emoflamingo

Appliques: Part 1

2011-05-10T08:49:00.007-05:00

I just started making appliqued shirts. My side business, which shall not be mentioned since it is shameless self promotion and my blog is linked on the Nest and it is against TOS to do so, does some of them and I wanted to help take the load off my mother-in-law, since she works a demanding full-time job on top of this side business we have going.

This will be a (cheating) multi-part post on how to do them. Not necessarily how to actually sew them, but to create them.

I have a folder on my drive that's full of inspiration.

(Yes, I am obsessive-compulsive about my organization. Just on my computer though.)

Once I find something I like online (either a drawing or another shirt I want to copy for myself because I don't like the colors/patterns/etc -- note: the copied shirts are NEVER for sale, always for myself), I save it in to a folder on my storage device.

I searched "car" on google image search, under clip art, and found this cool little jeep. Kind of looks like one used on M*A*S*H and would be perfect for my car obsessed Monkey.

I save it to my computer and open it up in Illustrator.

I lock the layer and then we get to work. Using the pen tool, you trace around the edges. The easiest way to do this is to find a contrasting color and be patient. A few tips: By holding the shift key as you click, the pen tool creates a straight line. When you need to make a curve, click and drag. Two little lines with anchor points come out from your original click point. This will allow you to adjust the curve (see second photo below). If you need to make a straight line again after a curve, just click your original point again and it will omit the curve line from the side you're going in.

Draw the ENTIRE image, saving periodically.

Once you're done drawing it, change your color to black (easier for printing and tracing) and copy it. Make the original super small in the top corner (so you remember how the pieces lay out -- this is essential for REALLY detailed appliques, but not so much for this one. However, if you save them, this is good to do so you can see what it is from the piece at the top).

Paste a second, putting all the pieces in it's own little space like this:

Save again. Print. And get ready to have fun.

If you want to do this shirt and can't draw it, here it is for you to use! Please don't use this for selling, since I don't own the original copyright of the image used AND I created this for you to use for free.

Tomorrow, we will go through the steps of transferring your applique and then sewing onto your shirt! Can't wait. In preparation, get yourself some solid colored (or quilt blenders, but remember to only use small patterns) cotton fabric, a t-shirt (if you're using a dark t-shirt, be sure to either use dark cotton fabric OR high quality light fabric -- it will come through the applique) and some Heat & Bond UltraLight (it's the purple package). Of course, the obvious thread matching the cotton, sewing machine, pencil, scissors, etc.

See you tomorrow!

-Amanda

Boys Shorts How-To

2011-05-09T16:57:00.004-05:00

Boys shorts! So simple, so easy.

First, you need to make yourself a pattern. My fabulous mother-in-law makes mine for me, so this is what a 5T short pattern looks like:

You can probably make your own pattern using a pair of shorts as a guide.

Next, it's time to pin your pattern and cut around it, giving yourself a seam allowance. 1/4" should be good. I didn't really measure because I'm sloppy like that.

Now, you're going to start sewing. Sew along the J shapes (which are the seat and the front of the shorts) at the top. DO NOT SEW ON THE BOTTOM. I usually just straight stitch so that I can do some back stitching at the top and the end.

Once you get the seat and the front sewn, fold it so the seams are in half. I usually try to iron the seams open so it looks pretty, but it's not necessary.

See, looks like shorts!

Pin together the bottom part of the short to create pant legs. Sew with a straight stitch and iron down seams if you want.

Now, create the hem on the short. Sometimes, I get fancy and do a fancy seam (double roll it so that the raw edge is hidden), but mostly I do it with just one fold. It's easier and faster. This shaves about 20 minutes off my time (seriously, I'm slow at ironing).

Now, go to the waist band. Depending on how thick your elastic is, make a tube at the waist of your shorts. Sew ALMOST the entire way around. Leave a spot 2-3 inches open.

Take your elastic and put a big safety pin on one end. It feeds through SO much easier this way. Feed the elastic through the waist band, making sure you don't get it twisted or lose the end.

Once the elastic is fed through all the way, sew the ends together and get the elastic completely into the waistband. Sew the gap closed.

FINALLY...

You have shorts.

They're super simple (in about an hour, I managed to sew this pair that I already had cut out and then ironed fabric, cut out a second pair and sewed those up real quick) and you can embellish them some as well.

I made this pair for DS for Easter with pockets!

For pockets, before you sew your panels together, take a rectangle and iron the edges in. Sew across the top of the pocket, then place it on the short and sew it on the other three sides.

Ta-da!

