Drawstring Laundry Bag

So my sister and her boyfriend just graduated high school, so for her graduation present she asked for a drawstring laundry bag. So I went hunting for cute ideas an found this great tutorial and made these adorable bags!!

 This tutorial made for a shorter bag than I was looking for. It called for about 2/3 yard of each fabric. I added the last 1/3 (because I bought a yard of each) onto the end of the bag to make it longer.

I did NOT do the monogramming... while I wish I could get the equipment to do it, I want a serger first! (If you looking for a great monogrammer in Charleston, contact me! She's amazing!)

 

Helpful tip:

Since the front and the back of the top seam were different colors, 

I put the pink thread in the bobbin and the blue thread on top of the machine. 

This way my thread matched the color of the fabric!

 Also, I finally got a label made! I hated not being able to put my name in my creations, so I found a label on namemaker.com that I liked and here is what I got...

I put a bird on it!

Pillowcase Dress with Ruffles

I love my pillowcase dresses! Its so much fun making them but I needed a challenge recently so I decided to try my hand at ruffling. Plus I had it in my head that this dress would be perfect with a ruffle.  I found a pattern for a ruffled bottom pillowcase dress and a to help get me started. I used my previous pattern for the dress, but I added an inner lining to cover the ruffle seam. Well I don't have a gathering foot or a ruffling foot ( I will one day but the sewing shop was out and I wanted to do it then and not wait to order one) so I decided to try ruffling by hand.  I went to google and looked up ruffling and a ruffling tutorial and some youtube videos and watched them until I felt like I understood. It took waaaay longer than it would have it I had the right foot, but it was fun to learn how to do it without one.

I started by cutting 5 strips each 3" wide x 22" long.

 I set my machine at the longest stitch and went across twice, leaving some thread at the ends. Hold the thread at the end and slowly ruffle the fabric between stitches until all done. My ends frayed so I ran a zig zag stitch over the end

 Then I attached all the pieces together and made one long ruffle.

I put the ruffle between the inner and outer lining of the pre-cut fabric (right sides facing) and sewed them all together and flipped so I could start putting the dress together.

 I also attempted fabric ties this time instead of ribbon, to match the ruffle.... Oh I loved it!

 Here was my final product.... Perfect little July 4th dresses!

Also, I've found this amazing sewing shop called Five Eighth Seams. They do sewing classes, they sell beautiful fabric, and the staff is just wonderful. Well I'm in love with their fabric! And they are so helpful that you just can't resist going to the store, not just for fabric but for great tips.

Well I was hunting for a pattern for another pillowcase dress I was making and I found some beautiful fabric that I just had to use. While I was in there they gave me a great idea!  Instead of just a 2 toned dress, which was what I was planning on, do a 3 toned dress!

 

All I did was add a small strip of fabric between the 2 sections and sealed.  The strip was 6" cut and folded in half and placed between the bottom and top piece, I used a 1/2" seam allowance. I could have use a 1/4" but it was my first time doing it.

And it was just too beautiful to not make a headband to go with it!