There’s a new outfit available for the Dress Up Bunch – a doll raincoat pattern!
It’s still snowing here, but soon it will be rain showers and flowers! Your dolls need to be ready for those rainy days so they can splish splash in puddles!
Of course you don’t just get a raincoat pattern. Let’s look at all the parts. . .
A new dress! It’s a short-sleeved dress with three front snaps and some optional fancy trim around the bottom hem. That butterfly print is perfect for spring!
Here’s a view of the raincoat from the back – with the hood down.
It’s a nice roomy hood – easy to make and easy for little hands to flip up and down over that big Dress Up Bunch head. 🙂
Want a closer look at those adorable boots?
They have a little flap on the front with velcro to make them easier for little hands to put on without any help. Plus the little bugs and caterpillars are so cute. I want boots like these!
You can use laminated cottons for the outer shell of the raincoat and boots – but I really wanted to use these prints so I laminated them myself using Pellon Vinyl Fuse. It’s easy – just follow the directions on the package and then treat it like regular fabric. Just don’t try to iron it! And clips are better than pins because pins will leave permanent tiny holes.
Want to learn the basics of hand embroidery with an easy online workshop – totally free?
Sign up for Embroidery 101 here. You’ll learn how to get started, the tools and supplies you’ll need, the four most basic stitches, how to transfer your pattern and how to display your work.
If you already know the basics – sign up for Embroidery 201. It’s also free! You’ll learn how to stitch on specialty fabrics like felt and stretchy T-shirts. Plus you’ll learn lots and lots and LOTS more stitches – all my favorites!
You know how I talk ALL THE TIME about how much I love handwork because it’s so portable?
Would you like to see just what I keep in my handwork bag? I’ll show you what tools are inside and how I keep everything organized so I can pull out my work whenever – and wherever – I have a few minutes to stitch.
All right then!
I’m currently working on two projects – hand quilting the Controlled Chaos quilt (not portable – I do this on the sofa)
The quilt won’t fit in it 🙂 but the 7 inch hoop does. I work on both projects on the sofa – but I also carry the hoop with me for random moments of handwork.
I love having a metal tin so I can store sharp objects inside without fear of them poking me or poking through my bag. Here’s what’s inside the tin. . .
My bag is always packed and sitting at my sofa spot, ready to grab and take along in case I’m going anywhere I might have a few extra minutes for some handwork.
I usually crochet my rounds in spirals: which means that I go around and around continuously. It’s an easy technique.
The main downside, though, is that if you’re crocheting stripes, you get pesky little jogs in the color changes.
The solution is to crochet in joined rounds. That means, at the start of each round, you chain one, and then slip stitch into that chain at the end of the round.
Update – If you want to keep crocheting in a spiral but minimize that pesky jog in your stripes, there’s a video here showing a different technique.
It’s pretty easy to accidentally add stitches using joined rounds… which makes a chevron shape instead of a nice, flat join. Oops.
The trick to avoiding accidental increases is to know your stitches! Here’s a little graphic of the stitches involved:
So, when you’re crocheting, you don’t want to single crochet into the slip stitch of the previous round. It’s funny because it feels like you’re skipping a stitch. But that’s the trick.
Yay!
Here are handy links to all the posts about changing yarn color in crochet. . .
This one post will give you all the links you need to get to all of my different posts (and there are a lot of them) about how to applique. I love applique!
First, there are three major applique techniques.
Needle Turn Applique
This is beautiful and soft and lovely – but it’s a hand technique so it’s sloooooow. It’s still doable though! My very first quilt was enormous and full of needle turn applique.
The only tools you need are a washable marker and a needle and thread.
Freezer Paper Applique
This is also beautiful and soft and lovely, but it’s a machine technique so it’s much faster than needle turn.
There are four videos for this technique, because you use different techniques for different shapes. I’m listing them here in order from easiest to hardest.
There are lots of different brands of fusible adhesive. My favorite is Heat & Bond. I use the Lite weight for all my quilts. There’s also a super strong version called Ultrahold that is a nice option for tiny eyes and other small pieces you might not want to have to sew.
