by Sherri Sylvester | Jun 11, 2015
Sooooo… I’ve been hoarding this fabric since last summer, because, of course – it is the super popular Cotton + Steel Mustang fabric from last spring’s collection. (Of course!)
Lately, though, I have been thinking that hoarding gorgeous fabric just means it sits on my shelf. So I’ve been using it up instead. Now it’s a cute First Day top (and a sunglasses case) and I have some left over for something else. I’m thinking tiny shorts maybe?
This top is a wearable muslin for the Tula Pink Elizabeth First Day dress I made my youngest last month. She’s grown a bit since last summer’s First Day dress so it’s a good thing I made a muslin for this one! Turns out, since this version does not have an empire waist, that she needs a size 7 around and a size 4 length, neckline and shoulder. I love that this pattern is so well put together. It’s super easy to alter!
I hadn’t made a top from this pattern as yet and I can see making a lot more. The dress is already quick, and the top is a bit faster and uses less fabric. LOVE that I can fit these into the smaller pieces I have left over from my projects.
I bought this fabric from Fabric Spark last summer, so it is now out of stock – you can check out their current Cotton + Steel stock though. Watch out – you might need all of them!
Reader Feedback: What is your go-to girl’s dress pattern? Or little boy’s shirt, if that works better for you!
Thanks for reading. Follow along and don’t miss a post!
by Sherri Sylvester | May 22, 2015
Every year my kids are about to finish school and I am rushing around like a crazy person finishing up gifts for the teachers, kindergarten helpers, lunch ladies and bus drivers. Well not this year. This year it will NOT get the better of me because I am finished early – a whole month early! (insert silly ecstatic grin here) And, if your children finish earlier than the end of June, hopefully this post will the benefit you too.
This year everyone is getting a Sunny Glasses Case, and to make it more fun, I made a little printable card in the shape of sunglasses – because they’re just so cute! The Sunny Glasses Case is one of my most popular free tutorials, and it’s also really quick! Once they are cut out you can sew one in about 1/2 an hour. And if you are making 5 (or 9) of them assembly-line style they are even faster. – You’ll have to trust me, the tutorial is deceptively long. You’ll have it sewn before you know it!
The Sunglasses Case tutorial has 5 options – velcro, magnetic snap or button & elastic closure, add a swivel clip or make a car visor version. It works equally well for men and women, especially great for any male teacher gifts you need! Plus they use very little fabric – great for getting rid of your scraps.
The fabric for these cases are all Cotton + Steel prints from Fabric Spark (sponsored). A few of them are sold out, since I’ve been hoarding them since last year – but don’t be disappointed – check out the rest of their amazing Cotton + Steel stock. And they still have my favorite Black and White Study Hall (pencil print).
I designed the printable in 4 color-ways, because I like choice! And the sunglasses should match your fabric, right?! There are three pre-coloured cards and one you can colour in yourself (or your kids… whatever works!). Print it out, write inside, put it in your Sunny Glasses Case and wrap it up – Done!
FREE PRINTABLE:
CLICK HERE to download the “Have a Sunny Summer Card” FREE Printable!
Please use my patterns/tutorials for your personal projects, gifts and charitable fundraising events. Please do not sell anything made with this printable. Contact me for more information: sherri@threadridinghood.com
PRINT YOUR CARD:
Download the free printable by clicking on the link above. Select whichever colour you’d like by selecting only that page for printing. Set your printer to print on cardstock at 100% actual size (no scaling). The outer rectangle will print out at about 3 3/4″ high.
FOLD YOUR CARD:
1) Cut along the solid line, large outer rectangle. 2) Fold the card in half length-wise, crease well. 3) Cut along the dotted lines (while folded) to shape the top of the card. 4) Write inside and you are done!
I am extra excited about some fun things planned for next week. (ahem…*giveaway!*…cough) See you again soon! I hope you have a wonderful weekend.
Thanks for reading! Follow along to get more great tutorials and posts:
Don’t feel like sewing a Sunglasses Case yourself? Check out these Licensed Sunny Glasses Case Sellers. Are you a seller that would like to buy a Licence to Sew and Sell the Sunny Glasses Case Pattern? If you are interested in selling sunglasses cases made with this pattern you can buy a license here and receive an instant pdf download!