Long winded, but I tried! :)

Amanda

Kicking off Kids Clothes Week Challenge!

2011-05-09T16:52:00.003-05:00

It's Kids Clothes Week Challenge this week! Yay!

I've got a lot of plans for the week. Including a quick "how to" on making shorts for boys and some appliques. Can't wait to share them with you!

I'm going to "officially" start in my next post. Only because I forgot to post this yesterday. :x It was Mother's Day, so I feel like I get a pass. :P

Amanda

Update on Life

2011-05-07T16:18:00.003-05:00

Well, it's been awhile again.

I went through and deleted a lot of posts, mostly because they were old and the photo links were broken. I cleaned out my Photobucket account awhile back and oops, those were actually in use.

It's been a rough year already and it's only May. In January, I went part-time at my job. And then, at the end of January, my position was eliminated all together. After a little panic, we made it work. I have spent the better part of the last 4 months focusing on the little business I started with my mother-in-law and sister-in-law and it's been going well.

Monkey is growing like a weed. He is 4 now, almost 4 and a half, and he is ornery. He gets into everything and destroys everything. He loves anything with wheels and, right now, dinosaurs.

Things with the husband are also going great. He is almost finished with the restoration of his first Norton Commando. It's all he can talk about. Seriously, I know more than I want to know about it. It's been a bonding experience (and an expensive experience) between him and his step-father and I think he's enjoyed it.

As for me, well.. I'm trying new things. Like t-shirt appliques! I taught myself how to do it with a sewing machine. The smallest size I have done so far is 24 months and I don't know how well I will do with anything smaller.

I plan to write more. About crafts. About life. Maybe post some applique designs. For free. Yep, I'm kind of cool.

Amanda

Cleaning it up.

2011-05-07T15:28:00.000-05:00

I'm clearing out some old posts.

So I can make some new ones. :)

-Amanda

Cowboy Birthday Party: Check.

2010-01-12T20:41:00.000-06:00

Cameron turned 3 just before New Year's and this year, we wanted to do one last party that didn't revolve around a TV show. So I picked out a cowboy theme. Which was unbelievably hard to do since no one really has cowboy stuff around. Even in the country!

For the invitations, I used my trusty Adobe Illustrator, a quick Google search (for "cowboy vector," because I didn't want to do it myself) and a trip to dafont.com for a couple of fonts.

(Just as a note, the fonts I used were VTKS Bandana and Traveling Typewriter, both from dafont.com)

After that, it was all a rush to get everything together. I bought bandana-print napkins, sheriffs badges, cowboy hats and bandanas from Oriental Trading Company. Trust me, they're great. I ordered it on day 1 (I have forgotten WHAT day that was), it was marked as shipped on day 2 and on day 3, my package was here. I was ready to wait for a week or so to get it, so this was a surprise -- and kind of bad, because I had no where to put it so the box sat in my kitchen on the floor for a couple of weeks. Oops!

Then, I decided to make cupcakes with my new mixer. I got a package of Ghiradelli cupcake mixes from Sam's Club to make at my house and bought some yellow cake mix and white frosting to have my sister make. We used gold cupcake cups because a) I had them in the Ghiradelli package and b) gold was what everyone wanted in the Old West, so why not?

And then I went overboard and made cupcake toppers. I got four sheets of 12x12" bandana print paper from Hobby Lobby, a scallop circle punch (which I got with a coupon, thank goodness -- the thing jammed, then fixed thanks to the father-in-law and was a little warped, so it was hard for little 5-foot-1, 120-pound me to use so my mother-in-law helped), glue dots, double stick tape, leftover white card stock and some flat toothpicks. My sister-in-law went into labor (YAY!) and so we did this all in the span of a couple of hours (maybe one and a half) while we waited for the baby to come.

One side says "Howdy partners!" with the same bucking bronco silhouette behind it and the other side, which is blue bandana print, says "Happy 3rd Birthday Cameron!" in red print. This font was Panhead and the reverse, which isn't pictured, was Giddyup STD, which I must have purchased long ago and forgotten about it.

The party was a hit. We made a bunch of food, which I'll post about tomorrow, and had a grand old time.

For now, I shall end this link-and-picture laden post now.

Amanda

Debut: The Kitchen

2009-11-02T14:00:00.000-06:00

Here it is!

This is where the microwave was, but now it holds my toaster, the cook books, the can opener and the George Foreman, which was H's input.

My pretty sink. The faucet is Caldwell Moen and the sink is Franke.

