2009 June | Lil Blue Boo

Border Fabric Sundress Tutorial

June 30, 2009 By Ashley 76 Comments

Fabrics with a border at the bottom or top can define a dress! The fabric I used for this little sun dress is Pod Posey Border from Michael Miller. I decided not to hem the dress and left the white selvage border at the bottom because I love the contrast it gives to the dress (and there was no writing on this selvage side). I’ve included the tutorial for the dress below. It is only a 30-45 minute project! Make sure to add your finished dress to the Lil Blue Boo Flickr Gallery!

Here is the fabric before cutting. Both sides have the border. I bought a ton of this fabric last summer because I was planning to make a bed skirt for my daughter’s crib with it. I had to find another use for it because she is no longer in a crib! I might even make a skirt for myself with it.

Step 1: Cut out your fabric pieces:

Cutting your main piece you may need to add extra width in order to match the pattern:

Using sections of the fabric without the border, cut the chest band piece and the strap pieces:

Note: If your fabric has NO stretch at all or you are sewing for a child under 12 months old, you might want to add another 1″ to your chest band measurement (i.e. 7″ x chest measurement plu 2.5″). This will give you some extra breathing room…especially for those roly poly bellies!

Step 2: For your main piece, match the pattern and sew up the side with 1/4″ seam and finish the edge.

Open the main piece up to the right side and iron your seam to make sure you have matched the pattern properly.

Step 3: Fold the chest band in half (right sides together) and sew the shorter sides together using a 1/4″ inseam. Then, press the seam open with iron.

Fold the chest band in half and iron the fold.

Open the chest band up and the fold both sides inward to the middle. Iron the folds.

Fold both sides closed and iron.

Step 4: Mark the middle, back and sides of the main dress piece with safety pins or chalk.

Sew all the way around the top of the main dress piece about 1/4″ from the edge using your longest stitch setting (about a 6 or 7). You will use this stitching to create the gathering in the ruffle. I like to overlap the beginning and end of this stitch line (but don’t sew over the other!) so there isn’t a gap in the gathering where the threads end. Be careful when pulling your thread through and work in small increments or you might break the thread! Gather the fabric until you get it to be the same width as your chest band. Tie off your thread.

Step 5: Mark the front middle, back middle and sides of the chest band with pins.

Match the pins of the chest band to the pins of the gathered main dress piece at the front, back and sides. Slip the main dress piece up into the chest band about 1/2″ and pin in place.

In between the pins, make sure that the gathered fabric is spaces evenly and add more pins around the dress to keep the gathering in place.

Step 6: Sew on top of the chest band about 1/8″ above the main dress piece to attach. Sew all the way around periodically straightening the dress piece.

Step 7: Take your small 1.5″ x 11″ pieces and turn them into bias tape. Use the tutorial from my pillowcase dress post if you haven’t done this before!

Fold in the ends of the bias tape.

Sew the bias tape all the way around edges so that each piece of fabric becomes a dress strap.

Step 8: Pin 2 straps to the inside front and pin 2 straps to the inside back of the dress chest band so that they hang about 1/2″ down into the dress. The spacing from the middle will depend on your child’s size, but I pinned Sienna’s 2.75″ from the middle for the front and 2.25″ from the middle for the back.

Sew 1/8″ down from the top of the dress to attach the 4 straps all the way around.

And you are done! The straps tie into bows above each shoulder.

Just a note: you can use any fabric for this dress….I was just inspired by the “border” fabric. Two contrasting fabrics would work well for the chest band and an added border at the bottom of the dress!

Here is Sienna wearing her new dress! Feel free to email me if you have questions or get stuck on my tutorial! Click here to see the gallery of photos that other readers have sent me!

Filed Under: Children's Clothes, Free Patterns, Sewing, Things I've Made, Tutorial Tagged With: children, pattern, sewing, sundress, tutorial

Monday Makeover – Faux Painting the Butler’s Pantry

June 30, 2009 By Ashley 4 Comments

First of all, I think it is hilarious that this room is called a butler’s pantry…. where is the butler that is supposed to come with it?!

I REALLY wanted to participate in Christy Klein’s Monday Makeover today.

So here it is. I actually repainted my ENTIRE house myself using this distressed faux technique, but the butler’s pantry is the only room I have a “before” photo of.