I get a lot of questions from people asking how durable the applique is if you just use straight stitching. I answer that here – showing some close-up photos of a quilt that my daughter has been using for some time now. That means it’s been washed and dried a lot. 🙂
It’s finally here! The video showing you how I do big stitch quilting – a super easy and fun hand quilting technique!
Big stitch quilting is my new favorite way to hand quilt – I’m not sure I’ll ever go back to traditional hand quilting. It’s just so much fun! I love the chunkiness of the stitches – and the style really seems to demand the kind of slight irregularities and wonkiness I love so much.
I should note – I’m not trying to be irregular here. I find that if I try to stitch a perfectly straight line, going slowly and carefully, but not actually marking or measuring it in any way – I get just the amount of wonkiness and wobbliness that makes me happy. It looks like it was sewn by human hands. 🙂
Here are all my posts about hand quilting and Big Stitch quilting. I don’t use these techniques with fusible applique or Quilt As You Go, but I LOVE using Big Stitch Quilting with my cheater fabric.
That means the people who love babies need a go to, easy baby bib pattern.
This is it!
It’s a simple bib shape – very easy to make and customize with any appliqué (or other fancification) you like. This pattern includes that sweet bear. 🙂
Make it out of regular quilting cotton for a basic bib. Back it with laminated fabric for heavy droolers. Make the whole thing out of laminate for those learning to eat solid foods. (The fabrics I used are from Timeless Treasures. The crosshatch is my beloved Sketch collection and the swirly fizzy dots are from the appropriately-named Pop collection.)
Cut two bib pieces (one front and one back) on the fold.
Step 2
Print or trace the bear appliqué pieces (the last page of the baby bib pattern PDF) onto fusible adhesive. This is the brand I use.
Roughly cut out each shape and fuse them to the back of the fabric, following the instructions for the brand you’re using.
Step 3
Cut out the pieces neatly.
Cut right on the solid lines. Leave a little extra seam allowance past the dotted lines. See the extra at the bottom of the ears? That bit will tuck behind the head.
Step 4
Hold the face up to the window so you can see the markings through the fabric and mark the position of the eyes.
I just use a fine tip Sharpie – nothing fancy.
Do the same thing with the muzzle, marking the position of the nose and the key points of the mouth.
You can also trace over the whole line of the mouth, if you prefer.
Step 5
Peel off the paper backings and layer the pieces together so that the ears tuck behind the head and the bottom of the bear body is lined up with the bottom of the bib.
Here you can see it a little closer.
Fuse the pieces down according to the instructions of whatever brand adhesive you’re using.
Step 6
Stitch around the edges of all the pieces.
I like to use black thread and a simple straight stitch. You can use a zigzag or other decorative stitch if you prefer. If you want a little help knowing where to start and in what order to stitch the pieces, this post should help you out. And this one will help you with managing those tight curves. 🙂
Step 7
Embroider the eyes and mouth.
I did it by hand using this stitch for the eyes, and following the instructions for the mouth in the free Warren the Charity Bear pattern. I used a single strand of this thread. That’s the equivalent of two strands of DMC floss, but I love using a single strand of thicker thread so I don’t have to worry about the strands separating on that long stitch connecting the nose to the mouth.
You can also sew the face by machine. That’s what I did for this cat bib. You can find info about how I did the eyes here. The mouth and whiskers are just a simple straight stitch, going over all the lines twice to make them a little thicker. (For those I traced the whole line of the mouth and whiskers in Step 4, not just the endpoints.)
Step 8
Cut a 1-inch square of hook & loop tape (or use snaps or a button).
Sew it to the bib as shown. Both bib pieces are shown right side up. I attached the loop side to the bib front and the hook side to the bib back, but it doesn’t really matter.
Step 9
Layer the bib front and the bib back right sides together.
Using 1/4 inch seam allowance, sew all the way around the edge. Leave a few inches open for a turning hole in the straight part of one of the sides.
Step 10
Clip the seam allowance in the concave curve around the neck.
For more on the the how and why of clipping curves, watch this video.
It would be fun to make a whole set of them with lots of different faces!
