Oval Top Tutorial {from a top}

Hello again!

More with the sewing...

It is Spring here and one of the fashion trends I noticed are these gorgeous floaty tops. It is almost a circle but more like an oval- with two side seams and a hole for the head. When I first saw them in the shops, I thought, " I can make that". Even a total amateur at clothes making, like me, can get this one right! I didn't want to pay a small fortune and only have one of these tops! So I bought one, being a bit unsure how to go about it from scratch without some sort of pattern. I used the bought top as my "pattern". 
This is the bought top below.

 

Now that I can say that I successfully managed and it came out just fine, I will be making more of these. They are perfect for spring and summer-light, floaty, cool. Just my style.

And of course at a fraction of the price! 

I bought a meter of fabric (I think it was at least 150cm wide) For only R55. ($6)In the shops these tops are costing around R250-R300 ($30-$36).

Okay so I going to share my very limited, first-time at doing this, tutorial with you. This tutorial is for making a top from a bought top like this as your pattern.

step one:

 

Fold your fabric with wrong sides together. My fabric was about 150cm wide. I Then took the bought top and laid on top of my working fabric. As you can see, *blush* I didn't iron my fabric first, but it's probably a good idea to iron it first! I did smooth it out and made sure as I pinned the bought fabric to the working fabric, that there were no creases.

step two:



*blush again at the creased fabric!* Once you have pinned your bought top to your working fabric, cut it out. You should have two pieces (as you folded it in half to begin with before cutting). Now you will see that the top neck line needs to be lower than the back neck line...

So take a piece of paper or card and insert it into the bought top's neckline. With a pencil draw along the neckline, tracing it onto the paper. This is your template.

 

step three: 

Before removing it from the bought fabric,make a mark on each side of the template where the edge of fabric (shoulder part) starts to curve. Take your template and cut along the line you drew. 
Then place your template on your working fabric, lining up the edge marks with your neckline edges and pin.

step four:

  Once you have pinned the edges of the template to the fabric, fold the piece in half and pin it. Now you can cut along the curve, following the edge of the template.

 

step five:

Now you have your front and back piece. The front is obviously the one with the lower neckline. Pin your pieces together, right sides together. Stitch the shoulder seams (about 1-1.5cm).

step six:

Now you can measure half a centimeter on the neck line and fold down and pin. Then iron it flat.

Once you have ironed it, fold it over again another 0.5-1cm and iron and then stitch. I also did a zig-zag but if you have an over-locker machine, this would be ideal.

So now your shoulder and neck seams are done. Now you can fold over 1cm and pin all the way around the full oval side seams and stitch. (again, I did a straight stitch first and then went over it with a zig-zag on the edge of the seam).

step seven:

With all the hems/seams done, all that is left to do is the short stitch up the sides( for the arm openings). So fold your fabric with the wrong sides facing each other. (so, you will have the top now as if you were about to put it on)

Lay your working fabric flat out, smoothing it out. Take your bought top and place it over, smoothing it out. then pin through the bought fabric at the top and bottom where the side seam starts and ends. Fold the bought fabric along the where it is stitched and then on the working fabric, pin next to it. (picture below)

Here you can see in the picture below that I now removed the bought fabric once all my pins are in place. With a pin in place to show where I start stitching, and a pin in place to show where I need to stop stitching. Stitch a straight line. Do this on the left and right hand side.

step eight:
And your top is finished! All you have to do is iron the seams flat and wear it! 

 

I just love the flowing sleeves! Whats great about these tops too is that all you need to wear under it is a strappy top (if it's a bit see through) and they are great with leggings and Jeans or a cute pair of shorts.

 

Thanks for looking and I hope this tutorial will help someone who is not clued up like me about sewing clothes! I would love to hear from you and please feel free to drop me a line!

*pinning is fine as long as the pin links back to my site*

A whole lotta sewing!

Hello Friends
Life has been quite busy lately, in a productive sort of way.
It started off with sewing my caravan curtains. (of which all 12 drops are done!Will do a post on that with a before and after when I put them up)A vintage quilt (still need to do the padding and backing).
From there things progressed to doing some clothing alterations. After first sorting through my cupboard (as I do every season-packing away the winter clothes and digging out all the summer things again.)I came across a skirt I never wear anymore and had a brilliant idea to turn it into a dress for my daughter.

 

I couldn't believe how easy it was. Since the skirt was shirred already and fitted her perfectly around her chest, all I had to do was cut some of the bottom off, make straps, sew the straps on, make a new hem and TA-DA!! Brand new dress for her! She loves it!