I painted every wall in the house except for the bedrooms. I wanted an aged, distressed plaster effect. I had to work when my 2-year-old was napping so the ladder and paint literally stayed out for a month! It probably took me about 50 hours. I’m thinking I need some art on the walls……

Below is the foyer adjacent to the butler’s pantry. It was the first room I started on. The weather vane is from my childhood home….. when my parents sold our old house I took it with me. I still need to make a wood base for the metal stand to rest on.

Closeup of the faux finishing……

Now that I’ve posted photos I’ll have to come up with a tutorial on how to do it!

Filed Under: Home Projects, Things I've Made

Laundry Room / Powder Room Art

June 28, 2009 By Ashley 3 Comments

I bought a boxed set of postcards a few years ago featuring art deco soap labels (from Chronicle Books). To spruce up our laundry room, I framed four of the labels with frames and antique white mats that I picked up from Michael’s on sale.

I found this site that sells actual vintage soap labels. I like the idea of framing anything that is “soap” or “detergent” related. If you use those large bar soaps that come in the beautiful packaging you could just frame those!

If you need art for the kitchen you could use vintage canned food labels. Here are two of my favorites:

Image from The Labelman

Filed Under: Home Projects, Things I've Made

Another Serious Critique of Sienna’s Work….

June 24, 2009 By Ashley 3 Comments

If you haven’t visited the blog What My Kids’ Art Says (and submitted your kid’s artwork too) you are missing out! I submitted another piece of artwork by my 2-year-old daughter Sienna to the site and Dan Consiglio’s interpretation is hilarious yet again. I roll on the floor laughing at the labels he gives his posts: Trickle Down BS, Silence of the Lambs, People Shaped Like Yellow Green Beans, Crap……

Here is the artwork. It was Sienna’s card to her daddy on Father’s Day. Prepare to be transfixed by the combination of beauty and morbid “Silence of the Lambs” references.

Excerpt from the review: “Apparently, her mood has shifted to match the arrival of the blistering summer heat. S’s latest piece — while staying true to the Southwestern color palette – is a 180-degree about face.”

You can find the previous masterpiece created by my daughter Sienna and the interpretation here. Enjoy!

Filed Under: Friends and Family, My Picks, Sienna's Work

Big Sister/Little Sister Pillowcase Dresses

June 23, 2009 By Ashley 15 Comments

These pillowcase dresses were made for a friend’s daughters. I used Naptime Crafts’ tutorial here. I had to guess on their sizes and Naptime Crafts’ had all the measurements I needed!

Both fabrics I got from Joann’s. The ribbon I think I picked up at Michael’s a while ago.

I made bias tape to match the bottom fabric band.

I rarely make bias tape because I think it is such a pain…..BUT I came across this easy tutorial at Creative Little Daisy. I feel like it is a big secret everyone has been keeping from me! It is by far the best sewing trick I’ve come across YET. If you think you have one to beat it let me know

Here is Sienna modeling the larger size of the dress. She’s getting a little better at posing….she’ll actually look at the camera now!

Filed Under: Children's Clothes, Gifts, OPT, Sewing, Things I've Made, Tutorial

Summer Special on Custom Painted Portraits

June 23, 2009 By Ashley 3 Comments

Sienna – November 2008 – 18″ x 18″ (2″ gallery canvas)

Summer Special on Custom Painted Portraits

20% Off Listed Pricing

(order must be place before August 30, 2009)

This offer is to my blog readers/followers only!

Thanks so much for supporting my blog!

To place an order, visit here (and make sure to mention Lil Blue Boo)

You won’t find portraits like these anywhere else! I’ve spent years working on my process of layering and distressing so that each portrait is a unique family heirloom.

I paint my original portraits from photograph using acrylic paint and other mixed media.

Original “Sienna” reference photo

I love to include ephemera such as copies of old family letters, a stitched outline of a church, or images that represent a child’s interests etc. Many paintings include stitching, vintage watch parts and stamps, old ledger paper and other items from my collection.

