2012 in Review

Happy New Year quilters and sewers! 2012 was a busy year at the Moda Bake Shop. 199 posts published! Click through to see the top ten projects from 2012.

The Moda Bake Shop’s Top Ten Projects of 2012:

1. Sunbathing Companion by Stella Rutherford | {The Golden Adventures of a Very Dark Horse}

2. Sophie Car Seat Quilt by Jennie Pickett | {Clover & Violet}

3. Cathedral Window Pincushion by Kim Niedzwiecki | {gogokim.blogspot.com}

4. Patchwork Chevron Quilt by Jeni Baker | {In Color Order}

5. Renaissance Waves Quilt by Karin Vail | {cascadequilts.com}

6. Owl Tag Along Toddler Backpack by Angela Pingel |{cuttopieces.blogspot.com}

 

7. Lucky Layers Tiered Dress by Anshu Jain | {Blooms And Bugs}

8. So Soft Washcloths by AnneMarie Chany |{Gen X Quilters}

9. Isosceles Picnic Quilt by Penny Layman | {sewtakeahike}

10. Four Squared Quilt by Polly Monica | {auntpollysporch.blogspot.com}

Wishing you a happy, safe, and sew-ful New Year,

Lucky Layers Tiered Dress in Size 2T

Hi, this is Anshu from Blooms And Bugs. When I started sewing this dress from Kate Spain’s Good Fortune Collection, I spent a lot of time fretting upon the color combination, choosing prints, etc. Finally I gave up because it was so difficult to pick just a few favorites from this line of amazing prints. I just decided to start with one print for the bodice and add other prints as I went. In hindsight though, I should have spared myself the trouble. This is such a well thought out collection that no matter what prints you put together, they will look great. Congratulations to Kate for coming up with such a fascinating collection. I’m calling this Lucky Layers dress, as a nod to the name of the line – Good Fortune. I hope you like the dress design and make it for the little girls in your life.

For a two year old size:

• 3 layer cake squares for the bodice
• 4 fat quarters – 3 for the skirt, 1 for the shoulder straps and bias tape on the bodice.
• elastic thread for shirring

Drafting the bodice:

1.

Measure the waist of the child. Lets call this measurement W.

For the front bodice you will need two layer cake squares. I have taken two similar ones, but you could choose two different squares as well. Keep them on top of each other (right sides together).

2.

Measure 7 inches from one end of the length. Cut along the 7 inch mark to get a rectangle of 10 inches X 7 inches.

3.

On this rectangle, measure 4 inches from top left corner on the width (10 inches side). Mark this point (Point A). Join this point to the bottom left corner with a slanted line.

4.

At the diagonally opposite corner, measure 3.5 inches in length  (8 inches side). Mark this point. as Point B.

5.

Now join point A and point B with a convex curve. There’s no right or wrong here, just draw a curve that looks pleasing to you. You could even draw a straight line if you are not comfortable drawing a curve.

6.

Cut out the curve and the slanted line you drew.

7.

Pic above shows the two bodice pieces you will get.

8.

Now overlap the slanted lines of these pieces by 3 inches.

9.

Take a layer cake square and cut it in half in length. Join the two pieces on the shorter side  (right sides together).

10.

Now fill your bobbin with elastic thread and sew 4-5 seams on this rectangle about 1 inch below the edge. Here’s a great tutorial on shirring in case you’re not familiar with shirring.

11.

Now measure how wide you want your back piece to be. You have to first measure the overlapped front bodice and deduct it from the total waist measurement W ( taken in step 1). The back piece should be equal to the remaining width +1 inch sewing margin. Now measure the shirred piece to the required width on both sides of the seam you made to join the two layer cake halves. It is important to do the shirring first and then measure the back piece because shirring is a function of lot of factors – fabric type, machine, elastic thread type etc. The final shirred width of a given fabric is difficult to determine beforehand, so it is best to shir a lengthy piece first and then cut it to the required width.

Sew the back to the front bodice on both sides with right sides together. Make sure that the top edges of both back and front pieces line up. There will likely be a small length of back piece hanging off because we have cut the back piece longer than the front. We will fix it later.

12.

Make bias tape with one fat quarter. Here’s a tutorial on how to make five yards of bias tape from one fat quarter. Sew the bias tape on the slanted edges of the front bodice. If the back bodice piece is longer than the front bodice, cut it off at this point to equal the bodice bottom edge.

