Tutorial | Tie Bell Sleeve Shirt

I think it's time for a sewing tutorial and with it being the beginning of the new year, and everyone all excited about resolutions and such, why not make THIS a resolution? After wearing this at least four days in a row after its completion, I can say that it'd be a good one to resolve to make!

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Tutorial | Slouchy Beanie DIY

The following statement is 100% true: Slouchy beanies are the reason I wanted a baby boy. ;) That's not to say that girls can't wear slouchy beanies, but there's just something so juicy about a baby boy in a slouchy beanie, amiright?

As soon as fall time rolled around, I was more than ready to buy him one online, but then I do what I normally do and decided to make it myself, and you know what? It was SEW easy! And now I'm going to share how I did it with you so you can make the world a better place for anyone who sees your adorable babe wearing one of these!

*if you're not a sewer, stick around, because you're not going to want to miss the announcement at the end!

Basically, I used a fitted beanie that I already had and lengthened it a couple of inches. Just have confidence and be grateful this isn't a HUGE investment in fabric money!

For this tutorial, you will need...
Fabric (about 1/3 yard)*
Scissors
Coordinating thread
Pattern beanie

*The key to making these slouchy beanies is the type of fabric you use. Find a nice, thick, soft, stretchy knit. I'm pretty sure I used a cotton spandex knit.

 Step 1 - cut

Use your pattern beanie (the one you already have) and lay it out on your fabric. Cut around the bottom and sides of the beanie with a half inch buffer (this is called seam allowance). If you're using a regular sized beanie, extend a couple of inches (about three or 4). Shape the top of the piece you're cutting out like in the picture above. Find the center of the beanie piece and cut a 2-inch heart-point, like in the picture above. Cut out four of these pieces.

Step 2 - sew

Pin two beanie pieces together around the sides up to the peaks at the top with right-sides-together. Use a straight stitch with a 1/4" seam allowance to stitch the sides*. Next, bring the side seams at the top (peaks) together to pull the opening closed. Pin in place, and sew the opening closed with a 1/4" seam allowance. Repeat with the other two beanie pieces.

*to promote good stretch in your beanie, lower the tension of your thread in your machine.

Step 3 - attatch
Turn one beanie piece-duo right-side-out, and slide it inside the piece-duo that is right-side-in, aligning the side seams. Now the two-piece-duos are right-sides-together! Pin around the opening of the beanie and sew with a half inch seam allowance, but leave a 1 or 2 inch opening! So you can turn the beanie right-side-out! Anyone getting dash-sick? AH! I did it - again... ;)

Step 4 - sew opening closed
Reach into that tiny opening  you made and pull all the fabric out so that the whole beanie is right-side-out. Tuck the interior of the beanie inside the exterior, pin the opening closed and sew.

FINISHED!

A N N O U N C E M E N T !

One of my lucky Instagram and Facebook followers will receive not one, but TWO of these 6-9 month size beanies for... FREE!!! That's right friends! One for you and one for a friend! So hop on over to my Instagram and/or Facebook to see how to enter!

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Susan is a birth photographer/videographer serving Chandler, Arizona and surrounding cities. Considering a photographer for your birth? Contact Susan for EDD availability.

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Mountain Ombre Curtains | Barrett's Nursery Tutorial

Wow! It's been a little while since I've written a tutorial! Feels good to be doing it again, and I have been so excited to share this one!

Inspiration behind these curtains came when I saw a picture on Pinterest of an AWESOME nursery with an ombre mountain mural on the wall. Obviously I loved it and knew it would be perfect for Barrett's nursery, buuuuuuut... I really don't like painting, and you can't take a wall with you and eventually we're gonna outgrow this house.

But instead of just choosing any 'ol mountain range, I chose Yosemite because... well, we love Yosemite.

So let's get this tutorial started!

You will need:
Sketch pad + photos of Yosemite and/or mountain skylines
White curtains (or fabric for curtains)
3 shades of blue cotton fabric 2x the width of one curtain panel
3 spools of thread to match each shade of blue fabric
Double Sided Fusible Webbing 6x the width of one curtain panel (I purchased mine at Jo-Ann)
Iron
Large cutting space/ironing space
Large quilt
pencil
scissors
sewing machine
measuring tape/ruler
etc.

Step 1: draw

Draw out your mountainscape, just the way you want it to appear on your curtains. Fold the paper in half so you can see where the separation between the two panels will be.

I did some math to help me see how my drawing on paper would transfer to my curtains. You can do the same by making a mark every half inch on your paper (height and width), then divide the height and width of the curtain panel (in inches) by how many half inches are on your paper, or you can eyeball it.

Make sure you flip your drawing over and retrace so that when you draw it on the double sided fusible webbing and iron it on the blue fabric, you can flip it over and it will be going the right way.

Step 2: transfer drawing to double sided fusible webbing

Draw each separate piece of the mountains on the matte side of the webbing being sure that you're drawing the mirror image of how you want the curtains to look. Then cut them out, starting with the mountain range on the bottom.

Keep the webbing that you're cutting away from the top edge of the bottom mountain range and use it for the bottom edge of the middle mountain range. Same goes for the top edge of the middle mountain range for the top.

