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Category Archives: Sewing

Children Backpack Pattern!

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This week it’s back to school time in Portugal! And I had a costum order for a very special girl gooing for the first time to kindergarden!

children backpack

I made this backpack using my Back To School pattern and it keeps getting better every time! I love this pattern!

Children backpack

I made a matching piping cord and used sequins with flower and leaf shapes to add a special touch.

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I love this fabric and finding it was like a one in a million thing. I never saw anything like it again, but still have some of it om my backpack kits See kits here.

The pattern cames with an inseide pocket and it’s really usefull.

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I aldo made a bag for a change of cloths matching the backpack.

DSCN3192_1 The owl backpack was totaly loved and that’s what really matters and now this little girl is going happier to school!

Happy Back to School Time!

Mccall’s Sewing pattern M6685 & M6496

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In the end of April I was invited to a wedding and as soon as I got invited I start thinking in the possibility of making the girls dresses.

I was higgly motivated because I stumbled across some photos of a Cristhening dress I made as an order I took a few years ago. After all this years I finally agree I made a really good job back then! So I thought why not?

I had a litlle more than a month to pull this off! 3 dresses from scratch with so little time was very challenging but I made it!

First thing was deciding on the pattern. I endup buying my patterns on SewingPatterns.com, mostley because I’m very impulsive when it comes to sewing. I like to start my projects as soon as I can and use all the passion energy. I buy my patterns in a digital format nor in paper and this way I can get them as soon as I pay for them. I still have the hard work or printing and put all the sheets together to make that huge pattern sheet.

This process is quite simple as you get access to an account that stores all the patterns you buy from them and you can print them as many times as you want. Then you have to install a software on you computer and this is from where you’ll print the patterns in any size your printer can print.

You can print the pattern and cut directly from your paper sheet because you’ll be able to print it again and again! Or you can store this and use sewing papper.

This way I was ready to start ASAP! I ended upo choosing to Mccall’s patterns: Mccalls 6685 and Mccall’s 6496. I made Mafalda dress from Mccalls 6685 and Teresa dress was made with the bodice from 6685 and the skirt from the C view 6496.

mccalls6685

mccalls6685

mccalls6494

mccalls 6494

Sofia dress was made with m6494 but I made the bodice from view A and the skirt from view B. It was fun playing with the pattern pieces.

After choosing the pattern I chose the fabrics. I’ve been buying fabrics from Tecidos.com.pt, a fabric store based on Germany. It has a great variety of fabrics and has a reasonable price/quality relation. I do find that their shipping and handling time is a bit bigger than it could be, but it’s an EU store and so I don’t have to worry with customs charges and exchange rates. And around here it’s getting harder to find this kind of fabrics in local stores.

And in just a little more than 1 month I sucessfully made 3 dresses! I just couldn’t get my models to make a decent pose but they were quite bored at this stage of the wedding and it was to hot to exist!

They don’t look so bored from behind!

Sofia was always in a great mood! Just let her be and she’s fine!

I learned a lot making this dresses and specially I learned that I have to be quite carefull cutting my pattern pieces right. Sometimes I tend to be slopy and when I put the pievies together they don’t play along well. It happend when I was sewing the zippers and I couldn’t match the back pieces together in place! I had to make it right so I could sew the zipper and have a perfect clean finish look.

And it was also challenging to sew lace fabrics. It was my first time and they can be quite temperamental to work with but the good thing is that lace fabrics are quite good at hidding the mess 🙂 So no worries in here!

I am happy with the way they came out! And if I had to chose one as my favorite I would choose Sofia yellow dress. I don’t know if it’s because it’s smaller or if it’s because it has more colors on or simply because she makes it shine on her!

What’s your favorite dress?

Sock Nativity

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Moving to this village implied changing the kids school and, as now Mafalda is attending a public school and Teresa and Sofia are in a private cathoclic day care and pre-school. One big difference between this new reality and the one we knew before is precisely the effort that is required to Parents. In private schools there is a big financial effort but the school does everything, buy everything, prepares everything, accompanying the study of the kids, correcting homework, it’s all included in the monthly fee (with very few exceptions).

In our new reality the effort is not financial but time demanding: there is a great deal of time (which I have as much or less than money!): Parents do everything, prepare everything, buy everything. You need to bring food for party snacks, every week you need new materials for a new project, the Christmas party is also made by parents, and a lot more food to take to the party. Plus 3. Sometimes it is good to be part of the school community and be more involved in daily school life of the girls, but there are times when the requests are so many that it feels like a full time job. And I, unlike a good majority of this school community, already have a full time job, which takes me the time to be a more active part of this community.