13.

Now leave about 10 inches hanging and sew the bias tape to the rest of the top edge of bodice starting from one end of the front bodice, leave another 10 inches hanging at the other end for ties.

14.

Sew a seam on the hanging bias tape, making it into narrow straps for shoulders.

Making the skirt:

15.

Cut two strips 4.5 inches long and 18 inches wide from a fat quarter. Join them at both short ends ( right sides together), to make a wide tube. This will become the first tier of the skirt.

16.

From another coordinating fat quarter, cut three strips 4.5 inches long and 18 inches wide, join the three strips together with a seam along the short ends (right sides together). These will become the second tier of the skirt.

17.

• Now sew a seam along the raw edge of tier 1 with the widest stitch possible. Pull the bobbin thread gently to gather the tier slightly. Make the gathered skirt equal to the bodice width.
• Sew a seam along the raw edge of tier 2 with the widest stitch possible. Pull the bobbin thread gently to gather the tier slightly. Make the gathered skirt equal to the width of tier1.
• Sew tier 2 to the ungathered edge of tier 1. Right sides together.

Joining the skirt and the bodice:
18.

Sew the raw edge of tier 1 to the raw edge of bodice, right sides together

19.

Sew the hanging ends of shoulder straps to the back if you like. Here you have the option keeping them hanging and having a halter neck dress, or sewing them at the back straight or across. Sew them at the back whichever way you like, or keep them loose for a halter neck dress.

20.

At this point you can decide if you want it to be a short dress or a long one. Both look equally cute. If you decide to go for a long one, take another fat quarter and cut 4 strips 4.5 inches long and 18 inches wide. Join all the four strips at shorter ends (right sides together). This will become tier 3. Fold one end twice with the minimum width possible and sew a seam. At the raw end sew a seam with the widest stitch length, pull the bobbin thread to gather it slightly and sew it to the raw end of tier 2, right sides together.

21.

Serge the raw inner seams on each tier, or sew a zig-zag if you don’t have a serger.

Your Lucky layers dress is ready. Put it on the little one, bet she’s been waiting to wear this one.

PS: I get queries about how to make a given clothing in bigger sizes so I decided to include some notes on how to extend the pattern to bigger sizes.

The dress can be made in a variety of sizes with the same basic construction. To make it bigger you could use any/all of the following tips

1. Keep more of the shirred bodice piece you prepare. I had to cut off about half of it to make it in a two year old size. So if you like to make it in a bigger size keep more of it, that would add a few inches to the bodice width. Also shirring at the back ensures that the dress fits for a long time on a growing child.

2. Add longer shoulder straps. For older kids, you could easily add about two inches to the shoulder straps. In fact, I keep about two inches of shoulder straps hanging off at the inside of the dress, just so I can extend the dress length if I need to.

3. Add one more tier to the skirt. The thing to keep in mind here is that the maximum 4.5 inch strips possible from a fat quarter are 4 (which I have used above). So if you want to add one more tier, you may need more than a fat quarter. However, you could always mix two prints and make a patchwork tier. I think it would look good.

Anshu Jain
{Blooms And Bugs}

Belle Layered Skirt for Toddlers

Hello Moda Bake Shop readers. I am Anshu from Blooms And Bugs. I mostly sew little girls clothes. Today I’ll show you how to make this pretty layered skirt with 2 half-yard fabrics. I chose Kate Spain’s Good Fortune collection for this skirt and I loved how the fabric brought out the best in the skirt.

2 half yards of coordinating fabric (there will be quite a bit of leftover)

1 jelly roll strip for Bias tape at the hem of inner layer

1 jelly roll strip for ruffle at the hem of outer layer

1 jelly roll strip for belt loops

1.5 yard Grosgrain ribbon for belt (about 1.5 inch wide)

For making the skirt in a 2 year old size:

Cutting and preparing the layers:

Cut two rectangles of length = 11.5 inches and width = 36 inches from two coordinating fabrics.

Sew both rectangles into a tube by sewing raw ends together along the length (right sides together).

Now place the outer layer fabric so the seam lies in the middle

Fold one-third of the width over itself from one side.

Fold one-third from the other side.

Mark on the fold on both sides. Basically, we’re trying to mark the thirds on bottom of each side of this tube.

