JAPANESE GIFT WRAPPING HACK

Years ago I had seen this done at a store in a Holiday gift wrap stand, the kind where volunteers wrap your present for a fee/donation for a charity.  I was advised it saves paper and time and give the present a professionally wrapped look and impressive to watch if the person is skilled.

The young fella above slows it down and gives a decent demonstration on how you can do this.

The first time I tried this it looked more like a pre-schoolers interpretation of an origami swan.  It can save time and maybe a smidge of paper over old school methods, but not by a whole lot.

My suggestion is to use cheap wrapping paper to start out with, a few pieces of tape pre-cut and go slower until you get the coordination of where your fingers need to be.

Christmas Lights Coordinated to Music

When coming home from shopping we stumbled across amazing coordination of Christmas lights set to match music (it was set to a radio station with Christmas music you could tune into on your radio.

T-Shirt to Solar Dress (with link to free pattern)

This fun little casual summer dress was made using a free pattern by Charity Beasley at Indietutes using a thrift t-shirt will be perfect for the dog days of Summer on a little girl.

It was easy to make; I completed it while watching a television show that lasted an hour.

Items used:

• T-Shirt 
• Bias tape (under 1 package)
• Elastic
• Scraps of fabric for the pockets
• Sewing machine & thread
• Tracing wheel and tracing paper
• Interfacing (optional)
• Straight Pins 
• Free printable pattern and instructions from  Indietutes  (Pattern has sizes 2/3, 4/5, and 6/7)

As the complete instructions are on  Indietutes  website, I didn't take picture to repeat here, but as a t-shirt was used instead of fabric, I folded the t-shirt in half and placed the pattern as close to the neckline as possible and made sure the image on the front was centered.  I used a size Large T-Shirt for a 7/8 dress. For smaller sizes you might want to use a smaller t-shirt or one with a smaller image.

For the pocket placement, I used tracing paper on the of the fabric to mark them.

For the pockets, I used interfacing and also lined the pockets on so they will not stretch out and provide stability before pinning them to the right side of fabric and stitching down.

Tank Top to Summer Dress Refashion

This is a simple refashion of a tank top to a summer dress for Dress A Girl Around The World and inspired by tutorials on that blog.

Items used:

• Tank Top
• 1 1/2 yards of fabric (for a girl's size 14 - 23 inches around - wider if a fuller skirt is desired)
• Thread
• Scissors
• Straight Pins
• 1/4 yard iron on interfacing  
• Iron 

To decide where to cut I folded the top in half then cut in the middle.

Turn inside out and cut a piece of interfacing approximately 3 inches wide and the length of the tank top on each side and iron on.  It is to help prevent the skirt from stretching out knit in the tank top.

For the skirt, I used the selvage edge as the bottom of the skirt so no need to hem it and measured up 28 inches and cut across.

Then added a gathering stitch 1/4 and 1/2 inch away from the top edge beginning 5/8 of in inch end on each side leaving long tails to be able to gather the fabric.

With right sides together, pin then stitch a seam down the back and pin the seam in the center in back then pin and gather then stitch 5/8 an inch away from the edge.   Turn right side out, clip any loose threads and your new tank dress is complete.

Thank you for stopping by my blog and happy crafting:)