Sprightly Sewing

So my blogs posts are all mixed up and out of date. When I started blogging I didn't know how to post and made a bunch of blogs. Duh moment for me. But I tried combining them today. So all the craft posts from 10/30/2013 are actually from 1=2 years ago. Nice huh...oh well Waldorf Inspired Dolls are my new interest. I have posted some of the dolls I have made before. Here are may latest four. I am even selling them. Two are on my Etsy site. which Ill share at the bottom. Two are on e-bay. Anyway, I am trying to develop a body pattern I LOVE. So far they are all good. I figure I can post the patterns up once I know how.  I am also working on some doll clothes patterns and a few other nifty Ideas. stay tuned. Here are the dolls, are they not wonderful? look for me on Etsy my shop is Abigailshim. 

Okay so I decided to make Tikvah a petti skirt for Christmas. She is 6 and loves dress up and make-up, and girly fluff. We are pretty conservative though, and my husband was concerned it may be see through. I explained with all the chiffon it shouldn't be, but even still I made it with the outside all satin.(I think that is what it is :P) Either way this is how I did it. We shall see if she likes comes Christmas. Please keep in mind, I have never made a tutorial before. There are many out there that are way better. But thank you for looking at mine if you do. :) First I looked on all the different sites at the pictures. Type in free petti skirt pattern on Google and you will find plenty. I didn't really measure out my piece, I kind of eye balled it. That is how i normally work. Lots and lots of strips of chiffon. Then a few larger strips of it, then some larger ones of the satin. then 2 pieces for the waist band. Then I started sewing the ruffle first. I don&#

All my boys have something to wear on the fourth of July, including my youngest who will be turning one on the 5th. But my daughter needed a tee shirt. I saw a really creative blog, I am following the person..., where the wonderful women made flags on the tee shirts. so i did a very similar thing. I didn't use any paint because i didn't have any. But i used red fabric and blue on top of a white tee shirt she had in her closet. Then I cut out strips of red and blue fabric, I used stuff that doesn't fray. spandex and jersey knit. Then I ruffled the fabric on my machine. After that I played for 15 min trying different ways I could position the fabric on the tee shirt. My daughter wanted a heart shape. So I sewed it into a heart shape, and made the other streamers. She likes it. How about you?  HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!!

So my sister in law brought home all these men's and women's dress shirts. They were all way to big for me. SO i made aprons. That's me in the top pic.  here is how ...look at your shirt and start cutting out your apron shape from the back of the shirt. then cut strips 1-2 inch thick from the arm's, or from the front of the shirt. you will need a alot. to go around the edge of your apron and for your ties, which cris cross across the back. whoa that was a mouth full. Then cut out the pocket from the front of the shirt, or you could cut out a different shape if you want. Sew the ends of your strips together to make one long strip. then fold in half length wise and iron, then fold again and iron to create a bias tape. or at least i think its the same. we will go with that for now. S ew just like bias tape around the edge of your apron. with the left over "bias tape" make some loops for the top of your apron and for the sides. th

For Christmas I  made simple capes and tool belts for my 2 older boys. Seth and Nehemiah.  Here are pictures of their belts. This was so easy, and worked out very well because grandma and grandpa gave them gift cards. they picked out the Black and Decker set of tools.   I cut out a long piece of scrap fabric, and folded it up. I measured it width wise according to their size. I then sewed bias tape on all edges and across the top for ties. I sewed a straight vertical lines along the front to create pockets. Then I sewed an "N" on one and used puffy paint to put an "S" on the other.  more pictures after Christmas. :) These were super easy.  And cost me very little.

I have been trying for about two months to make cloth diapers for my youngest son Luke.  I drafted my own pattern, that works great, but needed a little tweaking. So i used a pattern that wham supply sent me and combined it with mine. the differences between the two were so little it was comical to me. I think all pocket diaper patterns are basically the same though, differences take place in the tabs and elastic and such. and your pocket opening. I would love to post a tutorial on how I did it to share, but it will have to wait till later this week. for now just pictures of my finished pocket diapers. SO thrilled to finally have done it. And I have to say that i am so thankful that there are so many blogs and tutorials and info out there. and supply store for this. I am becoming a bit obsessed with these things. my original is the one with the extra snaps. I didn't like the tabs though and  thought the sizing could be a little better. I bought my material from

Wow! Christmas is already here. I have been searching for idea's of what to make my boy's. I make them something every year. This year was hard though, Boy's are simple and so it seems to be hard to find anything besides what I have already done.  Tool belts, capes (which they wear daily) or swords. I decided that since my husband loves ninjas...I would go with that. So I made some ninja stars, and some nun chucks. They were super easy and fast. I used scrap fabric I already had, so no cost! here is how I did the stars. First I drew up my shape on some paper. After that I used the pattern to cut 8 pieces out of felt. I cut the felt pieces larger to include the seem allowance. next I placed two of the felt cut outs together and sewed them around leaving a small opening... Then I lightly stuffed the star. After that I sewed the opening closed. Then I trimmed the edges and corners slightly , These are for my 3 and 4 year old. I tacked down the middl

I made my oldest son Seth some new pant's. what do you think??