Princess Hat

This is a project from a few weeks ago. I would've posted it sooner but my little lady (who is not so little anymore at 15lbs) has been sick.

A few weeks ago we went to a birthday party for my friend's two year old daughter. I wanted to make her something unique and special. Out of the hodge podge of ideas I had, I decided to go with a Princess dress up set.

This Princess hat was pretty easy. All I needed was some felt, tulle, and sturdy interfacing. I've sewn with interfacing before, but in the past I've used light to medium weight interfacing. This stuff? Was crazy sturdy.

I cut out a triangle shape from the aqua felt- in retrospect I should have made the bottom curved, but I didn't think about that until too late. The bottom part was the length of the birthday girl's head circumference (so, if the head you are sewing for is 18 inches around, you want an 18 inch bottom), plus an inch for her to grow into it. I cut the same shape out of the interfacing and ironed it onto the felt.

Once that was done, I cut the "R" out of purple felt and appliqued it onto the aqua felt. I used an iron on fusible web fabric to attach the "R" to the aqua felt before I sewed it. I wanted to make sure it didn't slide out of place. I just used a simple zig zag stitch to attach it.

Before sewing up the side seam of the hat, I took my tulle (4 strips- 2 each of aqua and purple) and attached them to the top of the hat- with the short ends facing in towards where the seam would be.

Then, I sewed the two sides of the triangle together and once I was finished, I turned it inside out. Viola! Quick and easy project.

Later this week I'll show you the other pieces of the dress up set.

Purse

(click image to enlarge)

While we're on the theme of sewing and homemade gifts, I made this purse for my Sister-in-Law's birthday. I have made bags for myself in the past, but never anything from a pattern and never anything really structured, per say.

This is a Simplicity Sewing for Dummies Pattern (4178), but let me tell you- the instructions are confusing as all get out. I did just fine sewing the outer fabric to the interfacing, and even sewing the lining on to those pieces. Once it got to the section where you started sewing the two halves of the bag together all hell broke loose.

It probably didn't help matters that I decided to ammend the pattern (this seems to be where most of my sewing issues start). The pattern called for a large snap closure (optional) and I thought that a zipper was more appropriate given the size of the bag (this thing is HUGE). Although I'd never sewn a zipper onto anything before I didn't think it would be that confusing or difficult.

I know what you're thinking, it's the zipper that threw me off. And actually, it really isn't. I got the zipper on just fine (even added an inside pocket with no issues- once again, not in the original pattern). The directions on how to add the strap to the purse might as well have been written in sanskrit. Even after assembling the purse (making up the strap directions myself), I still haven't a clue what they were saying.

Overall, I'm pleased with how this came out. I made myself a smaller version (the pattern has three sizes), and I think improved on it even more. Plus, I learned to sew darts using this pattern. That's a useful skill.

(Thank you to my Husband for hand modeling)