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Melissa

The Polkadot Chair
www.polkadotchair.blogspot.com

Skirt Tutorial

So for about 1 month, I've been stuck inside due to sick kids.... my only outings seem to be to Dr.'s offices or Church... I'm beginning to lose my mind I think... Today while surfing the net to "destress" after my 7 yr old puked all over my car, I found that cute skirt on the Heather Bailey website... I LOVED IT!!! I finally felt like making something! Luckily I stash fabric, and the skirt doesn't take more than 1 yard of a couple of prints... I even had the t-shirt laying around. I love it when I can make a craft and don't have to buy anything for it!


Okay, here is the tutorial for the skirt. Tonight after I got home from church I decided that it was not fitting her right. My daughter is very tiny and the skirt is very full. I decided that it needed a waistband to help the transition from the full skirt to the smaller waist.
btw--- poor kid was throwing up today but I HAD to try it on her ... she was such a good sport and even flashed me a smile.

To make the skirt I started with a tutorial here... House on Hill Road. I can't leave well enough alone and ended up making some changes. It needed some ric-rac.. I love ric rac.. If I were not 35 years old I would sew it to my own clothes!
First of all- it is IMPEARATIVE that you PRESS and steam each piece AS YOU GO.. Don't wait until the end to do it all.. this is the biggest thing you can do to make your garment look professional and not home-made.

First the pattern...
You need:
2 pieces for the skirt top
2 pieces for the underskirt
2 pieces for the skirt band
1 piece for the waistband
To figure out the size of the skirt top, measure your daughters waist... and double it. Sydney's waist was 20" so I cut 2 pieces of fabric 12" x 40"....she is about a size 6x-7. (I picked the 12" length after I measured how long I wanted it to be on her)
For the underskirt add 3" to the length of the top skirt.... and cut two more pieces... so 2 pieces 15"x40"
For the skirt band cut 2 pieces 3.5"x40"
For the waistband measure your daughter's hips and add 2"... Syd's were 24" so I cut 1 piece of fabric 26"x4".... or just add 4-5" to the waist measurement.

To attach the band to the skirt, refer to the tutorial above.
After you have done that, sew the underskirt pieces together at the side seams. Press open.
To attach ric rac to the hem of the skirt, do the following:
The bottom of the skirt will need to be finished in some way before you sew on the ric rac, I just used the overcast stitch, you can also use a zig zag stitch or a serger.




Next pin the 2 skirt pieces together.
Run 2 rows of gathering stitches along the top of the 2 skirt pieces. Set aside. On waistband piece, sew side seams and fold under one side 1/4" and press. Fold under again 1/2" and press. Then sew along bottom edge, leaving open 1/2" to make elastic casing.

Gather skirt and attach to waistband. When I gather skirts, I think it is easier to gather in sections rather than the whole skirt, that way if the thread breaks you don't lose the whole piece.

Sew skirt to the UNFOLDED edge of waistband.

Measure a piece of 1/4" elastic to size and thread into waistband. Sew casing closed.

Press!

Viola! Finished!
Now to make some changes to the t-shirt---- where is a bedazzler when you need one? (I don't have one any suggestions to add some "bling" to the shirt).

Just had to make one...

Have you seen this???
I saw it today and just had to make one... I think I was born with the "figure it out" gene, either that or the "impatience" gene.. because I saw that the pattern had to be bought... I didn't want to wait for it, so I figured it out today...
The skirt was soo simple, it only took about 2 hrs to sew... I've got stuff ready for a tutorial that I'll post later today...
oh- forgive my model, she has been puking all day and there may or may not be throw up in her hair... (yes, gross I know)

Dessert Idea...

After we had our twins, the thought of getting a babysitter and waiting in line and an insanely busy restaurant on Valentines day lost it's appeal. The last several years we have done a special family dinner.... we decorate the dining room, eat on our fancy china and have yummy food. the only catch, I am the one that prepares the food...

This Valentines day I took the task of trying to replicate one of our favorite dishes. There is a restaurant in Provo called La Dolce Vita.. it has the BEST chicken Parmesan I have ever eaten. (it was better than some of the food we got in Italy)...They serve it with homemade sauce and side of creamy pasta.... So I pounded the chicken thin, made homemade marinara sauce and homemade fettuccine Alfredo... When I was looking at this menu, I was thinking "this is going to be alot of work"... I knew that I had to simplify the dessert portion, no homemade red velvet cake or cheesecake this year...

So instead I made a batch of the BEST brownies... the Barefoot Contessa's Outrageous Brownies (recipe can be found on foodnetwork.com) then cut them out with a heart shaped cookie cutter...these brownies are very dense so they are perfect to use with cookie cutters, they really hold their shape. I served them with store bought cookies and icecream and threw on a couple of choc. covered strawberries (you have to melt the choc. for the brownies so I already had some choc. melted, so the strawberries just took a minute to dip)... I thought it turned out really cute and saved me some time too!

