Bettering a bag

 Ava, my daughter, is a huge fan of the Japanese animation genius Hayao Miyazaki and most things from the fantastic Studio Ghibli.  If you are a parent of a young child, My Neighbor Totoro is a wonderful film of his to start with, and older kids and their adults will love Spirited Away and a long list of others.  Ava might be annoyed that I have not listed them all, to show my true respect for his work, but you can go a- looking yourself because I want to show you what she recently made of a birthday present we gave her, which will show respect enough.

I can brag about Ava easily because she is such a creative person and her art is so darn good.  You'll agree without even knowing her.  Brag, brag, brag.  With a big trip to Ireland on the horizon (we just got back.  Amazing.  More on that another time) we thought it would be good for her to have a proper art bag to carry her materials around from castle, to priory, to Abbey.  I found a plain canvas messenger bag at a local store and after she unwrapped it, we went up to the studio to make it hers.  She embellished it with, of course, a Totoro, using the freezer paper stencil technique. Here is how it works:

What you'll need:
- a canvas bag
- freezer paper
- craft knife
- pencil
- fabric paint or acrylic paint
-iron

Directions:

so plain!

1) Draw a design on the paper side of your freezer paper- Ava free handed this, but you could grab an image off the net or from a book or something and trace it.
2) Cut out the main shape. We used a craft knife, but scissors might work, depending on the design.  As you can see, there are lots of details on Totoro's body, but Ava wanted his main body shape to be grey, so she first cut this out and then pressed it with a hot iron to the canvas. When she was satisfied with the freezer paper being securely in place, she painted that open space and then let it dry in the sun.

  

3) Meanwhile, she cut out the details or Totoro's body.

She wanted Totoro's head and ears to remain grey, so the next piece she pressed to the DRY painted body, was the following piece.  This protected that painted area but allowed the belly to show, and cut the facial features so paint could be applied there too.

She also ironed on the little belly marks so the places beneath them would remain grey after the belly was painted yellow. It looked like this before the paint was applied.

4) Paint was applied, taking care not to let it seep under the freezer paper.  Brushing from the paper in towards the area to be painted is a good technique to ensure crisp lines.

 

Now, this is an awesome bag.  She carried it all over Ireland this summer filled with sketch books, pens, and watercolors where she sat on ruined Abbeys and castles to draw and paint.  Fun!

two swallows skirt

I just made this gently a-lined skirt out of the softest pink jersey fabric scrap I had. It is for a 6/7 year old, though I wish it were for me. I thought I would describe just how easy and quick (honestly) it is to whip up a skirt- and only slightly easier for a child's size, so this tutorial is really for making ANY jersey skirt.

1) Fold a piece of jersey so the grain line is running vertically and the right sides are together. Mark the center of the top edge.

2) I used a pair of size 6/7 stretchy pants to determine the waist size for this skirt and centered it on the top edge of the fabric. I added an extra inch on either side and marked the fabric.



3)I decided how long I wanted the skirt to be, marked along the side edges, then drew a line from the waist marking to the bottom edge marking. Because I was using a scrap, the angle of the a-line was determined by the amount of fabric I had. This skirt is on the straighter side of a-line, if you know what i mean.

NOTE: If you are accounting for big sexy hips and booty and like a little extra room, make the angle bigger. The straighter, the more body hugging (which is nice too).



4) Cut from the waistline to the bottom edge. I like using a rotary cutter and a long straight edge, but if you don't have these things, mark the line between the 2 points, and cut. I make a little snip at the bottom edge then fold the fabric in half so my other cut from top to bottom is identical.



Then, while folded, cut the bottom edge. I make a gentle slope up from the center to the edge, so the center is about a half inch longer than the sides.



5) Open fold so the 2 layers of the skirt are still right side to right side and sew the side seams up. With jersey fabric, it is important to use a stretch stitch if the fabric is going to stretch a lot when wearing- kid's play skirts are a good example of this. My machine has a small selection of stretch stitches, and I prefer the one that goes forward 2 and back 1. Zig Zag stitches are also stretchy, and most machines have them.




6) Next comes the Fold Over Elastic- order it online in a million colors from here. I don't know what I did before using this stuff. It is the best! I sew it on using a zig zag stitch usually in the same color as the FOE. First, turn your skirt right side out. Then, fold the FOE over the place where the side seam meets the waistline. I anchor it there with a few stitches, back and forth. The trick to a good fold-over elastic waistband is pulling it before you start to sew- be sure your needle is IN the fabric before you pull. I pull and stitch about 5 inches before re-adjusting my hand and pulling it tightly again. Angry Chicken has a really great tutorial video you should watch first.

7) There are so many ways to make this skirt just right for the one who will be wearing it. You can add decorative machine stitches along the bottom edge. Top stitch a tricot over the seams (I always do. It makes them flat and extra pretty. For this skirt, I used the freezer paper technique to add some swooping swallows. I simply drew the shape I wanted to cut on some Reynold's Freezer Paper, cut them out with a craft knife, then ironed them in place on the fabric. Using a foam brush, I painted over the fabric shapes with fabric paint. Being a hasty crafter, I rip off the freezer paper immediately- I have to know immediately how it looks. The prudent crafter waits until it is dry so there are no accidents. OH, and it is MUY IMPORTANTE to put a piece of paper or freezer paper behind the fabric in case paint bleeds through.