I then found another skirt I sort of liked but didn't wear too often cos of the nun-length. The sort of odd length that ends below mid-calf.(hence "nun" length) I am not against long skirts, in fact I like them. But I think nun length is very unflattering (on me that is).
So I cut quite a bit off as I wanted it to be knee-length and then with the excess I cut off, I made ruffles and sewed one along the back of the skirt, coming up around the front. I then took the other ruffle and made it into a sort of ruffled flower and sewed a button in the middle. I love how it turned out! It is 100x better than the original ever was!


 

From skirt alterations to actual sewing clothes from scratch!
Now, let me start by saying, I cannot make clothes!! I can make blinds, curtains, cushion covers, quilts, etc but I don't know how to sew from a pattern. I really wanted to make myself and my daughter a pair of cotton PJ pants. I wanted something pretty and floral for myself and just couldn't find anything in the shops that fitted my "style". I'm not fond of tight fitting PJ pants, I like them elasticated, easy to wear and breathable! I also wanted something light for Spring. Fleece is just a bit too warm now that the weather is getting warmer. 

I began searching on line and came across a tutorial from Ducky house.(click on "Don't get out of bed pants") Perfect! I went and bought half a meter of gorgeous material which was only R32 ($3.80 or £2.30 (150cm wide)Which is a bargain considering a pair of PJ pants could cost me anything between R100-R160 ($12-$19 or £7-£11). I even made a pattern first like she suggests in the tutorial! So proud of myself! my very first pattern!

 

 The pants were so easy! I couldn't believe I actually did it!




 

This morning, I whipped up a little pair for my daughter, it literally took me an hour from making the pattern for hers to finishing them! If, like me, you haven't sewn pants before, give this tutorial a shot, it is really easy and there is nothing to be afraid of! hee hee.

I also made a top, and did a tutorial on it! I will post that in a bit! xxx

Link 5 and 6 of Joie de Vie

Hello!
Just a quick little post as it's weekend and I hate to be on the computer on the weekend, especially when it's a gorgeous day outside today!

I've mowed the lawn and spent some time sewing my caravan curtains!

I promise to return next week with some nice posts!

In the meantime, here are the two remaining free papers for Joie de Vie.

paper 5
paper 6

xx

Apologies

i apologize for delay in the rest of the links

it's been a hectic week , my car broke, and i seem to have a zillion projects on the go all at once! i will get them posted this weekend if i get a chance (writing this post from my phone which also for some reason will not let me do capital's or full stop) so please excuse that!

Mary Jane

I've started on my vintage quilt for my caravan (aka "MaryJane") Mary Jane needs much TLC and I went and bought the fabric finally to make new curtains for her. I am so excited! The curtains at the moment are a navy blue and off-white stripe and attached to the caravan itself! So silly! Who doesn't take their curtains off to wash?!



So I am dismantling the pelmets and battens, removing the dreaded curtains and putting my own sweet little creations in that I can merrily take off and wash when ever it suits my fancy!

I'm also in the process of hunting down some vintage wall paper to beautify the inside of the door. Other plans are to install a black and white checkered floor, rip out one of the cupboards (bottom and top) for more floor space and cover our shelving we made last year with some oil cloth. So lot's to do and all to be done by December as we go away for 10 days sometime then and I want a spiffy new caravan interior!

See my caravan pinterest board if you like-I've been collecting images of caravan interiors for inspiration.

I will definitely take before and after photo's of her, as she gets her make over and be sure to post pictures of my makes and renovations!

I went to a baby shower on the weekend. I made this sweet and easy bibs for the baby.



Here is the 4th download in the free paper series from Joie de Vie.

The actual kit has 8 papers (and much prettier than the freebies!! )You can get it here.
PS. The papers names/numbering are a little mixed up (if you haven't already noticed!), don't worry about it, once you have all 6 free papers, you can rename them. Sorry about that! I assure you though, you get the paper shown in the preview each time. It is just the numbering of them I got a little confused with!

Here is a little page I Did with it

This paper is in the kit and is one of my favorites! I think cos it has a bird in it and roses and a antique map of France, all my favorite things! The Journal card is available in my shop too. Great to use in your scrap booking lay outs! (only for personal use). They make great printable's too!

And for a little incentive, you can use this 5% off coupon code to get the kit!
enter code: JOIEDEVIE5 at checkout.

Weekend Picnicking

It's almost time for regular picnic's again! I cannot wait, it's my favorite time of year. The weather is warming up and allowing us to venture outside with picnic blanket and basket in tow.