The pretty porcelain egg carton that I found at TJ Maxx, purchased because of YHL, that holds my rings while I wash dishes. (Pardon the naked outlet, I have to go buy those this week.)

Counter space. Ahhhh. Love it.

More counter space.

The new microwave, dishwasher and the (old) stove. We swapped the stove and the fridge so that we could have counter space next to the stove for easier food prep.

Just have a few things left to do, like touch up some paint spots, buy the outlet covers, etc, but it's finished. I'm so happy I ran the dishwasher twice today.

Amanda

What's Up in the Flamingo House?

2009-09-22T11:16:00.001-05:00

Well, that's a tough question.

I started school again, which is always rough. Then we decided to go ahead and start finishing up the house. Which included dropping $665 on plumbing repairs and buying a new dishwasher. Now, my kitchen and bathroom look like this:

Our new shower head. Our old shower head had NO water pressure. This one is like heaven.

The new fixtures down below. The one that was on it was literally falling off the wall. This one is MUCH nicer. Now that we have water pressure, the little man can take actual baths with water and soap, not just about an inch of water (or a shower, which is what we've been doing the last year and a half of his life).

The hole in the pantry cabinet. We luckily had copper pipes going up, but our outgoing pipes were not, so they replaced them with PVC.

Under the sink.

Where the dishwasher USED to be.

We have to wait to install a spacer piece in the corner to spread things out since last time there was a dishwasher installed there, they took out the pulls on the drawer and door (that's open) and shoved it in the corner so it rubbed on the cabinets instead.

So now, we're picking out (and ordering) new counter tops. We're going with a laminate, since this house is not worth anything more expensive, called Blackstar Granite. It looks amazing in person, not like it's laminate! Our Home Depot had a display with the same tone cabinets (with the grain and everything!) and this counter top and it looks really nice. It will de-countrify the Oak a lot, I think. My father-in-law is going to help us install it (he installed my mother-in-law's solid surface counters. Twice, actually, once in their old house they tore down and once in the new one they rebuilt and reused a lot of the stuff from their old house.) I'm trying to convince him to let me take the tile backsplash down and replace it too, but I guess I can settle for replacing the single apple decorative tiles and regrouting the whole thing instead.

And as a complete review of the Twist sponges, they're awesome. Really. Some of the scrubby part on one of my sponges has loosened up a little, but it's still intact. I think it's because I used that one for too long without washing it and giving it a little rest. But since I don't have a dishwasher at the moment, it won't get a rest until I do have one.

Have a great Tuesday!

-Amanda

Finally - The Map!

2009-07-20T18:07:00.000-05:00

It's done! I finally managed to hang the DIY art (my 1959 map of our city) this weekend when the little man went with his aunt for the night. I think it might be a little high, but I have a few tall friends (and one lone tall relative) so I'm not going to lower it. I wish I had gotten a bigger frame because it was just a half inch too tall so I had to fold it, but I didn't want to mess with having it matted, since it would be a special size mat and... I'm too lazy to do my own since I don't have a fancy mat cutter.

I feel better having it up on the wall now. Looking at H sitting in the chair at the moment and I take it back, it's not too tall at all. I like it. Now I just need a table (or a set of simple nesting tables). And maybe some smaller framed art to go next to it. Post cards, old family photos, I haven't decided yet.

-Amanda

The party is over!

2009-06-15T18:19:00.000-05:00

My sister graduated from high school in mid-May and since my brother was coming home the weekend after, we postponed her party until mid-June so he could get used to being home before we threw a bunch of people at him. Instead of getting a cake, we made 144 cupcakes. Yes, we're crazy. And since they were all different flavors, I made cupcake cards!

All the cards together.

Close up of the cards.

I used Adobe Illustrator to make the cupcake in the corner, added a border and the name of the cake and frosting we used, then I printed them all out on card stock left over from our wedding (three years ago!) and cut them to size. I then used five adhesive strips to put them on the blue scrapbook paper from one of my huge books and then trimmed them again. The font is called Pea Heidi Jo, I believe, and I downloaded it from kevinandamanda.com (seriously, just a coincidence that her name is also Amanda!) from their Peas collection. I have a soft spot for handwriting fonts (I don't know why though) so I have quite a few of the fonts from the Pea collection.

I also made her some thank you cards for all the cards she got. Instead of writing "thank you" on them, I put her name so that she can use them for other things instead of having a package of thank you cards she won't use again. And she loved them. :)

Now that that's over, I can get started on other things. Like my butterfly wall art and maybe finally getting that quilting thing going. :P

-Amanda