"Sewing School" #1- Fairy Costumes

This costume is inexpensive. We spent maybe $3. Doesn't it look sweet?

It's also the final product in our first sewing school project for the girls. Yes, my 7 year old made it herself! This year, the Halloween costumes were a chance for the girls to learn a new skill. After all, sewing is a great outlet for creativity and one of those rare skills few people seem to have anymore.

So, I created a beginner sewing project for visual learners who want to design their own fairy costume!

The pattern is simple enough that it's great for a first time using a sewing machine. Adults who want to learn how to modify or create their own patterns can also start with this!  

Because I will explain how you can make up your OWN design and create the pattern according to what YOU want, you can make it to fit any size person (or doll) and use your own creativity and design to create unique looks.

Why is this pattern a good one to start learning sewing? Because it has a basic skill repetition that all comes together to create a detailed look.

So, what will a sewing student learn? (Not necessarily in this order.)

• Sewing machine safety and getting used to operating it.
• How to cut out two layers of fabric with a pattern.
• How to pin right sides together.
• Proper pin direction and removal while sewing.
• How to sew consistent straight and curved stitches with the machine
• The right way to thread the machine and load a bobbin
• Perseverance, diligence and stick-to-it-iveness. A sewing project like this can take a few days to a week working around an hour a day.
• Creativity with costume designing and colors and shapes
• measuring and how to translate that into a pattern

Creativity is a muscle, and a project like this gives you plenty of opportunities to flex your creativity muscles. Choosing colors, choosing petal length, choosing the petal shape -- it's all up to you! The pattern is that flexible. Also, necessity is the mother of invention. Work with what you have (or can afford) and you may surprise yourself! 

Note when using this to teach a child; I would encourage them to choose their own colors, shapes, and placement of the petals, and not give much of my own input or design ideas.  This should be a project that they can own themselves.  It's not about getting the final product to a standard that we think is "perfect"- it's all about the creative process and practicing basic skills.

Supplies! What do you need?

• A top and a skirt (or leggings) that you already have or ones that you buy specifically for this.  We went with the cheap side and used what we had!
• Wings from the dollar store. (Or make your own with paper!)
• About 2 yards of fabric. (We used scraps that we already had!) For beginners, choose a fabric that isn't slippery or stretchy. However, my 7 year old sewed this slippery fabric and did just fine.  You *can* use see-through fabric, but I wouldn't recommend it.
• Your color choice of ribbon that's 1.5 to 2 inches wide. You'll wrap it around your waist once (or twice) and make sure it's long enough that you can then tie it in a bow.

Of course, along with your supplies, you'll need the usual sewing tools: straight pins, fabric scissors, thread, measuring tape, safety pins and a cutting board or hard floor or table. You'll also need paper to create your pattern.

Here's what the finished product looks like when it's flat!

And the video above shows you what the costume looks like in motion with my 7 year old talking about it as well and some of the design elements. 

If you are using fabric scraps as we did, you can choose to make the under side of the petals a different color than the top, which is very fun!

 My 9-year-old wanted to be an icy fairy, so her colors are white and blue. And the picture above is just the shirt and skirt and wings on their own.

Very boring without the fancy layers in this pattern!  Since these pictures were taken she's added paper snowflakes hanging from the sash with silver thread so she ice AND snowflakes.  It's getting epic.  ;)

Where do I start to design my own pattern? - Visualize.
What do you want?
There's a few ways to get your design figured out.

1. Start with a drawing (doesn't need to be fancy!) or cut out pictures.  I personally just like the quick (terrible looking) sketch of a stick figure with the colors I want in the outfit.  Kids who want to design their own costume will appreciate drawing pictures even if this isn't always useful in the end.
2. Look at what you already have.  If you have a top and skirt you can already use then take those with you to look for fabric so you can match colors and SEE what it might look like.
3. If you are great at visualizing and don't need a drawing of any kind or doing the whole "holding up fabrics to see what might look good together thing" then that's okay too!  Some people like the drawing as a reminder, but you can also just write out what you want it to look like. 

If you aren't sure what design choices to think about--

• What colors do you want to use in your costume?
• Is each layer going to be the same color or different colors?
• how many layers of petals or icicles do you want?
• What shape is each petal?  Rounded, pointed, or squared, thinner or wider?
• Are they all going to be the same basic shape or are they going to be different shapes?

 Look at flower pictures to get ideas of shape and colors to help you think through possibilities.


Making the pattern for real. - Practical.

Decide where your ribbon is going to tie around your waist and use a ribbon or string to see how it would feel and look.  There are three basic places to position a waist- "Empire" (right under bust line) "Natural waist" or around hips.  You can just call these "high, medium, and low" as well.  The point here is simply to realize that the person designing this gets to decide!

