Sewing 101: How to Sew a professional seam w/ out a serger

If your a sewing newbie, please check out week 1(envelope pillow) and week 2 (easy bubble skirt) .  I've structured this series, so each week builds on previous weeks' lessons.

 

It's great to sew your own clothes, it's just not great when it looks like you did.  Finishing your seams is an easy way to make your finished garment look store bought.

 Step 1:  Cut 2 pieces of well- ironed fabric. 
The desired length of the skirt + 4 inches
The waist measurement+ 1.5 inches


For example I am making a 6month size.  The desired length is 7 and the waist is 16, so I will cut each fabric 17.5X 11 inches. (I can make a baby an entire skirt for 1/3 of a yard of fabric).

Step 2: You always sew with the pretty sides together, but I'm about to break a cardinal rule of sewing (it's ok, I'm a professional).  Sew the 2 pieces of fabric together with the ugly sides together using as narrow of a seam allowance as possible. ONLY follow this when you are doing french seams.

  Step 3: Turn inside out and press seams.

 Step 4: Again stitch down the sides w/ a 5/8 inch seam allowance.  Your original seam will be trapped inside your seam allowance.

***Note: After you've done this a few times you only need to use about a 1/4 inch seam allowance for the first stitch and 3/8 for the second stitch.  However if you take too narrow of seam the second time, your edges will poke out and that's frustrating.

 Step 5: Using your gauge and the technique I showed you last week, fold the waist down 2 inches, press, then fold under 1 inch.  You should have a 1 inch double fold. This will form our waistband.

 Step 6: Sew waistband down. Leave a small place open for the elastic. Using a safety pin, thread elastic through hole.

 Step 7: Sew opening closed.


Step 8: Repeat step 5 to form a 1 inch double hem along the bottom of the skirt. Sew into place. Hint: When you sew, put the pretty side up and use the seam allowance lines on your machine to make sure you are sewing in a straight line. 

 This is the inside of the skirt.Doesn't it look neat, tidy and professional:  Even w/ pics in took me about 30 minutes, so it's a project easily completed during a naptime.  (although why aren't you taking a nap if the kid's are is beyond me).

Happy Sewing, please feel free to ask questions.

This is basically the same idea I used to make my wrinkle maxi skirt:
             

Just use really thin cotton, wet, twist, and line dry.


To see where I link up or to add your party, please click here.

Featured:

#17 Eat Something I Grew Myself

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Scotts® for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

Last year, my daughter and I dreamed of eating garden fresh vegetables all summer and so we planted a garden.  Sadly, it was a dismal failure, but I'm not giving up and #17 on my 40 By 40 goal list is to eat something I grew myself.  

My friend Diana is a "Master Gardener" and came by last week to give me some tips.  My 2 biggest problems last year were that my plants were not getting at least 6 hours of direct sunlight and that Texas soil is rocky and just not that great for growing plants. She said that I need to bring in some better soil.
Miracle‐Gro® Expand ‘n Gro™ is a brand new planting mix that promises to be their best product ever. It promises:

1. To produce up to 3X of plants and vegetables v/s native soil.
2. Significantly improves soil quality for years to come.
3. Feeds plants for up to 6 months
4. Holds up to 50% more water than average potting soil.
5. It is a concentrated mix and will expand up to 3 times when water is added. (this means you don't have to haul as many of those large heavy bags to your garden)
To see how it works click here: 


I'm excited to give it a try.  Since I love doing experiments, I'm going to plant one bed w/ Expand ‘n Gro™ and the other with traditional soil and see which one produces more vegetables.  Stay tuned.

 and click here for $3 coupon.

Linky #34 Will craft for...Sew Cute Boutique

This week's party is sponsored by: 
Do you have a kid in your life that needs something cute for spring? Check out these creations:

Cuteness right?  A lucky winner will win $ 20 in store credit.
You can enter in any/all of the following ways:
1. Link up a project (1 per project)
2.  Like Sew Cute Boutique of FB
3. Leave a comment telling your favorite item from her shop
4. Follow me on  


Last week's most viewed link was this pretty pillow by My 1929 Charmer:
 



SO now it's your turn to link up your awesomeness (you only need to leave your e-mail if you'd liked to be added to my weekly reminder list).
 Good Luck!

Winner! and Features

First of all, I'd like to thank:




The winner of this week's give-a-way is  Peep Smores # 45 by Salt Tree. Congrats! Please contact Cutsie Bee at her shop.

 

Here are some of my favorites from last week:




<center><a href="http://trophyw.blogspot.com/"><img border="0" src=" http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h480/trophyw/NEWFEATURED.jpg "/></a></center>

 
Homemade Chalk Eggs
  

Uncommon Designs's Wreath  and  Bunny Burlap Banner   (I'm spending the day painting my bathroom robin's egg blue)


Rae Gun has got all kinds of Hunger Games stuff going on her blog. She made bread from each of the 12 Districts.


I think Visual Eye Candy's room is amazing. I love that wall it's stenciled and glazed (and simply gorgeous)


Please come back @ 5:00.  You are really going to like this week's give-a-way.

$1 Ginormous Scissors

 

 I love these scissors from Pottery Barn, but they don't sell them anymore ( and let's be honest I would have probably been too cheap to buy them anyway).