Step 3: Fuse|blue fabric

Lay out your darkest blue fabric, wrong side up, on your large quilt. Lay your cutout webbing for the bottom mountain range with matte side up. Following the directions on the webbing, iron the webbing to the fabric, then cut the fabric along the edge of your webbing! Do the same for each piece of the mountain range.

Step 4: Fuse|mountain ranges to curtain

Once you've fused and cut out all of your mountain range pieces, lay them out on the curtain panels, lining up the edge of the curtain with the edge of the bottom mountain range, then follow the directions on the webbing to fuse it to the curtain panels!

Step 5: button stitch

Now you need to stitch along the edges of the mountain ranges, so use a button stitch, or find one that looks like the one I used (I actually don't have a button stitch and I can't remember what the stitch is called that I used. Sorry!) Change the thread color to match the mountain range.

Step 6: hem
If you're making your curtains from scratch, fold under the bottom edge, the side edges, and the top edge a couple of times and hem. If you're using pre-made white curtains, just use the button stitch around all the edges of the mountain ranges.


Step 7: hang 
Hang those babies up!

opt. if you ever want to wash your curtains, I highly suggest sewing little tiny knots in a few random places all over the mountain ranges to prevent the fabric from bubbling up. I haven't done it yet because I'm secretly hoping I'll never have to wash them.

Thanks for stopping by and go ahead and check out the rest of the nursery here!

I've got lots more tutorials to make decorating your home easy and a lot less stressful on your wallet. If you give this a try, I'd love to see how yours turns out! Send me an e-mail or post a picture and tag me in it on instagram (@suesnews) If you have any questions or just want to tell me how much you love these ;), feel free to leave a comment!

Good luck! 

___________________________________________________________________

Susan is a birth photographer/videographer serving Chandler, Arizona and surrounding cities. Considering a photographer for your birth? Contact Susan for EDD availability.

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Tutorial – Loose fitting peplum

This weekened I did my very first periscope! I was just working on a pattern and thought it might be fun to try one out. It was so much fun! It wasn't really about anything, although I did give a quick run down of how I create patterns.

I did another periscope this morning about exercising with kids annnd... two people showed up. Haha! 8:00 AM may not be everyone's favorite time to get on periscope. That's the tricky thing about scopes is that you have to find a time when your followers have time! Haha!

Anyway, the pattern making periscope I made was showing the pattern I made for this shirt! I am so happy with how it turned out, except... The pocket is on the wrong side. Haha! Have you noticed that t-shirts always have pockets over the left breast? I'm guess it's because most people are right-handed and it's easier to get into the shirt pocket if it's on the opposite side of the dominant hand. Oh well. I'll just pretend that I made this shirt to accommodate left-handers.

Want to make it? Okay!

Difficulty level: Intermediate

You will need:
Model shirt
1 yard knit fabric (no need to zig zag stitch seam allowances with most knit fabrics)
measuring tape
corresponding thread
double stretch needle (optional, but recommended)
scissors, thread, etc.


Pieces

Dimensions
Find a model shirt to trace the seam lines on pattern paper (the first part of this tutorial will help you know how to trace your model correctly). In the diagram above, I included the mathematics to get the width of the peplum and bodice pieces to have the same amount of loose-ness as mine has.

*I often use a model shirt to trace when I create patterns (and it's the easiest way), but sometimes the model shirt isn't exactly cut the way I want. So I'll trace the parts of the model shirt that I want the same, like the neckline, shoulder seams, arm holes, and sleeves and adjust where I need. This time, I decided that I wanted to improve my sleeve making skills, so I researched sleeve-making and found this site. If you're wanting to improve your sleeve-making-abilities, I highly recommend it!

Sew!

 Step 1

With right sides together, pin the shoulder and side seams of the bodice pieces. Sew. Iron seams open.

Step 2

With right sides together, pin the short ends of the sleeves together and sew. Pin the sleeves to the arm holes of the bodice (right sides together) and sew with a 1/4" seam allowance. Use double stretch needle for sleeve hem. Iron hem.

Step 3

Lengthen your stitch to its longest setting and stitch along the top edge of the peplum. Leave long trail thread.

Step 4

Pin peplum pieces at shorter ends with right sides together. Sew together. Iron seams open.

Step 5

Gather peplum by pulling the trail thread and pin evenly around bottom edge of shirt with right sides together so that the sides seams meet. Sew. Use double stretch needle for hem. Iron hem.

Step 6: Pocket

Try the shirt on and decide where you want the pocket to be. Use a pin to mark the top, inner corner of the pocket. Hem all four sides of the pocket (1/4" seam allowance for sides and bottom, 1/2" seam allowance for top) and pin the pocket onto the shirt. Make sure that the fabric of the shirt or the pocket is not stretched when you pin and use a lot of pins when pinning the pocket so that the fabric doesn't shift around when you're sewing. Sew.

FINISHED!

Perfect for summertime, amiright?

Let me know if you give this shirt a shot! Post a pic on Instagram and tag @suesnews I'd love to see how yours turned out!

And I gotta add in pics of my favorite photography assistant!

Good luck!

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