Now take your measuring tape and measure on the person from the chosen position of the ribbon down to where the longest petal should fall.

Note: an adult can do this on themselves if they are making this for themselves, but if they are teaching a child how to sew they will need to do this measuring process on the child while asking the child questions about how they would like it -"Higher or lower" and so on.

Whatever your measurement comes to (ours was around 20 inches or so) ADD TWO INCHES!
Seam allowance is always forgotten so I must stress this point.  As you make your measurements always add an inch to all the sides.  You can always take more fabric away, but you can't add as easily once it's been cut.

Use your measurement (with the added inches!) and your idea how the shape of one petal and measure and cut your shape on a large piece of paper (or two pieces taped together)

Cut out a petal shape for each length that you are designing.

Do NOT skip this next step.
Before cutting your fabric with your new pattern - Hold your pattern up to the person who will be wearing this costume and make sure it's the right size and length (remember it is two inches wider and longer before it's sewn so take that into account!)  This is when you will change your pattern to make it more like you've designed or keep it the same.  


Prepare your fabric for cutting out.
If you just bought this fabric it will need to be washed and dried and ironed (Unless you don't care about it being pre-shrunk) -- If it was jammed in a box like ours you might just need to iron it to prepare the fabric.

Make sure you chant "Right sides together"
As this is a very big deal!
There are TWO layers of fabric for each petal.  Pin the pattern onto the top of the two layers and cut around it.  This is also a good time to teach how to conserve the fabric.  Don't just cut out right in the middle!  Put the pattern near the edge and make room for more places to cut the petals out.

Cut the number of petal sets that you decided on in your design (two pieces of fabric per petal.)

Then pin them with right sides together so that you will be ready to sew.  Only pin where you are going to sew and you will NOT sew the flat part at the top (YET) so don't pin that part.

Hopefully this will make sense!  Direction of the pins is important because of the direction one sews.

 The picture below shows that the raw edge is to the right of the "foot" and the pins are easier to pull out as you go if they are facing toward the oncoming stitches.  On small sewing projects this isn't AS vital, but once you get into doing larger things (I used to work in a bridal shop and altered wedding dresses!)  There is NO way that a bunch of fabric will fit into that right side of the sewing machine!

How to Sew with a Machine - in 12 Steps
The sewing machine is intimidating. I get it.  But the person doing the sewing needs to be reminded that they are in control of it.  Learning how to control it is why I'm going to break this down so thoroughly.  If you've sewn before, you probably figured this stuff out on your own, but it can be helpful to have all the steps written out so that when you are teaching a child you can tell them each step they need to do.
And yes, they might forget to put the foot down before starting to sew!  This happens, and it's normal, and it's okay!  Just have them stop and start over.
 
The person learning to sew will start with some fabric that's pinned - right sides together, and then follow these steps.

1. Both threads moved to the back 
2. Position fabric under the "foot" (the metal flat thing under the needle) so the needle will come down in the right place.
3. Flip the sewing foot down to hold the fabric firmly in place.
   
4. Hold strings in the back as you slowly sew about a half inch.
5. Stop to re-position hands (pinch right hand in front and left hand pinches fabric behind the foot) 
   
6. Sew to next pin and stop.
7. Remove pin and put it IN the pin cushion and NOT on the table!
   
8. Re-pinch positions and sew till next pin and stop. Repeat until you're done.
9. Learn to reverse stitch at ends
10. Lift foot and gently pull out sewn fabric
11. Turn the needle wheel so that the needle is up and releases the fabric (if it doesn't pull out smoothly) 
12. Snip all loose threads along the stitching line.

Then you have one finished seam. Good job!

To fix this gathered seem we had to smooth it all out and usually she had to sew a bit more at the start or end as her stitches would pull out once we smoothed out the slack.  Not a very big deal and easily taken in stride.

If your sewn seam is bunched up in a gathered way like how my daughters kept turning out, it means that you aren't keeping enough tension between your two pinched fingers.  While the sewing machine does move the fabric on it's own you need to be in control of this at the same time.  When you sew through something thick for instance, you will need to tug more on the back to help get it through.  If your fabric is slippery or thin as this fabric was you'll need to keep a firm pinch in front and back so it doesn't slide or bunch up on itself.

For adults and older kids who are learning to sew, you can practice ironing seams.  My girls are too young for this yet, but I'll explain my ironing process as well as Ironing is vital to sewing!

No, you can't skip ironing.  You can probably justify skipping ironing something every time AFTER this, but when you are creating a seam you NEED to iron it because it doesn't know what to do yet and you are going to tell it what shape to take.

