Japanese sewing book

The Japanese sewing book I ordered last week came in the mail today and I am super excited. I ordered the pattern book through Pomadour's Craft Cafe on etsy. Great place to buy the sewing books. I received the pattern book from Japan in a little over a week so great customer service. I am so excited to get sewing. The pattern book I bought is One Day Sewing Summer Clothes. I ordered a fairly simple pattern book to start out since it is all in Japanese. The diagrams are very detailed though so I don't think I will have any problems. I am off to cut out my first pattern while the little guy naps. Exciting!

Hemp linen dress

I recently dyed hemp linen fabric in a light Jade Green using the fiber reactive dyes from Dharma Trading Company. I love hemp linen in the summer time. It is so comfortable to wear when it is hot. It drapes really nicely and creates wonderful flowing skirts and dresses. It is a real treat to wear and makes me feel a little less sticky in the humid summertime. I used two patterns to make this dress including Style 2914 and New Look 6953. I started out making a long skirt and made it too tight in the hips so I decided to add a bodice and turn it into a dress. I made it knee length originally and then added the bottom ruffle since I had a bit of fabric left over. It is perfect to wear to the park with my little guy.

Happy 2nd Birthday!

My little guy turned 2 years old! I have so many wonderful memories of him over the past two years. The time has gone by quickly , but I also feel like we have packed in so much wonderful time together over these past two years. I wanted his birthday to be really special this year. Last year we all had stomach flu so I definitely wanted to celebrate big this year since we are all healthy. We had a wonderful birthday party last Saturday at a local park. I found clip art images online at Scrapping Doodles and let him pick the theme. He really liked the robots so we had an outer space party with martian headbands, t-shirts and cupcakes. I made everything myself and it was pretty easy to get it all together once I found all the images. For the table, I enlarged some of the images, cut them out and put them on top of white paper. For the favors I made crayon rolls filled with soy crayons from Stubby Pencils Studio. Everyone had a fun time coloring on the table. I made the maple cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World and they were super yummy. I have the say the party was pretty perfect and my little guy had a wonderful time.

Printing on fabric

We love the Tractor Mac series books. We received signed copies of the books from his great Aunt and Uncle in NY city. My aunt works for American Airlines and she knows the pilot Billy Steers who writes the book so very cool. I found a great image of Tractor Mac on the book website and decided to applique it on a t-shirt for my little guy. I used print on fabric sheets from Dharma Trading Company. I printed the design on the fabric sheet and then used heat and bond to iron it on the t-shirt. I top stitched around the design and all done. It was a very quick and easy project. My little guy is very happy with his Tractor Mac t-shirt.


I used the print on fabric sheets a few years ago to make a special quilt for my sweet little Violet. I wanted something special in the house that would remind me of her. The quilt is hanging up in our bedroom and I love that he looks at the quilt now and says her name. He loves all the colors and I love that her playful spirit lives on in our house.

New clothesline

We put up a clothesline off the back deck a few weeks back. It is a huge improvement from the previous setup I had going that I dubbed the underwear tree. I am really excited to be able to spread out the diapers a bit and have lots of room for a big load of laundry. Funny how exciting a new clothesline can be. It is the little things in the life of a domestic goddess that make all the difference.

Teeny shirts and shorts

I am working on summer clothes. We had a few hot days a while ago and I realized I don't have any comfortable shorts or t-shirts that still fit him. I received two large bags of t-shirts from friends and started to put them to good use. I dyed a few of the t-shirts using jade green fiber reactive dye. They turned out a beautiful light shade of aqua. I made a few lap shoulder t-shirts using a pattern I came up with from another t-shirt. I also made a pair of Teeny shorts using the same pattern except I omitted the cuffs and made the pants shorter. I am really happy with the result and plan to make a few more pairs of shorts for him for the summer.

Teeny recycled t-shirt diaper

I mentioned previously that I like to tinker with patterns. Here is another versions of the diaper pattern. This time I decided to add a gusset similar to the Teeny pants to the back of the diaper. The gusset actually serves two purposes in that it gives extra room to the rise in the back and also breaks up the pattern so it fits easier on a t-shirt. With the previous diaper patterns I cut off the wings to economize on fabric and also to fit the pattern on a wider variety of t-shirts. This works well in general, but does slightly restrict the wing stretch. I don't think it makes a big difference, but it is an added bonus to have the full stretch in the new pattern. The last and most important benefit for the new pattern is that it looks really great with the two colors. It is so fun to have a two tone diaper with a fancy curved gusset in the back. I suppose I should have mentioned that first since it the real reason why I came up with yet another diaper pattern. I also changed the inside lining of the diaper. I use the recycled power stretch micro fleece on the lower portion only and line the top part at the waist band with hemp fleece. It is not a huge difference, but I like that he has a little natural and organic fabric around his waist along with the stay dry lining. I also added a layer of hemp fleece to the entire diaper and it is still trim.

Sweatshirt teeny pants

I made him another pair of Teeny pants. This time I used an extra large sweatshirt I found at the thrift store. The fabric is a combination of cotton and polyester fleece and is really soft. I incorporated the bottom cuff of the sweatshirt into the cuff of the pants. Pretty cute overall and he has some great gym pants.