Disclaimer: Fabric Spark provided the fabric I used to make these sunglasses cases for a discount. They are also a sponsor of this blog. Thanks for reading!
by Sherri Sylvester | May 13, 2015
How are you doing this week? Good I hope? I’m well – and feeling a tad behind – but my list is my own, so maybe I should not try to be so productive?! I’m excited to be working on more than one secret project right now. And that means I get to show you other things I’ve made in the past month! I love having a backlog of projects to post about, it makes me feel like I’m actually on top of things.
Oooh! And can I talk about how much I LOVE this fabric? 16th Century Selfie is part of Tula Pink’s latest collection – Elizabeth. It’s amazing, super intricate and Tula Pink has somehow managed to get the facial expression perfect – as usual. She even stares at you while you are sewing! I’ve polled quite a few people and apparently it’s a love-it or hate-it kind of fabric – what do you think?
I love Fabric Spark’s description of Tula Pink’s latest collection “Elizabeth“ – Daryl writes:
“I’d use {these fabrics} everywhere, for bedding/quilts, drapes, chair cushions, pajamas, the lot. But do it with a sense of humour – why be a princess when you can be a queen.”
So true – a Queen it is! My smallest princess loves her “fancy lady” dress! (and I love the vintage buttons on the back!) This is another Creativ Festival project that I made for Fabric Spark to display in their booth. I used my favorite easy/fast/cute pattern – the First Day Dress from MADE. I have used this pattern to make dresses so many times (listed at the bottom of this post) – and I made a couple of peplum tops you haven’t seen yet too!
Since I’ve already written a lot about the First Day dress in previous posts, I’ll refrain from too much gushing here – suffice is to say that if you like quick projects the First Day Dress pattern is for you. I think my favorite part is the fact that a circle skirt doesn’t require any gathering and still gives the girls’ dresses their required twirl factor.
It’s an amazing base pattern with sleeves (or not) an a-line top/dress and peplum top and circle skirt dress, + lined or partially lined with an attached or unattached lining. Enough already! If this pattern had set-in sleeves it would be 120% perfect.
Spring Bloom Giveaway Winner!
I realized earlier this week that I had not yet let you know that the winner of the Spring Bloom Fat Quarter set was: Mary L! She just received her bundle this past Monday and emailed to let me know. I can’t wait to see what she will make with it!
You can find the Elizabeth “16th Century Selfie” fabric I used for the dress bodice at Fabric Spark in two colourways: Sky or Tart, or check out Fabric Spark’s stock of Tula Pink’s Elizabeth Collection. The lining is a solid from Fabric Spark’s Free Spirit collection. {The skirt fabric is Elizabeth “Chain Mail” in the Sky colourway and is unfortunately sold out at Fabric Spark.}
Other First Day Dress posts:
Disclaimer: I received the fabric for this dress at no cost in exchange for this post and its use at the Fabric Spark booth during Creativ Festival. All of my opinions are my own and I won’t take on projects I don’t believe in. Thanks for reading!
by Sherri Sylvester | May 6, 2015
I feel like a re-run of The Sound of Music. Mixing one of my favorite scenes (The Favorite Things Song) with the “play-clothes made from curtains” scene! I didn’t realize until recently that it’s the 50th Anniversary of the movie. Such a good (and slightly terrifying when you are a kid) movie! Julie Andrews is still one of my favorite actresses. (I dare you not to sing the song for the rest of today!)
It’s been clothing central over here for a while now! Seems I’m on a garment kick – though I’ve got other project happening, these seem to be making their way in more often lately. It’s not likely to stop any time soon, Made by Me May (#madebymemay15 #mmm15) is happening and I’m trying to wear a handmade item every day this month. (Follow along on Instagram!)
Wearing handmade has me realizing just how little I’ve made that isn’t a dress or skirt. Not so practical for my everyday life that consists of mostly jeans and tops. So I’ve got sewing on the brain and I’ve got in mind to actually sew the many, many tops I’ve had planned (some from years ago!).
What does that have to do with girls in white dresses? Nothing, really I suppose – except that they get to finally be posted today! These are the girls’ Easter dresses and the photos have been waiting patiently for weeks now. And these are made from free fabric that has a really fun back story!
