Geometry Skirt...with a Tutorial

Don't let the name full you, this isn't a hard skirt to figure out.

It is called the geometry skirt because it is made of rectangles and triangles.

To start figuring out how many triangles you need figure out your waist/hip size (where you want the skirt to fit).  For the skirt above the little girl's hips are around 34 inches.  I wanted it to be gathered so I rounded up to 40 inches.  I cut each panel 5.5 inches wide and 18 inches long.

I cut eight panels 5.5x8(minus seam allowance)=40

You can make wider shorter triangles for little girls skirts to get a bouncier look.  The little girl for this skirt is tall and will be going into second grade.

Take the triangle and flip it upside-down to cut 8 total triangles.

Because I used a scrap piece of material I laid all the triangles together and cut them to the same shape.

Lay out all the pieces to make sure you have everything.  I lay one panel and put a triangle to the right of it all the way to the end.

Sew, then serge (or zig-zag) the triangle to the bottom of a panel.  I only serge the triangle part, lift the pressure foot up on the serger and place the material where you want the serging to begin.

Take the next panel and line the panel/triangle up.  Start sewing from the bottom.

Sew almost to the tip of the triangle, then straighten the top panel to line up with the bottom panel.

Make sure that the tip of the triangle is sewn in the seam.  I like to backstitch to make sure this is a strong point.

From this point you add a triangle, serge, add a panel. 

Sew the first panel on the left to the last triangle/panel on the right to make a skirt.

Serge the top and bottom to even out all the seams.  Iron the hem, it doesn't need to be a thick hem.  Sew with a straight stitch.

Iron the wasitband.

 Take a peice of bias tape or ribbon for a tag.

Fold the bias tape and put it slightly under the folded waist.  I use this as my marker as I am sewing to know where I need to stop have a hole to add the elastic.

To give the skirt a finished look top stitch the edge of the waist. Put the elastic through and sew up the hole.

Press the seams so they will lay flat--always iron the seams to give it a finished look too.

Ta-Da! A Geometry Skirt.

I made one for my little girl too.  Instead of hemming the bottom I added some yellow bias tape.  It added an extra pop of color.

 Depending on what type of fabric you use and the width and height of the triangles this can be a very flouncy skirt.

It is another perfect skirt for twirling and dancing.

And after almost a year of ballet a curtsy to end the photoshoot.

This is a fun skirt to sew and doesn't take very long.  I would try sewing a box type skirt first if you have never sewn.  The angled seam might seam tricky, do it 30 times and it will be a breeze.

Food Storage?

We have been concentrating a lot of our family efforts on building up our food storage.  But I have to confess I have no idea how to use dried beans.

I tried soaking beans once--it didn't end well. 

After some research I think the beans were too old. 

I have this idea that I should use the food in my food storage on a daily or weekly basis, so it will rotate well and if we are ever solely dependent on our food storage I will know how to use everything in it.

So today I am soaking beans again in an attempt to use some of my food storage.



If the recipe works out well I will share it.

On a sewing note, I have been in my sewing room for hours this week.  My neighbor has 5 girls and I am sewing easter dresses for 3 of them.  We went to the fabric store last week and spent 3 hours there!  Thank goodness for awesome neighbors who are willing to watch your children so you can have a great time in a fabric store.

Hope to post some projects soon.

Google Eye Bunny Eggs

Google Eye Bunny Eggs

Supplies:

Plastic Easter Eggs

Google Eyes

Tacky Glue

Pom Poms

Foam or Felt

Cut out bunny ears and feet.

Glue ears, feet and eyes to eggs. I found clothes pins worked great to keep ears, and eyes from sliding down the eggs.

While we were waiting for the glue to dry we had a cousin's easter egg hunt.

Somehow this one ended up in my little guys basket--it was fun to see some eyes looking out from the basket.

Once they're all dry line them up for a bunny hop.

Yes, they need noses and wiskers, but for little hands this was a perfect project. 

And have you seen this?