One of the “challenges” of this Christmas season was a Nativity contest that Mafalda wanted to participate. Of course, after 7 years watching her mother “do things” the monster is more than created (mea culpa) and it was not easy to choose a project that is feasible in terms of time and materials that I already had. She wanted to make a very elaborate thing and I understood that the project should be done largely by her, even if it was not eligible for any prize. She wanted hair made of wool cloths in fabric and of course dolls were born!

The dolls were made with baby socks that have lost their peers. It was a good way to make disappear 6 unpaired socks! Mafalda stuffed the dolls with wool filling, cut card bases and felt bases and glued eyes. I made her sew the hais of one doll, only for her to realize the work it takes! Of course she did not get to finish but got the idea of the work involved in this, and above all I wanted her to realize that mommie is no magic that take rabbits out of a hat or a fairy with a magic wand that brings up things!

And it was only by her insistence that this Nativity had the kings, because for me was the sacred family would be enough!

My nativity end up quite funny despite all the goofy look. But I couldn’t have done this 3 times, could I?

DIY baby hat

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In the begining of March, in our Carnival holidays, we took the girls out for a few days and, as you can imagine, with the 3 girls and the two of us, it is increasingly difficult to keep organized and not leave anything behind! This time we forgot Sofia hat. And we really need it…

Was there a problem? Not at all! I gorgot her hat at home but a made her a hat! It could have been made of wool but at the time I was working on felt and felt was what I udes for the hat!

It was quick to make and exclusively with the materials I had on hand. No fancy fabrics or pretty wools, no sewing machine and with zero cost and I sure had fun making it!

DIY Costumes

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And it’s Carnival time again! Not worth discuss how quickly the time passes by… Although, anyway … It’s almost March and I feel I’ve done nothing but getting used to work again!

This is the 5th consecutive year that I sew Carnival costumes for the girls, and fortunately, it’s getting increasingly easy. Lets take a walk in the past lane.

2010 – It was the first major challenge, along with my sister. miking equal costumes for me and Mafalda and a for her and my nephew. Conveniently I have no photos of myself dressed in it, but this is how Mafalda was dress that year.

2011 – It was the year of the great disillusionment. I sew another costume for me and Mafalda, a Indian Costume but the weather was terrible that day, with a thunder storm and lots of heavy rain! We didn’t leave the house and the weather was so ugly that I think neither of us got to wear the costume. So no picture of Mafalda wearing this dress that year. But Teresa wore this dress a few days ago and I got the picture. And the costume includes boots and all!

2012 – It was the first year in which Mafalda asked for a specific costume: Tinkerbell. The dress was very improvised and as a silly look, although I think it is ok. I even made the wings out of of tulle and was the first time I sewed a knit fabric in my sewing machine. No hard time!

2013 – was the year of temporary insanity. Conducted by fever “I will sew for my two daughters” I decided to make carnival costumes for both. Mafalda was living her Rapunzel year (this was the year I baked her a 1 meter hight cake like the Rapunzel tower!) And it was impossible to find a fabric with a similar color to the Tangled Ranpunzel dress. So it went lilac. The big yellow braid was easy to make but return home in pieces because went by the head of all the infants in her school.

For Teresa I wanted to make something more traditional, more inspired in my childhood and traditional tales. In my time we had fairies and princesses, police and Indians and witches costumes! Not so much of this Disney characters thing! And so I made a Red Riding Hood Costume even made an apron! The cape was a great achievement: velvet on the outside and satin inside!

2014 – Foreseeing the difficulty of making dresses for both in such short time I decided that Teresa would wear one of the older dresses and she chose the clown. Mafalda decided she wanted to dress like Teresa so I ended up having to make a clown dress. But a minute made version! I sew the dress just yesterday afternoon for her to wear this morning! No pattern. All from my head, fabric in the sewing machine and all with scraps of fabric from the original 2010 dresses! It worked because it’s a Clown costume!

Common to all years is the stress of ending the dresses on time for them to weare in school and the promise that next year is going to be different. Next year I’ll start making the costumes in January, shortly after the beginning of the year, so I can have time to make everything, in no stress! Maybe next year!

Weel! It’s all worth it!

Waldorf Doll #3

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The first Mary doll was born in May. It took me just a few days till I have a wig and a face, legs and arms. But it took a long time till I got her dressed, first because I wanted to make a poncho and then because I wanted to make some pants and finally made the shoes!

Dressed and with the right haircut my first Maria doll is finally ready!

I really like the way she looks. Anyway I’ve always wanted a doll like this. Waiting 33 years to see it coming out of my hands was well worth it. Despite being happy with the result, the doll pattern needs some changes, first in size and second in the shape of the feet. But for that other dolls will be born.

And the next one will be much smaller, not only to match the head, but also to have children friendlu size. You see, this doll is almost the same size of a 3 months baby!