A while ago I got a box of fabric from my friend. It was full of older Christmas fabric, extra cuts of random knits and wool. The most interesting thing was that about 60% of the box was full of high end curtain and upholstery swatchesand yardage. I don’t remember much about the original owner, my friend was given the box from someone who had gotten it from someone… and so on. I kept what I could use, and my sewing group went through it and now someone at the thrift store is likely having some fun of their own!
These dresses are the Violette Field Threads Annabelle pattern (again!) made from Laura Ashley curtain fabric. It’s very light and see-through with embroidered flowers and polka dots. These pattern pieces were cut from everything between 5 yard to 14″ swatch squares. I felt so useful cutting the chevron skirt pieces from the small pieces. I even made the little polka dots line up like buttons on the bodice!
I changed two things for this version. First, I added a lining to the skirt. Because of the light fabric, it needed one to be modest. I merged the skirt pattern pieces into 8 un-pieced panels and cut them from white broadcloth. I combined the 3 pieced chevrons on the outer skirt into 1, which saved a lot of time.Because of course I was working up to the last minute as usual!
I really love this pattern. Though the skirt is time intensive – the sleeves and bodice come together really quickly. I think I’m going to have to make at least one more for my youngest, since she’s asked already. I’ve got a few ideas for how to use the pattern to make something “non-clothing” as well – gonna add that to my list!
Enough photos? I suppose it’s obvious that I had a hard time narrowing this set down! Until next time…
Reader Feedback: Are you participating in Made by Me May? I’d love to see what you are wearing!
by Sherri Sylvester | Apr 28, 2015
I’m tired y’all! I had an amazing weekend at Creativ Festival – but I think the amount of time and energy I put into getting everything ready is now showing – I haven’t even unpacked or pre-washed any stash yet! I’m going to post a review of the weekend, but first I’ve got a quilt for you. (And, if you are expecting an email from me about the weekend I’ll hopefully get it out tomorrow!)
This is one of the projects I made in collaboration with my sponsor, Fabric Spark – for use at Creativ Festival. It’s a blanket/play mat made using the Wee Gallery collection from Dear Stella. I’d already fallen in love with the front “Dress Me” fabric when Daryl suggested making this quilt for the show. (I’ve got a yard stashed away from when Daryl first listed it!)
After I got the kit I was totally smitten with the backing fabric – Wild – Alphabet! Would you believe it’s even got a “N is for Narwhal” on there? (If you are looking for the “Dress Me” fabric, this little quilt did its job and now Fabric Spark is sold out of the “Dress Me” print. You can still get Wild – Alphabet here. *EDIT: Apparently Daryl is all sold out of the Alphabet as well.)
The quilt is made using the free “Dress Me Up!” Tutorial by Modern Handcraft on the Dear Stella blog. It’s such a cute idea! The only thing I changed is to use coloured thread for the quilting. In an effort to make it unisex, I used pink, blue, orange, yellow, gray and cream – generally matching the colours on the Alphabet backing – but lighter. I had a false start with a few quilted lines in bright pink and darkish blue that “showed up” too much for my liking.
Using wool felt for the character’s clothing is such a great idea. My oldest has already been designing clothes for them with the left-over felt. I’ve never used wool felt before, and I was so pleased with the quality and feel of the pieces provided in the kit. You can get wool felt from Fabric Spark as well – they have wonderful names like “Pea Soup”, “Vanilla Latte”, “Fresh Linen” and “Bluer than Blue”!
I learned a good lesson from this quilt as well – a quilt does not have to be hard, or even pieced! This whole-cloth quilt was so simple to make – and the end result is so cute! My favorite part is the coloured quilting. I didn’t even use any fancy quilting thread.
My new motto more often needs to be “Simplify Your Projects” and “Done is better than Perfect”!
Your Turn! What is your favorite sewing motto?
Disclaimer: I received this quilt kit at no cost in exchange for it’s use at the Fabric Spark booth during Creativ Festival. All of my opinions are my own and I won’t take on projects I don’t believe in. Thanks for reading!
by Sherri Sylvester | Apr 25, 2015
I’m super excited to be part of the Spring Bloom Blog Hop today! When Amanda from Bella Caronia sent me a photo of her fabrics early last month to see if I’d like to be one of the #springbloommakers it took me all of 30 seconds to reply back – “Yes, please!” Spring Bloom is Amanda’s first collection with Windham Fabrics and I am honored that she has let me play with it! (P.S. Scroll down for the giveaway so you can play with it too! Thanks Windham!)
