Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day Winner!

Thanks everyone for entering the Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day and thank you to Sew Mama Sew for sponsoring! I loved reading about what you are all sewing, all over the world. I've put the 175 comments into Randomizer and ... ta daaa ...

 

Number 93! This corresponds to the comment by Hueisei at Love It Sew It who said "Thanks for the wonderful giveaway! I am making a girl dress for my niece". Well now you can make a whole bunch of dresses for your niece, you just won a $25 gift certificate to my shop - congratulations!

For everyone else, please don't go away all frowny faced and empty handed.  Everyone is a winner -please take 15% off all day at Tie Dye Diva Patterns with discount code MAMASDAY15. This code is good only at www.tiedyedivapatterns.com. Remember, if you are purchasing 3 or more patterns, you'll want to use code BUNDLE to take a full 25% off your order, no limit. The 15% code expires in 24 hours from the timestamp of this post.

Sew Mama Sew's Giveaway Day **CLOSED**

**COMMENTS CLOSED** Come back May 12 to see if you won! 

Oh yeah baby it's Sew Mama Sew's Giveaway Day! I love Giveaway Day!

I'm Jen, and I'm giving away a $25 gift certificate for sewing patterns from my shop! The winner can choose from any of my nearly 70 downloadable patterns for baby, children, adults and home at www.tiedyedivapatterns.com.

Maybe you'd like to try out my newest pattern, Perfect Party Dress for Girls. No party needed.

With $25 to spend, you could pick up the matching 18" doll dress pattern, in case dolly's the party type too.

No kids? No problem. I bet you have a head ... how about the Reversible Sun Hat Pattern for Women?

Or maybe you have a man to sew for. Big or little, we've got patterns for them too.

Or any of the remaining 60+ patterns.

Here's how to enter. Just leave a comment! Let me know what you are sewing this time of year or if you are a sewer-to-be. There are, of course, no non-sewers, only those whose inner sewer is begging to be let out. She probably has scissors in there so don't keep her in too long.

If you purchase from me during the run of this contest (between time stamp of this post and the time comments are closed on May 10 at 5 p.m. PST) and you end up being the lucky winner, I will refund your purchase price for up to $25.

Winner will be drawn randomly via Random.org and announced by May 12 here on the Tie Dye Diva blog. One entry will be counted per person. I will email the PDF patterns to the winner anywhere in the world.

Post your comment below, leave a way for me to contact you, and check back on on May 12! If you can't stand the wait and want to chat about my patterns in the meantime, come join nearly 8000 Tie Dye Diva Patterns fans on Facebook at www.facebook.com/tiedyedivapatterns or in our newly-opened group of almost 800 members at https://www.facebook.com/groups/tiedyedivapatterns/ I hope to see you in both!

To enter more giveaways from other designers, bloggers, and generally awesome people, click the Sew Mama Sew logo at the top!

Sew Special WINNERS

The winners of the Sew Special Baby Gifts giveaway are:

 First Prize: Book + Sewing Kit - #64 Hun E Bee Hive

Second Prize: Book only - #54 - Joyce Jacobs
 
Congratulations to the winners, please get in touch with me for your prize!

Baby Sewing Patterns Book Giveaway!

[[COMMENTS CLOSED - winner posted in next post]]

I am so excited that the Sew Special Baby Gifts book from Annie's Catalog is finally here! I am one of several contributors to this book and I am so thrilled with the final product. It's a book I would buy even if my pattern weren't in it! Projects include a 'fun to touch' playmat, sweet giraffe plush by Ahmelie, handy nursing cover by Little Lizard King, hats, booties, bibs and more.

My contribution is the Peek a Boo Baby Block, it even made the back cover!

 With a photo endorsement like that, how could it not? The block babies love to munch.
 

I designed the Peek A Boo block to be easy for babies to hold and to be made from fabrics of varied textures. It can be stuffed with a squeaker or other noisemaker, and features a easy to open 'peekaboo' flap that reveals ... well, whatever you have decided to feature on the block face beneath ... a sock monkey, robot, kitty, baby-mesmerizing black-white-and-red design, or maybe a cute lil' lion face. The flap itself can be lined with crinkly cello for added baby fun.

The Peek a Boo Block sample featured in the book uses several prints from the adorable Robert Kaufman Lion, Roar! fabric line, some other fun bright prints, and textured chenille, with a squeaker inside and a crinkly flap.

Wouldn't you like to make one just like it?

For FREEEEE? (cue Adam Sandler from Bedtime Stories!)

I'm giving away a copy of this book plus a kit to make your own like the one you see featured. The kit includes 8 pre-cut fabric squares including that Lion, Roar! and the yummy chenille, a craft squeaker, crinkle material, patterned ribbon and even the little piece of hook-and-loop tape you'll need. You supply the stuffing, thread and love. I only have one kit, but I'll have a second place prize of the book by itself.