Have fun with this pattern! I’d love to see what you make – and I’d really love to see them on some adorable babies. 🙂 Post photos in the Shiny Happy People group so we can ooh and aah over them.
Here are several free patterns that work with my basic 10-inch applique squares – no resizing needed!
Here are several free patterns that work with just some simple resizing. This post about making coasters has info about resizing an applique pattern that can be applied to any of these projects.
I’m completely in love with the Controlled Chaos scrap quilt!
A lot of you are too, because I’ve been getting a lot of emails asking about it lately. 🙂 It’s about time to put all the links together into one handy place!
I’m still working on the quilting, so this is a work in progress. I’ll update it with new info as I get closer to finishing and post more details. 🙂Read all about the finished quilt here!
The Blocks
Click on the image to jump to the instructions for that block.
Block #1
Block #2
Block #3
Block #4
Block #5
Block #6
Block #7
Block #8
Block #9
Block #10
Block #11
Block #12
Block #13
Block #14
Block #15
Block #16
Block #17
Block #18
Block #19
Block #20
The Quilting
I used Big Stitch Quilting for this quilt, all by hand.
I find it helpful for a project like this, where every block will be quilted a little differently, to establish “rules” for the overall quilt. For this quilt, my stitching within each block runs parallel to the edges of the block. My quilting in the sashing is zigzag angles. I think it helps set that sashing off as different, so it frames the blocks better.
The Tutorials
These are all general tutorials you can use for any quilt project, but they’re especially helpful for the Controlled Chaos quilt.
There it is! Everything you need to make your own Controlled Chaos Quilt! Of course yours will look totally different because your scrap bins are filled with your favorite colors – the ones you go to again and again. Sew them up into a beauty like this! 🙂
Here are all my posts about hand quilting and Big Stitch quilting. I don’t use these techniques with fusible applique or Quilt As You Go, but I LOVE using Big Stitch Quilting with my cheater fabric.
Learn how to hand quilt. It’s easy, relaxing, and goes faster than you think it will.
In this video you’ll learn all the basics of hand quilting – from the tools you need to the mechanics of how to do the stitch. There are two methods you’ll see people use – stabbing and rocking. I’m a rocker – gathering up several stitches with each pass of the needle.
Some people are very concerned with the number of stitches per inch. As I mentioned in the video – I am not. 🙂
If you want to get smaller stitches, work towards it gradually. This stitch feels awkward the first time you try it – and it’s even more awkward if you’re using a very tiny needle. I recommend starting with a pack of needles that includes several sizes. Start with the largest and work with that until you feel comfortable, then start moving to smaller and smaller needles – sticking with each size until you feel comfortable with it. When you’re happy with the length of your stitches – stay with that needle size.
Here are all my posts about layering and basting your quilt, and the final round of quilting.
Here are all my posts about hand quilting and Big Stitch quilting. I don’t use these techniques with fusible applique or Quilt As You Go, but I LOVE using Big Stitch Quilting with my cheater fabric.
Using a fabric glue stick to hold appliqué pieces in place while I sew has been one of my best discoveries ever.
Maybe a bunch of you do this already?
I have a very fraught relationship with glue. There are the glues that make your paper bubble and warp. The glues that seep beyond where you put them on fabric. The glues that stick your fingers together. The glues that don’t really stick like they should.
But last year I started using glue to hold my appliqué bits in place and I fell in love!
Let me count the ways. . .
Fabric glue sticks are designed for use with fabric. They don’t seep through, and they’ll soften up after washing. They’re perfect for a temporary hold.
They work really well on slightly napped fabrics like velvet and cuddle fleece. The beaver bits on that face you see above didn’t shift a smidge while I sewed them on with the machine.
I especially love using fabric glue for hand appliqué. Pins distort the fabric and – even worse – my thread was constantly getting hung up on them. With the fabric glue stick I can position all the pieces right where I want them, stick them in place, and then whipstitch away. Everything stays perfectly flat and I never catch my thread on a pin. Joy!
I tried a few brands and they all worked well, but I’m carrying this one in my shop because it works well and is a great price. 🙂
If you have ways that you use fabric glue sticks, I’d love to hear them!
