Swimsuits can be intimidating, but are so very fun and surprisingly easy to make! You can make one with next to no fabric (for a child 😉 ) and very quickly too! The first swimsuit I made when my sister Nicole was testing her 4-in-1 swimsuit pattern. I used a sewing machine for the entire construction and while they weren’t…
Read More
EXCITING news!!! I am so happy to welcome a long time tester to my team, Megan Thoman! I KNOW you have seen her and her adorable kiddos around facebook groups, over on her blog, The Northern Belle and here on my site. (She does have a son too, surprisingly not modeling any Made for Mermaids 😉 ) Megan will be…
Read More
I was so excited to be a part of the Designer Pattern Swap! I don’t always have time to sew up other designers’ patterns, even though I ALWAYS want to and buy so many…they are too cute to pass up and I have good intentions!! However, I am usually working on my own patterns, so this helped me MAKE time to…
Read More
If your daughter is like mine, she has been begging for the new Cinderella dress ever since she saw the trailer! Glitter, sparkles, butterflies, tulle….every little girl’s dream! I had planned on grading this into a full pattern, but like too often, ran out of time. I turn around and bam, my goodness the movie is already releasing! I had to…
Read More
Adding tulle to ANY pattern can really make it special! Plus, what little girl doesn’t LOVE a puffy tulle skirt??? Best off, it’s simple and tulle is very affordable, yay! It can be a LITTLE tricky to work with, but like anything, practice, and a lot of patience in this case, is all it takes. Here I used this method…
Read More
Here is a QUICK tutorial on how to use fold over elastic OR FOE! You can use this on my new Emma pattern in place of the lingerie elastic or the clean band option. FOE is widely available and inexpensive, so it is a good alternative to the lingerie elastic if you can’t find the right color or need to order online. FOE…
Read More
Horay it’s the last day!! Here is day 1, day 2, day 3 and day 4 if you are catching up. Today we are attaching our neck band. Neck bands can be tricky for a few reasons. One is ALL knit fabrics are different. If you are new to knits it can be tricky to decipher what knit to buy and…
Read More
Are you catching up today?? If so day 1, day 2 and day 3 can be found there. We are hemming our shirt today! The most important step in hemming if you don’t want a wonky, stretched out hem is to stabilize it before stitching. You can use hem tape or knit interfacing for this. I prefer hem tape because you…
Read More
Today we are adding our sleeve ruffles and sewing up a side seam in preparation for tomorrows hemming. If you want to add MORE ruffles here is a quick tutorial. First decide how many ruffles you want. I decided I wanted 3….and then added one more layer of lace to the very top! I did not want to hem my…
Read More
Day two of our sew-a-long and it’s time to start sewing! First things first, make sure you change your needle to a stretch, jersey or ballpoint needle. I prefer to use my serger for most the construction, but if you don’t have a serger, no problem, this can easily be done on a sewing machine. In fact I made this…
Read More