Fashion Friday - Kid Edition

We are on vacation this week and while packing, I realized my daughter had enough red, white, and blue outfits to last the whole holiday week.  It is ridiculous how excited I was over this, and as a result, Fashion Friday is all about kids 4th of July outfits.  

My kids tend to be pretty rough on clothes, so quality is important to me.  I also love unique stuff and don't like to spend a lot of money, which makes it tricky to find what I want.  Just like with my own clothes, when I find things that I really like for the kids, I tend to stick to that brand and style.  I was recently added to an online boutique page on Facebook and have been buying a ton of R's stuff from there.  They are local to me, which is great because I can just go pick the items I order up, but she ships all over so you don't have to be near us to buy.  She sells super cute boutique style clothes at really great prices.  I always prefer to buy stuff from mom based businesses, so Sparklers is a great choice for me.  I get a tremendous amount of compliments any time R wears one of her Sparklers Children's Boutique outfits.  Ordering from there is really easy.  She posts pictures of items that are available for order, what sizes they come in, when the delivery date is, etc., and you just leave your email address and size needed in the comments.  Once the order is ready to fill she emails you an invoice, orders the item, and then either lets you know that it is ready to pick up or ships it out to you.  Love it!

We love our Red, White, and Blue!

Left Outfit

Top & Shorts - Sparklers Children's Boutique

Headband - Trendy Turtle

Shoes (both outfits)- Target (similar) from last summer 

Right Outfit

T-Shirt - Made by me

Close up picture of the shirt...

Shorts - Target

Hair Bow - Pink Bug Boutique

Left Outfit

Top & Shorts - Sparklers Children's Boutique

Shoes - Walmart

Hair Bow - Pink Bug Boutique

Right Outfit

Dress & Matching Doll Dress - Lilli Lovebird from Zulily

Shoes - Target (similar) from last summer

Hair Bow - Old from Crazy 8 

Dress - Sparklers Children's Boutique

Shoes - Target (similar) from last summer

Headband - Trendy Turtle

Left Outfit

Dress - Screaming Owl

Leggings - From our local Kroger grocery store

Shoes - Target (similar) from last summer

Hair Bow - Pink Bug Boutique

Right Outfit

Shirt - Screaming Owl

Shorts - Target

Shoes - Walmart

How to Hem Jeans & Keep the Original Hem

I used to skip purchasing jeans if the length wasn't exactly right.  A few years ago I learned how to hem jeans and keep that original hem (keeping that nice stitching at the bottom so they don't look hemmed). and it really is super easy to do.  I bought a pair of jeans last week that were only available in one length, and while the store offered free hemming, I was going to have to wait almost a week to get them done.  I can do them myself in 15 minutes, so that is the route I chose to take.  Here is a quick tutorial to show you how to do it.

Start by washing and drying your jeans so that you won't have to worry about them shrinking afterwards.  Next, figure out how long you want them.  You can measure the inseam of a pair of jeans you love, or try them on and fold them to the length you'd like them to be.  Once you've done that, decide how many inches shorter you want the jeans to be.  I needed mine to be 2" shorter than what they were.

Next, fold the jeans and measure half of what the total amount of inches you'll be shortening from the edge of the original hem.  I wanted mine 2" shorter, so I only folded them 1".  

Iron the fold flat all the way around, measuring often to make sure you are staying even all the way around.  Pin the fold in place all the way around, being careful to match up the side and inner seams.  With your sewing machine, stitch as close to the original hem as possible all the way around.  Backstitch at the start and finish.  You'll have to go slow over the thicker seams on the side and inner part of the jeans.  

Fold the extra fabric back inside the jeans and press flat, stretching the seam tight as you iron.  

You can either leave the extra fabric in place, or cut it off, just make sure you have them the right length before cutting!  Sometimes I leave the extra in place so that I can change the length of the jeans if I ever want to.  I have a pair that I've adjusted a couple times for different shoes.  Totally up to you!  

Here is the finished seam.  You can't even tell that they are hemmed unless you look super close.

Little Girl's Jeans Refashion

My daughter grows out of clothes length wise, never width wise.  She has long, skinny legs pants that are long enough for her always end up being too big in the waist, even with the adjustable waist bands.  That being said, she outgrows the legs of the pants long before she ever is too big for the waist.  Every year I think about trying to extend the life of her jeans, and finally got around to working on a pair of them.  She had a pair of skinny jeans that were too short, and a little worn in the knees, but fit fine otherwise.  I decided to add a cute ruffle to the bottom and put patches on the knees to give them a little more life.  

I started by cutting the hem of the jeans off right above the cuff.  Once I had that piece, I cut it and measured the length to find out how big around the ruffle would need to be. This was my easy solution to avoid putting any sort of effort into figuring out my measurements.  It was 10.75" long, so I doubled that for the width to allow enough room to gather the fabric. 

Not a great picture, but you'll get the idea...

I wanted my ruffle to be about 2.5", and I hate adding hems, so I cut the fabric at 6" and folded it in half.  Here are the steps I went through for the ruffle... 

I sewed the ends together to make a circle, and then gathered the top edge.  I recently bought a gathering presser foot for my sewing machine, and it changed my life.  I was horrible at the loose stitch, pull the strings to gather method, and just ended up avoiding anything that required gathering.  Now it takes barely any time at all and looks a million times better.  Once I had the gathering done, I flipped it inside out and pinned it around the cuff of the jeans (they were right side out) and sewed them together. I pressed them flat and topstitched around the jeans as well, but didn't take a picture of that step.

Next, I made appliques using the same method I described in my Denver Bronco Baby Onesies post.  I placed them on the knees and on a shirt so that she would have a whole outfit.  

I love how it turned out and my little fashionista was more than happy to pose for pictures.

Denver Bronco Baby Onesies

A few years ago I opened a shop on Etsy called Star Creek Creations.  I have made and sold 100's of appliqued onesies, as well as T-shirts for kids and adults.  I've been too busy this year to do many custom orders, but have had some instock items available in the shop.  One of my best sellers has always been my Denver Bronco onesie, so I opened up customs for those again recently.  Today I made 10 of them (size Newborn, 0-3 months, and 3-6 months) to keep my Bronco loving customers happy.  My favorite part of making this style is that I typically sell them to people who don't live in Colorado.  

High fives all around for Bronco love all over the United States!  

Here is a little information on how I make my onesies..

-Bronco fabric (or other fabric depending on the design I'm making)

-Lite Double stick fusible web (Lite is the key word...the regular makes the design feel too stiff on a shirt)

-Draw whatever design you are going to be making on the paper side of the web that has the product on it

-Place on reverse side of fabric and cut slightly bigger than the lines of the design

-Iron web onto fabric

-Cut the design out exactly to the lines you drew

-Place on shirt/onesie and iron on

-Sew the edges of your fabric

My morning's work (added to Star Creek Creations today)...GO BRONCOS!!