D is For Darts

When sewing garments and accessories darts are an essential technique to master in order to create a great fit/shape. Darts can be straight or curved depending on desired effect. A straight dart will give you an easier, looser fit while a curved dart will be more form fitting.

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Check out this tutorial on one of my personal favorite sites, Sew Mama Sew. This blog is amazing! Full of great tips, tricks, and tutorials. I have to admit I like to check it out every day! It goes over the importance of darts in the fit of a garment with and easy to follow picture tutorial and instructions. The triangle areas seen in the photo below represent the actuall dart placement on the garment pieces, in this case a dress. Darts will be used in this instance to take in the fabric where each dart is placed to create a formed fit.

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eHow has a great, easy to follow tutorial for sewing darts into any fabric project.

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Joanna over at Stardust Shoes has a great tutorial showing you how to take in your pants using butt darts.

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Check out this fun and elegant pleated bag tutorial from Lisa Lam (which is funny because that's my name too!!) at U Handbag. With a change of fabric, this would be perfect for a wedding or holiday party. In this instance, the darts give the bag a fun shape and detail.

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Threads Magazine has a great video collection. Included in this collection are two videos that would be useful for marking darts and sewing darts in your fabric projects. This collection is a super valuable tool for novice and intermediate sewers.

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Happy Crafting!

Free Tutorial Friday - How to Make Mini Hats

See Mini Hats Down And Dirty and 1000's of others - or share your own on Cut Out + Keep

Here is my super simple and speedy tutorial on mini hats.  I use hot glue to make them so simple.

Happy Crafting!

Free Fabric Flower Tutorial, Tips, and Tricks

I just thought that I would share this super easy craft Lisa and I make for our shows.  If you do shows, you need to have some smaller, lower priced item that people can pick up as little gifts or stocking stuffers.  You could make these patriotic, Halloween, Christmas, Easter, etc.  This would also make a really great birthday party favor.

I read online that you could cut felt with the cricut if you fused down stabilizer to the back.  Maybe you can with the Expression, but I only have the little Cricut Personal.  It was really a disaster.  It didn't work and I wasted $30.00 on the deep blade housing. 

Plus, I had a couple of yards of felt with fusible stabilizer on the back.  So, instead of giving up hope, I decided to try by die cutter.  Guess what?  It works like a charm. 

I used the Sizzix "Flower Layers 3" Die found here  (I actually buy them in Michael's or Joanns with a coupon). 

I also used the original "Flower Layers" shown below.  I was just on the Sizzix website and they have about 50 different flower dies to choose from.  There are a couple that look like poinsettias which would be so pretty for Christmas.

I don't actually have the Sizzix machine.  I have the small Cricut Die Cutter.  The Sizzix dies work in it. 

I just cut the felt down into 4"x6" pieces. 

Then I placed 2 layers of felt over the die and cranked it through the machine.

You do not need to put stabilizer.  You can use regular or stiffened felt. 

Then, I layered up the flowers in random order.  For the centers, I used a pompom.  You can get a bag of these at most Dollar Stores.  I stitched right through the pompom, wrapped the thread around the pony tail holder (also from the Dollar Store) and then come out the top of the pompom.  Then I tied the thread and left it sticking out. 

I used that string thread that you use for fillet crochet and a big upholstery needle.

These little flowers are about $.05-$.10 a piece to make. 

You could also attach these flowers to pins, hats, headbands, alligator clips, etc. 

Idea 2

Another great project Lisa and I did with felt and die cuts is to make felt dress up dolls for a felt board.  If you have never seen a felt board, the name basically implies what it is.  It is some felt glued onto a board.  The easiest way to make one if to take a piece of foam core board and spray glue down a large piece of felt to cover the board or the glue a piece of felt onto one of those little cork boards you get at the dollar store. 

Anyway little kids love these boards because the pieces of felt stick together and they can make pictures and tell stories. 

In addition to cutting out the basic shapes with my shapes dies, we also used the "Dress Ups" line to cute out people.  The body actually makes a boy or a girl depending on what hair you cut out.  They also have clothing dies.  This ended up being a very fun project and it only took a few minutes.  With my daughter in preschool, I will probably be using this project idea to make b-day gifts in a very affordable way. 

The Sizzix dies also come in animals, letter, and pretty much anything else you can imagine.