I'm going to make this real easy - just leave a comment to enter! For a bonus entry, share this giveaway and then make a second post letting me know specifically where you shared the link. Be sure I have a way to get in touch with you! Entries close Monday 4/8 and I'll draw a winner via Random.org. So sorry, due to the cost of postage, entries are limited to US residents only.

Good luck!

Princesses and More from Belle and Daydreamer Patterns

I just remembered how much fun it is to SEW! That may sound funny, but most of the time I am sewing quick, crazy test-muslins for new pattern ideas out of plain white fabric or mixed up ugly scraps, or else I am sewing samples for pattern covers where I am not allowed to wing it at all! As a donation to my preschool's annual auction, I sewed up these four dresses from my patterns, Belle Peasant Twirl Dress Pattern for Girls and Ruffled Neck Daydreamer Dress Pattern for Girls, making a lot of it up as I went along!

Belle is a really versatile pattern, I used it for three of these four dresses. While the pattern instructions are for a full, 3-tiered, twirly dress with a full sleeve, it's so easy to change it up.  Here are some of the ways I modified the pattern:



 To change the Belle pattern's skirt to a single fabric instead of 3 tiers, all you have to do is add up the length measurements of the 3 tiers for the size you are making and subtract 2". Now you have how long you should cut your single fabric skirt. The width is up to you. I used a single boltwidth (42" - 44") for this red-dotted one to keep it simple in case the wearer wanted to wear it on a Disney trip. The bodice and sleeve are per the pattern, with some eyelet added. I shirred the sleeves to give them a little ruffle at the bottom; the neckline is a turned casing.

Here I lengthened the bodice by a few inches and made a corset-type look on the bodice by cutting diagonal slice off the front bodice piece (and adding seam allowances to each side) to make a V-shape in the center. You can't really see it in the photo because I cinched the ribbons up too much.  The new center piece is cut on the fold and the side pieces are cut separately, with one reversed. Slip some small 1.5" pieces of folded ribbon (I used a fabric tube - ribbon would have been better but I didn't have any) between the center and side pieces before you join them, press to the center, and lace it up! I also added a slightly longer overskirt with trim. The sleeves are not modified (and they are a really cute and apparently hard-to-photograph pink and white stripe) and have a turned casing hem.

NOT to scale! Just to give you an idea of the cut.

For this cowgirl dress, I split and re-joined the bodice in a similar way, but I cut a slice off the top instead of the center, and then added rickrack over the seam. I also mixed up the lengths of the tiers to feature the top two and minimize the bottom one (again, just add them together so you know how long they should be overall, then switch them around as you wish. If you make a 7" tier 5", add that 2" to one of the other tiers.) I also thought that a proper cowgirl might not want a puffy sleeve getting in her way while she roped cattle, so I used the tapered, long sleeved pattern piece and cut it to the length of the short sleeved piece to make a less full short sleeve and turned a casing for the hem.

This last one I made from my ruffle-neck dress pattern, Daydreamer Dress for Girls. I cut the neck ruffle just a bit wider, at 6" wide, and then ran a hand running-stitch through the front center to gather it - and voila - those princessy shoulder swoopy things. I lengthened the bottom ruffle to 6" (remembering to subtract the amount I added from the skirt length!) I omitted the sash and lengthened the bodice to make up for it. Then I added an elastic-ruched overskirt made from a lightweight, low-wrinkle gingham. I'd detail the process for the overskirt but I really, really winged it and said a lot of bad words along the way. Basically, I started with a piece of fabric longer than the underskirt and the same width around, marked off four stitching lines, and stretched and sewed clear elastic down the stitching lines. Then gathered and attached as usual. While this would work with many kinds of fabric, I think anything that wrinkles in the wash (like quilting cotton) would be a mess to try and press so the fabric choice here was key.

I put the normal length of elastic in the neck, but I am thinking I might go back and make it a little longer because I know the owner of this is going to want to wear it off her shoulders!

Remember, you don't need a bazillion dress patterns, only a few good ones and a little imagination! Happy sewing.

That Aha Moment - Gutermann Thread

The wonderful thing about any hobby is there is always so much to learn. I am still learning sewing tips and tricks with every new project I undertake. A sewing friend of mine at Handmade Dress Haven just wrote a wonderful blog post about how our internet sewing community feels like a little village and we are all learning from each other. Most of us no longer have real life sewing circles or the ability to sit at Grandmother's knee, but we have the internet and we have each other.  Just yesterday I saw something on a sewing forum that surprised me so much I wanted to share it.