This Bella Caronia collection seemed to me like I should create a project where several prints were mixed. A quilt would have been great, but since it’s not my strong suit I went with dresses. Dresses with lots of bright pretty colours and mix-matchy prints all in one place – just like a garden!
I decided to make the Ruffled Plaid Madness dress I drafted a few years back – only not in plaid this time. I’ve always wanted to make this dress again and I’m so pleased with how they show off Amanda’s collection! Thankfully our semi-rainy day photoshoot turned out ok too. Just like in spring, flowers bloom with the rainy weather – and apparently flowery fabric too!
Windham Fabrics kindly offered to send me whatever yardage I’d need for this project, but when I sat down to choose I got a bit stuck – so many options! So I let the girls choose their favorites (which happen to be in their favorite colours) and I think they did a great job. It also ensures that they extra-love the finished product. Though, thinking back, I don’t think I’d have a hard time selling layers of ruffles, puffed sleeves and a super-twirly skirt to these girls!
Making this dress turned out to be an exercise in “not forgetting something” that involved this crazy chart and lots of highlighting. With so many ruffles, each skirt front requires 4 or 5 tiers, each one with a ruffle and an under layer to hold it all together. That means lots of pieces, and LOTS of tiny 1/8″ rolled hems. I have never been more grateful that my Janome came with a rolled hem foot. And now I really, really know how to use it. Practice = Perfect – or at least very close!
Since I am a glutton for punishment I made my design based on looks, not “ease of creation“! These dresses curve down to the centre on the back bodice and up on the front bodice I remember going a bit cray-cray drafting the front ruffle the first time. Thankfully everything was already drafted so I could stitch the eight curves per dress so much faster this time around!
These dresses needed to be fully lined, so I also got to work with the new-to-me collection from Marsha Derse called Palette. I love her previous fabrics and the “not-so-solid” batik-like look of these fabrics really soften the colours.
Can I just say that I am super proud and a bit ecstatic over the invisible zipper fabric matching! When I cut matching fabric for the backs of the dresses I was super nervous I couldn’t match it properly – especially with the zipper right in the middle of the back seam! I felt a tad like MacGyver and with some “fabric, a glue stick and an iron” I managed to match it so amazingly well. It’s even a really simple process – really. I know you probably don’t believe me, so I’ll be writing a tutorial about it for sure! (Hint: It’s all in the glue stick!) *edit: I wrote a tutorial that is now available here.
A huge shout-out and congratulations to Bella Caronia on their first collection! And thanks so much to Amanda and Windham for including me on this hop. I’m sew lucky! (pun intended!) There’s still a week of amazing projects in this blog hop! Check out the schedule below:
April 20 Windham Fabrics Snip-its, Bella Caronia Blog ~ April 21 Leah and Bea Koch – Wintergreen and the Bee ~ April 22 Nell Timmer – Nell’s Notions ~ April 23 Jessica Darling ~ April 24 Kristy Daum – St. Louis Folk Victorian ~ April 25 Sherri Sylvester – Thread Riding Hood ~ April 26 Cindy Wiens – Live a Colorful Life ~ April 27 Krista Hennebury – Poppyprint ~ April 28 Felicity Ronaghan – Felicity Quilts ~ April 29 Casey York – The Studiolo ~ April 30 Janice Ryan – Better Off Thread ~ May 1 Deborah Moebes – Whipstitch ~ May 2 Bella Caronia Blog That’s a Wrap
Windham Fabrics is generously giving away the above amazing fat quarter bundle of Bella Caronia’s Spring Bloom Collection! This giveaway will run from April 25 – May 1, 2015. Use the Rafflecopter widget below to enter – and if you don’t have Facebook to sign in with, just use your name and email address. There’s a “click to enter” no social media login entry too!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Disclaimer: Windham Fabrics sent me this fabric free of charge in exchange for this blog post. I always give you my own, uninfluenced opinion, and would not accept a project I didn’t love! Thanks for reading.