 I use a very hot iron, so that I only have to hold it in one place for a few seconds to get a nice crease. I prefer a spray bottle of water over using steam as well.  

 Flip your petal "right side out" and iron it flat.  After the sewn seams are ironed you can iron the raw edge inside itself as well like I'm showing in the picture below.

IF you cut out, pinned, and sewed your petals perfectly they would look exactly the same.  Yes, this is possible, and yes, that is the goal, BUT the beauty of this pattern is that they can each have their own quirks (as the picture shows above) and still totally work in the costume.  This means that your sewing student can practice and create and find success even before mastering all the skills.  These skills will be mastered over time and through more projects!

After all your petals are sewn and ironed, you are ready to pin them onto the ribbon--

Note- right now you are pinning them JUST to see where they should go and what they will look like.  It's always better to hold something up and SEE what it will look like before you rush ahead and sew it!  Also, this is really encouraging to children who have been working on these steps for several days.  They want to see what the end product will look like before they do the home stretch.

This is also a good time to use a couple pins to mark on the ribbon where they meet in the back so that you can lay your petals in the right amount of space on the ribbon.  The petals can over lap or be farther apart and this is a good time to see if you need to cut out and sew another petal or decide if you have enough for the look you are going for.

Try it on, but be careful with the pins!  Or plan ahead and use safety pins!

 

Lay it out the way you want it to look!

 Now that you know HOW you want it to look you can more easily pin it for the real sewing process.  I taught them to sew one layer of petals at a time.

 Lay the ribbon "right side down" and lay the row of outer most petals right side down on that.  Be aware that we are looking at the back side of this.  The picture above shows the second row of petals pinned and ready to be sewn.  Notice that the first row is lower than the second? That's so that she didn't have to sew through a too thick layer of fabric.

 Sewing the same way as the 12 steps I wrote above.  Add to that the awareness about the layers and keeping them from folding up under the line of sewing.  The only time we had to pick out a seam was when a stray petal folded itself up under the ribbon and accidentally was sewn a bit into that seam.

Sew right up to the pin before pulling the pin out to help keep the sewn seams as accurate as they were pinned.  While my 7 year old did all of the sewing I did help her with some of the pinning.  If the pinning is smooth and as close to how you want it sewn as possible then sewing those seams will be exceedingly easier than if it's pinned poorly.

And there you have it!  They can use this pattern idea and "how-to" on a doll as well to keep practicing or create it again with different colors or petal shapes!  Lots of great practice with sewing skills AND designing!



------------------------------------ BONUS!---------------------------------------------

What to do when you have a little one that wants to sew like the "big kids" or if you just need some ideas in teaching hand sewing for the very young.

Use very large gauge cross-stitch fabric and an embroidery needle and thread so that your child can practice going up and down!  My 4 year old thought that the actual cross-stitch stitch wasn't for her, but she loved stitching lines.  She went up and down again and again in a straight line for around an hour straight!  I was impressed!  She said she was being diligent just like I was teaching her big sister to be with sewing.

I love that focused face.  ;)    In the middle of this I wrote her name and if she doesn't want to sew her name herself then I'll do it and we'll hang it up on her wall. 

 Also, if a little one doesn't want to do perfect straight lines or if they aren't all the same stitches, don't stress it!  The goal at this point is to encourage them to keep relatively short stitches (as in, not one here and another WAY over there or letting the thread wrap around the raw edge.)  And also enjoy it and persevering!  My other goal with this one was to make sure she knew NOT to leave the needle on the floor when she cut the thread! 

Visual Journaling and my birthday!

This is my desk area.  And I remember to feed the fish when I sit down to my computer.  I can make breakfast and keep an eye on the stove while I do some internet stuff and planning.

Example of my visual journal page.

I did this one when I first started with Jamberry during my launch party month last November.

THIS however is the first page to my journal.

 I love visual journaling because it's so freeing.  There's no mistakes.. you can't do anything "wrong" in it.  If you don't like something you can cover it up or bend the page over or paint over it or any number of things.  Layer upon layer.  It's about the process not the product.  So, while I'm sharing these pictures of my journal it's not about someone who can or can't draw.  Or who can or can't do art.  It's not about if you like the style or if you don't.  None of that has anything to do with visual journaling.  As a person who's done commission artwork, let me just say that I LOVE not having to worry about "getting it right"... you can get the creative juices flowing without the pressure.

This page has changed a lot since this picture, but that's okay you get the idea.  The butterflies were acrylic with plastic type stamp-like things to make the shapes.