Once we have our marks, sew a U shaped seam (about quarter inch apart) of 6 inches starting from the bottom of this tube and going up vertically at each of the marks. I have shown the seams by the ugly black lines above. Leave some thread hanging at both ends of these seams. We will use them to gather the top layer vertically.

Making Belt Loops:

Cut 4 pieces of 4 inches from a jelly roll strip.

Fold and sew a seam about quarter inch on one end of width. I cut 5 of these but used only four in the skirt.

Fold in the in half along the width with right sides together and sew a seam along the length. The width of strip is actually too wide for the belt loops so I recommend a sewing margin of half inch for these.

Turn out and press so the seam is in the middle.

Your belt loops are ready.

Assembling the skirt:

Please read the instructions carefully here. This skirt is assembled a little differently than other skirts so make sure you follow the instructions, or you will be cursing me and reaching for your seam ripper very soon.

Place the outer layer tube inside the inner layer tube so the right side of outer layer touches the wrong side of inner layer. Make sure you keep the bottom part (where you had sewn vertical seams earlier) at the bottom. In the pic I have shown the outer layer peeking out, but that is just to show you how to place them. While sewing, the edges should be perfectly aligned.

Now insert the belt loops between the two layers. Here, be careful to place belt loops so that:

1. The raw end of the loop is at the top, lined up with the raw edges of layers. Here I have shown it sticking out a bit just to show you what I mean and also because the length I chose is a little longer than required. You can also let them hang out half an inch or so to make it easy to place them.

2. The seam should be facing the right side of outer layer.

3. Although you could the placement of loops yourself, I found it very easy to use the vertical seams in the outer layer as a guide for belt placement. It gave me perfectly spaced belt loops.

Now sew all around the edge of the skirt layers, while inserting the belt loops as you go (or just pin up everything before you sew):

This is how mine looked after sewing.

Cut the extra from the belt loops.

Turn out.

Topstitch as close to the edge as you can.

Sew another seam just above the other end of belt loop, so the belt loop gets sewn down and elastic casing gets prepared all at once. Leave a gap of one inch for inserting the elastic.

Finishing the hems:

To make a ruffle for the outer layer, fold and cut a jelly roll strip in half along the length. Sew together two short ends (right sides together) to make a long narrow strip.

Now hem it at one long edge. I serge the edge and then fold and sew a seam, but any technique – rolled hems or folding twice would work as well. What we really want is a thin strip that is hemmed on one side, and we’ll ruffle it on the other side.

Now we will ruffle this strip by setting machine tension to highest and stitch length to longest. Note that I didn’t hem my strip before ruffling and it was a big pain to do it afterward, you don’t want to do it like me. Just hem it first.

By the way, isn’t that fabric so pretty…?

Now pull the thread of the vertical seams gently to gather the skirt vertically. Adjust with hand until you get a shape you like. Now sew a narrow zigzag seam to fix the gathers.

Now attach the ruffle you just made by sewing a seam at the raw ends (right sides together)

Use another Jelly Roll strip to make a bias tape. This is not really a bias tape since these strips are not cut on the bias, but for this project it won’t matter because we are using it on a straight fabric.

Now use this bias tape to hem the inner layer of the skirt. The way I sew bias tape is line up the raw end of smaller side of bias tape with the raw end of skirt edge and sewing along the fold in the tape. Once this seam is done, I fold the tape to the other side and sew as close to the (but not on the) top edge of the tape on the right side. This ensures that I catch the other fold of the tape on the wrong side.

Inserting elastic in the skirt:

Remember this space you had left while sewing the waistband. Lets insert the elastic here.

Using a safety pin, insert elastic here and go all the way round and back to the opening. One rule of thumb I follow to determine elastic length is to measure the waist of the child and cut an elastic 3-inches shorter than that. You could also tie the elastic around her waist and see what length is comfortable on her.

Sew both ends of the elastic by overlapping them about half inch.

I use the stitch 1-14 on my machine that looks like a broken zigzag stitch to sew elastic, but if you don’t have it zigzag would work as well. Just go over the elastic 3-4 times.

Belt:

Cut a grosgrain ribbon that is long enough to be looped through the belt loops and tied into a bow in front. Cut diagonally at the ends and seal with a lighter flame, or with fray check to prevent fraying.

Size 2T Belle Layered skirt that is ready for a little one!

