Warm Jumper Project

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Hi Sewies! Today we will work on another awesome sewing project. I will have it in a mini scale for my daughter but you can use the design and make something lovely for yourself. Cold days have come so we should get onto those warm and soft sewing ideas right away! I have prepared the materials I would like to use (or rather my daughter would like me to use:)) warm jumper 0 Then I drew the whole project to keep the picture of my imagination consistent with the creation. warm jumper drawingOnce all of the pieces where cut I separated  them per units: sleeves, back, front and collar. Then I starts with the slews. I have ruffled edge of bigger square and connected to the smaller. There are few ways of doing it. You can make frequent ruffle all the way thru the edge or do it like me with three bigger double-sided folds. warm jumper 1I sewed it thru and then zig-zagged  the edges. After that I ruffled the bottom end of the sleeve and added the pink lining (sewed thru and zig-zagged the edges). You have to make sure both fabrics are on the left side and then you can simply sew thru the whole length of it and zig-zag again. warm jumper 5 You can already see the shape of the sleeve and once you’ve pulled the ivory fabric over the pink it will look like that: warm jumper 14 Perfect! Once we have both sleeves done we need to get onto the front and back. I started with the back. warm jumper 3We follow the exact same procedure as with the sleeves. I did five folds on both sides and sewed it thru, then I ruffled the bottom and added the pink lining. The width of the lining is similar to the width of the top par, which makes it all look proportional, and the ruffled section has just enough extra material to look neat and puffy. Then again the same procedure with each part of the front. warm jumper 2Once the pieces are all together in their own groups I connected them length-wise on each side, the lining parts together and  then each front with side to the back. Once you finish and fold it on top of each other you will see the result. warm jumper 11The next step was to sew each set of the shoulder section with each other from the inside. You have probably noticed by now that all of the stitching is going on the inside and we will carry on this way. Nothing should be visible on the outside. The next step is to sew in the sleeves. Lining with lining and prime fabric with prime fabric. This is a bit tricky but still can be done on the inside; you just have to be careful with the other pieces of material so they don’t get sewn in together with the sleeves 🙂 Take your time and make sure you are doing it right. It doesn’t matter which fabric will be sewn together first. I started with the lining thinking it would be easier for me to turn it; and this way I will get some practice before I touch the thicker material. warm jumper 7 Ok, now both sleeves are in and I can start working on the collar. This is really simple. I prepared a satin fold to make the design more interesting and bring this brighter color closer to the face. I put it in half length-wise and then sewed thru with 1 cm folds along. If you would like some other solution and maybe ready products which you can buy in fabric stores that is ok, your design doesn’t have to be exactly like mine. It is still important to have the stitching nicely hidden inside, so I have put both pieces of collar right side in and with a fold between them. warm jumper 16 We will sew it only on the outside of it. You can see how it looks like inside right now. warm jumper 17Then, once it is sewn thru and zig-zagged for security of the fabrics we can turn the whole collar inside out and it is ready. warm jumper 18If you like you can still sew it around and I guess this is what we can see on the “shop clothes” but I have decided not skip this process as top stitching may not look as good as bottom while going thru so many layers of material.warm jumper 15Now I will do the same on the right side of the front, all the length down. We will need an additional piece of fabric to have a fold in between them and also to manage to finish off for the front pieces. warm jumper 21 This is left side and below you can see right side once it is turned. warm jumper 20 warm jumper 22 Now we can put this together with the lining underneath. Again the sewing will be a bit tricky but it is do-able and will look very neat. warm jumper 30 In this picture I have already pinned in the collar to see how it will all come together but I had to removed again in order to sew both sides of the front and have them finished. worm jumper 42 Since there was still a lot of space from the top of the jumper I had no problem to push the material thru the sewing machine and have a very professional finish. The last step is the collar. I decided to sew it from inside again but it was possible only on one side, so I did it from the front. warm jumper 28 I ran it on the machine as much as I could and where it is important for a perfect look in all those places which are easy to see. warm jumper 26The last piece had to be done by hand. I used the right color of the thread to make it as invisible as possible. Now the buttons. I used those Cover or Cobrir buttons. The instructions were straight forward. First cut a circle shape from the fabric. warm jumper 34 Put it over the white rubber cup, press thru the metal cup. warm jumper 36 Then I covered all with the back of the button and pressed with small blue cup. All is done! The buttons can go on the material. warm jumper 37

warm jumper 39 Done! warm jumper 40 That was fun! We will do it again soon! if you have any questions please let me know as I’m not sure if I have described each element and step fully and clearly. See you soon!

First guest – Parya, my daughter

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I have decided to share my space with some friends and family or any of you who would like to show your art work or creative projects.

There is no other way like starting this section with the presentation of my daughter Parya and her fantastic art. She is only six now but started to show her love for art at the age of one.

My house is always full of markers, crayons, paints and paper. She doesn’t stop making more and more of drawings and I’m more and more impressed by her skills. Her patience is still limited, so some guidance by mom is always very helpful, but once she gets the idea she will turn it into magic!

We do spend quite a lot of time on learning and Parya is always involved in most of the stuff I do. Parya - child artist 3logo

This was one of the memorable days when I discovered how much she enjoys painting. She loved all the colors and how they mix with each other, and also holding a brush was so good. The result was amazing! I will keep it forever!

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Just a few months later my daughter was involved in painting a big acrylic canvas with cartoon characters. She was so happy! We were putting together all of her “best friends”.

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The next great adventure with art was when we moved to Canada. We both took part in the Muslim Fest art show in 2011. Parya presented two of her artworks (age of 4). She was one of the few child artists that year and definitely the most professional. Parya - child artist 6logo

We repeated our success in 2012 and this time it was even more special as she was the only young artist. I was so proud of her!

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It is a wonderful pleasure doing art together and I’m sure our little joint venture will grow with time, and if Parya decides to carry on with art and develop her talent further I will be right there helping and supporting her all the time.

Look out for future pieces made by Parya! 🙂

Story telling – Milky Way

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Once upon a time there was a little girl called Ania. She was about 4 and she had a beautiful smile on her face all day long.

It is not very easy for such a young child to be happy all the time but there was a secret which Ania loved to share with everyone. Every evening Ania’s mom was giving her a nice, warm cup of milk with a little bit of honey. It was so delicious that Ania couldn’t wait to have it every evening before her bed time. This MILK seemed to be a magical key as every night after this sweet treat Ania had fantastic dreams! As soon as she closed her eyes colors started to appear. First there was a rainbow instead of a sky, funny fruit trees and lots and lots of flowers. This town was full of furry creatures, mostly looking like Ania’s toys, but they were all alive and playing their favourite games in the playground. Laughter and joy was everywhere! All her friends loved Ania a lot and she loved them back. One day a terrible thing happened. Oh no! The milk was finished and it was too late in the evening to go to the store and get fresh one. That night Ania had to go to sleep without her favourite cup of warm milk. Mom and daughter were very sad but there was no other way, like going to sleep with a cup of tea for example. Next day Ania got up with a frown on her face. “What happened?” asked Mom, “I didn’t have any dreams”, said Ania with a lot of disappointment in her voice, “I was so hoping for a funny, playful dream and there was nothing, nothing at all. None of my friends came round. Mommy, mommy, please buy milk today!” The day in the nursery was long and boring. There was nothing funny or enjoyable for little Ania. When her mom came to pick her up a big smile came back on Ania’s face because a big box of yummy milk was in the plastic bag next to mom’s legs. A few hours later Ania was sitting on her bed, all dressed up in her PJs with her usual cup of milk in hand. She was ready to jump into her Milky Way town to play with her friends again. You never know when this city will open its door for you, so make sure to have a cup of warm milk every night and then wait for the magic to happen.

Leg Warmers – first knitting project

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Dear All!

Yes we are going to learn something new from time to time. Maybe it is nothing new for you but it is definitely for me. I have never touched knitting needles in my life. I thought it takes too much time and this repeated movement will make me sleepy in 5 minutes.

Since I couldn’t find any decent material to sew leg warmers I decided to try with my hands on needles and yarn – why not? Actually one of my friends was strongly surprised I hadn’t included it in my portfolio of skills yet. So, let it be!

leg warmers 1

I got  yarn and needles and started some research on the net. Well I had to learn somehow so my best bet was youtube with instruction movies. If you would like to try yourself  you can find a link at the bottom of this post.

First look at the label which comes with the yarn. You need to find out how many loops you have to put on in order to get the right length of final product. My yarn was size 6 and in order to make it fit my daughter’s legs I should have put 22-24 looks but since her leg warmers will have to go over her trousers and maybe even over her boots, I put on 34 loops and I decided on the Brioche Stitch (very easy for beginners).

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I thought it would be a long few days before I would manage to finish it and I was very nicely surprised to see that I made 15 cm in 1.5 h! 🙂

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I tried to keep up my spirits because in truth I was actually very disappointed and devastated I needed so much time for such a small result. But hey! I said A, so I should say B and get it done.

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When the first leg warmer was finished I tried it on and I thought it was a bit too big, and I will show you later how I overcame this little obstacle. Now we can both wear it, both me and my daughter!

Winter clothes are not my favorite part of creativity but we need them, so it is good to learn knitting and crocheting in case you need to make something warm for a change.

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I obviously added small decorations. This also helps kids to find the front and back. I always put some small “marks” on so my daughter will not get confused.

When we tried them on for the first time they did stand out in the middle section which is the widest and the most stretchable so I had to do something about it. I fed through two lines of white elastic underneath and it did the job perfectly fine.

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Beautiful! All done now! If you have some easy leg warmer projects handy please post your link so I can make another one soon.

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For now, by, by project makers!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jS2K6Cr8EDY