Finished YW Clocks...

Michele uploaded a picture of the clocks we made for our Young Women.

Check it out here

Some Past projects...

Here are a few projects that I have completed a while ago but never shared here...  I'm sharing them now mostly because I am testing my new template... so here goes:

This is a dress I made for a friends baby girl last year... the fabric is from Heather Bailey, I can't remember the pattern but if you want to know- I'll look it up- just leave a comment.


This is part of a "feature" wall in my daughters room. She loves fashion, so when we found these prints at Z gallerie I knew they would work in her room (btw... since z gallerie is going out of biz these are on clearance now). I had the quote cut from vinyl.
This is an "organizational" project I have yet to perfect. This is our mud room. The purpose of these clipboards is to hold any notes, permission slips, homework sheets etc.. for each of the kids.  I hung them from some stars I had left over from our last house.  The top sheet is their chore chart... 1 check for each thing they do each week... then payment for total # of checks. It works great when we remember to keep it up- keeping it up is usually the problem.

Our mudroom is set for a "revamp" in the next few weeks, so these will have to move... we will see where they "end up".  I have loved having them as a 'catch all' for the kids papers so I am going to try to keep them.

I'm workin' on it...

I'm working on my blog template today... I know it's "messed up" please forgive.... I'll have it fixed in no time...

I'm updating my links to the side, if you are not included and would like to be, just leave me a comment I'll add you... and I'd love to be added to your link list.

Clockface for YW theme...

At church we have an annual theme for the youth programs. The one this year is a scripture from 1 Timothy.

I work with the teenage girls at church and our group of leaders wanted something for them to put in their rooms this year to remind them of the theme. We came up with the idea of a clock... We purchased cheap clocks at IKEA, and I am, as we speak in the process of spray painting the frames black. Then we will use scrapbook paper for the face. (I'll post a finished picture)

One of the other leaders came over last week and we were able to come up with a design for the clock face that I am so excited about that I thought I would share. We are going to print it on a transparency film then "embellish" it up to make it cute.

**** Also... since the image is copyrighted by 2P's and Heidi Swapp please don't copy the image to your harddrive... but feel free to use the "idea" you can buy the fonts at http://www.twopeasinabucket.com/ and the clock digital image at http://www.heidiswapp.com/

Links

I am finally spending some time improving my blog today... I put up a bunch of links of places I like to visit in cyber space... enjoy!

now on to fix the design... (not as easy :-))

Valentines Banner

Last week I made this banner for Valentines day... The "bases" are an image from the Cricut Storybook cartridge, set at 5.5" and the pattern paper is cut to 4x6... The letters are 4" from the same cricut cartridge.
I was able to go through my "stash" to get stuff to make it and ended up using some paper that I bought at Costco ages ago... I love when I can use stuff that I have had laying around for a while.

It's pretty easy to assemble, I did put eyelets in the upper corners to help the paper from tearing.

Scrapbook Calendar...

I have a friend who's birthday is Dec. 30th.. so close to the start of the new year and perfect timing for a "year in the life" calendar.

Each page has a calendar for that month and a place for a photo and journaling. The idea I had was to have her take a picture that represented that month and at the end of the month jot down some thoughts/feelings for that month so by her next birthday she would have a keepsake of that year of her life.

All supplies, Close to My Heart

Christmas Card Keepsake Box....

I had an idea this year to make a box to keep Christmas cards in each year. Originally I was going to make it for me, but the idea evolved and I ended up giving them to my family members this year. (so far not one for me, but there is still time) After I had the box idea I thought it would be nice to include a "mini" scrapbook inside. So I used some digital kits that I had and made some covers out of chipboard and bound it all using my bind it all. Voila! mini scrapbook. There are 10 pages all together, with pages like, our Christmas Card, Letter to Santa, Photos & Memories. The book fit inside the box, so it is a nice keepsake of Christmas this year, a box of cards along with a few quick memories.

*** the boxes are from Close to My Heart and are plain white, you can order them from me. I got the chipboard for the books from clearbags.com... digital images from designerdigitals.com

Neighbor Gift

Here is an idea for a quick neighbor or teacher gift (it's what I gave my kids teachers/bus drivers) and some friends and neighbors this year.

I found a place online to order bulk popcorn buckets (like you get at the movie theater) and popcorn seasoning (we have a "movie" popcorn maker at home so I guess I have popcorn on the brain this year). I put the popcorn seasoning in jars I found for .99 then added an assortment of candy bars (love Costco), a cup of unpopped popcorn and some popcorn bags to serve it in. Along with a note telling them to take a break this season and enjoy a movie with their family at home. I'm happy with how it turned out- and I still have a bunch of popcorn buckets- so I might have to come up with some more ideas for them..