You know Gutermann thread? Those delicious, German-made, high quality spools lined up like juicy little jellybeans in the fabric shop? That stocked thread cabinet you know you covet every time you pass one in JoAnn Fabrics?

I love, love, love these little rainbow-hued nuggets of sewing goodness but don't love when I have a brand new spool and have to pick the thread end out of that little tight crevice at the bottom. With a pin, and usually sticking myself or fraying the end of the thread in the process.

Well, duh.

Did you know the bottom pops right off so you can access that thread end and even, if you're so inclined, tuck it back in there when you're done? Go on, give it a try. I felt like that chapter in Mrs. Piggle Wiggle's Magic when the kids find all the hidden cupboards and drawers in her upside-down house. This little hidden pleasure had been right there under my nose and I never knew it.

Thank you to Margo at The Climbing Tree for passing along this little trick - so happy to have you in my sewing village! You can visit The Climbing Tree Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/TheClimbingTree and blog at http://theclimbingtree.com.au/wp/.

Free Ribbon Christmas Card Holder/Display Tutorial

 I'm really excited to bring you this free tutorial on the Tie Dye Diva stop of the Elle Inspired Twelve Days of Christmas blog hop! We use this Christmas card holder every year. I adapted it from an over the door holder I read about in a Martha Stewart magazine years ago. It's a nice way to display all your Christmas cards and holds up year after year.

Now, I happened to have snapped a pic of it hanging the year before last so you can get an idea of how it looks hanging up full of cards. Not the most artsy photo, especially with our baby gate there on the left, but you get the idea. This is why I am primarily a sewing pattern designer and not a blogger.

OK, on to what I do better than artsy photos, instructions.  Here's how to make your own Christmas card display from ribbon and binder clips.








For a 36-card holder (6 ribbons) you'll need:

10 yards grosgrain ribbon
36 gold, silver, or colored mini (1/2") binder clips
Fray-Chek or other method of sealing ribbon (heat sealing is fine)
Chalk or other method of marking ribbon
hand needle and thread or sewing machine and a very alert brain

The width of the ribbon is up to you. I am using 1.5" wide, either narrower or wider would also work. It's important to use quality ribbon. I chose grosgrain because it doesn't wrinkle - remember, these will be in storage for 11 months out of the year. You can of course use plain black binder clips, but metallic or colored ones look really nice with Christmas ribbon and they are easy enough to come by at any office supplies store or online.

1. Cut 6 lengths of ribbon each 58" long. On one end, cut a V shape by folding the ribbon and making about a 1" cut at an angle toward the fold. Heat seal or fray-check this cut.

On the other end, fold the end under 1", then under 1" again. Stitch across the fold.

This makes a nice pad for inserting a pushpin to hold up the ribbon, which is what I do (on the left). You can also you can thread another ribbon through the loop that is formed and use that to hang on a pin or hook (shown on the right).

2. Mark the ribbon 4" from the folded and sewn end to indicate where the first clip will be sewn.

 

Then mark 9" from the first mark.

Then mark 7" from this second mark, and alternate 9" and 7" marks down the ribbon until you have made 6 marks. The alternating distances will let you hang both vertical and horizontal cards.

3. Fold a clip into its 'pinching' position as shown, lined up with the first mark. It's important to be sure it's in the right position because if you sew the wrong side of the clip to the ribbon you'll have to undo it and you'll be super mad.

 

Once you are good and sure you have the correct side of the clip being sewn to the ribbon, you can fold the other end of the clip out of the way as shown below. If you're hand sewing, you don't need to do this.

Now, you can use a hand needle and thread to sew the clip in place. It's a nice peaceful activity.

You can also use your sewing machine to sew the clip in place, but it's a nerve wracking and potentially dangerous activity so BE CAREFUL. Set your machine to a medium-height (I use 3.5) and short length (I use 1.4) zigzag stitch and before you even think of stepping on that pedal, slowly rotate the hand wheel to make sure the needle will clear both sides of the clip. You do NOT want your sewing machine needle to hit that metal clip, it can be very bad for your machine and very unhealthy to have pieces of broken needle flying at you. Once you are sure the needle will clear, sew a few stitches over the clip, backstitching at the beginning and end. 

Repeat for all the clips, dust off your chalk marks, hang the card holders and wait for all your friends to send you pretty cards.

Happy Holidays from Tie Dye Diva patterns! More crafty Christmas goodies including Santa Hat patterns, Plush Christmas Ornaments and great ideas for gift giving at www.tiedyedivapatterns.com. Save 25% when you buy 3 or more Tie Dye Diva patterns by using discount code BUNDLE at checkout.

Don't miss the rest of the stops on the Twelve Days of Christmas blog hop! Tomorrow, Little Lizard King!