One day I wrote everything that I did.  Everything that I could write down that I did during the day I wrote it.  Lots of mundane things, but a LOT.  This was a nice exercise as it made me realize that I was actually getting things done.  It just doesn't always feel like anything is accomplished at the end of the day when you are sweeping for the 3rd time and the fabric project is tossed all over the living room again....

My 3 year old likes to write notes to me.  They always say "Mommy loves Gracie" she says and she makes a big deal about the presentation.. all behind her back and everything.

The left page was a "list" for the day/week quite a while ago.  I realized that I really like the "bubble" type brainstorming lists more then the ones in order on a line.

This page was interesting because while I was blotting some water colors with kleenex I decided to just add the kleenex with the paint splotches on it into the page!  Hey, anything goes!  The page above was helping me keep track of a Jamberry Facebook party.

The page above transformed into this!  The end of February was Jamberry's "Going going gone" thing before they launched the new catalog.  I love seeing all the consultants freaking out about the new wraps and watching the crazy and excitement and all the fun and "new" going on.  I love helping when I can with making graphics or giving people ideas.

Even "Hedgie the Hedgehog" is into visual journaling.  (That little journal is actually the 3 year olds that she started last fall when we were in Washington.  Good memories.)

For my birthday my Mother-in-law gave me this diffuser!  I am loving it!  Our apartment has always smelled funny to me.. even before we moved in, it just has this weird paint/old apartment smell or something going on.  I don't notice it as much when we are here all the time, but if we go somewhere for a day I can really tell when we get back.  Yep.. same smell.  Ug.

 I bought those Orchids for myself for Valentine's day.  I love flowers and plants and watching them bloom and change!

My husband got me some flowers for my birthday!  Lilies smell sooooooooo good.

 So in March I promoted to "Senior Consultant" which is awesome but THEN I promoted again to "Lead Consultant" which means that I get a $100 bonus on top of the commission I was already getting!  This is coming at a great time because my girls are growing so fast!  I got them a few summer clothes since it suddenly turned warm.

My 7 year old in her new shorts, top and fancy shoes (the shoes will go with the Easter dress she got from her Grammy.)

The 3 year old didn't want her picture taken, but you can see her outfit and sandals.

I've been having SO much fun with Jamberry.. it's totally a hobby that's addictive!  DID you know there are Facebook groups that TRADE half sheets or whole sheets?  There's this whole system about how you do it!  This page of "Tradesy's" has changed a lot, but you get the idea.  It helps me keep track of what I'm trading and when we get the wraps in the mail we write to the person we traded with to let them know we got it.  One stamp for new styles!  Love this!  I've got a bunch of "Pen pals" now and get to chat with a lot of lovely women!  I was really needing to be apart of a group of nice people.

 The Consultant's group that I'm in is probably THE nicest ever.  Everyone is so helpful with information, trading compliant graphics, encouraging one another, cheering each other on!  I'm sure I wouldn't be doing as much as I am or enjoying it like I do if it wasn't for them!  I really enjoy feeling like I'm useful to some people.  I know I am to my family of course, but you know how it is... you make dinner and the kids complain about it or you spend the day cleaning the house only to have it get wrecked right before the husband gets home and then he runs around feeling like he has to tidy it all up.  I love to help other people succeed at Jamberry!  I won't be surprised if some of my recruits outstrip me in rank, but that's okay!!!  I will cheer them on and we will all have fun sharing pictures of our nails and encouraging one another.  :)

I love this page because it's another one of my "lists"... yes, this is totally how I think and makes so much more sense then writing everything on a line in order according to the day in the week.  Eventually I got around to doing it all and I kept adding to it as I went.  My grocery shopping list ended up on this page too. 

 I've always struggled with trying to be more organized.  I'm not great at it.  It's not the usual thing to be good at as an artist type.  My meyer's briggs test came up as the most artistic of types.  As I get older.... thinking about this because of my birthday month of course! ... I'm starting to sort of "get" what my personality is and how to work with it rather then against it.  I feel more organized using the visual journal.  I'd tried other "day planners" and they just stressed me out!  So, this has really been great.  I want to use it even more then I do now, but I'm still developing the habit of messing around in it each day.

Here's a calender page example.  Over all, March has been the best month in a really long time. 

Here's an example of my helpfulness in the Jamberry group.  This picture shows the full sheet compared to the Jr sized sheet and both are compared to the sample sheets.  My nails are on the wide side so I was worried at first a full year ago when I saw the samples and so few of them fit my fingers.  My thumb nail is actually just barely smaller then the second largest wrap on the regular sheet and my big toes are almost wider then the widest (Though they do still fit well!)  Anyway, for people who can't see these in person it's nice for them to have a visual comparison. 

