(Maternity) tunic

From prudentbaby

What you'll need:

- a men's button shirt. You want it to be quite large so that it fits nice and loosely over your belly. I used a mans shirt that was 2 sizes larger than i wear in womens. ie. i wear a women's medium, and I used a men's XL shirt.
- elastic thread (If you want some help learning how to sew with elastic thread then check out this post)




What to do:

1) First things first, we'll need to make the sleeves smaller. We're going to use the cheaters method we used in our Peasant top - which basically involves cutting the sleeve smaller (like below) and sewing. I started off with a short sleeve men's shirt, but I would recommend using a longer sleeved one and keeping the sleeves long until the end.




2) Now we're going to cut away at the neckline. Since this shirt is much larger than my actual size, the shoulders are too wide. So you'll need to measure either your shoulder (kind of hard on yourself) or measure the shoulder seam of an existing shirt you have. Add on a 1/4" to this measurement and then cut the neckline like below.



Now you've probably realised that the neckline is now way bigger than the collar. That's okay! We want that! The great thing about this top is that the neckline is gathered where it attaches to the collar stand (that band under the collar) - which makes it perfect for replicating with a men's shirt!

3) If you have a pocket on your shirt, and don't want it to be there, i'd say carefully unpick it now



4) Take the collar and carefully unpick it so that you end up with 3 pieces, the collar, the collar stand, and some extra shirt fabric. You can toss the collar and extra fabric, but keep that collar stand!



5) Carefully top stitch the top edge of the collar stand.




6) Now we're going to gather up the neckline and attach it to the collar stand. Sew just under a 1/4" from the raw edge all the way around the neckline using the longest stitch on your machine. Do not backstitch! Holding the fabric stationary in one hand, pull one of the loose threads with your other, and it should gather up really easily!





7) Even out the gathers so that the neckline is the same size as the collar stand. (I weighted my gathers more heavily towards the front of the shirt). Then pin the collar stand to the neckline (place the raw edge of the neckline inside the two pieces of the collar stand) and then carefully top stitch to attach it all together.







8) Now it's time for that shirring!! Find your empire waistline and mark it. Then using tailors chalk or pins, mark 5 lines on your top that are 1/4" apart. Leave about 2" on the sides of your top unshirred.



9) Remember to sew on the right side/outside of the shirt. Sew your lines of shirring from the placket to your marked line. When you're done, push the threads through to the back side using a needle and then tie off the ends ( If you need some more info about sewing with elastic thread then check out this post.)










10) Turn our top inside out and spray the elastic with water, then press with your iron. This will help the elastic to recover a bit and will tighten up those shirred rows!




11) Almost done!! Roll up your sleeves till they're just above your elbows, and then sew a few stitches to secure everything in place.





And that's it!!! You're done! Enjoy you're cute little Anthro knock off!

Nursing cover

From prudentbaby

DIY Nursing Cover Tutorial

1. Wash, iron and cut your fabric. A yard will do it. I used Paula Prass Summer Soiree chevron in leaf green (still available here). You need three pieces.
26"X38" for the cover
30"x3" for one side of the strap
10"X3" for the other side of the strap
You also need a piece of boning 14" long (i bought one foot and they threw in the two inches) - you can get this at any fabric store for about 50 cents - and a set of d-rings, also about 50 cents.

2. Take the strap pieces and fold them in half, right sides facing:

sew them together with a 1/4" seam allowance:

3. Turn them inside out with a loop turner or like so. Insert a safety pin to one side:

Feed it back in on itself:

Work it through until it turns:

Then iron flat with the seam in the middle, repeat on both straps (the seam side will be the back of your straps):

3. Now take one edge of each strap and fold it over 1/4" and iron:

On the short strap, grab your d-rings and fold the fabric over them and pin like so:

Sew in place with a strong stitch as this area will get a lot of stress on it:

On the other strap, just fold over and sew:

4. Now grab your cover fabric. On the bottom edge, along the length, fold over 1/2" and iron, then another 1/2" and iron:

Sew in place with a straight stitch:

5. On the perpendicular sides (the two shorter sides) do the same thing:

6. Now for the top of your homemade nursing cover. Fold the top edge over 1/2" and iron, then another inch and iron:

Fold the whole thing in half to find the center of the top. Measure 7" in from the center and mark with a pin on both sides:

Sew the seam with a straight stitch in between your two pins:

Insert your 14" piece of boning with the curve out to the right side of your fabric:

Sew up the seam (perpendicular to your hem) to secure the boning in place:

7. Now to attach our straps. Insert the strap right side up under the hem next to the boning:

Fold it up over the hem, iron and pin in place:

Repeat with the other strap on the opposite side:

Sew in place with a straight stitch forming a box (to give your straps holding power):

8. Now just sew the remainder of the seam in place, from the strap to the edge:

Done!