Tacky Glue in a very squeezable tube! I love how this is packaged!  It made gluing a breeze and it wasn't a mess to clean up.

Dresser Organization

My 2 1/2 year old has moved out of his crib and into a big bed.  So we had to do a little furniture shuffle and I took the opportunity to organize the dressers. 

 Since both of my children can't read yet I used clipart in Word, printed then color the pictures and laminated the cards.

 I didn't want them to be taped on or permament in any way.  I punched a hole in each card and tied it on with a ribbon.

 I printed off two of each set and colored them with boy and girl colors.  My little guy loves to tell me what is on each picture.

 Short sleeved shirts.

 Long Pants

 This side of the drawer has shorts, undershirts, and underwear.

 I punched two holes in this card because it was too long going vertically.

 Inside the drawers and used plastic bins and shoe boxes to keep like things together.

 The top drawer has all my little guys shorts and short sleeves, when the weather finally gets warmer I am going to move the drawer down one so he will be able to get the clothes himself-or put them away :)

 My daughter's dresser has smaller drawers and didn't need dividers in each drawer.

The middle drawer was perfect for some bins I had on hand and left plenty of space for all the tights.

In the closet all have hanging are Sunday clothes, skirts and dresses.  It has simplified the process and makes putting away clothes much easier.

So far this system seems to be working well and hope this idea can help you too.

Go To Dress...#5 Shirred Tunic

This is the last dress of the Go-To Dresses.

  It has been so fun to create different dresses using the same pattern.  Once again the orginal Go-To Dress Pattern and Tutorial are found HERE.

Dress #5 Shirred Tunic

 Start with a adult large t-shirt.

 Cut the sleeves off.

 Cut out the dress. I cut it short for my 5 year old (she is really tall, I planned on this being a tunic from the start)

 Using the cut out sleeves I did not fold them over, but used the existing hem as the edge.

 Once again I wanted more ruffle and more coverage, I cut longer and wider.

Sewn according to the tutorial.

Now for the waistband.

Go To Dress...#4 Linen Refashion

My mom bought me a linen dress for family pictures in 1999.  I loved it-it was my lounge around the house on a Sunday afternoon and the dress I wore during my 8 and 9 months of pregnancy.

It is long and just the right fabric weight.

But after many years of wear it started to tear and rub holes.  I was sad, and am planning on making a dress similar to it this summer.  When I was sketching ideas for the go-to dresses I remembered this linen and knew what I wanted it to look like.

 

The Go-To Dress pattern is found HERE

Here is what I did differently...

 Cut longer and a little bit wider, the shoulders are also longer.

Because linen is more of a summer fabric I wanted this to be a short sleeve dress.  I widened the sleeves and made them longer.

 The fold of the sleeve is a seam from the dress.  I pressed it to give it a crisp edge.

 The back of the dress was also cut on a seam.  I cut a 2 1/2 inch slit on the top.

I sewed the shoulders together and sewed on double fold bias tape on all edges.

 The bias tape was also sewn on to the sleeve edge and the dress hem.

When I got to the slit at the nape of the neck I sewed a small loop out of bias tape for the button.

 

Once the bias tape was sewn on I added the sleeves.

Now on to the fun part...

 

 Sew the double fold bias tape together-it makes a stiffer narrow ribbon.

 I sewed the stems and leaves directly on to the dress-using a zig-zag stitch.

 For the top flower I zig-zagged the bias tape into pleats.

 This is what it looked like when it was done.

 Add the petals however you want them to appear.  I found the diasy petals are best if you make a figure 8 and sew in the middle.

 I debated about added a waist band, but because there is no stretch to the fabric I opted for no waist band this time.

 She loves it!  After the photo shoot she asked if she could wear it today.

This dress to a bit longer because of the bias tape-using what I had on hand I had to pick out a few stitches because it didn't catch the edge of the dress.  But once I figured out what to do it wasn't too bad.  Next time I think I would make my own bias tape-and make it a touch thicker.

Just one more dress to show you.  I hope you have enjoyed these dresses as much as I have.