Anshu Jain
{bloomsnbugs.blogspot.com}

My Little Butterfly Infant Romper

Hi, I’m Anshu from Blooms and Bugs and today I’ll show you how to make this cute “My little butterfly romper” for a 3-6 months old.

For 3-6 months old infant size:

1 fat quarter

1 layer cake square

6 jelly roll strips

6 inches of elastic

2 buttons

1. Fold the fat quarter in half along the length. Cut at the fold.

2. Cut 15 inches from the width.

3. Fold the layer cake square into half along the width. Cut on fold. Now cut a small arc at the bottom.

This is how the pieces will fit later on. Don’t sew anything yet. First we need to add ruffles to front layers.

Making Ruffles:

4. Set your machine tension to the highest, stitch length to the longest, and machine speed to the fastest. Take the jelly roll strips you would like to make ruffles from and sew along one of the long edges. This machine setting results in nice even ruffles.

5. Now sew the ruffle along the curved sides of the layer cake. Right sides together. Do the same for the other half.

6. Fold the ruffle hems twice near the top of main fabric. This will allow for hemming later on. Make sure you fold as little as possible. Hand-baste or pin if needed. Sew both parts over the main fabric joining at the top.

7. Now cover the whole thing with the other half of main fabric. With the right side touching the right side of front layers. Sew along the sides leaving about 2 inches at the bottom.

Making the shoulder straps:

8. We will make the shoulder straps from leftover fat quarter fabric. Fold the remaining fabric into half along the width.

9. Cut at the fold, you will get two strips – about 3 inches wide.

10. Fold each of these in half and sew along one smaller and one longer (raw) side. Turn right side out and iron.

The Band:

Next we will make the chest band. This is the piece that will join shoulder straps to the main body. This will also be used as elastic casing at the back, so the baby has lots of room to grow.

11. Now sandwich these shoulder straps between two jelly roll strips (right sides together) about 2.5 inches apart from each other. Make sure the raw end of straps lines up with the raw edges of jelly roll strips. Sew a seam catching both the strips and shoulder straps.

12. Turn out.

13. Now position the band with shoulder straps such that the shoulder straps are centered at the front of main body of romper. Align the raw edge of the band with the raw edge of main body and sew a seam along the raw edge.

14. When you approach the end, determine how much more of the band you would need, add about an inch of sewing margin and snip off the rest. Now sew both ends of the band (right sides together), and sew the rest of the band to the romper body.

15. Now fold the other raw end of the band at the wrong side of the main fabric. Mark a crease so the folded portion of the raw edge goes just a little over the seam joining band and main body. This will ensure that when we sew a seam in the front, it will catch this fold in the back. Iron in place if needed.

16. Now sew a seam as close to the band as possible on the right side but only on the back of the romper.

17. Use the band as an elastic casing. Insert an elastic in this back band. Secure the elastic by sewing at both ends. Now finish the rest of the bend by sewing as close to the band as possible in the front side as well.

18. Sew on 2 small buttons at the back of the band, about 2 inches apart in the center.

Determine how long you want your shoulder straps to be and make a buttonhole in each of the strap.

Note:

I made two buttonholes in each strap so that the straps can be adjusted to be longer if needed. Moda produces very high quality fabrics that will last a long time; so one of my goals while designing a garment is also to maximize the usage of garment and to accommodate fast growing babies for a longer time. In this garment, the elastic at the back and the adjustable buttonholes in the shoulder straps are the design elements that achieve this goal.

Adding the ruffle at the bottom:

19. Ruffle two jelly roll strips the way you did for the front layers.

20. Now sew those ruffles to the hemline by lining up the ruffled edge with the raw hem ( right sides together). Do it separately for back and front.

21. Now serge the raw edges of ruffles and fold. If you don’t have a serger, just fold the edges twice and hem.

At this step , you also need to make sure that all the layers are equal at the sides. The two front panels will likely come out longer than the front and back pieces because the layer cake is longer than half of the fat quarter. If that’s the case, fold the ruffles on front panels a little more than the ruffles on the main fabric.

22. After hemming all the ruffles, sew the sides until you reach the bottom (remember we left a little un-sewn earlier).

One butterfly romper. Now put it on your little butterfly and see her flutter with joy!