Diaper Pouch

From noodlehead

1/3 yard linen (you'll have plenty of scraps leftover)
fabric scraps
cotton webbing 1.5" wide - 8" long
velcro (3/4" wide by 1.25")
fusible fleece - you could also use cotton batting
sewing machine, thread, pins, etc.

I was surprised at how quick this project is, so definitely churn some out for friends and family!

Cut the pieces:

{pictured above are the materials for the butterfly print version - but you get the idea}
From the linen cut 2 pieces 8.5" wide by 5" tall. Also cut 2 pieces 8.5" wide by 10" tall - this will be your lining. From your scraps (and feel free to make these strips patchwork, too) end up with 2 pieces 8.5" wide by 3.5" tall and 2 pieces 8.5" wide by 2" tall for the version shown with the butterfly print.

{For the blue version cut 2 pieces 8.5"wide by 3.5" tall of linen and 2 pieces 8.5" wide by 6.5" tall of the blue print - sew these two together and they make up the exterior of the pouch.}

Cut 2 pieces of fusible fleece 8.5"wide by 9.5" tall.

Make the exterior:

Sew the strips and linen pieces together using a 1/4 inch seam allowance (making two finished pieces 8.5" wide by 9.5" tall). Press seams open. Fuse fleece to WRONG side of both exterior pieces.

Sew on the fuzzy piece of the velcro about two inches down and centered on one of the exterior pieces (this will be the front of the diaper keeper).

With RIGHT sides facing, sew the two exterior pieces together using a 1/2" seam allowance around both sides and bottom.

Pinch the corners together and sew a straight stitch 1" from the point. Do this for both corners. Clip corners.

Make the lining:

With RIGHT sides facing, sew the lining together on the sides and bottom, but this time leave a 3" opening at the bottom (this will be for turning later). Box the corners as you did with the exterior.

Attach the cotton webbing:

Baste the cotton webbing to the RIGHT side of the exterior piece at the back of the diaper keeper. Another option on this step would be to make a fabric strap. If you do use the cotton webbing I would recommend getting a fairly thin one (mine was from Hancock Fabrics), some webbing is much thicker than others.

Assembling the diaper keeper:

With the RIGHT sides facing, slip the exterior into the lining, matching up the top and side seams, pin and sew all the way around the top with a 1/2" seam allowance.

Be sure to tuck the cotton webbing down into the diaper keeper.

Pull the exterior through the opening you left in the lining. Poke out corners.

Sew the opening shut with a very small seam allowance, or sew by hand.

Push the lining into the diaper keeper. Since the lining was a 1/2" taller than the exterior, it'll form a nice border along the top edge of the diaper keeper.

Press and stitch "in the ditch" all around the diaper keeper.

Finish the strap:
Pull the cotton webbing around to the front and adjust as necessary to line up with the fuzzy part of the velcro.

Turn under the webbing twice and pin on the vecro. Take your time and sew on the hook part of the velcro at the end of the strap.

Fill with 3-4 diapers, travel wipes, and maybe even a tube of diaper cream and you're all set!

Fabric buckets

From vintagericrac.blogspot.com

For each bucket you will need:
· 5 ½ x 18 ½ inch strips of outer fabric, light wadding and iron–on interfacing.
· 6 x 18 ½ inch strip of lining fabric (note it is a bit bigger so you get the nice trim at the top.
· Circles measuring 6 inches across in outer, wadding, interfacing and lining for the base.

Step 1.

• 
  You may do this differently but I prefer to iron my interfacing to my wadding rather than my fabric – I hate those little wrinkles I always get if I iron onto the fabric.
  Do the same for the bucket bottoms as well.

Step 2.

With outer fabric and lining right sides together (and the wadding interfaced piece under the outer fabric) sew along the long (18 1/2 inch) edge that will be the top of the bucket.

You can see the layers here. The black is the lining (face down) linen is the outer (face up) and then the wadding/interfacing on the back of the linen.

Open up and press the seam.

Step 3.

Take the short (5 1/2 inch) sides together and sew along creating a tube. Almost done now –

Step 4.

Sew the bottom into the outer fabric end right sides together. I do this by dividing the circle and the outer into fourths and than matching up the pins. You can clip this seam after you have sewn it if you like. Do the same at the other end with the lining base BUT leave a turning space (I leave about 1/4 of the circle).

(the brown is the lining in this photo)

Step 5.

Turn the whole bucket back through the space you left in the bottom. Then you simply tuck your lining into your bucket and slip stitch the opening closed. I like to top stitch around the top.

You can stitch-in-the-ditch for a nice finish.