Things I Didn’t Buy 46

I love this 1950s dress. It would take a lot of fabric to make this dress—the skirt has a lot of pleats in it.

This 1950s dress is pretty cute.

I liked the full skirt on this 1950s skirt pattern.

These 1960s tops are nice and simple.

And I liked these 1960s tops as well.

Finally, this 1960s top, skirt and jacket are quite nice.

Bright Geometric Pullover Dress

I’ve made this pullover dress before—it was an easy dress to make and had wanted to make another one for quite some time. I finally got around to it. Since the pattern is so simple, I thought a more interesting fabric would be nice to use. For the bodice, I decided on using a bright geometric fabric that I got at a thrift store. For me, a little pattern goes a long way, so I picked a plain black crepe fabric I had in my fabric stash for the skirt portion to balance things out.

I didn’t run into any problems sewing the dress. But I’ll admit that I was too lazy to fix the seams where the pattern doesn’t meet itself properly. It was my intention to do it right, but I wasn’t paying too much attention when I was pinning the fabric together and sewing it. I realized my mistake after the fact, and truthfully didn’t care that much. I mean, how often are people looking at your side seams?

The one improvement I made was that I added pockets this time. The pattern doesn’t have pockets, so I took a pocket pattern piece from another dress and just added it in. It didn’t take too much extra time to do and was totally worth it.

Overall, I’m satisfied with the dress. I like the pop of color and interest the pattern brings—which is pretty vibrant in comparison to most of the clothes I wear. I also like the dress when I use a sash that I made some time ago (and is the same black crepe fabric as the skirt).

DIY: Voodoo Doll Pincushion

I saw different voodoo doll pincushions online and thought it would fun to make my own. I made voodoo doll pincushions (and travel sewing kits) for Christmas gifts. 

SUPPLIES

• Felt fabric (I used cream and black)
• 2 buttons (I used different sizes)
• Embroidery floss
• Thread
• Needle
• Pins
• Paper
• Pencil
• Scissors
• Water soluble pencil/chalk
• Stuffing

DIRECTIONS

— 1 —
Sketch out desired voodoo doll shape on paper. Draw where the eyes and mouth will be. Draw the heart as well.

Note: I added about 0.25 extra space around my initial drawing of my voodoo doll—this was to compensate for the edge stitches on the outside of the doll that took about 0.25 inch. I initially didn’t do this, and I felt my doll looked too “thin.”

— 2 —
Cut out the paper doll. Also draw a heart and cut it out from the paper.

— 3 —
Cut two pieces of felt that is a little larger than the height and width of the paper doll.

— 4 —
Place the two pieces of felt on top of each. Pin the paper doll to the felt.

— 5 —
Cut around the paper doll. Remove pins and paper doll. If necessary, smooth any rough edges of the felt doll pieces.

— 6 —
On one of the felt doll pieces, mark where the eyes, mouth and heart will go. (Keep in mind the space the edge stitching will take up, so don’t get too close to the edge with anything.)

— 7 —
Sew the buttons to the doll. (I used the embroidery floss to add a pop of color.)

— 8 —
With the embroidery floss, sew the mouth. For the horizontal line, I made three stitches across, trying to keep my stitches close together so there was a minimal gap. Then I made about five vertical stitches across the horizontal line.

— 9 —
Using the paper heart as a template, cut out a felt heart. Then cut it in half in a zigzag line.

— 10 —
Place one heart piece on the doll piece and sew it. Repeat for the other half of the heart.

— 11 —
Pin the front and back felt doll pieces together. Use a blanket stitch to sew the two pieces together, leaving an opening of a couple of inches.

— 12 —
Stuff the doll.

— 13 —
Finish blanket stitching the opening. Voodoo Doll Pincushion complete.

This is the completed sewing gift I made. I sewed a simple drawstring bag to put the Travel Sewing Kit and Voodoo Pincushion into. I didn’t create directions for a bag here, as there are many places online to find instructions.

DIY: Travel Sewing Kit

I decided to make sewing kits as Christmas presents this past year. I wanted to reuse Altoids tins I had for a small travel case.

SUPPLIES Exterior

• Cotton fabric
• Felt fabric
• Steam-to-Steam
• 3/8 inch ribbon
• Scissors
• Glue
• Iron and ironing board
• Altoids tin

DIRECTIONS

— 1 —
Cut a piece of felt that is the dimensions of the Altoids tin’s top. This should be about 3.75 inch length by 2.375 inch width. Round the corners to match.

— 2 —
Cut a piece of fabric that’s about an inch longer in length and width to the Altoids tin’s top—about 4.75 inch by 3.375 inch.

— 3 —
Cut a piece of Steam-to-Steam that is about 0.25 inch longer in length and width to the Altoids tins top—about 4 inch by 2.625 inch.

— 4 —
Using the directions of the Steam-to-Steam, adhere the felt piece to the wrong side of the fabric.

— 5 —
Cut the corners of the fabric.

— 6 —
Add glue to the fabric. Carefully fold over each fabric side to the felt. Add extra glue if necessary. Press gently. Let dry.

— 7 —
Add glue to top of Altoids tin. Adhere the fabric felt piece on top. Let dry.

— 8 —
Add glue around the outside of the tin lid.

— 9 —
Carefully place ribbon along the side of the tin lid (to cover where the fabric felt piece and the tin meet). Cut the ribbon when the ribbon overlaps. Add a little bit of glue to the overlapping ribbon. Let dry. Travel Sewing Tin complete.

To fill the tin with sewing supplies, I bought sewing supplies and divided them among the number of kits I was creating. This is for one kit.

SUPPLIES Interior

• 4 needles (different sizes)
• 4 pins
• 4 buttons (different sizes and colors)
• 2 safety pins (different sizes)
• Travel scissors
• Thread (I used five colors: white, black, red, navy and gray)

• Chipboard (Could use the back of the drawing pad, or food box packaging like cereal)
• Scissors
• Pencil
• Ruler
• Felt fabric 

— 1 —
Cut out of piece of chipboard that is 1.75 x 3 inch. On the long side, measure and mark at every 0.5 inch (there should be a total of 5 marks). Repeat on other side.

— 2 —
With scissors, cut little triangles out at each mark. I eyeballed this—they triangles are about 0.125 inch deep.

— 3 —
In the middle of the chipboard short end, cut about .0375 inch deep with scissors. Repeat on the other short end.

— 4 —
Wrap the thread around the chipboard, catching the thread between two triangle notches. I wrapped my thread around the chipboard about thirty times.

— 5 —
Then take the thread and put it through the slit on the short end of the chipboard. Cut thread. Repeat this process for the other thread colors.

Note: On the two bottom threads, I used the bottom slit to put the thread through.

— 6 —
Cut two pieces of felt fabric about 1.75 inch by 2.5 inch.

— 7 —
On the first piece of felt, slide four needles though.

— 8 —
On the second piece of felt, slid four pins through.

— 9 —
Put all components of the sewing kit inside the tin. Travel Sewing Kit complete.