The Dollar Store does sell these "Ginormous Scissors".  I figured with a coat or 2 of Oil Rubbed Bronze Spray Paint, they'd look pretty cool.

 What do you think?

The craft room is still a work in progress, but you can check out all my projects HERE.


To see where I link up or to add your party, please click here.

I am super thrilled that this $1 project was featured at:

#36 Be a Member of a Live Studio Audience-done

Last week was Spring Break in Texas.  It was pretty low-key around here and pretty much we just hung out.  We did go to Kerrville (about an hour a way) just to get away.  We saw the fake Stonehenge and then just stayed at a hotel w/ an indoor pool and free breakfast.  


On Saturday, the hubby and I went to Austin to be part of the live studio audience of America's Got Talent.
This took care of #36 on my 40 by 40 list, "Be Part of a Live Studio Audience."


They had a super strict dress code:

YOU MUST ADHERE TO DRESS CODE. YOUR ADMISSION DEPENDS ON IT. Hip, upscale attire is mandatory. You will be on camera so it is very important that you dress nicely! When you look great, the show looks great! No shorts, t-shirts, or hats. We'd prefer you don't wear jeans, but nice jeans are fine. SOLID COLORS ARE APPRECIATED. NO WHITE CLOTHING. Absolutely no clothing with logos or writing will be allowed into the theater. 

Absolutely no open-toed shoes of any kind will be allowed inside the studio of safety reasons. You will be turned away if you wear them. This includes high heels (anything over 1 inch), platforms, sandals, and flip flops. Please wear closed-toed flat shoes.




I was stressed a little a bit what to wear.  First, I buy most of my clothes at Costco and Target and I do not own a lot of "hip, upscale" attire. We stopped at the outlet mail on the way up and I got a cute green sweater at Banana Republic (they're hip and upscale right?), but then we got an e-mail that said "no green". It was St. Patrick's Day, but the show wasn't airing until May.
 We thought maybe your seat depended on how good you loooked and I was worried about even wearing jeans. When I got there there was obviously no one checking the dress code. There was even a lady in a HUGE green t-shirt that said "P-A-R-T-Y" across her chest in denim capris and flip-flops that got  a seat on the front row.


We weren't allowed to  bring cameras/phones so I don't have any pics for you but I'll tell you a little about our experience:


First of all, we were all basically props and all of the audience reactions are faked. Outside the theater we all pretended to be excited to see the judges arrive-even though they weren't there. They even recorded all of our reactions before the performers even came on.  This makes sense, b/c the audience is in the dark during the performances.  They would tell us how to react and then they filmed it.  We pretended to laugh, be horrified, clap politely, enthusiastically chant "Vegas", and boo.  We even did fake staggering standing ovations.


Second, there are actually Howard Stern fans out there-I guess I assumed he must have them.  He's just not my cup of tea.


Third-it was super loud.  I couldn't really hear a lot of the performers and so had no idea if they were actually good or not.
 
It took forever. We got there 2 1/2 hours before it even started and it usually took about 20 minutes between each act.  There were 4 audition shows scheduled and so I'm curious to see how much actual TV time they got out of the 6 1/2 hours we were there.


Finally, it was only the auditions, but none of the talent we saw was any better than you get from your typical High School talent show. However there was a singer that was wounded by a grenade in Afghanistan that I am going to vote for.  His story inspired me and made me cry and I'd like to help him win a million dollars.


Overall it was a fun experience and I got to cross something off my list.


To see where I link up or to add your party, please click here.

America's Got Talent

Last week was Spring Break in Texas.  It was pretty low-key around here and pretty much we just hung out.  We did go to Kerrville (about an hour a way) just to get away.  We saw the fake Stonehenge and then just stayed at a hotel w/ an indoor pool and free breakfast.  


On Saturday, the hubby and I went to Austin to be part of the live studio audience of America's Got Talent.
This took care of #36 on my 40 by 40 list, "Be Part of a Live Studio Audience."


They had a super strict dress code:

YOU MUST ADHERE TO DRESS CODE. YOUR ADMISSION DEPENDS ON IT. Hip, upscale attire is mandatory. You will be on camera so it is very important that you dress nicely! When you look great, the show looks great! No shorts, t-shirts, or hats. We'd prefer you don't wear jeans, but nice jeans are fine. SOLID COLORS ARE APPRECIATED. NO WHITE CLOTHING. Absolutely no clothing with logos or writing will be allowed into the theater. 

Absolutely no open-toed shoes of any kind will be allowed inside the studio of safety reasons. You will be turned away if you wear them. This includes high heels (anything over 1 inch), platforms, sandals, and flip flops. Please wear closed-toed flat shoes.




I was stressed a little a bit what to wear.  First, I buy most of my clothes at Costco and Target and I do not own a lot of "hip, upscale" attire. We stopped at the outlet mail on the way up and I got a cute green sweater at Banana Republic (they're hip and upscale right?), but then we got an e-mail that said "no green". It was St. Patrick's Day, but the show wasn't airing until May.
 We thought maybe your seat depended on how good you loooked and I was worried about even wearing jeans. When I got there there was obviously no one checking the dress code. There was even a lady in a HUGE green t-shirt that said "P-A-R-T-Y" across her chest in denim capris and flip-flops that got  a seat on the front row.


We weren't allowed to  bring cameras/phones so I don't have any pics for you but I'll tell you a little about our experience: