Tutu Valance Tutorial

Soooo, one night I was on Pinterest and came across a cute little valance, but I didn't really like the way it was made.  They claimed it was a "tutu" valance, but it looked more like an old lady's slip.  The person that I am, I brainstormed for a simple way to make a true tutu valance.  What I came up with is ridiculously simple, although a little time consuming, but trust me anyone can make this for their little girl!  And for my ladies who always tell me, ".....but Dani, I can't sew!".  Eat your words girls, because this one...is NO SEW!!! WOOHOO!  SOOOO anyways, moving on....
I'm also going to include the extra tweeks for making an actual tutu as well. 

Project Skill:  Beginner

My cost:  Less than $5.  (May be up to $10 for some)

Time: A couple hours on your own, less with a helper!

Here's what you'll need:

1) A Curtain Rod

    I used one of the $1.50 cheapo metal ones.  There's a reason why, so stay tuned. (Besides that it was cheap!)  You'll also need a measuring tape to see how long of a rod you'll need.

2) Strong Tape

     Skip the scotch tape for this project, you'll need the good stuff.  Electrical tape, packing tape, painters masking tape...you get the idea.

3) Tulle

     I used 2 rolls of lavender and 2 rolls of royal purple in 6 inches wide by 25 yards long.  My baby's window is 37 inches, and I used all four rolls loosely but you could easily use 6 rolls on a 37 inch window....you'll wanna make sure to get enough tulle.  Wouldn't hurt to buy a couple extra rolls.  Need a link for cheap stuff?  Gotcha covered.  Visit Gifts International where tulle is usually under a buck a roll.  If you're making a tutu, you will most likely have some tulle left over.

4) Scissors (DUH!)

5) A book.

    A book?  What, Dani?!  Yep, a book.  Grab one of your kids' books that's about 8 inches long ways. I'll tell ya why in a sec :) 

UPDATE:: If you want to make a regular tutu instead of this valance, you'll need 3/4in elastic.  

Step One: Prepping the Curtain Rod/Elastic

FOR VALANCE: Measure your child's window and then grab your curtain rod.  Extend it out to the length you need.  Honestly?  I eye balled it, held it up to the window, installed the lil brackets that came with it, then made sure not to slide the curtain rod at all when I took it down and grabbed my tape.  When the rod is as long as you need it to be, tape up where the slide is.  Trust me, you'll wanna do this.

FOR TUTU:
Measure your child's waist and then subtract 3inches. That's the length of elastic you'll need.
Once that's cut, sew your two ends together with a needle and thread.  Once you're done with that, yank on it a few times to make sure it's not gonna snap. Then slip the elastic over your thigh like a garter and move on to the next step.

Step Two: Dealing with  Cutting Tulle

Grab your tulle and your book. Open a roll of tulle and find your end.  Open your book and place the end of your tulle inside the book:

Now, close your book. Hold it with your hands nice and tight.  Should look like this:

Make sure you hold that book closed tight.  Then wrap your tulle around the book and roll the WHOLE roll around it.  Once you've got the entire roll wrapped it'll look like this:

Do you remember which end of the book you inserted the tulle in?  Good.  I used the top, because it made more sense.  Now grab your scissors, and cut that end of your tulle.  JUST that end though, not both ends.

Carefully lay your tulle down in the stack.  You'll see that your tulle is approx double the length of your book.  (HINT:  You can use this trick for making tutus!  *gasp*)

Cut all your tulle and place in neat lil stacks.

Now, at this point, I am going to peep in an idea for ya.  If your little girl LOVES Tinkerbell or punk rock, funky style, take the ends of your tulle and cut them into a V shape.  Why?  It'll give your tutu valance an edgy pixie look with spikey edges. Way cool, right? :)

Moving on: 

Step Three: Making the Tutu Valance/Making the Tutu

I promised no sew, and I meant it.  Take two pieces of tulle and line em up...

And start tying the strips onto your rod in a normal knot.  When making a tutu, make sure that when you're tying, the elastic doesn't roll.  This will make for a very clean waist band.


If you have an older kid, say 5 or 6...you can have them start at one end of the rod and you start at the other.  You'll get done faster :)

And keep going.....

And going.....

And note in this next pic....if your kid ever changes her mind and wants a different color or style, simply run your scissors thru the slit in the back of your cheapo curtain rod.  All that tulle comes right off for you to start over.   See, told ya there was a reason to use those cheapo rods!

Eventually you'll fill the rod.  You can make this thing super fluffy tying your tulle tight and close together, or you can leave it a little loose.  I did.  Turned out great.  But like I said earlier in the post, I could have easily put down 6 rolls of tulle instead of just the 4.

Step 4: Hang it Up!/Try it on!

Done tying?  Hang that thing up or try it on!  You're DONE. Seeeee?  Told ya you could do it!

My finished product, hung up:

I could totally see a hot pink valance hanging over zebra curtains, or a lime green one for a Tinkerbell themed room, or for the whimsical, one done in rainbow colors....oh my ideas!  Too bad I can't put one of these in the bedroom, hubby would kill me ;)    But my wheels are already turning for something in there...hmmmm....more tulle....Oh, right.  Anyway:

Now, if you make one of these, you *must* let me know!  Send me an email or photo to dressesbydani@gmail.com!  I want to see your creations!

Enjoy :)

A Different Sorta Rag Quilt....

So I came across a BRILLIANT tutorial online for an Heirloom style Chenille Quilt over at Aesthetic Nest and I fell in love instantly. I loved it because I knew that even the most inexperienced seamstress could do this and have something LOVELY to give as a gift, or even keep for themselves. I also knew I had to give this tutorial a try....except I had no Chevron printed cotton. Hmmm, what to do. So I improvised and what came of it is beautiful.

I'll do a basic outline here of what I did, but sadly, I have no photos.

Step one: Gather the materials.
Two spools of thread (maybe three!)
Pins
Quilt binding. Make your own or buy it prepackaged. If you do prepackaged, you'll need two packs.
You'll need 4 yards of fabric.
1 yard of your print and 3 yards of flannel, in 1 yard cuts and if you want, you can do three different colors too.

Step Two: Stack that fabric!
Pretty printed cotton on bottom, face down. Then place your flannels on top of that, stacked neatly. Then pin generously. I mean it. PIN IT.

Step Three: Find your bias.
Bias is a fancy term for "the diagonal" or the cross threading in fabric. Basically, it's at a 45 degree angle. You can find it by taking a corner of your fabric stack, and folding in half diagaonally. Press with your iron or use a disappearing ink fabric marker to mark it.
(I did not do this on my quilt, and it was a mistake. I made it work, but if you're an inexperienced sewer, find your bias)

Step Four: SEW! (GET READY, LOTS of sewing here.....)
Using a straight stitch, sew down your diagonal mark. Then, using that diagonal stitch as a guide, move over 1/2 an inch and stitch. You can use your presser foot as a guide. Keep sewing, all the way across your fabric. It'll create the quilted look.

Step Five: Make your cuts.
On the backside (flannel side), take a pair of scissors and cut thru the top two layers of flannel in between your seams.

Step Six: Bind your quilt.
Sew on your binding however you like it sewn.

Step Seven:
Wash and dry your blanket and snuggle up in the cuddly-ness. Is that a word? Nah? It is now!

Here's mine: Once you ogle it, I'll tell you what I did wrong and how I fixed it.



On my quilt, you'll see my fabric had stripes on it. I followed those stripes. But the stripes were an inch wide. So when I made the cuts in my flannel on the back, the fabric didn't fray like it should. This quilt reminded me of a rag quilt, but fully raggy on the back. I went with that in my mind and sat for hours clipping all those rows of flannel. When I pulled it out of the dryer, I was astonished and loved it anyway!!! It's SO plush and beautiful and purely divine softness.

So I don't think you can really do this blanket wrong. But if you've got questions head over to the blue link for Aesthetic Nest's tutorial above. And happy sewing :)

Rag Quilt Tutorial

So I've had a few people wondering about this rag quilt that I've been working on and posted on my facebook page. I've been obsessed with wanting to make one for a while but had no idea how to go about it. So what I did was searched via Google for multiple tutorials and piles of advice to compile my own way of doing it. So I'll post what I've learned here for you, and hopefully you'll be able to do one as well.


Supply List:
Fabric *
Batting **
Scissors/Rotary Blade
Cutting Mat or paper square to use as your pattern
Thread
Sewing Machine


*Recommended fabrics: Cotton or Flannel (I STRONGLY advise against using minky or chenille)
Approximately 3 yards total for a baby, approx 6 yards for an adult.

**Batting: You have options here. You can use regular cotton batting, an extra layer of flannel, or you can use scrap pieces of fleece (even if it doesn't match). You won't see it in the finished project so don't worry about that!

(****UPDATE: I have since made a few more of these quilts...LOVE them. But I have TWO suggestions. ONE: Use flannel for the batting. Cut your flannel squares the same size as your top and bottom fabric, makes the seams REALLY fluffy and soft!! Be conscious of the color you choose, because you will see it!! And TWO: I like a 10x10 square...you end up with 9x9 and it's the perfect size for a larger printed fabric!!****)



Step 1:
You'll need to cut out your squares. For this particular quilt, I used cotton and cut out 7x7 inch squares. You can make your squares smaller or larger depending on your preferences. If you're going to create a specific pattern, I suggest drawing it out on paper first to see how many squares you'll need of each color/print. However many squares you use for the top, double it. You'll also need squares for the back.
You're also going to cut out squares of your batting. These squares need to be one inch smaller than the fabric squares. So 6x6 inches for my quilt.
Step 2:
Once you have all your squares cut out, what you'll do is make some sandwiches. Bottom square upside down, batting in the center, and fabric again on top, right side up. Like this:



Pin your squares together using longer quilting pins. They work better than the little ones and keep your squares straight and tight:



Step 3:
Next, you'll sew an X through the center of each square. This doesn't have to be perfect as this is really just a stitch to hold your sandwiches together. Be careful not to sew all the way to the edge!!! You'll need the seam allowance later. I use a 1/2 inch allowance!



When you're done sewing your squares, we move on to putting them together to form what will be your quilt.

Step 4:
Next, what we'll do is take two of your squares and stitch them together. Make sure when we start this step if you're doing a specific pattern, watch out for your squares to make sure you'll stitching the correct ones together. So take two of your squares:





Pin them to hold them together:



Then stitch them together, but again, be careful not to sew to the ends!





Step 5:
Now that you have two sewn together, at this point, I like to begin snipping my seams, simply because my hands can't handle doing it all at once. So if you'd like to do that now, you can, but if you'd like to wait till the end, that's okay too. If you're doing it now, use the seam you've just sewn and inside of the seam, snip little slits thru your fabric.



When you open up your two squares, here's what you should see:





Step 6:
Continue sewing your squares together until you have a long row that mimics a good length for the person you're making the quilt for. When you have two full rows sewn together, the next thing we're going to do is sew the two rows together. Line them up, pinning as you go, remember to make sure your fringy side is facing out, and the side that is smooth will be on the inside:





AGAIN: DO NOT SEW ALL THE WAY TO THE EDGES!


Step 7:
Continue sewing all your rows together as you go. Remember, if you'd like to snip your seams, you can, or do it at the end. Eventually your quilt will begin to take shape.



Step 8:
If you don't like the finished size (like I didn't!), continue to add rows to the sides and top and bottom until it's the size you like.

Step 9:
When you're satisfied with the size of your quilt, you'll stitch all around the outside and snip.
In order for your snipped edges to really fray and get fluffy and soft, you'll need to wash and dry your quilt a couple times to really get the fraying going.

Here's mine finished (Maybe! I think I may go bigger!) before the washing:



Then you're done. Happy sewing!

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