Sewing garments for Nina and ....

I sewed a pair of school pants for Nina a couple weeks ago. We had unusually mild Winter in December. Then it changed pretty much dramatically and we have been having a very severe cold weather since last week. One day Nina said that she needs warmer school uniform pants. I remember I wrote a post last Winter about commercial school uniform pants are all made with thin cotton twill and those are not appropriate materials to wear for students living in the cold latitudes like here. So I got a couple yards of corduroy and sewed it up like I did last Winter. (She still wore those last Winter pants but they look like Capri pants now.) l*o*l

The pattern is different from the last year's pants. But it is from the same Japanese sewing book. The pants have two pockets in the back with those cool flaps. I like the detail of the flap's lining with a fancy cotton print (DSQ Sugar Creek Diamond Check).
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The waist band is doubled with the corduroy and the print. It looks like she is wearing another pair of pants (or shorts) underneath.

I am making another pair with the same corduroy and the other cotton print. I will share it when it is ready!

I also made garments for Nina's good friend. It is a fancy white cat! Nina was invited to a slumber birthday party by her school friend. She was super excited because that was going to be her first slumber party! Guests were required to bring a stuffed animal (from Build-A-Bear Workshop if they have one) and this is her only one animal from BAB. (She has a hundred or more animals in her treasure chest though...) The kitten originally had a swimming suit as you can see a bit in the picture above. It definitely needs one nice set of PJs to attend on Nina going to her special party.

The flower printed fabric is a remnant from this project. I realized that I have been kept this remnant for more than two years! I hove to be more careful not to be a material hoarder. Seriously.

The PJ pants pattern I drafted for this project.

I made a little outlet for her tail in the pants.

The top can be worn as a pretty little dress too!

Thank you for reading such a long post and a lot of pictures! Happy clothes sewing!

***A Valentine's day project tutorial is coming soon!

New logo and labels

I designed the new logo and made new fabric labels for my shop.

It is freezing cold here in northern Indiana. It's so quiet. And the snow made the world more beautiful. Hope you all stay warm. Have a cozy winter night.

Little pretty things made with double sided Yo-Yo

I am glad I finally finished somethings made with double sided Yo-Yo to show you as I promised in the last post! Hope they will give you some inspirations. The tutorial for making Double sided Yo-Yo is here in the last post.

These are Yo-Yo Key fobs. I made Yo-Yo with a vintage Torchon lace tape and inserted pieces of wool felt to add some colors. Embellished with vintage metal buttons and some pearly beads. Straps are crocheted cords.

This is the lace tape I used.

And I made miniature Yo-Yo earrings too (^o^)! A Yo-Yo for the earring measures about 3/4" in diameter. Multicolored stripes make a nice radial pattern on the circle.

 Flower pattern in pink made a romantic pair of earrings.

These are fun things to make! A very quick project. You can make them when you want to wear them!

If you have a lace remnant or ribbons, you should try to make one of these! It's easy.

More Yo-Yo projects will be coming  in the future. Stay tuned! Thank you for reading, and HAPPY YO-YO MAKING!

Double sided Yo-Yo Tutorial

I see so many pretty Yo-Yo projects in the blog world. But most of them are about making and using common "one side" Yo-Yo. Today I would like to share the tutorial for making the "Double sided Yo-yo". I wonder how come I don't see these double sided Yo-Yo so much. Are they not popular? Are they too complicated to make? Maybe they just are not discovered by many crafters yet. Making double sided Yo-Yo is interesting. Since these Yo-Yo have the same looks on both sides, they work well for projects which you want finished look both in front and back. They are very good for making reversible items. Mobiles, curtains, room dividers, blankets, and so on!

They look exactly same as general one side Yo-Yo from one side.

As you can barely see in this picture, they are double sided.

You can see through the other side in the hole in the center of the Yo-Yo.

The same gathered textures on both sides.

This is the tutorial for making a Yo-Yo which measures about 4.5cm in diameter. (Sorry that the measurements are all in metric. It is hassle to me to convert them into inches. I saved a lot of time by not doing that. Thank you!)

1) You will need a piece of fabric 5cmx13.5cm.

2)Fold it in half with the wrong side out. Sew the ends together with pretty fine running stitches. Don't forget to make a back stitch on the both ends.

3) Fold the seam allowance to one side. It doesn't matter which way you go.

4) Fold 0.5cm from one edge.

5) Sew with about 0.5cm lengths of running stitches.

6) At the end make one stitch over the first stitch. This makes the gather secure and clean.

7) Pull the thread to gather.

8) Make a knot. One side is done.

9) Turn it over.

10) Fold the edge 0.5cm to inside.

11) Sew the edge like you did at 5) and 6). Then Pull the thread to shape it round like 7) and 8).

Finished! It was easy peasy lemon squeezy! Wright?

I am going to post about the projects applying these pretty double sided Yo-Yo next week. You probably want to make a few or more while you wait for the post. So you would be able to try the project right away.

I hope you enjoy this tutorial and have fun making them. Happy Yo-Yo making!

The first project in 2013

This is the new project I am working on now. The idea came up suddenly in my mind a couple days ago and now I have a clear vision of the finished product. Cannot wait to assemble everything in one piece.

Most patterns of the crochet motifs above are from this book by Keiko Okamoto.