to use the elastic, if: a) your fabric is a good 4-way stretch fabric b) you cut the waist a little narrower than it should be. If you pass the conditions a and b above, just sew it closed now, otherwise, we need to pass the elastic from one end using a safety pin and pull it out from the other end. Then you can sew the elastic together. Now you need to sew the opening closed. 

See how I measured ¾ of the waist? 

Final: Mark the back of the leggings
With the clothing items I make, I like to mark the behind with a tag. Now I really don't have a brand name for the things I make. So what I do here is, use a nice thin ribbon, strip a piece of it using the pinking shears and attach it to the back of the waist band or neck band, so it's easy for everybody to know which is back and which is front. We adults can probably figure that out, but kids need little pointers that help them along the way. I don't have a picture of it, but I am sure you can do it.

All done! Yay! It took me less than 20 minutes, with the second one it took around 15 minutes. 

Enjoy!

Back in business!

My "Brother" started behaving good now. We had all the plans to take him apart and fix him, but may be the threatening worked. There is this one little thing I did, which, I think may have fixed the issue. I changed from the 75/11 Universal needle that Singer makes to the 75/11 Universal needle that Schmetz makes. It started working like a charm. Lesson learned? Will never buy Singer universal needles.

OK, I will very complete all the tutorials and projects I am working on and post here. But I have to finish the Karate costume for Saturday's Karate class. I have completed the pants, and part of the top. Need to finish the sleeves, the belt and neckline. Will be done with everything soon, and I will get some time to do things useful for eveybody, like tutorials!.

Thanks for stopping by!

Man Proposes God Disposes

That's my situation in a nutshell now. I have projects after projects lined up, I got all the fabric I need, and I am in the middle of a tutorial, and guess what? My sewing machine is acting up. Stitches are not coming out right. There is something wrong with the tension. I tried all the settings I possibly can. Tonight I am taking the machine apart. By "I" I mean SN. He is going to help me remove the link if any in the bobbin case. I've read that lint could cause the stitches to go all wacky. 


I hope it is fixed soon. I have a karate uniform to finish by Friday... AN starting a Karate Semester on Saturday. He is looking forward to it!