Detail of “Sienna” – Vintage stamps, paint layering, old ledger paper and handwriting

Closeup of “Sienna” shirt detail

Detailed views from several portraits:

Vintage travel stamp, vintage car ad, gold stitching

Vintage handwriting, vintage watch parts attached

Reproduction of an old family bank book (this was given to me by the family to include)

Vintage postage stamp, gold stitching

Vintage car ad, gold stitching

Vintage train advertisement (the child I painted this for LOVED trains)

Vintage travel ad (the little girl featured in the painting has a love for zebras)

Filed Under: Painting, Portraits

Sewing for myself!

June 22, 2009 By Ashley 11 Comments

This is huge for me. I sew clothes for my daughter and other children all the time, but this is FIRST time I’ve ever sewn anything for myself. Please excuse the photos….I was straight out of the pool……

I followed Rae’s Spring Ruffle Top Tutorial on Sew Mama Sew but made a few changes:

1. Obviously I left off the ruffles. I also omitted the “arm divots” in the tutorial.

2. For the shoulder straps and top band I folded the fabric in half, opened it up and folded the ends in so that they were 4 layers thick and then topstitched all the way around. This made the shoulder straps a little narrower and I made the top band a little wider to compensate for the extra fold.

3. I made the top slightly larger so that it was “billowy” (if that is a real word).

I used just a plain white myslin. My husband says it looks like a nighty……but I might wear it EVERYDAY with my jean cutoff staples!

Filed Under: OPT, Sewing, Things I've Made

This didn’t go so well….

June 22, 2009 By Ashley 6 Comments

I tried to dye some old t-shirts yesterday using some RIT dye. It didn’t turn out as wonderful as I imagined. I think I might have diluted the dye too much, didn’t dissolve the dye enough before adding the clothes so it left little specks, and I probably didn’t use hot enough water.

Now I’ve got a bunch of ho-hum blue tank tops.

Dyeing take two. Any tips for dyeing clothing?!

Filed Under: Oops, Things I've Made

Recycled Mosaic Kitchen Art

June 20, 2009 By Ashley 21 Comments

I just finished these little mosaics for the wall going from our kitchen to the butler’s pantry. It is an awkward space because it steps down from the kitchen and the wall is tall and narrow. I needed something long and narrow to fill the space and look proportional. I also knew that I wanted something dimensional, colorful and unique. I’m so happy with how they turned out.

Huge bonus I discovered once they were done: Each little art piece is a mystery game for my 2-year-old! She loves to point out each square and guess what it is….she can point out Mommy’s cereal (Raisin Bran), Daddy’s cereal (Go Lean Crunch), pancakes, goldfish, crackers etc.

I’ve been saving all of these boxes for a year. I had grand plans of cutting them all into little 1 inch squares, sorting them by color and making a huge fruit or veggie mosaic with them to decorate our kitchen. Since I’ve never gotten around to that, and we seemed to have run out of wall space I made some smaller more manageable mosaics.

First, I cut out lots of 2 inch squares from all the boxes so that I had an interesting selection of colors. (I actually cut the squares about 1/16th larger than 2 inches so that the cardboard would hang over the edge slightly.)

I made a small template to make the cutting process easier.

Here is Sienna working on her own mosaic. (Sorry she didn’t dress up for her photo op)

Then I laid out the squares in a design that I liked. For the base, I bought 8 x 8 inch cradled Gessobord (2 inch deep). You can usually buy these at your local craft store. I got mine at Aaron Brothers with their weekly coupon.

I like to use Liquitex Matte Medium for collage glue. It isn’t sticky and spreads well.

I worked in rows…brushing on a generous layer of medium and placing the squares in place and then brushing a layer of medium over top as well.

As I finished each row, I laid wax paper on top and used a brayer to roll out any air or glue bubbles underneath. This also helps to make sure that the squares are adhering flat. (Note: If you don’t use wax paper, your top layer of the cardboard squares will begin to disintegrate or peel….you’ll end up with a huge mess.)

Note: Only leave the wax paper on for a few seconds as you roll out the bubbles…..it will leave a waxy residue if you let it dry onto the squares. You can also use freezer paper for this step.

After the squares were completely dry, I took a razor blade and with a “sawing” motion cut off any excess cardboard down the sides.

I made three different mosaics.

I sprayed the top and sides of each mosaic with one coat of Krylon Triple Thick Clear Glaze.

I didn’t have to use any hardware for hanging. The boxes are so deep that I just put 2 inch wire brad nails 6.5 inches apart into the wall and hung them.