Friday we went to our local nature reserve. A favorite of ours, for it's tranquility, beauty, and relaxation. A time for the kid's to run wild and free in a relatively safe environment. A blanket under the shade of the newly sprouting oak trees, cucumber sandwiches and strawberries and of course a bit of crochet! (what picnic would be complete without it?!)

I am loving the teeny, tiny little flowers of all colors: purple, orange, peach, yellow, white and blue peeking out of the grass. I think I took a gizzillion photo's again as teeny, tiny flowers are one of my favorite to photograph! I love lying on the grass and seeing how close I can get or what perspective my camera will capture at such an angle.

Oh and I had a haircut. Layers...a bit short (although still long) but I like the free feeling of it, floaty. Makes a change.

Here is the next installment of Joie de Vie-freebie number 3.
Download here.

Thanks for stopping by! Be sure to come back for freebie 4-6 this week! .

Little piles of Vintage goodness.

A little while ago I bought some delicious vintage fabrics from some sellers on Etsy and they arrived two days ago.

I adore vintage fabric, but being hard to find (or not knowing where to look) is a problem. I am so happy with my purchases. The fabrics are gorgeous and tell such tales of a time gone by.

It makes me wonder what little babies were tucked under those sheets at night, or what housewife hung them out to dry, after starching them so that they were crisp. Smelling clean and fresh, flapping on the line in the summer breeze.

Did she have little ones running between the sheets as they swayed in the light air? Did she use wooden pegs?

My mind fills with images as I look at these fabrics, so full of history, that although washed away, a long time ago, lives on to tell their secrets...

What am I going to do with these delightful fabrics? I have a plan to make a lovely quilt that can be enjoyed in my room but also one that I can take with in our little caravan when we go away.

I apologize for the problem with the kit in my Etsy shop. I set the shipping to reflect only for South Africa at $0.00 instead of for "Everywhere else" at $0.00. All fixed and you can go ahead and purchase it now . (thanks for bringing it to my attention Judy!)

Here is freebie 2 (of 6) of Joie de Vie.

You can download it here
See yesterday's post in case you missed the first part. I will be back on Monday with freebie 3 and so on for the rest of the week.
You can buy 8 glorious vintage inspired papers of Joie de Vie here.

Have a good weekend!

New Digital Paper pack-Joie de Vie.

Hello!

Every once in a while, something amazing happens, like me creating a digital paper pack! I stopped "officially" designing quite a while ago now, but I still dabble from time to time in digital designs. Mostly custom orders for blog graphics, business cards, Etsy shop sets, labels and so on.

However, I made this paper pack (the first in about two years!). Designing like this again, for this brief moment, reminded me why I stopped in the first place! As much as I enjoy it, it is really time consuming. I much prefer to just design something when the mood strikes me, as well as not follow any trends as I am really not a trend-follower. I like to move at my own pace and I guess my heart lives in the country somewhere, surrounded by wild flowers, berry bushes and little earthy paths that wonder off between the trees. Barefoot and wearing a floating, breezy dress that billows out behind me as I walk along with my little basket, laden with a book, my crochet and a few snacks. And skipping happily beside me, my two kids and just for general good measure, our cat following behind us all....

*back to reality*

So yes, I have designed a paper pack. It is called "Joie de Vie" (Joy of Life)and is inspired by spring, my love of nature and blossoms and a little bit of french flair thrown in for old times sake! All papers are, of course, 12 x 12 pixels and are 300dpi.

I am also giving away a free paper for 6 days that you can add to this kit. The free papers are made using some images that are free, but not for commercial use (hence I cannot sell them). I will you will enjoy them and be sure to come back each day until you have all 6 papers.

Download here

If you want the kit, it is available here in my Etsy shop.
I also accept EFT payment for those of you here in South Africa. Cost of the kit is R30. (Just email me and I will send you my banking details.)

The colors of Spring.

It's Spring here in South Africa. I love Spring, perfect, windless days with just the right amount of sun. However, there is still days it's not quite warm enough to wear just a T, so little 3-quarter sweaters come handy. Here, the colors for spring are very much pastel. Mint, aqua, peach, cream, lilac. LOVING them, so me!

Loving this little cardigan I bought, it's 3-quarter.

Wore this outfit yesterday, Mint skinny jeans, a peach polka dot shirt with ruffles down the center and a little peach cardigan over and wedges.

Got these gorgeous poppies, sad that they don't last long, only 3 days. But I enjoyed them while they lasted. So bright and cheerful.

Last week I worked on a custom order, 6 paper garlands. Butterflies and flowers. I enjoy doing custom orders. I have some more of these paper garlands in my shop (different colors though)

Thanks for reading, Hope your week is happy!