 There are other graphics that show how much you can get from a sheet (2 mani's and 2 pedi's and accent nails all from one sheet) and I made a few more that I shared with the group as well for putting them on kids.

This is my 3 year old showing how much you can get from one Jr sheet.  A full mani and the big toes.  I painted her little toes just to save some time.  Not that it saves time in the long run since they start chipping in a day!  The Jams stay on for up to a week on her!  It's pretty seriously amazing how well they stay on.  The most important thing is how much she likes them!  She chose the cherry ones and was so thrilled with them = adorable.  ;0

This is a regular sized sheet my 7 year old was dieing to get.  One of the wraps I actually used for 4 nails and there's leftover from it too.  I drew on the paper to show how I cut them to fit her nails.

I made a huge splash with my idea to layer the clear design "lost ruins" over "Emerald Argyle" -- you can search for those two at the website to see what they look like on their own.  :)  Then added the "Lady in Red" to it.  This look matches my house a lot more then it matches my clothes, but I really enjoyed them!  I love getting creative with how to wear these!

 I'm not very "fashionable" at all and have never been much into make-up... though I like to do fun things for costumes on occasion, so to me the Jamberry is more a creative outlet and fun art to wear!  They have enough "normal" designs that you could use them more in a fashionable way instead of an artistic way, but there's really something for everyone! 

My 7 year old is in love with the bunny's and she picked out the "budding love" wraps last summer before they were discontinued.  She finally decided to wear them this time!

 My girls love looking through the little photo album that I keep my Jams in to pick their next look.  I try to remind them that which nail they go on is more contingent on the size of the wrap then just whatever they want to go wherever, but for the most part they get exactly what they are looking for.

Her new shoes and feeling all grown up in high heels.  But, got to have the pink bunny wraps on the toes to complete the look!

My oldest chose "Girl Talk"- so sparkly!  Love this!  And they look great with her easter dress.  Hopefully they will last that long, but if there's a casualty nail I can throw another one on this Saturday.  :)

The 3 year old still had some cherry wraps on (she pulled a few off when she was mad at me or didn't want to go to sleep or something or other) so we added a few to replace the ones that were missing.  She chose snowmen and valentine's hearts to go with the cherries and sparkle rainbows?  hahaha.. well, it will match the outfits she comes up with anyway!

"Shine bright" on her toes (all but the yellow, that's from a different design) and she's wearing her new sandals too.

Today I'm wearing "Amore" with "Butterfly Effect" only I wanted to be different (because I can't help it!) so layered over the butterflies.  Picture below.

This is with "Boysenberry Tint" layered over "Butterfly Effect" I love how it turns it all jewel toned to give some visual relief from the sparkles.  I LOVE the sparkles too, but am just really enjoying these together.

My oldest got some much needed tops and some nice sandals.

 It might not seem like a big deal to some people, but we've never had much extra to spend on clothes and nice things (and these are from Walmart so my "nice" is probably not what many people think of when they think "nice"... It's new and not thrifted so it's "nice" in my book!)  I grew up on thrift store clothes so really appreciate being able to spend a little extra on something new.  :)  My girls were thrilled and I know they've felt really special wearing their pretty outfits and shoes.  I love seeing them growing up and growing more grateful.  Taking care of each other and playing nicely together.  It's not always like that, but I can see the growth in that direction and it's a good trajectory! 

So, there's a thing going around "#becauseofJamberry" and for some people it means paying off debt or buying that second car or paying off a mortgage.  For other's of us it's making new friends and being able to pay for the Jam-hobby and getting a little extra money for clothes for the kids.  The second is me and I am loving it!  I've felt alone for so long that it's wonderful to feel apart of something again and have something fun and creative to get excited about.

She's wearing "Raining cats and dogs" on her toes and chose cats for her sandals. She's still super into cats!!!

 As I'm reflecting in my birthday month I'm thinking of a lot of different things.  The things I wish I'd do more of.... like being more conscious of the day and the little things and the special moments... the good things and the changes in the past 5 or so months that I've been working for Jamberry.  I don't know what the next 5 months will look like or where I'll be then, but that's okay.  :)

This is a good thing to remember this year.  Nourish Art.

I'm pretty transparent and honest and I love to help and encourage people.  I'm organized in an artistic sort of way as you've probably figured out from seeing the journal pages.  If you are wondering what Joining Jamberry is all about feel free to check it out or ask questions.  There's no pressure.  I don't "need" more recruits or anything like that.  It's about you and what you would like and what would help you the most.  I love to encourage people and inspire them. 
I hope some of my blog posts have done just that for people.  :)