Now she just needs a name. Have any ideas? Share them in the comment box!

Waldorf doll #2

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When I decided to make the first Waldorf doll (you can read more here) I already knew it had the potential to become an addiction. Of course being as I am, I challenged myself to create my own doll, with my own pattern. It seems easy to do, after all one head, one body, two arms and two legs should not be so hard to do right?

Maybe. But I have a problem with the scales. Always had and always will have. When I was little there was this dog that in my memory was as big as a German Shepherd and was a disappointment to me that after all the dog was no bigger than a small poddle! And if I have to give directions to someone and draw maps, chances are you need a whole A3 sheet, because I start to make roads and roundabouts and easily have no space left to draw the destination, and it’s even worse if I have to draw a house plan, forget it! is the total disaster !

This is all to say that the first head I did for the first doll seemed very small. In my mind distorted bt my scale problem, this head would require a smaller body than the one I had imagined. So I did a second bigger head, and then a body to match, and I ended up with the doll I have written about before. But then I ended up thinking she was too big to be used by young children .

I then returned to the first head decided to finish it and give it a decent body! I started from the end, which is also typical of me, and did her wig before everything else.

Now I’m starting to draw a matching size body pattern so I can end this doll.

Fabric Applique

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Today I want to share with you a simple, fast and easy way to turn a simple thing into a lot more! Have I mentioned that is simple? And easy? And fast?

So here it is:

Grab a simple piece of cloth, like a plain t-shirt in any color you want. You can also use long-sleeved sweaters, jackets, jeans, skirts … Anything you want.
Choose any motif you want and the size.
Applique the motif in your garment.
It is as easy and fast as this, and the best is that you cease to have a simple piece of clothing to have one of the favorite pieces of clothing of your children. You can see Teresa proudly wearing her cake T-shirt, as she calls it. This T-shirt is now one of her favorites and is certainly one of the cheapest!

These applique are very useful and I have been making them since I started sewing. It’s great because you can buy plain sweaters cheaper than the printed ones and decorate them with any design that your kids choose .

Applique is also a exelente way to hide those stains that will no longer disapear or mending clothes .

Of course you can also use this method to make applique in your own clothes, just choose the fabrics and the motif that works for you.

Well… but this is done with a XPTO sewing machine and I have a XPTO_less_100 sewing machine that its no good for this. Nope, you can do this, just like you see here, in your sewing machine as long as it has zig – zag stitch, and most machines do! So do not fear you can not do it on your machine because with my directions you will do it as well or even better than me!

Well… but this is for those who have a sewing machine and I don’t so it’s no good for me as I can’t make it. Truth but I provide you an alternative by sewing it by hand. Which is more or less the same thing but hand-stitched. And no, it doesn’t take more time and yes, it’s that easy, and results in the same way. And it has the same charm.

So how do I make this? Good question! To make these applique you need:

My new tutorial “Applique in Fabric”. If you’re a a subscriber you already have it free on your mail box. If you’re not you can buy it here:

[cryout-button-light url=”http://shop.meiasmarias.com/produto/fabric-applique-tutorial-english-instructions-pdf”]Applique Tutorial[/cryout-button-light]

A piece of clothing of your choice.
A motif to apply and materials suggested in the tutorial. Alternatively you can buy the applique kits in Store, all pieces cut and ready to be sewn, and kits are available in different sizes.
And what about those shiny things you added to your applique? My tutorial will also show you how to sew them on your garments!

Now you just have to get to work and transform your simple piece into something more!

Feel free to leave a comment on the comment box above and share your projects made from this tutorial!

Sewing for boys

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I do not often work with boys motifs because arround here we only have a boy to indulge versus 6, soon 7, girls!

Still I like the challenge of leaving my comfort zone and make different things. It is also good to see my girls develop interest in crafts, wanting to help and participate in the gifts we make for our family.

This T-shirt is a teamwork efford shared by us: Teresa chose the color of the T-shirt without hesitation, I chose the applique design, Mafalda chose (with a little help) the fabric and helped cut them, also it was her who chose the buttons! The rest of the work was obviously mine.

Want to make a T-shirt like mine?Just click on the button below!

[cryout-button-light url=”http://meiasmarias.com/documents/robot_alien%20aplica%C3%A7%C3%A3o.pdf”]Alien Applique pattern[/cryout-button-light]

Waldorf Doll #1

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I waited a long time to start this project, I’ve gather all the materials and ended a few projects still in progress so I could devote my time, my soul and my mind to this project. Today I am again a little girl 🙂

With so much play she ended up with a boo-boo on her arm. If there’s one thing I do like to do to check the strength of my work is to put them in the hands of Mafalda. This child was born with the destruction blessing and little resists her. Arms and hair must have reinforced seams is what we learned from our walk in the park:)

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