self-drafted pattern for the suit and hood, I even drew the bones myself before I traced and appliquéd to the suit.  As an added bonus, it fits over a snowsuit!

hoodie, overalls, applique, tank, hose, and respirator

I made this for a friend who just got a cube of his very own.

The toddler loves it and the cat is afraid of it. 
Questions and comments always welcome.

purple fuzzy jellyfish costume for my 2 year old daughter.  it is lightweight, warm, and oversized to be worn over her coat.  The pattern is a slightly modified Simplicity 5316.  I put buttons instead of a zipper, oversized the hood and extended the sleeves.  I made the hat (under the hood) as well also from the same pattern.

My daughter will be the flower girl in her uncle's wedding in a few weeks, and the dress I found for her is spectacular.  Trouble is, she is a messy messy messy almost 2 year old.  I made an apron to try to keep the muck off of her long enough for the pictures to come out ok.

Completed front.

create pattern pieces from newspaper.  Label them.

lay out pieces on a length of scrap fabric.

cut out fabric pattern pieces adding in the seam allowance. In this case, 1/2 an inch.

Oops! Seam allowance not required on the sides or neckline of the front piece. (now you know why I make fabric pattern pieces!)

lay out your pattern pieces on your fabric of choice. This is where you can double and quadruple your layers so you can cut several pieces at once.

cut out your pieces.

Apply bias tape to top and bottom edges of pockets. Also to the neckline, and both sides of the front. This picture shows dots of basting glue which make bias tape infinitely easier to work with.

applied bias tape.

Stitch together back panels leaving the top and bottom open. (have you figured out you actually need 4 pieces yet? sorry about that.)

turn, press and stitch front and back together at shoulder seams.

close look at the shoulder

carefully line up your pockets over top of two of the side pieces of the skirt. Again, fabric glue to the rescue to make basting these in place easy-peasy.

stitch the pockets on along the very bottom edge only.

stitch the skirt pieces together.

surge or trim along the edge making it nice and even and rounding off the corners as you go.

apply bias tape all the way around the skirt edge and gather waistline.  For the gather, you may wish to use a colour thread that is easily noticeable so you can find it and pull it out later.

Sandwich all your pieces. Notice that there is a waistline/tie piece in there as well. I did not decide what to do with the ties until just before I assembled the pieces. You could choose a ribbon too if you'd like.

attach the bottoms of the back pieces to the waistline.

button and buttonhole for the back. you could use a hook, snap or Velcro if you wish.

button close up

completed back.

Thanks for looking!  Questions and comments welcome.

I have finished my first 2

rainbow bias tape

blue bias tape

I made bias tape and posted it in the destash thread and a few people asked how I did it especially since I did not use the fancy bias tape maker.  So here you go!

start with a rectangle of fabric. Quilting cotton works wonderfully. This is a synthetic blend. It worked just fine. Orient the rectangle with the selvage closest to you. The bias is at a 45 degree angle to the selvage.


Fold one corner up to make a 45 degree angle. Press in place. Please note that I used a square of fabric. When using a rectangle, draw the corner up so that the selvage meets its parallel straight edge.


cut along the fold separating a triangle (on the left) with the rest of the rectangle (on the right).


without changing its orientation, move the left triangle to the end of the rectangle. Match the straight edges. The shape is a parallelogram.


stitch along the straight edge.


starting from the leftmost diagonal edge of the parallelogram mark the width of the strips for your bias tape. I used 2 tape measures and a straight edge to mark 2 inch wide strips. Measure strips 2 inches wide all the way from one diagonal edge to the other.


starting from the left mark the strips 1 - 2 - 3 etc.  This is difficult to see in the photo so look close!


This is the part that is the most awkward. bring the selvage up to meet its parallel edge. Match the strips up but offset the strips by one number. Strip number one matches to strip number 2. Strip number 2 to number 3 and so on. there will be an unmatched corner on each side and the fabric will seem all twisted and wrong. Stitch the selvage and its parallel edge together making a tube.


Start cutting the strips. Cut strip number 1 off the tube. Ready for the cool part? When you get to the end of strip number 1 you're at the start of strip 2 so just keep cutting and the strips will spiral off the tube of fabric.  This was not a perfect process and the lines did not match up perfectly.  Do not despair.  The finished product is still lovely and functional and you will be the only one to know the truth of the imperfect bias tape.


Now you have one long strip of fabric cut on the bias. Awesome.


March over to your ironing board and jam a needle through. leave about an inch of exposed needle.


Weave the fabric under the needle folding both raw edges over as you go. Use your iron to flatten out the rolled edges as you gently pull the fabric under the needle. You will have to do a little fiddling to keep the folds nice and even.


for double fold bias tape, once you have pressed all the raw edges to the center of your tape, fold the tape in half, adjust the pin and repeat the previous step.


press as you go.



roll it around some cardboard and you are done, my friend!

I finished my first project of 2011.  I made bias tape.  So much easier than I thought it would be.  A word of caution - I used way too much fabric.  I am not sure if I will ever use all of this rainbow bias tape, but I'll try!

totally DIY including making the pattern
little EJ absolutely loved it.  She knew she looked adorable and totally hammed it up the whole time.