Orchid hemp fleece diaper

I made a sample diaper for Jonas out of the Orchid dyed hemp fleece. I lined the diaper with recycled Polartec Power Stretch. The post consumer content is 65%. It stretches in both directions and is really soft. One side is fleece and the other side is lycra knit. The diaper is made with the same pattern as the recycled t-shirt diaper but is turned and top stitched. The diaper has one layer of hemp fleece, hemp jersey and micro fleece. The insert is made from four layers of hemp fleece. I am still trying out new insert patterns. I have a hard time narrowing down what I think works best since there are so many ways to make an insert and they all have their merits. For this diaper, I tried out a new front pocket system that includes an internal overlapping flap. It works really well and is definitely a keeper.

I also tried out my new diaper labels. I created the labels in Microsoft Word and printed them on fabric using Dharma Trading Company Inkjet Roll Cotton. It is really easy to use and an inexpensive way to make your own custom labels. I need to fine tune the labels a bit since they turned out lighter than expected.

Orchid hemp fleece

I dyed a few yards of hemp fleece fabric using Dharma Trading Company fiber reactive dye in Orchid. The color is purple with pink undertones. I also made a few sample diapers from the fabric. Very nice color. Orchid is actually the first color I used to dye hemp fabric many years ago when I first started Natural Violet. One of the reasons why I started dyeing my own hemp fabric was because I wasn't very happy with the color selection available. I remember being really excited when I dyed my first batch and got this wonderful warm purple. I have to say it is still very exciting to see the final results of my dyeing projects.

Pocket recycled t-shirt diaper

 
Hemp fabric is still my favorite choice for making diapers, but I also love using thrift store t-shirts for making diapers. I posted a tutorial about a year ago on how to make t-shirt diapers and it gets the most visits on the blog so decided it was time to update. For a turned and stitched version of this diaper see my post on the red velvet recycled diaper. The following diaper was made entirely out of a t-shirt with the exception that I added a layer of synthetic micro fleece to line inside of the diaper. This is entirely optional and the whole diaper can be made from the t-shirt. The diaper style is a front opening pocket with a separate insert and the pattern is below. I love to work with patterns so with lots of revisions I came up this one. You can use any pattern though and there are lots of free ones available online. I started making pocket diapers a while back since I found like many others that they dry quickly and are very practical since you can add extra layers if needed. So on to the new tutorial.

Instructions for t-shirt diaper

Diaper pattern can be downloaded in three pdf files.
nvpockdiap1
nvpockdiap2
nvpockdiap3
The diaper can be made using a regular machine or serger. I used a regular machine and did a zig zag on the edges. It can also be turned and top stitched. The size of the diaper is medium to large and is a bit larger if you use a zig zag edge.

Materials: XL 100% cotton t-shirt and optional small piece of micro fleece for the liner. I also use hook and loop for the fasteners. You can opt to us no fasteners also and close it with a diaper pin the front. Elastic for the legs and back.

1. With the pattern cut out the diaper back and front along with the insert using the t-shirt. Cut off the neckline and cut two pieces eight inch long for the front pocket opening. Cut a front insert using the sleeves and half of the insert pattern (four layers). Optional only, but you can add an applique to the back using scrap t-shirt fabric. Cut out the micro fleece liner using the front and back pattern without the wings. This again is optional. You will also need elastic and hook and loop tape. I use 1.5 inch wide hook and loop and 3/8 inch elastic. The long loop piece is 8 inches and the smaller loop pieces are 1 inch. The hook pieces are 2 inches.



2. Sew the wings to the diaper outside. Sew the neckline facing to the front edge of the diaper. I use a three stitch zig zag. Sew the eight inch loop tape one inch down from the front edge.


3. Sew the wings to the diaper inside. Layer the diaper inside with the micro fleece fabric on top. If you decide not to use micro fleece then sew the wings to the diaper inside only. Sew the two inch hook tabs on on the wings. Sew the one inch laundry loop tabs near the hook tabs. Sew the other eight inch neckline facing to the front of the diaper inside.



4. Sew the elastic to the wrong side of the inside diaper piece at the leg openings and the back of the diaper. Use the guide on the pattern for placement of the elastic. I use a three stitch zig zag, but a regular zig zag will work also. Just make sure to pull the elastic very tightly as you sew.


5. Pin and Sew the inside and outside diaper fabric together with the rights sides facing outward. Zig zag around the entire diaper leaving the front pocket open for the insert. I use a three stitch zig zag, but regular is fine also. Sew the inside and outside diaper together along the elastic lines using a three stitch or regular zig zag. This creates a nice ruffle along the elastic on the outside of the diaper. You can also add a optional two inch piece of loop to the right front wing so the diaper wings can cross and give you wider size range.


6. Sew the four pieces of the long and short insert together and zig zag the edge. Place the short insert on top of the long insert in the desired location. I put it towards the front for my little guy. The insert will have four layers in the back and eight layers in the front. You can also add a layer or two of hemp fleece to increase the absorbency, but the cotton knit works pretty well also since you have ten layers total in the front wet zone. Stuff the insert in the diaper, add a cover and ready for use.