Anshu Jain
{bloomsnbugs.blogspot.com}

Grow and Gather Dress

6 strips from jelly roll ( 2 for shoulder ties, 2 for waist belts, 2 for bottom ruffle)

2 squares of layer cake ( for bodice front and lining)

2 fat quarters ( for bodice back and skirt)

20 inches of Elastic (1/4 inch wide)

I used Deb Strain’s Meadow Friends collection from Moda Fabrics for the dress. Can I just take a moment to tell you how much I love the prints in this collection? Thanks for the awesome prints Deb, you rock!

Bodice:
Lets first assemble the pieces for bodice.

Shoulder Ties and belt on waist:

Fold the jelly roll strips in half and sew along both long edges.

Snip the corners. Turn the tubes inside out and iron flat. I have only shown 3 but you should get 4, 2 of each print.

Sew the bottom ruffle strips into one continuous strip by sewing along the shorter edge (right sides together).

Bodice Front:

Fold a layer cake square into half along the width

.

Fold it one more time (again along the width).

Iron. You will get 3 creases.

Now sew two rows of seams along each crease.

Pull the bobbin threads on each of the three sets of seams to gather. Set aside.

Bodice Front lining: Keep one layer cake square for front bodice lining. Cut it into half along the length.

Bodice Back:

Cut a 17 inches wide and 9.5 inches long fabric from a fat quarter.

Fold it in half along the length.

Sew a seam 1 inch below the fold, parallel to the edge. The seam is kind of hard to see but it is along the pins I have placed to show you the seam. This will be the elastic casing for the back of bodice.

Take a 1/4 inch elastic and insert into this casing with the help of a safety pin.

Assembling the bodice:

Place the shoulder ties on the gathered bodice front such that the ties are positioned on the two gathering seams on the side and raw ends of belt are aligned with raw end of bodice. Now cover with half layer cake square that you picked for lining. Now sew along the raw edge where raw ends of shoulder ties are placed. Make sure you catch both layers of fabric and both the shoulders ties in the seam.

Turn out. Do NOT top-stitch yet. Here you can see that my lining piece hasn’t been cut into half yet. I skipped doing it earlier, I cut it at this point. You can do it at any point up until this step.

Now lets join front and back of bodice, as well as waist belts.

First open the front piece and lining apart.

Place one waist belt on the gathered bodice such that its raw end aligns with raw side of gathered bodice piece.

Now place the back piece on the gathered bodice, again line up the raw sides of both pieces. Make sure a little bit of elastic is sticking out.

Now cover the whole thing with the back of the bodice. And sew along the raw side.

Snip the corner at the top, turn out.

This is what you will get.

Now pull the elastic at its free end to gather the back. Keep the final width of front plus elasticized back of bodice to be a little less ( ~3 inches less) than the chest of the child. This will make sure that the bodice is snug on her body.

Now make the sandwich again at the other side. Gathered bodice front (right side), waist belt, bodice back. All raw edges aligned, elastic sticking out, cover with the front bodice lining. Sew along the raw side, snip corners, turn out.

Here’s your bodice, all done.

The back of bodice.

Now lets work on skirt:

Fold the fat quarter into half along the length. Cut on the fold.

Join the two pieces by sewing along the smaller sides (Right sides together).

Now sew two seams close to one raw edge for gathering the skirt. Gather by pulling bobbin threads. Adjust the gathers such that the width of skirt becomes equal to the width of bodice.

Adding the bottom ruffle:

I prepared the bottom ruffle by setting my machine’s tension to the highest, stitch width to longest and sewing at highest speed. You can choose to do the same or you can sew a straight seam at regular settings and pull the bobbin thread to gather.

Now align it with the un-gathered edge of the skirt and sew a seam along ( with right sides together).

To finish the raw edge of the ruffle, serge the edge and then turn inside and sew a seam along the edge. If you don’t have a serger you can also turn it in twice to make sure no raw ends are visible.

Joining skirt and bodice:

Align the raw edge of bodice with the gathered raw edge of skirt, sew along the edge to join both. Make sure you catch both the lining and the front pieces of bodice. Serge or sew a zigzag to finish this seam on the inside.

Turn out.

A little dressy dress for your mini diva. The sizes I showed above work for 12-18 months old.

The elastic in the bodice makes sure that there’s room for her to grow. The shoulder ties give you some flexibility with the length. Wear it with a t-shirt in the cooler months or wear it as is during the summer.

No matter how she wears, she will surely stand out in the crowd!

The front

And the back.

Put it on the little one and admire!

Anshu Jain
{bloomsnbugs.blogspot.com}