Tutorial: Making American Girl Doll Yoga Pants

The last tute was rather half assed. This one is better, but I must reiterate, I truly lack patience, and though I do own a huge book of American Girl doll clothing patterns I have only used them once or twice. I like these quick easy re dos that my kids can be happy with in minutes, flat.

So here goes: American Girl Doll Yoga Pants,

You will need:

• Old knit shirt with band wrist sleeves, a smaller ladies size is easiest (mine was Medium) but if you are using a larger shirt you may need to sew it along the seam to make it a bit thinner. You need a width of about 5" for a fitted pant. You will need at least 3/4 sleeve length (what I used) My fabric tube length was 11" with the band UN-folded. :ong sleeved would work too. note: if you use short sleeve with a band you could do yoga shorts!

•  scissors
• sewing machine 
• thread
• American Girl Doll to size up for length.

Step ONE: (every time I type that I think of this Alkaline Trio Song btw)
cut shirt sleeve off the sizing up length to your doll, the band will be at her waist (folded over) Turn this inside out.

Step TWO: sew upward slightly off center, then about 1/4" away from band turn stitches 90 degrees and sew just a few stitches (bit less than 1/4") then down to bottom of cut. (yea, I forgot to take a shot of it sewn prior to cutting, apologies. also, this is how I roll. see this post if you don't believe me.

Step THREE: cut upward in a straight line in between where you sewed. (do not worry about cutting across the upper most line, it's fine leaving it just a straight cut.

Step FOUR: turn right side out, slip onto your doll and fold over the top band.

Note: if you use t-shirt knit you could easily make the bottom hem bell out a bit by stretching. I didn't go wild with that, being I used ribbed fabric and figured this will happen easily on it's own. ;)

Half Assed Tutorial: How to make old Jeans/Cords low-rise

Listen, so we are currently trying to sell our house. This means I have to get rid of many pack-ratted items. BUT...it can also mean, if I get creative about how to "store" these items I can keep them. So, I had been storing some Old Navy Cords circa 2000? I know they were pre-kids...any which way...I knew I'd want them again someday, so I kept reoganizing these babes into different hiding spots. Most recently I moved them to the foot of my bed...to make room for some fabric I had won in a raffle?! See here to read more about what an awesome thing The Fabric Shopper did to make this Holiday super for a whole bunch of folks, kiddos...in such a crafty way...

back to my sitch. Ok, so moving hoarded corduroys to make room for raffle-won fabric. Moved to bed. Husband was inquiring in that way he does that makes me know he thinks I should donate/throw out whatever item he is inquiring about...and reclaim the place/space it is taking. I threw them in my closet but decided today (only two days later) to make them fit me again, in a way that will be more circa 2009...or maybe 2011...but probably not quite.


I think they are slightly low rise, you know when they first came out with them. So I think to make this half assed version of making your older pants into low rise you'll probably need Non-Mom jeans to begin with...and certainly NO. FREAKING. PLEATS. if you have those either you are WAY to cool to be reading this, and probably also wear ugly sweaters and math teacher glasses to be all ironic and stuff. OR you are just, well, I don't want to hurt your feeling but please stop wearing pleats they are just awful.

So here's what I did to make my half-assed version of low rise out of some cords. OH~! almost forgot...I ruined two pair with failed attempts first, to find this half assed version. If you really want a decent re-do and you are talented when it comes to sewing clothing and you HAVE patience (I do not) then google it because some *true* fashionista revisionistas have done this successfully and probably much more beautifully.

Step ONE: find jeans or cords that will sit on your hips even with their LONG zipper and so forth.

Step Two: turn them inside out, and line up the inseam with a desirable pair of jeans that you currently love the rise in.

Step THREE: BASTE stitch by hand along the excess from the pair you are fixing so it matches up to your desirable pair. try them on with just the basted stitch, to be sure you like how they look.
Note: this lining up, you will find the excess does not run the entire length of your pants, if it does I'd just manually taper it out. You should only be sewing about 5-6" of this inseam. a very thin triangle.

Step FOUR: Machine Sew along your basted stitch. Cut excess and voila there you have your low rise pants.

Note: The reason I termed this "half assed" (besides the obvious) The stitches basically are under your ass, halfway, so unless you are bending over like, with straight legs, touching your toes no one should notice this was done using Peachy Tuesday's Half-Assery. And man oh man do I love that tern btw.

Happy sewing:) Have a Peachy Day!

Tutorial: Making American Girl Doll Tights

I was looking at a mess on my dresser last evening when a lone knee sock struck me with an amazingly-easy-to-execute idea. I told one of my daughters to "quick! go get your American Girl doll!" I realized the width of my adult sized knee sock was the American Girl Doll waist width. I made 3 pair of tights from knee socks in about 30 minutes. I thought I'd post how easy it was here. My apologies, the pictures are awful, but you'll forgive me when you see how easy this is!

you'll need:

• An adult sized knee sock,
• thread
• sewing machine
• scissors
• ruler

First:  Turn your sock inside out (if you forget it's ok, if they are solid color socks they'll look fine, and to be honest I forgot on this pair!)

Step two: Cut straight across removing the "foot" part of the sock

Step Three: measure 3 inches from top of sock and mark with a pin

Step four: Sew down the almost center from the pin twice, leaving about 1/2" in between your sewing lines so you can easily cut in between the lines you've sewn. At the bottom, curve your sewing line outward.

Step Five: sew the 1/2" space connecting the TOP of your lines.

Step Six: Cut up the center and around the feet.

Turn right side out and you have yourself some dolly tights!

Front

back

variations: tights with runners could work almost just as easily (even kids tights!) but you'll have to adjust the tutorial a bit to sew yourself a waist.

Stuffed Animal Storage-Tutorial

My Children Adore Plush Toys. They have A. LOT. OF. STUFFED. ANIMALS. They loved playing with them so I can't complain too much. At times the huge bins full of them drive me nuts. They take up huge amounts of floor space! I am not really a huge fan of those nets you can buy for the ceiling. I mean, honestly what kid can reach that? what is the point really? If we are storing plush by lining our ceilings they really should be out of our homes, right?

In my oldest daughter's room my husband came up with the idea of fashioning a hammock to tie off the end of her loft bed. Did I tell you I am married to an organizational genius? yep. He's amazing, he's also a good cook, an kick ass artist...fun Daddy...so happy he's my wonderful Hubby.

You can add one of these to a regular bed, just needs to be one with a foot board.

I decided to whip up this hammock today. And I did in literally 10 minutes. here's How I did it:

you'll need:

• 1 Throw blanket
• 6 pieces of gross grain ribbon cut so you have enough to tie around the end of your bed rails. I used 10" pieces.
• thread
• bed with foot board

1. burn the edges of your ribbon so they do not fray.
2. fold ribbon in half and sew one piece to each corner of the blanket
3. use the last two pieces of ribbon in the center of each long side of your blanket.
4. Tie hammock to your bed and fill.
5. Easy & now that huge bin is off the floor! 

disclaimer/update: First words out of youngest child's mouth when she saw this: "It would be cool if I could get in here!!" Just a note of caution, do explain the importance that this hammock is for STUFFED ANIMALS only!